Chamber member and owner of Emerald Magic Lawn Care Craig den Hartog has decades worth of horticultural consultant experience. He and a team of local people began planting daffodils as an effort to clean up the community — an initiative he called Old Town Blooms.
“Me and a few neighbors were noticing the roadside getting more and more litter,” he said. “Instead of complaining about it, we took it upon ourselves to clean it up.”
Along Old Town Road, from Coram to up near Setauket, more than 30,000 daffodils have been planted, brightening things up. The initiative has expanded throughout the years.
“If you clean up an area, it stays clean,” he said.
The daffodils became so beloved by the community that last year, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the group wanted to create a day dedicated to the flower. Unfortunately, thanks to the global virus, that day was cancelled.
So, this year, in a partnership with the chamber, they decided to host a virtual race, that will help support the Port Jefferson Station Train Car, flag fund and community beautification process.
Called The Great Daffodil Dash, funds raised from the race will help keep the flags flying and help repair the train car — a historic spot that the chamber acquired in the 70s — while helping to buy more bulbs for the area.
Den Hartog said the PJST Chamber Train car is one of the last remaining early 1900 electric baggage coach cars. It was put in service around 1914 traveling from Jamaica station to Manhattan. The train car was transported to its current location in the mid-1970’s and is a Suffolk county landmark situated alongside the chamber’s memorial American flag within the Town of Brookhaven.
The race will begin April 17 and go until April 25. Participants can choose from several different distances, including a one mile, 5K, 10K or simply a walk. Racers then use social media to post their times, and photos, for the event.
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine will take part in Long Island Cares 10th Annual Legislative Pet Food Drive Challenge. This drive is focused on collecting and providing food for the family members most vulnerable to hunger: our pets. This drive will take place at from March 22 through April 23 at the following drop off locations:
Brookhaven Town Hall, 1 Independence Hill, Farmingville
Coram Fire Department, 303 Middle Country Road, Coram
College 101 Resource Center, 290 Main Street, East Setauket
Brookhaven Town Highway Department, 1140 Old Town Road, Coram
Brookhaven Town Parks and Recreation Administration, 286 Hawkins Road, Centereach
Brookhaven Town Vehicle Control, 550 North Ocean Avenue, Patchogue
Suggested donation items include canned dog and cat food, five to ten-pound bags of dry food and treats.
“Many families are struggling to put food on the table, and this means it is also a struggle to feed their beloved pets,” Supervisor Romaine said. “I want to thank Long Island Cares for holding its Annual Legislative Pet Food Drive Challenge and I look forward to seeing how much food is collected.”
Pictured from left, Councilman Neil Foley, Councilman Kevin LaValle, Councilman Dan Panico, Councilwoman Jane Bonner and Supervisor Ed Romaine.
Supervisor Ed Romaine has announced that the free mulch and compost is available at seven, conveniently located Town facilities. The free mulch and compost are part of the Supervisor’s “Greening Brookhaven” initiative. Mulch and compost are available in bulk, so residents must bring shovels and containers to load it into their vehicles. All will be distributed on a first come, first served basis while supplies last.
Residents of Brookhaven Town may pick up free mulch and compost at the following Town facilities:
• Brookhaven Town Hall, South Parking Lot, One Independence Hill in Farmingville (residents only)
Monday – Friday from 9:00 am to 7:30 pm and Saturday-Sunday 8:00 am to 8:00 pm
• Percy Raynor Park, Route 347 and Belle Mead Road in South Setauket (residents only)
Monday – Friday from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm
• Rose Caracappa Center, 739 Route 25A in Mt. Sinai (residents only)
Monday – Friday from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm
• Brookhaven Landfill, 350 Horseblock Road in Brookhaven Hamlet (residents and commercial)
Monday – Friday from 7:00 am to 2:45 pm and Saturday from 7:00 am to 12:00 noon.
• Manorville Compost Facility, Papermill Road in Manorville (residents only)
Monday – Friday from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm (Closed for lunch 11:50 am – 12:30 pm)
County Executive Steve Bellone stands outside the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge where a new vaccine rollout will begin in a couple of weeks. Photo by Kimberly Brown
By Kimberly Brown
A new COVID-19 vaccination site finally opened at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge, where the vaccine’s mass distribution will be given out to hundreds of residents in the upcoming weeks.
