Times of Huntington-Northport

Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

We are miles, three graduations and almost exactly five years removed from leaving the first house my wife and I bought.

As a close friend prepares to move into the first house he and his wife will own, I started to reflect on the way that first house served as a backdrop for such a seminal period in our family life.

As the temperatures have soared recently, I recalled how our children, who were born in Manhattan, reveled in the chance to run through their own sprinklers. They raced in and out of the water, laughing as their bare feet gripped the soggy, cool ground.

We moved into the house when our daughter had just turned five. On one of her first walks around the neighborhood, she brought back an inchworm on her finger. Eager to share the magic of that tiny life with her mom, she carried it all the way back inside our house, where it disappeared into our steps moments after its arrival.

In the backyard, a perfect climbing tree called to our children. Both of them displayed considerable prowess in scaling that tree towards the top, reaching over 15 feet above us. Their grandparents were in awe of their climbing skills and a bit unnerved by the heights they reached.

Our son and daughter shared a blue swing set. At the top of a small rock climbing wall, they sat on a board sheltered from the sun and rain by a triangular blue cloth. There, they enjoyed ice cream and a few moments in the shade.

On the lawn, we and our children played kickball with their friends and relatives, tossed around a baseball and softball, and played games like Kan Jam.

The seasons each had their defining characteristics. In the spring, a bush by our driveway announced the approaching warm weather with a celebration of white flowers.

Amid a few memorable hurricanes, including the vicious Sandy, we sought shelter in our protected basement, where we slept on mattresses we lugged downstairs, away from howling winds and driving rain. Fortunately, downed trees which cut power for nine days and reduced the temperature inside to 50 degrees didn’t hit our house.

With one season moving both slowly and rapidly into the next, we watched in wonder as our children grew up, bringing hard-earned athletic trophies home and filling the walls with the sound of music that became increasingly melodic and precise.

Family members pulled up to our steep driveway, bringing carved pumpkins, presents and support for our children.

At the end of their treks around the neighborhood during Halloween, our son and daughter emptied enormous pillowcases or bags of candy onto our living room floor, lining up and trading the kind of candy haul that would have made Willy Wonka proud.

Often as my birthday approached, my wife and I spent more time than we probably should have making soft chocolate chip cookies.

During one particularly difficult summer, I developed my first kidney stone. Not wanting to wake anyone, I sought solace in the basement, where I contorted my body into positions on the same floor where we found shelter amid the hurricanes. In the middle of the night, my daughter came down and stood on my back, providing some relief.

Like its occupants, the house wasn’t perfect, with water that took a while to heat at times, bulbs that needed replacing, and appliances that didn’t always work.

And yet, that first house served as the launching pad for new days, dreams and friendships. My wife and I greeted our children’s friends and their parents, who sometimes stopped by for barbecues or to drop something off before the next activity.

As my friend prepares to enter the next phase of his life, I hope the house he shares with his wife bears witness to excitement and adventures that lay ahead, one magical inchworm at a time.

Pixabay photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

Big mammals must appeal to me. I love horses. When I visited South Africa, I fell in love with elephants. And now that I have returned from a few days on Cape Cod, I am totally smitten by whales.

It was my first whale watch foray. We boarded a ferry-size boat in Provincetown, off the eastern tip of the Cape, and I was surprised to see at least 200 people, who had the same idea, seated on two decks. It was a perfect day to be out on the water, hot, humid, with only a soft breeze barely stirring the ocean. We finally found seats in a shaded section of the upper deck just as the boat took off heading north east into the Atlantic.

Everyone seemed in a holiday mood, talking and laughing for over an hour until someone yelled, “Look! There are mists ahead.” Then silence, as everyone peered at the horizon. The captain slowed the boat and as we got closer, we could see the backs of two whales, diving and surfacing, expelling air through their blowholes as they breathed.

“Those are humpbacks,” the tour guide explained over the PA system. “There are many different kinds of whales,” she continued. It seems there are about 80 species of living whales, and they fall into two groups: baleen and toothed. We were seeing baleens, a word that refers to the manner in which they secure their food. Instead of teeth, baleens are like broad vertical Venetian blinds that grow down from the roof of the whale’s mouth. They are hard, like our finger nails, each one at least a foot long, maybe five inches wide and close together. They act to filter what the whale takes in, excluding anything wider than plankton.

