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Commack's Danielle Gambino and Michelle Principe blast the ball for the Cougars in their 12-0 win over Northport April 22. Photo by Bill Landon

By Bill Landon

The Commack softball team was hard for Northport to catch up to April 22, after the Cougars went through the batting order twice in the fifth inning, scoring 12 runs en route to a 12-0 nonleague road win.

Commack’s Emily Fox tosses a pitch. Photo by Bill Landon

Danielle Gambino went 4-for-4 with a grand slam and six RBIs and Gianna Venuti went 4-for-5 with two doubles and a triple to lead Commack (3-1) in Suffolk II. Michelle Principe also homered for Commack.

Already up 3-0 at the top of the fifth inning, Commack senior starting pitcher Emily Fox retired the side in order, and her team got to work on offense, which is were Principe started things off by cracking a shot over the left field fence for a leadoff homerun. The ball cleared the adjacent Long Island Rail Road property fence. According to Commack head coach Harold Cooley III, it was the longest home run he’d seen at the Northport field.

“As soon as I hit it, I knew it was definitely gone,” Principe said. “And then, when we hit, we followed through. When we had runners in scoring position, we scored most of them.”

Junior Ariana Arato’s bat spoke next on a stand-up double with no outs, and on missed catch on a pitch, she moved to third. Fox drew a walk, and was replaced by pinch runner Melanie Koster. The sophomore stole second with Gambino at the plate, and the junior ripped a base-clearing triple for a six-run lead.

Up to bat next was junior Stephanie Afonso, who hit a sac fly to bring Koster home, triggering a Northport pitching change. Senior Mimi Cusack took over at the mound.

Northport’s Sophia DeFalco gets the out at first. Photo by Bill Landon

“We started the game off a little slow,” Cooley III said. “The one thing that we’ve tried to execute from the beginning of the year is to make sure we get hits when we have runners in scoring position. We left a few out there at the beginning of the game, but we made adjustments as the game went on and adjusted well to a new pitcher.”

Commack junior Brianna Panzarella smacked in infield ball that rolled toward left field, but safely made it to first on a Northport error. Panzarella didn’t stay long, and stole second without a throw. Venuti singled, , and junior Sabrina Sussman drilled a pitch through the gap to plate Panzzerella with one out. Sussman stole second, and senior Kelly McKenna knocked the ball into shallow right field to score for an 8-0 advantage.

With still only one out, junior Casey Brown kept the inning going for Commack with a single, and Fox, made it to first on a Northport error to load the bases. Koster came in to run for Fox, and Gambino jumped on a pitch that she blasted over the right fielder’s head. The ball rolled to the fence as she rounded second, and got the green light from Cooley, as she made her way around third and crossed home plate for an inside-the-park grand slam.

Commack’s Gianna Venuti underhands the ball to the second baseman for the out. Photo by Bill Landon

“When I got to second and I saw he was waving me on, that’s when I knew,” Gambino said of her productive at-bat. “We’re a very strong team and we came out strong. This was one of our best games, so I’m very proud of my team.”

Because of the mercy rule of being up 12 runs by the sixth inning, the game was called with a 12-0 score. Despite the scoring drought, Northport head coach Janet Richter said she saw some bright spots.

“I was pleased with Danielle Petrunti, our senior second basemen and our first basemen Sophia DeFalco, but we made too many errors,” Richter said. “We worked the pitch count — we were able to get on base — so offensively I think we have room to grow and our infield was very tight today.”

With the win Commack improves to 9-3 and will get right back to work March 24 at home against Patchogue-Medford at 4:15 p.m. With the loss, Northport drops to 1-9, and will hit the road to take on Central Islip March 24 at 4:30 p.m.

“We had some monster shots today,” Cooley III said. “It’s the difference between having a pitcher that’s on and having hitters that are on. Sometimes, the hitters can make a run, and that’s what happened today.”

