Like a hand reaching out from its watery grave, the stern of the ship with the name “Endurance” became visible in the underwater drone’s searching beacon of light. A century after the ice crushed and sank the vessel, along with the hopes of explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew for being the first to walk across Antarctica from sea to sea via the South Pole, the biggest shipwreck discovery since the Titanic connected us with those men a century ago. For many of us, the find was thrilling.
The three-masted ship is remarkably preserved in 10,000 feet of water below the surface ice, and from the photos, even the spokes on the wheel in the stern are hauntingly intact. Armed with the latest undersea equipment, marine archeologists, engineers and scientists, using the last data recorded when the ship sank, were able to find the wooden Endurance, survivor of one of the most heroic expeditions in history, at the bottom of the Wendell Sea near the Antarctica Peninsula. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust’s group Endurance 22 announced the news. The darkness and frigid temperatures had made such search efforts in the past impossibly difficult but also created an inhospitable environment for bacteria, mites and wood-eating worms that might have devoured the ship. Instead it stands at attention since 1915 on the sea floor.
After the ship sank, Shackleton and his crew of 28 loaded food and anything else they could into three lifeboats and set up camp on ice floes, and when those disintegrated, camped on Elephant Island.
The Endurance. Photo from Wikipedia
Recognizing that they had somehow to get help if they were to survive, Shackleton, his captain, Frank Worsley and four other carefully selected men sailed across 800 miles of treacherous waters in a 22-foot boat to the nearest place of habitation, a remote whaling community on the island of South Georgia. Once they arrived, they had to scale steep mountains to get to the station on the other side. Shackleton’s decisive and heroic leadership ultimately saved the entire crew and is studied in business schools and management programs to this day. His planning and improvisation made the escape possible.
Shackleton died in 1922. Curiously the wreck’s discovery happened exactly 100 years to the day that Shackleton was buried. And while Endurance was photographed and filmed, nothing was removed or disturbed, and it is protected as an historic monument.
An Anglo-Irishman, Sir Ernest Shackleton was born in County Kildare, Ireland, and moved with his family to south London. His story seems a fitting way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. He led three different English expeditions to the Antarctic, walked to within 97 miles of the South Pole during the previous Nimrod expedition of 1907-09, and climbed Mt. Erebus, the most active Antarctic volcano. For those feats, he was knighted by King Edward VII on his return. Ultimately he led a final expedition in 1921 but died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. He is buried there.
Despite the fact that he was largely unsuccessful in business ventures and died heavily in debt, Shackleton was voted eleventh in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons in 2002. He was to be the one others prayed to have lead them when under extreme circumstances.
The saga of Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance captured my imagination when I worked for Editor Alfred Lansing at Time Inc. I was 22 and had never met anyone quite like Al before. A volunteer in the Navy when he was 17 (he lied about his age and somehow got in), Al had a reddish-blond crew cut, bright blue eyes, a huge smile and a tattoo on his right forearm well before tattooes were a common occurrence. He smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes, was one of the best storytellers I had ever met, and wrote adventure stories on the side for what were then called men’s magazines.
It was Alfred Lansing who wrote the book “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” four years earlier which had received a National Book Award nomination. Listening to him tell the story, I was hooked for life on that adventure and the marvel of Shackleton’s leadership. Sadly, both men died at an early age.
Nick Caracappa during a debate at the TBR News Media offices. Photo by Julianne Mosher
On March 4, acting State Supreme Court Justice John Iliou accepted a motion to dismiss criminal charges against Suffolk County Legislator Nick Caracappa (C-Selden) in a domestic violence case.
Caracappa, who took over as majority leader of the county Legislature this year and is the son of the late county Legislator Rose Caracappa, remains under an order of protection for an additional 12 months, after which all charges will be dropped if he obeys the order and stays out of legal trouble.
After newly elected county District Attorney Ray Tierney (R) recused himself from the case, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office became special prosecutor in January.
The verdict outraged a vocal group of dissenters, who held a demonstration at the William H. Rogers Legislature Building in Hauppauge on March 8, International Women’s Day, calling for Caracappa’s resignation and for greater transparency into the matter.
“The idea that a legislator, who is supposed to create laws to make life better for everyone here, can have such crimes accused of him, and not only keep his job but get promoted, is sickening,” said Leanne Barde, one of the speakers at the event. “Even now, despite whatever deal he has in court, he has not been vindicated.”
Interview with Caracappa
TBR News Media interviewed Caracappa for this story. His ex-wife, whose name is kept anonymous in various reports, is not identified and therefore could not be reached for an interview. TBR News Media would welcome such an interview. Caracappa said he agreed to be interviewed because there are numerous false reports circulating around his private life and asked for his side to be heard.
