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Capelli Salon in Nesconset has limited the number of people who can be in the salon at the same time. Photo by Rita J. Egan

From restaurants to retail stores to hair salons and barbers, business owners are all dealing with the same thing — how to open their doors while keeping their employees and customers safe.

Sweet Mama’s in Stony Brook and other restaurants can now offer outdoor dining. Photo by Rita J. Egan

Last Wednesday, June 10, Long Island entered Phase 2 of New York Forward. This phase allows restaurants to offer outdoor dining, stores to permit a limited number of customers inside and for hairdressers and barbers to finally open up shop again.

Marios Patatinis, who owns Sweet Mama’s in Northport and Stony Brook, said being able to offer outdoor dining on the restaurants’ patios has been helpful to increase business. He also bought The Bench Bar and Grill across from the Stony Brook train station right before the mandatory shutdowns. At this location he said outdoor dining is available in the parking lot, and he has been able to start renovations on the building.

The restaurant owner said he was happy to see customers able to stay, sit and enjoy their meals.

“Everyone is eager to get out of their own house and come out to eat again,” he said. “It’s nice to see people come out and socialize and mingle a bit.”

Patatinis said employees both in the front and back of the establishments are required to wear masks. Anyone who has direct contact with food will also wear gloves. Like other businesses, cleaning will be done more frequently, hand sanitizers will be made available for customers and one-time use menus will be handed out.

Patatinis said he’s looking forward to Phase 3, which will allow restaurants to offer indoor dining as long as occupancy stays at 50 percent or less than usual. During the pandemic and mandatory shutdowns, he said he was grateful that he was able to offer curbside takeout service to his customers.

“When you build a clientele, they become family,” he said.

Hairdressers have also been taking measures to serve customers while taking extra precautions, following guidelines from New York State. At Capelli hair salon in Nesconset, owned by Maria LaMariana, in addition to more cleaning protocols, when clients arrive they must text their hairdresser as the waiting room is temporarily closed. All customers and staff members wear behind-the-ear face masks, and clients have their temperature taken at the door and put on a disposable cape. The number of patrons in the salon is also limited, and people are asked not to bring anyone with them during their visit.

LaMariana said she also has customers fill out a form to verify that they aren’t sick and also to provide their phone number. The owner said this way if they get a call that anyone tested positive for the coronavirus, they will be able to contact quickly others that were in the salon that same day.

She said at first reopening was overwhelming, comparing it to going back to school, and she said she cried a couple of times. The owner, who has been cutting hair for 50 years, was nervous that customers would challenge why certain things were being done, but only one person gave her
a problem.

“I’m happy that people are very cooperative,” she said. “They come in, they clean their hands, we take their temperature, and they fill out the form.”

Capelli Salon in Nesconset requires clients to sign in upon and arrival and the register features a reminder to wear a mask. Photo by Rita J. Egan

For the time being, LaMariana said she will be working seven days a week to catch up for the time lost during the pandemic and the limited capacity she is working with now. It was emotional to see her regulars again, she added, and one customer even left flowers outside the door the first day of the reopening.

“I never felt so important in my life,” she said. “I felt more important than a surgeon.”

Carolynn Mertens, director of stores and buyer for Madison’s Niche in Stony Brook Village Center, Sayville, Huntington and Garden City, said during the pandemic the store’s website was a big help where both regular customers and new ones across the country purchased items. Once Phase 1 began and stores were able to offer curbside service, Mertens said many customers ordered online and then picked up the merchandise themselves.

“But nothing compares to losing three months of in-store business, you can never make that up,” she said.

Mertens said in-store shopping is now allowed at 25 percent capacity. Customers and employees must maintain social distancing and wear a mask.

“People have been so respectful of each other and giving each other space shopping,” she said. “I think people are just generally excited to get out and enjoy the store, and get back to normal life.”

Employees have been busy sanitizing and cleaning commonly touched surfaces, such as door handles, keypads and phones, Mertens said. The stores are also making hand sanitizer available to customers and even selling masks. Clothes that are tried on in the dressing room will be quarantined by keeping them on a rack for a few days before they are returned to the sales floor.

Despite all the changes, she said it’s been wonderful seeing the customers again.

“When we reopened, it felt like Christmas,” Mertens said. “It was so energetic and lively.”

She said the staff was happy to hear many customers missed coming to the store, and reopening day was a successful one.

“It was a beautiful day,” she said. “We had the doors open. We had the music pumping. It was like a rebirth.”