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File photo

Suffolk County Police 4th Squad detectives are investigating a two-vehicle crash that critically injured a man in Hauppauge early Sunday morning, April 23.

Jonathan Zatorski was driving a 1998 Mercury Mountaineer west on the Long Island Expressway, just west of exit 55, when his vehicle rear-ended a 2002 Honda Accord. The Mercury overturned and Zatorski was ejected from the vehicle.

Zatorski, 31, of West Babylon, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital and admitted in critical condition. The driver of the Accord, Andrew McKinley, 27, of the Bronx, refused medical attention. Both drivers were alone in their vehicles.

Both vehicles were impounded for safety checks and the investigation is continuing. Detectives are asking anyone with information on this crash to call the 4th Squad at 631-854-8452.

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A scene from a recent plane crash in Setauket. File photo

Following a spike in small plane crashes over the last few years, U.S. Sen. and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) called for an investigation, and he got answers.

On March 3, Schumer sent a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board asking for an in-depth analysis of recent U.S.-registered civil aircraft accidents on Long Island to help develop recommendations to prevent future incidents.

“I strongly urge you not just to conduct yet another investigation … but to also undertake a comprehensive and system-wide review to understand why these accidents are happening, and what can be done in order to decrease the occurrences,” he wrote in the letter. “The number of airplane crashes across the system must be reduced.”

This request came after a recent crash in Southampton, though others have also occurred in Shoreham, Port Jefferson, Setauket, Kings Park and Hauppauge in recent years.

The board, in a letter of response to Schumer, said it examined data from accidents in New York over the last five years, including the number of accidents, types of injuries, types of operations, causes of accidents and locations.

Since 2012, 156 aviation accidents have occurred, with 140 of these aircraft operating as flights under Part 91 of the Federal Aviation Regulations — small noncommercial aircraft. The causes have been similar in nature for the incidents with completed investigations. Most included safety-related issues, like loss of control, which occurred in one-third of aviation accidents. An in-flight loss of control accident involves an unintended departure from controlled flight, which could be caused by an engine stall, pilot distraction, loss of situational awareness or weather. According to the letter, the board said that preventing loss of control in flight in general aviation is currently on its 2018 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements.

Other causes of aviation accidents included loss of engine power, controlled flight into terrain and hard landings.

Moving forward, the board plans to reach out to the general aviation community and host a safety seminar later this year.

“We consider Long Island a suitable venue for this safety seminar because a number of general aviation accidents have occurred in that area and because we believe the robust general aviation community there will be receptive to our safety outreach,” the letter stated. “We anticipate that this seminar will help raise awareness about these recent accidents in New York and around the country and about specific issues affecting the general aviation community.”

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The former Steck-Philbin Landfill on Old Northport Road in Kings Park is one of the eight blighted brownfields that the Suffolk County Landbank requested proposals for repurposing. Image from Suffolk County Landbank Corp.

The site of the former Steck-Philbin Landfill in Kings Park was slated to be repurposed this year as part of a countywide effort to eliminate blighted properties, as the Suffolk County Legislature approved a contract with Powercrush Inc. and Vision Associates LLC to develop on the land. However, another business that put in a proposal for the landfill site has criticized the deal and has called for an investigation of the operations of Suffolk County Landbank Corp. for development of public properties.

Shawn Nuzzo, president of Ecological Engineering of Long Island, said he believes Powercrush and Vision Associates “had neither the ability nor the good-faith intention to build a solar farm and that the Suffolk County Landbank was either willingly complicit or, at a minimum, completely inept during this process.”

In a letter and phone interview Nuzzo brought up the connections Powercrush has with donating to political campaigns — including two members of the Suffolk County Legislature — and said the current approved resolution that does not state the contract will include a solar farm on the property.

