Parents and community members were treated to a special preview of this year’s surprise prom theme, The Royal Manor, just hours before the graduating Port Jeff seniors celebrated their prom on Tuesday, June 28.
After 10 months of planning and secrecy, the Port Jeff prom committee finally unveiled its spooky creations. From the lobby to the ballroom to the bathroom stalls, every inch of The Meadow Club was tied together into this year’s theme. Randi DeWitt, trustee of the Port Jefferson board of education and member of the prom committee, detailed how these plans came together.
At the beginning of the school year, the executive board of the prom committee made the difficult decision to move the annual prom from its regular venue, the high school, to The Meadow Club in Port Jefferson Station.
“Everything used to be at the school, but because of COVID — because of that mandate at the beginning of the year — when we sat together as an exec board for the prom, we had to make the decision of where we were going to have it,” DeWitt said. “We decided to have it here at The Meadow Club because there wouldn’t be a mask mandate. We wanted to bring the theme here, which they graciously allowed us to do.”
The committee put together several unique interior designs throughout the banquet space. Part of the prom tradition is that guests are welcomed to a large foyer area. Each student had his or her own mailbox, where parents and visitors could leave special handwritten notes.
“This area we’re very proud of,” DeWitt said. “Every student has a book and it’s a tradition that the parents and other people come and leave messages for the kids.”
Another custom is the intricate decoration of the bathrooms. Both bathrooms contained elaborate displays that featured unique wallpaper, props and even digital audio to create an ambiance of both fun and fright. “This is a big tradition, the bathrooms, because they just get totally transformed,” DeWitt said.
She described the sense of relief and accomplishment that the committee felt after nearly a year of preparations came to fruition. For her, the event represents the culmination of effort, ingenuity and love on the part of committee members, parents and other volunteers.
“We had to raise an insane amount of money to pull this off and we did,” DeWitt said. “This is the culmination and it’s great because we know the kids will have so much fun.” She added, “That’s really why we do this — we do it for the kids.”
During a meeting of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce on Monday, June 20, the developer of the Jefferson Plaza project presented his vision for its future.
Valentin Staller, vice president of the Hauppauge-based real estate firm Staller Associates, delivered a presentation on the proposed redevelopment of Jefferson Plaza, a property that has been in the family for over half a century.
The history of Jefferson Plaza
Jefferson Plaza shopping center is located on Route 112 in Port Jefferson Station. The property was first developed in the late 1950s by Erwin and Max Staller, Valentin’s grandfather and great-grandfather, respectively. For a period, the shopping center was a popular and prosperous commercial hub serving the Port Jeff Station and Terryville communities. However, the plaza experienced its share of setbacks as the area underwent a steep decline.
“The whole commercial corridor began to suffer its challenges,” Staller said. “Certain negative elements within the commercial corridor made it really hard to do business.” He added, “Unfortunately, the pandemic only exacerbated things.”
In 2014, the Town of Brookhaven released the Port Jefferson Station Commercial Hub Study, a 135-page document outlining a comprehensive plan to revitalize the area, emphasizing mixed-use commercial and residential zoning with pedestrian walkability. After being approached by, and entering into negotiations with, the Town of Brookhaven, Staller Associates began to seriously consider redeveloping the property.
Under the current plan, the site would include a main street, food hall, fitness center, apartments and more. Graphics courtesy Valentin Staller
A redevelopment plan
Staller’s plan includes 49,400 square feet of commercial space, including restaurants and a proposed food hall. The plan accommodates 280 apartments “with a heavy skew toward one-bedrooms.” Staller also said 80% of the apartments will be offered at market rate while the remaining 20% will be designated for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, “a tremendously underserved community as it relates to housing on Long Island,” he added.
When the developers began planning for the redevelopment of the property, they quickly entered into conversations with Suffolk County about extending sewers into downtown Port Jeff Station.
“We recognized immediately that for any redevelopment to occur, whether it’s this property or any other property in the corridor, a connection to sewers is vital,” Staller said.
The goal of the project, according to Staller, is “to create a dynamic, mixed-use suburban environment.” The developers have already undergone several iterations of their site plan with the Brookhaven Planning Department.
