Suffolk County Police arrested three people on Jan. 20 in connection with burglaries at Dunkin and other commercial establishments that have occurred since December. A pair allegedly broke into Dunkin, located at 1105 Horseblock Road in Farmingville, stole cash and fled to a waiting vehicle at approximately 3:40 a.m. A short time later, detectives pulled over the vehicle and arrested the driver, Michael Gruber, and passengers Kristen Osmolia and Christopher Volpe.
A further investigation by Major Case Unit detectives determined Gruber and Volpe were also responsible for the following burglaries during which money was stolen:
Dunkin Donuts located at 411 Furrows Road in Holbrook, on January 3
Dunkin Donuts located at 235 West Main St. in Smithtown, on January 20
Dunkin Donuts located at 430 North County Road in Saint James, on December 29
Dunkin Donuts located at 5050 Nesconset Highway in East Setauket, on December 27
Osmolia, 51, of Holbrook, was charged with three counts of Burglary 3rd Degree for the Dunkin burglaries that occurred in January in Farmingville, Holbrook and Smithtown. She was charged with three counts of Burglary 3rd Degree. Additionally, she was charged with Burglary 3rd Degree for a burglary at Sunoco in Hauppauge on December 15.
Gruber, 54, and Volpe, 44, both from Holbrook, were charged with five counts of Burglary 3rd Degree. Volpe was also charged with two counts of Burglary 3rd Degree for a burglary at Sunoco in Hauppauge on December 15 and Toast in Port Jefferson Station on December 3 as well as nine domestic-related warrants. Gruber was additionally charged with Burglary 3rd Degree for a burglary at Toast in Port Jefferson Station on December 3.
A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
The New York State Council on the Arts recently dispersed grants to nonprofit arts and culture organizations with the intention of helping them recover from the aftermath of COVID-19 shutdowns.
‘The vast majority of our artisticmasterpieces and institutions were birthed from philanthropy of some kind.’
—Tom Manuel
In a press statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said, “As a cultural capital of the world, New York state is strengthened by our expansive coverage of the arts across all 62 counties. This year’s historic commitment to the arts sector will spur our continuing recovery from the pandemic and set the course for a stronger future.”
Local organizations — including The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook, Preservation Long Island in Cold Spring Harbor and Huntington Arts Council — have announced that they are among the NYSCA grantees.
The Jazz Loft
The Jazz Loft has received two grants totaling $50,000 from NYSCA: the Regrowth and Capacity grant for $10,000 and the Support for Organizations grant for $40,000.
The grants will be used to support the venue’s performance schedule, which includes more than 160 shows each year. Tom Manuel, president and founder of The Jazz Loft, said in an email the funding would make additions to the programming possible during the 2023-24 season. It will also help with the Loft School of Jazz program for high school students.
Manuel said learning about grant funding “is always a feeling of both excitement and relief.” “The arts has just been one of those mediums that has existed due to patron and government support since the time of Bach and Beethoven and even earlier,” he said. “The vast majority of our artistic masterpieces and institutions were birthed from philanthropy of some kind.”
The venue employs musicians at a cost of a quarter million dollars annually, according to Manuel, and in December The Jazz Loft welcomed 2,000 visitors.
“We’re honored to be a part of a wonderful community and that we can generate traffic and tourism throughout the village,” he said. “Our plan for the NYSCA grant funding is to present a series of world-class performers and educational events that will continue to support our artistic community and draw visitors from near and far.”
Huntington Arts Council
The nonprofit Huntington Arts Council has received a Statewide Community Regrant totaling $1 million over two years.
Kieran Johnson, executive director of the Huntington Arts Council, said HAC was grateful and humbled. He added the HAC grants are different from others as it’s not entirely for the council but to help other organizations recover. The organization has been part of the regranting program since it was a pilot in the 1970s.
“It’s all about supporting local artists and local arts organizations across Nassau and Suffolk counties,” Johnson said.
‘That’s the idea behind the SCR program, taking the money, keeping it local and really growing local economies, also.’
— Kieran Johnson
He said he remembers a statistic he once read that stated every dollar put into the local creative sector generates $5.25 of regional gross domestic product.
“That’s the idea behind the SCR program, taking the money, keeping it local and really growing local economies, also,” he said. “It’s a huge economic impact.”
Recently, the HAC granted $351,000 to organizations in Nassau and Suffolk countiesdue to the New York grant and are in the process of sending the funds, Johnson said. Previous years the total amount of grants HAC dispersed has been around $120,000.
