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Photo by Pixabay

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

I have two friends whose sons are contemplating important choices. The first son, Matt, is trying to decide where to attend college.

He has gained admission to two elite schools. He can’t go wrong, as his parents have told him repeatedly, with either choice. Making this decision in a normal year would be hard. In a pandemic year, it’s almost impossible.

Matt can’t stay over at each school for a weekend or even attend a few classes. He can’t get much of a feeling for the “vibe” of the school because he can’t go into most of the buildings, even with a mask and with his letter of admission.

He can compare the national rankings from U.S. News and World Report, check college guides, talk with his guidance counselor, chat with graduates from his high school who attend each school and stroll around each campus. 

He can’t, however, fully try on the school, the way he might a tailored suit. Masks cover the faces of most of the people at each school, which makes it impossible to search for smiles on the faces of his potential future classmates.

He recently found himself leaning toward school A. The same day, his father spoke with a friend of his whose daughter was attending school B.

His father showed a picture of his friend’s daughter to Matt. The friend’s attractive daughter caused Matt to rethink his tentative decision.

That brings me to my other friend’s son, Eric. In his mid-20s, Eric has been caught in the same social world that has limited the options for everyone else.

Eric has been dating a woman for over two years and is considering the future of the relationship. He is not sure whether it’s the appropriate time to consider living together or getting married.

Eric is incredibly attached to his girlfriend, who has been one of the few people he sees regularly in real life during the pandemic.

Eric is not sure how long this altered reality, in which he works from home, speaks with family and friends virtually most of the time, and sees his girlfriend during his limited social hours, will last. In the meantime, he’d like something in his life to move forward.

Matt and Eric are weighing their options. For Matt, the choice of college may well come down to the last picture of another student he sees before he pushes a button.

Choosing a college can, and likely should, involve more significant factors. Then again, both of the colleges line up so well that he is likely to have a similar experience, albeit with different people around him, at each school.

Eric’s decision, however, isn’t so interchangeable. It involves a leap of faith that those of us who are married have made that relies on our own criteria. We can consult family, friends, and counselors as we weigh the pros and cons, but, ultimately, the responsibility and opportunity rest with us.

Coming up with his own questions and his own scale to evaluate the relationship is challenging, particularly when everything seems somewhere between good and great right now. He can’t possibly know what life will look like in two, five, 10 or 20 years from now.

I don’t envy either Matt or Eric as they contemplate these decisions. I do, however, agree with Matt’s parents: he can’t go wrong. For Eric, the decision has more significant longer-term ramifications and likely reflects variables that are difficult to imagine, particularly amid the uncertainty of the present.

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METRO photo
Leah Dunaief

By Leah S. Dunaief

Would you like to be different? Would you like to change your personality? Perhaps you would like to be more extroverted. Or more open to new experiences. Or even just more organized. Well, thanks to the pandemic, here is your chance. 

People can and do successfully change their personalities even as adults. Now we are about to emerge from the isolation of lockdown and quarantine and rejoin the larger world. The stage is set for a new you. But this transformation will take work. To start, one could embrace the “As If Principle,” proposed by Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire in England. This would require one to behave as if one were already that different person, and after a time, the new behavior and the person would sync. Famously, that is the story the debonair Cary Grant told of his early life, which started on the Bristol docks as Archie Leach and wound up at the pinnacle in Hollywood. “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me,” Grant said, according to the British newspaper, The Guardian.

An article in the April 11 issue of The New York Times took up this subject. Headlined, “You Can Be a New You After the Pandemic,” written by Olga Khazan, the story states the following. “Researchers have found that adults can change the five traits that make up personality — extroversion, openness to experience, emotional stability, agreeableness and conscientiousness — within just a few months.” 

