Nora Theresa Laffey, a Port Jefferson resident, joined the company of angels and her husband Mike Dec. 26, passing away at home. She was 84.
Nora is survived by her five children: Michael, John, Kevin, Eileen and James. She is also survived by her 12 grandchildren: Brendan, Collin, Brianna, Sean, Kelly, Katie, Michael, Maureen, James, Ciaran, Megan and CJ.
Born in Ballieborough, County Cavan Ireland, Nov. 27, 1936, Nora was the oldest of eight siblings, including Sean, James, Patrick, Brendan, Austin, Bridie, Margaret Rose, and Helen Jean. Nora emigrated to the U.S. by boat in 1952 to work as a housekeeper. She completed her schooling at Hempstead High School and met her husband Michael at a dance held at the Irish American Hall in Mineola. They were both naturalized citizens with Mike serving the U.S. forces during the Korean war.
Nora’s positively and generosity touched the lives of so many people. Her Thanksgiving day dinners for over 35 years are legendary. Always tied to her family in Ireland, Nora’s annual trips to see her family and educate her children about Ireland were always a great source of pride and joy for her. Her warm smile and welcoming spirit will be missed by many who were always welcomed with a cup of tea at her home in either Lettergesh, Ireland or Port Jefferson.
We rejoice that Nora is now happy with Mike in heaven, her love and steadfast Christian faith was as committed as the Pope, and her life is an example of humility and kindness. She will be deeply missed by all.
Viewing will be held at 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31 at Moloney’s Funeral Home Port Jefferson Station. Church Services are to follow at 11 a.m. at Infant Jesus Church in Port Jefferson, Followed by a burial at Cedar Hill Cemetery.
St. Catherine Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jane Finnegan gives a flu shot during a free mobile clinic at the end of September. Photo from St. Catherine hospital
They lost patients, sleep and time with their families and yet, through some of the most difficult conditions in over a century, they persevered, brought together by the shared goal of saving lives threatened by the pandemic.
The Times Beacon Record Newspapers is pleased to honor the health care workers who put themselves in harm’s way to offer comfort, cures and solutions for COVID-19.
State Sen. Jim Gaughran (D-Northport) described health care workers as “heroes beyond belief.” He added, “There are folks who have gotten sick and died, simply because they were just doing their jobs.”
Unusual Requests
Indeed, in some cases, these health care workers took on tasks that aren’t typically a part of their job description or training.
Tricia Coffey on the phone at Huntington Hospital. Photo from Coffey
Take Kristen Thomas, a registered nurse at Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson. A priest came up to her in the halls of the hospital to ask for an unusual favor. A person had died and the family, who couldn’t be by his side, asked for last rites. The priest knew he couldn’t enter the room.
He asked, “Would you mind taking holy water and anointing the patient?”
She approached the patient, made the sign of the cross and prayed, as the priest stood outside the door.
“A moment like that, you never really plan to do that,” Thomas said. “We tried to give the family a little bit of closure. They didn’t get to attend the normal [rituals].”
For the community and health care workers, normal took on new meaning, especially in the first few months of the pandemic, when Suffolk County became an epicenter of the virus.
With family unable to sit by the bedside, nurses often stepped up, holding up iPad and phones so the family could spend time together virtually.
Marilin Dilone, Emergency Department nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital, called the young family of one of her patients.
Marilin Dilone, emergency department nurse at SBUH decked in full PPE gear. Photo from SBUH
His wife “put the baby on the phone — the baby looked like he was maybe 10 months old. The baby was making noises. I swear [the patient] opened his eyes. The wife is crying. Such a moment, we take for granted. He could hear her say, ‘I love you.’ To be able to provide that was very humbling for me.”
Like Dilone and so many other nurses, Robert Collins, a nurse at Mather Hospital ,shared how he held an iPad up to patients whose conditions were deteriorating so they could say goodbye to their families.
He had to stay in the room because some of the patients couldn’t hold the iPad.
“You do that once or twice, it kind of sticks with you,” Collins said.
Deep Connections
The connections the medical staff made to the families of patients extended well beyond the typical interactions.
“We had patients for an extended period of time,” said Patricia Coffey, nurse manager of the Critical Care Unit at Huntington Hospital.
Coffey, who spent 11 weeks actively caring for patients as her managerial duties “went to the wayside,” said the staff talked to families for extended periods of time. She spoke with some families daily, spending as much as two-and-a-half hours each day on the phone.
The nurses felt like members of the family because the normal support system couldn’t provide bedside support.
“You were channeling the family to the patient,” Coffey said. The nurses were “rooting so hard” for the patients.
When one of those patients who was in the hospital died after a long battle, she said it was “unbelievably heartbreaking — you felt like one of your own family members had died.”