The state funds will help HAC award mini-grants every month for $1,000 for one person and one organization for a total of $2,000 a month for the next two years. Each month a new person and organization will be chosen. HAC also is running a professional development series for artists and organizations that includes brand identity, social media, legal courses and more.
“That’s our primary role of the HAC, we are an artist support organization,” he said.
Preservation Long Island
NYSCA also presented grants to Preservation Long Island based in Cold Spring Harbor. The nearly $70,000 in grant money will support “regionally focused historic preservation advocacy and public education programs,” according to the organization.
The funds were awarded in two grants to PLI: $20,000 in Recovery Funding and nearly $50,000 through the renewal of the Support for Organizations grant.
PLI will be able to help fund the rehiring of seasonal museum educators on Long Island and reopen historic houses which were closed to the public during the pandemic. Funding will also be used to enhance digital programming strategies introduced during the pandemic.
Alexandra Parsons Wolfe, executive director, said fortunately, many arts and cultural organizations received Paycheck Protection Program loans.
“We were not abandoned during the pandemic,” Wolfe said. However, she added more relief is needed.
The regional organization is able to help smaller organizations on Long Island that may not have the means to hire a paid staff in their pursuits to implement preservation projects for endangered historic places.
“I can’t emphasize how important the New York State Council on the Arts is to the cultural institutions of Long Island and New York, and it’s so worth tax money to be able to support organizations like ours,” she said.
Owl Hill estate is located south of Sunken Meadow State Park in Fort Salonga. Photo from Douglas Elliman Real Estate
A county legislator continues his commitment to saving a historic property in Fort Salonga from developers.
Suffolk Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) said the county earlier this month made an offer to the owners of Owl Hill Estates & Preserve to acquire its Fort Salonga property for $6.3 million. The owners have yet to accept the offer.
Trotta said the goal is to keep the property as open space for walking and hiking trails and “making Long Island stay Long Island and not making it look like Queens.”
“We really don’t need to tear down every forest and build,” he added.
Owl Hill is located at 99 Sunken Meadow Road, bordering Sunken Meadow Park and wetlands. The property spans nearly 27.7 acres. In 2017, the property was up for sale for the first time in more than six decades at a price tag of $6.45 million. The current owners bought the property with plans to subdivide and build up to 17 homes.
According to Trotta, the property is a critical watershed and conservation area with mature woodlands and wildlife habitat. One of the largest continuous tracts of open space in the Town of Smithtown, it may have significant archaeological resources.
Trotta said that a nonprofit or possibly the state would maintain the 6,500-square-foot mansion that sits on the property if the county acquires the land. The developers have also presented a plan to the Town of Smithtown where the home would remain untouched.
Earlier this year, Suffolk County Legislature passed a resolution to authorize an appraisal of the land under the county’s Drinking Water Protection Program.
Keith Macartney, president of the Fort Salonga Association, said civic members are concerned about the possibility of development on the property and hope the owners will accept the county’s offer.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property, and it’s among properties that have been left alone that people can enjoy and the wildlife can enjoy,” Macartney said.
Among the civic members’ concerns is increased traffic in the area, especially with the future development of the Preserves at Indian Hills, which falls in the Huntington portion of Fort Salonga. Macartney said building more homes would be “a travesty.”
In a 2020 The Times of Smithtown article, Corey Geske, Smithtown resident and scholar, said the property’s historical importance is on par with Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay. The first patent lawyer in the U.S., Edmund Wetmore, commissioned architect Henry Killam Murphy to design the estate home. One of Murphy’s notable works includes designing the campus of the University of Shanghai.
Attorney Vincent Trimarco Sr., who represents Owl Hill Estates & Preserve, confirmed the owners received the county offer but he said he didn’t have knowledge as far as whether they were considering it. The owners still need to appear before the Town of Smithtown Town Board regarding final approval of the subdivision. The attorney said that if the owners are approved, the houses will be part of a clustered development and several acres of the property would be left as open space.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, announced the first round of recipients of opioid settlement funds at a Jan. 12 press conference. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page
County Executive Steve Bellone (D) announced the names of 34 organizations who will receive $25 million to combat the opioid crisis in the first round of funding secured by the county’s settlement against manufacturers, distributors and others involved in the crisis.