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Local citizens are concerned that a proposed sewage plant on the Gyrodyne property in St. James will negatively affect local waterways. Photo by Chrissy Swain

By Warren Strugatch

We Long Islanders are a coastal people. Waterfronts provide our communities with beauty and sense of place; offer abundant recreation opportunities and make dining out delightful. Waterways teach our children about ecology and nature and account for billions of dollars in tourism revenue for businesses. The so-called “conditional approval” vote of a sewer treatment plant by the Suffolk County Sewer Agency on Gyrodyne property next Monday (June 22) threatens to destroy the balance between quality of life and economic opportunity that characterizes life on the North Shore.

Gyrodyne’s proposed 7-acre sewage treatment plant is the lynchpin of a humungous, much-debated development plan that, if it goes forward, will forever change life along Route 25A from Smithtown through Brookhaven towns. Gyrodyne’s planned tenants — a 125,000 square feet medical office complex, a 250-room assisted living center and a 150-room hotel — will of course generate jobs, bring traffic, create growth and — inevitably — produce waste. Gyrodyne, which has seen similar proposals go down in defeat for decades, this time promised to run a pipeline to nearby Lake Avenue. The offer made Gyrodyne a hero on Lake Avenue and made the company friends in local positions of power. Suddenly, their long-rejected proposal seems headed for success.

Two factors make the big sewer debate particularly contentious:

Toxic Effluent. Tenants will produce high quantities of toxic effluent, laden with radioactive waste, pharmaceutical byproducts, nitrogen and biohazards. As environmental experts testified at town hearings in January, when these components enter the harbor they increase algae bloom, turn water green, kill fish, and ultimately kill the aquatic ecosystem, rendering the waterways unfit for fishing, swimming and boating.

Gravity. Effluent will flow directly downhill from the plant and into Stony Brook Harbor, less than 8,000 feet downhill. Environmental protocols or advanced filtration requirements are not mentioned in the plant’s specs. Meaning: Pollution of the harbor is inevitable.

Inevitably, jurisdictional questions arose. Authority over the Gyrodyne proposal rests with the Town of Smithtown, which conducted hearings in January. More than 100 people spoke, including noted environmentalists, scholars of marine sciences, and local officials known for their environmental commitments. Homeowners and business owners also spoke, testifying to the likely impact the development could have on their businesses, home equity and quality of life. Most of their testimony was negative.

Town of Smithtown is still reviewing their testimonies, in accordance with New York State’s SEQRA law, enacted to ensure environmental protections are present in local permitting. The Suffolk County Sewer Agency, by choosing to interrupt the town’s process, defeats the spirit of the state’s law. The agency’s rush to offer “conditional approval” is illogical and unseemly, blurring jurisdictional responsibility and raising serious questions as to why they are calling this vote while the actual permitting agency continues to deliberate.

I don’t believe a plan that’s so poorly conceived and been dragged through a jurisdictional back door is going to work over the long haul. A sewage plant that despoils life in its shadow is ultimately harmful, not helpful, to economic growth. Suffolk County’s sewer functionaries should call off their vote, which was never a good idea, and let Smithtown’s officials do what they were installed to do. Gyrodyne, try again. Next time keep in mind that your neighbors love their water and their waterways and demand that their local officials balance environmental protection with economic growth.

Warren Strugatch is president of Select Long Island, an economic development news publisher.

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METRO photo

TBR News Media editorial staff share memories of their dads and other special people for Father’s Day.

Rita Egan — Editor

As someone whose parents separated when she was 9 years old and moved in with her grandparents, I’m an example of a village raising a child. From an early age, I realized that relatives and even friends’ parents can play a role in a young person’s life.

I was fortunate that my new friends and their parents made my transition to life in Smithtown an easier one. There were the Irvolinos, the D’Agostinos, Mrs. Naseem, and later in high school, the Juans, the DeNobregas and the Castros who always made me feel welcome in their homes, even at family gatherings. I frequently was in the Irvolinos’ pool and on their boat. The D’Agostinos introduced me to the beauty of Head of the River and would take me with the family to the Jersey Shore. And of course, there were the rides many parents gave me when it was too dark for my grandfather to drive.

One day on Fire Island, my friend Nancy and I were knocked down by a huge wave. One second I’m hitting my head against something hard, and the next I was grabbed out of the water by Mr. Irvolino. He had me in his right hand and Nancy in his left. I will be forever grateful for my village. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and a belated Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, too.

Kyle Barr — Editor

When my parents call me on the weekend, we can go through the platitudes of normal life: How is your job, how’s Long Island, how’s your brother?

Dad, you can make comments about how I continue to leave my room a FEMA-designated disaster area. You can talk about my habits of leaving my clothing in the laundry bin after washing them instead of putting it in drawers.