In January 2016, the county landbank, a not-for-profit entity that works with the county to redevelop tax-delinquent properties, issued a request for proposals to revitalize eight brownfields, including the landfill in Kings Park. About two months later Nuzzo’s company submitted a proposal for a 6-megawatt solar farm that he said could generate nearly 8 million kilowatt hours of solar electricity in its first year. He also said EELI would finance, build and operate the solar farm through a crowdfunding campaign, seeking small investments from everyday Suffolk County residents. The plan would be to sell 25,000 “solar shares” in the farm at $500 each. Some local officials threw their support behind Nuzzo, including state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station).

Out of the several proposals given to the county, the plan with Powercrush, a Kings Park company, was selected to move forward, with the same goal of reusing the site for solar farming. County Executive Steve Bellone (D) praised the plan as a turning point for dealing with blighted properties, and Amy Keyes, executive director of the county landbank, said in a past interview Powercrush was selected based on a number of qualifications, including design, impact and feasibility.

County Legislature Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville) said the creation of the county landbank was his idea, and the process of selecting Powercrush and Vision was “completely fair.” He said claims that landbank operations are in need of an investigation are “not a credible argument.”

“We evaluated those proposals based on merit, [EELI] came up short,” Gregory said in a phone interview. “These were cases of not being able to say what you can do, but being able to do what you can say, and the strongest proposal with the best benefit to the taxpayer was Powercrush. Each proposal got a score sheet and they scored the highest.”

Nuzzo said he tried to see the winning proposal, to compare it to his own and see how his company could improve for the future, but he was unsuccessful.

“I can only speculate that the winning proposal was so inadequate and incomplete that the county is embarrassed to share it,” he said in a previous interview. “It’s a shame, because our proposal to build Long Island’s first community-owned solar farm could have been a landmark moment for Suffolk County. Instead what we got was politics as usual.”

Nuzzo said he also had an issue with the fact that the development may no longer be a solar farm. After the original resolution was passed by the Legislature, which included the intention of building a solar farm, an amended resolution was passed this past March that approved moving forward with the Powercrush and Vision contract without the language of it being a solar farm.

“If the selected bidder is unwilling or unable to develop the land in accordance with their proposal, then their bid should be voided,” Nuzzo said. “Powercrush and Vision Associates were awarded this parcel based on their plan to construct a 4-megawatt solar farm.”

Nuzzo said he’s concerned with the system as a whole.

“This is about how Suffolk County issues its contracts,” he said. “This is more of a condemnation of the system as a whole.”

However Sarah Lansdale, president of the county landbank, said a solar requirement was never a part of the original proposal from the county.

“There was nothing requiring the end use had to be a solar farm,” Lansdale said in a phone interview. “There was no foul play here. They proposed solar and if they didn’t win the contract with PSEG the redevelopment site still needs to be something acceptable to the community.”

Powercrush and Vision did lose their bid with PSEG Long Island for a power purchase agreement. However Mike Rosato, of Vision Associates, said a solar farm idea had not been scrapped.

“The original [proposal from the county] did not require a solar farm, but yes this might still be a solar project,” he said in a phone interview. “The whole idea of this project is to make something good for the community.”

Rosato said in a letter their proposal was chosen for many reasons including financial capacity to successfully implement the project and demonstrating the experience to successfully carry out the project; demonstrating the ability to start the remediation and redevelopment process within six months of tax deed transfer; and improving the environmental condition of the property.

“Although our solar partner lost its bid with PSEG Long Island, we clearly stated in our original proposal that in the event this were to happen we would work to identify another industrial end use that would be acceptable to the community and permitted by the [Town of Smithtown],” Rosato said. “Our intentions have always been to reuse the site for renewable energy and we will continue to pursue that objective.”

As for Nuzzo’s concerns with political ties, he pointed out Toby Carlson, owner of Powercrush, has donated to several political campaigns, including county Legislators Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) and Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills). Trotta recused himself from the Legislature votes on this issue, and said he has repeatedly tried to convince Rosato not to invest in this property because of the extensive work required to make it functional.

“If the original [proposal from the county] had required solar I would be screaming and [Nuzzo] would be 100 percent right,” Trotta said in a phone interview. “But it didn’t, that’s just not true.”

