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Times of Middle Country

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By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

The pain in my abdomen climbed from a relatively mild one, which pediatrician’s offices usually represent with a slightly puzzled but still pleasant stick figure face, all the way to a 10, with a crying stick figure in extreme duress, in under five minutes.

Doubled over, I shuffled to my wife’s working station in our house and sat, uncomfortably, in a chair next to her.

She started to talk and then looked carefully at my face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as I twisted in my seat.

“I have serious pain in my abdomen and back,” I said.

We knew what that likely meant. We’d been through this before, although last time was much more terrifying because we had no idea what was going on. Also, six years ago, the mysterious symptoms, including searing back pain, uncontrollable nausea and vomiting and extreme discomfort, appeared and disappeared. I might have had some reaction to bad food, we thought, or I might have inadvertently consumed my food kryptonite, dairy.

“It’s probably kidney stones,” my wife said, as she stood on my back to try to relieve some of the developing pain.

I twisted on the floor, hoping I wouldn’t have to go to an emergency room that was likely overwhelmed with the latest Delta variant wave of COVID-19.

I did the I’m-okay-and-can-tough-it-out-at-home-but-wait-maybe-I’m-not dance for about 10 minutes before I gave in and shuffled towards the car.

As soon as I got in the garage, I made a quick u-turn and headed to the closest bathroom, where I knelt next to the toilet and vomited.

“It’s another kidney stone,” I sighed in between heaves.

With a bucket in the backseat on the way to the hospital, I contorted my body into different positions, hoping to find one that would offer some relief. The last kidney stone episode taught me that wasn’t likely, as I did everything but stand on my head in the basement all those years ago to ease the unrelenting pain.

Fortunately, the emergency room only had two people waiting on a Friday morning. My wife spoke through a plexiglass shield with the receptionist, sharing my details while I disappeared beneath the counter into a crouched position.

The receptionist directed my wife outside until I had a room. I waited on the floor, with the same bucket at my side, for a nurse to call me.

During the 20 minute wait, the pain eased up just enough to allow me to breathe more normally and to sit on the floor. A chair was still not an option. The two other people in the waiting room were too engrossed in their phones to notice me.

Once I was in an examining room, I called my wife, whose sympathetic eyes and encouraging words eased some of my discomfort. She answered questions from the nurse as I stood on the floor and leaned the top of my body over the hospital bed as if I were praying.

The nurse promised to return with morphine. In the few minutes he was gone, I felt closer to a four on the pain scale.

I considered not taking the narcotic. The roller coaster ride along the pain pathway makes managing kidney stones, and so many other types of discomfort, difficult. Each moment of comfort is like a sliver of sunlight between heavy rain clouds.

The doctor confirmed our kidney stone diagnosis. He thought I’d pass the stone that night or the next day. I didn’t have any such luck, as I fought through symptoms for 10 days.

Finally, the obstruction exited. I was so elated that I jumped up and down in the garage with my baffled son, who was returning from an errand.

As others who have had kidney stones can attest, the experience is extraordinarily uncomfortable and painful. I feel fortunate for all the support from my wife, children, brothers, mother and friends. I can only imagine what people hundreds of years ago must have thought when these stones made their painful journey.

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By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

The way my parents remembered Pearl Harbor is the way I remember the assault on the twin towers the sunny, beautiful September day that changed our lives. In both instances, our nation was attacked. For my parents, the attackers were readily identifiable: a hostile country declaring war. For those of us who watched the planes crash into the iconic New York buildings, the culprits were evildoers. Who were they? Why were they intent on killing the passengers on the planes and the workers in the offices, all civilians?

At first, in our total unpreparedness, we thought it was an accident. The pilot had a stroke. The plane suffered a mechanical failure. The brain struggles to supply an acceptable explanation for the unacceptable. When the second plane hit, we knew it was an intentionally horrific act. How could this be happening? Where were our defenses?

I was on my way to HSBC Bank when the first plane hit. I had been told by the bank manager to come early because I was taking out a loan to buy the other newspaper in town, The Three Village Herald, and the closing was in the attorney’s office later that day. I got there a couple of minutes after they opened, and I was the only customer. The tellers were in the private staff room, watching the television and following the sounds, I wandered in just in time to see the second plane hit the South Tower. The two women in the room screamed as the manager yelled profanities. I had never before heard him so much as raise his voice.