Then we can get into the heavier stuff of national politics and local happenings. We can talk about the issues, and I can get angry and you can deflect. And I can’t seem to stop and ask you how you’re really doing.

You moved away, and I hope you’re doing OK. I hope the pandemic and quarantine has not made you so reclusive you can’t talk to anybody except mom’s parents. I hope the days you spend in retirement allow you to explore things you haven’t necessarily had the opportunity to.

I can ask only so much of you. I can ask you to be patient until I find time to see you. Until then, I can enjoy those platitudes and our conversations.

 David Luces — Reporter

When it comes to Father’s Day, I immediately think of my uncle and my late grandpa, two men I’ve been lucky to have in my life. As a young kid, they were a constant fixture, always there to lend me encouragement and support. Whether it was a Little League baseball game or a band recital, they were there. Sometimes, it would just be us slouched on the couch spending hours watching a Knicks game or WWE professional wrestling. My younger self didn’t know any better, but now looking back I think the one thing I take away from those experiences is to be present and to enjoy those moments with the people you love.

My grandpa passed away before he could see me graduate high school and college, though I know he would be proud of my accomplishments and the person I’ve become. My uncle and family have played a big part in that.

So when I think of this Father’s Day, I think of spending time with my uncle, maybe having a couple of beers and reminiscing of past times with my grandpa. But most importantly, we’ll be with family to make new memories together.

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By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

As we approach Father’s Day, I can’t help thinking that the creators of the alphabet hid important lessons in plain sight when they put the letters “n” and “o” between the letters “m” and “p.”

The letter “m” starts the Latin word “mater,” which means mother. The letter “p” starts the word
“pater,” which, also in Latin, means father.

Between mom and dad, then, resides the simple,
effective and important word “no.”

Parents who aren’t on the same page about decisions will find children who don’t believe a “no” ever means anything because they will run to the other parent to find someone who will render a “no” from the former parent meaningless.

Parents need the word “no” to unite them, bringing together the “m” and “p” that makes it possible to provide consistent parenting advice. When a “no” from dad is also a “no” from mom, children can’t divide and conquer with their parents.

Now, valuing and appreciating the word “no” doesn’t necessarily mean parents should say “no” to everything. In fact, when mom and dad agree on something for their children, they can and should celebrate the opportunities they urge their progeny to pursue.

When our children were young, we found ourselves falling into the repeated “no” pattern, mostly to protect our children. “Don’t go in the street, don’t put that toy in your mouth, don’t grab that dog’s tail, etc.” While all of those rules are valid and valuable, they also can create a culture of “no” that constantly reminds children of their limitations, giving them the equivalent of a Greek chorus of “no” that follows them around, preventing them from exploring the world or from considering opportunities and risks worth taking because they expect a giant “NO!” sign to appear in their closet, under their bed, at the entrance to their classroom or in the backyard.

My wife and I put considerable energy into redirecting our children, rather than giving them a negative answer. We suggested alternatives to their suggestion or even, at times, a compromise answer that wasn’t a negative so much as it was a reshaping of an impulse.

On an elemental level, the letters “n” and “o” also seem so apt for the world between mom and dad. After all, N for nitrogen represents 78 percent of the atmosphere while O for oxygen represents 21 percent, which means that, between the letter placeholder for mom and dad resides the letters for 99 percent of the atmosphere of the earth.

The elements nitrogen and oxygen also, like some families, exist in paired form as molecules instead of single elements. These molecules float around in the atmosphere as a duo, with a strong covalent bond keeping the orbiting electron shells full.

For children, saying “no” to their parents starts early as a way to fight back against the world of “no” while they drift into the world of the terrible twos or, in our children’s case, the threadbare threes. When these children are caught between their mother and father, they may find that their only defense against a disagreeable world is to hold up their own “no” shield.

That small word, however, is important to change the world as well, because children who can defend their “no” answer to parents can also refuse to accept problems they see in the world. Instead, they can defy policies or ideas that rankle them. Saying “no” to anything aids cognitive development and, as it turns out, is good preparation for parenting. It has to be true because it’s right there, hidden in place sight, in the alphabet.

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People brought images of George Floyd to a Port Jefferson protest June 18. That protest was originally meant for June 19, otherwise known as Juneteenth. Photo by Drew Biondo

As the country grapples with various levels of implicit bias in the weeks after Minneapolis resident George Floyd was killed by a white police officer, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) signed two executive orders June 19, otherwise known as Juneteenth.

More than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation while the country was in the throes of the Civil War, slaves in Texas were among the last to learn June 19, 1865, that they, too, were free.

