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Times of Huntington-Northport

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Photo from SCPD

A 15-foot trailer was stolen from a Commack business in the middle of the night, according to the Suffolk County Police Department, and authorities want help to find out who is responsible.

Police said the $8,000 trailer was snatched from Trailer City on Jericho Turnpike overnight between Nov. 16 and Nov. 17, although it was unclear if one person of multiple perpetrators were to blame. The suspect or suspects are wanted for grand larceny in the theft from the business, located just west of Siracusa Boulevard.

Detectives from the SCPD’s 4th Squad and Suffolk County Crime Stoppers are looking for the public’s help to identify and locate the person or people who committed the crime.

Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call them anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.

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Adult glasseye snappers, collected on Cocos Island, Costa Rica, in 1928. Photo from Vanderbilt Museum

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport is home to the largest privately assembled collection of sea specimens from the preatomic era.

Now, thanks to a $135,000 grant from The Robert D. L. Gardiner Foundation, the museum is beginning to perform crucial conservation measures on many of those rare specimens. The foundation gave the Vanderbilt  Museum the two-year grant in January. In July, the curatorial staff began working on some of the more than 1,000 wet (preserved in fluid) specimens exhibited on the second floor of the Marine Museum. An additional 600 are on display in the mansion’s Memorial Wing.

Adult glasseye snappers, collected on Cocos Island, Costa Rica, in 1928. Photo from Vanderbilt Museum
Adult glasseye snappers, collected on Cocos Island, Costa Rica, in 1928. Photo from Vanderbilt Museum

Among the marine life William K. Vanderbilt II found on oceanic collecting expeditions during the early 20th century were 67 new discoveries.  Stephanie Gress, the museum’s director of curatorial services, said the finds — not previously identified — are called “type specimens.” Most of the 40 ocean fish and 27 marine invertebrates have been on loan to the American Museum of Natural History since the 1990s.

Gress said the Gardiner grant is invaluable to the future of the marine collection, as many of the specimens have not been touched since the last major conservation-restoration project in the 1990s. The project is “very time- and labor-intensive,” she said.

“Cracked seals on the specimen jars and containers let in air, which evaporates some of the preservative fluid,” she said. “That exposes fish and other creatures to possible deterioration. Air leaks also make it easy for infections and mold to develop on the specimens.”

Gress said she and her colleagues prepared a manual with step-by-step procedures and careful protocols for working with the specimens. Conservation includes opening the containers, cleaning them, gently treating infected specimens, replacing the fluid (alcohol and water), resealing the containers with fabric tape and melted beeswax and affixing new labels.

Vanderbilt had the museum’s seamless specimen jars and containers custom-made in Germany nearly a century ago, and they are irreplaceable, Gress said.

An intriguing project detail is the creative reuse of the original calligraphy from the 1930s specimen labels. “We took samples of each hand-calligraphed letter to create the alphabet for a typeface for the new labels we’re making,” Gress said. “With the original calligraphy as a model, curatorial assistant Kirsten Amundsen fashioned a nearly identical typeface by using existing, computerized calligraphy pen strokes in accurate proportions,” she added.

The marine collection was the first aspect of what became Vanderbilt’s larger natural history museum. He built the single-story building he called The Hall of Fishes in 1922 and opened it on a limited basis to the public. By the late 1920s, after more oceanic expeditions, his marine collection outgrew its original space. He added a second floor by 1930.

The two largest marine specimens are a 32-foot whale shark — the world’s largest example of fish taxidermy — and a manta ray with a 16.5-foot wingspan. The shark, caught in 1935 and restored in 2008 with a federal Save America’s Treasures grant, is the centerpiece of the habitat animal-dioramas gallery. The ray, which Vanderbilt called the Sea Devil, was caught in 1916 and recast in the late 1990s. It is exhibited prominently on the first floor of the Marine Museum.