We were riveted to the television screen, smoke and fire pouring from the buildings, and then the phone rang. The manager left the room to answer it, and when he returned, he informed me that I couldn’t leave. He had gotten the order to lock the doors of the bank to prevent a run, and he had immediately complied. I spent the next five hours in their company. The four of us stared at the television and saw the plane hit the building over and over as the networks continually replayed the footage. The sight will be forever imprinted on my brain.

A tormenting visual over all these 20 years is one that I actually did not see. In my 20s, I worked for Time-Life on the 32nd floor of their building on 50th Street and 6th Avenue, opposite Radio City Music Hall. I had been delighted by the view from the office windows, the cars like toys and the people like ants in the streets below. I know how life unfolded right after getting to work in the morning in such a location. Women went to the bathroom to put on mascara and fix their hair, little preparations for the day they didn’t have time to do before rushing to the subway. Men lined up at the coffee trolley, affectionately called “the roach coach,” in the hall for that cup of java and maybe a Danish to bring back to their desks to help power them through the morning. These are the ordinary activities in the first hour of work.

That’s what ordinary people were doing in the skyscrapers on Tuesday, September 11, when they died.

The killers took away those people from their wives and husbands and children and mothers and fathers when they flew the planes into the towers. Those workers are forevermore missing, as are the twin fingers pointing to the sky in the Manhattan silhouette each time I cross the bridge into town. And life goes on, as it always does, no matter what happens.

We attended a New York Press Association conference in Vermont two days later, and people flocked to us when we stopped for gas and they saw our New York plates, to express their sorrow and their support. People flew American flags everywhere. For at least six months, everyone held the doors open for those behind them. Shared tragedy evokes kindness. 

We were all one that day.

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Tropical Storm Ida’s heavy rains may create a breeding ground for the mosquitoes that carry West Nile Virus, health officials warn.

“Following the recent heavy rainfall, we are concerned that standing water and summer temperatures will allow mosquitoes to proliferate,” Gregson Pigott, Suffolk County health commissioner, said in a statement. “While there is no cause for alarm, we ask residents to cooperate with us in our efforts to reduce exposure to West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.”

As of last week, 92 mosquito samples and four birds had tested positive for West Nile virus. From Aug. 25 to Aug. 26, 21 samples tested positive for the virus.

At least one mosquito from samples collected in Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington Station, Northport, Stony Brook, Port Jefferson Station and Rocky Point tested positive for the virus, according to the Suffolk County Health Department.

Most people infected with West Nile Virus, which was first detected in Suffolk County in 1999, have mild or no symptoms. Some, however, can develop high fever, headaches, neck stiffness, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis, according to the health department.

Over the last 20 years, the number of mosquito samples testing positive for West Nile ranged from a low of eight in 2004 to a high of 295 in 2010, a year that also saw 25 human cases with three deaths.

Pigott urges residents to wear shoes and socks, long pants and long-sleeved shirts when mosquitoes are active. He also suggested using mosquito repellent, while reading and following directions carefully.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends repellents containing DEET, oil of lemon eucalyptus, picaridin and IR3535, which can be used on skin and clothing. For children, lower concentrations of DEET are preferable, according to the CDC.

Insect repellents with permethrin should only be used on clothing and not directly on the skin.

Effective screens on windows and doors can keep mosquitoes out of homes and living areas.

Emptying containers that hold water, such as vases, pet water bowls, flowerpot saucers, birdbaths, trash cans and rain barrels can reduce available water sources for mosquitoes to lay their eggs. Scrubbing containers like pet water bowls can remove insect eggs that might otherwise survive.

Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital, explained that most disease doctors are on the lookout for West Nile infections. He tests everybody with an unexplained fever or other symptoms.

In a typical year, Huntington Hospital sees a few cases of West Nile. So far, Popp said, the hospital hasn’t reported any such illnesses.