Suffolk County Legislature Minority Leader Jason Richberg, at podium, was on hand to announce the first round of recipients of opioid settlement funds at a Jan. 12 press conference. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page
The grant recipients, who were among the 111 that applied for funding, include community groups, nonprofits, for-profit groups and county agencies and will receive the funds over a three-year period.
The county hopes to provide funds in the next couple of weeks to combat a crisis that COVID-19 exacerbated in the last few years.
“We had begun to make real progress in the battle and in 2019, deaths declined for the first time in many years,” Bellone said at a press conference Jan. 12 announcing the recipients chosen by a bipartisan five-member committee. The pandemic “reversed that progress and, once again, we saw opioid-related deaths rising.”
Funds from the settlement against manufacturers and distributors of opioids total over $200 million, which the county will distribute over the next 20 years. The second round of funding will begin later this year. The county encouraged some of the groups that didn’t receive funding in the first round to reapply, while opening up the opportunity to other organizations that are similarly dedicated to prevention, education, treatment and recovery.
Urgency
County Legislature Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon), who helped select award recipients, said the committee received over $170 million worth of requests.
“The goal is not only to have an immediate impact, but to have a long-standing impact,” he said in an interview. The committee wanted to take a “multifaceted approach when funding these organizations.”
Richberg said the group took a considerable number of hours to put together the list of recipients for the first round.
“We understood the urgency to make sure this came out in the best way possible,” he said.
The minority leader appreciated the perspective of fellow committee member Sharon Richmond, president of the Northport-East Northport Community Drug and Alcohol Task Force and a victim-advocate whose son Vincent died from opioids in 2017.
Richberg described Richmond as a “beacon of strength” who helped guide the group in the right direction.
At the press conference, Richmond said her son would have been “honored to know that so many people are going to get so much help” with these funds.
‘We want to reach individuals in the community and not necessarily have to wait for someone to come to our emergency departments.’
—Dr. Sandeep Kapoor
Reaching out
The leaders of the groups that will receive this money have numerous approaches to combat an epidemic that has robbed the community of family members, friends and neighbors.
“We want to reach individuals in the community and not necessarily have to wait for someone to come to our emergency departments,” said Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, assistant vice president of addiction services for Northwell Health.
Northwell’s Project Connect Plus will receive about $3.5 million, which is the largest single award in the first round of funding.
Project Connect Plus would like to expand its reach and is partnering with domestic violence organizations and with Island Harvest food bank to create a pathway for people to access support.
“The goal of this initiative is to make sure we can navigate people [to services], build partnerships and ensure that people trust the process,” Kapoor said.
Project Connect Plus is emphasizing the importance of ongoing contact between health care providers and people who need support to defeat drug addiction.
He contrasted the attention most patients get after an operation with the lack of ongoing attention in the health care system for those people who come to an emergency room for drug-related problems.
‘It’s a significant amount of money that will have a significant impact. It means a lot to us to have the support of the county around harm reduction efforts.’
— Tina Wolf
Hospitals typically reach out to patients numerous times after knee operations, to check on how people are feeling, to make sure they are taking their medicine, to check for infection and to remind them of future appointments.
Someone with a substance use disorder typically receives no phone calls after an emergency room visit.
“If [the health care community] is doing right by people with knee surgery, why not take the same approach” for people who are battling addiction, Kapoor said. “We continually engage people to make sure they are not alone.”
Project Connect Plus is also partnering with other organizations, including Community Action for Social Justice, which is working toward increasing safety around drug use.
CASJ’s executive director and co-founder, Tina Wolf, provides direct services to reduce the risk for people who use drugs, such as syringe exchange and risk reduction counseling, overdose prevention training and harm reduction training.
CASJ is receiving $1.5 million from the opioid settlement.
“It’s a significant amount of money that will have a significant impact,” Wolf said. “It means a lot to us to have the support of the county around harm reduction efforts.”
Wolf said the funds will enable CASJ to double its existing harm reduction efforts in Suffolk County, which is important not only amid an increase in substance abuse in the aftermath of the pandemic, but also as people develop wounds amid a change in the drug supply.
In the last few years, amid volatility in drugs used in the county, some fentanyl has included xylazine, a pet pain reliever and muscle relaxant. In Philadelphia, Puerto Rico and Long Island, among other places, xylazine has caused significant nonhealing wounds.
“Some of this money is for wound care issues,” Wolf said.
Other grant recipients include Hope House Ministries of Port Jefferson ($600,000), Town of Brookhaven Youth Prevention Program ($75,000) and Town of Smithtown Horizons Counseling and Education Center ($111,000).