“The Vanderbilt [Museum] is the only Long Island destination with a world-class planetarium and natural history collections that rival those at major urban museums,” said Lance Reinheimer, executive director. “In addition to thousands of rare marine specimens, the Vanderbilt collections range from an Egyptian mummy and 18 wild-animal dioramas to ethnographic artifacts from Africa and the South Pacific, fine and decorative arts and centuries-old furnishings.”

Nearly a century after Vanderbilt found those 67 new type specimens, his museum still receives inquiries about some of them. “A marine biology doctoral student contacted me recently about a particular invertebrate, whose common name is the Elegant Coral Crab,” Gress said. “I told him he’d have to call the American Museum of Natural History,” where Vanderbilt’s type specimens are housed.

“Mr. Vanderbilt is credited with the discovery and identification of the first of each of those species,” Gress said. The type specimens were published in editions of the Bulletin of the Vanderbilt Marine Museum, prepared between 1928 and 1938 by scientists Lee Boone and Nicholas Borodin. “Mr. Vanderbilt and his associates had the fun task of naming the new specimens,” she said. “Some were named for his wife, himself or his scientific team.”

Vanderbilt added marine specimens to the second-floor gallery chronologically, she said. When the restoration is complete, the specimens will be put back into the tall display cases in taxonomic order, in which like specimens are exhibited together. In the Invertebrate Room of the museum’s Memorial Wing, wet specimens are arranged by complexity of the organism.

The Vanderbilt marine collection of 13,190 specimens, housed in the Marine Museum, Habitat and Memorial Wing, includes wet and dry specimens and dry marine invertebrates (shells and corals).

For more information, call 631-854-5579 or visit www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.

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Co-partners Salvatore Mignano, Eric Finneran, and Daniel Valentino inside VAUXHALL. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

Burger fans of Huntington: rejoice.

VAUXHALL, a burger bar with a late night menu and coffee cocktails, is set to open soon on Clinton Avenue in Huntington.

Native Long Islanders Eric Finneran, Daniel Valentino and Salvatore Mignano named the joint in honor of the Morrissey 1994 album “Vauxhall and I,” and they want to bring a fun vibe to a spot in the downtown area that has seen many different tenants over the last several years.

Burgers will be the central focus, but Valentino said the restaurant will also have wings and other appetizers. The kitchen is expected to stay open till 2 a.m. or later.

Their coffee cocktails will combine different brews with a variety of liquors, including Jameson and Jack Daniel’s cinnamon whiskey. The guys also expect to have 14 different beers on tap and an extensive cocktail menu — Finneran said they recently hired a mixologist who is putting together a revolving seasonal list.

Located at the end of Clinton Avenue, near the traffic circle with Gerard Street, VAUXHALL will be at a corner that has been a revolving door for businesses in recent years, but Finneran said that fact didn’t deter the local guys from setting roots.

“We love it,” Finneran said, adding that it makes them work harder to succeed in that spot.

Valentino was born in Huntington and attended St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington. Finneran and Mignano are from the South Shore.

The front entrance of VAUXHALL
The front entrance of VAUXHALL

Valentino said they had been interested in Huntington village for a while.

“It’s a great town with the best walking traffic,” Finneran said. “It’s got that vibe that sets the tone to succeed in business. You set up shop here and you put out a good product and you’re going to win.”

This is not the first business venture for the three men. They are co-partners of the Amityville Music Hall in Amityville, a music venue that has hosted national touring hardcore bands like Glassjaw and Madball.

Finneran and Mignano are also co-partners of the Leaky Lifeboat Inn in Seaford, a punk rock bar they describe as “organized chaos,” and ZA Late Night Pizza in Seaford. Leaky Lifeboat Inn was named best bar in the Bethpage Best of Long Island program in 2012.

Valentino met his two partners while working as a bartender at the Leaky Lifeboat Inn.

“We built a great friendship, trust and rapport with him,” Finneran said.