She still keeps in touch with family members.
Mather Nurse Robert Collins. Photo from Mather
Coffey said one of her neighbors was admitted to the hospital with COVID and was on her floor. Coffey’s children and her neighbor’s children grew up together and their daughters were friends.
She not only spoke with his wife every day during her 60-hour weeks, but she also called her coworkers over the weekend to ask how he was doing.
The conversations with the neighbor’s wife were “a little hard. I wanted to be honest with her. He was very critical. At the same time, I was trying to be hopeful. It was a hard balance.”
Coffey said he was “one of the lucky ones who survived.”
Dilone of SBUH described how the work was more physically demanding.
She would “try not to ask for people” as she didn’t want to expose others if it wasn’t necessary. “You are taking care of patients more by yourself, turning them and doing chest PT [physiotherapy] — it was physically more demanding,” Dilone said.
Dark Moments
Watching patients who died took its toll, even on people who have been in the medical profession for decades.
MaryJane Finnegan, chief nursing officer at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, described the unusually high number of people dying from the virus. The hospital was running out of space for the dead. The morgue was filled and an additional refrigeration truck outside also filled quickly.
Mather Nurse Kristen Thomas. Photo from Mather
“One day, eight people died — usually in a week, you can have eight people die, but not eight in a day,” Finnegan said.
Nikki Fiore-Lopez, chief nursing officer at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson said a nurse was present for the death of her mentor. Watching her die was “one of the darkest moments” for the nurse, Fiore-Lopez said.
Many medical professionals encouraged their patients to fight through the worst of the virus.
Stony Brook’s Dilone stayed with a patient whose blood oxygen level kept dropping. She wouldn’t let him fall asleep because she was worried he’d get intubated. She reminded him of his family and that he needed to help himself.
“I felt like Nurse Ratched,” Dilone said, referring to the dreaded nurse from the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Dilone spent hours with this patient. Later, a doctor told her keeping the man awake prevented him from getting intubated.
Unexpected Challenges
With a virus no one had battled before, health care workers had to be flexible, learning about everything from new protocols for admitting patients to the latest and best treatments.
Chief Nursing Officer at St. Charles hospital Nikki Fiore-Lopez delivers flowers to patients at Christmas with Foundation Board Chair member Doug Casimir in 2019. Photo from St. Charles
The staff had to confront the “speed with which everything changed,” said Dr. Eric Morley, associate professor and clinical director in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stony Brook University’s Renaissance School of Medicine. “Every day, there were new protocols, new ways to deal with things.”
Hospitals had to create a forward triage system to deal with the flood of COVID patients amid all the other potential emergencies hospitals routinely have.
These efforts required hundreds of employees to “get on the same people to sort people out,” Morley said. Training staff to manage the flow of patients required constant communication.
Even some of the smaller elements of managing the crisis took Morley’s time, such as getting new traffic signs to direct people to an alternate site.
Hospital managers were continually confronted with numerous unexpected challenges.
Ken Roberts, president of Mather Hospital, said the hospital had to ensure the PPE was hospital grade and not counterfeit.
“There were a lot of suspicious and unscrupulous suppliers when supply and demand was unbalanced, and everyone was in crisis,” he explained in an email.
Health care workers tapped into their personal skills to connect with patients.
Angel Figueroa, a registered respiratory therapist at SBUH who grew up in New York City and learned Spanish thanks to his Puerto Rican heritage, walked into some rooms and spoke Spanish to patients.
When he greeted patients in Spanish, “I would see their eyes open up [and think], ‘Somebody understands me.’”
They would ask him numerous questions, particularly because the medical information came at them so quickly.
Mather’s Collins described how the routine changed so dramatically the moment he arrived at work.
Mather President Ken Roberts holds a sign thanking health care workers. Photo from Mather
“Rapid response bells were going off as soon as you walked in,” he said. “You didn’t take your coat off” before patients needed attention. “People were not doing well. That was happening more frequently than before. That was an adjustment.”
On the other side of the struggle, health care workers felt a tremendous sense of relief when patients continued their recoveries at home.
“When people were discharged, the staff was thrilled,” St. Catherine’s Finnegan said. “We’d play the [Beatles] song, ‘Here Comes the Sun.’ A lot of hospitals did that. People would gather as many as possible to wish the person well as they were wheeled out.”
Teamwork
Through the difficulties, though, Morley appreciated the support from the community and the families, along with the teamwork and camaraderie from so many departments and staff that all pulled together.
Roberts expressed similar sentiments.
“I was extremely pleased at the teamwork displayed by all hospital staff during the height of the pandemic,” he said.
The Mather president was also grateful for the letters, cards, donated meals, handmade masks and donated PPE.