According to Caracappa, some of his detractors are “professional agitators” who sling mud and stir up controversy for partisan ends. Social media posts obtained by TBR News Media from Caracappa indicate that a coordinated online campaign was launched against him before his reelection bid in 2021. In one such post, Caracappa was referred to as a “convicted criminal abuser who thinks strangling women and possibly buying their silence with a job at the taxpayer expense is justice.”
Caracappa said that the individuals targeting him both online and in the press do not live in his district, do not know him personally and are not familiar with the details of his case. According to him, a careful examination of the timeline of events, spanning from October to December of 2020, would indicate that he was falsely accused.
Caracappa said that his first campaign fundraiser was held on Oct. 14, 2020. Two days later, he received a phone call that his then-wife was having an affair. He confronted her, repeating several times that there was “no violence” during this confrontation. From this incident there precipitated a divorce between the two which was finalized last year.
Caracappa claimed that he and his ex-wife had lived together for two decades without a single accusation of domestic violence made against him. He said the first time police intervened was in November 2020, after he had reported to the police a physical and verbal altercation involving his ex-wife and one of their children.
“I’m with her for 20 years in that house, married 15, and there was never one call to the police on a domestic incident — never once until I made the first call,” Caracappa said. “Now if I had anything to hide, if I was an abuser, would I call the police to my house? Would anybody in their right mind do that?”
According to Caracappa, he served his ex-wife with an order of protection due to the initial incident. He said that approximately three weeks later, his ex-wife retaliated by serving him with her own order of protection on false pretenses.
Caracappa said an alleged assault against his ex-wife would have been nonsensical as he knew he was already under a restraining order.
“Even if I was an abuser, would I abuse someone when I have an order of protection against me?” he said.
Caracappa said he was shocked when police arrested him in December of that year. He contended that his accuser weaponized false allegations against him in an attempt to win more favorable terms in their divorce.
“The timelines don’t add up,” he said. “The statement that was made to the police, being repeated over and over, that I grabbed her throat and that I said this guy [the ex-wife’s alleged partner] is a scumbag and ‘you’re not gonna get half my stuff’ — this is December.” Caracappa added, “I had already been to the [divorce] attorneys, I knew exactly what she was getting and I wasn’t arguing with what she was getting.”
He said that the divorce proceedings were already several weeks underway before any accusation of assault was ever reported to the police. He also suggested that he would not have been granted custody of his daughters if he were abusive toward women.
“I found out [about the alleged affair] on Oct. 16,” he said. “Look at the timeline of events from the order of protections and who did it first. Then I get elected to office and already know what the [divorce] settlements are going to be. Then on Dec. 8 I randomly just do an act of violence on her after 20 years of nothing? She was afraid of losing my daughters, which she did.”
Investigation welcomed
Caracappa said that from the beginning he has welcomed investigators to review the facts. He expressed frustration at the repeated delays and adjournments to his case begun by former Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini (D), as Caracappa believed the case could have been settled immediately by a grand jury.
“I wanted the legal process to resolve this issue,” he said. “That is why we demanded a grand jury at the beginning, adjourned over seven times by the past district attorney. If it was so bad, why didn’t they indict me? That is the most simple question you could ask.”
According to Caracappa, the justice system is in place to determine an individual’s guilt or innocence. He believes his detractors have doubled down in their opposition.
“They’re asking for my resignation,” he said. “Why? Because they didn’t get the answer that they wanted, because justice prevailed.”
Caracappa is asking his critics to make a distinction between victims of domestic violence and victims of false accusations. He said this phenomenon has become commonplace among law enforcement.
“It happens to police officers and law enforcement more often than you could ever imagine,” Caracappa said. “They take their guns, they take their badges and they put them on leave because of a divorce. I’ve gotten so many emails, letters and phone calls — from men and women — who are going through the same thing as I am, falsely accused because of a nasty divorce.”
In recent weeks, Caracappa’s detractors have raised questions surrounding the promotion of his ex-wife to a position at Suffolk Off-Track Betting in return for the dismissal of his charges.
“Recent revelations have been reported that the legislator’s alleged victim, in a flabbergasting coincidence, just happened to receive a taxpayer-funded job, paying almost $50,000 per year, with full benefits and a pension, to work for Suffolk OTB,” said Patty Stoddard of Smithtown, one of the activists present at the demonstration, adding that Suffolk OTB is “a known patronage mill.”
Responding to this accusation, Caracappa said his detractors are searching for underlying motives to support their beliefs.
“It’s not true,” he said. “She’s a Republican, she’s a committeeperson, she’s in the system just like anybody else. She has her own friends in the party.” He added, “But I had to get her that job because it sounds good in their story.”
He criticized his dissenters for belittling the independence of his ex-wife, something he considers self-defeating.
