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Harborfront Park

Views from the April 8 solar eclipse. Photo courtesy Andrew Young

By Samantha Rutt

The skies above treated Long Island residents to a mesmerizing display as a partial solar eclipse captivated onlookers on Monday, April 8. With eager eyes turned skyward at its peak around 3:30 p.m., many marveled at the four-minute celestial phenomenon, a sight last seen in 2017.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, casting its shadow on our planet. On April 8, North Americans from Texas to Maine had the opportunity to witness the infrequent event, as the moon partially obscured the face of the sun, creating a spectacle for those lucky enough to catch a glimpse.

For many, witnessing a solar eclipse serves as a reminder of the wonders of the universe and our place within it. 

Where were you during the eclipse? 

At TBR News Media’s East Setauket offices, staff gathered together in the parking lot to catch a glimpse of the moon in front of the sun. Some wore specialized solar viewing glasses — that met the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard — while others relied on alternative methods like pinhole projectors or indirect viewing methods used to observe the eclipse safely.

At Stony Brook University, students gathered in masses on the Staller steps and across campus equipped with eclipse glasses to view the event.

In Port Jefferson village, locals were seen having set picnic arrangements in Harborfront Park. In Three Village, people flocked to the shoreline, completely crowding West Meadow and Stony Brook beaches. 

While some gathered in droves outdoors, others keyed into the television streams as CBS News and NASA, among other platforms, live streamed the event. 

The last solar eclipse visible from Long Island occurred on Aug. 21, 2017, when a total solar eclipse swept across the United States.

While Monday’s eclipse was a partial one in our area and a total eclipse in other parts of the United States, it still captured the imagination of many and provided a unique opportunity for residents. Communities came together to share in the wonder of the celestial show — from backyard gatherings to organized viewing events like those offered at various Suffolk County parks — as residents of all ages savored the experience.

Looking ahead, Long Islanders can mark their calendars for the next solar eclipse visible from our region as New York is not expected to be in another path of totality until 2079. 

As this year’s eclipse drew to a close, the memories of the solar event will linger in the minds of our communities. Later, I wondered how the Native Americans who lived on Long Island centuries ago experienced a total eclipse.

Due to walkway reconstruction, Harborfront Park in Port Jefferson is currently closed to the public.

In an exclusive interview, Village of Port Jefferson Mayor Lauren Sheprow offered updates on the park project, outlining the motivations guiding this initiative.

“We wanted to make sure that we could do the whole park with whatever solution we came up with,” she said. “The priority was safety, and then fiscal responsibility was the second responsibility,” leading to the choice of asphalt.

Roger Corcella, project manager for the park, said the preexisting walkways were not adequately maintained, prompting safety concerns from village officials.

He said the walkways were “in desperate need of repair,” noting, “It wasn’t safe to walk anymore, especially if you had any physical issues. It wasn’t [Americans with Disabilities Act]-compliant.”

Corcella added that the village considered various factors before deciding on asphalt for the walkways. He said the village required a material that would be cost-effective, durable, eco-friendly, customizable, ADA-compliant and require minimal maintenance.

He pointed to other municipalities, such as Brookhaven and Babylon, which use asphalt on park surfaces. “This is a very common practice to use this,” he said.

Further defending the choice of material, Corcella noted that asphalt enables Harborfront Park to serve residents as “a 12-month park” due to simple snow removal service.

During the November general meeting of the village board of trustees, former Mayor Margot Garant objected to the use of asphalt over stamped concrete due to environmental and permeability concerns [See story, “Harborfront Park walkways spark debate, former and current Port Jeff officials clash over materials,” Nov. 9, TBR News Media]. Responding to the objections, Sheprow reiterated her public safety concerns.

“We get way too many reports of trips and falls in the community and didn’t want Harborfront Park to be one of those locations,” the mayor said. “Therefore, we had to look at the whole entire park and look at resurfacing the walkways around the entire park.”

“We want to make the park accessible to everybody, and if we put in stamped concrete, we wouldn’t be able to do the whole park,” she added.

To finance the costs associated with the walkway reconstruction project, which totals $248,907, the village board is making use of grants from Suffolk County and the Town of Brookhaven that will subsidize over a third of the overall expense.

