Brookhaven intends on completing the North Country Road repaving, having recently come close to finishing a section in Miller Place. Photo by Kyle Barr
The Town of Brookhaven has come close tofinishing a single section of a much larger project along North Country Road.
This past weekend, Brookhaven finished paving and painting the lines along North Country Road in Miller Place from Honey Lane to the Miller Place Duck Pond, over to the entrance to the Laddie A. Decker School on Lower Rocky Point Road. The new resurfacing includes fixing the drainage along the side of the road and the installation of sidewalk and curbing. The new road and sidewalks pass in front of several area staples like the Town & Country Market, McNulty’s Ice Cream Parlor and the William Miller House.
According to the town Highway Department and Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro (R), the North Country Road Highway project is actually a combination of three separate capital improvement projects.
The New York State Department of Transportation grant received by the Highway Department funded 60% of the “complete streets” portion of this project, which is the new paving in Miller Place. The contractor responsible for this section of the project should complete their work within the next few weeks. This part of the project came now in order to finish before schools reopened in September.
The second section of this project was the sidewalk and curb installation on North Country Road that was completed in 2019 from the entrance to the Laddie Decker School to Echo Avenue. The Highway Department resurfaced that section of North Country Road Aug. 6.
The final section of this project is North Country Road from Washington Avenue to Route 25A in Sound Beach. Highway crews are completing the preparation work on this stretch of road this week, with the milling and resurfacing of this section to be completed within the next few weeks.
The Brookhaven Highway Department has included in its 2021 budget request to install a significant amount of drainage infrastructure on North Country Road from Pipe Stave Hollow Road to Honey Lane to remove the water from the roadway. Once the drainage work is complete, that final section of roadway will be resurfaced.
This will complete the paving of North Country Road from the Village of Port Jefferson border to Route 25A at the Rocky Point/Miller Place border.
In July, the town announced the finalized resurfacing of Lower Rocky Point Road from Woodhull Landing Road to Rocky Point Landing Road, as well as Hagerman Landing Road. The town is also currently active milling 37 roadways all over Sound Beach. Once milling is complete at a near future date, weather permitting, all roads will be resurfaced.
Final details about the North Country Road project, including the total cost, grant funding and photos will be available when the project comes to completion in the next few months.
Port Jeff Bowl came back online Aug. 17 and is already planning multiple leagues. Photo by Kyle Barr
By Liam Cooper
Port Jeff Bowl is ready to see people inside hunting for strikes once again after a long hiatus.
Starting Aug. 17, bowling alleys all throughout New York were allowed to open at 50% their normal capacity. Port Jeff Bowl is now open at 50%.
The bowling alley has strict guidelines to follow in accordance with New York’s COVID-19 response plan. All patrons must wear masks at all times within the bowling alley and musttry to stay as socially distant as possible, as well.
“People have been coming in at a slower rate, so it’s easier to socially distance,” said Bob Suchan, the general manager at Port Jeff Bowl. “We put people in every other lane or further apart.”
As well as the bowling lanes, the vending machines, games, and snack bar are also open.
Before COVID, bowlers could come up to the snack bar to order food. Now, however, they must wait at their lanes and have a waiter or waitress come take their orders.
“People have to be served at the lanes,” Suchan said.
To remain safe, every bowling ball, shoe, vending machine, and game are sanitized. All balls are kept behind closed doors to better protect and sanitize them.
“Everything gets sanitized after every use,” Suchan said. “Any touchable surface is sanitized.”
The alley is also looking forward to restarting a few leagues, with competitive, mixed, ladies and kids leagues all starting in September. Port Jeff Bowl has published a list of league dates and times to its Facebook page.
Bowling alleys are just one form of recreational activity reopening in New York. Monday, Aug. 24 marked the day when city museums, aquariums, and other low-risk indoor cultural arts were able to reopen at 25% capacity.
Andi Fortier and James Burke have, in only a few months, built a farm from scratch. Photo by Kyle Barr
Boots squelching in the morning dew of the roughly shorn grass in East Hampton, James Burke and Andie Fortier together know they have a long day ahead of them.