“How do they portray [themselves as] standing up for women, but say she’s incapable of getting her own job, that I must have gotten this job for her?” Caracappa said. “Everything is based on their opinion, assumptions, presumptions. Nothing is factually based.”
Caracappa believes his detractors are disruptive to both his private life and to a functional political discourse. When asked how it feels to have his private life brought into public view, he asked that his critics consider the impact that they have on his family.
“It’s incredibly invasive, it’s hurtful,” he said. “You don’t see anything coming from my family. It’s more hurtful to me to have my kids go through this, to have this stuff printed in the paper and have kids bring it into school and show it to my daughter. My daughter knows the truth.”
Caracappa believes the individuals against him either refuse to confront reality or willingly spread misinformation for partisan gain. He said that these individuals do a disservice to the credible work of civic groups that protect victims of domestic violence.
“I feel bad for those groups that have integrity, that actually fight for women and have a history of protecting real victims,” he said. “Not one of those groups came out because they rely on facts. They’re reputable.”
Participants get their heads shaved at Northport High School on March 11 to raise fund for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Photos by Raymond JanisParticipants get their heads shaved at Northport High School on March 11 to raise fund for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Photos by Raymond Janis
Participants get their heads shaved at Northport High School on March 11 to raise fund for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Photos by Raymond Janis
Participants get their heads shaved at Northport High School on March 11 to raise fund for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Photos by Raymond Janis
Participants get their heads shaved at Northport High School on March 11 to raise fund for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Photos by Raymond Janis
Northport High School hosted a head-shaving event Friday, March 11, with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, raising funds and public awareness for childhood cancer.
St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a nonprofit organization that funds research for potential cures of childhood cancers. According to its website, St. Baldrick’s has raised over $314 million in research-grant funding since the first fundraiser in Manhattan in 2000.
This year’s Northport event included a variety of festivities, with several individuals voluntarily shaving their heads in solidarity with childhood cancer patients. The head-shaving program, a staple of the foundation’s public awareness campaign, is designed to reduce stigma surrounding the disease and to show compassion.
Nora Nolan has been involved with St. Baldrick’s events in Northport for 17 years. She said that the people who put on the event every year include an array of volunteers, students and charity workers throughout the Northport community.
“We have volunteer barbers and everything else is volunteer — grassroots, volunteer-based,” she said. “All of the students that are in the honor society volunteer here. They’re the boots on the ground making it all happen.”
Nolan originally became involved with St. Baldrick’s because she believed in its mission.
“My first St. Baldrick’s event was at Napper Tandy’s in Northport, and it was just a really wild time with people having a lot of fun for a great cause,” she said. “I just got more and more involved. We’ve been affected in our community by children with cancer diagnoses. There’s definitely a need for more research and that’s one thing that the St. Baldrick’s Foundation supports.”
Dr. Rina Meyer is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Stony Brook Cancer Center. She treats kids, teenagers and young adults with cancer and blood disorders. Meyer shared her own experiences treating patients throughout the years.
One of Meyer’s patients, Matthew, came to her when he was only 6 months old. It was discovered that he had an enlarged tumor in his kidney.
“Little 6-month-old Matthew underwent surgery, he underwent radiation therapy and chemotherapy and really struggled a lot,” Meyer said, adding, “Now I want to tell you that Matthew comes to see me. He’s 6 years old, he’s in first grade, he’s doing wonderfully and he’s really a healthy, normal kid that goes on and lives the rest of his life.”
Meyer shared the story of another one
of her patients, Patty, who was 9 years old when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“The interesting thing about that is that in the 1950s, children with that kind of leukemia didn’t do too well,” Meyer said. “Then, if you fast forward a little bit to the 1980s, children with leukemia did a little bit better, but still not perfect, not great.”
Meyer marveled at the rapid advances in leukemia research over just the last few decades, which have helped to save Patty’s life.
“Children with leukemia are surviving and they’re thriving, and about 90% to 95% of them are doing extremely well,” Meyer said. “The reason for that is because of the research being done all over the country and all over the world to study children and teenagers with cancer and to try to come up with the best and safest treatments. St. Baldrick’s is really an integral part of that.”
According to Meyer, during her treatment Patty felt comfortable walking through the halls of her school without wearing a hat because of the support she received from her peers and community. Meyer believes head-shaving events, such as those administered by St. Baldrick’s, help to support children with cancer and remove social barriers.
To make a charitable contribution to St. Baldrick’s Foundation, visit www.stbaldricks.org/donate.
Jonathan Sanders on assignment in Moscow. Photo from CBS News
Stony Brook University Associate Professor Jonathan Sanders, who won an Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow Award, reported on Russia for a range of news organizations, including as CBS News Moscow correspondent.