“We were looking at $90,000 that would help us pay for this project,” Sheprow said. “Had we not acted immediately, we wouldn’t have received it,” adding, “In order to be eligible for those grants, the understanding was that [the project] would have to be for the entire park. … We needed to be compliant with the requirements of the grants.”

During the interview, Sheprow referred to the practice of “deferred maintenance.” Given the safety concerns identified with the walkways, she concluded that the administration had to act.

“If you don’t address a situation when it first becomes an issue, it becomes an even bigger issue,” she said, adding, “My goal was not to defer the maintenance of the park any longer — to let it become a bigger issue — but to address it immediately.”

Corcella said he aims to complete the walkway reconstruction project by mid-December. To view the village’s full Q&A page on the Harborfront Park project, visit portjeff.com/harborfrontparkconstruction.

Harborfront Park in Port Jefferson is closed for walkway reconstruction until Jan. 1. Photo by Raymond Janis

Officials from past and current village administrations quarreled Monday evening, Nov. 6, over the ongoing walkway renovation project at Harborfront Park in downtown Port Jefferson.

During the public comment period, former Mayor Margot Garant expressed opposition to the project for its use of asphalt on walkways throughout the park.

“We’re demanding an immediate halt to the project to allow time for a thorough revision of the chosen materials, costs involved and the potential environmental impact,” Garant said. “We also call for a more transparent and inclusive decision-making process that genuinely considers public feedback.”

Village clerk Sylvia Pirillo said the administration had met with an engineer regarding the use of asphalt, referring to asphalt as the “industry standard” for its cost-effectiveness and durability.

“Part of the reason it’s the industry standard is that it’s maintenance-free,” Pirillo said. “And unlike the crushed blue stone,” — the material currently used on the walkways — “it actually is [Americans with Disabilities Act]-compliant, which was a tremendous factor in the decision-making as well as, of course, the cost differential.”

The village clerk pointed to the sanitary benefits of asphalt, noting that “animal feces and other dirt and problematic-type residue do not fall into it and can more easily be washed away.”

Garant referred to the extent of the renovation project as “not necessary” and “harmful to the environmental well-being and engineering design of the park,” saying asphalt contributes to heat retention and impermeability, “particularly problematic given our proximity to the waterfront.”

Public safety

Sergio Möller, community relations officer for Suffolk County Police Department’s 6th Precinct, reported favorable findings during the department’s public safety report, noting that crime was generally down throughout the village.

Following a SCPD survey at Brook Road, however, Möller said that the roadway “has become a problem.”

Code enforcement chief Andy Owen presented promising results from a traffic survey conducted on California Avenue, which found “a majority of people are in compliance,” with 94% of cars surveyed traveling at or below the speed limit.

Owen added that there were no incidents of note occurring during recent village-sponsored events.

To watch the full meeting of the village board, including trustee reports and board resolutions, see the video above.

Photo courtesy PJV

The following is a press release from the Village of Port Jefferson:

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Port Jefferson’s Harborfront Park will be closed to the public from Oct. 27 to Jan. 1, 2024 for the replacement of the park’s walkways.

For safety reasons, we ask that the public not visit the park during the ongoing construction.

Look for construction and park reopening updates on social media and on the official village website: www.portjeff.com.

Please contact village clerk Sylvia Pirillo at 631-473-4724 ext. 219, or by email at [email protected] with any questions.

Thank you for your patience while we build a beautified, more accessible and safer Harborfront Park for all our residents and visitors.

AHOY MATEY! Visit with pirates at this year's festival. File photo by Aidan Johnson/TBR News Media

By Julianne Mosher 

Harborfront Park in Port Jefferson will turn into a pirate’s paradise this weekend and it’ll make visitors want to shake their “booty.”

On Saturday, Aug. 19, singers from around the world will head to the Village to share the gift of song, and some history, with tunes that came straight from the seas, as part of the 3rd annual Port Jefferson Sea Shanty & Maritime Music Festival.

Amy Tuttle, program director of the Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council (GPJAC), said that the free event brings in local sea shanty singers and others from all over New England, Canada, and even the UK. From noon until dusk, visitors can sit and sing along in Harborfront Park, located at 101-A East Broadway, or they might catch glimpses of a few street singers walking around town. 

“Port Jefferson was a shipbuilding community,” Tuttle said. “A lot of the captains and ship builders lived in these very houses that are still standing.”