James Burke prunes a grouping of sunflowers. Photo by Kyle Barr
In the land known for its mansions and rich flavoring from Southampton to Montauk, nothing comes easy to those who work the land. The farmers, both just 23 years old, have many vegetables to grow, their winter squash, the hot peppers, watermelons and many others in the small plot of land behind the restaurant they work for. After working a full day there, it’s over to another patch of land they farm in Amagansett where they grow produce for their stand at the Port Jefferson Farmers Market. They will be working from early morning until the sun kisses the horizon, but they will return to their small Amagansett apartment proud of what they’ve done, because everything they have, has been built with their own hands.
The pair effectively operate two small farms far out on the South Fork. One provides the food for a multitude of local restaurants, the other is for all their produce sold at the PJ Farmers Market, where they hold their stand as Sand and Soil Farm.
To them, nurturing things, whether it’s any one plant or an entire garden and farm, is only natural.
“It’s really satisfying to see something from start to finish, from when you put a seed in the ground then take care of it and harvest from it — watching things come full circle,” Fortier said.
Burke said he relishes watching the way customers react to their food. At their farmers market stand, customers come and say what they used the farm’s produce for. Others look for something they haven’t cooked with before, then they come back the following week and “they’re hooked on it,” Burke said.
Getting Hooked on Produce
Starting a farm at a young age is certainly not common, especially for two people whose families have no recent history or experience with extensive agriculture.
The pair are both 2015 graduates of Port Jefferson high school, though it would have been hard for either of them to say five years later they would find themselves knees in the dirt and their hands in the earth.
Andie Fortier and James Burke stand with their boss talking about what comes next for the garden in East Hampton. Photo by Kyle Barr
In high school, Burke was engendered to environmental issues. Later, when attending Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he started working at an urban farm, which helped grow local products in the so-called food deserts, or the places in poorer urban areas that have no local access to a supermarket or any kind of fresh food. Coming back to Long Island, he knew that’s something he would want to continue but on a larger scale.
Fortier, like her father Andrew, was interested in music but did enjoy working with her father outside in his carpentry business. After graduating with Burke in 2015 she went to The New School in New York City to study theater. Missing wide open spaces and looking to find work she could really enjoy, she returned to Long Island and “fell into” the agriculture industry more on the education and market side of things. Gradually, she grew to love the farmer’s life.
“If you had asked me in high school if James and I would own a farm together, I would have said, ‘What are you talking about?’” she said.
The two worked at Amber Waves Farm Market & Kitchen in Amagansett for just a few years when in 2019 the owners of the Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton asked for somebody to clean up the establishment’s backyard garden. The person who previously worked that patch of land up and left one day without a word, and over months the half an acre became overgrown with weeds that reached up to chest height.
“It was kind of a blank canvas, so we just started seeding,” Fortier said. “It’s just grown and grown over the past couple of months.”
Practically by themselves, Fortier and Burke transformed it into a thriving garden, adding more onto it since they started handling it full time last September.
So much has been built by hand. Using excess wood found in a pile on the property, the pair built a 10-foot wide toolshed. Elsewhere in the garden, they found old half-moon metal rails buried in the weeds, and taking those they constructed their own greenhouse. The only items of those two projects they purchased was the roof for the shed and the canvas for the greenhouse.
During the winter months, especially at the edge of March during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two had to keep seedlings warm in the greenhouse though they lacked a space heater. That’s when the pair started to get innovative, where they buried crockpots in the ground to keep the seeds warm at 75 degrees before being taken out in the mornings to receive light.
“We had to work with what we got,” Burke said. “We had to get creative.”
Growing Something New
The work was enough to keep anybody busy, but the pair wanted something more, something they could call their own. Working with the Peconic Land Trust’s Farms for the Future Initiative, a program that aims to protect land that could be potentially developed and keep it for agriculture, they hit the books, literally. The PJ natives trawled through pages at the local library along with online articles about how they would set everything up — from creating a business plan, to figuring out how many seeds they would need to buy, to what equipment they would need at the start. In Amagansett, they managed to procure a 1-acre plot of land, a piece of a larger property owned by the Peconic Land Trust where portions are run by a number of other small-scale farmers. They moved in this March.
Andie Fortier and James Burke at the garden they practically hand built in East Hampton. Photo by Kyle Barr
Through a winding dirt road cutting through fields, Fortier’s well-used van bounces along the uneven path until they reach their little patch of dirt in the northwest corner of the property, a place bursting with sunflowers, tomatoes, Malabar spinach and daikon radishes.
