Smithtown Township Arts Council has announced that the works of East Northport artist M. Ellen Winter will be on view April 26 to June 27 at Apple Bank of Smithtown, 91 Route 111, Smithtown. The exhibition, part of STAC’s Outreach Gallery Program, can be viewed during regular banking hours Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Winter has been painting and drawing for as long as she can remember and teaching for 30 plus years. She had a studio in Northport for two years, moving to a home studio in 2002. She taught Adult Education art classes for 28 years at Huntington High and now teaching Adult Education at Northport.
Instructing in oils, watercolor, acrylic, and pastel, she focuses on portraits, landscapes and still life. She has exhibited in many shows over the years, receiving awards for her art. Ms. Winter holds the Grumbacher Gold award and award of excellence in portraiture from Nassau County among many others. She is retiring from teaching in her home studio to allow her to focus on her own art. She plans to continue to teach Northport Adult Education.
“The Arts Council is grateful to Apple Bank for its continued support of culture in our communities. We are so happy to feature the talents of Long Island artists in this space!” read the press release.
The Town of Smithtown Youth Bureau, in partnership with the Town of Smithtown Parks Department and Public Safety Department, is hosting a Long Island Cares Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank Stuff-A-Truck event to make a difference in the lives of those who are less fortunate.The event will be held on Sunday, May 1st, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Smithtown Town Hall, located at 99 W Main Street in Smithtown.
“Our Town Youth Bureau, along with a great group of community-minded young people, is inviting local participants to ‘Celebrate the Joy of Giving” with them. Time after time, our young people show us all how much can be accomplished with just a little compassion and thoughtfulness,” said Supervisor Ed Wehrheim.
All residents are invited to ‘Shop & Drop’individually, as a family, or with their group. Students have the opportunity to earn community service credit for participating. To earn two hours of community service credit, students should gather and donate at least ten different items from the suggested items list. To earn three hours of community service, students should gather and donate at least thirteen different items from the most needed items list andsubmit an8 ½” x 11” card or poster which expresses the theme of “The Joy of Giving,” along with their donation. Students can choose either of these options to earn a Town Certificate of Community Service. A maximum of three hours can be earned.
It is requested that you donate products that are in boxes, cans, or plastic bottles, and do not require refrigeration. To promote healthy eating, we ask for items that are low in sugar/sodium and free of high fructose corn syrup. No glass jars will be accepted. The most needed items right now include: low-fat & non-refrigerated milk; rice; canned vegetables (low or no salt); olive oil (no glass jar); cereal/oatmeal; canned fruits (low or no sugar); tomato sauce (no glass jar); canned meat/poultry/ham/fish; peanut butter; jelly/jam/spreadable fruit; tissues; toilet paper; and canned meals (ravioli, etc.).
Town of Smithtown Youth Bureau staff, as well as Town Youth Advisory Board and student Volunteer Corps members, will be on hand to run this drive-through food donation event and make this an effortless and fun experience for participants.
For further information, contact the Town of Smithtown Youth Bureau at [email protected]. Visit the Youth Bureau website for more information about their other supportive programs and services for students and families at www.smithtownny.gov/youthbureau.
Finally, two years later, we were going to see Billy Joel. We had bought tickets to a concert in April of 2020, which was canceled because of the pandemic. The rescheduled event last year was also delayed.
An anticipation had been building that reminded me of the seemingly endless three years between the end of the Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.”
Within a few blocks of the stadium, we ran into the heaviest traffic we’d experienced in Charlotte, North Carolina since we arrived four years ago. My wife asked if I wanted her to park the car so I could make sure I was in our seats on time. I declined, knowing I didn’t want to experience any part of the evening without her.
While we sat in our car, waiting for the slow line to move, we watched as many of the people heading to the stadium were our age or older. We were either being nostalgic or hoping Billy Joel’s music could be our musical time machine.
We arrived at the stadium well before the 8 pm start time, where every seat gradually filled. When Joel started the concert at 8:30 with “My Life,” the packed crowd roared its heartfelt approval.
The weight of time — the two years anticipating this concert and the decades that passed since I first enjoyed the song’s lyrics and melody — quickly slipped off my shoulders.
Flashing lights from the stage and enlarged images of Billy Joel’s 72-year old fingers dancing across the piano keys created a visual spectacle. Accompanied by saxophone and trumpet players who would have blown the roof off the building if there were one, Joel thanked the crowd for coming after a long delay.
With songs from several albums through the 70s and 80s, Joel shared some of his biggest hits. People in the crowd played their own version of the show “Name that tune,” shouting out the song’s title as quickly as possible.