Under the current site plan, the development “is designed to create a much more neighborhood business feel than what exists today and create a more walkable downtown type of environment,” he said. There are also plans to accommodate a fitness and retail center in the plaza.
At the core of the project is a proposed main street that would include retail stores, restaurants and a food hall. The main street would be distinguished by its “exceptional landscaping and distinct pavers” that are both pedestrian-friendly and promote outdoor dining.
“We want to be able to close it off for events,” Staller said. “We want to work with the Terryville Fire Department so that we can have things like farmers markets, Oktoberfest, winter holiday markets and St. Patrick’s Day right on our main street.”
Opposite the main street, there are plans to have what Staller calls “the innovation center.” This venue would serve as a gathering space for engineers, entrepreneurs and programmers.
“We want this to be sort of a mini economic development hub right here in this community,” he said. “We want to bring in Stony Brook [University]’s growing engineering department.”
At the south end of the site, Staller proposes to build apartment complexes that are “designed to be tucked away into the site” to avoid pushing up against and obstructing existing neighborhoods in the area.
Three-dimensional rendering of the proposed redevelopment project at Jefferson Plaza. Graphic courtesy Valentin Staller
Impact on the community
Staller believes the development will stimulate economic activity in the Port Jefferson Station-Terryville community. In order to qualify for a market-rate apartment, Staller said, a prospective tenant must first demonstrate that he or she makes three times the rent before income taxes.
“If you add all of that together, with 80% [of the apartments] at market rate, there’s a lot of disposable income that is concentrated in this community,” he said. This disposable income, he suggests, will inject $7 million per year into the local economy.
Jefferson Plaza is uniquely situated near several major employment hubs on Long Island. Among these are Mather and St. Charles hospitals and Stony Brook University. Staller believes that this redevelopment plan will work due to the demand for housing that these centers generate.
Staller summarized his vision as follows: “We’re talking about a major investment in the built environment with purpose-built outdoor dining, great building materials, high quality architecture and landscaping.”
The developers are still at least two years away before they can begin building. In the meantime, there remains much to be worked out with Brookhaven and Suffolk County.
To read about how the local civic association has embraced the redevelopment project, see the TBR News Media March 31 story, “Reimagining Jefferson Plaza.”
Comsewogue Public Library honors original research committee during 55th anniversary ceremony
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R), at podium, with Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) during the 55th anniversary celebration of Comsewogue Public Library. Photo by Raymond Janis
Surrounded by officials from the Town of Brookhaven, Comsewogue Public Library members honored their founding research committee during a 55th anniversary celebration.
The library research committee was the group of community members formed in 1966 during the library’s embryonic stage. The original committee members were the first to explore ideas and secure permissions to charter a new library that would serve the Port Jefferson Station and Terryville communities.
Debbie Engelhardt, CPL director, recounted the early history of the library and the important role the committee played in its development.
“Today we’re shining a light on the library research committee, a group of citizens who banded together and worked toward the goal of establishing a library for the community,” she said. “They formed in 1966 with an original committee of six members, plus an advisor, and followed the steps that New York State requires in order for the state to charter a public library.”
‘It was an act of tremendous vision to see a need and to start planning … We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to this research committee.’
— Jonathan Kornreich
While most of the members of the committee have passed, the library’s archives provide enough information to produce a likely narrative of its early history. Records indicate the committee envisioned the library to be a community hub for scholarship and intellectual enrichment.
“We do have many documents that help us piece together the timeline from back then,” Engelhardt said. “It appears the committee worked swiftly and that the community was supportive to where they did receive a charter.”
The idea to honor the research committee was first pitched by Jan Kielhurn, daughter of Jasper Newcomer, one of the six members on the committee. Kielhurn said she was browsing for a book one day when she decided to look for a plaque with her father’s name on it. Not finding one, she asked Engelhardt to explore ways to formally recognize the library’s earliest leadership.
“I had come up here to get a book and all the sudden I’m looking around and I realized there was nothing stating my father’s contribution to the start of this,” she said. “I had spoken to Debbie and she told me there was going to be a board meeting and she was going to bring it up then. That’s how all this all came about.”