The latest expansion will help Long Island recover from the consistent 4% positivity rate that surged to a height of 12% during the second spike of the coronavirus outbreak in February.
“The numbers have declined since, but they are not declining any further at this point,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said March 24. “We have undoubtedly hit a plateau and are stubbornly maintaining this approximate 4% positivity rate.”
Predicting the positivity rate would drop down to 1% by March, Bellone said his predictions did not happen. The hospitals are still hovering around 400 COVID patients and even with vaccine quantities increasing, officials are continuing to see the positivity rate at a steady level.
According to Bellone, the reason for the consistently high percentage in COVID cases is due to warm spring weather creating an overall eagerness to leave quarantine, making opportunities for locals to catch the virus.
“The fact that many people are getting vaccinated and that spring is here, people are rightly feeling optimistic and positive,” Bellone said. “That is leading to more people coming out, which is a positive thing, but we do need to be cognizant of the fact that the virus is not gone and that there are still risks.”
So far, the county has vaccinated more than 400,000 residents with at least their first dose, but expects to see a rapid increase in vaccination supply in the upcoming weeks.
Despite the positive outcome of Suffolk County opening up its latest mass vaccination site, other areas on the Island, such as the Twin Forks, remain some distance away from distribution points. Bellone said he is aware of the problem.
“We’ve gone to great lengths to get to every corner of the county,” he said. “We even took a plane to Fishers Island to make sure we can get residents, who are isolated, the vaccine.”
Peggy Loucks holds up photos of her late father, Allen Ulmer, and his creation, Micro-Face. Photo by Julianne Mosher
A character who ended up in the public domain is now being resurrected, given a new life.
Photo from Peggy Loucks
Peggy Loucks, of Port Jefferson, received a call last month from a co-host with NPR’s “Planet Money” podcast — a show that tries to find creative and entertaining ways to make sense of big, complicated economical processes — asking for her blessing regarding her late father, a comic book artist.
One time, the podcast made a T-shirt, tracing the supply chain from the cotton source to the factory. It purchased and followed the travel of 100 barrels of crude oil from ground to gas, and even launched a satellite.
Kenny Malone, a co-host with the show, said that “Planet Money” wanted to investigate the superhero entertainment economy. He was joined by fellow host Robert Smith.
“Superhero movies had become the highest grossing movies — the merchandising around superheroes was also incredibly large,” Malone said. “So, we wanted to understand this.”
Malone noticed that characters who were making tons of money were not new — they were all characters that were between 40 to even 70 years old — and they are part of the two major superhero conglomerates, Marvel Comics and DC Comics.
“We had this idea,” he said. “What if we tried to buy a superhero off one of those companies? What if we tried to buy one of their older characters that is just not very well known? And then we could try to figure out how to build a mini-superhero empire.”
In need of a hero
The three-part series, which aired on Feb. 12, 19 and 26, dove into the team’s attempt to buy a superhero off Marvel — originally asking to bid for Doorman, whose superpower is to turn into a door. He never had his own movie for obvious reasons.
After several attempts to contact Marvel for interviews and to purchase the unhinged superhero, they declined and eventually stopped responding.
“We think they declined for an interesting economic reason,” Malone said. “Even the silliest unknown character has the potential to become a $10 million, $100 million piece of intellectual property.”
In its first episode of the series, “We Buy a Superhero: Origins,” the duo mentioned “Guardians of the Galaxy” character Groot who was once deemed undesirable, but who is now a pop-culture icon.
The guys behind “Planet Money” had to find a new tactic. They were on a mission. They began looking into copyright law and what happens to a creative entity when it gets moved to the public domain.
“Every piece of copyright eventually falls out of copyright and gets put into the public domain where it is fair game for anybody to do something with,” Malone said.
Photo from Loucks
Part of it is to incentivize creativity, he added, where the creator can get exclusive rights to it, and make a profit. But the other part of it, is as a country when copyright law was established, was that if people hold onto that copyright forever, it could stifle creativity.
“A second phase of creativity can be spawned, and people can do things with those characters, songs, books,” Malone said. “And much to our delight, we learned characters fall into the public domain. Superheroes will eventually fall into the public domain.”
