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Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn formally announced her bid for Congress at a June 2 event at the Three Village Inn. Photo by Rita J. Egan

More than 150 people, celebrating a local elected official’s announcement, filled the front courtyard of the Three Village Inn, Stony Brook, in the late afternoon of June 2.

Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) announced her bid to run in 2022 for New York’s 1st Congressional District. Hahn, who is also deputy presiding officer of the county Legislature, will run against fellow Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming (D-Noyac) for the Democratic nomination. U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R) has held the seat since 2015. The congressman is currently campaigning for the Republican nomination for New York State governor in 2022.

The June 2 event was organized for Hahn to make her first public remarks about her decision. When she was younger, the legislator was a waitress at the Three Village Inn.

Hahn said her father, who was a volunteer firefighter in Stony Brook, gave her inspiration to serve the community.

“I always try to match the level of service my dad gave,” Hahn said. “He is my hero, and my prime example of what it means to show up for your community and help families in need. It’s his example that led me to pursue a career in social work and become a civic leader.”

She said his influence also helped her tackle difficult issues in the Legislature where she has worked on legislation to protect land and water from pollutants, confront Long Island’s opioid epidemic, and helped victims of domestic abuse.

Hahn said more than ever the district needs a leader in Congress, “who actually wants to find solutions for our problems, and that is what I will do — find solutions.”

“I have so much hope and optimism right now,” she added. “We are back together close enough for handshakes and hugs.”

Hahn compared the pandemic to a storm, and said like other storms, residents will come out stronger “if we are willing to face head on together the enormous challenges that need to be tackled for Long Island’s hardworking families.”

The legislator said she recognizes the impact the pandemic has had financially on many. She added Long Islanders’ finances were affected long before the COVID-19 shutdowns when the federal government capped the state and local tax deduction.

“This punitive tax has hurt families and hurt our economy,” she said. “Of course, I’ll stand up for Long Island homeowners and vote to repeal that tax.”

In addition to removing the tax cap on SALT deductions, among her goals, if elected to Congress, are making health care affordable, child care more accessible, investing in local infrastructure and protecting land and water from pollution and having access to parks and shorelines.

“Washington must be better for us,” she said.

Hahn said she believes a campaign can be built with Long Islanders across the political spectrum “while upholding deep-held Democratic values of respect, equality, justice and opportunity for all.” She made it clear she is ready for the task of running for Congress and described herself as a problem solver.

“I work to get things done,” Hahn said. “I lead with respect, and I listen. I have a track record of working with anyone, to put family first and get results. That’s the kind of leadership our community needs in Washington. This campaign isn’t going to be easy, but like a lot of Long Islanders, I’ve never backed down from a challenge.”

Alexandra VanDerlofske, executive director of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee, said in an email statement that voters will have a difficult decision to make when it comes to the primaries.

“Kara Hahn has been a dynamic legislator and has a proven record of getting things done for Suffolk,” she said. “Voters are going to have a tough choice to make, but either choice will be a good one as Kara or Bridget will both be strong advocates for Suffolk in Congress.”

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Stony Brook University Hospital Diabetes Program team members celebrate 2019 Pinnacle Award for Quality and Patient Safety. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Stony Brook University Hospital has received a two-year Advanced Inpatient Diabetes certification from The Joint Commission after a comprehensive review of its diabetes program.

Stony Brook becomes the seventh hospital in New York State and the first hospital in Suffolk County to achieve advanced certification. Only 66 hospitals nationally have achieved this distinction after a rigorous three-day review by Joint Commission surveyors.

Certification demonstrates continuous compliance with The Joint Commission’s performance standards. As the Joint Commission’s “Gold Seal of Approval®” for Advanced Inpatient Diabetes, it reflects a healthcare organization’s commitment to providing safe and quality patient care.

“This achievement demonstrates the outstanding quality of care that our faculty and staff provide for patients with diabetes,” said Carol Gomes, MS, FACHE, CPHQ, Chief Executive Officer of Stony Brook University Hospital. “Our entire diabetes team is uniquely equipped and qualified to help our patients address the daily challenges they face in managing their disease.”