Bellone signed one executive order that mandates the same kind of implicit bias training members of the Suffolk County Police Department have received since 2018 for every county employee before June 19 of 2021.

Additionally, Bellone signed an order that directs the county’s Office of Minority Affairs to prepare an annual observance of this important day in American history next year. The celebration could include festivals, parades, symposiums and musical events. The day will focus on the achievements of African Americans. The office will solicit input from the community and stakeholders to help plan these events.

As part of the outreach, the county executive’s office will also reach out to schools.

“The education piece is incredibly important,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters. The effort is designed to ensure that students have a broader understanding of American history and about the progress the country is making and needs to make.

Viral Numbers

The number of residents who tested positive for COVID-19 in the last day was 54. That brings the total to 40,864. The positive tests continue to represent less than one percent of the total tests given by the county.

The number of hospitalizations, meanwhile, broke below a holding pattern for the last week. The number of residents hospitalized with the coronavirus fell by 15 to 110. The number of people in the Intensive Care Unit with the virus fell by six to 29.

An additional 21 people were discharged from hospitals in the county.

The number of people who have died from complications related to COVID19 increased by one to 1,962 over the last day.

Long Island Ducks

The Long Island Ducks recently announced a 2020 schedule that included 70 games between mid July and September.

Bellone endorsed the idea and suggested that he thought it would be safe, with the proper precautions, given that the activity is outdoors and the Ducks are planning to have games played in front of a stadium cut to one quarter capacity.

“We are very hopeful that in phase 4, we will see the Long Island Ducks back and out on the field,” Bellone said. “We want to see the Ducks defend their title.”

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Student protesters crossed over to the North Country Patriots side of the road. Photo by Anne Chimelis
Student protesters joined the North Country Peace Group during their weekly rally. Photo by Myrna Gordon
Student protesters joined the North Country Peace Group during their weekly rally. Photo by Myrna Gordon
Student protesters joined the North Country Peace Group during their weekly rally. Photo by Myrna Gordon
Student protesters joined the North Country Peace Group during their weekly rally. Photo by Myrna Gordon

Local teens have been adding their voices to weekly rallies in Setauket.

Every Saturday morning, drivers can count on the grassroots activist North Country Peace Group on the corner of Route 25A and Bennetts Road and the North Country Patriots across the street. For three weeks now, Three Village school district students and their friends have joined the Peace Group to protest police brutality and call for justice and equality, joining forces with Black Lives Matter groups across
the country.

Myrna Gordon, of the North Country Peace Group, said she is proud of the young people and happy that they have joined them. She said one week more than a dozen joined them, but two weeks ago more than 250 protesters stood on the corner, and this past Saturday, there were more than 150 rallying. She said there was no advertising about any themed protests.

“I think they know that our corner is such an important part of our community, and they know that we have been there for issues of peace and justice, and all of a sudden said this is where we’re going.”

She called the students “truly inspirational and a credit to their generation.”

“They are amazing young people, and they are going to carry the baton through all of this,” she said.

During the teenagers’ visits to the corner, they crossed over to the Patriots’ side (upper left photo), Gordon said, and continued to display their Black Lives Matter signs.

Gordon has been part of protests since the 1960s, and she said sometimes movements die out quickly, but she had advice to the young people to stay the course.

“They need to be tenacious,” she said. “They need to be vigilant. They need
to vote.”

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National Night Out attendees in Brookhaven enjoy the Centreach Pool Complex. Photo from Suffolk County Police Department

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) recent announcement that the state would allow public pools to reopen at the discretion of local municipalities was received as good news for residents in Suffolk County who rely on such facilities for recreational use and to cool off the summer heat. For local town governments, they will have to consider not only the safety of patrons but also whether they still have the resources in place to operate their pools. 

The Dix Hill pool could potentially reopen depending on a debate within the Town of Huntington. Photo from TOH

Two weeks ago, in a joint press release, town supervisors from Babylon, Brookhaven, Islip, Smithtown and Huntington said they would close their pools to avoid further potential coronavirus spread. 

Since then, at least two municipalities on the North Shore may be reconsidering their initial decision. 

Huntington spokesperson Lauren Lembo said in a statement that it is something the town “has been discussing after the successful reopening of the beaches.” At this time, the town hasn’t officially announced anything on pools reopening yet, but Lembo added that a safety plan and staffing resources are currently being assessed.

Huntington town Supervisor Chad Lupinacci (R) also weighed in. 

“Based on the successful phased reopening of our beaches with new safety measures in place, we are more confident now that we can provide an equally safe and fun experience at the Dix Hills Pool this summer, which will be open for our summer camps,” he said in a statement. “We are considering plans to open the pool to residents only in the coming weeks.”