Two years ago, around this time, a whale swallowed a man just off the Cape. This is a true story that made headlines all over the globe, and the man, Michael Packard, lived to tell the tale. 

“I’m done! I’m dead!” was the immediate reaction of Packard, who is a lobster scuba diver, when he was sucked into the mouth of a whale that came up behind him as he was descending to the seabed to search for lobster. Whales feed by opening their mouths like a wide elevator door, squeezing whatever is ingested, then spitting out what doesn’t get filtered by their baleen. 

Suddenly he felt a huge shove and it got completely black, and Packard realized he was inside a whale. “ I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles of his mouth,” said Packard, as quoted by Newsweek. “I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here.’”

But then the whale “started going up. All of a sudden it just got to the surface, and he started shaking his head and getting all erratic … and then boom!” The diver flew out of the whale’s mouth, traveled a distance of some 50 feet and lay floating on the surface, looking up at the sky. “I think I’m going to live,” he remembers. He was inside the whale for about 40 seconds. Packard was picked up by a crew member, who called to shore, and when they arrived at the pier, an ambulance was waiting to take him to the hospital. He wound up with one broken rib and some soft tissue damage. Three weeks later, he was back diving for lobsters but now also making TV appearances with the likes of Jimmy Kimmel.

Actually, the whale didn’t swallow Packard. A whale’s throat is too narrow for a human to pass through. The humpback held Pachard in his mouth, then surfaced and spit him out.

We were lucky on that trip, seeing 18 whales, according to the tour guide’s count. Once the boat stopped, the whales surfaced and dived around us, almost as if they were entertaining us. One whale, estimated by the captain to be about 6 months old, cavorted and flipped  not far off the starboard side of our boat for at least 15 minutes. Some of us believe he was encouraged by our screams of approval and deliberately putting on a show.

Honoree Katherine Heaviside, president, Epoch 5 Public Relations (second from right) with (l-r) Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty President and Chairman of the Board Patricia J. Petersen, CEO Deirdre O’Connell and Board member Stanley C. Gale, grandson of founder Daniel Gale.

 Day of Golf, Tennis and Pickleball Supports Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens Not-for-Profits 

The Daniel Gale Foundation, the charitable arm of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty, one of the nation’s top ranked luxury real estate organizations, recently held its 1st Annual Outing in support of its mission to benefit charitable causes across Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.  The sold out event, which honored Epoch 5 Public Relations President Katherine Heaviside, offered golf, tennis, and pickleball to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters at the Huntington Country Club. 

The genesis of this first annual outing was the advisory board of the Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty Young Professionals Network (YPN). YPN is a group of approximately 40 real estate advisors who meet regularly to share growth opportunities through networking and mentoring. This most recent event is one of several fundraisers YPN has organized in support of the Foundation. 

Co-chairing this event were YPN advisory board members Kathleen McCarthy, a real estate advisor who works predominantly in Queens and western Nassau, and Melissa Stark, who manages sales in the Huntington office. 

Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty CEO Deirdre O’Connell kicked off the evening festivities, thanking the event committee and all in attendance for their support of the Foundation. President and Chairman of the Board Patricia J. Petersen, Stanley C. Gale, grandson of company founder Daniel Gale, and Katherine Heaviside joined O’Connell at the podium.

“I am thrilled to stand before such a wonderful group of supporters,” she said. “Together we represent a community of caring that can make a real difference in the lives of our neighbors who are struggling.  I am also exceedingly proud of our young professional group, who put together such an enjoyable and successful event.”

Heaviside was honored in recognition of Epoch 5 Public Relations’ 40 years as Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty’s public relations firm and . A Huntington resident, Heaviside is a regular on the Long Island Press Power List of “Top 50 Influentials” and has been voted “Best Publicist on Long Island” for 14 years in a row.  She has unmatched long-standing contacts and relationships with the media, corporate leaders, and community and government leaders.   

In 2022, as part of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty’s celebration of its centennial year, the Daniel Gale Foundation was launched to consolidate and organize the ongoing charitable giving and outreach efforts of the organization’s management, staff and real estate advisors to make a greater impact. In the year since its formation, the Foundation  donated the equivalent of 100,000 meals to Island Harvest and City Harvest food banks during Hunger Action Month®, supported Pink Aid in its fight against breast cancer, and raised thousands of dollars with its Young Professionals Networking and Bowlathon events, among others.