“It is hard to say if it will be more prevalent this year since we had only a few cases in New York State so far and it is already the end” of the summer season, Popp wrote in an email.

While Popp said anyone is vulnerable to West Nile Virus if he or she is bitten by a mosquito, most cases are asymptomatic. Fewer than one percent of those who contract West Nile Virus develop more severe symptoms.

For those people who have more severe symptoms, doctors don’t have many tools at their disposal.

“There is no etiologic therapy,” Popp explained in an email. “Therapy is supportive, symptomatic care.”

The county urged residents concerned about West Nile Virus to download a copy of an informational brochure called “Get the Buzz on Mosquito Protection” on www.suffolkcountyny.gov.

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Photo from Alice Martin

Alice Martin remembers it like it was yesterday. 

Her husband, a lieutenant in the FDNY’s Rescue 2, left his Miller Place home on Monday afternoon, Sept. 10, for his 24-hour shift in Brooklyn. He was supposed to come home Tuesday night, but he unfortunately never walked back through the door. 

“I left all the lights on in the house,” she said. “I left the front door unlocked because I figured maybe if he gets his way home somehow, he would just come in.” 

The mom of three boys, ages 13, 8 and 6, had just finished dropping them off at the bus stop when the first plane hit the tower on Sept. 11.

“As the day unfolded, and I was watching the news, I realized he could be there because even though he didn’t work in Manhattan, he was in a rescue company,” she said.

But Peter was always fine, Alice thought. “Then by six o’clock, when obviously he never called and then he didn’t come home, it became very real.”

Looking back two decades later, she doesn’t know how she did it. 

“It was beyond horrible,” she said. “But especially as a mom, that’s really the key. I went into mommy gear right away. My kids needed me more than they’ve ever needed me, and I really  needed to keep my head screwed on straight.”

Photo from Alice Martin

Peter C. Martin began his career as an FDNY firefighter in 1979. A native of Valley Stream, he graduated from St. John’s University where he met his future wife. 

“He was good at it and he loved it,” she said. “I think most of them do … It really is a calling.”

A full-time dad, who also worked at the Suffolk County Fire Academy as a teacher, she said her husband was just “a really good guy. A wonderful dad, and a wonderful husband.”

The two were married for 17 years when he passed away.

“It’s strange … I’ve been without him longer than I’ve been with him,” she said. “I never remarried, and my heart still belongs to him.”

According to Alice, Peter was just 43 years old on 9/11 and was among seven that were killed that day in his firehouse.

“I started calling the firehouse in Brooklyn and nobody was answering. My kids started asking questions,” she recalled. “And as the hours were going on, I felt useless because I wanted to do something. So, I actually started calling hospitals that I knew they were taking the wounded to.”

She eventually got a call that her husband was missing and unaccounted for. 

“That’s when neighbors started coming over, people started reaching out to me, which was comforting in some ways and frightening at the same time,” she said. 

Alice said the outpouring amount of love and support she and her boys got from the local community during that time was “wonderful.”

“I can say nothing bad,” she said. “There was just such a generous spirit from the people of Sound Beach, Miller Place and Rocky Point … That whole area, the letters I got from strangers.”

Peter was the only 9/11 victim from Miller Place. 

“I have to say it was a horrible, horrible situation, but it was also — now looking back — just unbelievable, the goodness of people to strangers they never met,” she said.

Along with learning that a community can come together, Alice said she’s learned two other things after that day’s events.

“I believe in the gift of time with finding a new normal and learning how to live,” she said. “I started taking one thing at a time, whether big or small, I just took everything one thing at a time.”

Twenty years later, with her now-grown sons and a grandson who bears Peter’s name, they still talk about him every single day. 

“Now the good thing is any stories that are told, it’s peaceful because we’re not crying, we’re just talking about him,” she said. “You just keep going, and I’m still going.”

Alice said that her husband would be “busting over the moon” knowing that he’s now a grandpa, and that the baby is Peter Charles Martin, the second. 

Photo from Alice Martin

“He’d be so happy to see that these three little boys have become three wonderful men, all doing wonderful things, all living their dreams,” she said. 