They didn’t have anything to start. They didn’t have a tractor or any heavy machinery to speak of, knowing that would be the biggest expense for any farm starting out. When plants needed water, they filled up a giant tub at home, stuck it in the back of a trailer and lugged the gallons down to the parched land in the spring and early summer when there was very little rain. So much of the heavy lifting was done by hand, and it was especially hard at first digging in each trough and seeding every ridge. The young farmers finally got an irrigation system going in early July, but they had to come up with solutions on the fly, like netting around the tomatoes to protect them from crows.
The families of the PJ natives have also noticed just how much the two care for their new farm. The Burkes and Fortiers often come out on Saturday to help with harvest and packing, getting everything loaded into vehicles so the two can set up their stand at the Port Jefferson Farmers Market on Sundays. During the pandemic, such escapades to the pastoral landscape were especially nice getaways for the families being stuck quarantined in their homes.
Burke’s sister Kyleen Burke said in an email that she was amazed, too, at the innovative means through which the pair have created so much from so little.
“I don’t think anyone is surprised that James has made his own way, but it is still amazing to see what he and Andie have been able to do and how quickly they have made the farm grow,” she said.
Now with summer starting to wrap up, the verdant field and garden are now what they have to show for their work. When they speak of their bounty, it’s with a sort of reverence one could reserve for one’s children. The two have even sectioned off a small part of their apartment where they keep vegetables in with the air conditioning on to help them avoid the oppressive heat of the late summer. They are still working out the logistics of owning a walk-in cooler.
“It doesn’t feel like work a lot of the time,” Fortier said. “It’s a real start of life now, sleeping next to the tomatoes.”
University Says Students Who Violated Housing Health Policy Given Housing Suspension Pending Review
Maurie McInnis was named SBU's sixth president. Photo from SBU
Stony Brook University will not let the actions of some students derail the on-campus living and learning experience for the majority.
This past weekend, days before the start of an unusual fall semester Aug. 24 amid ongoing concerns about the pandemic, the university found a “small number of violations” of the university’s COVID-19 health policy. Several students have been put on interim housing suspension for violations pending the conclusion of a conduct case, Maurie McInnis, who became the sixth president of SBU in July, said in an interview. The students in question have not been suspended from their academic studies.
McInnis said the school would suspend other students “if that is necessary.” She added that it is “very important that we give the students who are acting responsibly the opportunity for the in-person residential experience that they are working hard to protect.”
The school’s disciplinary actions follow similar measures taken by other universities such as Syracuse University and the University of Connecticut, which are trying to provide students with an opportunity to benefit from an on-campus experience while protecting faculty, staff and students from the spread of COVID-19.
McInnis added she appreciated the chance to be a part of the excitement that comes from the first day of what is likely to be one of the most challenging in the school’s 63-year history.
“It feels so great to have students back on our campus,” she said. “While, yes, it is under circumstances that are different than we’re used to, the same energy and excitement is there.”
The new university president said she enjoyed meeting students and their families as they moved onto the campus prior to the first day of classes.
The new president, who is a cultural historian and author of “Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade,” said she feels confident in the school’s ability to navigate through the challenges of on-campus living and learning.
Students “understand that the way we are all going to have a great semester” is to act “personally responsible, wearing our masks and being socially distant,” she said.
SBU has created a dashboard that will track the number of tests the school is conducting on campus and the number of positive cases, if there are any. So far, the school has only had negative tests.
The dashboard is available at: www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/irpe/covid-19.phpleadership. It shows that the hour in the week in which the number of students registered for in-person classes is the highest is Tuesday, between 11 a.m. and noon, when 2,721 students were registered for in-person classes. In that same hour in the fall of 2019, 13,836 students took in-person classes.
The university will monitor its dashboard closely and will alter its policies as necessary to protect the campus community.
McInnis said the school was preparing for a possible second wave of the pandemic in the fall, as well as the possibility of the coincident timing of an outbreak of the flu.
“We are watching and monitoring all that carefully,” she said, which includes having enough personal protective equipment and a plan in place for health care personnel, among other measures.
McInnis said it is “too soon to speculate on” what the university policy might be if and when researchers develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
“As a part of SUNY and a public institution, we would be working with state partners and the [New York] Department of Health in making any sort of decision” about a vaccination for students or faculty, she said.