Valentino said the trio is “always looking for the next thing.”

All three partners said the vibe of their new restaurant is “come as you are,” with a rustic feel.

“We want families during the day, but at night we expect the crowd to resemble the Leaky Lifeboat,” Finneran said. They also hope to capture the people leaving shows at the Paramount late at night.

“This is a unique, hip experience that is not in town yet,” Valentino said.

VAUXALL is expected to open sometime in late November but no official date has been set.

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En route to an arrest
A 56-year-old man from Miller Place was arrested for driving while ability impaired on Nov. 14, after police pulled him over when he failed to maintain his lane. The man had been driving a 2006 Mercedes-Benz east on Route 347 in Port Jefferson Station when police pulled him over.

On Nov. 13, a 32-year-old man from Port Jefferson Station was arrested for driving while impaired by drugs, after police pulled him over for failing to stay in his lane on Terryville Road. He had been driving a 2011 Ford.

Just on time for 4:20
Police arrested a 56-year-old Rocky Point resident for criminal possession of marijuana at the Port Jefferson train station. An officer spotted the suspect and several other people hanging around the station around 4:20 a.m. on Nov. 13, and he was arrested shortly afterward.

A clean catch
A 51-year-old man from Centereach was arrested on Nov. 11 for petit larceny. According to police, he took a power washer from the Lowe’s on Nesconset Highway in Stony Brook on Oct. 29, then returned the item and received a gift card for the return. Police arrested the man at the 6th Precinct.

Unwanted entry
On Nov. 2, a 37-year-old man from Selden was arrested for criminal trespassing after he entered a residence on Mount Sinai-Coram Road. A person who owned the home asked the man to leave, and he did eventually leave the premises. He was arrested at the 6th Precinct on Nov. 12. Police didn’t say why or how the man entered the home.

Diamonds are a thief’s best friend
Police arrested a 21-year-old man from Miller Place for criminal possession of stolen property after he sold stolen jewelry to a pawn shop in early October. Police arrested the man on Nov. 13 on Middle Country Road in Selden.

This is not a drill
On Nov. 11 around 8:45 a.m. someone went into the Home Depot at 401 Independence Plaza in Selden and stole a drill.

A bump on the road
A 32-year-old man from Rocky Point was arrested for unlicensed operation of a car and criminal possession of a controlled substance on Nov. 12, after police pulled the man over on Ridge Road in Shoreham for an unknown reason. Police said the driver of the 1996 Jeep Cherokee was in possession of crack cocaine.

Port punch
An unidentified man punched another person at a residence on Patchogue Road in Port Jefferson Station on Nov. 14 around 3:45 a.m. Police didn’t know what caused the incident.

Punching off some steam
On Nov. 14, police arrested a 23-year-old man from Ronkonkoma for criminal mischief, after he punched and damaged a bedroom door at a residence on Water Road in Rocky Point.

Unlocked and unloaded
Between 1 and 9 a.m. on Nov. 13, an unidentified person removed an iPad and binoculars from an unlocked 2009 Jeep. The incident happened on Hillcrest Avenue in Port Jefferson.

The last keg stand
Shortly before 7 a.m. on Nov. 14, an unknown person entered a store on Route 25A in Mount Sinai and stole a few kegs of beer. Police didn’t say how many kegs the person took.

On a quest for the quad
According to police, an unknown person forced open the side door to a residence on Russell Drive in East Shoreham, breaking the door frame and entering the garage. Once inside, the person stole a 2015 Yamaha Quad. The incident occurred between 6:45 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Nov. 12.

Go fish
An unidentified person entered the Stop & Shop at 260 Pond Path in Centereach on Nov. 11 and stole three packages of sushi.

Unless you’ve got power
Police said on Nov. 11 at 2:10 a.m. a man was confronted and pushed by three unknown people who then stole the victim’s hoverboard scooter. The incident happened in the woods near Boyle Road in Selden.