Thanks to Linda Ronstadt, who Joel said encouraged him to play “Just the Way You Are,” he included that love song. Joel said he and his wife, for whom he wrote that song, got divorced, so people shouldn’t listen to him.
But listen to him and his music we did. When the lights were off, the packed crowd swayed back and forth, holding up cell phones with lit camera lights, the way previous generations of concertgoers held up their lighters.
As he’s done at other concerts I attended, Joel stopped singing and the band stopped playing during “Piano Man” while the audience sang the chorus, “Sing us a song you’re the piano man. Sing us a song tonight. Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody and you’ve got us feeling alright.” I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with a smirk and goosebumps.
Swaying and singing in our seats, we were active participants in this long-awaited evening out, allowing ourselves to enjoy moments of unity.
Not as spry as he’d been decades ago, Joel moved more gingerly. He still shared his storytelling and lyrical voice, captivating an appreciative crowd. In between tunes, he noodled at the piano, as if he weren’t in an enormous football stadium in North Carolina below the image of a ferocious panther but was, rather, in a piano bar somewhere in New York City. He said the “key” to his longevity was “not dying.”
When the nighttime air got too hot for us, a light wind, which is uncharacteristic for Charlotte, washed over our skin. Leaning in, my wife smiled and whispered, “cue the breeze.”
The music itself reached much deeper than the wind, refreshing our souls and allowing us to revisit people like Sergeant O’Leary, the old man making love to his tonic and gin, and the “Big Shot.”
A man I never met had a profound effect on my early life. Indeed, I could not have met him since his 200th birthday was this past Tuesday.
There are millions of others whose lives he has touched and continue to touch all over the country. His name is Frederick Law Olmsted, and along with a colleague, Calvert Vaux, he designed Central Park in the late 1850s. He went on to design many other parks and public spaces, but Central Park was his first.
Olmsted was more than a landscape architect, and his philosophy and appreciation of community and human nature were built into his designs. Proving that I am not the only one who feels his importance, I was pleased to notice a special section about Olmsted published in Tuesday’s New York Times. All subsequent quotes are from that section, written by Audra D.S. Burch, with sayings from essays of Frederick Law Olmsted.
“In plots of earth and green, Olmsted saw something more: freedom, human connection, public health…Olmsted’s vision is as essential today as it was more than a century ago. His parks helped sustain Americans’ mental and physical health and social connections during the darkest days of the pandemic. As COVID-19 lockdowns unlaced nearly every familiar aspect of life, parks were reaffirmed as respite, an escape from quarantine.”
Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park. Pixabay photo
And this from Olmsted: “The park should, as far as possible, complement the town. Openness is the one thing you cannot get in buildings… The enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it, tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it; and thus through the influence of the mind over the body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system… We want a ground to which people may easily go after their day’s work is done, and where they may stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the streets, where they shall, in effect, find the city put far away from them.”
When people ask me where I grew up, I answer, “New York City,” but I should answer “Central Park.”
Almost every Sunday without inclement weather, my dad would take us to the park for the day, giving my mom time for herself. It worked out splendidly for him because he grew up on a farm and never liked the urban surroundings in which we lived. It also gave him some uninterrupted time with us since we didn’t see much of him during the work week. And of course it was welcomed by my mother, who then had a chance to sleep in and tend to her own needs.
Dad would awaken early, make us a creative breakfast that always involved eggs and braised onions plus whatever other ingredients happened to be in the fridge. Never were two Sunday breakfasts the same. Then we would go off, my younger sister and I with him, to “The Park.”
There were many different destinations once we left the street and stepped into the greenery. We roamed along countless paved paths, over charming bridges and through tunnels (always yodeling for the echo effect), climbed rocks, crossed meadows, watched baseball games on several ballfields, played “21” on the basketball courts (if we had remembered to bring a basketball), watched older men competitively play quoits (pitching horseshoes) and munched on crackerjacks — my dad limiting the three of us to one box. I usually got the prize since my sister wasn’t interested.
On beautiful days, when longer walks beckoned, we would visit the merry-go-round and ride until we were dizzy. Or we would spend the afternoon at the small zoo. My dad taught me to row on the Central Park lake. And always the air was fresh, the seasons would debut around us, the birds would sing and the squirrels would play tag through the trees.
By pre-arrangement, my mom would appear with a pot of supper, some paper plates, forks and a blanket, and we would eat in a copse or a thicket of brush. Then, as the sun was setting, we would walk home together.