McInnis, who shared a detailed and open letter with the community and the public about the university’s difficult financial condition, said the budget remains a “fluid situation.” She added that the university “needs to get to work straight away as a community” in an “open and collaborative fashion to bring the best ideas for collaborating and working together better for leveraging opportunities, for efficiencies on our campus” and to develop ways to generate new revenue.
Meanwhile, the university has spent the summer “significantly improving” the quality of the remote and distance learning for students engaged with the online platform, she said.
In addition to being the new university president, McInnis is also a parent of a college-age son. Her son’s school was going entirely nonresidential and remote, so he decided to take a gap year.
At Stony Brook, the total number of students registered is 26,130, which is about 200 fewer than last year, suggesting that deferrals haven’t affected the matriculation rate much this fall.
McInnis said she appreciated the ongoing support of the university and surrounding communities.
“What we have been hearing, again and again, is, ‘How can we help?’” she said. “It is so great as president to be part of the community that clearly has the devotion of so many people.”
This article has been updated Aug. 25 to give more info on the nature of students violations and their interim suspension.
Buttercup’s Dairy has been an area staple for close to a century. Photo by Joan Nickeson
Buttercup’s Dairy, owned by Rich Smith and family, is located at 285 Boyle Road at the corner of Old Town Road. They are a long time loyal member of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce. The bonny red building is the stalwart edifice of the Terryville community. The original 1935 dairy farm established by Smith’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Kroll, extended more than 50 acres. It was engaged in a vigorous regional dairy trade. Local needs led the family to start selling food staples.
Joan Nickeson. File photo
Sitting on several serene acres today, and free of the cattle it was once known for, the interior of Buttercup’s is refurbished. We find a variety of organic eggs, chicken, beef, dairy, nut and soy milks, grocery and health food items, ice, cold cuts, cakes, seasonal chocolate candy specialties, sundries, plus outside we enjoy the benches for eating lunch and the Little Free Library kiosk. It is also adorned with poster sized photographs of what the farm and grounds looked like years ago. Shopping there is a treat. Perhaps you’ve seen their mascot, Speedy Cow, at local chamber of commerce events and fundraisers.
So what happens to business at Buttercup’s, amid a global pandemic? This community known historically as “the land of steady habits” and “the place where many paths meet” could only be thus: “This community has been great,“ Rich Smith said.
Physical adjustments made inside protect everyone, meet U.S. Centers for Disease Control and New York State guidelines, and are met with appreciation by customers. The call-in order system for cold cuts is working well; no congregating on either side of the deli case, which keeps staff and patrons safe. It is easy to stop in for fast service. Swing by to pick up dinner with local zucchini and tomatoes and a whole fresh watermelon or a pie for dessert 631-928-4607
Joan Nickeson is an active member of the PJS/Terryville community and community liaison to the PJS/T Chamber of Commerce.
A surprised rooster finds itself abandoned in the Heritage Park playground. Photo by Floridia
Four roosters, two adults and two young, were found abandoned in the Heritage Park playground Aug. 21. Town workers, police and animal rescue groups responded to take the animals away and give them sanctuary outside the town.
A Brookhaven town worker holds a fence up as animal rescuer Frankie Floridia takes them away. Photo from Floridia
Visitors to Heritage Park reported on social media finding the roosters Friday morning. Suffolk County Police were notified, and upon calling the North Shore-based Strong Island Rescue League around 10 a.m. a town worker was able to corral the animals into a corner of the playground while Frankie Floridia, the president of Strong Island, picked them up to put them in cages and transport them away.
Floridia said the animals will either go to an animal sanctuary, or to families who wish to take care of them in townships where it is legal to own roosters.
The animal rescuer said there is a major issue in the Town of Brookhaven with people illegally abandoning animals such as domestic ducks in local ponds, but especially roosters. Mail order chickens have become an increasingly popular business, though some do not specify whether the chickens are male or female. The animal rescuer said they have come to calls for several abandoned roosters in Brookhaven over the past few years.
“What the people do, rather than get a fine is they go ahead and dump them,” Florida said. “The problem is dumping them, they can’t survive on their own in the wild. They are easy prey for predators, they get hit by cars, they have no food source. It’s a slow torturous death for them.”
Some online questioned whether the animals were runaways from the small farm just around the corner from The Wedge, aka Heritage Park. The roosters indeed did not come from Niegocki Farms, off of Mount Sinai Coram Road, but that small little taste of agriculture life on the North Shore has had major issues with people dumping chickens onto their property.