Measure of a thief
Someone went to the Walmart at 3990 Nesconset Highway in Setauket-East Setauket and took a 25-foot Stanley Tape Measure and left the store without paying. The incident took place on Nov. 12 at 4:03 p.m.

Trouble at Target
Detectives are searching for two men who stole $135 worth of beer and sprayed mace on a store employee at Target in Commack on Nov. 7 at about 1:45 p.m. When the men were attempting to leave with beer, an employee confronted them and one of the men sprayed the employee with mace, allowing the pair to escape. Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about the alleged attempted robbery is asked to call them anonymously at 1-800-220-TIPS (8477).

Jewels
A 25-year-old from Commack was arrested after police said he stole jewelry and a phone from someone between June 4 and Nov. 1. He was arrested at the 4th Precinct on Nov. 16 at 7 a.m. and charged with fourth-degree grand larceny.

No mercy for Mercedes
An unknown person keyed a 2014 Mercedes parked on Nicola Lane in Nesconset at midnight on Nov. 13.

Some mid-day cocaine
On Nov. 16 a 42-year-old man from Port Jefferson Station was arrested after police said he was driving a car without a license and had cocaine in his possession. He was arrested at the 4th Precinct just before noon and charged with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

OMG for GMC
An unknown person stole four rims and tires from a 2006 GMC Yukon at the King O’Rourke car dealership in Smithtown at midnight on Nov. 14

Jewelry thief
Police said a 21-year-old woman from Ronkonkoma stole jewelry from a resident’s house on Pinelawn Road in Farmingdale on Oct. 22. She was arrested at the 4th Precinct at 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 13 and charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

Darn for Dairy Barn
On Nov. 15 at 1:30 a.m. an unknown person threw a cinder block through a glass door and stole money from a Dairy Barn in Kings Park.

Speedy arrest
A 21-year-old man from Patchogue was arrested after police pulled him over for speeding in a 2007 Hyundai on Middle Country Road in St. James and said he was driving drunk at 3:20 a.m. on Nov. 15. He was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Cosmetics crook
An unknown person stole assorted cosmetics from CVS on Jericho Turnpike in Commack on Nov. 16 at 1:30 p.m.

Pickup pullover
On Nov. 13, a 29-year-old man from Coram was arrested while driving a 2015 Chevy pickup truck on Veterans Highway after police said he failed to maintain his lane. He was pulled over and then police said he was driving drunk. He was arrested at 10:30 p.m. and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Identity confusion
On Nov. 14 at 1:45 p.m., a 29-year-old man from Huntington Station was being arrested at the 2nd Precinct for a bench warrant when police said he gave someone else’s name. He was charged with false personation.

Cash and credit card crisis
A resident of Lakeridge Drive in Huntington reported that a credit card and cash were stolen from his or her house on Nov. 14 at 4 p.m.

A punch and a name change
A 26-year-old man from Huntington Station was arrested on Nov. 13 after police said he punched someone in the back of the head on E 3rd Street in Huntington Station. The victim did not require medical attention. When the man was arrested at 10:30 p.m., he gave a false name and was charged with false personation.

King Kullen crook
An unknown man stole assorted food from King Kullen on Jericho Turnpike in Huntington Station at noon on Nov. 14.

High Hyundai
On Nov. 12, police said a 20-year-old man from Deer Park was arrested in Dix Hills Park after police said he was in possession of marijuana inside his 2007 Hyundai just before 7 p.m. He was charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana.

Life’s a beach
Police said a 22-year-old man from East Northport was in possession of heroin and a glass pipe with residue on Nov. 13 at Crab Meadow Beach in Northport. He was in the parking lot in a 2001 Dodge Ram truck at 6:20 p.m. when he was arrested and charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Police said a 20-year-old man from East Northport was in possession of marijuana at Crab Meadow Beach in Northport on Nov. 11 at 5:20 p.m. He was arrested and charged with fifth-degree criminal possession of marijuana.