Another psychology professor, this one at Columbia University, asserts a similar theme. Geraldine Downey, who studies social rejection, has found that “socially excluded people who want to become part of a group are better off if they assume that other people will like them. They should behave as if they are the popular kid. Getting into social interactions expecting the worst, as many socially anxious people do, tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.” In another example of change, “people were able to become more extroverted or conscientious in four months just by listing the ways they’d like to change and what steps they would take to get there,” according to the NYT article. If one wants to be more outgoing, one can make a list of upcoming events in which to interact or persons to call for lunches, and after enough such efforts, the act becomes natural.

It can help in this transformation to see a therapist, research recommends. One such example described a person with neuroticism, “a trait responsible for anxiety and rumination.” After a short burst of therapy, in which the “warm, comforting presence” of a therapist encouraged the idea that the client is a valued person, neuroticism receded, and the studies showed the effect lasted for at least a year.

But not everyone can afford a therapist. Mirjam Stieger, a postdoctoral researcher at Brandeis University, and her colleagues developed an app that “reminded people to perform small tasks to help tweak their personalities, like “talk to a stranger when you go grocery shopping,” to prompt extroversion. The app then asks them if they had done that. According to the study, after three months, the change had stuck.

Agreeableness, by the way, involves “greater empathy and concern for others.” And so, being agreeable after this pandemic could mean being gentler toward one another. We now know, for example, how much essential workers sacrificed during the pandemic, many even their lives. That would suggest greater kindness and patience toward someone who, during the pre-pandemic, might just have been dismissed as annoying. We don’t know what exactly has been that person’s recent experience. At least that can be a conscious thought to modify behavior in what otherwise might have been a contentious situation.

For those who wish to change or live differently, as the NYT article says, “your personality is more like a sand dune than a stone.”

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The Dyett Sand-Lime Brick Factory is shown along the west shore of Port Jefferson Harbor at the former site of California Grove and Pavilion. Above photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

The Port Jefferson Post Office Building, now the Regency condominiums at 202 Main Street, was unlike any other structure in the village’s downtown.

The Dyett Sand-Lime Brick Factory is shown along the west shore of Port Jefferson Harbor at the former site of California Grove and Pavilion. Above photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

Completed in 1911 and remodeled over the years, the former Post Office Building was constructed of sand-lime brick, rather than common clay brick.

Prized for its natural white color, strength and durability, the attractive sand-lime brick was manufactured nearby at the Dyett Sand-Lime Brick Company.

The corporation was named for its founder, James H. Dyett (1864-1944), who served as the firm’s general manager and had invented a machine for pressing bricks.

In 1908, the company purchased acreage in Bay View Park on the west side of Port Jefferson Harbor and started building its factory.

Located at the former site of California Grove and Pavilion at the foot of Washington Street in today’s Poquott, the property was considered ideal for Dyett’s operations.

To make a sand-lime brick, a mixture of silica sand and hydrated lime is moistened, molded into the desired shape and cured under high pressure steam.

The abundant deposits of the superior quality sand found in and about Port Jefferson provided Dyett with a near inexhaustible supply of the main raw material needed at its plant. In addition, the company’s factory was located directly on Port Jefferson Harbor, enabling Dyett to ship its heavy pallets of brick by barge to waiting markets, easily and cheaply.

Despite this rosy picture, the corporation became embroiled in a fight with Brookhaven Town, which sought to dispossess an intrusive Dyett from unlawfully operating on a portion of the beach fronting the company’s property.

In 1912, the Supreme Court, Suffolk County Special Term, affirmed Brookhaven Town’s title to the land in dispute. The corporation considered its options, but an appeal was never pursued so the decision of the court stood.

The Port Jefferson Post Office Building, now the Regency condominiums, is pictured at 202 Main Street. The building was constructed of attractive sand-lime brick, prized for its natural white color, strength and durability. Photo by Arthur S. Greene; Photo from Kenneth C. Brady Digital Archive

Dyett’s honeymoon on the harbor over, the brick company was sold in 1914 to John A. Gibson of Far Rockaway, New York. The following year, Dyett opened a sand-lime plant in New Orleans, Louisiana.