Malone and Smith began delving into the world of public domain superheroes, going through hundreds upon hundreds of characters who once graced the pages of books.
“We stumbled across this character that we could not believe was real,” he said. “We couldn’t believe it was not custom made for us.”
That character was from the golden age of superheroes, created in the 1940s featuring a mask and giant microphone upon his face as his power. His name was Micro-Face, who appeared in Clue Comics from Hillman publishing.
A podcaster of the past
“This is basically like a 1940s podcaster, even though they didn’t know what a podcast was yet,” Malone said. “We loved it.”
Micro-Face was in the public domain — so he was fair game to do anything with — but the guys at “Planet Money” wanted to find out more about this lost superhero. That’s when they found out that the artist who created him, Allen Ulmer, had a daughter who was still alive and living right here in Port Jefferson.
According to Loucks, Ulmer, who passed away in 1984 at age 64, was an artist back in the golden age of comic books. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he studied at the Pennsylvania School of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but always loved creating his own comic characters.
“So, he moved to New York City and joined the art league there,” Loucks said.
Ulmer began working for several different comic book companies, including Marvel, DC and Hillman. He took a break from drawing when he served in World War II, but then came back from the war and continued his artistry until the 1950s.
But during that time, there was an attack on the superhero industry that no one could help save. Between the McCarthy era, plus the backlash among parents who blamed comic books for their children’s delinquency, comic books became censored and hundreds of artists and publishers lost their jobs.
“My father was on that blacklist,” she said.
Photo from Peggy Loucks
Now 83, and a retired librarian from the Middle Country Public Library, Loucks was just 5 when her father initially created the superhero now getting a facelift.
“Micro-Face was one of his favorite characters [who] never had the chance to take off,” Loucks said.
When Ulmer lost his job, he moved his family to Long Island where he was a founder of the Port Jefferson Arts Festival and a member of the Art League of Long Island of Dix Hills. He began focusing on fine art and educational film, never doing comics again.
For whatever reason, the publisher decided decades ago not to renew the copyright for Micro-Face, leaving the character to fall into the public domain.
Malone and Smith knew they didn’t necessarily have to ask Loucks for her permission to use the character, but they felt it was right to talk to her, find out more about his creator and keep that legacy alive.
“My father would have loved this,” Loucks said. “You know, who would have thought that after all these years? Here comes this character back into the public eye again.”
The future of Micro-Face
Malone said that now that the three-part series is completed — and available for streaming online now — they will continue working toward actually creating a comic book based on Micro-Face.
Working alongside comic book industry leaders, the team plans on writing a book based on the grandson Tom Wood — the alter ego of Micro-Face originally drawn by Ulmer in the ’40s.
“This person is our new character and he works in radio like us,” Malone said. “So, this is going to allow us to write in some plot points about business and economics and have a little bit of learning … but this is fundamentally still a comic book and is inspired by the direct heritage to the character Peggy’s father created.”
Malone said he does not know the exact release date of the comic book, but it is currently being worked on by the new Micro-Face team at “Planet Money.” Joining the podcasters are Alex Segura, co-president of Archie Comics and friend of Malone, Jerry Ordway, Peter Krause, Taylor Esposito and Ellie Wright — “all of who know what they’re doing when it comes to building a comic empire,” Malone said.
He added that to continue with the “Planet Money” way of immersing themselves into the actual process, they will be updating listeners every step of the way.
Peggy Loucks holds up photos of her late father, Allen Ulmer, and his creation, Micro-Face. Photo by Julianne Mosher
“We’re very excited about it,” Malone said. “You start these things, and you don’t know where they’re going to take you, but Peggy is just amazing and her father really was prolific. It makes me very sad to think that he clearly was very good and very creative, and the industry just was rocked in a way that knocked a lot of people out of it.”
“Peggy told us that she was very excited about this,” Malone said. “Her father would have liked this project, so that made us very happy and made it make us feel good going forward with this.”