And the sons followed in their dad’s footsteps. All three have begun careers helping other people; as a registered nurse, paramedic and licensed Master of Social Work. 

“They’re definitely making a difference in the world,” she added. “He’d be so proud with everything.”

Peter loved snacks and Alice will be reminded of him when she bakes certain things. 

“I don’t believe in closure, but I do believe in the gift of time and the healing that can come with that,” she said. “The hardest part is you have to go through it.”

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Photographer Bolivar Arellano captured the destruction in Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks. Photo by Bolivar Arellano

With our 4-month-old daughter in a stroller, we followed the same path so many others did in the days after 9/11. We ventured to the nearest fire station, on East 85th Street in Manhattan, where several members of the rescue squad had died racing to the burning World Trade Center towers.

Daniel Dunaief

We passed the familiar posters with the faces of people missing after that day, taped to almost every telephone pole, fence and door by relatives desperate for a miracle.

People had covered a car on the same block as the fire station with so many flowers that it was difficult to see the car’s original color.

Slowing our pace, we reached the station where larger-than-life pictures of the faces of firefighters served as a memorial.

Firefighters at the station greeted their guests with grace and dignity, talking about their fallen comrades, accepting the food neighbors had purchased or cooked, and taking other tokens of appreciation and expressions of shared grief. The car covered in flowers belonged to one of the rescue workers killed that day.

Some of the visitors lost the battle to control their runaway emotions, struggling to offer comfort through their tears. The firefighters comforted them, thanking them for coming and offering something to the effect of “I appreciate your visit” and “I know what you mean.”

When it was our turn to speak, we offered some version of our thanks, handing a gift to the people who would continue to risk their lives to protect people in the neighborhood.

The weeks that followed the attacks were a blur, with images of the then-heroic Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) demonstrating defiance and resilience on TV interspersed with hard-to-breathe moments when parts of the towers passed us on the roads as the city cleaned up the site.

Among the 2,606 people who died at the WTC — then or later from injuries — I thought about the ones I knew well.

A financial services reporter for several years, I regularly called analysts at the boutique investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. I frequently chatted with three of them in particular: Marni Pont O’Doherty, Tom Theurkauf Jr. and David Berry.

While he was often in a hurry, Tom never ended a conversation without his familiar, “Good to talk.” Two decades later, I can still hear his energetic and respectful signoff.

David shared quotes and insights without changing his pitch, tolerating ridiculous questions and challenging what I thought I knew.

A self-described “banking nerd,” Marni loved her job. I called her with all kinds of rumors about bank mergers and she never discounted any possibility. She would tell me why something might make sense. Often she would conclude by saying she wasn’t making the decisions and that bank executives had done stranger things.

They were three of the 67 people who lost their lives at KBW.

In the weeks after the attacks, an eerie graciousness fell over a city where verbal confrontation is a way of life. As we walked or drove through the city, we didn’t hear any car horns. A light would turn green and every car would wait for the people, who might be mourning a loss, to go.

Everyone, however, didn’t come together then, just as people across the political aisle today rarely come together.

Indeed, with attacks and hostility toward Middle Easterners rising in the weeks after the attack, numerous taxi and limo drivers attached bumper stickers to their cars, indicating that they were proud Americans or that they were, say, Sikh Americans.

The flyers eventually came down or blew off poles and crosswalk signs, the trucks stopped hauling beams and other pieces of the towers, and drivers honked again.

In the 20 years since, I have tried to balance between appreciating the privilege of knowing Marni, Tom, David and others and the agony of realizing all that they, and their families, lost. They weren’t my best friends or my family, but they were — and continue to be — missed and remembered. And, thank you, Tom. It was “good to talk.”

Daniel Dunaief writes a weekly science feature called the Power of Three and a weekly column called None of the Above for TBR News Media.

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Stony Brook WTC Wellness Program clinic. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Dr. Benjamin Luft remembers the feeling of being prepared to treat 9/11 survivors and then no one arrived at the hospital.

Dr. Benjamin Luft is the director and principal investigator at Stony Brook WTC Wellness Program. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Stony Brook University was among local medical facilities that were prepared for the arrival of 9/11 victims when Luft was the chairman of the Department of Medicine. He said, like others, he had seen the towers falling on television, and from the 16th floor of SBU’s Health Sciences Tower, he could see the smoke from the World Trade Center.