During World War I, the former Dyett complex was taken over by O’Connor-Bennett and the Union Ship and Dock Company, which built four wooden coal barges for the United States Navy before moving the yard’s operations to Flushing, New York. 

Beginning in 1921, scows were moored and maintained at the old Dyett dock, which had been leased by the Great Eastern Gravel Corporation.

Alarmed by the growing industrialization of their community, the residents of Bay View Park formed an association in 1927 and voted to buy what was once the site of Dyett’s sand-lime brick factory, thus “forestalling the further encroachment of commercial interests.” The property was later purchased by the Incorporated Village of Poquott and is known today as “California Park.”

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Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Michael Kessler embrace at a press conference on April 19. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan

By Iryna Shkurhan

Advocates, lawmakers, developers and tenants gathered at ELIJA Farm in South Huntington on Monday morning to announce new inclusive housing opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) reported that an additional $10 million in funding will go to the development of 10 new housing units in Riverhead through the county’s inclusive housing pilot program.

“We’ve now funded more inclusive housing units in Suffolk County than we have seen in the state,” Bellone said. 

He first announced a pilot program in 2019 to fund projects designed to meet the regional need to develop new housing opportunities. After a successful trial run that saw a necessary demand, the program will now be permanent. A sum of $2.5 million dollars will be allocated every year for the next four years to fund inclusive housing projects for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

The announcement came during Autism Acceptance Month, which Debora Thivierge, executive director and founder of The ELIJA Foundation, called “Autism Action Month.” It also falls under Fair Housing Month, celebrated every April. 

Thivierge founded ELIJA Farm as a nonprofit project in 2016. The farm’s Community Supported Agriculture program offers methodical opportunities for diverse populations and integrates members into the life and community of the farm. 

“For us its original purpose was to empower Long Island’s journey through autism and today couldn’t be a more significant day to kind of mark that mission,” Thivierge said at a press conference in Huntington last week. 

According to the New York Housing Resource Center, there are more than 25,000 adults in Suffolk County with intellectual or developmental disabilities and 63% of them live with family caregivers. Of those caregivers, 25% are over the age of 60.

Ten units in Riverhead were completed earlier this year and are now fully occupied by individuals eligible to receive services through the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. 

Gateway Plaza, developed by G2D Group, was bought as a 64-unit apartment building in Huntington Station. Part of those units will be devoted to people on the autism spectrum. 

It is the only apartment building in Huntington with a doorman and its ground floor has about 14,000 feet of commercial space.

“We’re doing everything we can so that all the individuals in our community and across our country have the opportunity to live their best lives, to reach their full potential and that they have equal opportunity to do so,” Bellone said.

Developers believe that the quality of life will be much better for these individuals if they live in an accessible and walkable area of town. With opportunities even on the first floor, residents will be exposed to integration efforts as opposed to living in a remote place and being isolated from their community. 

Jason Harris, 22-year-old son of Thivierge and self-advocate moved to one of the Huntington units in February. 

“It’s been the greatest experience I’ve had so far, and it feels like I have my independence,” he said. “But I’m not feeling alone.”

The ground floor will have a cafe and office space where residents will have an opportunity to work and be integrated in the community as well as the commercial side of Gateway Plaza. 

“This is a game changer for people with autism, and intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Patricia Calandra, master housing navigator at the New York Housing Resource Center. “We are so grateful to be able to start this bigger, better model of acceptance and inclusion for our loved ones in the local community.”

Calandra is the mother of Joey and Jenna, who are both on the autism spectrum, and have lived independently in a community apartment complex in Coram for the last four years. 

She mentioned all the ways her adult children have gained independence and a sense of community from living alone, despite their disabilities. They’ve built relationships with neighbors, taken on work opportunities in the community, and gained the confidence to get out of their comfort zone and venture out on their own, she said. 

“Autism Awareness Month is now Autism Acceptance Month,” Thivierge added. “And ELIJA really feels that it’s ‘Autism Action Month’ because we have to start doing things that are really going to make change.”