A comprehensive list
The award recipients will update the committee on their efforts to ensure that the funds are providing the anticipated benefits and to help guide future financial decisions.
Groups have to report on their progress, Richberg said, which is a part of their contract.
County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) was pleased with the work of the recipients.
“It’s a fantastic list” that is “really comprehensive and varied in the type of services and the location geographically,” she said. “We do need so much out there.”
She believes the funds will “do some
real good.”
Wolf said she hopes “we don’t all just do well in our individual projects, but we can link those projects together. I’m hoping there’s enough overlap that we can create this net together to really make sure people aren’t falling through the cracks.”
Patrick Burke shoots over Chris McHugh. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Patrick Burke. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Nick Waga finishes the game at the free throw line. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Mike Gitz drives on Lorenzo Rappa. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Nick Waga (top) and Lorenzo Rappa. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Nick Waga an Patrick Burke fight for loose ball. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Matt Bannell shoots over Nick Waga. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Matt Bannell drives on Chris McHugh. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Luke Cecere (right) and Lorenzo Rappa. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Benny Hughes (25 and Patrick Burke wrestle for loose ball. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Jack Melore. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Jack Melore. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Patrick Burke is surrounded by Cougars. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Nick Waga tries to get past Landon Schneider. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Lorenzo Rappa. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Devin Spahn goes hard to the basket. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Ethan Meisel. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Ethan Meisel. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Landon Schnieder (right) fights for loose ball with Chris McHugh. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Mike Gitz shoots over Ben Rappa. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Matthew Rosenhoff (10) shoots over Jack Melore. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Chris McHugh goes strong to the basket for Commack. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Nick Waga goes high for rebound. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Luke Cecere. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Luke Cecere looks for a passing lane as Lorenzo Rappa defends. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Patrick Burke shoots over Chris McHugh. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Patrick Burke drives on Nick Waga. Photo by Steven Zaitz
The mighty have officially fallen.
The Commack Boys Basketball team did something nobody had been able to do so far this season – beat the Bulls of Smithtown High School West.
Led by senior guard Mike Gitz, the Cougars dominated the 4th quarter outscoring the Bulls 24-15, in what had been a tight game through three. The final was 68-57.
Gitz had 12 points in that final period, and it was the second time in two games that Commack dominated a 4th quarter to prevail against a quality league opponent. The Cougars beat the Northport Tigers 62-55 last Saturday in what was also a tight game until late.
With the win, Commack pulls into a tie for first place with Smithtown West, widely regarded as one of the top teams on Long Island, both with records of 10-1 in Conference I play. After dropping their opener to Bay Shore six weeks ago, the Cats have now won 10 in a row.
“The kids really executed the game plan tonight and hit some big shots,” said Commack Head Coach Peter Smith. “This was the first of four road games for us in what will be a tough stretch and I’m glad we started it with a huge win.”
Huge was the theme of the night, and herculean the task of containing Smithtown West Center Patrick Burke, who is 6 feet, 8 inches tall. Burke averages 20 points a game. Commack played a defense by committee against Burke with Cougar power forward Ethan Meisel in the role of committee chair.
“I went out there expecting a battle,” Meisel said. “I just kept focusing on keeping him (Burke) out of the paint. I watched a lot of film leading up to this game to learn what moves he would be looking to make and that helped me in stopping him.”
Burke had 19 points but only three in the 4th quarter.
“Ethan did a great job on Patrick,” Smith said. “But I think we played great help defense tonight, bringing over an off guard to try and keep him bottled up.”
Also bottled up, at least in the 1st half, was Cougar junior guard Nick Waga. Not because of great defense by the Bulls, but because he picked up two early fouls and Smith decided to let him sit.
But the fiery Waga started the 2nd half with a bang. With West leading 26-23, he came off a backdoor curl to hit a corner three and tie the game just 10 seconds into the 3rd quarter. That hoop was his first points of the game.
Waga would finish with 12 points in the quarter, the last three of which coming on a buzzer-beating three pointer to give Commack a 44-42 lead heading into the deciding fourth. He started and ended the period the same way — with long range bombs.
“I had fresh legs and wanted to bring a bunch of energy,” said the 6 foot, 1 inch tall Waga, whose black and blonde wavy coif make him easy to spot on the court. “My teammates motivated me not to put my head down when I was sitting in the first half and we all kept pushing each other to get this win.”