Jonathan Sanders on assignment in Moscow. Photo from CBS News
Sanders, who knew several important figures in late 20th century Russian history, spent considerable time with former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who is the immediate past president of Russia before Vladimir Putin.
“I knew Yeltsin extremely well, I know his kids,” Sanders said.
Sanders believes the late Yeltsin’s extended family is “appalled” at Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. He also thinks the late Andrei Sakharov, who helped build the hydrogen bomb for Russia and then was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for opposing the abuse of power and working for human rights, would also be similarly shocked at Putin’s attacks
While Sanders thinks noteworthy and important Russian families likely oppose the invasion of Ukraine that has cost thousands of lives, forced millions to flee their homes and disrupted stock and commodities markets around the world, the associate professor said the Russian population itself is likely divided in its response to the war.
“People whose sole source of information is the Russian central media are aggressively listening to the message coming out of the Kremlin,” he said.
The people in this group tend to be 45 and older and are less urban. They know of events in Ukraine in the context of a military operation in Donetsk, rather than an outright war against a neighbor.
For many people in this older crowd, the message connected to hostilities between Russia and the rest of the world has echoes of earlier times, during World Wars and the Cold War.
After losing millions of their fellow Russians in World War II, many Russians “had a grandfather or great grandfather who served” in the military, “this makes rallying around the national cause important. The Cold War is radioactive material with a long half life,” he added.
They believe the West, and, in particular, the United States, “wants to destroy” them.
The culture and mythology that informs their world view comes from the country’s own tradition of spies and spy novels that are similar to the ones many Americans have read, except that the “bad guys” are the Americans and West Germans the way the protagonists of American spy novels are often Russian.
Younger people who are 35 and below, however, particularly those in cities, get their information from places like TikTok and foreign press, where they don’t receive the Putin party line.
These information lines have created tensions during family gatherings. Sanders described reports of students at teaching colleges getting into arguments with grandparents who believe in the state media, if not in Putin
Sanders has lectured in Russia, where the students in Moscow are “more astute and more diligent in reading the New York Times and watching the BBC than my students here in the United States.”
Sanders said the reason Russians who are protesting the war are younger not only reflects the reality that protesters in general tend to be younger, but also the fact that these are the people seeing and hearing firsthand information about the damage the invasion has caused to Ukraine and to the Russians rolling into the country in tanks.
Over time, pressure might build on Putin when the number of Russians killed continues to climb, although the pace of sharing information about the safety of the troops may remain slow enough that Russians families may not know about their lost loved ones, Sanders said.
Sanders was impressed with the military intelligence released just prior to the invasion of Ukraine.
The information that came out before the war was “remarkable. It’s going to mean there’s going to be a witch hunt of enormous proportions conducted by Putin for who is leaking things out of the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defense.”
Sanders is not particularly optimistic about the outcome of this war for Ukrainians.
Sanders, who produced and edited the documentary “Three Days in September” that was narrated by Julia Roberts and described the siege of a Russian school by Chechen rebels in 2004, recognizes critical differences in the way Putin thinks tactically.
In a hostage situation, most countries and leaders put a priority on saving hostages. Putin, however, puts a priority “on killing the terrorists doing the hostage taking,” Sanders said.
Putin is likely hunkered down and isn’t listening to anyone else closely, even those who might try to tamp down on his most militant impulses, Sanders said.
Former President Donald Trump (R) “didn’t want to listen to anyone [about the 2020 election]. He only wanted to hear about election fraud. He didn’t want anyone to contradict him. That is mild compared to how Putin has isolated himself.”
As for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Sanders hailed the embattled leader for his ongoing commitment to the country and inspirational messages. After Zelensky spoke to the British parliament, echoing sentiments expressed by former Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the onset of World War II, Zelensky may be “the first charismatic hero of the digital age,” Sanders said.
While Americans and British saw Zelensky’s address as a tribute to his commitment to his country and his eagerness to preserve a democracy, Russians saw images of Zelensky with a different spin.
“He’s sucking on the teat of the West,” Sanders said. Members of state media believe Russia attacked Ukraine because of “great conspiracy” against the country.
A former village clerk is ready to take over the mayor’s seat.
Donna Koch
Village of Northport residents voted for Donna Koch for mayor on March 15. She beat out current trustee Dave Weber Jr. for the spot, with an unofficial result of 1,015-799.
Up until 2020, Koch worked as a full-time clerk for the village for 20 years. Two years before she took on the position, she was deputy village clerk.
In a March 10 The Times of Huntington & Northport article, Koch said she decided to run after attending village board meetings. She said she felt the board rushed through meetings and found department heads had nothing to report, including the treasurer. She also felt the board was disrespectful to residents.