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Photo from PJCC

It’s time to spice things up! The Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon cutting for The Spice & Tea Exchange on April 15. New owners Rose and Robert Rodriguez received proclamations from Legislator Kara Hahn and Brookhaven Town Councilman Jonathan Kornreich who wished them well in their new venture.

Located at 22 Chandler Square, 106 West Broadway, in the village, the franchise offers 140 spices, 85 exclusive hand-mixed blends, over 40 exotic teas, naturally-flavored sugars, salts, gourmet gifts and accessories and a tea bar serving dozens of hot and iced teas.

Pictured in the front row, from left, chamber directors Rose and Robert Rodriguez and Suzanne Velazquez; owners Vinny and Loretta Criscuoli; and chamber president Joy Pipe; back row, Kelly Mayhew from The Spice & Tea Exchange’s corporate offices.

The shop is open Monday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Curbside pickup is available. For more information, call 631-828-4445 or visit www.spiceandtea.com/port-jefferson.

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A look inside the new Sue La La Couture on E Main Street. Photo by Julianne Mosher

Originally located at 1506 Main Street in Upper Port, Sue La La Couture decided to move down to E Main Street for a new opportunity.

Although the East Main location is a bit smaller, owner Sue Gence said the new space will give her more exposure and have a different atmosphere than her former spot.

“I was waiting for uptown to change,” she said. “But after four years, nothing was done and my landlord was selling the building.”

Gence said she had the opportunity to stay at the old store, but she took it as a sign for her to make a change, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I was closed for nine months,” she said. “I survived somehow.”

Known for selling dresses for prom, Sweet 16s, homecoming, flower girls, bridesmaids and mothers of the brides, the pandemic hit her business since all of those events were cancelled.

But Gence is feeling hopeful now that the vaccines are here and things are beginning to open back up.

“I feel like everybody wants to get out of the house and wants to celebrate something,” she said. “This season is actually really, really, really busy — especially down here.”

The old Sue La La Couture closed on Dec. 31 and reopened next to the former Max & Millie storefront in mid-January. 

Gence, a Rocky Point resident, said she opened the store when she was just 33 because she loved glitter and making other women feel beautiful. 

“Eventually I want to design my own clothes and create my own brand,” she said. 

Sue La La Couture is open five days a week — closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — by appointment only.

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Photo from the county executive

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) announced at a press conference on April 22 at Lake Ronkonkoma a $100 million in funding to eliminate outdated cesspools and septic systems identified by scientists as the primary source of excess nutrients that have fouled local bays, contributing to harmful algae blooms, beach closures and fish kills.

The funding from a combination of federal, state and county sources, will be used to complete long-awaited sewer projects along south shore river corridors, and to boost funding for the landmark county program that provides grants to homeowners who choose to upgrade to new nitrogen reducing septic systems.

“With the help and support of our colleagues in state government, the business and environmental communities, and our friends in the building trades and organized labor, Suffolk County has made more progress over the past five years than had been made in the prior four decades in efforts to address the lack of wastewater infrastructure that has harmed water quality and been a drag on our economy,” Bellone said. “This new investment will allow us to take significant next steps in implementing a long term plan to improve water quality.”

Under the funding plan, a total of $30 million in funding would be invested in the County’s grant program for homeowners, including $10 million recently awarded by the State Septic System Replacement Fund, and $20 million from the County’s Drinking Water Protection Program.

An additional $70 million would be invested to complete two long awaited sewer projects along south shore river corridors that comprise the Suffolk County Coastal Resiliency Initiative, which will eliminate nearly 6,000 cesspools and septic systems by connecting parcels to sewers.

The new funding includes $24 million from a county reserve fund to connect homes in Sewer District #3 Southwest to the existing sewer system, and $46 million from the county’s allocation under the $1.9 trillion American Recovery Plan to address the increased cost of projects to connect parcels along the Carlls River (Babylon) and Forge River (Brookhaven). 

