It’s that time of year again! Get your flu shot at Comsewogue Public Library, 170 Terryville Road, Port Jefferson Station on Tuesday, Oct. 5 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. or Tuesday, Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring a copy of your ID and your insurance card. Open to ages 18 and older. For more information, please call 928-1212, option #3.
The Lady Royals of Port Jeff remained perfect on their season with a three-game sweep Oct. 1 over visiting Greenport/Southold, 25-22, 25-12 & 25-7.
The win lifts the Royals to 7-0 to sit atop the league VI leaderboard just beyond the midway point of the season.
— All photos by Bill Landon
This week a Stony Brook Village Center icon closed its doors for the last time after 27 years in business, and residents wonder how it will ever be replaced.
At the end of July, the owner of Pentimento Restaurant, Dennis Young, began informing customers that his lease wasn’t being renewed. Frequent visitors to his establishment started a Facebook page and petition on Change.org to save the restaurant and show their support. Many even protested in front of the business and throughout the shopping center. They also rallied in front of Gloria Rocchio’s house, the president of Eagle Realty Holdings and The Ward Melville Heritage Organization.
Unfortunately, the owner and the board of Eagle Realty, the landlord, couldn’t come to an agreement after Young forgot to give notice about his intent to renew last year, 365 days before his lease expired as specified in the agreement.
The Village Times Herald and the TBR News Media website featured five articles within the past two months on the closing and protests, and some of the stories also appeared in The Times of Smithtown. Talking to all parties involved, hearing the different sides of the issue, it was apparent there was more to the impasse than forgetting to renew a lease. A couple of matters couldn’t even be discussed because lease negotiations between private businesses are private matters.
We are saddened that something couldn’t be worked out. Especially since Young was hoping to retire in the near future and extending the lease and being able to sell the business to someone else would have meant he could have walked away with something more in his pockets.
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the closing of Book Revue in Huntington village. Just like the iconic bookstore drew people to Huntington with its eclectic selection of books and celebrity author signings, the restaurant has done the same in the Three Village community by serving up its delicious meals and more.
As one reader wrote in a letter to the editor last week, in the last 27 years the restaurant served as the place “where we have celebrated birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and religious milestones. It’s where we have had our first dates and our first jobs.”
Regular visitors to Stony Brook Village Center would find that on the nights the restaurant was closed, the parking lot in the section of the shopping center it is located on was practically empty. When it was open, it could be difficult to find a spot.
When people come to eat in a restaurant, especially if they have to wait for a table, they’ll visit nearby stores. And, Pentimento has been a big attraction for both locals and residents from surrounding towns. As we mentioned in our editorial about Book Revue, sometimes the closing of a popular establishment can have a domino effect. We hope this won’t be the case with the village center.
We’re not quite sure what will replace Pentimento, but it will take a long time for residents to create new memories in whatever business goes into the empty space.
We thank Young, restaurant manager Lisa Cusumano and the staff for their service to the community, and we wish them all the happiness in the world.
By Joan Nickeson
A book walk — also known as a story walk — is an innovative and delightful way for people to walk outdoors and enjoy a bit of reading.
You’ll find a half dozen handcrafted wood podiums for a new book walk, installed in the park at the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce Train Car.
This is the eagle scout leadership project of Enrique Rivera of Boy Scout Troop 354, Port Jefferson Station. These substantial kiosks display information compiled by Jeff Kito, from his archives. He is a former president of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce and currently serves as Facilities Director of the Train Car, and you can stroll the park book walk at the intersection of Route 347, Route 112, Rose Avenue and Canal Road.
The story of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce-early 1900s Train Car comes to life as you walk from page to page. It includes fascinating photos of when it was transported through our streets to its present location.
The current set of book stands will be supplemented by six more kiosks, to be built and installed by scout Jake Lopez for his future eagle scout project. At that time laminated pages from a children’s book, supplied by the Comsewogue Library, will be inserted on top of the train history pages. This is all protected by plexiglass topper.