“It was then I knew I wanted to run for mayor and bring this village board back to a position of respect, transparency, with open, honest, informative meetings,” Koch said.
Trustees
In addition to choosing between mayoral candidates Koch and Weber, voters selected three trustees, two for a four-year term and another for a two-year period. Mary Biunno ran unopposed for village justice.
At the end of the night, Meghan Dolan and Joseph Sabia won four-year terms with 1,034 and 982 unofficial votes respectively, and Ernest Pucillo gained the two-year seat with 880 votes.
In the March 10 article, Dolan, a litigator in both the public and private sectors, said that running for village trustee wasn’t something she ever thought she would do. The co-founder of Not In Our Town Northport, which works with the community, school administration and the police department to stand up against hate and bigotry, said her experience working in the village the last few years inspired her to run.
“In attending and speaking at the village meetings, it became clear to me that new voices — voices of women, parents and young people — are essential to continuing to make Northport Village the best it can be,” she said.
Joseph Sabia, who had an unsuccessful run for trustee three times and mayor once in the past, is the owner of Sabia’s Car Care.
He said not only as a business owner, but as someone who has been a member of the Northport Police Department and on the Northport-East Northport school board from 2011-14, he has seen a lot in the village. He also has been attending the village board meetings for 10 years.
“I’ve been living in the village for over 45 years,” he said. “I have a business here, and I live here, and I raised my family here, and after going to meetings, I realized how this place is run,” he said. “It’s very poor.”
Among the issues on the minds of
Koch, Dolan and Sabia are finances and stormwater runoff.
Pucillo could not be reached for comment. Final official vote counts were not available at press time.
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
The 2022 St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington. Photo by Raymond Janis
On Sunday, March 13, the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, Division IV, hosted its 88th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Huntington.
Despite the frigid cold of Sunday afternoon, dozens of pipe and drum bands, dance groups, first responders and community organizations marched north along Route 110 from Huntington Station to the Church of St. Patrick near Huntington Village.
The parade was an in-person event, the first held since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, was the grand marshal of this year’s parade.
The parade marked a turning point for Huntington. According to John Broderick, president of AOH, Division IV, the parade was halted for nearly two years due COVID restrictions that limited in-person gatherings. As Long Island begins to open, this parade signals a return to normal.
Kieran Johnson. Photo credit @Colorsmediagroup, Jon Collins
The Huntington Arts Council has announced that the Board of Directors has chosen Kieran Johnson as the organization’s new Executive Director.
Most recently HAC’s Director of Community Partnerships and Development, Johnson has been an integral part of the organization since first joining as Business Manager in July of 2017. He currently serves as the Town of Huntington’s Chair of the Public Art Advisory Committee and Co-Chair of the Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce Arts & Experiences Committee. Prior to HAC Johnson was Operations Manager at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Office Manager/Financial Coordinator for the Richard Avedon Foundation, served as the Chair for the Society for Photographic Education North East, and on the The Penumbra Foundations Associate Board.
Johnson’s work over the last several years has focused on expanding the reach and depth of the Huntington Arts Council. He has dedicated his time as a cultural steward, building meaningful community relationships/partnerships, targeted art initiatives, and strengthening the financial platform of the organization.
“I’m honored to be the next Executive Director of the Huntington Arts Council with its storied history, and it’s stewardship of the arts on Long Island. My lifelong passion has been about increasing accessibility, opening doors, and enforcing that the arts are for everyone,” said Johnson.
An educator and practicing artist, Johnson has exhibited his photographs in New York City at New Century Artists, Rogue Space, and Greenpoint Gallery as well as throughout Michigan at ActiveSite in Grand Rapids, and Delta College in Saginaw. More recent exhibitions include Huntington Art Center, NY, The Memorial Gallery at SUNY Farmingdale, NY, Project Basho in Philadelphia, PA, Ricoh Photo Gallery in Tokyo, Japan and the Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Indiana along with being included in the Postcard Collective. In addition to exhibiting his work, he has lectured at Adrian College, Commack High School on Long Island, New York, and at the SPE Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.Johnson holds a BFA from Purchase College School of Art and Design and an MFA from Kendall College of Art and Design.
Johnson fills the Executive Director position vacated by Marc Courtade who retired on Feb. 28 after 7 years with the HAC.
In the Village of Northport, residents will vote for a new mayor on Tuesday, March 15.
In addition to choosing between mayoral candidates Dave Weber Jr. and Donna Koch, voters will select three trustees, two for a four-year term and another for a two-year period. Mary Biunno is also running unopposed for village justice.
Weber and Koch recently answered questions via email about the mayoral race.
Donna Koch
Koch is no stranger to Village Hall. Until October of 2020, she worked as a full-time clerk until she had a parting of ways with the mayor, she said.