“I am overjoyed that the Stony Brook Medicine Diabetes Program has been recognized for excellence by The Joint Commission and am honored to be among only a handful of hospitals nationwide with this certification,” said Joshua D. Miller, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Diabetes Care for Stony Brook Medicine, Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of Medicine for Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. “This achievement acknowledges the dedication of our team to patients living with diabetes and showcases our shared commitment to providing the highest quality care to the community here on Long Island.”

Joshua D. Miller, MD, MPH. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Dr. Miller in particular acknowledged the contributions of Danielle Kelly, MS, ANP-C, RN, CDCES, lead inpatient diabetes nurse practitioner; Paul Murphy, BS, CSSBB, Assistant Supervisor of Quality; Sue Robbins, MS, RN, CPPS; and Nancy Cohen, MA, RN, in the Department of Regulatory Affairs; inpatient diabetes educators Patty Skala, RN, MA, MSN, CDECS, BC-ADM, and Mary Rieff, RN, CDECS; and members of the Diabetes Advisory Committee. He also cited Eileen Gilmartin, Michael Kaufman, Anthony D’Aulerio and team from Stony Brook Medicine’s Information Technology Department for their efforts to transform Stony Brook Medicine into the region’s leader in diabetes care.

“Stony Brook’s diabetes team is among the best in the nation,” Dr. Miller said. “As a person living with type 1 diabetes for over 21 years, I have tremendous pride in the care Stony Brook Medicine provides to patients living with the disease and consider myself privileged to work alongside individuals so dedicated to improving the lives of those we serve.”

Since Dr. Miller joined Stony Brook in 2013, the hospital has made a significant commitment to diabetes treatment and education, building the first comprehensive diabetescenter in the region. In 2019, the program received the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) 2019 Pinnacle Award for Quality and Patient Safety.

To achieve Joint Commission certification, a team of reviewers evaluated Stony Brook’s compliance with related standards, including program management and delivering and facilitating clinical care. Certification recognizes healthcare organizations that provide clinical programs across the full range of care for patients with diabetes. The review process evaluates how organizations use clinical outcomes and performance measures to identify opportunities to improve care, as well as to educate and prepare patients and their caregivers for discharge.

“Advanced Inpatient Diabetes Certification recognizes healthcare organizations committed to fostering continuous quality improvement in patient safety and quality of care,” says Mark Pelletier, RN, MS, Chief Operating Officer, Accreditation and Certification Operations, and Chief Nursing Executive, The Joint Commission. “We commend StonyBrook for using certification to reduce variation in its clinical processes and to strengthen its program structure and management framework for diabetes patients.”

“Our teamwork has powered a transformational journey for patients with diabetes at Stony Brook,” Gomes said. “By focusing on specific opportunities for improvement, we are enhancing quality of care and clinical outcomes.”

For more information about the Stony Brook Diabetes Center, visit https://www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/patientcare/diabetes.

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Xiaoning Wu at her recent PhD graduation with Kevin Reed. Photo by Gordon Taylor

By Daniel Dunaief

If they build it, they will understand the hurricanes that will come.

That’s the theory behind the climate model Kevin Reed, Associate Professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, and his graduate student Xiaoning Wu, recently created.

Working with Associate Professor Christopher Wolfe at Stony Brook and National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists, Reed and Wu developed an idealized computer model of the interaction between the oceans and the atmosphere that they hope will, before long, allow them to study weather events such as tropical cyclones, also known as hurricanes.

In his idealized program, Reed is trying to reduce the complexity of models to create a system that doesn’t require as much bandwidth and that can offer directional cues about coming climate change.

“When you’re trying to build a climate model that can accurately project the future, you’re trying to include every process you know is important in the Earth’s system,” Reed said. These programs “can’t be run” with university computers and have to tap into some of the biggest supercomputers in the world.

Reed’s work is designed to “peel back some of these advances that have happened in the field” which will allow him to focus on understanding the connections and processes, particularly between the ocean and the atmosphere. He uses fewer components in his model, reducing the number of equations he uses to represent variables like clouds.