 

 

 

Legislator Stephanie Bontempi (right) at the Boys State and Girls State reception at the Northport American Legion.

Suffolk County Legislator Stephanie Bontempi (R – 18 th L.D.) recently attended a reception at the Northport American Legion honoring the 2023 students of the Boys State and Girls State programs. As proud parents, members of the American Legion and elected officials looked on at the event, the youths shared about their individual experiences and what they learned.

“Boys State and Girls State are terrific programs that really do not get the attention that they deserve,” said Bontempi. “The programs are unique in that they don’t only provide a practical education in civics, but also promote patriotic values that inspire young people to be engaged citizens and leaders.”

A noteworthy component of the programs has the students act out the legislative process by taking on simulated elected roles and tackling a relevant issue. Exercises like these, combined with other educational activities, fill an often overlooked gap when it comes to preparing young adults for the future in this increasingly complex world.

“Without understanding government on a basic and local level, many people are shortchanging themselves,” added Bontempi. “The earlier people are equipped with this knowledge, the easier it will be for their voices to be heard. I am so grateful that the American Legion continues to deliver these opportunities to the up-and-coming generations.”

If you would like to learn more about the Boys State and Girls State programs, please visit: https://www.legion.org/boysnation/about.

Photo by Des Kerrigan from Pixabay
By Carolyn Sackstein

In keeping with heightened media attention to the threat of shark bites, TBR News Media went to the streets on Saturday, July 8, asking visitors to Port Jefferson if they were concerned about reports of shark sightings and shark attacks on Long Island’s South Shore. 

One person voiced fear of sharks. Another said she doesn’t like fish in general. The rest seemed confident that local authorities and lifeguards could minimize the risks from sharks and keep beachgoers safe.

— Photos by Carolyn Sackstein

 

Douglas Maze, Connecticut, and Dee Schmitt, Connecticut

When asked if they had changed their beach habits due to the recent reports of shark attacks, Douglas said, “Yes, I will not go to the beach or in the water because I have a fear of sharks.” When asked how long he feared sharks, he replied, “My whole life.” 

Dee said, “Yes and no. I am more cautious now. I still go in the water, but only up to my knees. That’s about it.”

 

 

 

Lisa Freeman, Tarpon Springs, Florida, and Al Latchford, Clearwater, Florida

Lisa responded to our inquiries with, “Yes, I go to Clearwater Beach, which is in the Gulf of Mexico.” She also acknowledged that there are sharks in the Gulf and that she plans to go in the water while she is visiting Long Island. “I am going to Robert Moses [State Park] tomorrow. We heard there are shark sightings there.” When asked if sharks deter her from going in the water, she said, “No. We respect that it is their place. If we see them, we get out of their way.”

 Al added, “As long as we are aware and watching out what is going on, I’m OK with going in the water. No fear, just caution.”

 

 

Mike and Lauren Librizzi, Lynbrook 

Mike said, “I go to, more often than not, Atlantic Beach [in Hempstead].” When asked if he was concerned about the recent sightings and attacks, he replied, “Not as much. If the lifeguards are on duty, and you’re being smart by not going in too deep, you should be OK.”

Lauren won’t go in the water at the beach. She explained she does like the beach for the sun and sand: “We go to a beach club in Atlantic Beach. I just don’t like fish. If I can’t see my feet, I don’t go in. I do go into pools.”

 

 

 

Genie Weisman, Mount Sinai

When asked if she goes to any of the South Shore beaches, Genie offered, “Not very often. We’ve taken the kids to Corey Beach [on the Great South Bay].” She explained that not going to the beaches anymore is a matter of opportunity, not sharks. Genie suggested that the increase in shark sightings is likely, “the bunkers and the bait fish. [Sharks] are following their food.” She added that she is willing to go to a beach if the opportunity arises, “probably, as long as there are no red flags.”

 

 

Megan Wesolowski and Jake Hine, Port Jefferson Station

Megan said she goes to Cupsogue Beach. Jake also goes to Cupsogue and out in Montauk.