Tuttle added that over a century ago, Port Jefferson was one of the largest shipbuilding communities in the state. Not only were a large number of big boats created right on these docks, but a huge number of small, wooden boats, as well. 

“Sea shanties were work songs developed by people who worked on and who built the ships,” she said. “They could be considered one of the first genres of world music —wherever there was a port, there would be different influences. It’s really interesting.”

And to really bring the vibe of early century Port Jefferson, across the park at Bayles Boat Shop, which is part of the Long Island Seaport and Eco Center (LISEC) and a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of maritime history on Long Island, will be hosting its annual Sikaflex Quick and Dirty Boat Build. 

Now in its 12th year, the event allows would-be boat designers and builders to have a weekend of fun and showcase their creative skills and talents. Using only a provided supply of plywood, plastic cable ties, and Sikaflex/sealant, two member teams must build, paint and then paddle their design around the village dock in Port Jefferson Harbor located just offshore of Harborfront Park.

Several two-person teams will have five hours on Saturday and return on Sunday to decorate their boats and prepare to race them at 3 p.m. Trophies will be awarded after the races for design, decoration, first built and race winners. “People will be able to watch the boats being built, listen to music and sing along,” Tuttle said. 

Port Jefferson hosted the first Sea Shanty & Maritime Music Festival in 2021. Tuttle said that for many years, Mystic CT would host a Sea Shanty Festival, but unfortunately, it was discontinued. In the time passing, she heard from many of the artists looking for other places to sing their songs, so the GPJAC partnered with the Village of Port Jefferson and the Folk Music Society of New York to bring this whaling town back to its roots.

Featured performers will include John Roberts, David Jones, David Littlefield, Bonnie & Dan Milner, Heather Wood, Joseph Morneault, Geoff Kaufman, and Deirdre Murtha and Alan Short — plus a grand finale concert featuring all the musicians at around 6 p.m. Pirates at Large will be at the “pirate camp” outside the Village Center in character, singing along, too.

“Each year this gets a little bit bigger and we’re so excited to bring it back again,” Tuttle said. “There’s nothing else like it.” For more information, visit www.gpjac.org.

The Memorial Parade of Boats can be viewed from Harborfront Park in Port Jefferson. File photo by Bob Savage
View Memorial Parade of Boats at Harborfront Park prior to race

It’s time once again to sail for a cure as the 14th annual Village Cup Regatta, a friendly competition between Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson, returns on Saturday, Sept. 9. 

Presented by the Port Jefferson Yacht Club, the Regatta raises funds for Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic cancer research. Last year’s Regatta raised more than $109,000 — a record sum — which was divided between Mather Hospital and the Lustgarten Foundation. The event has raised almost $860,000 over the past 13 years.

The Regatta consists of Yacht Club-skippered sailboats divided into two teams representing Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson. Employees from the Hospital and Village help crew the boats, which race in one of three classes based on boat size. 

The festivities begin in Harborfront Park, 101 East Broadway in Port Jefferson Village, at 10 a.m, where you can purchase shirts, commemorative hats, nautical bags and mugs. The Memorial Parade of Boats begins at 11 a.m. at the Port Jefferson Village dock. All sailboats participating in the Regatta will pass by the park dressed in banners and nautical flags on their way out to the Long Island Sound for the race which begins at 1 p.m.

Actor, director and local resident Ralph Macchio will once again serve as Village Cup Regatta Celebrity Ambassador for the event. Macchio has helped to publicize the important work of the two programs funded by the Regatta for the last ten years. Macchio’s wife, Phyllis, is a nurse practitioner in Mather Hospital’s Palliative Medicine Program.

Following the Regatta, a celebratory Skipper’s Reception and presentation of the Village Cup will take place  at 3:30 p.m. in a restored 1917 shipyard building that today serves as the Port Jefferson Village Center, just steps away from the Harborfront Park.

To sign up as a crew member for the Mather Hospital team, contact Cindy Court at 631-476-2723 or [email protected]

To sign up as a crew member for the Port Jefferson Village team, contact Sylvia at 631-473-4724, ext. 219 or email [email protected].

For more information and to purchase tickets to the reception ($50 per person includes food, wine, beer and raffles), please visit www.portjeffersonyachtclub.com or www.facebook.com/villagecupregatta.

For further questions, please call 631-512-1068.