Some of the metals recycled at Saturday's event. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Photo by Julianne Mosher
Metals donated by residents at the Metal for Tesla event. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Photo by Julianne Mosher
A statue of the great inventor. Photo by Julianne Mosher
The lab. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Photo by Julianne Mosher
Tesla's lab. Photo by Julianne Mosher
A sneak peek inside the Tesla lab. Photo by Julianne Mosher
With the right funds, the vacant and vandalized lab will be turned into a beautiful new center. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Another behind the scenes look at the lab. Photo by Julianne Mosher
One of the vacant buildings to be turned into the visitor center. Photo by Julianne Mosher
In an ongoing process to keep Nikola Tesla’s legacy alive on Long Island’s North Shore, the first-ever “Metal for Tesla” event was recently held, benefiting both the environment and the nonprofit’s cause.
The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, located in Shoreham, is Nikola Tesla’s last remaining laboratory. A sad, but interesting history, the lab has been working toward becoming a science museum, that celebrates science, along with the history and contributions of the famed scientist and inventor.
But the funds aren’t always easy to come by, and it’s taken the support from dozens of sponsors, fundraising, grants and crowdsourcing to get where they are today.
On Saturday, March 20 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., over 250 people attended the site and more than 16,000 people around the world shared the event to recycle in their areas and donate to the Tesla Center online. The center partnered with Gershow Recycling.
Science Center Executive Director Marc Alessi said they have recycled metal on the premise before, and since taking over the site, have recycled up to 62 tons (or 124,000 pounds) of metal. That has equated to be about $6,500.
This year, they raised approximately $9,500 in metal, plus the value of four cars, to support the rebuilding of Tesla’s lab into a museum and global science center for all.
“It’s money that goes toward the mission, which is rehabilitating the lab and opening it to the public,” Alessi said. “But the mission is also spreading Nikola Tesla’s ethos … he was someone that was advocating for sustainability, conservation and the use of renewable energies in the 1890s. And in retrospect, he was right on the money.”
A man before his time
Alessi said that during the height of Tesla’s career, people didn’t know what he was trying to do. Born in what is now Croatia, and of Serbian descent, Nikola Tesla immigrated to the United States in 1884.
“But he was a man of the world,” Alessi said.
He began working at the Edison Corporation, where he was immediately seen as a genius. Upon his research, he began realizing that alternating current systems — compared to Edison’s direct current systems — would be more beneficial and safer option.
“With one power plant, you can power many neighborhoods and factories,” Alessi said. “Under Tesla’s use of AC, and the way he put it together, it could power motors …. Direct current, you would need a power plant every two miles. Can you imagine what our environment would be like if they tried to electrify doing that?”
He believed that energy didn’t have to be a rich man’s luxury. Energy could be available to all and powered naturally. He believed he could power the whole Northeastern seaboard with Niagara Falls.
Tesla and Edison became engrossed in a battle, leaving Tesla to attempt to start his own company with plenty of struggle. Throughout his career, he had his ups and downs.
“Even though he had over 200 patents and invented radio, remote control, the speedometer, and the technology behind neon lighting, fluorescent lighting and early forms of X-ray,” Alessi said, “Tesla didn’t look at other inventors as competition.”
For example, Guglielmo Marconi used 17 of Tesla’s patents to help create his single transmission.
In the early 1900s Tesla acquired the Wardenclyffe property in Shoreham to test his theories of being able to wirelessly transmit electrical messages, funded by J.P. Morgan. The property housed a huge 187-foot tower for the purpose.
In 1903 creditors confiscated his equipment, and in 1917 the tower was demolished. The concrete feet used to hold the structure can still be seen on the property today.
Tesla was eventually cut off, causing him to lose control of the site. The property became a film processing company in the early 30s, where harsh chemicals were dumped into the ground. The contaminated property was sold again and became shuttered in 1987.
A decades-long cleanup ensued, and in 2007 the property was put back up for sale.
The community — locally, nationally and even internationally — came together to fundraise to buy the property, preserve it and make it a real historic site.
“They did a crowdfunding on Indiegogo, and at the time, it set a world record,” Alessi said. “They raised 1.4 million in six weeks, from 108 countries and 50 states — 33,000 donors,”
The site
Over the last few years, things have been moving along for the Tesla Science Center site. Through more fundraising and big-name sponsors (like Elon Musk who contributed some money), plans are continuously on the way.
In September, renovations were completed on the chimney and cupola of Tesla’s historic laboratory, originally constructed by architect Stanford White in 1902. This project was funded by a grant from the Robert Lion Gardiner Foundation — a foundation here on Long Island that focuses on funding to restore historic sites.