Third times the harm
A 34-year-old man from Huntington was arrested on Nov. 14 after police said he was driving a white 2002 Chevy without an interlock ignition device. He was driving east on Pegs Lane in Cold Spring Harbor at 5 p.m. when police pulled him over for suspicion of drunk driving. He was charged with using a vehicle without an interlock and his third charge of driving while intoxicated in less than 10 years.

Mistakes at Macy’s
On Nov. 13, a 33-year-old woman from Commack was arrested at Macy’s in Huntington after police said she stole more than $1,000 worth of merchandise at 3:30 p.m. She was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny.

Text message terror
A resident of Garfield Place in East Northport reported that he or she was receiving threatening text messages that were causing alarm for the person on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.

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Participants at a Common Core community forum protest the state standards. File photo by Erika Karp

Huntington School Board trustees expressed their frustration with the AIMHighNY Common Core survey at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Board members said that the survey was tedious, and didn’t provide an adequate forum for participants to express their thoughts and opinions.

“I thought the survey was very disappointing,” Trustee Emily Rogan said. “I was excited for a feedback opportunity, but this is really a roadblock.”

Superintendent James Polansky said that the survey’s fast-approaching deadline has made it a challenge for teachers to try and complete it in time.

The survey was posted in October and will close on Nov. 30. Once the responses are in, a group of educators will analyze the results and present recommendations to the Board of Regents by the end of the year.

“It’s a very difficult task because of the time constraint,” Polansky said.

Teachers have tried to split the survey so that each person is only answering a certain part of it to cut time, according to Polansky.

But Rogan said she wondered if that was counterproductive because then the teachers are not able to fully voice their opinions.

AimHighNY gives an in-depth review, with many subjects divided into multiple subtopics.

A participant can review both the English language arts and literacy section of the current common core and the mathematics section.

In order to get to the feedback portion of the English language arts and literacy section, a participant has to go through more than two-dozen subcategories. The first major category list is for the different grades, and then, the categories can get as specific as craft and structure for a literature subcategory of reading for the sixth grade English language arts section.

The feedback portion of the survey has five choices, ranging from the participant thinks the standard written in its current form is suitable, to the standard needs to be completely rewritten. There is also an optional box for comments.

Vice President Jennifer Hebert was critical of the feedback option, stating, “The questions are constricting, with only small boxes for a response.”

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Program makes it easier for residents to save money

An infrared temperature gun measures the surface temperature of a home. Photo from Neal Lewis

It just got easier for homeowners on Long Island to monitor their energy costs.

The not-for-profit Long Island Green Homes Initiative is a public-private partnership that launched Nov. 10 with the goal of setting up homeowners with a professional energy audit at no cost. The program links residents with the state’s Energy Research and Development Authority to generate savings, stimulate jobs, boost economic development and promote sustainability, organizers said.

The initiative is headquartered at the Sustainability Institute at Molloy College and is partnered with three non-profits: Community Development Corporation of LI, LI Green and United Way of Long Island. A state program that offers similar services has been in effect for several years, but some said it wasn’t getting its message across to enough people.

Neal Lewis, executive director of the Sustainability Institute at Molloy, said some residents argued that the state government website was too confusing to use.

“The conclusion was that the key way to get more participation was to provide resources to homeowners to help navigate the process,” Lewis said.

That was how the Green Homes Initiative was born.

It started with the goal of providing an easy-to-use website coupled with energy navigators who help answer any questions a homeowner has. Lewis said the energy navigators then schedule a free home energy assessment that provides an in-depth analysis of a home’s energy efficiency for each homeowner.

It was crafted after similar programs in neighboring municipalities, but has tweaked pieces of the process with hopes of making it better, supporters said. In an earlier version of this program started in 2008 in Babylon, an average homeowner saved about $1,000 each year in energy costs, according to a press release.