The sewer projects are being funded primarily with Post-Sandy resiliency funding, but constructions bids received during the COVID pandemic were significantly higher than pre-bid construction estimates.

Bellone thanked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) for making sure that the American Rescue Plan funding can be used for sewer infrastructure. “We are hopeful that there will be a separate federal infrastructure bill, but the timetable for Congress to act is not clear yet, and these historic sewer projects are ready to begin now,”  he added.. “Thanks to the leadership of Senator Schumer, the County has the ability to use a portion of its ARP funds to address the cost increases driven in large part by the uncertainties of the COVID pandemic.”

Suffolk County’s Septic Improvement Program, the first of its kind, was established in 2017 and provides grants of up to $30,000 in State and County funding to homeowners who choose to replace their existing non-performing cesspool or septic system with a new Innovative/Alternative Onsite Wastewater Treatment System.

The program was recognized earlier this month by New York State as the winner of an Environmental Excellence Award, and has twice been awarded 70% of a $15 million statewide allocation of funding from the New York State Septic System Replacement Program.

To date, more than 2,300 homeowners have applied for grants under the program. County funding for the program was originally established at $2 million per year, but increasing interest on the part of the public prompted the County Legislature to approve $3.7 million in additional water quality funding last July because the pace of applications exceeded the amount of funding available.

 “The high level of interest in the program, even during the COVID 19 pandemic, shows just how strongly the people of Suffolk County feel about the need to improve water quality,” Bellone said. “This additional funding will help make sure that the amount of grant funding keeps pace with the number of applications we are receiving.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer added, “I worked hard to deliver over $10.8 billion in aid directly to New York’s counties, towns, and villages as part of the American Rescue Plan, in addition to the $300 million I secured for this project after Sandy. I’m glad to see County Executive Bellone use a portion of this aid to help fill the funding gap and advance these long-awaited sewer infrastructure improvements. These projects are vital to the health and well-being of Suffolk residents, and are essential to improving the quality of life in the county for years to come.”

John Cameron, Chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council said that water is the life blood of Long Island.

“County Executive Bellone’s initiatives protect our sole source aquifer-the drinking water supply for more than 2.8 million Long Islanders,” he said. “These investments will also help reverse the negative impacts that nitrogen pollution has had on coastal wetlands, coastal resiliency and the overall quality of life in Suffolk County and all of Long Island. They will additionally create numerous economic development opportunities by strengthening our downtowns, increasing tourism and recreation.”

Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment added that the announcement brings Long Islanders closer than ever to restoring clean water in Suffolk County.

“Year after year, we witness water quality impairments and harmful algal blooms from nitrogen pollution plaguing nearly every bay, lake, river and estuary in our county. However, we are now seeing growing success of the county’s program to combat nitrogen pollution from sewage and replace these antiquated septic systems,” she said. “This infusing of critical funding will ensure we are well on our way to once again seeing healthy waterways and productive ecosystems throughout Suffolk County.  We applaud our county and state leaders for working to add funding for this crucial clean water program and we cannot think of a better Earth Day present!”

 

 

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Councilman Jonathan Kornreich

Please join Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich for a Special Recycling Event this Saturday, April 24th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Terryville Fire Department, 19 Jayne Blvd, Port Jefferson Station. Residents can recycle electronic waste, safely dispose of medication, and shred sensitive documents.

E-Waste Collection Recycle your old electronics. Please do not bring carbon monoxide/smoke detectors, light bulbs or batteries.

Paper Shredding  Please remove any rubber bands, binders, clips and any hard covers.

Shed the Meds! Dispose of your pills and prescriptions. They will be safely and securely collected by the local Sheriff’s Department.

*This event is for Town of Brookhaven residents only.

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The Heritage Park Smiley Face. Photo from Fred Drewes

The daffodil Smiley Face on the north end of Heritage Park in Mount Sinai needs some freshening up. 