Alessi said the project costs about $20 million and so far, $10.2 million has been raised. Permits with the town and DEC are still under review to begin working on the site’s visitor center — a small white house in the front of the property, which had nothing to do with Tesla. He’s hoping for the demo permit and the center to be completed this year.
“We will continue to raise capital,” he said. “We need at least five-to-10 million to finish the lab building and put exhibits there.”
Part of the process includes rebuilding the significant 187-foot tower that was once on the property.
“It was the tallest structure on Long Island, it went up almost 200-feet into the ground,” Alessi added.
Tesla had envisioned 14 towers around the world, with power plants similar to what the Wardenclyffe lab was.
“The beauty of it, is this guy wanted to provide free energy to everybody,” he said. “Imagine everybody having free power with 14 power plants. It’s a beautiful story — and that’s what the part of what the tower was supposed to be.”
Bringing the metal back
It all comes full circle, Alessi said, and it’s quite ironic.
“When Tesla lost control of the property, they demolished his famed tower, sold it for scrap and recycled it,” he said. “So now, we’re asking people to bring metal back to the site, so that we can restore the site, and one day we build the tower, too.”
Alessi said that since taking over the property, the center has always encouraged people to donate recycled metal to the bin on site. This year was the first time a whole event was dedicated to it.
“This is something we plan to do every year,” Alessi said. “It helps raise funding for the lab, but it also helps celebrate who Tesla was. I think it’s a really great event.”
And people can still continue to donate metal to the cause.
“This is a guy that in the 1890s said, ‘Don’t go down the path of coal … we need to be sustainable,” Alessi said. “We need to conserve, so it makes us feel like we’re making him proud by doing this on his site.”
This article was updated to fix historical inaccuracies.
A pandemic couldn’t stop a group of local residents from growing their nonprofit.
Established in 2010, Strong Island Animal Rescue is a 501c3 that focuses on answering local calls regarding injured, abused and neglected animals.
“We started out with cats and dogs, and then we saw a need for wildlife rescue,” said vice president of the rescue Erica Kutzing.
Just last week, president of Strong Island Animal Rescue Frankie Floridia, of Port Jefferson Station, helped save a raccoon in Bohemia that was trapped in a car grill, after the driver hit it and got stuck.
Within minutes, Floridia and other volunteers safely removed the animal, who is expected to make a full recovery.
Frankie with a baby deer. Photo from Erica Kutzing
“We’re available 24, seven days a week for abandoned and abused animals,” he said. “We’re a local rescue that likes to give back to the community and we’re always here for everybody. That’s the way it’s been, and we’d like to keep it that way.”
Whether it’s a trapped raccoon, a deer with a paint can stuck on its head, a mother cat and her kittens found in a shed or an abused puppy left on the side of a road, Strong Island has dedicated their lives to helping animals.
Kutzing, of Sound Beach, has more than two decades of animal rescue and animal medicine experience.
“I think back to when I was 12-year-old little girl who started out more than 22 years ago,” she said. “And I don’t think I ever expected this to actually happen. It was always a dream, but seeing it come to fruition has been like an out of body experience — even though we’re doing it during a pandemic.”
Floridia said that the pandemic has made it hard for fundraising efforts, since before the lock downs they were able to hold events.
“It’s been a tough year for us, not having those events that we have usually every other month,” he said. “Fundraising is all based online now, and thank goodness for that, but we can’t wait to get back to having an event in the place and being able to do stuff like we did before.”
And just this month, they were gifted one generous donation — a new property.
Neighbors of Floridia, Valerie Rosini and Alan Haas, had owned a home in the area that they knew would help the group out.
Right now, the location is under wraps while they clean up the space, but Floridia said he plans on using the three-acre property as a clubhouse and meeting space for their dozens of volunteers.
Erica Kutzing and Frankie Floridia in front of their secret new clubhouse in Port Jefferson, joined by pup Dolly, daughter Shea, Valarie Rosini and Alan Haas. Photo by Julianne Mosher
Surrounded by woods, wildlife roams the backyard, making it the perfect spot for animals to feel safe, while animal lovers plan their next move.