“The local communities we serve gave us and continue to give us tremendous support and encouragement,” Roberts said. “That has meant so much to the staff to know that the community was supporting them and recognizing their efforts.”
Stony Brook Respiratory Therapist Angel Figueroa wearing mask and shield. Photo from SBUH
Coffey, from Huntington Hospital, was impressed with how, even amid such extraordinary and challenging times, numerous groups collaborated.
“In many ways there were positive things — the community, the team, everyone working together,” she said. “Parts of it were so uplifting. As hard and as difficult and sad and heart wrenching [as it was], so many other parts, you just saw such humanity. It was amazing.”
Lasting Thoughts
Finnegan said the staff was incredibly appreciative of all the food local restaurants donated.
In fact, some of them joke that they gained the “COVID-19,” referring to the weight they put on while they were working numerous shifts and benefiting from all the donated food.
Morley “rediscovered” Twinkies during COVID in the break room. He has since been able to lose the weight the snack cakes added.
While gyms were closed, Collins relieved stress by buying a 400-pound tractor-trailer tire that he flipped up and down along his driveway. He also took a sledgehammer and “beat on it.”
The exertion would make him tired enough that the stress would dissipate for the day.
Dr. Eric Morley from SBU participates in COVID testing. Photo from SBU
Ultimately, what made an ever-expanding job — that affected so many aspects of health care workers’ personal and professional lives — manageable was the shared sense of purpose and the inspiration people drew from each other.
“The fact that the staff was out there doing it” helped give her energy, St. Charles’ Fiore-Lopez said. “We had patients to care for, we had shifts. We had days and weeks and months to get through. They put one foot in front of the other and I needed to do the same.”
Morley appreciated the way the Stony Brook staff pulled together during an intense and challenging time.
“Although it was grueling, it was a special thing to go through with that group of people,” he said.
Jefferson’s Ferry CEO Bob Caulfield and Jefferson’s Ferry board member and Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Valerie Cartright at the Dec. 10 groundbreaking. Photo from Jefferson's Ferry
South Setauket retirement community Jefferson’s Ferry broke ground Dec. 10 on a $89 million expansion and renovation project creating 60 new apartment-style homes and more amenities to its One Jefferson Ferry Drive facility.
Once completed, the 165,000 square foot project will add 60 new independent living one- and two-bedroom, plus den apartment homes with open floor plans to Jefferson’s Ferry’s existing 220 apartments and 28 cottages. Plans also call for a new marketplace café, bistro-bar, destination dining room with alternating types of cuisines. Part of the project includes renovations, additions and the construction of a new 28,520 square foot building.
In a release, Jefferson’s Ferry CEO Bob Caulfield said the new facility will “enhance the lifestyle and experience for current residents and appeal to the desires and needs of a whole new generation of Long Islanders planning for retirement.”
The new project is partially due to tax-exempt bonds secured from the Town of Brookhaven Local Development Corporation. At its Oct. 20 public hearing for the proposed bonds, the LDC said the bonds were expected to be $100,000,000 and up to and not to exceed $125,000,000. The bond issuer is also expected to provide additional financial assistance with mortgage recording taxes exemptions for financing or refinancing of the project, according to the hearing minutes.
“The Brookhaven Local Development Corporation is pleased to play a small part in the expansion of this outstanding residence and health care facility,” Frederick C. Braun III, chairman of the Brookhaven LDC, said in a release.
Last August, the retirement community was awarded low-cost energy by the ReCharge NY energy program to support the multi-million dollar expansion and renovation project.
Jefferson’s Ferry currently employs 350 people and is expected to add 41 jobs in exchange for 435 kilowatts of power for a 7-year period.
“The cost savings are significant to Jefferson’s Ferry, and, in turn, to residents living on fixed incomes,” Caulfield said. “Reducing our energy costs through this program goes a long way in helping us control the amount of fees we charge our members, giving them peace of mind about their future.”
The new Healthy Living Center will incorporate a modern and fully equipped gym and fitness room with access to professional trainers, plus a state of the art wellness and rehabilitation center. Residents can continue to access preventive care from a team of wellness experts in audiology, internal medicine, cardiology, dentistry, podiatry, psychiatry and ear, nose and throat specialists. Lab services and assistance with making medical appointments and filling prescriptions are also available.
“Our community is designed for aging better for longer, whether you live in independent living, assisted living, memory care or skilled nursing,” Caulfield said.
The construction project includes an addition to the existing Vincent Bove Health Center, including a new assisted living building designed for residents living with Alzheimer’s dementia and other memory impairing diseases. Existing dining, activities and community spaces in the assisted living and the skilled nursing center will be renovated to allow more space in a kind of open air environment, according to Jefferson’s Ferry.