Brookhaven’s public pools will remain closed, according to town spokesperson Kevin Molloy. Though the town’s spray parks will reopen later this month. 

In Smithtown, spokesperson Nicole Garguilo said officials want to see the number of COVID-19 cases in the town continue to decrease before they make any potential decisions. 

“We want that metric to continue to go down —there is a lot involved in reopening our pools,” she said. “If it is safe enough, we would consider it.”

There are a number of issues they would have to address. Smithtown’s three public pools are all located at Smithtown Landing Country Club. 

Garguilo said in addition to implementing the proper safety precautions they would need to assess if they still have the available resources to operate all three pools. 

“For us, it’s making sure the recreation director has those resources, he has to go out and get 

lifeguards and pool operators to staff these pools,” she said. “We might have enough staff for only two pools.”

Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, said municipalities will have to go about their reopenings differently. 

“Not all pools have the same footprint, some have more space than others,” she said. “To keep people safe, towns might go to reduced occupancy.”

Nachman said there is no evidence that COVID-19 can spread to people through the water used in pools. Proper operation and disinfection should kill the virus that causes COVID-19. 

Despite that, the infectious disease expert reiterated that patrons still need to proceed with caution. 

“If you’re with your family, stay together, spread yourself out from others and stay six feet apart. Do not crowd around the pool,” she said. “If you’re sick or feel sick do not come to a public pool.”

Nachman also mentioned that if you plan on bringing food to be careful, as it is another source of infection. 

“Everyone has to do their part, we are all part of community protection,” she said. 

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Claire Nicolas White, born June 18,1925, in Groet, Netherlands, died May 26 in St. James.

A woman of vast and varied talents, she was a poet, writer and teacher of ballet, French and writing. Daughter of stained-glass painter Joep Nicolas and sculptor Suzanne Nys, Claire spent her early childhood in the Netherlands and a convent school in France. When she was 14, her parents fled the Nazi menace. Her father had a commission to paint a mural in Rockefeller Center, New York, where the family felt at home in a European community of exiled artists and writers. Claire and her younger sister, Sylvia, attended the Lycée Français with the children and grandchildren of other refugees.

When she’d arrived in New York, Claire spoke Dutch and French. By the time she graduated from Smith College, she’d fallen in love with English. In the poem, “Marriage II,” she wrote:

But English I wed for better or worse, 

my reality, my daily companion.

In 1946, Claire, with her mother, sister and fiancé, drove to California to visit her mother’s sister, Maria, and her husband, writer Aldous Huxley. In a 2017 interview, Claire said that her famous uncle had encouraged her to follow her chosen path.

After graduating from Smith College, she married Robert White, renowned sculptor and a grandson of the architect Stanford White. Speaking of the primacy of art in their relationship, Claire said, in that same interview, “Life is chaos; art is necessary to organize it.”

Claire and Bobby had four children. Their oldest, Sebastian, became a physicist; Stephanie, a dancer; and Christian, a painter. Claire’s youngest child, Natalie, died in a car accident when she was only 17. Claire also had six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Until her last days, her close family, including many nieces and nephews, was a continual source of joy. She took pride in the way Sylvia and her son, Diego, have carried on the stained-glass legacy of the Nicolas family.

Because of family connections and her schooling, Claire was accustomed to meeting famous people. She wrote opera libretti for Vittorio Rieti, the composer, a great friend and the father of the artist Fabio Rieti, her Lycée classmate. Cartier-Bresson photographed her as a young woman. She took silent walks with the Indian writer and philosopher, Krishnamurti, who taught her how to concentrate on each step. Through Rieti, she met Igor Stravinsky and introduced him to Aldous Huxley. Through Stravinsky, she met the great choreographer, George Balanchine. When Bobby won a Prix de Rome, the couple befriended the writer William Styron and his wife in Italy.

And yet Claire was not drawn to the limelight. She was fond of quoting the line in Emily Dickinson, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” Putting down roots in St. James, she created an astonishing legacy, producing poems, libretti, plays, essays, memoirs, novels, art criticism (Art News, Newsday) and translations of Dutch and French literature. She mentored students of all ages at the Walt Whitman birthplace, in schools all over Long Island and in nursing homes. At Taproot Workshops & Journals, a nonprofit that encourages senior citizens to write in all genres, Claire was, according to its executive director, Enid Graf (in a letter to The New York Times,1995), “One of the organization’s finest teachers.” Claire was also the first editor of Oberon Poetry Magazine, founded in 2002 and still published by the Oberon Foundation.