As it was Waga who had fresh legs in the third, it was Gitz who caught fire in the fourth. He hit a runner in the lane to start the period and on the next possession faked out his defender Lorenzo Rappa so badly that Rappa flew in the opposite direction and was absorbed by pick-setting Cougar Chris McHugh, as Gitz casually hit a wide-open three.
It gave the Cougars a seven-point lead and this move, that drew “oohs” and “aahs” from both Cougar and Bull fans alike, might have been the death blow to Smithtown West’s dreams of an undefeated season. With six and a half minutes remaining, the Bulls called a timeout as the buzz of the crowd was still loud enough to drown out West’s pep band.
“I work on that move a lot,” said Gitz, who led all scorers with 21. “I try to use jabs and pump fakes to get the defenders off balance. It was great to hear the crowd after making that play and both the basket and the crowd was a big swing of momentum for us.”
The momentum would stay with Commack, as West would never recover. The Cougar lead ballooned to 14 with three minutes remaining in the game when Gitz drove past Rappa in the lane for a layup.
The rest of the game rendered a formality, Commack gladly went to the free throw line to seal it, and for the second straight game, they closed out a quality conference foe and arch enemy.
“We stay true to our game plan and execute down the stretch,” said Gitz on his team’s ability finish off opponents. “Plus, I think we want it more.”
Now the Cougars truly have what they wanted – a victory over the number one ranked team in Suffolk County and first place in the league with six games to go. Is he thinking about meeting the Bulls in playoffs next month?
“We are going to enjoy this win tonight and focus on West Islip on Thursday,” Smith said. “The ship keeps on going forward and you hope for the best.”
On this night, Smith and his Cougars not only beat the best, but now find themselves in a position to merit consideration as the best.
Matthew Rosenoff drives on Brendan Carr. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Chris McHugh. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Mike Gitz (0) scoops against Owen Boylan. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Nick Waga ball handles with Owen Boylan defending him. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Mike Gitz drives on Emmett Radziul. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Ethan Meisel. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Brendan Fenlon fends off Will Meyer. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Brendan Fenlon. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Jojo Cipollino. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Jojo Cipollino splits the Commack defense. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Andrew Miller. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Will Meyer drives on Ethan Meisel. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Ethan Meisel (23) defends Will Meyer. Photo by Steven Zaitz
JoJo Cipollino and Nick Waga go after loose ball. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Emmett Radziul defends William Pizzolo (11). Photo by Steven Zaitz
Brendan Carr goes high for rebound. Photo by Steven Zaitz
JoJo Cipollino. Photo by Steven Zaitz
Mike Gitz drives to the hoop. Photo by Steven Zaitz
The first three quarters of the Northport Tiger Boys basketball game, Commack had three completely distinct personalities.
The first quarter was essentially a standoff, as the Cougars won it by two. Commack dominated the second quarter, winning it by nine to take a commanding 32-21 lead into halftime.
But Northport made a huge third quarter charge, outscoring Commack 23-11 to take a skinny one-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the final quarter was all too similar to the second, as Commack — propelled by a strong finish that was led by junior guard Nick Waga — improves to 9-1 in the conference by beating Northport 62-55. They have won nine straight conference games and move into second place behind the undefeated Smithtown West Bulls.
Northport drops to 7-3 in the conference which is good for fourth place in League I. Coupled with last Thursday’s loss to Bay Shore, it was the first time the Tigers have lost back-to-back league games since February of 2019.
Waga led the Cougars 28 points including a huge three pointer with two and half minutes remaining in the game which broke a 52-52 tie. Senior guard Chris McHugh had 14 points and was two rebounds short of a double-double.
Senior swingman Brendan Carr led the Tigers with 22 points, hitting four shots from long range. Junior forward Owen Boylan had all 12 of his points on three pointers.
The Tigers had a non-league game on Sunday against Nassau County’s Sewanhaka, which they won 42-38 and resumed their league schedule against Lindenhurst on Tuesday, Jan 17, and won, 70-25.
The Huntington Arts Council recently benefited from a NYS Council on the Artsl grant.
The New York State Council on the Arts recently awarded its Regrowth and Capacity recovery grants to local nonprofits. The grants will help arts and cultural organizations continue to return to pre-pandemic capacity and creation levels by providing monetary relief.