Attorney Joseph Bollhofer describes the legalities surrounding the lawsuit aimed at the Town of Smithtown that would delay the Gyrodyne subdivision approval on the Flowerfield site. Photo by Chris Mellides
Three Village Civic Association member Herb Mones (left) and Jessica Jones, civic board member (right), show their support for protecting the Flowerfield site. Photo by Chris Mellides
Head of the Harbor village trustee and neighborhood preservation coalition spokesperson, Judy Ogden, speaks in favor of a lawsuit aimed at delaying the Gyrodyne subdivision approval on the Flowerfield site. Photo by Chris Mellides
Concerned local property owners were joined by members of Saint James-Head of the Harbor Neighborhood Preservation Coalition and other representatives to block the planned subdivision by Gyrodyne to repurpose the 63-acre Flowerfield site. A legal challenge was filed April 26 to overturn the March 30 preliminary subdivision approval by the Town of Smithtown Planning Board.
The application proposal from Gyrodyne included a multistory 125-room hotel along with 250 assisted living housing units, 175,000 square feet of office space, parking to accommodate over 2,000 cars and a 7-acre sewage plant.
Among those who spoke at Tuesday’s press conference on the corner of Mills Pond Road and Route 25A outside of Flowerfield were local attorney Joseph Bollhofer; Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook); legal counselor E. Christopher Murray; and Judy Ogden, Head of the Harbor village trustee and neighborhood preservation coalition spokesperson.
“Our lawsuit has been filed and the decision to file this litigation against the Smithtown government was not made lightly,” Bollhofer said. “Like many of you, I love this town. I grew up here, my wife was born in St. James. In the 1970s, I did my Eagle Scout project for the benefit of the people in this town.”
Bollhofer went on to say that the “Smithtown government is doing a very good job” yet its handling of the Gyrodyne application has been bungled. “It’s been our hope that we are able to preserve this property,” he added. “We’ve been doing our best to get the people involved with this to come together to try and find a way to get the money to pay Gyrodyne fair compensation for this open space.”
Representing Three Village Civic Association was Herb Mones. “Smithtown has to go back and review its determinations on this property,” he said, while also saying that in the opinion of many in the civic association, the Town of Smithtown did not pay close enough attention to the law that required them to “carefully review what the buildout would mean to the surrounding community.”
Living just 600 feet up the road from Flowerfield, Ogden spoke on behalf of residents in the communities of both St. James and Head of the Harbor. Together, Ogden said community members have been speaking publicly against the Gyrodyne subdivision application for the past two years.
“We’ve been speaking at public forums, at Zoom meetings, writing letters and sending emails at every opportunity that has been provided to express our concerns with the proposed Gyrodyne megadevelopment,” she said. “But no matter what we say or how many people show up, our voices have been ignored.”
For more than a year, opponents to the subdivision application have said that the environmental impacts of changes Gyrodyne made to its original plan after the initial environmental review was completed have not been evaluated and “did not comply with state law,” according to a press release issued on the day of the event.
“The role of government is to show leadership, which represents all people of the community and follows a comprehensive plan steering development in the right direction, while preserving and enhancing the nature of our community and natural resources,” said Ogden.
Suozzi announced $300,000 will be used for shellfish seeding of Hempstead Harbor, Oyster Bay and Huntington Harbor. Photo from Suozzi's office
On April 21, representatives from local environmental groups joined U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) at Sea Cliff Municipal Beach for an announcement affecting the Long Island Sound.
Suozzi said he helped deliver more than $33 million of federal funds that will be allocated for the Sound and environmental cleanup projects across the Island and Northeast Queens.
Out of this allocation, $300,000 will be used for shellfish seeding of Hempstead Harbor, Oyster Bay and Huntington Harbor to purchase approximately 10 million seed clams to be placed in the three harbors. The clams will be strategically placed in areas where they will not only filter the water, but also produce sufficient larvae to greatly expand those populations well into the future.
“Community Project Funding allows members of Congress to request funding to support specific community projects that will have the most real-life impacts in their districts,” Suozzi said. “Of the eight projects that I secured in the federal budget, five of them are environmental cleanup and restoration projects. I have devoted a significant part of my past 25 years in public service to cleaning up the pollution, dramatically reducing nitrogen, modernizing sewage treatment plants, and restoring shellfishing in our local waters. Since coming to Congress in 2017, I have fought for and successfully helped increase federal funding by 900% to clean up and restore the Long Island Sound. This $33 million, one of the largest single federal investments in environmental cleanup and restoration across Long Island and Northeast Queens, will go a long way in restoring and improving the Long Island Sound for generations to come.”