The candidate had been with Village Hall for more than 25 years. After starting her career as a crossing guard in the village in 1993, she spent a few years working part time in Village Hall and in 1998 became full-time deputy village clerk. In 2000, she took on the job of village clerk. After taking some time off, she realized she “missed Northport village government and started to attend village board meetings regularly.”
“With a different perspective, I could see what the residents saw,” she said. “A board whose sole purpose was to hurry through the meeting, with department heads having nothing to report, a treasurer who had nothing to report. And, with a total disrespect for the residents who do attend the meetings. It was then I knew I wanted to run for mayor and bring this village board back to a position of respect, transparency, with open, honest, informative meetings. This is an unprecedented time for the village. With four new spots up for election, experience will be key. I have that experience.”
She said taxes are a constant issue in
the village.
“We need to get our spending in check,” Koch said. “I will work with a board who takes a hard look at spending and finds ways to cut back. Do more with less. I will strive to achieve a zero tax increase.”
She also is concerned about keeping the “harbor clean, by mitigating stormwater runoff.”
She said the village needs “to dust off” several studies that were done “to see how we can implement them today.”
“I love the idea of rain gardens and more aesthetically pleasing remedies,” Koch said. “We as a board will look into every option that’s available.”
She said she would also aim to keep cannabis out of the village, control speeding on the roads, and put in new sidewalks, trees and curbs in the downtown area. She also has street congestion, parking and living in the post-COVID world on her mind.
Dave Weber Jr.
Dave Weber Jr.
Current trustee Weber said his experiences as a volunteer with the fire department and a downtown business owner, both for 26 years, have given him a unique perspective of the village regarding what it needs for long-term growth and sustainability.
“Joining the board of trustees in 2020, I have given our residents that voice that has been missing over the past administrations,” he said.
Among his accomplishments while trustee, he listed, “Transparency, calling out and getting professional guidance and new eyes into our finances when wrongdoing was discovered; fiscal responsibility, building relationships with federal and state as well as local elected officials to obtain grant monies to improve recreational facilities for our youth; environmental initiatives, continuing stormwater mitigation along Main Street with state funding for continued improvement of our water quality; aquaculture programs to clean and strengthen the condition of our harbor for future generations.”
Weber said the village’s lingering issues would be compounded by new hurdles as it transitions into a post-pandemic era. He listed commerce and stormwater mitigation as priorities once the new board takes office. He also said that building relationships between public/private partnerships and community organizations, in turn, can create a stronger village.
Weber said one example of partnerships has been how as trustee he has already built a relationship with the local community organization Not in Our Town and the Town of Huntington Anti Bias Task Force to address hate and antisemitism after incidents in the village.
He also said he would work to connect local businesses with the community and has a plan for stormwater mitigation.
“Building relationships with business owners and bridging residents and customers to those businesses to help fill storefronts and keep our downtown thriving is an initiative that I have already begun and will continue to do,” he said. “Stormwater mitigation or the ‘flooding on Main Street’ has and probably will always be an issue due to our Main Street being in a valley. Using federal money for dry wells and filtration as well as installing rain gardens along these key areas will help to alleviate the increase of nitrogen in our harbor. Partnering with key environmental organizations within the village to educate and get our community involved in this extremely important issue is currently happening, and will continue
if elected.”
Two-year trustee
Meghan Dolan Saporita
Meghan Dolan Saporita
Trustee candidate Meghan Dolan Saporita, a litigator in both the public and private sectors, said in an email that running for village trustee wasn’t something she ever thought she would do. Throughout her career, she has been a trial attorney and an assistant district attorney for Nassau County. She is the mother of school-aged children and is a current member of the Ocean Avenue PTA and a youth soccer coach in the village. Dolan Saporita is also one of the co-founders of Not In Our Town Northport which works with the community, school administration and police department to stand up against hate and bigotry. NIOT also heads up donation drives for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays as well as school supplies.
“My decision to enter the race was really organic, growing out of my work the past few years in this village, the relationships I have formed here, and the real opportunity for new and needed leadership in this particular election,” Dolan said. “In attending and speaking at the village meetings, it became clear to me that new voices — voices of women, parents and young people — are essential to continuing to make Northport Village the best it can be. I decided to enter the race because I am dedicated to Northport and because I am qualified, experienced, and professional, all qualities that Northport Village deserves in its leaders.
Dolan said she feels the biggest problem facing Northport Village is environmental.
“We have suffered from flooding in the downtown, which produces significant pollutants which then run into our Harbor,” she said. “We need to make tackling these environmental concerns a priority: addressing the infrastructure (with Federal money) to prevent flooding every time it rains, by committing to native plantings, by following through on commitments to a native tree planting program, in partnership with our incredible local nonprofit Northport Native Garden Initiative, by continuing work on our aquaculture programs, and by starting new initiatives in the village geared towards sustainability.”