When asked why they chose those areas, Megan explained, “Nice sand, the water’s nice. They keep it clean.” When asked about the recent shark reports, they weren’t concerned. Megan said, “I hadn’t really thought about it.” 

Jake continued, “We swim at our own risk either way — lifeguards or no lifeguards. We just like the towns over there. No change [in beach habits], still going in.”

 

Gregg Fedus, Mystic, Connecticut

“I don’t really know about the local reports [on shark sightings and attacks] because I just came here yesterday and staying for the weekend. My guess is it’s overblown a little bit. You’ve just gotta be careful when you’re out on the water.” He feels the warmer water is drawing the sharks here. When asked if he would go into the water, he responded, “Sure.”

 

 

 

 

Trey Pratt, Old Saybrook, Connecticut

When asked if he fears sharks, he emphatically responded, “No!” When asked what is responsible for the reports of shark sightings, he felt it is due to “active media!” He fishes but has no problem going to any of the ocean beaches or fear of needing “a bigger boat.”

Stony Brook Medicine’s new facility at Smith Haven Mall. Photo by Aidan Johnson
By Aidan Johnson

When a person plans a trip to the mall, they may imagine buying new clothes, browsing storefronts and eating at the food court. Now they can add a trip to the doctor’s office to their list.

Stony Brook Medicine has opened a new advanced specialty care facility at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove. The approximately 170,000-square-foot space, previously occupied by Sears, is now host to a plethora of specialties, offering a “one-stop shop” to patients.

Sharon Meinster, the assistant vice president of facilities planning and design, and Dr. Todd Griffin, vice president for clinical services and vice dean for clinical affairs at Stony Brook Medicine, explained how the new facility would be more accessible for patients than the offices at Technology Drive in Setauket.

The facility will open in multiple phases, likely to be completed by 2027. As their leases end at Technology Drive, the other practices will gradually make their way to Lake Grove. 

“What’s great here is that there’s much better public transportation to the mall,” Griffin said. “That was one of the things that we used to hate about tech parks because many of our patients were taking two or three buses to get there.”

The closest bus stop to Technology Drive is at Belle Meade Road, and if the practice was located farther down the park, it could be difficult for a patient to get there, especially in inclement weather such as heat waves or snowstorms.

There will also be an urgent care complex built in the automotive center at the Smith Haven Mall, which will have direct ambulance support to Stony Brook University Hospital.

Since the new location connects to the rest of the mall, the idea of a buzzer system, similar to those found in restaurants, was considered, allowing patients to walk around the mall while they wait, though Griffin does hope to cut down the wait times.

The phase one services, which are currently open and occupy 60,000 out of the 170,000 square feet, include family and preventive medicine, primary and specialty care, pediatrics, diabetes education, genetic counseling, neurology, neuropsychology and pain management.

The facility will help to foster collaboration between the different doctors since they will all be under one roof.

“It’s nice to have sort of the neuro institute people together,” Griffin said, adding, “You have the surgeons and the docs all in the same space, which helps with collaboration.”

“Right now, they’re in two different locations. So when they move here, they’ll be all together,” he added, “and it’s the same thing with our comprehensive pain center.”

Stony Brook Medicine will also continue to build its Commack location, which has been open since 2017. That building sits at around 350,000 square feet and houses around 38 specialties. They aim to open a surgical center as well as an advanced urgent care center by early 2025.

Despite not having many windows, the Lake Grove facility’s lighting and paint job help to create a more welcoming atmosphere. With much more to come from the Stony Brook care facility, it is already offering a fast and easy way for locals to see their doctor and then grab a pretzel on the way out.

A vendor from last year's Sea Glass Festival. Photo from Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum

By Daniel Dunaief

One person’s old discarded glass bottle is another person’s artwork, raw material for a necklace, or artifact with a compelling historical back story.

After a well-attended debut last year, the Whaling Museum in Cold Spring Harbor is hosting its second annual Sea Glass festival on July 23rd from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event, which attracted over 600 people in 2022, will run two hours longer than last year and will include hourly flameworking demonstrations on the lawn of the museum’s Wright House.

Last year, “we thought we’d get 30 weirdos like me who maybe like beach trash,” said Nomi Dayan, Executive Director of The Whaling Museum. “We had this huge outpouring of interest. We weren’t expecting this many people, which was the most we’ve ever had [at an event].”