Long Island Coastal Steward President Denis Mellett shows growing shellfish at Brookhaven’s mariculture facility. File photo by Kyle Barr
Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) announced Dec. 21 that the town was awarded a 2020 Long Island Sound Futures Fund matching grant to fund the town’s Coastal Environment and Community Resilience Education Program. The Town will match the $8,799 grant with $4,450, making the total conservation impact $13,249. The grant combines funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
“The Long Island Sound is vital to the ecology and economy of Brookhaven town and it is our goal to preserve it for future generations,” Romaine said in a release. “Thanks to the Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant, we will continue to increase public awareness and encourage participation in our environmental protection efforts in the town.”
Brookhaven’s year-long Coastal Environment and Community Resilience Education Program will run from Jan. 1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2021. The goal is to foster conservation by bringing people to the Long Island Sound or by bringing the Long Island Sound to the people. The town’s environmental educator will conduct presentations paired with hands-on activities tailored for each audience at public libraries throughout the Town of Brookhaven. Presentations and tours will include detailed descriptions of the intricate balance of the coastal ecosystems, the wonderful flora and fauna on the shore, dunes and salt marsh, and the positive and negative impacts of human activity in these places.
The program will also include informative, guided tours of Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai, including the town’s Marine Environmental Stewardship Center and shellfish and eel grass restoration projects. There will also be nature tours for people of all ages and hands-on conservation programs with the Junior Environmental Stewards at Mount Sinai Harbor and West Meadow Beach in Stony Brook. The series will create more sustainable and resilient communities by increasing knowledge and engagement of the public in the protection and restoration of the coastal environments of Long Island Sound.
Rocky Point Just One LI Location Dedicated to Protect NYC from Attack
The nuclear missile silo located in the Rocky Point pine barrens was one of 19 such bases meant to protect New York City from missile attack. Many locals living on the North Shore worked at this site over the decades.
By Rich Acritelli, Sean Hamilton, Carolyn Settepani and Madelyn Zarzycki
In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis came extremely close to pushing the superpowers of the United States and Soviet Union into a nuclear war. Closer to home, people went to church to light candles in the hope that a peaceful resolution would be found to prevent war. Little did our local citizens ever know about the history of Long Island, especially that of Rocky Point, in how close the Cold War was to our residents.Within the sprawling acres of the conservation area that stretches from Miller Place, Rocky Point, Ridge, and Shoreham, was a nuclear missile silo.
Gary Wladyka, front, and Tony Kuczewski bike through the Rocky Point Mountain Bike Trail. If one follows certain paths they can find the site of the old nuclear missile silo. File photo by Kyle Barr
This was one of 19 missile bases that were built by the U.S. military and government to ensure the protection of New York City. While it is extremely unique to have this piece of history on the North Shore, these weapon sites were also in Oyster Bay, Lloyd Harbor, Lido Beach, and Amityville. Citizens in upstate New York and northern New Jersey had these weapons in their midst which were stationed near major population centers, in the suburbs, near schools, businesses, etc. From 1945 to 1990, hostile tensions were demonstrated by the U.S. and Soviet Union in every corner of the world, and the roots to protect against the prospects of a communist attack were based within the pine barrens of Rocky Point.
Most people never realized how close they came to being near an operational missile that was designed to fire at a moment’s notice. Later, private homes were built on the missile sites in Oyster Bay and Lloyd Harbor. In Lido Beach, where missiles were a short distance from the Atlantic Ocean, it is now the headquarters of the Long Beach School District bus depot. If you were to hike around Camp Hero in Montauk, there are many reminders of the Cold War including a radar tower and a series of military bunkers. Within our local conservation area, thousands of local mountain bikers a year have surely ridden through these numerous trails, where one is able to see the silo protruding out of the ground. Situated around this long-removed weapon is a fence that has signs to warn the people not to enter this once classified and dangerous area.
Today, it is possible to go to this location from trails that start at the Rocky Point Route 25A Bypass. Not too far from the Broadway light, there is a straight trail that leads for a half of a mile southward. If you’re mountain biking, running or walking, you will quickly reach an open field. It is easy to observe older military roads, cement, brick gate pillars, and barbed wire fencing. It is also possible to reach this spot by traveling down Rocky Point-Yaphank Road and about three quarters of a mile south of the condominiums, there is an access road that will take you southeastern to an old parking lot. At this spot, there is a noticeable black military road that will precisely lead to one of the 250 Nike Missile sites previously present were in America.
Underground is a bunker complex area that was built some 50 feet long and 60 feet wide. Although these missile bases were organized by the U.S. Army, these bases’ functions were later handed off to the National Guard that had a full-time garrison of soldiers and reservists. In the 1960s, the soldiers that manned these sensitive weapons were paid $85 a week, purchased nearby homes and said little to their families about this vital duty.If these weapons were to be fired in response to an attack by the Soviet Union, it was estimated that they could fly 1,600 mph, reached altitudes of 70,000 feet and had a conventional warhead and a range of about 25 miles.