“He wants to do something good,” Rosini said. “These guys don’t even take a salary.”
The couple said they could have sold the massive property to developers but knew that the cottage and woods surrounding it are special. If they cleared the area, birds, deer and other wildlife could have lost their home. When Rosini sold the spot to the volunteers, it became a new partnership and friendship of neighbors helping neighbors.
“Alan’s been coming down, Val’s been helping out the rescue … so it’s not only getting them motivated to be part of the rescue, as well,” Floridia said. “We’re all helping each other and we’re saving animals.”
Kutzing said the property will give them the ability to turn the space into an actual meeting space, instead of utilizing their homes.
“Eventually we’ll be able to turn this into our dream,” she said.
And the extra room will be helpful as the team gears toward their busy season — baby season.
The crime scene outside Dunkin' Donuts in the village. Photo from Margot Garant
This story was updated to include more details provided by the SCPD:
Suffolk County Police Homicide section detectives are investigating a homicide that occurred in Port Jefferson on March 24.
According to a representative from the SCPD, an adult male was fatally shot on Main Street, near West Broadway at approximately 3:35 p.m.
Sixth Precinct officers responded to a 911 call reporting a man shot in front of 122 Main Street. Upon arrival, officers found a man on the ground with a gunshot wound.
The man was transported to St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson where he was pronounced dead. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Mayor Margot Garant said the two individuals involved in a dispute were not from the area and a new camera located on the corner of the site was able to capture the altercation. The camera is hooked up directly to the SCPD Real Time Crime Center.
“We’re very sorry to see this happen,” Garant said. “This just shows that nowhere is exempt from gun violence, but we are committed to keeping our village safe.”
She added that code enforcement and the village are working diligently alongside the police department throughout the investigation.
On March 25, SCPD released the victim as 25-year-old David Bliss Jr. of Shirley.
This is an ongoing story. Check back to TBR News Media for updates.
Dennis Harrington alongside his wife, Maggie, after departing Mather Hospital to a clap-out with hospital staff, friends and family. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
By Iryna Shkurhan
Dennis Harrington, 65, of Miller Place, was battling COVID-19 as one of Mather Hospital’s long-term patients until he was discharged this week to his family and friends.
Outside the Port Jefferson hospital on March 17, friends, family and hospital staff held a “clap-out” for him, cheering him on as he was released.
During his 76-day stay, Harrington was intubated more than once, but ultimately survived his lengthy battle with the virus. Upon his discharge from the hospital, he was applauded as he was pushed through two lines of supporters holding thoughtful posters.
At the end of the line, an ambulance was waiting to take him to St. Charles Rehabilitation to continue his recovery.
“I felt all the prayers and they gave me strength,” Harrington said.
Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
He has had a long and distinguished career in law enforcement. Prior to his hospitalization, he had been an investigator for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. His roles included investigating crimes in the county by gathering evidence and assisting prosecutors with finding and interviewing witnesses.
“He does tremendous work for the office to secure justice on behalf of all the residents in Suffolk County,” said District Attorney Tim Sini (D). “But this is some of his best work yet, coming out of this.”
Sini, who has worked closely with Harrington over the years, came out to show his support for Harrington and his family, as well as for Mather Hospital itself.
Maggie Harrington thanked the hospital doctors, nurses, administration, housekeepers, physical and occupational therapists, and also “the man upstairs” for her husband’s tumultuous recovery. “By any means this man should be dead,” she said.
“There were some scary moments with Dennis, and we all came together as a community,” said Patricia Bonventre, a friend of the family, adding she was not surprised by the large turnout for Harrington’s release and saw many familiar faces in the crowd.
“I didn’t think I would make it,” Harrington said. “Thank you for everything. It really kept me going.”
Over the last month, elected officials on both the county and village levels have been trying to tackle reckless bicyclists on the road.
Suffolk County
Last week, Suffolk County voted on a new bill aimed to give bicyclists distance with a new 3-foot passage rule — the first county in New York State to implement the law.
According to the new legislation, “The operator of a vehicle which is overtaking, from behind, a bicycle proceeding on the same side of the road shall pass to the left of such bicycle at a distance of at least 3-feet until safely clear thereof.”