Tricia Niegocki, of Niegocki Farms, said that they have had six occasions in the past few years where they found roosters dumped on their property. This includes an incident where an unknown individual dumped 26 hens over their fence “in the dead heat of summer” of about 95 degrees.
“Anyone who knows us knows if it’s in our capabilities to be able to take hens off someone’s hands or help where we can,” Niegocki said. “By dumping them it was a three day ordeal in trying to catch them and pen them up in a pen we had to rush to get ready for them.”
Though the farm is often asked personally to look after chickens, especially roosters, another major issue with dumping roosters is the risk of disease spreading amongst a flock. This is especially concerning for a farm, which depends on those chickens as part of their livelihood, though leaving them to fend for themselves would only invite
The farmer said the town code is partly to blame for the number of people who abandon these animals.
“A person’s dog can bark all day and night but a rooster is unacceptable? She said. “I think the laws need to change to be more accommodating. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, having the ability to feed your family is very important and chickens provide not only eggs but also a source of meat.”
Strong Island Animal Rescue can be contacted at [email protected] or through their Facebook page.
Brookhaven Councilwoman Valerie Cartright, right. File photo by Elana Glowatz
By George Hoffman
George Hoffman
With the likely election of Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station) to the New York State Supreme Court as a justice in the 10th District this November, it will mean that residents of Council District 1 will be choosing a new town councilperson at the beginning of next year.
Before prospective candidates come forward, I thought it might be worthwhile to suggest a list of attributes that our next councilperson should possess.
1. Be active in community affairs.
Our new councilperson should be someone who is involved in the local community. Council District 1 has numerous and active community organizations from civic groups, historical societies, chambers of commerce, volunteer fire and rescue companies, youth athletic leagues and school and library boards.
Having a background in local civic affairs means that our new councilperson knows who the community leaders are and what’s important to the community.
2. Have a nonpartisan attitude.
Our new councilperson should be someone who builds relationships with the others rather than stirs up partisan conflict. Town government deals mostly with the delivery of services like garbage pickup, road repair, snow removal, maintaining the parks and town facilities. Most issues of the Town Board are nonpolitical and should not be used for scoring partisan points. New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia famously said, “There is no Democratic or Republican way to pick up garbage.”
3. Makes friends not waves.
Though we are currently living in very partisan times, Americans continually tell pollsters that they want their elected officials to work together rather than fight amongst themselves and get nothing done. Our next councilperson should leave their party registration at the door of town hall and build relationships with their colleagues on the board and in town government to make our town a better place.
4. Understand the importance of our history, harbors and open spaces.
The Town of Brookhaven was first established on the shores of Setauket Harbor, 365 years ago. The people who live here are coastal people and want their leaders to protect this legacy. They also are proud of the role our ancestors played in early American history, helping Gen. George Washington and his armies overcome the British forces. Protecting the historic Washington Spy Trail, what we now call NYS Route 25A, is central to that history.
5. Be fiscally prudent.
Though some in our area are very well off financially, most of us are holding our own in an area that has a very high cost of living. Our next councilperson needs a sense of prudence when deciding how much town government can spend in providing necessary services to its residents. Now with the challenge of dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, town government will have to restructure itself and learn to do more with less. Something much easier said than done. Our next councilperson will need a sense of balance in making tough fiscal choices in the next budget process.
But more importantly, our next councilperson needs to care about our town and community, and always put their interests ahead of party and self.
George Hoffman is active in civic affairs and currently serves as vice president of the Three Village Civic Association and is one of the founders of Setauket Harbor Task Force. He recently was co-chair of the Town of Brookhaven Citizens Advisory Committee for the Route 25A corridor. Hoffman has worked as a chief of staff in three of Suffolk’s biggest towns and served as a district director for a local congressman.
TBR News Media invites community members to submit their thoughts on what qualities they believe the next councilperson should possess. Submissions can be emailed to [email protected].