“We see if we can understand the processes, as opposed to understanding the most accurate” representations possible, he said. In the last ten years or so, he took a million lines of code in a climate model and reduced it to 200 lines.

Another way to develop a simpler model is to reduce the complexity of the climate system itself. One way to reduce that is to scale back on the land in the model, making the world look much more like something out of the 1995 Kevin Costner film “Waterworld.”

About 30 percent of the world is covered by land, which has a variety of properties.

In one of the simulations, Reed reduced the complexity of the system by getting rid of the land completely, creating a covered aqua planet, explaining that they are trying to develop a tool that looks somewhat like the Earth.

“If we could understand and quantify that [idealized system], we could develop other ways to look at the real world,” he said.

The amount of energy from the sun remains the same, as do the processes of representing oceans, atmospheres and clouds.

In another version of the model, Reed and Wu represented continents as a single, north-south ribbon strip of land, which is enough to change the ocean flow and to create currents like the Gulf Stream.

The expectation and preliminary research shows that “we should have tropical cyclones popping up in these idealized models,” Reed said. By studying the hurricanes in this model, these Stony Brook scientists can understand how these storms affect the movement of heat from around the equator towards the poles.

The weather patterns in regions further from the poles, like Long Island, come from the flow of heat that starts at the equator and moves to colder regions.

Atlantic hurricanes, which pick up their energy from the warmer waters near Africa and the southern North Atlantic, transfer some of that heat. Over the course of decades, the cycling of that energy, which also reduces the temperature of the warmer oceans, affects models for future storm systems, according to previous studies.

Reed said the scientific community has a wide range of estimates for the effect of hurricanes on energy transport, with some researchers estimating that it’s negligible, while others believing it’s close to 50 percent, which would mean that hurricanes could “play an active role in defining” the climate.

Reed’s hypothesis is that a more rapid warming of the poles will create less of an energy imbalance, which will mean fewer hurricanes. This might differ in various ocean basins. He has been studying the factors that control the number of tropical cyclones.

Reed and Wu’s research was published in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems in April.

Wu, who is completing her PhD this summer after five years at Stony Brook, described the model as a major part of her thesis work. She is pleased with the work, which addresses the changing ocean as the “elephant in the room.”

Oftentimes, she said, models focus on the atmosphere without including uncertainties that come from oceans, which provide feedback through hurricanes and larger scale climate events.

Wu started working on the model in the summer of 2019, which involved considerable coding work. She hopes the model will “be used more widely” by the scientific community, as other researchers explore a range of questions about the interaction among various systems.

Wu doesn’t see the model as a crystal ball so much as a magnifying glass that can help clarify what is happening and also might occur in the future.

“We can focus on particular players in the system,” she said.

A native of central China, Wu said the flooding of the Yangtze River in 1998 likely affected her interest in science and weather, as the factors that led to this phenomenon occurred thousands of miles away.

As for her future, Wu is intrigued by the potential to connect models like the one she helped develop with applications for decision making in risk management.

The range of work she has done has enabled her to look at the atmosphere and physical oceanography and computational and science communication, all of which have been “useful for developing my career.”

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Photo from WMHO
WMHO Science Camp

This summer, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO)’s Summer of Science returns to in-person programming at the WMHO’s Ernst Marine Conservation Center at West Meadow Creek. Three sessions (each a four day program) will run depending on age group from July 12 to August 13. Registration is required for these programs. Depending on the program, cost per child is $250 to $275. Early Bird registration by June 15 will include a $25 reduction in the program rate.

These open-air outdoors programs emphasize hands-on exploration of plant and animals species along the shoreline, student driven research projects, and scavenger hunts to compare & contrast the marsh and sandy beach habitats. Salt Marsh Explorers (ages 6 to 9) runs from July 13 to 16, Salt Marsh Detectives (ages 10 to 12) runs from August 9 to 13. Both programs are $250 per student, start at 10am and end at 11:30am. Salt Marsh Scientists (ages 13 to 17) runs from July 26 to 30, is $275 per student, starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 1 p.m.

To learn more about WMHO’s Summer of Science programs, call 631-751-2244.