Stern did not return any requests for comment.

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Kenneth Kaushansky speaks at the opening ceremony of the establishment. Photo by Kevin Redding

On April 18, Stony Brook Medicine officially extended its reach to residents in western Suffolk County, with a ribbon cutting for a new, state-of-the-art medical center that provides 30 specialty services under one roof.

Advanced Specialty Care in Commack, which opened to the public last month, serves as a “one-stop shopping” destination for the health care needs of patients no matter where they are located. The center itself sits near the Sunken Meadow Parkway, the Northern State Parkway and the Long Island Expressway.

The variety of specialties includes internal medicine, pediatrics, dermatology, urology, neurosurgery and radiology. A complete imaging center is on site to provide X-rays, mammograms, ultrasounds, bone densitometry, and CT and MRI scans. Stony Brook doctors, including primary and specialty care internists, gynecologists, orthopedists and surgeons of all kinds, make up the staff.

“But this facility is more than just a multi-specialty clinic,” Kenneth Kaushansky, M.D., senior vice president for health sciences and dean of Stony Brook University School of Medicine said, addressing a crowd of Stony Brook Medicine and university staff, elected officials and community members.

According to Kaushansky, one of the leaders behind the 120,000-square-foot center, patients who come to the center have easy access to “the power of Stony Brook medicine.”

“As part of Suffolk County’s only academic medical center,” he said “Advanced Specialty Care connects consumers to Stony Brook Medicine’s cutting-edge research, clinical trials and advanced technology. This is what truly distinguishes it from other physician practices in the area. You not only have access to Stony Brook primary care physicians and specialists, but also to the best ideas in medicine.”

He also said the Commack facility will soon be the new home of Stony Brook’s World Trade Center Health Program, a service that offers comprehensive, integrative health care for World Trade Center responders dealing with 9/11-related illnesses.

Samuel Stanley, M.D., Stony Brook University president, said the center signifies another Stony Brook step toward creating an aspiring, integrated health care network, focused on providing quality and value, for all of Long Island and beyond.

“Every day, we take ambitious ideas from the minds of our expert researchers who are working in medical laboratories, driven by their boundless curiosity, and bring those ideas to life at the patient’s bedside to continuously redefine health care in the 21st century,” Stanley said. “Through our leadership role in health care reform, we are driving forward with new initiatives to improve health, reduce costs and eliminate the unnecessary care for our patients.”

Among the elected officials in attendance were Suffolk County Legislators Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset) and Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga); Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson); and New York State Assemblymen Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Saint James) and Andy Raia (R-East Northport.)

Stanley said they were vital to what Stony Brook Medicine does, by helping with the budget and supporting Medicare and Medicaid for the state, among other important contributions.

Fitzpatrick and Raia presented an official New York State assembly citation to the center and its faculty.

“I just wanted to say thank you to Stony Brook for taking medicine to the next level by opening this beautiful facility here in Commack,” Fitzpatrick said. “Stony Brook is growing and is offering new services and treatment and wellness to people beyond just the Three Village area. Stony Brook represents excellence.”

Margaret McGovern, M.D., professor and chair of the department of pediatrics at the university’s School of Medicine and physician-in-chief at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, said this is truly the “power of Stony Brook medicine, closer to you.”

“We’re extending the reach of Stony Brook Medicine,” she said, “offering medical expertise in a new and growing
market.”

She also commended Kaushansky for making the center possible.

“Ambitious ideas require exceptional leadership and imaginative solutions, and this project required both,” McGovern said. “I want to thank Ken Kaushansky, especially, for his vision and confidence in moving this project forward. By working together across traditional boundaries, we are achieving a new vision for the future of Stony Brook Medicine.”