The funding is part of the federal budget signed into law last month. It represents one of the largest single federal investments in environmental cleanup and restoration across Long Island and Northeast Queens.
Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, at the press conference, called the funding a reason to celebrate.
“Long Island Sound is a natural treasure that offers all segments of society the opportunity to enjoy fishing, swimming, beach-filled days, and water-based family activities,” she said. “Restoration efforts are working and the Sound is getting cleaner. Increased funding will help us continue progress on reducing nitrogen pollution, filtering stormwater runoff and restoring wetlands. It will also help us address new challenges to the Sound including impacts from climate change, invasive species and plastic pollution.”
Hundreds of cars were on display at the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds attended the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds attended the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds of cars were on display at the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds of cars were on display at the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds of cars were on display at the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds of cars were on display at the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds attended the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
Hundreds attended the Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack. Photo by Cowboy Joe
East to West Classic Cars hosted its sixth annual Cars and Guitars Classic Car Show and Fundraiser on April 24 at Miller’s Ale House in Commack.
The outdoor car show and concert featured hundreds of cars of all varieties, live music, raffle prizes and more.
The goal of the event is to raise awareness for PTSD and funds for Hope For The Warriors, a national nonprofit that provides comprehensive services that support the well-being of post- 9/11 veterans and active- duty, military families and caregivers and families of the fallen.
“Each year, we’re blown away with the support of the East to West Classic Cars volunteers and the entire Long Island community,” said Robin Kelleher, co-founder and president of the nonprofit organization in a statement.“Last year’s event was larger than ever coming off the heels of the pandemic, everyone was in great spirits.”
The Town of Smithtown Highway Department began the paving season last week, equipped with new machinery geared at saving tax dollars and executing projects at a much more efficient pace. The new BOMAG milling and Cimline pothole repair machines were approved for purchase by the Town Board last Summer (July 2021) and acquired by the Highway Department early this year. On Tuesday, April 12th, Highway crews used the new milling machine to remove old asphalt along Brooksite Drive. The paving of Brooksite Drive from New Mill Road to Jericho Turnpike was completed within two days. Additionally, the Highway Department did not have to seek private contractors to perform the work, which results in significant savings for the taxpayers.
“Milling work has been farmed out to private contractors in the past. When you look at the big picture, all the roads that are paved inside of one season, adding to that, the cost of inflation, this machine will save a noteworthy amount of tax dollars this year and in the years to come. Additionally, both the milling machine and the pothole repair machine give our road crews an edge to complete high quality work more efficiently, which translates to less traffic, safer roads and happier residents, myself included,” said Supervisor Ed Wehrheim.
In addition to the recent work on Brooksite Drive, Highway crews have begun the final phase of work in a three year road reconstruction project for the Forestwood area. This initiative was a community collaboration between the Highway Department and the Forestwood Civic Association. The project involved repairing or replacing damaged concrete, sidewalks and curb cuts, and paving New Mill Road, Flamingo Drive, Larkspur Drive, Cygnet Drive, Teal Lane, Dove Lane, and Mark Drive. This week, the Smithtown Highway Department began the last of the concrete curb and driveway apron work along Cygnet Drive. Final asphalt paving will commence upon the completion of the Cygnet Drive effort.
“We can’t just go in and pave over already damaged roads. When concrete is broken, water gets in and that badly damages the roads. Performing road reconstruction projects such as the one in the Forestwood area will sustain the infrastructure for upwards of 20-30 years. That results in fewer resources required to maintain the Town’s 470 miles of roads, which in turn nets a major savings for Smithtown Taxpayers. This course of action is the responsible thing to do. But we’re also building safer streets for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers, preventing costly motor vehicle repairs, and preventing dangerous and costly flooding from occurring. In conclusion, rebuilding infrastructure with this path forward addresses everyone’s interests, needs, wallets and future,” said Robert Murphy, Superintendent of Highways
Highway crews have begun a similar concrete and road program in the Mills Pond Estates this week. The work is being done in house and will include the replacement of curbing, aprons (where applicable) and curb cuts throughout the subdivision roads. Temporary patch work is currently underway along Meadow Road, while school is out for the Spring break. The Town is actively working with Congressman Zeldin’s office to secure additional federal grant funds to replace the drainage infrastructure and to permanently repair Meadow Road. Additionally, materials required to begin pothole repairs, with the newly acquired machine, are expected to arrive within the next two weeks. Work will begin immediately following. Residents can download the Town of Smithtown Mobile App for real time updates regarding roadwork, detours and potential travel delays.