She wrote into her 90s, both poetry and prose. Writer Orel Protopopescu, like many others in Claire’s orbit, considered her a mentor as well as a friend: “Until late last year, she was well enough to meet with our writing group weekly and would surprise us with unexpected turns of phrase, and a wry wit that was inimitably hers. Poems came to her with the regularity of dreams. There is a short poem called “The Tower” in which Claire describes an old wooden water tower close to her house. Its concluding lines encapsulate her philosophy of life:”

When life is flat I tower it

with a view

of the infinite.

In 2006, Claire donated her work to Stony Brook University Special Collections & Archives. Open to researchers without restriction, the collection comprises 10 cubic feet of newspaper clippings, articles, manuscripts, journals, notebooks, correspondence and published works from 1944 to 2006. 

Reading the titles in this collection, not all listed below, made me dizzy. I had thought that I knew her, but now I see I only had a glimpse. Claire was an extraordinary woman, complex and not always easy. She had a powerful impact on the lives of all of us privileged to know her, work with her, live a part of our lives with her and to love her. 

Some of Claire White’s publications:

Poetry in reviews and anthologies: The New Yorker, Partisan Review, Grand Street, Atlantic Monthly, Witness, Confrontation, The Paris Review, Long Island Quarterly, Paumanok, Poems and Pictures of Long Island and A Taste of Poetry (Walt Whitman Birthplace Association). 

Translations: “The Time of Our Lives (Journal d’une petite fille)” by Martine Rouchaud, 1946 (with Louise Varèse); “The Assault” by Harry Mulisch, 1985 (Pantheon Books, 1985 Honorable mention, PEN Translation prize); “A Night in May (La Nuit de mai)” by Alfred de Musset, 1989; “A Letter of Time” by Hans van de Waarsenburg in 1989; “The Vanishing” by Tim Krabbé, 1993; and “My Father’s War: A Novel” by Adriaan van Dis, 1996.

Selected books, poetry and prose: “The Death of the Orange Trees” (Harper and Row, 1963), a novel; “Joep Nicolas, leven en werk” (life and work) (Van Spijk, 1979); “Biography and Other Poems” (Doubleday, 1981); “Fragments of Stained Glass” (Mercury House, 1981), a memoir (Spanish tr. “Mosaico de Una Vida,” Sabina Editorial, 2017); “The Bridge” (Cross Cultural Communications, 1987); “River Boy,” 1988 (ed.); “Stanford White: Letters to His Family” (Rizzoli,1997); “The Elephant and the Rose” (The Vineyard Press, 2003), a memoir’; and poetry collections: “Riding at Anchor” (Waterline Books, 1994); “News from Home” (Birnham Woods Graphics, 1998); and since 2004: “Elusive Harbors” (poetry), “An Armful of Time, Snapshots” (memoir), “Ernestine” (novella), “Robert White, Sculptor,” “The Land of the Smiths” (2014) and “Five Generations Painting with Light” (2019).

Submitted by Kathy Donnelly with contributions from poets and writers.

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From left, Skyler Johnson, Laura Ahearn, Valerie Cartright, Tommy John Schiavoni are running for the Democratic nod for the state Senate District 1 seat. Campaign photos

With a June 23 date for the New York State primary fast approaching, TBR News Media hosted an online debate to hear directly from those Democrats running for the District 1 State Senate seat. 

The position has been held for the past 40 years by Sen. Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson). At the beginning of the year, LaValle announced this year would be his last in the Senate.

Yet even before the venerable senator made his announcement, Democratic contenders were lining up for the seat. By late January, five Dems were in the race. Meanwhile, the Republicans have already settled on their front-runner, state Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk). 

Candidates 19-year-old activist Skyler Johnson, Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, founder of Parents for Megan’s Law Laura Ahearn and Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station) all responded to TBR’s requests for a debate. Nora Higgins, a Ridge resident and the regional coordinator of the Public Employees Federation, did not respond to multiple requests for her availability in the debate.

With the number of cases of COVID-19 in New York dropping, and with the reopening process happening, how would you like to see Long Island continue to reopen, while still putting in safeguards to prevent a resurgence?

Many candidates called the fact the state allowed big-box stores to stay open was unfair while small businesses were forced to close and lose out on several months of business. 

Cartright said she and her fellow members of the town board have decried the state’s unequal practices of forcing small businesses to remain closed for months while stores like Walmart or Target stayed open. She touted the town’s small business reopening task force made up of local business leaders to look at this issue.

“As we move forward [in reopening], we find gaps, we find things that are not necessarily equitable,” Cartright said. “We have been on calls for the past four months each day talking about how we can best service our constituency — we cannot stop that process now.”