The art community, along with other nonprofits and businesses, was severely impaired by COVID-19 guidelines that had prevented large gatherings of any kind in the early months of the pandemic in 2020. The effects of the lockdown have continued to linger as many people remain hesitant to participate in public events. NYSCA recovery funding efforts are commendable.
Arts organizations that had to furlough staff, cancel programs and cut back their usual offerings may now have a better chance of fully opening their doors again. Canceling programs led to less audience outreach and community support. Grants, such as the ones received from NYSCA, will give organizations the boost they need and, hopefully, remind people that these institutions are essential for community health.
The arts play a vital role in our society. Dance, music, galleries, public works of art and others help us relax; they remind us to take a break from our hectic lifestyles.
News cycles can be disheartening, painting a bleak picture of societies and the future of humanity. Creative works can help us liberate ourselves from these distortions, making sense of the world, improving our quality of lives and elevating moods.
The local economy tends to improve, too, with arts and cultural organizations due to increased consumer purchases and tourism.
Studies have shown that public works of art are beneficial to cities. An illuminated art installation is not only aesthetically pleasing but also can provide needed light along a dark street or path. Public works of art also help community members connect, and people within those municipalities may feel more represented. Art can be used to raise general awareness about various issues, encouraging civic engagement and opening minds.
A building’s mural or art installation in a town may even help to foster pride in one’s neighborhood. Most of all, public art in our local neighborhoods, free cultural programs — whether at an art exhibit or concert at a local park — make these forms of expression accessible to anyone, no matter age or income.
For too long, our communities were isolated as elected officials and medical professionals worked to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, methods of managing the disease left many divided. For a nation and world scarred by isolation and angst, art offers us a path forward and a means to heal.
Many cultural institutions are ready to revitalize themselves. With NYSCA’s Regrowth and Capacity recovery grants, now they can. Let’s take this opportunity to reunite and reconnect through the arts, even if just for a few hours on a weekend day.
Even as we study evolution, we ourselves evolve over time. No, we don’t learn to fly or to breathe underwater. We change over the decades, in part because of social pressure and in part because, well, our cells, organs and experiences align to make us different decadal versions of ourselves. With that in mind, I’d like to share some snapshots from my life.
First decade:
Likes: I adored my parents (most of the time). I also appreciated the opportunity to make new friends and to play any game that involved chasing a ball.
Dislikes: long distances running, homework, dark nights, losing electricity, sitting in the middle of a station wagon with my legs cramped under me.
Favorite food: pizza and grilled cheese with ketchup. It’s not for everyone, but I loved it.
Favorite sport to play: basketball.
Favorite sport to watch: baseball.
Biggest worry: finding parents.
Second decade:
Likes: time with friends, the freedom to drive somewhere on my own (later in the decade, of course).
Dislikes: tough teachers eager to teach me too many lessons, rejections from friends, and too many questions from parents. Waiting for parents to pick me up (until I could drive). Developing an intolerance to dairy, which removed pizza, ice cream and mac and cheese from food options.
Favorite food: Good Steer burger supremes with a root beer and ballpark hot dogs.
Favorite sport to play: baseball
Favorite sport to watch: baseball.
Biggest worry: Losing parents. Getting into college.
Third decade
Likes: getting a job where someone not only paid me to do something I wasn’t sure I was qualified to do, but also sent me on planes to do it. Spending time with friends. Going on vacations with friends and family.
Dislikes: working on weekends and holidays. Going on horrible dates with people who were a little too eager to see fights where teeth got knocked out during hockey games. Then again, some of those unsuccessful dates still bring a smile to my face.
Favorite food: Thai food at a restaurant on the Upper East Side.
Favorite sport to play: volleyball.
Favorite sport to watch: baseball.
Biggest worry: Finding enough time to exercise.
Fourth decade:
Likes: enjoying the miraculous connection that comes from meeting girlfriend/wife. Listening to my wife laugh and seeing her smile. Holding my son and daughter and feeling them relax enough to go to sleep.
Dislikes: trying to figure out how to handle when children got sick, needing something we didn’t have, and packing enough stuff in the diaper bag and the car for needy children.
Favorite food: Who tastes food at this point? We inhaled it in between picking up the food the kids spilled on the floor or in the car.
Favorite sport to play: softball in Central Park.
Favorite sport to watch: my daughter’s active and exciting volleyball matches and my son’s soccer games. I knew nothing about soccer, so I could just be a supportive father and fan without offering unwelcome and unhelpful advice.
Biggest worry: How to keep kids healthy.