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‘Sinking Feeling’ by Margaret Minardi. Image from STAC

By Susan Risoli

‘One Nation Under Surveillance,’ fiberglass and epoxy, by Anthony Freda. Photo from STAC

When the everyday state of things starts to look different, what happens then? Who defines what’s “real” and what isn’t? Visitors to the Connecting Art to Life exhibit, which opens this Saturday at the Mills Pond House Gallery in St. James, may find themselves asking these questions.

And that’s just fine with Smithtown Township Arts Council Executive Director Allison Cruz, who said in a recent interview she hopes the exhibit, which features the work of artists Margaret Minardi and Anthony Freda, will start a conversation about the meeting of life and art.

This is the first time Cruz invited only two artists to be part of a Mills Pond show. She was moved by the determination of these two to keep on expressing themselves through their individual projects. “Anthony and Margaret teach and have families,” Cruz said. “Yet they both said to me, ‘It doesn’t matter how busy I am. I have to make art.’”

Cruz came up with the show’s title Connecting Art to Life, inspired by the ways Freda and Minardi take isolated aspects of daily living and translate that into something to which people can respond. It’s a process similar to the purpose of an art space, she said. “I think people are intimidated by the thought of going to an art gallery,” Cruz explained, “but really it’s a place to get information about what’s going on in your world right now.” Take it all in, “then do with it what you will.”

Margaret Minardi

Artist Margaret Minardi

 

Margaret Minardi’s world changed through her desire to become pregnant. She adopted two children after a personal journey that resulted in an infertility diagnosis. Her series of pieces in the Mills Pond House Gallery show were inspired by Minardi becoming a mother.

The works were rendered in colored pencil some years ago, after she discovered she could no longer use oil paint because she’d become allergic to it. She turned the potential setback into a mission to continue with colored pencil, “even though I didn’t know if I could erase, or blend color over color. Hour after hour I practiced.” These days, her media include collage and acrylic paint, she said.

Growing up in Trinidad left Minardi with lasting memories of “the specific color of water in the Caribbean.” Her pieces on exhibit at the Mills Pond House are done in aquamarine blue, and many of the figures “are in fishtanks, or some water situation.” The work juxtaposes realism with expressionism, presenting a story through many layers. The artist invites her viewers to interpret what’s going on beneath the surface of her pieces.

Minardi is about to retire after 30 years of teaching drawing and painting in the Northport-East Northport school district. “I’ve been so lucky,” she said. “I get to be around art from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep.” She doesn’t always know what a project is going to turn into and is sometimes surprised by the result, she said, “but it’s just important that I keep my pencil on the paper at all times. If you keep your hand moving, it becomes something important that comes from deep within.”

Anthony Freda

‘Solution’ by Anthony Freda

Anthony Freda’s 28 pieces in the Mills Pond House Gallery show are collage, his own paintings on found surfaces, limited edition prints and sculpture. As a Mount Sinai resident who grew up in Port Jefferson, he wanted to connect with a local art community and said this show seemed a good way to do it. Freda, an editorial illustrator and adjunct faculty member for the Fashion Institute of Technology, said throughout his career “I try to be honest and think about how I can best represent that with my art.”

Freda is drawn to themes of war and peace, freedom, civil liberties and encroachments upon them. “Things that impact society as a whole and impact me personally are things I want to comment on,” he said. Bombs, birds, pinup girls, reassuring American ephemera repurposed with contemporary social commentary, all can be found in his work. Humor infuses many of his pieces.

News about current events can be “provocative and emotional,” Freda said, and he’s trying to bring it all together and process it. “We’re all bombarded with memes, and disparate ideas, and news,” he said, so people will bring their own ideas when they see his work. Though some people avoid the news, saying it overwhelms them, Freda’s commentary continues. “Sometimes the truth is not popular,” he said. “Sometimes my work is not popular, but that’s almost irrelevant.” For him, it’s about defining the era he lives in, “in the way I want to define it, while trying to be honest and objective.”