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The Suffolk County Landbank Corporation has been reaching out to community members for their feedback regarding the Lawrence Aviation property in Port Jefferson Station. Suggestions have included allowing the Long Island Rail Road to have a railyard on the property, installing solar panels on the industrial core of the property and using some parcels for open space. Concept image from Suffolk County Landbank Corporation

The Suffolk County Landbank Corporation has been reaching out to local organizations to discuss ideas for the future of a 126-acre Superfund property in Port Jefferson Station.

The SCLBC has been reaching out to community members to see what they would like to see be done with the property. Recently, the nonprofit’s president, Sarah Lansdale, has been meeting with members of local chambers and civic associations about the property. The SCLBC has also reached out to elected officials such as county Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and briefed the two school districts affected by the site due to unpaid property taxes: Comsewogue and Three Village.

According to Peter Scully, deputy Suffolk County executive and SCLBC board member, the landbank had been authorized by the state Legislature to facilitate cleanup of blighted sites, and then return the properties to the county tax rolls. The SCLBC is involved in discussions with both the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Federal Department of Justice to talk about the future of the Lawrence Aviation property “and trying to make sure the community has some input into the future use,” Scully said.

One suggestion that has been considered is using a portion of the site as a Long Island Rail Road yard to facilitate electrification of the Port Jefferson Branch, he said. Scully added finding a suitable location along the branch for the railyard has been somewhat of a challenge with most of the communities fully developed.

Lansdale said that the land bank has received information from the Long Island Rail Road about what the environmental impact would be if the Port Jefferson Branch — from Huntington to Port Jefferson — were to be electrified.

“We would avoid approximately 7,800 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year,” Lansdale said.

Other suggestions for the site from the community that have been discussed with the EPA and DOJ have been preserving part of it as open space and the possibility of allowing the section that has been developed in the past being available for redevelopment for light industrial purposes. There have also been suggestions to use the property for solar panels on the industrial core of the property.

According to Scully and Lansdale, the federal government has invested more than $50 million into the property.

“Generally what the federal government will do will be to try and recover as much of the funding that it has expended as it possibly can, and typically when the government does that, it looks at what assets are available that it could use,” Scully said, “And in this instance, the only real asset is the real property. And so, in the absence of any sort of other arrangement or agreement, the federal government would likely just auction the property off.”

Scully said the outreach has been well received by community members.

“I think there’s a general appreciation on the part of these stakeholders that under a more conventional scenario, if the federal government was simply to auction off this property to the highest bidder on the town hall steps, the ability to shape future uses to meet community needs would be lost,” he said.

In a May 19 letter on behalf of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Mark Lesko — the former Town of Brookhaven supervisor — addressed to U. S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields, Lesko stated that the U.S. and county “have made significant progress toward resolution of their outstanding issues, though not all matters are resolved.” An additional status report will be submitted to the district court on or before June 18.

The property, which was deemed a Superfund in 2000, has been surrounded by controversy since the early 1980s when the Suffolk County Department of Health issued a series of recommendations for the former defense contractor to be compliant with several pollution control laws. An April 2019 article in The Port Times Record reported that in 1999, testing performed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation revealed contamination of groundwater and surface water at the site.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a 2019 memorandum, LAI used a front-end loader to crush 55-gallon drums containing hazardous substances which led to discharge of waste directly into the ground. The drums were among more than 1,600. Gerald Cohen, former CEO of Lawrence Aviation, was ordered to pay $48 million in cleanup costs for the toxic underground plume caused by materials leached into the ground on the property.

The EPA’s cleanup on the site has included the treatment of contaminated groundwater using two groundwater treatment systems to decrease the size of the groundwater plume. One system is on the property while the other is in the village of Port Jefferson, according to Scully.

Regarding property taxes, Lansdale said 2020 taxes associated with Lawrence Aviation are in excess of $860,000.  She added that “some parcels have been delinquent since 1993.”

“Every year that [taxes] haven’t been paid, Suffolk County taxpayers have been forced to bear the expense of making the other taxing jurisdictions whole,” Scully said, adding that means for school districts, fire districts and libraries.

“The tax burden associated with this property has been extreme,” he said.