Jim Izzo
James Izzo
James Izzo, who owns Cow Harbor Realty, said this is the first time he is running for village trustee. He said when he was president of the Northport Chamber of Commerce, he was slightly frustrated with what he felt was a lack of response from the village during the COVID-19 response by the existing administration.
“We just got to a point where our members needed a lifeline,” he said. “The village did not respond, and as the chamber, we offered multiple things that were safe in nature that could have easily been done and benefited our members and our small businesses. Initially they said, “no,” and then after a while, they just stopped responding completely. So, that level of frustration was my initial looking at what’s wrong and then evolved.”
He said when he moved from Asharoken to the village a year and a half ago, he started “seeing shortcomings that went well beyond how they treated the chamber and its members, but how they treated the residents. So, it really evolved from a level of frustration to a level of, “Oh my goodness, I have to do something.”
Izzo said there may be a myriad of issues in the village but have been identified and are easy to resolve. He said he feels the residents should be more involved in decision-making too, and he doesn’t feel there needs to be so many meetings behind closed doors. He said the village needs accessibility, caring and transparency.
“I’ve been self-employed all my life; and I’ve run my own companies; and I’ve been involved with business improvement districts; I’ve been on a number of boards, where you have a mission statement,” he said. “It seems to me, although in an elected capacity, [village] boards don’t have a mission statement per se, but they still have a mission.”
He added, “a good manager doesn’t solve the problems, a good manager anticipates future problems.”
“It’s more like you anticipate what could come up and you try to anticipate it and resolving before it escalates. So, I think now, what we’re seeing is maybe the tip of the iceberg, and maybe there’s other underlying problems that haven’t surfaced yet, and that’s my real concern.”
Joseph Sabia
Joseph Sabia
Joseph Sabia, the owner of Sabia Car Care, has unsuccessfully run for trustee three times and mayor once in the past.
He said as not only is he a business owner, but as someone who has been a member of the Northport Police Department and on the Northport-East Northport school board from 2011 to 2014, he has seen a lot in the village. He also has been attending the village board meetings for 10 years.
“I’ve been living in the village of over 45 years,” he said. “I have a business here, and I live here, and I raised my family here, and after going to meetings, I realized how this place is run,” he said. “It’s very poor.”
Sabia said as someone who is financially conservative, he feels the village having a more than $8 million fund balance while having a nearly $17 million budget is “ridiculous.”
“Our village, they over budget, underspend and they bank a lot of money,” he said.
He said a $4 million reserve would be enough for a village the size of Northport, and he also feels that the village needs to stop raising taxes needlessly, especially with rising inflation.
“You look at every and each individual department, you see how much money has been spent the year before. The real numbers. And that’s when you go back to which is called the zero-based budget. So, if they spent 4 million less you go back to the 4 million less and then raised taxes on the 4 million less than what Curtis’s and if you have the reserve that you have, which is eight and a half million, you don’t raise taxes at all.”
Sabia said he would do his best not to raise taxes, but he understands there are situations where it may be necessary.
He said other issues on his mind are the deteriorating conditions of roads, sidewalks and curbs in the village. Sabia added he has seen overgrown trees where the roots are breaking up the sidewalks. He also said the village has to look at the stormwater runoff issue on Main Street, and he believes rain gardens and catch basins can help.
One-year trustee
Michael Bento
Michael Bento
A financial professional and as someone just starting a family, Michael Bento said he can bring a unique perspective to the village board.
He said one of the key issues is the fiscal challenges that will be brought on by the school tax hike due to the LIPA settlement, and he plans to keep village taxes low to offset the effects. He said his goal is to fight for federal infrastructure funds that New York State will allocate and search for intergovernmental grants.
“To me the biggest problem facing our village is the impact of the LIPA settlement,” he said. “The school tax hike after the glidepath has been exhausted will make Northport unaffordable for many families if we are not agile and proactive with offsetting the pain on other tax lines, such as village taxes or instance,” he said. “I am looking to leverage my experience as a financial professional to find as many offsets as I can to help keep village taxes low without sacrificing the quality of our services.”
Bento also listed other issues in the village such as repairing roads, sidewalks and storm drains. The flooding on Main Street is also on his mind.
“The health of the harbor is also of great concern,” he said. “Infrastructure grants would also go a long way toward mitigating runoff, but also partnerships with NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and non-profits dealing with marine and environmental issues are also essential to keeping our waters clean for the next generation.”
While Bento has been a full-time resident since he his wife, Victoria, settled in the village in 2017, he said he would visit his grandparents in the summer when they had a house in Northport.