“The idea was that there was going to be real mass casualties, and that this would overwhelm the system in New York,” he said.

Medical teams from various departments met in the conference room of the Department of Medicine, but he said “it became obvious as time went on, that there was no one coming to Stony Brook.”

“It was eerily ominous, because we began to understand that either people had escaped the buildings, or … that there were relatively few survivors from the attack itself,” the doctor added.

He said anyone seeking treatment stayed in the city, and the hospitals in Manhattan weren’t overrun as originally anticipated.

Luft, who is now the director and principal investigator at Stony Brook WTC Wellness Program, said after the tragic day he visited Ground Zero to see what was happening at the site. It was there he witnessed what first responders were being exposed to while working.

“It was obvious that there was going to be a lot of responders that were going to become ill as a result of that, because there was a tremendous amount of dusts and toxins in the air,” Luft said. “There was a lot of fire, burning, and there was a lot of fumes that came off of burning plastic and electronics.”

He added there were traumatizing events that people at the site experienced such as seeing bloody human parts and, for earlier responders, people jumping out of the towers.

He said shortly after September 11, local labor leaders met with him and told him how many of those first responders lived on Long Island and were getting sick. He learned that while many were insured, their insurance wasn’t covering their health issues due to them volunteering and not doing what the insurance companies considered on-the-clock work while helping to clean up and recover victims at Ground Zero.

The struggle of the Long Island first responders led to the development of the Stony Brook WTC Wellness program. In 2002, patients at first were just screened and monitored and then in 2005 doctors began treating them. Luft said in the early days of the program SBU Department of Medicine employees would volunteer to treat the patients. Over time the program began to receive financial resources to expand its services.

The Suffolk location of the Stony Brook WTC Wellness Program is located on Commack Road in Commack. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Luft said the program follows the cases of approximately 13,000 Long Islanders in both Nassau and Suffolk counties, with one clinic in Commack and the other in Mineola. At first, patients were displaying acute reactions to their exposure. Cases included asthma, upper respiratory disease, sinusitis and gastrointestinal disease, he said, due to the amounts of dust the patients had taken in during their time at Ground Zero.

Over the years, the doctor said patients began developing illnesses such as cancer, but doctors have also seen psychiatric problems such as PTSD and depression.

The responders “had seen people die,” he said. “They were in danger all the time.”

Doctors are also seeing cases of dementia in patients. Luft said one theory is that when a person is exposed to certain toxins it can increase their chances of having dementia. He gave the example where areas with higher pollution have much higher rates of Alzheimer’s.

With studies showing that patients with PTSD have cells that age more quickly, the WTC Wellness Program began monitoring patients.

“We saw something that stunned us, and quite frankly at first we were very skeptical,” Luft said. “We went through a variety of different studies and tests to confirm our results.”

Twenty years after September 11, the doctor said it’s possible that first responders will present with more health issues in the future, but no one can be certain with what illnesses.

The Stony Brook WTC Wellness Program’s Suffolk County office is located at 500 Commack Road, Commack.

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Centereach junior forward William Thu takes possession in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East senior Tyler Moses heads the ball up-field in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Timeout Centereach. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East senior Sean Garry passes upfield in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East senior Sean Garry passes inside in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Centereach senior Oscar Garces pushes up-field in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Oscar Garces with a clearing shot in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Oscar Garces in control in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Oscar Garces with the header in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Oscar Garces maneuvers mid field in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Oscar Garces takes possession in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Oscar Garces (l) battles Cole Pergan in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior forward Michael Hoffmann’s shot on goal in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior forward Michael Hoffmann heads the ball in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East senior Matthew Zodda settles the ball in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East senior Matthew Couto heads the ball up field in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East senior Matthew Couto with a clearing kick up field in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East senior Liam Stanley in traffic (l) battles Oscar Garces (r) in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East senior Liam Stanley in traffic in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Centereach sophomore Jhon Garces collides with a defender in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East senior Jean Flores steals the ball in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East senior Jean Flores pushes up-field in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Centereach senior James Malone (r) battles Matthew Zodda for the header in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East sophomore Eldis Radoncic maneuvers mid-field in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East sophomore Eldis Radoncic maneuvers mid-field in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East sophomore Eldis Radoncic maneuvers mid-field in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Collision mid-field Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Smithtown East senior Cole Pergan passes outside in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo
Centereach sophomore Anthony Traube passes inside in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach sophomore Anthony Traube takes possession in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach senior Anthony Fabris (l) Cole Pergan and Oscar Garces in traffic Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Centereach junior Andres Garces battles Matthew Couto battle for the ball in the Cougars season opener against Smithtown East Sept 4. Photo by Bill Landon
Smithtown East senior Alex Palas clears the ball upfield in the Bull’s season opener against Centereach. Sept 4. Bill Landon photo