Violators can face fines not to exceed $225 for a first offense, $325 for a second offense and $425 for any subsequent offense. The minimum distance requirement, however, will not apply on roads that have clearly marked bicycle lanes.
Authored by Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), it was originally in response to a bill sponsored by Legislator Rudy Sunderman (R-Mastic) which aimed to ticket and condemn bike riders who popped wheelies, swerved into traffic or biked while intoxicated across Long Island.
Hahn said she filed her bill, and abstained from Sunderman’s, to focus more on education for drivers and bike riders, as well as keeping veteran bicyclists safe.
“I filed a bill that looks to fix the problems that existed,” she said. “I felt there were problems in the one that passed a few weeks ago.”
Sunderman’s bill was originally passed by the Legislature in February but was vetoed by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) earlier this month.
“We believe this legislation is overly broad and that current law provides the necessary tools to address this issue,” Derek Poppe, a representative with Bellone’s office said in a statement. “We remain committed to working with the Legislature address safety concerns around bicycling practices.”
On March 16, the Legislature approved Hahn’s bill, and Sunderman’s veto override failed the same day.
Hahn said that the county was named by Bicycling Magazine as the most dangerous county in the country for bike riders and has since continuously been in the top 10.
“There are approximately 350 accidents a year in Suffolk County,” she added.
The vote brings Suffolk County closer to becoming the first county in the state to adopt a 3-foot-rule requirement.
“I think it’s just really important that people know they have to give bicyclists room when they pass them,” Hahn said. “They might not hear you and the tires of a bike cannot handle roadway obstacles the same way a car can.”
Hahn noted that things such as sand, sticks, leaves, trash, a storm drain or pothole can be life-threatening to bikers.
“A car can handle those, no problem, but a bike tire makes those obstacles potentially deadly,” she said. “Sometimes the cyclist needs to swerve a little bit and this 3-foot buffer gives them space.”
The bill will now go to the county executive for a separate public hearing and his signature within the next 30 days.
“I am thrilled,” she said. “This is a real concrete step to improve safety, and at the same time it makes a statement that we care about our residents on the road.”
The Village of Port Jefferson
Village officials have been tirelessly enforcing their own rules when it comes to reckless bicylists.
Signs like this will be posted throughout the village encouraging visitors to call code when they see disorderly behavior. Photo from Kathianne Snaden
Last year, when outdoor dining began, there were concerns over individuals harassing diners and drivers while they popped wheelies and swerved into traffic on Main Street.
They began enforcing a code created in 2019, with new training, to keep residents and visitors safe.
Mayor Margot Garant said a new bicycle task force has been unveiled, encouraging business owners and residents to call code enforcement when something doesn’t look right.
“Our code specifically looks toward curbing the behavior of the individual riding a bike down the middle of the street or sidewalk in a dangerous and reckless manner,” she said.
With rules penned by trustee Kathianne Snaden, the bicycle task force is comprised of Snaden along with a representative of the Suffolk County Police Department, the chief of code enforcement, Deputy Village Attorney Richard Harris, the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce and members of the business community. They simply ask, “If you see something, say something.”
The “see something, say something” campaign encourages business owners to keep their eyes peeled on issues throughout the village, and to call code immediately before the problem accelerates. That way the code officer can talk with the individual and give a warning before someone gets hurt.
“This time of year, we don’t see the issue,” Snaden said. “But the minute warm weather hits, it becomes an issue.”
And the last few weekends have shown how popular Port Jefferson is when the sun is out, and a light jacket is needed.
Signs are posted up throughout the village, like this one seen here. Photo from Kathianne Snaden
“I want everyone to be aware if bicyclists are doing the right thing, obeying the traffic laws, we welcome them with open arms,” the trustee said. “We want to be ready to intervene before it becomes a problem — we’re not going to intervene if there is no problem.”
Along with the campaign, the village has begun using officers on bikes and has instituted a designated officer to patrol on foot throughout Main Street. Snaden said there will always be someone on duty, with no absence in shift changes.
“I’m confident to date we have bridged that gap,” she added. “The communication is now there. We work as team to dissuade any potential issues.”
If dangerous behavior is happening within the village, readers are encouraged to call code at 631-774-0066.
The original article did not mention the chamber and business owners who are part of the task force. They have been added to the online copy.
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