Architect Michael Schwarting presents during a climate resilience forum at Port Jefferson Village Hall on April 5. File photo by Raymond Janis
By Aidan Johnson

Port Jefferson is known for its rich history. Many of its buildings have designated placards that show how they fit into the village’s unique story. However, the newer buildings have just as much of a story to tell, thanks to Michael Schwarting.

For decades, he has worked as an architect, helping to shape the identity of the local area.

Schwarting knew he wanted to be an architect from the time he was in high school. He has served as a professor at Columbia University and the New York Institute of Technology. Now, he is retiring after 50 years of teaching architecture and urban design and from the latter he will be a professor emeritus.

While teaching at Columbia, Schwarting met his wife, Frances Campani.

“I had met her when I was teaching at Columbia, but she wasn’t my student, and I had actually hired her to teach at New York Institute of Technology when I was a chairperson there,” Schwarting said in a phone interview.

‘It’s really been quite wonderful to be in a town where you could really be connected to everything that’s going on and be involved in important public things.’

— Michael Schwarting

Schwarting and Campani were married in 2000 and opened Campani and Schwarting Architects.

“Frances had been living for some years in Port Jefferson and practicing on her own, and we combined to make Campani and Schwarting,” he said.

Schwarting has enjoyed working with his wife at their firm and says that it isn’t rare for firms to have husband-and-wife teams. 

Together, Schwarting and Campani have striven to keep the character of Port Jefferson and its surrounding towns alive.

“I think that’s one of the really gratifying things,” he explained. “It’s really been quite wonderful to be in a town where you could really be connected to everything that’s going on and be involved in important public things,” he added.

One such project that Schwarting and his firm designed was Heritage Park in Mount Sinai, colloquially known as the Wedge, in the early 2000s.

“That was a wonderful project, because the Mount Sinai community organization was really wonderful to work with,” he said.

“It started out with a project that they came to us about when we were teaching to have our students do some design ideas, which were presented to the community, and that evolved into being more realistic than the students usually are,” Schwarting elaborated.

One of his favorite memories and most important projects was the work done for Port Jefferson’s harbor front. While he was the director of an urban design program at NYIT, he had his students present their plans for the harbor at one of the village meetings.

Even though the plans were all extravagant, the mayor was still excited by the presentation, and asked them to continue working on it.

“And that sort of turned into a grant the village got to study the harbor front, and we made this harbor front plan that was part of the village comprehensive plan,” Schwarting said. 

“We finished it in 2014 and it … was combined with a lot of our work on village projects, but that one is the one that we’re still kind of referencing in trying to deal with the stormwater mitigation and also rising tides, which are right there in the village harbor.”

While the mitigation efforts are difficult due to Port Jefferson’s natural flooding, which has been exacerbated by the parking lots and asphalt being put over ground that once absorbed the water, Schwarting says that they are “slowly uncovering all kinds of possibilities to do natural storm surge mitigation.”

Schwarting has been recognized for his work, and has received multiple American Institute of Architecture awards for places such as the mixed-use building on Main Street at Mill Creek Road.

While he may be retiring from teaching, Schwarting will still be going full steam with the grant for flood mitigation and will continue to help the hamlets and villages within Brookhaven keep their unique aesthetics.

File photo by Alex Petrosk

The Long Island Seaport and Eco Center (LISEC) seeks boat building/race teams for its annual Sikaflex Quick & Dirty Boat Build Competition, sponsored by the Sika Corporation, to be held at Harborfront Park, 101 East Broadway, Port Jefferson on Aug. 19 and 20.

Now in its 12th year, the event provides would-be boat designers and builders to have a weekend of fun and  showcase their creative skills and talents. Using only a provided supply of plywood, plastic cable ties, and Sikaflex/sealant, two member teams must build, paint and then paddle their design around the village dock in Port Jefferson Harbor located just offshore of Harborfront Park.

Up to 12  2-person  teams will construct a boat in five hours on Saturday and return on Sunday to decorate their boats and prepare to race them at 3 p.m. Trophies will be awarded after the races for design, decoration, first built and race winners. Are you up for the challenge? Download an application at www.lisec.org. For more information, call Len at 631-689-8293 or email [email protected]. 

Dragon boats were back in the water during the 8th annual Port Jefferson Dragon Boat Race Festival on Saturday, Sept. 17.

Sponsored by The Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, this event is a way to foster community togetherness. It also serves to promote Asian and Asian American culture and customs. 