A large tree in front of Emma S. Clark Memorial Library was no match for Hurricane Isaias. Photo by Pam Botway
Politicians with long memories and short fuses demanded answers from PSEG and LIPA for the communications problems and the slow restoration of power after Tropical Storm Isaias, even as they lamented how this wasn’t supposed to happen again after the long recovery from Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
State Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D) said LIPA and PSEG were inconsiderate with their spoiled food policy. Photo by Kyle Barr
In a full-day hearing of the combined New York State Assembly and Senate, local politicians including Assemblymen Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and Doug Smith (R-Holbrook) and Senators James Gaughran (D) and Todd Kaminsky (D-Rockville Center) questioned everyone from the chairman of the Public Service Commission, John Rhodes, to the President of PSEG Long Island, Daniel Eichhorn, and the CEO of LIPA, Thomas Falcone.
“We were told after Superstorm Sandy that things would change, but they did not,” Kaminsky said. “Why do we pay some of the highest electric and internet bills in the country when we couldn’t reach a provider, when the information we got was inaccurate? Why is it so hard to receive a reimbursement? Who is funding those reimbursements?”
Indeed, Rhodes, of the Public Service Commission, said he wanted answers from numerous utilities throughout the state and that the commission was not going to leave “any tool on the table.”
That proved small consolation for politicians and their constituents, some of whom were without power for over a week and many of whom had to throw out the entire contents of their powerless refrigerators and freezers. That is an especially problematic proposition in the aftermath of the pandemic, when budgets are tight and the recession caused by the lockdown has cut jobs in numerous industries.
Englebright questioned why PSEG is reimbursing customers for food spoilage only if their power was out for at least 72 hours. The reimbursed amount totaled $150 if the customers didn’t have receipts and could be as high as $250 if they had receipts, photographs, a canceled check or a credit card bill.
Englebright suggested the timeframe should allow for food spoiled after about 48 hours and wondered why the utilities had not settled on a longer time frame. The Setauket assemblyman wondered whether PSEG believed food “spoils more slowly on Long Island than any other place.”
Eichhorn said the 72 hour threshold defined numerous factors in a storm and “aligns with some of our processes.” The three day time frame “triggers certain things.”
Falcone added that the 72 hours defined a major storm.
“That’s not a health definition,” Englebright countered, but, rather was a “storm definition. That doesn’t necessarily reflect what somebody’s suffering from if their refrigerator is out for perhaps even half of that length of time.”
PSEG’s Eichhorn acknowledged that the company’s response to the storm was “not in line with our expectations.” He said the company is conducting its own reports to figure out what went wrong and to make changes and improvements.
“I’m not here to make excuses,” Eichhorn said. “We own the experience our customers had and we are committed to fixing it.”
Kaminsky asked whether PSEG had tested its system prior to the storm. Eichhorn responded that the company did a simulation in June and that PSEG passed that test.
That passing grade, despite the performance a few months later, will be a focus of PSEG’s own review, as well as a review conducted by LIPA.
“The most relevant stress test was the storm and [the PSEG system] was obviously inadequate,” Falcone said. The systems were “not robust enough” to allow customers to report power failures to PSEG.
On behalf of their constituents, politicians also lamented the shifting timeline for restoring power. In several cases, representatives at the virtual meeting recounted how residents spoke with people in utility trucks or representatives from PSEG who told them their power was on when their constituents were still struggling through the ongoing outage.
In an interview, Gaughran expressed his frustration with the utility arrangement on Long Island, where LIPA oversees PSEG, while the Public Service Commission has no direct authority or recourse.
“The Public Service Commission cannot fine them or sanction them,” Gaughran said. “They’re totally out of the loop.”
Sen. James Gaughran and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory officials at an Aug. 18 press conference. He has called for additional oversight of both LIPA and PSEG Photo from Sen. Gaughran’s office
Reflecting the concerns of his fellow senators and assemblymen and assemblywomen, Gaughran wondered what the utilities would do to protect Long Islanders in the event that another storm, with potentially stronger winds and heavier rain, impacted the region.
Gaughran said he would like to ensure that PSEG and LIPA don’t tap into a storm reserve fund, which is a collection of money set aside with rate payers money.
“The language in that fund is clear: they can’t access that for any part of the cost” from mismanagement or inadequate storm response, Gaughran said. “If you have an out-of-town crew sitting at the side of the road for hours waiting for instructions … those extra costs are costs of incompetence.”
Gaughran introduced a bill that would give the Public Service Commission the authority to investigate and sanction and fine the company and force them to take corrective action.