LIGH has also partnered with five towns, including Huntington and Smithtown along the North Shore, to further encourage residents of those towns to take advantage of this program.

“I am proud this newest LI Green Homes Initiative is kicking off in Huntington Station,” Huntington Town Supervisor Frank Petrone (D) said in a statement. “This is a prime example where much of the housing stock dates before the first energy conservation codes were adopted in the 1970s and can benefit dramatically by upgrading insulation and heating systems that are at or near their useful life expectancy.”

Huntington Councilman Mark Cuthbertson (D) said this program incurs few out-of-pocket expenses for homeowners.

Many improvements that require homeowner investment are eligible for cost reductions of up to 50 percent, depending upon household income, according to Cuthbertson.

In an interview, Lewis said the only contractors providing the free home energy assessments were licensed, local, insured, and certified by Building Performance Institute. The contractors test a house’s insulation, heating and hot water systems, ventilation and more.

Once the tests are completed, the homeowner is given a comprehensive report that includes where and how their home can save energy, a fixed cost for each recommended improvement, and projected dollar savings on their utility bills for each recommended improvement.

If a homeowner decides to go ahead with those suggestions, the program would then assign them a performance specialist to do the work on their property.

The LIGH program can pay the entire cost of the improvements, and under a contract with the homeowner, the town sets up a monthly payment plan, Lewis said.

LIGH also structures the payment so that your savings cover your monthly bill. If a homeowner saves $100 a month on energy costs, they only owe the town $90 a month.

“We’re trying to get people to test their homes and make them more energy efficient,” Cuthbertson said.

The Initiative is funded for three years by a Cleaner, Greener Communities competitive grant award from NYSERDA of $2.3 million, and a supplemental grant from the Rauch Foundation in Garden City.

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Business employs other local disabled individuals

Pictured, Brittney (left) and Logan (right) Wohl, co-owners of Our Coffee with a Cause, with their mother Stacey Wohl (center), company founder/president. Photo from PRMG New York

The sister-and-brother team, Brittney, age 18, and Logan Wohl, age 16, of Northport, are the newly appointed co-owners of Our Coffee with a Cause Inc., a business that employs individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities and funds local charities that support them. These siblings with autism have dedicated their time to helping other special-needs teens and adults by providing gainful employment opportunities in a supportive business setting.

Our Coffee with a Cause was founded in 2012 by Stacey Wohl, mother of Brittney and Logan, in response to the growing concern for special-needs individuals on Long Island who are aging out of schools to find job opportunities and a learning environment to acquire real-life skills. The employees package coffee, apply labels to the bags and coordinate shipments. Additional opportunities are available during Our Coffee with a Cause’s sales and informational events, during which employees work with an assistant to sell coffee and products using a custom-designed iPad app and interacting with customers.

A portion of the business proceeds benefit Our Own Place, a non-profit organization that Stacey Wohl founded to provide unique opportunities to special-needs children and their single parents. The organization’s ultimate mission is to open a weekend respite home for families of children with cognitive disabilities that will provide job training and socialization skills to its residents and will feature a café at which Our Coffee products will be brewed and sold.

Stacey Wohl and her mother and business partner, Susan Schultz, bring to the company a combined 50 years of business experience, along with the knowledge of addressing the unique needs of teens and adults with disabilities.

“Our Coffee with a Cause is dedicated to employing special-needs adults and showing that there is ability in disability,” says Stacey Wohl. “I am proud to name Brittney and Logan as the owners of this business, which provides careers to people with disabilities who may not otherwise have the opportunity.”

Although 53 million adults in the United States are living with a disability, as many as 70 percent of this working-age population are currently unemployed. For many, the current systems in place to support both young adults and their families disappear once the teen “ages out” of the education system, typically when they turn 21. In 2016, nearly 500,000 autistic persons will enter this category, in addition to adults with Down Syndrome and other cognitive conditions.