The Cougars of Centereach fresh off their season opening victory two days earlier, chalked up another one in the win column when they edged visiting Smithtown East 2-1 at home Sept 4.

Senior mid-fielder Oscar Garces struck first scoring at the 27-minute mark off an assist from senior forward Robert Arenas. With 4 minutes and 42 seconds left, Smithtown East senior Alex Palas drove his shot home to make it a new game. Thirteen minutes into the second half, Arenas scored off an assist from Garces to put his team out front, 2-1. Centereach senior goal keep Ryan Jenkins was kept busy in the final minutes with a late game attack from the Bulls but finished the game with seven saves to secure the win.

Centereach is back in action Sept 9 hosting Half Hollow Hills East while the Bulls have a road game against Huntington. Both games start at 4 p.m.

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Pixabay photo

It’s been a difficult 18 months, especially when we think back to the early days of the pandemic as we watched businesses across our communities adjust to state mandates after COVID-19 raged through our area. From limiting capacity to some businesses not being able to operate at all, many owners had difficulty adjusting.

Despite the lifting of state mandates a few months ago, many are still suffering.

As we look around more and more, places are closing or are in jeopardy of shutting down. In the last two weeks, we have heard the news of the Book Revue in Huntington set to close by Sept. 30. After 44 years of business, the village staple is in a financial hole.

The store had been shut down for three months during the pandemic. Once it was reopen, the business struggled to get back on its feet, and the owner fell behind on the rent.

To the east, Smithtown Performing Arts Center is having trouble holding on to its lease of the old theater. The nonprofit is also behind in its rent and has been unable to make a deal with the landlord, which led him to put the theater up for sale two weeks ago.

Both businesses received assistance during the pandemic. The Book Revue, like many others, was fortunate to receive loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program to pay employees’ salaries and keep the lights on. For SPAC, the nonprofit received a Shuttered Venue Operators Grant but needs to have a full account of debts to be able to reconcile grant monies.

With the pandemic lingering, what many people are discovering is that the assistance just artificially propped them up for a short while. Now more than ever, local businesses and nonprofits need the help of community members to enter their storefronts and buy their products. When a consumer chooses between shopping or eating locally instead of online or going to a big chain, it makes a difference.

If one looks for a silver lining in all this, it may be that many business owners have come up with innovative ways to stay open, while others have embraced curbside pickup and created websites and social media accounts that will be an asset in the future.

And while it’s sad to see so many favorite businesses closing their doors, it also paves the way for new stores with fresh ideas to come in with items such as different types of ice cream or creative giftware or clothing.

Many of our main streets need revitalization and the arrival of new businesses or current ones reinventing themselves can be just what our communities need to reimagine themselves — and not only survive but thrive in the future.

We can all help small local businesses stay afloat, whether it’s an old staple or a new place. Because at the end of the day, if a store or restaurant has been empty and the cash register reflects that, we’ll see more and more empty storefronts in our future.

Spend your money wisely — shop and eat locally.