“It is important to note that in light of the constraints due to the pandemic, the boys have had to shoulder the costs of their community projects,” said scoutmaster Bob Pearsall. “Mr. Kito made a substantial contribution to Enrique’s project.”
The Scoutmaster who has been with the troop for 20 years did so, as well. The individual financial support in addition to paint and supplies from Aboff’s, Lowes and other Long Island businesses were critical to pulling this project together.
And what a treat for us. Anytime one can combine reading while walking under the trees of the park is time well spent. It benefits all residents of Brookhaven. Thanks to the many hands involved in this. For more information on the project contact Bob Pearsall at (631) 678-5689
or the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce at (631) 821-1313.
Joan Nickeson is an active member of the PJS/Terryville community and community liaison to the PJS/T Chamber of Commerce.
Children’s theater continues at Theatre Three, 412 Main St., Port Jefferson with A Kooky Spooky Halloween, a merry musical about a ghost who’s afraid of the dark, from Oct. 9 to 30 (*sensory-sensitive performance on Oct. 10).
Recently graduated spirit Abner Perkins is assigned to the Aberdeen Boarding House — known for its spectral sightings and terrific toast. Here, Abner finds himself cast into a company of its wacky residents. When his secret is revealed, he is forced to leave his haunted home and set-off on a quest with his newly found friends. On this journey to find spook-tacular promise, Abner and company learn the power of helping others. Hilarious hijinks and a message of cooperation highlight this delightful musical for the entire family.
All seats are $10. To order, call 631-928-9100 or visit www.theatrethree.com.
The Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon cutting for Give Kids Hope, Inc. on Thursday, Sept. 23. The new thrift store, located at 1506 Main Street in Port Jefferson, is an endeavor by owner Melissa Paulson (center holding scissors) to bring more resources to people struggling within the community.
The celebration was attended by Port Jefferson Mayor Margot Garant, Village Trustee Bruce Miller, Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden; members of the chamber including President Mary Jo Pipe, 1st President Stuart Vincent and Director Douglas Quattrock; friends and family.
Created as a nonprofit to help provides assistance to less fortunate children and families on LongIsland, the storefront features housewares, antiques, furniture, etcc. with a food pantry in the back of the store.
“We are so thankful for the warm welcome we received from our village,” said Paulson. “[And a] huge thank you to my amazing volunteers who have donated countless days and hours to make our mission possible. The love and generosity we receive from our donors and supporters is incredible. We are truly blessed beyond words.”
The thrift store is currently open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, please call 631-538-5287.
By Daniel Dunaief
If you’ve ever watched the show “The Voice,” which teenage sensation Carter Rubin from Shoreham won last year, you know the format involves celebrity judges making blind choices during a prolonged audition process.
With their backs to the performers, the judges listen to the contestants sing several bars of familiar songs, sometimes swaying, sometimes mouthing the words, until they hear something in the voices that clicks or that they think they can improve to lead these aspiring artists to the promised land of a music contract, fame and fortune.
The process is imperfect, as are most decisions we make.
The judges don’t get to rate everyone, listening to the entire array of singers before rank ordering or assembling their team. As they go, they add aspiring musicians to their teams, competing against the other judges to encourage performers to work with them.
This process is akin to so many others in so many contexts.
Many years ago, I attended a spectacular and extravagant holiday party for Bloomberg News at the Museum of Natural History. The organization had rented the entire museum during after hours. Fortunately, I brought my then-girlfriend, who is now my wife, to that event, which has given us a party to remember over two decades later.
Anyway, each room had a performer and a collection of tables with mouth-watering food. Hungry and maneuvering slowly through each room, we probably ate more than we should have in the first few rooms, until we understood the spectacular assortment of foods, culminating with sushi under the blue whale in the main room.
Having eaten more than I should prior to reaching the whale, I could only sample a few pieces of sushi before shutting down the food consumption. Well, that was true until we waited for the one person in the coatroom who was matching tickets to coats. At that point, servers brought trays of dark and white chocolate-covered strawberries up and down the line.
The point, however, is that the imperfect choices my wife and I made earlier in the evening affected how much we could eat as the night wore on.