Johnson said the virus spread because of people not being able to call in sick for work or leave their jobs, especially if they might lose health insurance. He called for the passage of the New York Health Act, which would allow universal health coverage for residents.

“We need more places where business owners can reach out to, to keep themselves, their employees and their customers safe,” he said.

Ahearn said the state needs to ensure it’s not limiting small businesses, and called for further tax incentives beyond the federal stimulus money given to small shops to ensure they can continue. 

“Small businesses are really struggling out there,” Ahearn said. “If Walmart is open, and people are buying tchotchke, why couldn’t they go to local stores and buy that tchotchke?”

Schiavoni, a former teacher for almost 30 years, also said New York needs to “unify” the health care systems, including hospitals and walk-in clinics, and said New York State will need to lobby the federal government for additional financial relief for local municipalities. With 34 school districts in Senate District 1, many could very well lose close to 20 percent of state aid, which means cuts that could be “absolutely staggering.”

“Which means we’re cutting jobs when we really shouldn’t,” he said.

With the ongoing protests, and with bills recently passed in the state Legislature with most already signed by the governor, what is your opinion of protester calls for reform, and what more should state and local governments do to bridge the divide of race relations on Long Island?

Johnson said he helped organize two separate protests, one in Port Jefferson Station and another in Stony Brook, which he said he was “very proud of.” 

He called for more police reform than the bills passed in the Legislature. As a proponent of what is called “defunding the police,” he said it is more about taking money given to departments and investing it into communities. He also called for demilitarizing departments, citing Los Angeles police just recently having been forced to get rid of their grenade launchers.

“We need to be passing reforms on every level to reform police departments,” Johnson said. “We need to pass reforms that combat if a black and a white man are arrested, the black man will likely receive a harsher sentence.”

Schiavoni said that Suffolk has “great police officers who need to be lauded,” and those people need to be leaders to get rid of racist elements in the ranks.

“Those officers that shouldn’t be in the ranks, let’s face it, they kill people,” Schiavoni said. 

He said the state needs to alter the way police are trained and led, and also enfranchise the people of the community to help police their own communities. 

Cartright said the killing of George Floyd was just the inciting incident that “helped open the eyes of people to what’s been happening to black and brown people for centuries.”

When looking at the bills that passed the state Legislature, she cited that many of the bills had been on the docket for years “with no traction.” Before she became a councilwoman, she had been working as one of those looking to “push the needle” toward reform.

Cartright added that it’s on the state and people to make sure local governments are not circumventing this newly passed legislation, and that this is “just the beginning.”

Ahearn said as the person who runs Suffolk’s Crime Victims Center, she deals with local police on a day-to-day basis and sees the “overwhelming majority of our law enforcement officers are great cops,” including public safety and police, but the state “needs to weed out the bad ones, because they are literally killing people in our community.” 

She said she supports the ongoing protests that will eventually lead to the end of structural racism not only in police but in health care, housing and much more.

She said the terminology of “defunding” police is wrong, but the state should restructure to allow for de-escalation training and community outreach.

Many young graduates may be looking at a job market similar to those graduating in 2008. What have we learned since then, and how do we make Long Island more affordable to help both young and old consider staying?

Ahearn said she is a strong proponent of transit-based housing, especially citing the county’s work on the Ronkonkoma Hub project, adding that a general need to make investments in infrastructure to help generate funds as both local governments and states have been severely impacted by the pandemic.

“Our young people, our millennials just can’t afford to live here because they don’t have the good, high-paying jobs that are going to give them the income they need,” Ahearn said. 

Cartright said it will take the revitalization of communities to create “additional options for housing.” She said it’s difficult to convince people to step past the initial NIMBYism thought to consider affordable housing options in their communities. She cited her work with the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville hub study for an example of looking at transit-based development, and how it will require sewers before revitalization occurs.

The state, she said, should shift the system that allows young people to buy homes, especially since student loan debt is taken into account when applying for a mortgage, and add more incentives to incorporate affordable components in new developments.

Schiavoni cited his work with Southampton Town creating affordable housing complexes. He said it will require new rezoning laws to allow for mixed-use structures. 

He also mentioned the five East End towns’ Community Preservation Fund, which creates a transfer of some money sales of new homes over $400,000 toward a pool of affordable housing funds.

“These are the kind of innovative ideas we need to employ to keep our people here,” he said. 

Johnson said that, as someone who just recently graduated from Suffolk County Community College, very few young people who when they graduate say they will buy a house and remain on Long Island, but instead say they will leave. 