“We chose Northport because drawing from my own childhood experiences we could not envision raising our future kids anywhere else,” he said.
Ernest Pucillo is also running for trustee but could not be reached.
March 15
Residents will be able to vote for the Village of Northport mayor and trustees on March 15 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Northport Village Hall, 224 Main St.
The Selden campus of Suffolk County Community College. File photo
Suffolk County Community College was recently named a Hispanic-Serving Institution, also known as HSI, the first school in the county to receive this designation.
Christina Vargas, Suffolk County Community College’s chief diversity officer, discusses the school’s designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Photo from Suffolk County Community College
The U.S. Department of Education defines HSIs as institutions of higher learning that accommodate a student enrollment of at least 25% Hispanic full-time equivalent students. This distinction is a reflection of the evolving cultural makeup of the area.
“We’re fortunate that we now have a proportional number of students that are here and that we serve,” said Christina Vargas, chief diversity officer and Title IX coordinator of SCCC, in a phone interview. “It makes me very proud and it makes the college really proud that we serve the needs of the community.”
The most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the Hispanic population accounts for approximately 20% of all Suffolk County residents. That figure is up 2% since 2013.
“When you think about what the census has told us about the changing demographics of Long Island, we’ve kind of known this is coming,” Vargas said. “This is where we are. We have a diverse, rich set of cultures represented at our college.”
Vargas believes that higher education is the proper venue for Hispanic communities to strengthen their understanding of their own cultural background. She says that SCCC maintains close touch with these communities through its partnerships throughout the county.
“Our president recently met with leaders of the Brentwood community, including the school districts of Brentwood and Central Islip and the Brentwood library,” she said. “This will give us more energy and direction to make sure those partnerships continue to be strong and that we understand what our high schools need, what our community members need and that we are in tune with the issues of the community.”
Two-year colleges such as SCCC accommodate some of the largest student populations and offer a stepping-stone for academic and professional advancement. Additionally, the HSI designation reflects a modern approach to higher education, one which highlights foreign language skills and cultural awareness as critical for meeting the demands of the 21st-century job market.
“When it comes to the job market, for example, I can’t imagine that bilingual skills won’t be on the top of people’s lists,” Vargas said. “We want to be inclusive and respectful and helpful to all individuals that we serve.”
Vargas said this HSI designation marks the next chapter for SCCC in its mission to support those populations. According to her, students no longer have to
leave Suffolk County to receive a quality two-year education.
“To be able to say that right in your backyard, at the college that you choose to go to, we can be there for you to meet your educational goals and dreams, I think it means a lot to us,” she said. “That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to transform lives and provide real educational goals for anybody that comes to our doorstep. We’re here to help them grow in every way possible.”
SCCC also has been named one of the nation’s Top 10 2-Year Schools by Region 2019-2020 by Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine. In addition, it is the top SUNY institution for Hispanic students in the rankings released by the magazine.
Donations collected on March 3 at the offices of county Legislator Stephanie Bontempi and Dr. David Buchin. Photo by Raymond Janis
The response of Long Islanders to help Ukrainians has been encouraging.
On March 3, Suffolk County Legislator Stephanie Bontempi (R-Centerport) and Dr. David Buchin headed up the Long Island Ukrainian Emergency Response Drive at their offices, located at 224 Wall St. in Huntington. Local elected officials and community members joined them to gather items such as blankets, medical supplies, sleeping bags and other essentials to send to the embattled country.
On Monday, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. (D) announced the addition of nearly 450 pieces of bulletproof body armor from his office to the items already collected in Huntington. The College Hunks moving company assisted in delivering the items to the New York City processing center and from there the items will be shipped to Ukraine.
Donation drives similar to those of Bontempi and Buchin along with rallies to support Ukrainians have taken place all over the TBR News Media coverage areas. The message sent across the globe is that we stand with the country in their fight against Russia.
TBR News Media readers have also reached out with letters to the editor condemning Russia’s actions, and another reader shared the struggles his Ukrainian family faced in the past. He hoped that history would not repeat itself, but he was ready to help any relative who needed his assistance.
The last few years have been divisive ones for the United States. Between the political divide and our battle against COVID-19, it seemed as if we couldn’t look past our own borders. Now we see Americans uniting once again for a cause.
It’s a shame it took such a tragedy to bring us all together. It may have taken a war, but Americans seem once again united behind a common theme: the cause of freedom, democracy and the right of a free people to self-determination.
As U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY3) said on March 3 in front of the offices of Bontempi and Buchin, “We have to follow the old idea that partisanship stops at the water’s edge. We have to all hold together like we are today.”
As we watch Long Islanders work together to help people struggling on the other side of the globe, let’s remember what it’s like to be united as Americans, not only past the water’s edge but on our own island.
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