In the last few months, I spoke with several researchers in Stony Brook University’s Department of Geosciences, including Joel Hurowitz and Scott McLennan. They are working with a rover on Mars that is choosing rocks in the Jezero crater, putting together a collection of samples that will, one day, return with a round trip mission to the Red Planet.
They can’t sample every rock that might reveal something about Mars, indicating whether life could have existed on the planet billions of years ago.
The decision to choose something in the present, like the rock in front of the rover on Mars, the current singer who is living out his or her dream on “The Voice,” or the morsel of food in a buffet that stretches throughout a museum, can limit the ones those same people have in the future.
Hopefully, along the way, we learn from the decisions we’ve made, the ones that work out and the ones that don’t, that enable us to improve our ability to make informed choices.
And, even if whatever we chose may not be exactly what we thought it was, we, like the judges on “The Voice,” might be able to mold the raw materials of our lives into something even better than we’d initially imagined.
By Leah S. Dunaief
Here is a possible answer to a couple of current questions. How to deal with the thousands of Afghans we have brought to our country ahead of the Taliban takeover and also those refugees from Central and South America who have massed at our border? That is one question. Another is how to respond to the ever-widening gap between the rising need for home health care workers and hospital aides, and the aging of the current United States population who will need such services? And there are other such industries that urgently need workers, where there are not enough Americans to fill them.
Some of the immigrants may be well-educated or have needed skills. Those can probably be settled readily into American locations after they have been vetted and vaccinated. For those without obvious skills, the government will need to offer training, including English classes. The newcomers could be given a choice of what work they would want to do. Some may be or would like to be farmers, and we certainly need more workers in agriculture. Some may already be carpenters or landscapers or roofers or mechanics. If they can drive, we might be able to prepare them to drive trucks or buses, jobs that are going begging today. Perhaps they could help moving companies, which are understaffed and leaving customers stranded in their new homes waiting for their furniture to arrive. Some could help veterinarians, who are hugely overworked now by the many new pet owners who wanted companionship during the pandemic and acquired dogs, cats and other domestic creatures.
Child care is a field that needs more workers. Mental health practitioners, overwhelmed by those experiencing anxiety, depression and stress could certainly use non-managerial help. So could both be teaching and non-teaching educational services, and sawmills turning out lumber for new construction and renovation, and textile mills trying to meet the sudden demand for back-to-school and back-to-work clothing places to welcome help. We have a desperate shortage of nurses in our country, both PNs and RNs. Hospitals, now newly reduced in their staffing because of the vaccine mandates, probably need help with basic services.
All of these positions, of course, would need varying degrees of training, and that in turn would offer new teaching jobs to the currently unemployed. Such programs would be no small task to organize, but it was doable during the Great Depression almost a century ago, and we can surely again put people to work where they are needed. Some of the jobs would be easier to prepare for than others. All could improve our economy, especially in areas with stagnant growth, and perhaps meet urgent needs.
I wonder if the federal government is thinking strategically when they place thousands of refugees in select communities. Currently, some 37,000 Afghans are at military installations in 10 states while other evacuees remain at overseas bases waiting to be processed, according to Nayla Rush, writing for the Center for Immigration Studies on Sept. 23. In total, the Biden administration has reported that over 100,000 Afghans were evacuated.
The top ten states receiving the newcomers, according to the Center, are California (5255), Texas (4481), Oklahoma (1800), Washington (1679), Arizona (1610), Maryland (1348), Michigan (1280), Missouri (1200), North Carolina (1169) and Virginia (1166). To coordinate this mammoth resettlement, President Joe Biden (D) appointed former Delaware Governor Jack Markell. He is also the former chairman of the National Governors Association and has held top positions in the private sector.
“Nine religious or community-based organizations have contracts with the Department of State to resettle refugees inside the United States,” according to the Center, and they have final say on the distribution. These agencies, in turn, maintain nationwide networks of local affiliates to provide the necessary services. State and local officials are not involved and have no control over the program. Refugees are not resettled in states that do not have any local affiliates, which explains why some areas are skipped.