The Smithtown Township Arts Council’s Mills Pond House Gallery, 660 Route 25A, St. James will present Connecting Art to Life from April 22 through May 13. There will be an opening reception April 22 from 2 to 4 p.m. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. For more information, call 631-862-6575 or visit www.stacarts.org.

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A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the Northport egg hunt Sunday, April 16. Photo by Victoria Espinoza
A scene from the St. James egg hunt Saturday, April 15. Photo by Bob Savage.
A scene from the St. James egg hunt Saturday, April 15. Photo by Bob Savage.
A scene from the St. James egg hunt Saturday, April 15. Photo by Bob Savage.
A scene from the St. James egg hunt Saturday, April 15. Photo by Bob Savage.
A scene from the St. James egg hunt Saturday, April 15. Photo by Bob Savage.
A scene from the St. James egg hunt Saturday, April 15. Photo by Bob Savage.
A scene from the St. James egg hunt Saturday, April 15. Photo by Bob Savage.

Northport Village and St. James residents were ready for the Easter Bunny this year, as families and children of all ages came to hunt for eggs, take pictures with the Easter Bunny and play Easter-themed games.

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SCPD Commissioner Tim Sini speaks at Broohaven Town Hall during a crime awareness event. Photo by Kevin Redding

Drug addiction on the North Shore and across Suffolk County is a complicated problem, so the police department and the community are coming together to come up with strategies to combat it.

One of the reasons Salvatore Pitti, a retired New York City police officer, left the Big Apple to live on Long Island he said in part was to escape drug-related crime. But in recent years, he has seen what he called an alarming uptick in heroin and opioid-related overdoses and deaths in the suburbs — so he decided to do something about it.

“We need to put the fear of God into our kids about this problem.”

— Salvatore Pitti

“We need to put the fear of God into our kids about this problem,” Pitti said April 11 during a Crime Awareness Committee meeting at Brookhaven Town Hall. “I’ve had the misfortune, in my career, to scoop three or four children off the street, dead. I don’t want to see that.”

Pitti, vice president of the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association and leader of a local neighborhood watch group designed to eliminate local criminal activity, co-sponsored the event along with Brookhaven Town.

Joined by several guest speakers including Supervisor Ed Romaine (R), Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson) and Suffolk County Police Department Commissioner Tim Sini, Pitti spoke with local organization leaders and residents about how they can help make their communities safer.

Sini, who became commissioner last year, has already rolled out several initiatives through the SCPD to address the issues of illegal drug sales, abuse and overdoses as well as prevention and recovery in his short time leading the department.

Many of them rely on police department collaboration with the public.

“I can’t tell you the number of times that information from people in this room or from folks like you have helped us solve crimes,” Sini said, highlighting such programs as the NARC hotline, a partnership with Suffolk County Crime Stoppers, where callers can give crime tips anonymously and receive cash rewards for those that lead to arrests.

Another initiative, Sini said, is the Long Island Heroin Task Force, which targets drug dealers causing overdoses and the areas that have the biggest spikes in overdoses through data collected in the department. Programs are also being implemented in local schools that teach about the consequences of taking drugs, offer prevention and recovery steps, and even train parents and teens on how to administer Narcan, the nasal spray used to reverse heroin overdoses.

“We need to get people off drugs and into treatment for recovery,” Sini said. “Please think of ways the SCPD can partner with you to promote drug prevention in your community.”

Cartright said she understands the importance of a partnership with local law enforcement.

“I can’t tell you the number of times that information from people in this room or from folks like you have helped us solve crimes.”

— Tim Sini

“I grew up in Queens, in an urban community where there was a lot of crime, and there was no interaction with the police department the way we interact with the police department here,” the councilwoman said. “They come in and ask, ‘how can we work with you?’ That’s something, 25 years ago, I didn’t have when I was growing up. This is not a problem we can solve alone.”

Pitti said he started the Crime Awareness Committee three years ago to shine a spotlight on a local marijuana dealer in his neighborhood. Due to his effort and a collaboration with neighbors and the police, the dealer was ultimately pushed off the block.