Founder Daniel Gale, above, and his assistant Miss Jean Wallice — the future Mrs. Kent Gale — in front of the Daniel Gale Huntington office, circa 1940. Photo from Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty
Not many companies make it to 100 years in business, but Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty did just that this year.
Below, Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty’s President and CEO Patricia Petersen poses in front of the Cold Spring office around 1990. Photo from Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty
Daniel Gale founded the company on Feb. 9, 1922, and chose Main Street in Huntington for his real estate and insurance agency. When he picked the spot, the founder was encouraged by the fact that the town was a stop on one of the Long Island Rail Road lines. A century later, the company remains family owned. Through the decades the founder’s son Kent, until his passing in 2014, grandson Stan, and Kent Gale’s protégé current chairperson and president Patricia Petersen have continued to head up the company along with CEO Deirdre O’Connell.
History
In a recent phone interview, Petersen and O’Connell discussed the company’s history. Over the hundred years, Daniel Gale has grown from a business with one office to 30 locations not only on Suffolk County’s North Shore but across the Island. In 2014, the brokerage company opened offices in Queens and this year Brooklyn.
Petersen said she believes one of the company’s assets is that it has been family owned. She learned the benefits of this early on when she started in real estate in 1975 in the Cold Spring Harbor location, which was the company’s second office. Petersen said as a mother, she was hoping to work part-time but quickly found out it was difficult to become a successful real estate agent with limited hours. She said Jean Gale, the wife of the founder’s son Kent, would help get her children off the nursery school bus, give them lunch and then get them to day care.
“Somehow we cobbled it together and made it work,” Petersen said. “It’s kind of how we run the company. Whatever the agents need, Deidre and I figure out a way to provide it.”
Petersen went from agent to office sales manager, company general manager and relocation director through the years. She credits Kent Gale with recognizing she had potential. In the early ’90s, she began buying the company with Kent’s son Stan Gale and became president and CEO.
Kent Gale, son of founder Daniel Gale. Photo from Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty
In turn, one of the talents Petersen recognized was O’Connell. The latter said her career in real estate began with another company in 1991. She opened her own office in Manhasset and her second one in Cutchogue. Daniel Gale then bought her offices, and she became part of the company in 2007. O’Connell helped the brokerage expand to the North Fork. She went on to become a regional manager then general manager of the company, and became CEO four years ago.
Both said they appreciate the history of Daniel Gale. As the centennial celebrations began, Petersen said, it was a reminder of everything the company had been through since its founding. The ups and downs of the current pandemic, she added, can be likened to founder Daniel Gale’s early days.
“Daniel Gale went through the Depression and went through the [second] World War,” she said.“In fact, he started the company right after the first World War, and then he had to go through the second World War. We have had our own challenging times over the years, but certainly that’s not new to us. We’ve always been able to not just survive but thrive in really any kind of market.”
O’Connell said she believes the company thriving goes back to its foundation.
“Certainly, in times of crisis we use that as an opportunity to assess the crisis and to utilize that and to come out of it as a growth opportunity, because after every crisis comes opportunity,” she said. “We’ve always been able to seize those moments.”
As for the pandemic, O’Connell said the company realized the importance of pivoting early on during the shutdowns by going virtual. Within a month, she said, Daniel Gale had an open house with 150 homes virtually showcased.
“Yes, everyone could do it eventually, but we seized the moment to once again help our agents help their customers and clients in providing them the service and marketing of the moment,” O’Connell said.
Petersen and O’Connell also recognize the importance of marketing in the real estate field. An early marketing tactic of founder Daniel Gale in the 1920s, Petersen said, was buying a tract of land along with two investors. One lot had a miniature model house buried in the ground. Petersen said whoever bought the plot would win a house built for them. She added that the person turned out to be a builder, so he was given two more lots instead of having a house built for him and the win spearheaded his own business in the area.
Pat Petersen and Deirdre O’Connell. Photo from Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty
Sotheby’s International
Another milestone in Daniel Gale’s history was when the company became affiliated with Sotheby’s in the 1970s. The auction house needed an outlet for its clientele. After Sotheby’s International Realty was created, Daniel Gale became affiliated with it on Long Island and went on to become its No. 1 affiliate in the world.
O’Connell called the move a game-changer which allows Daniel Gale agents to bring their properties around the world but still have representation on Long Island.