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Sandeep Kapoor, MD, AVP of addiction services for Northwell Health Emergency Medicine Services, stopped by Mather Hospital’s Overdose Awareness Day information table Tuesday to chat with Richard Poveromo, LMSW, AVP for Transitions of Care, and Alice Miller, LCSW-R, Director of Mather’s Outpatient Chemical Dependency Program. The table offered information on overdose prevention and how to reverse an opioid overdose using NARCAN. Photo from Mather Hospital

In recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31, Northwell Health held a system-wide event to provide resources to help prevent future overdoses, as well as recognizing those whose lives have already been cut short by substance use.

The effort included the staffing of tables at 13 Northwell facilities where patients, employees and members of the public could find information about the wide range of services and programs offered by the health system for people struggling with a substance use issue and for concerned relatives, friends and members of the community.

“Awareness and understanding are some of the most powerful tools we have in the fight against the opioid epidemic,” said Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, assistant vice president of addiction services for Northwell’s emergency medicine service line. “Events like these provide members of our community with the tools they need to protect themselves and their loved ones. And by framing substance use as a medical issue like any other, we help lift the stigma that can close people off from seeking help.”

Mather Hospital had a table in the main lobby beginning at 11 a.m., offering overdose information as well as NARCAN training to reverse an opioid overdose. People in attendance could be trained in the use of naloxone, a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, and after training, they could receive a rescue kit containing the medicine. 

Information was also available on how to access addiction care provided by Northwell and other providers in the community, as well as how to connect with Northwell’s Employee and Family Assistance Program, a free and confidential counseling service available to the health system’s 76,000 employees and family members.

“Our employees are not immune to this crisis and neither are their families,” said Patricia Flynn, assistant vice president of employee wellness at Northwell. “We are committed to providing them the support they need to stay healthy, physically, emotionally and mentally.”

Drug overdose deaths in the United States increased by nearly 30% in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reaching a record level of more than 93,000. Experts point to the extreme stress caused by the pandemic as a likely cause, along with increased difficulty in accessing treatment.

 “Substance misuse and addiction are profound threats to the health of our community, and we can’t allow the focus on COVID-19 to deflect us from our work to prevent and treat their effects,” said Bruce Goldman, LCSW, senior director of behavioral health at Northwell and head of substance abuse services at Zucker Hillside Hospital, a Northwell behavioral health facility. “Even in the midst of the pandemic, substance use disorders remain one of the primary drivers of misery. We want our patients and our workforce to understand that no matter what their needs, help is available at Northwell.”

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Pictured left to right: Volunteer Christopher Wesselborg, Executive Director Marc Alessi, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker, Chief Operating Officer Douglas Borge. Photo from Sarah Anker

It was a night to remember. 

On Saturday, Aug. 28, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) was one of many who attended the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe’s Sound of Science musical event in Shoreham. 

The event, sponsored by the TSCW and the Rites of Spring Music Festival, featured interactive exhibits and activities related to the connection between science and music, a tribute to scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, and electric musical performances from the Rites of Spring Ensemble.

The show included 12 musicians who played innovative music on electric instruments. Unlike other concerts, the show was featured at a unique venue and open-air theater with Tesla’s famous tower base as center stage and his laboratory as a backdrop. 

It began with an interactive surround-sound experience on the octagonal tower base, plus exhibits featuring singing Tesla coils, theremin and the science of sound.  

After, the Rites of Spring Ensemble performed an electric concert featuring new music by Kanasevich, Mazzoli, Clyne, Akiho, Rodriguez, Romitelli and Little. 

 “The Sound of Science was a fantastic event that was enjoyed by all,” Anker said. “Thank you to the many Tesla Science Center board, staff and volunteers that continue to find creative and exciting ways to share the contributions of the world-renowned scientist and inventor, Nikola Tesla, with our community.”

The TSCW is a not-for-profit organization that aims to develop the site of Nikola Tesla’s last remaining laboratory into a global science center that provides innovative learning experiences, supports the advancement of new technologies, and preserves Nikola Tesla’s legacy.

In July, the organization hosted another event to celebrate Tesla’s 165th birthday. 

Earlier this year, they held a “Metal for Tesla” event where people donated previously used metal to raise funds towards rebuilding Tesla’s famed towner on the Shoreham grounds. 

For more information about upcoming events and programs or if you’re interested in volunteering at TSCW call (631)-886-2632 or visit teslasciencecenter.org.

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