Our country has a need of workers. Potential workers are entering the United States in significant numbers. Together that creates opportunity. We need some thoughtful and skilled management here.
Paint Port Pink, Mather Hospital’s annual month-long breast cancer awareness community outreach, kicks off on Oct. 1 with a lighting of pink lights by community partners in Port Jefferson, Port Jefferson Station and the surrounding communities. Lamp posts along main street in Port Jefferson will be lit up with pink lights, as will the Theatre Three marquee and many store windows.
Paint Port Pink’s goal is to raise awareness about breast cancer and the importance of early detection, encourage annual mammograms and bring the community together to help fight this disease.
One in eight women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime. In 2021, an estimated 281,550 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 49,290 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer. About 2,650 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2021. As of January 2021, there are more than 3.8 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S. This includes women currently being treated and women who have finished treatment.
Mather Hospital’s HealthyU webinar series will present two free educational programs — The Role of Genetics in Breast Cancer on Tuesday, Oct. 5, and Common Breast Cancer Myths and Screening Options on Tuesday Oct. 12. Both webinars begin at noon. Register for these webinars at matherhospital.org/healthyu.
Oct. 15 is Wear Pink Day, and everyone is encouraged to dress themselves — and their pets — in pink and post their photos on social media with #paintportpink. Then send those photos to [email protected] and they will be included in a collage on the hospital’s Facebook page.
The popular Pink Your Pumpkin Contest returns this October. Get creative and post photos of “pinked” pumpkins on social media with #paintportpink. Send those photos to [email protected] by Oct. 25 for the contest. The winner will be chosen Oct. 26 and will receive a $100 gift card.
Paint Port Pink community sponsors will again be offering special promotions to raise money for the Fortunato Breast Health Center’s Fund for Uninsured. Redefine Fitness, 5507 Nesconset Hwy #2, Mt Sinai, will host a fitness class on Oct. 24, from 10 to 11 a.m., for $20 per person. Month long promotions include Fedora Lounge (404 Main St, Port Jefferson) offering pink hair extensions — $15 for one, $25 for two. The Soap Box (18 Chandler Square, Port Jefferson) will donate 10 percent of sales of all pink products on display at the main counter. And Chick-fil-A, 5184 Nesconset Hwy, Port Jefferson Station will donate 10 percent of sales on strawberry milkshakes. More information on these and other promotions can be found at www.paintportpink.org
A complete calendar of events, more promotions and a list of Paint Port Pink community partners is available at www.paintportpink.org. For more informaton, call 631-476-2723.
The Fortunato Breast Health Center at Mather Hospital, 75 North Country Road, Port Jefferson uses state-of-the-art breast imaging technology in a warm and assuring environment with a commitment to giving you personalized breast healthcare.
Their staff of professionals provides 3D mammograms and offers individualized follow-up care, education for patients, families, and the community, as well as breast cancer support groups.
Their Breast Center radiologists are specialists who only read breast imaging studies and look back as far as possible at your history of breast images for any subtle changes or abnormalities to provide the most accurate reading.
The Breast Health Center has also partnered with the Suffolk Cancer Services Program (CSP) to provide free breast cancer screenings to individuals who qualify. The CSP provides breast cancer screenings to women age 40 and older without health insurance in Suffolk. If any follow-up testing is needed, the CSP will provide those tests too. If cancer is found, CSP will help enroll people who are eligible in the NYS Medicaid Cancer Treatment Program for full Medicaid coverage during treatment.
Patients can find out if they are eligible for free screenings or schedule your annual mammogram by calling 631-476-2771.
Girl Scouts of Troop 991 got to work on their Silver Award Project at the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce Train Car.
Pictured above are scouts Vanessa Molinelli, Olivia Vecchio and Emily Gaide. Behind them are volunteers pressed into service.
The Silver Award leadership project is one that scouts plan, prep and execute. These one entrails refurbishing the deck, rails, steps and handicap ramp at the early 1900s baggage coach “train car.”
The scouts organize schedules, responsibilities and fundraisers. They received building material donations from Home Depot of South Setauket and Margaritas Café Port Jefferson Station have been keeping them fueled.
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