The daughters of Jasper Newcomer, one of the six original members of the library research committee. Pictured: Lee Kucera (left) and Jan Kielhurn (right). Photo by Raymond Janis
Lee Kucera, Kielhurn’s older sister, remembers their father’s time commitment, dedication and collaboration with other committee members during the founding of the library. “They got together and went to wherever they had to go — several different places — to get the okey dokey on it,” Kucera said.
In 1967, Newcomer sadly died shortly before the library was inaugurated. At the time of his death, Kucera remembers her father’s enthusiasm for the project.
“He was very excited about it,” she said. “He was very, very interested in education and reading, and he really felt that was something everybody should have a chance to have.”
Knowing their father’s dreams for the institution and the personal sacrifice he and the committee had made for the betterment of the community, Newcomer’s daughters both agreed that he would be elated if he were around to see the library today.
“He probably would have been very pleased, probably looking for other ways to help it,” Kucera said. “He probably would have been instrumental in making sure that it had computers.” She added, “This would have been one of his babies.”
During a formal dedication ceremony, Engelhardt presented a plaque with the names of the original members of the library research committee. The plaque will forever enshrine these names in the library’s history, honoring the visionary citizens whose aspirations became reality, and whose imprint is left upon the community into the present day.
Brookhaven officials present two proclamations to the Comsewogue Public Library. Pictured (left to right): Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R), Jan Kielhurn, CPL Director Debbie Engelhardt, Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) and Town Historian Barbara Russell. Photo by Raymond Janis
Brookhaven officials were also present at the ceremony. Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) said events such as these help to remind people of the reasons for serving the community and the important function the public library plays as a repository of information for its members.
“All good ideas usually start with one or two people talking about something and then it grows,” he said. “Today, the town has issued two proclamations, one acknowledging the tremendous influence of this library on this community, the second on that research committee that started this with an idea.”
‘Libraries make us better citizens. Libraries build better communities. We’re here to celebrate libraries.’ — Ed Romaine
Since his time long ago serving on the Long Island Library Resources Council, Romaine said he has cultivated a deep understanding and appreciation for the valuable work that libraries perform every day in making communities wiser and better.
“They are repositories of a lot of information — not only the books, but all types of multimedia,” the town supervisor said, adding, “It’s where we come to learn about things, it’s where we come to educate ourselves about the world around us. Libraries make us better citizens. Libraries build better communities. We’re here to celebrate libraries.”
Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) was also in attendance. He highlighted the strong foundation laid down by the library research committee, a foundation which still supports the library into the present day.
“It was an act of tremendous vision to see a need and to start planning,” he said. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to this research committee.”
Since the founding of the library, the world has undergone remarkable transformations. These profound changes reshaped the ways in which humans relate to their technologies and to knowledge itself. Kornreich extolled the library’s leadership throughout its 55-year history for its willingness to adapt to changing times in service to the community.
“Fifty-five years ago when this was built, we wouldn’t have had computers or printers, there was no internet and there was no digital media,” the councilmember said. “They never could have imagined the changes that took place.” He added, “Under the continued wise leadership of our board and our library director, this institution continues to evolve and serve the community.”
‘Modern ideas and a progressive way of thinking I think have always been a part of the vision from back in the 1960s and it remains so today.’
— Debbie Engelhardt
Over a half century after the committee first laid down its foundation, the Comsewogue Public Library continues to exist in a symbiotic arrangement with the community. While men and women like Newcomer foresaw how a public library could foster creative thinking and community enrichment, the library and community members keep that visionary spirit alive today.
“It’s clear to me that from the research committee to the original library board to the original administration, there was a broad vision for an institution of excellence for this community,” Engelhardt said. “Modern ideas and a progressive way of thinking I think have always been a part of the vision from back in the 1960s and it remains so today.”
The names of the original members of the library research committee: Carol Benkov, Anne Herman, Florence Hughes, Laurence Lamm, Jasper Newcomer, June Tilley, and Gus Basile, advisor.
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