Located as drivers head east on Route 25A, the face has been there since volunteers of the Heritage Trust planted 2,500 daffodil bulbs on Oct. 12, 2012.

In spring 2013, the daffodils burst through the grass and began to form a smiley face.

Blooms of different varieties of daffodils started to bloom and young and old smiled when visiting the daffodils on the knoll. 

But then the blooming smiley face began to suffer.

Children wanted to pluck a flower and give it to a parent, or hold it for five minutes then cast the bloom aside. Running in and out and around the face was fun, but the plants were trampled. People would rip the blooms out to make their own bouquets.

All of this has resulted in a smiley face who looks somewhat sad looking. 

These acts have decreased the numbers of daffodils in the smiley face of Heritage Park.

The group is looking for a new set of community volunteers will plant new daffodils to heal the smiley face. 

If anyone has faded potted daffodils you could simply transplant them to the spot. 

Planting new bulbs in the fall would involve more planning and some sort of mapping where new bulbs are needed. 

If anyone wants to help the smiley face, they can contact the Heritage Trust.

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Stock photo

By Leah Chiappino

With vaccination eligibility opening up, and supply increasing week by week, it has become easier to get a vaccine appointment. Still, some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers — the homebound residents — have been struggling to gain access to vaccines.

Port Jefferson EMS, which serves Port Jefferson, Belle Terre and Mount Sinai, announced April 8 it would offer homebound residents the opportunity to book at-home appointments in the coming weeks. 

However, PJEMS had to cancel all of the appointments when supplies were not received. The department’s deputy chief, Michael Presta, said PJEMS was approved by the New York State Department of Health a little over a month ago to be a vaccine distribution center, meaning they could set up pods and give vaccinations on-site. 

They were also approved to distribute in-home vaccines through the state Community Paramedicine Vaccination Program. But despite requesting doses once a week, they have yet to receive any doses. 

As they already set up the equipment, vehicles and staffing necessary for the at-home program, Presta said PJEMS reached out to the county to see if it could help. He said he was initially told the county was willing to allocate doses but has since been informed the department will need to get their doses from the state. 

In an email to Presta obtained by TBR dated April 12, Dr. Jason Winslow, director of EMS and Public Health Emergency Preparedness of Suffolk County, wrote that the county was not permitted to redistribute the doses it received from New York State.  

“The office of Suffolk County EMS has no involvement in the vaccination events other than to provide any EMS support the county requires,” the email read. Winslow suggested EMS providers join the county Medical Reserve Corps, and volunteer to give the vaccine at Suffolk vaccination pods.

The Town of Huntington was coordinating with several partners, such as the Visiting Nurse Service, to offer vaccines to residents, according to Lauren Lembo, the town’s public information officer. 

When New York State ceased using the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the 24 appointments the town had scheduled were canceled. The town was also in talks with the Health Equity Task Force of Suffolk County to coordinate with Northwell Health to have homebound appointments, which also did not come to fruition due to the Johnson & Johnson temporary pause. 

County spokeswoman, Marykate Guilfoyle, said the county vaccinated 198 homebound people before the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was put on hold. The county is waiting to see if this vaccine will be resumed before making a determination as to the next steps of the program. Appointments were made by residents who called the 311 hotline number, Guilfoyle said.

The Town of Smithtown has had similar struggles. They are looking into collaborating with St. Catherine of Siena Hospital to vaccinate the homebound, though they would likely only be able to vaccinate 10-to-20 people per week, and would only offer the program monthly due to the logistical challenges it poses. 

Smithtown public information officer, Nicole Garguilo, said that refrigeration requirements for certain vaccines, as well as the 15-minute time constraints for having to observe residents after they are vaccinated, make the feasibility of the program challenging. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, vaccines should not be unrefrigerated for more than eight hours. 

In Nassau County, a vaccination program was launched in order to provide vaccinations to homebound seniors. That, too, was put on hold after the temporary pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

In New York City, a program was launched at the beginning of March using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and was suspended. The city is now continuing with the Moderna vaccine.

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