Letters to the Editor: May 29, 2025
We are frustrated!
Residents of the Three Villages and the Village of Head of the Harbor have planned a rally to focus on the still unrepaired Grist Mill Pond and Harbor Road. All are encouraged to participate on Saturday, May 31 from 12 to 2 p.m. We will meet on the corner of Harbor Road and Main Street.
As residents, we are frustrated! The dam, pond and roads were washed away during a catastrophic rain event last Aug. 18 and 19. Now, nine months later, we are still waiting for repairs to begin.
While the Town of Brookhaven and the Ward Melville Heritage Organization bicker between themselves over naming the responsible party, the road continues to disintegrate, the pond is a muddy mess, and the major route through the community is completely inaccessible. Add to that, fear of delayed critical response times for ambulances, fire trucks and first responders that now must use narrow, winding roads to enter the area.
We implore the Town of Brookhaven and the Ward Melville Heritage Organization to develop a plan to repair Harbor Road and restore Mill Pond. Enough is enough!
Dale Salzberg
Head of the Harbor
Cuts to Medicaid would be disastrous for our community
I find it shameful that my congressman, Nick LaLota [R, NY1], voted to slash important programs that his constituents depend upon, in order to provide massive tax cuts for the wealthy. LaLota voted for devastating cuts to Medicaid. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has indicated that 8.6 million Americans will lose their health coverage because of this.
LaLota voted for cuts that will cause 3 million to lose Food Stamps. He voted to cut funding to combat climate change. He voted to cut funding for Medicare. He voted to cut funding for our public schools. The bill LaLota voted for will increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion over the decade, requiring higher taxes and further cuts. The Trump-imposed SALT cap was set to expire, but LaLota voted to extend it, just changing the size of the cap.
All Long Island Democratic members of Congress called for eliminating the cap. The top 0.1% of earners will see tax cuts of $390,000 per year each because of the bill that LaLota voted for. [By voting for the Big, Beautiful Bill, LaLota voted to support all the cuts on all these programs.] Nick LaLota has sold out the poor, the middle class, our seniors and our environment in order to give massive tax cuts to the wealthy.
Robert Marcus
Setauket
On Port Jeff energy
The George Altemose letter, “Learning from Europe” [May, 22], certainly has it right.
Electric energy generation is very hard to get right when demand fluctuates, battery and wind come online and must be balanced using peaker plants. Electric energy affects us all. It affects air quality and the environment, cost of living and even our tax revenues.
LIPA has to plan wisely to keep the power running [24/7 365 days a year].
Millions of dollars a year are provided to the Village o f Port Jefferson, Town of Brookhaven Town and Suffolk County that benefit these municipalities.
This energy coordination takes wise leadership all around. Port Jefferson Trustee Xena Ugrinsky and I meet regularly with Katrina Westerhof – National Grid’s hydrogen chief and their management regarding their plans for our power plant.
Mayor Lauren Sheprow has enabled this through her support of the Port Jefferson Power Plant committee that Ugrinsky chairs and I am on.
We are making really good progress in pursuing a cleaner, greener, less expensive energy future for central Long Island’s very uncertain energy course with the support of Sheprow, and this benefits both the residents, and to an even larger extent, the school district.
Help us continue enabling Port Jefferson to have a seat at the table with respect to what happens at the power plant.
Bruce Miller
Port Jefferson
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