Even though the group has since grown, he said he wants more community involvement.

“When I first started this, I received a civic email list but, unfortunately, it was antiquated and outdated,” he said. “We’re working together on it, to try and fix it and put more emails in. That, to me, is the first problem. If we can’t call each other, how can we help each other?”

He handed out a packet to attendees of the meeting outlining ways to identify dangerous people in the community. The packet gives details on how to check if houses in a neighborhood have rental permits; report town code violations; deter underage drinking at parties and neighborhood gatherings; and a detailed physical description form to fill out upon witnessing suspicious activity.

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Some debris dumped at the Town of Brookhaven’s Tanglewood Park in Coram. Photo from Legislator Anker’s office

The penalty for illegally dumping on county-owned properties may soon include jail time in Suffolk County, after legislators unanimously approved on March 28 both increased fines and the potential of up to one year’s imprisonment for anyone convicted. The bill, sponsored by Legislators Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai), Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Tom Muratore (R-Ronkonkoma), Rob Trotta (R-Fort Salonga) and Kate Browning (WF-Shirley), now goes to Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) for his signature within the next 30 days. 

A no dumping sign along North Country Road in Shoreham. File photo

Once implemented, maximum fines for illegal dumping of nonconstruction, demolition and hazardous material wastes by a business or corporation will increase to $15,000 from the previous fine of $5,000. The penalty for dumping nonconstruction materials by an individual will remain at $1,000. If an individual is found dumping construction or demolition material, the misdemeanor fine will increase to $10,000 for an individual and $15,000 for a corporation or business. Under the change, both an individual and someone convicted of dumping material on behalf of a commercial entity may be sentenced up to one year in jail. Imposition of the ultimate fine or criminal sentence is within the sentencing court’s discretion.

“For far too long, fines associated with illegal dumping were considered just the cost of doing business,” said Hahn, chairwoman both of the Legislature’s Parks & Recreation and Environment, Planning and Agriculture Committees. “For those who choose to pursue greed over the health of the public and our environment, your cost of business has just gotten a lot more expensive. The one-two combination of increased monetary penalties and potential jail time will hopefully give pause to any person or commercial entity that believes these significant fines and the potential loss of freedom is a cost effective business strategy.”

Illegal dumping on Long Island has emerged as a serious environmental issue and threat to public health following the discoveries of potentially toxic debris within the Town of Islip’s Roberto Clemente Park, Suffolk County’s West Hills County Park and a housing development for military veterans in Islandia. In February, New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation issued approximately 200 tickets for unlawful disposal, operating without a permit and other violations during stings conducted on Long Island and the Hudson Valley that also identified nine dumping sites upstate. 

“Illegal dumping of hazardous materials and construction waste on county property causes harmful chemicals to seep into our water.”

—Sarah Anker

“For decades, Suffolk County has worked tirelessly to preserve land in order to protect our environment and groundwater,” Anker said. “Illegal dumping of hazardous materials and construction waste on county property causes harmful chemicals to seep into our water, which negatively affects our health. It is important we do everything in our power to continue to protect our parklands and to ensure that illegal dumping does not occur. By doing so, we are not only preserving the environmental integrity of Suffolk County, but improving the quality of life for all residents.”

Trotta called the dumping a crime against the residents of Suffolk County.

“I want to make it unprofitable for contractors to dump this material,” he said, “and more importantly, I want them going to jail for this.”

Browning added that the parks are vital assets for Suffolk County residents, and one of the core recreational resources available to them. She doesn’t like seeing the destruction of quality of life. Legislature Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville) agrees, saying it’s an important step to protecting parks, while giving teeth to all legislation recently passed on this quality of life issue.

“I applaud legislator Hahn for her hard work toward preventing this serious problem,” Browning said. “Aggressively attacking illegal dumping head on will ensure the sustainability of our parks and preserve one of the many reasons Suffolk County continues to be a great place to live.”

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