Fifth decade:
Likes: holidays, vacations and not needing to stand over the kids when they got too close to the water. Hooray for independent swimming.
Dislikes: driving everywhere with kids and their friends who made the car stink so badly at times that I opened windows in freezing temperatures. Watching kids disappear into their cell phones.
Favorite food: fresh fish on vacations.
Favorite sport to play: I barely played anything. I coached kids and bobbed and weaved between the entitled requests from parents.
Favorite sport to watch: daughter’s volleyball and son’s baseball.
Biggest worry: helping steer kids in the right direction.
Sixth decade:
Likes: time with family and friends, days when pain in my hip stays the same or, rarely, is less than the day before.
Dislikes: not knowing how to handle important technology, an awareness that I’m older than my friend’s parents were when I was growing up, and I thought they were old.
Favorite food: anything that doesn’t keep me up at night.
Favorite sport to play: baseball or anything that doesn’t cause pain the next day.
Favorite sport to watch: baseball.
Biggest worry: the speed at which each day, month and year passes. The prevalence of anger for its own sake and the health of the planet our children are inheriting.
Congressman George Santos, Photo from Wikimedia Commons
By Leah S. Dunaief
Leah Dunaief
“Then give three cheers, and one cheer more, For the hardy Captain of” … no not the Pinafore but publisher of the North Shore Leader. With an appreciative nod to Gilbert & Sullivan, that line well applies to Grant Lally, who warned us of George Santos and his preposterous resume that rivals any tall tale. But unlike HMS Pinafore of 19th century fame for innocent entertainment, Santos may be a peril for our nation.
According to the Leader, a weekly community newspaper, and also The New York Times, PBS News Hour and other first line news outlets, newly elected U.S. Congressman George Santos (NY-3) is a deeply concerning fake who has totally falsified his background, assets and contacts, and who is a wanted petty criminal in Brazil. According to that country’s prosecutors, he stole checkbooks from the elderly patients of his late mother, who was a home health care nurse, and forged checks to steal merchandise. And although he claimed to have graduated from prestigious schools, he is a high school dropout who earned a high school equivalency diploma. He portrayed himself as having worked for top line financial institutions. As to being Jewish with grandparents who escaped from the Holocaust, his mother was in fact devoutly Catholic and his grandparents were born in Brazil shortly after WWII began.
Most serious are his financial claims. He said he loaned $700,000 to his campaign from personal wealth that it turns out he doesn’t have. Lying on a resume is not a crime, but lying on federal financial disclosures is, with each violation bringing a possible five years in federal prison. So where, exactly, did that large money helping him get elected come from?
A recent report in The Daily Beast, according to the Leader, showed that Santos took $56,000 from a Russian money man, a cousin of a Vladimir Putin crony, who is under international sanctions. According to the Leader, “the fact that [Santos’s] two campaigns have received large sums of money from Russian oligarchs close to Putin is cause for real alarm in the U.S. intelligence community.” They are afraid of a potential espionage threat, that he might be a foreign agent. Jim Geraghty, writing in the National Review and quoted by the Leader, offered, “For all we know, some foreign power may have bought itself a congressman. This isn’t outlandish speculation.”
At this point, you, the reader, are probably asking yourself how it could happen that Santos wasn’t discovered far sooner by both Republicans and Democrats. According to an extensive lead article in this past Sunday’s The New York Times, he was. Republicans at several levels knew about the problem but did nothing to unmask the candidate for various reasons: inattention, underappreciated risks, otherwise distracted by the issues rather than the biographies, the promise of another GOP vote in the House, and other speculations. And some Dems knew, too, but were distracted or underestimated the threat Santos’s campaign posed.
Rather than go deeper into this issue, I would like the thrust of this column to be a celebration of the prowess of what The NYT called, “a small weekly paper on Long Island.” Run by Grant Lally, a Republican lawyer and former House candidate, it did its job of functioning as a people’s watchdog, especially on affairs of government, and reporting courageously on its findings.
“The paper published a pair of articles casting doubt on Mr. Santos’s claims that he owned extravagant cars and homes, and labeling him a ‘fabulist—a fake’, though it did not have other specifics that would later come out about his falsified resume or his past,” wrote The NYT on Sunday. “None of the bigger outlets, including The Times, followed up with extensive stories examining his real address or his campaign’s questionable spending, focusing their coverage instead on Mr. Santos’s extreme policy views and the historic nature of a race between two openly gay candidates,” The NYT continued.