Brenna McCormick-Thompson will lead a jewelry workshop at the event.

Dayan is hoping to accommodate and appeal to even more visitors at the family-friendly event with the additional two hours, numerous local exhibitors, and sea glass competitions for best in show, most unusual and best historical piece.

General admission for the festival is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Attendees can also register in advance for a Sea Glass and Wire Wrapping Workshop, which costs $25 in advance and, if there’s room, $30 at the door. Participants 12 and over will learn how to secure sea glass and design their own necklace. Materials, including sea glass, copper and silver wire and leather lanyard, are included.

Brenna McCormick-Thompson, Curator of Education at the museum, will help lead the workshop. People will “leave will new skills and completed pieces of jewelry,” McCormick-Thompson said. “It’s nice when you have an audience that’s just as excited to learn new things as you are.” 

Gina Van Bell, Assistant Director at the Museum, suggested the festival was a “family event” and said she hoped adults brought their children to learn about the history of sea glass. The museum is featuring presentations, a glass-themed scavenger hunt and crafts throughout the day which are included with admission.

Sea glass color and aging

Mary McCarthy

Mary McCarthy, Executive Director of the Beachcombing Center who has been beach combing for 20 years, will help people identify sea glass by color during talks at noon and 2 p.m. People can “date glass based on a certain shade” of blue, for example, said McCarthy, who is based in Maryland and has over 30,000 Instagram followers interested in her insights, pictures and finds.

In a photo she shared of colored glass, McCarthy said the oldest color is a dark, olive green that is nearly black, which is referred to as “black glass” and is nicknamed “pirate glass.” Those finds were produced before or near the turn of the 18th century.

Combing beaches and finding unexpected artifacts left from earlier generations offers its own rewards. “People find mental health or inner peace in the search,” McCarthy said. “Searching a coastline is a sacred process. People can find things that are meaningful to them personally, but also historically.”

She has seen pieces of glass made in occupied Japan, from the Prohibition era, and from other time periods. On a recent kayaking trip to a coastal landfill near a major city on the east coast, she found an Abraham Lincoln paperweight. For McCarthy, the discovery is among her top five favorite finds.

When she’s not presenting, McCarthy, who will serve as a judge on the Sea Glass of the Year contest, will also help people identify their own sea glass discoveries.

She isn’t surprised by the enthusiastic response to the Whaling Museum’s festival. “I’ve attended festivals with over 10,000 people, where people wait in line for an hour to have sea glass identified,” she said.

George William Fisher

Meanwhile, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., George William Fisher, author and local expert on antique bottles, will present the Origins of Sea Glass: Beverage Bottles and Medicine Bottles, including milk and condiment bottles.

This year, Fisher will focus on beverages through the ages, going back to the early 1840s. He will explore the evolution of design, including a look at bottles from the 1920’s.

One of his favorite bottles is an Emerson Bromo-Seltzer bottle, which counteracted the effect of digestive problems caused by a lack of refrigeration.

Attendees at his talks can handle objects, although guests can look at some of the more expensive findings without touching them.

While wending their way around local sea glass vendors, visitors can explore the museum and can listen to a live musical performance by The Royal Yard, as Stuart Markus and Robin Grenstine showcase sea shanties by the sea shore.

The Big Black Food Truck will also serve food in front of the museum. Last year, the truck offered a peanut butter and chicken sandwich, which Van Bell described as “surprisingly delicious.”

Visitors can also partake in candy made to look like sea glass.

Festival origins

The sea glass festival started when Dayan surveyed some of the 6,000 items in the museum’s collection. Some of her favorites include 19th century glass bottles. The museum had hosted glass workshops at the end of December.

Even though sea glass doesn’t have a link to whaling, Dayan was pleased to see the historic connection visitors made to their findings and to the glass that the ocean reshapes and polishes. The museum is “about illuminating a rich connection to the ocean that surrounds us,” she said. Sea glass provides an “artistic way to do that.”

The Whaling Museum is located at 301 Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor. To purchase tickets to the Sea Glass Festival  or to reserve a spot for the workshop, visit www.cshwhalingmuseum.org. For more information, call 631-367-3418.