For more information, visit www.ourcoffeewithacause.net.

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Northport senior wide receiver John Tabert makes a diving catch in a previous game. File photo by Bill Landon

By Joe Galotti

After losing a perfect season in last year’s playoffs, No. 2 seeded Longwood looked like a team on a mission in their return to the Suffolk Division I semifinals on Friday night. Visiting No. 3 Northport allowed the Lions to strike for 14 points in the game’s opening minutes, and was never able to recover from the early blow, falling 48-21.

Northport senior quarterback Andrew Smith passes the ball up the middle in a previous game. File photo by Bill Landon
Northport senior quarterback Andrew Smith passes the ball up the middle in a previous game. File photo by Bill Landon

The loss not only marked the end of the 2015 season for the Tigers, but also the finish of the high school careers of many of the team’s key offensive players. Quarterback Andrew Smith, running back Dan Preston, fullback Rob Dosch, wideout John Tabert, center James Clemente and guard Rob Fontana will be moving on this spring.

“With all the struggles and all the work that we put in over the season, it’s tough coming to the end,” Preston said. “We gave it our all to get to the Long Island Championship, but we came up short.”

Northport dug itself an early hole in the contest, allowing a 75-yard touchdown run to junior Latrell Horton on Longwood’s first play from scrimmage. Then, on the Tigers next possession, Smith was intercepted by senior cornerback Mike Linbrunner, who proceeded to run the ball into the end zone to make it 14-0.

Later in the opening quarter, Longwood’s offense was deep in Lions’ territory, threatening to expand their early lead even further. But, Northport forced a fumble, which junior linebacker Andrew Havrilla was able to recover.

The play seemed to help settle things down for the Tigers, and the team was able to cut into the Lions’ lead soon after. Just seven seconds into the second quarter, Preston reached the end zone on a 7-yard touchdown rush, trimming Longwood’s advantage to 14-7.

“We showed our pride,” Preston said. “We’re not the type of team to just give up and lie down.”

With 7:40 remaining in the second, the Lions expanded their lead back to 14, when senior halfback Tahj Clark ran 31 yards for a touchdown.

But Northport continued to show fight, and with 4:41 remaining before the half, was able to pin the Tigers down in their own end zone and come away with a safety. Havrilla once again was responsible for a crucial play, this time making the tackle in the end zone.

Northport senior fullback Rob Dosch rushes up the field with the ball in a previous contest. File photo by Bill Landon
Northport senior fullback Rob Dosch rushes up the field with the ball in a previous contest. File photo by Bill Landon

With 1:48 left in the second quarter, Smith made it a 21-15 game, when he connected Tabert for a touchdown.

The Lions added another touchdown before the end of the half, but Northport still found itself within striking distance entering the third quarter.

“After they scored early on in the game, I was happy with the way we were able to fight through like we always do,” Smith said.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, it would be all Longwood in the second half. Clark added two more touchdown runs, to help give his team a commanding lead.

Dosch provided Northport’s only score in the final 24 minutes, registering a four-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

The Lions move on to the Suffolk Division I finals to face off with No. 1 Lindenhurst at Stony Brook University. The Tigers meanwhile, finish with a 6-4 record.

There was plenty of emotion on the Northport sideline after the loss, knowing that this was the end for many of the team’s leading players.

“We had a good season,” Smith said. “It’s been a long one, and we fought through a lot. I’m proud of this team and what we were able to do.”

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File photo

Detectives are searching for three men they say jumped a pizza delivery person in Northport on Friday the 13th.

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, the trio knocked him to the ground on Main Street that evening, near the intersection with Norwood Avenue, and then repeatedly punched and kicked him as they tried to take personal property from his pockets.

The SCPD said the Northport Police Department is asking the public for help to identify and locate the alleged assailants, who are wanted for attempted robbery because they fled the scene shortly after 8 p.m. without stealing anything.