Never underestimate a weekly hometown newspaper. Indeed, four cheers.
{Santos represents the 3rd Congressional District, which includes the Towns of Oyster Bay and North Hempstead and a small portion of northeast Queens.}
Roy Gross, of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with an injured owl that was recovering at the Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown.
Roy Gross, of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with a dog rescue.
The rooster, named King Charles, has been at the shelter since July. from Photo from the Town of Smithtown Animal Shelter & Adoption Center
Katniss, Mags and Rue, three rabbits named for Hunger Games characters, were abandoned in Blyndenburgh Park in July of 2022. Photo from the Town of Smithtown Animal Shelter & Adoption Center
Three-year-old German shepherd Linx has been at the shelter for over a year and loves being outdoors. Photo from the Town of Smithtown Animal Shelter & Adoption Center
Dori Scofield, president of Save-A-Pet with two cats Oreo and Cookie.
Dori Scofield, president of Save-A-Pet with the dog Rommel.
The life of Linx is becoming an all too familiar tale in recent months.
A 3-year old German shepherd, Linx, who didn’t receive effective training from his owners, was abandoned a year ago, making it difficult for him to function as a normal dog. Although he’s not conventionally affectionate, Linx is eager to play and run, which means he is best suited for an outdoor and active life.
“He has low odds of finding the right situation,” said Leigh Wixson, animal shelter supervisor in the Town of Smithtown Animal Shelter & Adoption Center, where Linx currently resides.
Some residents throughout Suffolk County bit off more than they could chew during the worst months of the pandemic, adding animals ranging from dogs and cats to guinea pigs, rats, rabbits and roosters to their brood.
Unfortunately for many of those animals, their new owners didn’t always do sufficient research to understand what their new pets needed and didn’t take the time to train them.
At the same time, as people have returned to work outside the house or have become concerned about their budgets amid high inflation and the potential for a recession this year, some people have brought their pets to shelters, or worse.
In the last few weeks, people have left kittens in Tanner Park in Copiague and have abandoned a dog in a motel room for days.
“How do you do something like that to an animal that loved you?” asked Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “Never mind it being illegal, it’s immoral.”
Gross said his department has been pursuing cases where people have attempted to discard their pets in ways that jeopardize animal safety.
He urged people who may not be as comfortable or capable of continuing to provide care for their animals to bring them to one of the county’s 10 municipal shelters.
People who mistreat their pets, by neglecting or putting them in dangerous situations, face fines and jail sentences, Gross said.
Dori Scofield, president of Port Jefferson Station-based Save-A-Pet Animal Shelter, said someone recently tied a dog to a fence near the shelter.
“The dog could have hung himself on our fence, could have gotten away and gotten killed, lost or injured,” she said. Fortunately, she said, the dog made it through the night.
Not a good gift
People who work at shelters urged those who adopt animals, particularly pets like larger breeds of dogs, to take the time to work with them.
“Between 10 months and two years, people have to focus on training,” Scofield said. Without the proper support and direction, some dogs develop behavioral issues.
The first two years of owning a dog are the hardest. “It’s like having a teenager,”Wixson said. “You go through phases and then something clicks around two or three years old.”
Wixson added that every breed of dog has its quirks, which means that the adorable dalmatians from movies and other photogenic dogs don’t necessarily interact with their owners the way people might have expected.
“I have been attacked by more dachshunds and chihuahuas than any other breed,” Wixson said.
While people have surrendered or “donated” dogs, shelters have also had numerous calls about rabbits, roosters and other pets.
Scofield described rabbits as “awesome” pets, but cautioned that they are “high-maintenance” animals that require cleaning, feeding and attention.
The prospects for a domestic rabbit released into the wild are poor. A domesticated rabbit could get run over, starve or be attacked by predators, Gross said.
Wixson said she used to get one or two calls a week before the pandemic from people who couldn’t manage their pets. On Monday, she received five calls.
Some people have given pets to friends and family during birthdays and holidays, which works out as well, and sometimes worse, than when people receive gifts that are easier to return, like sweaters, ties, or toys.
“Giving an animal as a gift is not a good thing,” Gross said, “unless people are expecting it and this is what they want.”
As for the German shepherd Linx, Wixson said that, despite the odds, an adoption “can happen and we are always hopeful.” Wixson believes Linx would do “wonderfully well on a farm where people are outside and busy and there are many things going on around him.”
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