File by Lina Weingarten

An ongoing public debate on an amendment to Huntington’s accessory apartment dwelling code, sponsored by Councilwoman Joan Cergol (D), continued Tuesday afternoon, July 11, during a meeting of the town board. 

The American Planning Association defines an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, as “a smaller, independent residential dwelling unit located on the same lot as a stand-alone.” As municipalities in New York state and Long Island continue to wrestle over zoning controls, public officials and residents alike are working through the complexities on both sides of the issue.

Residents offered competing perspectives on ADUs, some decrying the perceived threat of elevated density. In contrast, others emphasized the need to offer more affordable housing opportunities.

Bob Sarducci, a Huntington Station resident, condemned the perceived lack of governmental initiative for revitalizing his hamlet, suggesting that the expansion of ADUs into Huntington Station would further deter the area’s growth.

“I’m tired of all the board members claiming they want to revitalize Huntington Station,” he said. “If you truly want to revitalize Huntington Station, [then] no more apartments.”

Eleanor D’Amico suggested additional ADUs would compound existing density pressures throughout the town. She indicated that the ADU proposal would work against the area’s historical character.

“Huntington was built on people coming from the urban, more densely populated areas — people looking for quality of life, individual homes, clean air, fresh water and open spaces,” she said. “Every board we’ve had has succinctly chipped away at all of those things.”

“This ADU proposal should be shot out of the water. It would add such density [that] our quality of life would just be gone,” she added.

But not everyone in attendance opposed the measure. Christina Tabacco, a local realtor, expressed her support for the ADU initiative noting the exorbitant rental rates throughout the town and the new rental opportunities afforded to seniors.

“As a realtor, my experience has been again and again, ‘Please find me an apartment $2,500 or under somewhere in Huntington,’” she said. “Overwhelmingly, there’s just a shortage of apartments and overwhelmingly — as the demographic is aging — there is a need for supplemental income.” She added, “I do believe the lack of clear facts is driving the misinformation and the fear.”

The board will meet again Tuesday, Aug. 8, at 2 p.m. when conversations surrounding ADUs will likely continue.

Ward Melville High School. File photo by Greg Catalano

Three Village Central School District will codify a plan for pivoting to remote instruction in case of future emergencies that cause school shutdowns, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. 

Jack Blaum, the district’s security and safety coordinator, introduced the new framework at the annual organizational meeting of the Board of Education on Wednesday, July 5, as an addition to this year’s District-wide School Emergency Plan. 

The plan already includes language to handle the health risks of a contagious disease pandemic, but it now offers guidelines for administrators, teachers, staff, students and families in case a need for remote learning arises again. It also lays out a framework for technological readiness. 

These protocols bring the district in line with new state regulations requiring these plans to account for emergency remote instruction. 

“This plan serves as a framework to ensure that learning can continue seamlessly for our students,” the plan reads, adding that due to the dynamic nature of public health emergencies, it “is designed to be flexible.”

Superintendent of Schools Kevin Scanlon pointed out that readiness for remote instruction in case of emergency shutdowns would not replace snow days.

The safety plan as a whole covers emergency drills, response plans and security protocols, as well as bullying prevention and a plan to recognize changes in behavior or mental health of students.

Blaum said that it is “a 10,000-foot view of what we do,” explaining that more detailed procedures for each building, such as rendezvous points, are kept confidential. “We don’t want to make that public,” he added.

Blaum indicated the District-wide School Emergency Plan is available on the district’s website for public review and comment for at least 30 days before it can be formally approved during the August BOE meeting. He said he would answer suggestions and questions sent to the email address [email protected].

The meeting marked the official start of the 2023-2024 school year for the BOE. Re-elected trustee Jeffrey Kerman was sworn in, as were newly elected trustees Karen Roughley and David McKinnon.

Suffolk County Legislature neglecting wastewater infrastructure

The Suffolk County Legislature failed to take action on June 21 to protect our drinking water and ensure generations to come will have clean, clear water in which to swim. The Legislature recessed the Water Quality Restoration Act (IR 1573) that would have allowed county residents in November to decide whether to approve adding 1/8 of one cent to the sales tax. 