“I’ve spoken to people in the district who have not only been here for years, but families have been for years, who are saying they need to leave Long Island as soon as possible,” he said.

He said his plan includes taking vacant or derelict homes that go through the demolition process in towns and instead remake and use them to house people. He said he would create a lottery system for these homes, where those would be responsible for certain costs based on their income.

Sen. LaValle has been a proponent of the electrification of the Long Island Rail Road. Where do you stand on electrification and how would you go forward with a plan for a study?

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State Sen. John Flanagan. File photo

On June 8, the New York State Senate voted to clear several police reform bills in the wake of Minneapolis man George Floyd, who was killed in police custody, and the massive wave of protests that have swept across New York, the city and Long Island. 

The bills ranged from a repeal of 50-a, a civil rights law that protected the personnel records of cops, firefighters and correction officers from public scrutiny, to banning the police’ use of chokeholds to restrain alleged perps.

Some bills received universal bipartisan support, while others were divided on party lines. Some votes stick out. All Long Island senators voted yes to bills that police must report the discharge of a service weapon immediately, and all voted yes to banning the use of chokeholds by police. Still, Republicans came together against a special office for investigating incidents of death of people when in police custody and against 50-a.

Sen. John Flanagan (R-Northport),, the senate minority leader, said in a statement that while there is no excuse for police brutality, the repeal of 50-a “denies due process for our law enforcement officers whose records already were available under a court’s discretion,” and provides “false accusations” made against officers.

“It is not a reason to vilify and punish every man and woman in law enforcement who serves to protect and serve our communities in New York, nor should it be a reason to sow division,” he said in a statement.

Gaughran, a Democrat, voted yes to all reform bills.

“Our nation is at a pivotal moment in its history and people on Long Island have taken to the streets to peacefully demand change,” Gaughran said in a statement. “This package of justice reform legislation is important to ensuring trust between the brave men and women of law enforcement and the communities they work tirelessly to keep safe.”

State Sen. Ken LaValle was one of only two senators to vote no on a bill that confirms the police are required to see to the medical or mental health needs of a person in custody.

LaValle’s office did not return requests for comment about his votes.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has signed off on a majority of the bills so far, and has also signed an executive order mandating police all over the state come up with plans to overhaul their departments or face loss of state funding.

  • Senate Bill S.8496: repealing Civil Rights Law 50-a, which helped shield the records of law enforcement. With the repeal, citizens and groups can make Freedom of Information Law requests for those records, which will not reveal the private information of individuals.
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted no. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted no.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.2574B: creating an Office of Special Investigation within the Department of Law, under the Attorney General, to investigate and potentially prosecute, if warranted, any incident of a person whose death was caused by a police officer or peace officer. 
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted no. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted no.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.3253B: clarifies that a person not under arrest or in custody of police has the right to record police activity and to maintain custody and control of that recording, and of any property or instruments used to record police activities. 
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted yes. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted yes.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.6670B: the bill, also called the “Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act,” prohibits the use of chokeholds by law enforcement and establishes the crime of aggravated strangulation as a Class-C felony. 
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted yes. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted yes.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.3595B: Establishes the Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office within the Department of Law to review, study, audit and make recommendations regarding operations, policies, programs and practices of local law enforcement agencies. 
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted no. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted no.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.1830C: Also called the Police Statistics and Transparency Act, will require courts to compile and publish racial and other demographic data of all low level offenses, including misdemeanors and violations. The bill also requires police departments to submit annual reports on arrest-related deaths to be submitted to the Department of Criminal Justice Services, governor and legislature.
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted yes. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted yes.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.8492: This legislation essentially gives an individual right of action when another person summons a police or peace officer on them without reason in cases when there was no reason to suspect a crime or when they were not presenting an imminent threat to person or property.
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted yes. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted yes.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.6601A: The bill amends the Civil Rights Law by adding a new section that affirms New Yorkers’ right to medical and mental health attention while in police custody.
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted no. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted yes.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.8493: Creates a New York State Police Body-Worn Cameras Program which will direct state police officers with body-worn cameras that are to be used any time an officer conducts a patrol and prescribes mandated situations when the camera is to be turned on and recording.
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted yes. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted yes.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
  • Senate Bill S.2575B: This legislation, sponsored by Senator Jamaal Bailey, will require state and local law enforcement officers, as well as peace officers, to report, within six hours, when they discharge their weapon where a person could have been struck, whether they were on or off duty.
    • Sen. Ken LaValle (R) voted yes. 
    • Sen. John Flanagan (R) voted yes.
    • Sen. Jim Gaughran (D) voted yes.
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