As with the advent of new technology, many of these weapons were quickly considered to be obsolete.Eventually, these military bases that were located on Long Island were closed and only the Amityville and Rocky Point sites remained open during most of the Cold War. The Ajax missile was later replaced by the Hercules that allowed for a range of 90 miles and ten kilotons of explosives (three less than what was used on Hiroshima). From 1959 to 1964, there were 56 of these powerful weapons that were stored in metal sheds in Westhampton Beach that would target any Soviet aircraft that could attack the area.Today, this is the location of a training firing and vehicle range for the Suffolk County Police and 106th Air National Guard.
The Rocky Point Natural Resource Management Area includes trails that take one past the location of the old nuclear site.
Many of these weapons were created to attack long range Soviet bombers targeting the highly populated areas of Manhattan. Although they were placed near the North Shore, the base at Rocky Point was completely top secret with two fences (one being electric) and guard dogs. The codes were kept in safes, and at all times there had to be two military officials to concur over the status of the codes and firing. These bases were always the center of heightened military discipline and drills.
To keep the soldiers sharp to their own attention to detail, many of these men and women had inspections, military scenarios and trips to New Mexico, where they received advanced annual training.It was stated in earlier stories that the missile battery at Rocky Point excelled with national army awards for preparation and was rated as one of the five top bases for these weapons in America. Not too far from the summer bungalows, baseball fields, Joseph A. Edgar Imtermediate School and the older hamlet of Rocky Point was an unknown reminder of the threats of the Cold War. While the U.S. and Soviet Union competed for domination in Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam and Afghanistan, there were many local military residents that quietly ensured the national security of this country within the trails of the Rocky Point Conservation Area.
This article was a collaboration with students in the Rocky Point High School History Honors Society and its advisor, Rich Acritelli.
For the first time, people could choose to complete the U.S. Census online, by phone, or by mail. Stock photo
By Iryna Shkurhan
The 2020 Census couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time.
I was one of the half million people employed by the U.S. Census Bureau this year enlisted in the follow-up operation for non-respondents. When I applied to be an enumerator in Suffolk county in January, I couldn’t imagine that I would be going door to door in the midst of a pandemic.
Iryna Shkurhan
When Census Day came April 1, enumerators were set to start visiting the homes of millions of non-respondents, but in person operations were postponed indefinitely as many states entered lockdowns. Around the same, the bureau formed an outreach and ad campaign to encourage Americans to respond online for the first time, or by phone or mail.
When drafting the Constitution, the nation’s founders mandated a count of the populace to be held every decade, starting in the 1790s, with the main goal of getting a count of every single person living in the United States. Included was questions on age, sex, race, relationship in the household and home ownership form data that paints a picture of who makes up the country.
This information is crucial to determine congressional representation and allocating hundreds of billions in federal funding, for education, hospitals, roads and healthcare. The data that will directly affect the resources that communities across the country will receive for the next decade. For a government to represent people and fairly fund its programs, it has to know how many people there are and where they live, making the census initiative crucial for democracy.
Enumerators typically work in their communities because their familiarity with the area helps in locating homes and also establishes trust and mutual understanding with respondents. Still, the questions are personal, and not everyone wants to share that information with a stranger.
I always let people know that they had the option to refuse a question, if they were not comfortable answering. The question that mattered most was how many people lived in a household, which was used for the population count. The other questions had their own importance, but less so.
I was issued a badge, a preprogrammed iPhone 8 and a messenger bag filled with various information sheets and a clipboard. In past decades the clipboard would’ve gotten more use.
But this is the first year that the Census Bureau was collecting data digitally, allowing people to respond online, and enumerators to use mobile apps to record data. Enumerators no longer had to just record information with a pen and paper on their clipboards.
With the unpredictability of the pandemic, no one knew when and if in-person operations would continue, but in August I received a phone call asking if I would be willing to work for 4-8 weeks depending on when the count would be completed. I began working in the Stony Brook area less than ten minutes from my home. The number of cases I was assigned ranged from 20 to 70, depending on how many hours of availability I entered. Some days when I would work eight hours, I was assigned up to 80 nonresponse follow up cases.
While on duty I imagined how different it must have been to be an enumerator ten years ago, before technology made the role much simpler. Now all I had to do was click on an assigned case and the GPS would direct me there. If a resident was home and willing to respond, the questions and answer options would pop up in the correct order on my screen. I never had to write anything more than a case number on paper. The apps on the issued iPhone were used to report for work, view assignments, track hours and mileage, and navigate to households.