“Larger firms that are represented, even here on Long Island, their decisions during hard times aren’t made here locally,” she said. “They’re made maybe in New York City or across the country somewhere. We live and we work, we do everything with our people first in mind.”
She gave the example that during the Great Recession of the 2000s, while big corporations laid off people, “Pat Petersen put personal money into the company to make sure that we didn’t have to cut our people.”
Keeping employees in place is something the company was able to do during the pandemic, too.
“We kept everyone on the payroll because we could make that decision,” O’Connell said.
The present and future
Later this year, Daniel Gale plans to open a new office in Huntington located cata-cornered where the original 1922 building was on Main Street. The company also recently launched the Daniel Gale Foundation to enable the company, which has donated tens of thousands in the past, to make a bigger impact.
O’Connell said Daniel Gale offices have always been involved with their communities “through a wide range of community service initiatives and donations.” With the new foundation, offices will choose a few events each year to work on with the whole company.
“The Daniel Gale Foundation will enable us to make an even greater impact with our giving by consolidating our giving efforts across the Island from Brooklyn to Shelter Island and make them even more impactful,” O’Connell said. “The foundation is about more than giving dollars, it is having the Daniel Gale family roll up their sleeves, put on their sneakers or pick up their shovels to work in our communities as a team.”
The two said it’s important to be proud of the past but it’s also essential to keep an eye on the future. Currently, like other realty companies, Daniel Gale is keeping up with the current seller’s market. O’Connell said while inventory is low, sales are high.
“We get 10 houses on the market, or an office has five houses on the market in a weekend, and they’re all gone by Monday,” O’Connell said, adding she believes the market will normalize in the near future.
Petersen added the importance of pricing correctly in any market.
“Part of our job is to be good counselors,” she said.
As they look toward the future, Petersen and O’Connell said the ways of communicating continue to change with social media platforms, but the key is to maintain high quality just like they do in ads and online.
“You have to be true to yourself, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done in the last 100 years,” Petersen said. “Not that I had much to do with the first 50, but I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished and what is still yet to accomplish.”
Drone footage of Gaynor Park in St. James. Drone footage from Town of Smithtown, Planning Department
The Town of Smithtown Parks Department is scheduled to complete the main Little League field at Gaynor Park in the coming week for local, young athletes and their families to enjoy in time for the season.
In addition to this renovation, construction of the new synthetic field at the largest softball field at Moriches Park is expected to be completed in a month’s time. These improvements are the result of a partnership with the St James Smithtown Little League for field improvements to both increase the amount of field time, as well as enhance the safety and overall experience for local youth.
“There is really nothing like building a park that our young residents get to enjoy and build lifelong memories on,” said Town of Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim (R). “I want to express my gratitude to the St. James Smithtown Little League for this collaboration between parents, coaches and our team here. Secondly, I need to really shed light on our parks team for an outstanding job well done. Every member of the Parks Department genuinely comes to work, loving what they do each day for our community. Like me, they live for the smiles on the faces of our kids enjoying the game, the camaraderie and soon, the new fields.”
The ball field at Moriches Park and the little league field at Gaynor Park have been resurfaced with a 90-foot synthetic turf infield. Both synthetic fields feature new upgrades for safety, including raising the fencing to upwards of 10 feet, to protect spectators and vehicles from fly balls.
At Gaynor Park, brick walkways surround a tinted concrete sidewalk. The darker concrete will extend the appeal and overall aesthetics of the areas frequented by spectators. This addition to the facility at Gaynor will complement the previous renovation work, which included new Basketball, and Tennis courts in addition to a new state-of-the-art playground.
At Moriches Park, the Parks Department will be rebuilding a new dugout, backstop and added fencing as part of the field restoration. The synthetic field replacement compliments previous park renovations including the artificial turf field replacement at the Moriches Park Soccer Complex, which was completed last April. Additional renovations completed at Moriches Park include the new soft splash pad at the waterpark, state-of-the-art playground, interactive playhouse, new fencing surrounding the play areas, concrete sidewalks, LED user-friendly crosswalk and landscaping.
All residents are invited to ‘Shop & Drop’ individually, as a family, or with their group. Students have the opportunity to earn community service credit for participating. To earn two hours of community service credit, students should gather and donate at least ten different items from the suggested items list. To earn three hours of community service, students should gather and donate at least thirteen different items from the most needed items list and submit an 8 ½” x 11” card or poster which expresses the theme of “The Joy of Giving,” along with their donation. Students can choose either of these options to earn a Town Certificate of Community Service. A maximum of three hours can be earned.
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