To prevent this kind of communication failure from happening again, Eichhorn said the company was conducting reviews of its computer system, which includes its outage management system and the telephone and digital experiences.
“We have made interim changes during and since the storm,” Eichhorn said. “We are continuing to do an after-action review to identify additional short and long term changes to ensure we’re ready for the next storm.”
Falcone added that LIPA would “go back and see why the system failed. We are hiring independent people to redo the stress test.”
Assemblyman Smith asked whether PSEG knew that National Grid employees weren’t a part of the storm response crews, even though people with experience were on Long Island.
“National Grid [employees] were not used during the storm,” Eichhorn said. “That will be included in the review.”
Assistant Superintendent Christine Austen broke down PJSD’s new distance learning option for parents. File photo
The Port Jefferson School District is exploring options for a distance learning program after an outcry from multiple parents who were concerned over the spread of COVID-19.
The district received multiple letters and petitions from parents demanding they have an option to have students learn from home instead of participating in either in-person or hybrid learning. Several letters read aloud to the board spoke of fears for elderly family members or people with health risks living in the same home, and the risk their kids may spread the virus if they attend school regularly. Many of these petitions were read at the school board’s Aug. 11 meeting.
According to the district’s survey of parents, 15 percent said they would not return their students to in-person instruction. Of those, 97 percent said they would be interested in a remote learning option.
The district said that parents of 95 students, most of whom were in elementary school, were interested in a remote option.
Of those who were concerned about kids returning, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction Christine Austen said the number one fear was concerns of social isolation.
A number of the options were costly, according to Austen, who said a full school year BOCES online program could cost approximately $1 million if it were supplied to all 95 students. Some parents did indicate they were willing to homeschool their child.
Every child will be granted a Chromebook, whether they are in school or be taking remote learning. Students will have synchronous instruction three days per week, with students in the middle and high school following their in-person schedule period by period. Students will have another two days of asynchronous instruction for assignments or projects or recorded videos. Teachers will be in the physical classroom every day. Students will also have daily check-ins to ensure attendance.
Austen said the plans for elementary students are still tentative, but plans are currently for them to be given about one hour of English and one hour of math in the morning. They will be given some time to meet with teachers before lunch, then later have time for social studies or science lessons. Teachers will host small group instruction for remote students at the end of the day.
The Google learning platform will be standard throughout the district, and teachers have been taking professional development to better use the platform.
Superintendent Jessica Schmettan said the district must work with teachers to conform with what their union contract allows them to do.
“Teachers have worked very hard this summer, a lot of these ideas come from the teachers,” said elementary Principal Tom Meehan. “Some of the ideas were really good, and I have to give them all the credit in the world.”
Still, the district said all plans are tentative, and more comments will be accepted up until the first day of school.
The district hosted meetings for elementary, middle and high schoolers and parents specifically about their kids’ return to schools. All videos are available from the district’s website. School is set to start Sept. 8.
Port Jefferson officials say the village’s new contactless parking kiosks have already shown increased usage in the short time the program has been active.
Port Jeff has been using Honk, a contactless parking payment company, since July 1. The company allows customers to pay for parking in two ways, one by downloading the phone app and the other by tapping their phone or scanning a barcode on a HonkTAP station.
In a release, the app company said that last week, 1,227 people tapped to pay for parking. Kevin Wood, the village’s parking and mobility administrator, said the tap action accounted for 43% of total parking sessions last week as well. Wood added that the amount of growth they’ve seen so far was primarily because an app is not needed to pay.
“The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the need for digitized, touch-free parking payments,” Wood said. “Usage has skyrocketed and our help center has received very positive feedback.”
The technology also allows an option for drivers to receive text reminders when their parking session is set to expire and to add more time to their spot remotely.
“We’re proud to partner with Port Jefferson, and to help provide a safe, welcoming experience for visitor parking,” said Michael Back, Honk President and CEO in a release. “It’s never been more important for tourist destinations like Port Jefferson to offer easy, touch-free parking payments.”
The village sees an average of 250,000 visitor parking sessions a year, and parking in the village’s more than 600 spots has become one of the most hot button issues for the community, both residents and businesses. The village is planning to soon start construction on a new parking lot on Barnum Avenue next to Caroline Avenue to add 44 new spots. That project is expected to cost a total of $814,069, with an existing $300,000 bond, $200,000 grant and $314,069 in parking funds.
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