The biggest challenge I ran into was a reluctance to answer. In the 20 hours of virtual training, I was taught the appropriate response for almost every type of reason a person is hesitant to share information, whether it’s privacy concerns, or distrust of the government. But many people were set in their decision and refused to cooperate, with many disputing my attempts at easing their fears and persuading them to cooperate.
Enumerators also had a list of addresses to stay away from, which were marked as dangerous. These cases were marked with a caution sign on the map and signified that the resident was hostile, or violent in some way to an enumerator. In some cases, people were physically threatened and yelled at, and we were discouraged from attempting these homes alone.
I witnessed a polar difference between the people who were happy to answer any questions and viewed it as a civic duty and those who avoided us at all costs and slammed the door in my face. I understood that people’s attitudes to their personal data was shifting, but living in a polarized county where the census became politicized didn’t help. With disinformation about the census floating around, explaining the purpose of the census, and the importance of each question, became a main part of my job.
Another challenge was the technical difficulties that came with digital collection being implemented for the first time. Issues were bound to come up during the transition, but there were times where mid interview, the phone would crash, and I would have to restart all over. Other times my cases wouldn’t load, or I was sent to homes that were already visited by a dozen enumerators, with residents not hiding their annoyance.
The sense of urgency was made apparent by higher ups as they offered incentives to work overtime and on weekends, when people were more likely to be home. Several bonuses were offered for working more than forty hours a week, and working Sundays and nights came with a higher pay rate. Initially, we had to request permission for overtime, but within a week that was scrapped. We were encouraged to work as much as possible to ensure everyone was counted.
Once Setauket and neighboring regions were fully completed, I was sent out farther east to Riverhead, then farther to Orient and Mattituck. After the entirety of Suffolk County was counted, enumerators were offered to drive to other states, as far as Alabama to help complete the counting efforts there.
One overnight shift was set aside to count the homeless population, which the pandemic made harder to account for. The Census was also forced to come up with new ways to count college students, who many towns depend on to get the adequate funding.
In the few weeks I worked as an enumerator, there were difficult days but also rewarding ones. A certain satisfaction came with finally getting to interview a household that kept reappearing on my case list. With each case I closed, we came closer to reaching the goal. Little acts of kindness like some people offering to put their masks on, or a chair to sit on and a drink on a hot day, went a long way.
Iryna Shkurhan is a junior at Stony Brook University majoring in political science, with a minor in journalism. She is an incoming editorial intern for TBR News Media.
Port Jefferson artist Jennifer Hannaford, right, along with Linda Alfin, left, revitalized the Dickens Festival mural present in front of Chandler Square just off Main Street. Photo from Hannaford
It’s a scene straight out of a Charles Dickens novel, and has been displayed every holiday season for years.
Featuring buildings covered in snow, a big decorated tree and a sign that welcomes visitors to the annual Dickens Festival in the Village of Port Jefferson, the mural was starting to look a bit worn, according to local business leaders.
“The cutout is pretty old,” said Barbara Ransome, director of operations for the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce. “Businesses were saying it was looking tired and asking if anything could be done.”
With the intention to clean up the painting and make it as good as new, Ransome asked two local artists to give the decade-old mural a facelift.
Linda Alfin and Jennifer Hannaford have been spending a good part of this past year decorating different spaces throughout the village.
It started when Ransome and chamber president, Mary Joy Pipe, recruited the artists over the summer to decorate a set of electrical boxes and turn them into aquatic scenes in an attempt to beautify downtown.
“I’ve always understood that art can be powerfully transformative for a community, but engaging in this process has been fun because I get to see the change,” Hannaford said. “People also feel like their village is being cared for and, in turn, so are they.”
Since then, the pair has done several murals together throughout the village.
“Linda is one of the most efficient painters I have ever seen,” Hannaford said. “I cannot say enough about her work ethic. I hope more folks take advantage of the fact that they have this kind of service and talent in their own town. I have learned a great deal from her this year.”
And the work didn’t stop for the artists come earlier this month. Alfin said that when Ransome called last minute asking if they could “freshen up” the scene, the two artists jumped on it.
“The very next day we brought the mural back to life,” Alfin said. “Everyone walking by as we were painting was thanking us for repainting the mural.”
It took just two hours on Dec. 1 to make it vibrant, while the compliments and gratitude from residents touched the Port Jefferson muralist.
“A woman came up to us and was so happy to see us sprucing it up,” Alfin said.
While the Dickens Festival was canceled this year due to the COVID crisis, the snowmen in the scene can now greet visitors with a new smile, reminding them of what can hopefully be celebrated normally again next year.
“I’m so happy to be able to help my town look more inviting and festive with all the murals we did so far throughout the village,” Alfin said.