The money would be restricted to replacing cesspools and septic systems, and building and expanding sewers. The lack of effective wastewater infrastructure in Suffolk County is also an obstacle to economic growth and holds down property values in many downtown business districts.

To dispose of our wastewater, we rely on limited sewers and on 209,000 septic systems in environmentally sensitive areas, including near our shores, that are not designed to remove nitrogen. The nitrogen seeps through the soil and pollutes our bays and drinking water. We must fix the sewage problem to reduce the nitrogen in the water.

Some legislators have said they voted to recess the proposal because they believed that too little money would go toward sewers. To address that concern, Deputy Suffolk County Executive Peter Scully said at the hearing that “the combination of funds from the 1/8 cent sales tax and another fund, the Assessment Stabilization Reserve Fund (ASRF), would provide $2.1 billion for sewer construction through 2060 so that the overall amount would be roughly divided in half between the sewers and septic systems.” 

Furthermore, the county’s Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan, which has been vetted for 10 years, makes clear that it is too expensive to connect everyone to sewers, and that we must recharge water back into our aquifers to maintain our supply of drinking water. Sewage plants discharge wastewater into the ocean. Legislative opponents offered no scientific evidence that the plan was deficient.

Now, unless the Legislature changes its mind very soon, residents face the probability of more years passing with little action and the loss of state funding while our waters remain impure. It took hard-fought state-enabling legislation to give Suffolk voters a chance to decide. The process was “brutal” and took two years of intensive effort, according to testimony by Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

Pure water to drink and swim in — isn’t that what we all want? Pass the resolution and let the voters decide. It is the democratic way.

Stephanie Quarles, Director, Chair of Issues & Advocacy

Frances Cerra Whittelsey, Director

League of Women Voters of Huntington

Demolishing Maryhaven would be obscene

There appears to be a lot of interest in the Maryhaven Center of Hope property.

There is a desperate need for persons on the autism spectrum. Their families, in many cases, can no longer care for them in a safe and appropriate way. Maryhaven served individuals with developmental disabilities. 

This facility is here — now. 

It would appear obscene in our present environment of climate challenges to destroy this property.

Eileen Wrenn

Port Jefferson Station

Lithium battery storage facility not welcome near Comsewogue schools

To the Brookhaven Town Board,

I just received notice of a planned lithium battery storage facility, in Coram, east of New York State Route 112, southeast of Sterling Woods condominium community, also in close proximity to several other private homes which are in the Comsewogue School District. The notice I received was written on March 6 of this year but not mailed until June 30.

In addition to several homes there are, in close proximity to this requested lithium battery storage facility, two automobile repair facilities, a firearms facility and a gas station, all with extremely volatile and explosive items stored on their properties. How is adding a large volume of even more dangerous lithium batteries to this mix good for the residents of this area?

It is my understanding this type of storage has been blocked in Yaphank, home of the Brookhaven landfill. If it is too dangerous for the town dump, why would it be safe in the Comsewogue School District?

I urge you to reject this application as unsafe, irresponsible, and in opposition to those who are trying to prevent this misuse of our communities such as what happened at the Lawrence Aviation Industries Superfund site.

Francis G. Gibbons Sr.

Terryville

Old, stale and yet I vote

Congratulations, Mayor Lauren Sheprow. In addition, thank you former Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden for your service and contributions.

I look forward to transparency and change that I know Mayor Sheprow will work on and succeed. What really concerns me and motivated me to write this letter is the disgusting way some villagers treat each other.

When I read some villagers are labeled as “old and stale,” I wondered in what world is “ageism” acceptable? I guess ignorance has no boundaries. Many people bring wisdom and experience to the table. We should remember what President Ronald Reagan [R] said about ageism: “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” 

If that was not unusual, how about the suggestion anyone owning a four-bedroom colonial should move out and allow a young family to move in. If you are interested in the context of these comments and others, do a historical review of village-connected social media pages. Please respect each other. You are better than that.

While neither my husband nor I have ancestry that dates back to the Mayflower, we are 47-year residents and have worked hard to serve Port Jefferson. I served on the school board for six years and five as its president. Then went on to serve 11 years as a trustee on the LIPA Board doing my very best for Post Jefferson. We together kept booster clubs and sports programs alive during the Mount Sinai pullout and more. I love this village.

Suzette C. Smookler

Port Jefferson

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