While the county would typically take ownership of a property for nonpayment of taxes, when it comes to an environmental impairment such as Lawrence Aviation, the current situation absolves county taxpayers from the liabilities associated with environmental impairment, which would have a higher financial impact.

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Photo from 4HAS
The Four Harbors Audubon Society hosts a horseshoe crab count at West Meadow Beach Trustees Road, Stony Brook on Saturday, June 5 from 8 to 9:30 a.m.
Join board member Patricia Paladines to count horseshoe crabs along the shore. Learn why these ancient creatures are important to people and other animals. A Town of Brookhaven parking sticker needed or pay at parking meters. Please bring mask or face covering.
Reservations are preferred. Please email Patricia Paladines at [email protected]m.

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Old Field Montessori

Students, parents and teachers of the Montessori School at Old Field participated in the 13th annual Great Brookhaven Cleanup on May 15. “Everyone agreed that keeping the environment clean is always a worthy cause,” said Ditas Alcala, the school’s director.  Photo from Old Field Montessori

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Stock photo

The Three Village Central School District Board of Education will put its rejected budget up for a second vote. At its May 25 meeting, the board elected to resubmit the failed budget unaltered for taxpayers’ approval. 

“Since this is what the majority supported, this is what we should put forward,” said Jeff Carlson, deputy superintendent for business services, during a phone interview last week. 

Although 57.7% of taxpayers voted in favor of the $222.6 million budget — 2,286-1,677 — it failed to pass. That was because the proposed budget pierced the 1.37% cap on the tax levy increase, necessitating a supermajority approval, or 60% of the vote, to pass.

The failed budget has a tax levy increase of 1.85%, which officials say would bring in an additional $777,000 in revenue and represents a tax levy difference of $58 per year for the average taxpayer.   

“We want to get back on track” and position the district for long-term financial stability, Carlson said of the decision to pierce the cap.  

After spending close to $7 million from district reserves to enable a full reopening last September, the district needs to start paying itself back. It has budgeted about $800,000 to do so in the coming year.

Carlson added that the district needs to have flexibility in its budget in case there is a resurgence of COVID-19 in the fall. After a year of having schools open to all students every day, “we don’t want to go backward,” he said.   

The district is receiving $1.85 million in federal aid, which is earmarked for COVID-related expenses. While some districts received much larger allocations and must spread out their spending, Three Village does not have such restrictions, Carlson said. District officials would like to use the money over the next two years. Carlson explained that a one-time use would create a gap in the budget that would then need to be filled in the following year.

If the budget fails again, there will be no increase to the tax levy. That would mean a shortfall of about $3 million and that major construction or improvements to district property would not take place. Carlson said during the interview that it would not be disastrous, and the district would “make it as painless as possible for the kids.” He also said the district would then use all of the federal money for the coming year. 

Cuts would likely be made to some electives, and class sizes might increase on a district level, Carlson said. He added that funds budgeted for capital projects, which under a passed budget could only be used for building repairs and other maintenance and improvements, could be shifted to other areas of the budget. 

“Our buildings are in good shape,” he said, and it would be better to put capital projects on hold for a year rather than adversely impact academic programs.

The budget hearing was due to be held Wednesday, June 2. The revote will take place, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday, June 15, at Ward Melville High School located at 380 Old Town Road. The vote will take place in one location to make it easier for community members to know  where to go, Carlson said.

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Photo from Bruce Miller

The local American Legion chapter has a lot going on this month.

The Wilson Ritch Post No. 432, founded in 1919, is asking Suffolk County veterans in the Port Jefferson and Port Jefferson Station area to join in their comradeship and dedication to their country’s heritage, history and constitution. 

Earlier this week on Memorial Day, the members payed homage to fallen comrades at the Crowley Park in Port Jefferson Station and Port Jefferson’s Harborfront Park. The event was followed by a dedication of land to the post from the Prechtl family, and a raffle that has earned $1,000 for two scholarships of graduating Comsewogue seniors.  

On Saturday, June 5, they will be hosting The Legion’s Convention of 46 county posts. Elected officials from the village, town and county are expected to speak. 

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