COVID-19 made it impossible for the traditional Run to the Port Jeff Brewing Company happen in 2020, but the Brewery and the Greater Long Island Running Club [GLIRC] banded together to stage a “virtual” 15K, 10K, and 5K that raised $1000 for the 2020 charitable beneficiary Theatre Three in downtown Port Jefferson.
A check for $1000 was presented to Theatre Three at the Brewing Company on Dec. 18.
Theatre Three is a not-for-profit dedicated to developing an appreciation for the art of live theater among the residents of Long Island. The theater presents a diverse program of fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays and is an arena for previously unproduced plays, and works towards their future development. Theatre Three provides an environment in which talent can be nurtured, encouraged, and trained in the pursuit of a professional career.
During the pandemic, there have been no live performances at Theatre Three, so the Brewery and GLIRC were happy to be able to help the theatre stay afloat in these troubled times.
Pictured at the presentation, from left, is GLIRC Race Director Ric DiVeglio; Theatre Three Board of Directors member Brian Hoerger; Theatre Three Managing Director Vivian Koutrakos; Theatre Three Executive Artistic Director Jeffrey Sanzel; Port Jeff Brewing Company owner Mike Philbrick; and GLIRC Executive Director Sue Fitzpatrick.
Carlos Cano in his new upholstery shop in Upper Port said business has been good despite the pandemic, and the community have been more than supportive. Photo by Kyle Barr
Carlos Cano, a new face to the Port Jefferson scene, could not be happier to be where he is now.
The new shop owner of Cano Decor in Upper Port Jeff has a lot to be thankful for. Though he only opened a month and a half ago in the midst of a pandemic, and in a location more known for empty storefronts than prosperous ones, he said the community has already come out in support of him and his business.
“I’m so happy, you have no idea,” he said. “The neighbors here, they are incredible. … The town is helping me, and I want to help the town.”
Carlos Cano in his new upholstery shop in Upper Port said business has been good despite the pandemic, and the community have been more than supportive. Photo by Kyle Barr
Cano originally owned an upholstery business in the Bronx, where he serviced a lot of high-end clientele in the commercial and restaurant businesses, but because of COVID-19 there was little-to-no work available. Earlier this year, he came to the area to see his brother-in-law’s house, and he immediately fell in love with Port Jefferson village. The restaurants were great, and he enjoyed the walkable aspect to everything. Talking to the landlord of the Upper Port shop, he moved his business here and has been instead focusing more on residential work.
The difference between where he used to work and where he is now could not be more different, and Cano said it’s all for the better. Satisfied customers have even bought him presents, something that would never happen in the city.
“In the Bronx, I used to see the rats fight,” he said. “Here I see the squirrels play.”
And surprisingly, he has been seeing people come through. He’s gotten plenty of work for Thanksgiving and the holidays, and he’s been kept constantly busy since he’s opened. It’s just him and his seamstress working now, where his previous business had six employees.
Cano Decor stands out among the other empty storefront of Upper Port with his bright, cursive letterings on the windows and its floral pattern and leather furniture just behind them.
“I want to bring that feeling — I want to create that [sensation that things are happening],” he said.
Cano has been doing upholstery practically ever since he came to the United States from Colombia when he was just 14. Now 54, the man said experts in the field are rare. One can count the number of upholstery professionals on Long Island on just one hand.
“This is a dying art,” he said.
The owner said his business offers residential reupholstering services on furniture, car and marine, as well as curtains and services decor services for restaurants. He promotes that all his material is high quality, with his fabrics being all American made and his leathers sourced from the U.S. or Europe.
Even beyond his work with fabrics, he also wants to see about opening up the shop for quilting or sewing classes, stuff that could perhaps reinvigorate the love and art of working with furniture.
“I want to teach this to somebody — somebody that can take up the torch, in other words,” he said.
Cano Decor can be found at 1530 Main St. in Upper Port, next to Keny Barber Shop. The upholsterer can be contacted at 631-828-2346.
How libraries look during COVID times. Photo from Comsewogue School District
Nine months into the coronavirus pandemic and schools are still adjusting. The school library, a place of solace for elementary schoolers and high school seniors alike, has had to adhere to the new and ever-changing COVID-19 protocols.
Local districts, however, have embraced the changes and have implemented new services that they never would have started if it wasn’t for the crisis.
A silver lining, school librarians across the North Shore explained how the changes have impacted them, their schools and their students.
Alice Wolcott, librarian at Elwood-John Glenn High School, said that COVID changed the landscape of public education, meaning they had to reimagine their space.
“This year we transitioned the book loan program to a digital platform, which will continue to support students’ pleasure and academic reading while still observing COVID restrictions,” she said. “Students can browse the collection online via Follett Destiny [a library management system], and if they find a title they’d like to borrow, they can request that book through our book request form.”