Police described the suspects as black and between 18 and 22 years old. They were wearing dark-colored hoodies and fled in a late-model, two-door, black Honda hatchback with tinted windows and taillights, a loud muffler and possibly a standard-shift transmission.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about the alleged attempted robbery on Nov. 13 is asked to call them anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.

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A view of the inside of Peter Nettesheim’s Huntington home. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

Peter Nettesheim embodies the idiom “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Step inside his Huntington Town home and it’s nothing like it seems from the outside.

Picture this: You walk through an ordinary front door, expecting a small foyer or hallway to meet you. But as your eyes adjust from the natural light, all you see are warm wood and soft lights reflecting off of dozens of different pieces of metal. No side table or closet for jackets. You become more confused before you begin to understand what you’re looking at. A second ago you were on a residential road, listening to someone’s leaf blower start up. The next second all you hear is a model train driving by overhead and The Jackson 5 playing softly in the background.

Nettesheim is the proud owner of more than 100 BMW vehicles. Although many are in storage, his home boasts an impressive portion of the collection. Motorcycles cover most of the floor space, along with trophies, antique gas dispensers and even a few vintage cars.

A view of the inside of Peter Nettesheim’s Huntington home. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A view of the inside of Peter Nettesheim’s Huntington home. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

Jay Leno and Billy Joel have visited Nettesheim’s home, as well as more than 100 other private visitors each year. He calls it “his little sanctuary.”

Hints of Germany linger everywhere. A German greeting hangs from the ceiling and a mannequin named Elka stands in traditional German clothing sporting a dirndl, which is like an apron. Nettesheim explained that according to German tradition, the cloth signifies whether a girl is single or spoken for, depending on whether it is tied with a knot to the left or right. Elka is currently single.

In one corner sits the oldest BMW motorcycle to date, with a confirmation from BMW hanging above it. Across from it is a fully stocked bar, with several glass bottles of Coca-Cola personalized with Nettesheim’s name.

“My wife found those for me,” Nettesheim said.

This space is intimate, so it fights the feeling one gets at famous places like the American Museum of Natural History. One can literally sit at the bar and have a drink while gazing at relics. In one corner stands the oldest BMW bike in history, in another, a couch sporting pillows adorned with phrases like “man cave.”

Still, there are touches that make it feel like an established museum. Several motorcycles have backdrops behind them that display information about the particular model standing in front of it. Historic black-and-white photos of people riding old BMW bikes are also featured on the walls.

Nettesheim said the American Motorcyclist Association asked him to curate a BMW exhibit for its Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum in Ohio in 2010. His backdrops are straight out of that exhibit. Nettesheim chose all of the information and photos on the backdrops when he designed the show.

A view of the inside of Peter Nettesheim’s Huntington home. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A view of the inside of Peter Nettesheim’s Huntington home. Photo by Victoria Espinoza

He said he didn’t take any money for the curation.

“I do this for fun,” he said. “This is strictly my hobby.”

Nettesheim is driven about his pastime and expressed surprise that many who visited his museum didn’t share the same kind of enthusiasm for a hobby — especially the younger generation.

“I never really understood that,” Nettesheim said.

The bike collector said that in conversations with his visitors he was caught off guard to learn that many had no hobbies of their own.

“There’s nothing that engages them, there’s nothing that they see and want to know how this works and how it’s made.”

He said he worried that his own hobby, shared by mostly the older generation, would eventually die out. “Most people you meet at biker clubs are not young guys.”

Despite the future of motorcycle collecting, Nettesheim remains driven by his passion. His father, a Mercedes-Benz car collector, has greatly influenced him. Nettesheim purchased his first BMW motorcycle when he was about 20 years old and fell in love with bikes ever since.

“I wake up in the morning and I think about the collection,” Nettesheim said. “There’s something I want to do. Every day I want to get home and get next to the bike and take something off it or fix a tire. It’s in me. I have a passion for it.”

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