To adhere to COVID rules, the books are delivered in a Ziploc bag to first period teachers.
Since some students are not physically in their first period classes, the district also increased their digital library as a main focus.
Shoreham-Wading River High School librarian Kristine Hanson and Albert G. Prodell Middle School librarian Ann-Marie Kalin created an initiative to meet the need for printed books while reimagining the online presence in concert with OPALS, the open-source library system.
They created a book delivery service at their schools called BookDash, which allows students to electronically submit requests with their student ID. Then, physical books are either delivered to students at Prodell or picked up at the high school library doors at the end of the school day. The initiative is promoted through English classes, and a multitude of book recommendations are available via the OPALS pages, blogs and links.
“Kids are reliant on what’s in the catalog, books that never went out before are going out like wild,” Kalin said. “For the time being we’re making the best of it all.”
With the BookDash initiative, Kalin said students are excited to get their hands on actual books.
“So many kids are so tired of being on the screen and are desperate for that interaction with each other,” she said. “I’m seeing readers I never saw before, and there are so many requests for books. It’s very successful.”
Along with Shoreham-Wading River, other districts across Long Island are using an e-book platform called Sora, including Joseph A. Edgar Intermediate School in Rocky Point.
Monica DiGiovanni teaches Sora to third graders in Rocky Point. Photo from RPSD.
Librarian Monica DiGiovanni has been visiting classrooms, having students log into their Chromebooks. She is teaching them how to check out library books with the new service, which enables students to borrow a book and read it right on their devices. Another program, Destiny Discover, enables students to find a physical book in the library and have it delivered directly to them since their libraries are currently not open.
DiGiovanni said that their school libraries have become break rooms for teachers and classroom spaces to accommodate kids in a socially distanced way.
“The library has become an interactive thing,” she said. “Students are definitely utilizing it.”
Although Rocky Point school libraries had to reshape themselves and close the doors to students, Elwood school district was able to open the doors at the high school last week. Wolcott said that right now 15 students are allowed in the library at a time, with designated seating and other stipulations in place.
“The students are really responsive and they’re following all the protocols,” she said. “It’s great to have them back.”
She even sees students, who were not her typical regulars, interacting with the library catalog more than they did before.
“Now it’s nice they’re browsing the shelves,” Wolcott said. “They’re picking books they would not have chosen otherwise.”
Donna Fife, library media specialist at Elwood Middle School, said that early on, the district was keeping library services running smoothly, while her younger students are opting to read more.
“I am seeing names I never saw before requesting books more frequently,” she said. “I know how I feel at the end of the day — I would have a hard time playing video games after screen learning.”
Fife said she thinks students are looking for something tangible now that some are looking at a computer all day long.
“They’re requesting to hold a physical copy instead of looking at another screen,” she said.
Nicole Taormina, librarian at Boyle Road Elementary School in the Comsewogue school district, said that new regulars have blossomed throughout the pandemic.
“They really love browsing online,” she said. “It’s a different experience — they are really excited now because they use their Chromebooks and have their own accounts.”
Taormina said that while the changes have been different, she’s looking forward to some normalcy in 2021, and is grateful for what 2020 helped her with.
“I’ve been able to tweak things,” she said. “And the students have been able to learn things that they may have not been able to learn before.”
Also in Comsewogue, Deniz Yildirim, a librarian at Terryville Road Elementary School, said that teaching her library classes has been different compared to years past.
“It’s been a huge change,” she said. “We can’t hand out worksheets anymore, and we do a lot online to cut down on contamination. No other class can come in other than what’s assigned in this room.”
When Yildirim visits classrooms at her school now, she will deliver books that children ask her for.
“It breaks my heart that they can’t browse,” she said. “But we’re making it work.”
And she said that all school libraries have made progress in 2020 than the past 10 years.
“Publishers, authors and librarians are working very hard to make sure kids are reading,” she said. “It’s the least we can do for them during these trying times.”
Taylor Kinsley, a librarian at Minnesauke Elementary School in the Three Village school district, said their schools have been allowing browsing within the libraries.
She said students have to use hand sanitizer before and after touching the books to be sure they have clean hands, and they reorganized the setup of the library, featuring no reading carpets on the floor.
“Elementary students are always excited to have the freedom to pick the books they want,” she said.
The district sanitizes the used books and quarantines them for about a week before putting them back on the shelves.
“I think normalcy is really important for them,” Kinsley added, referring to her students. “We’re being supercautious so why take that away from them?”
Nora is survived by her five children: Michael, John, Kevin, Eileen and James. She is also survived by her 12 grandchildren: Brendan, Collin, Brianna, Sean, Kelly, Katie, Michael, Maureen, James, Ciaran, Megan and CJ.
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