Barbara Ransome, the chamber director of operations, said dozens of community organizations and business groups participated during the event, bringing together hundreds more community members. 

“This is six months in the making,” Ransome said. “It’s a tremendous amount of organizing, not only with the teams … but all of this entertainment. It’s wonderful to see this all going well, flawlessly and without a hitch.”

A total of 23 teams participated in the boat races. Among the organizations represented in the dragon boat competition were Stony Brook University, Suffolk County Police Asian Jade Society, Mather and St. Charles hospitals, and club teams from as far as New York City, among others.

The day kicked off with the ceremonial “Dotting of the Eyes.” During this ritual, team captains and local officials painted a dragon head. Among them was Port Jeff village trustee Rebecca Kassay, who described the rush of this ceremonial gesture. 

“It was a beautiful moment to dot the eyes and tongue and forehead of the dragon,” she said. “You feel connected with the people around you, and I think that’s something we’re missing these days. To be a part of something where you’re connecting with others is really special.” 

This year was Kassay’s first dragon boat festival. For her, the event was an opportunity to celebrate the community’s rich culture and diverse people. “I am so delighted to see so many people come out, the diversity of people here, and the enthusiasm of everyone here for this cultural event on Port Jefferson Harbor,” Kassay said.

Town of Brookhaven Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) also made an appearance. He seemed overjoyed by the festival’s sizable turnout and the many people he encountered throughout the day.

“I’m excited to see our friends here, especially my friends from Long Island Youth Development and the Chinese School at Stony Brook,” he said. “We are excited to enjoy the awakened spirit of Port Jeff Harbor for another year.”

Kornreich also recognized the festival as a cause for celebration. He described the invaluable contributions of Asian Americans and their steadfast commitment to building a stronger community.

“The Asian American population here in our area is growing,” he said. “They have a huge presence and enrich our community so much with their culture and with their friendship, as with their dedication to the community.” He added, “They’re an amazing group of people, and we’re just excited to enjoy this day with them.”

The East Setauket-based LI Youth Development Inc., or LIYD, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2021. The organization is dedicated to supporting the community youth through extracurricular programs. LIYD instructors host weekly sessions to reinforce these skills regularly.

“We started as a way to help teach kids around our communities about different topics and subjects,” said LIYD member Luke Hou. “For example, we have a bunch of different clubs inside of LIYD that each teach their own thing, like tennis club, art club, music club and so on.”

David Wu, one of Hou’s team members, discussed how the lessons of teamwork and cooperation learned from the dragon boat competition harmonize with LIYD’s organizational principles. “Although this is our first year competing, through the practices it has been pretty fun,” he said.

Several dance and choral groups gave moving performances throughout the day. These often paid homage to the cultural and linguistic traditions of the performers.

Come dance with the lions at the 8th annual Port Jefferson Dragon Boat Race Festival. Photo from PJCC

Dragons will roar and lions will dance once again as the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce hosts the annual Port Jefferson Dragon Boat Race Festival on Saturday, Sept. 17. The free event will take place at Mayor Jeanne Garant Harborfront Park, 101A E. Broadway, Port Jefferson and the village’s inner harbor.  

A scene from last year’s festival. Photo from PJCC

The festival is the brainchild of Barbara Ransome, Director of Operations at the chamber, who attended a dragon boat race festival in Cape May, New Jersey, a few years ago.

Opening ceremonies will begin at the Jill Nees Russell Performance Stage at the east end of the park at 8:30 a.m. and will include a performance by the Asian Veterans Color Guard, singing of the national anthem by Sophia Bloom, a Blessing of the Dragon and the traditional “Eye Dotting” ceremony to awaken the dragon.

“This is our 8th annual Dragon Boat Race Festival and we have 24 racing teams, last year 17 just out of COVID, so I think we are back to normal!,” said Ransome, ‘Mother of Dragons.’

With dragon boats provided by Great White North,  the first race scheduled for 9 a.m., boat teams will compete on a 250-meter, three-lane racing course. Each team is made up of 20 “paddlers,” one steersman and one drummer. Heats will run all day, culminating in an awards ceremony at 5 p.m. where medals will be awarded in three divisions. Spectators can easily view the race course from the park’s edge.

Team contests for the best team T-shirt, best drummer and best costumed drummer will be judged in the middle of the day. 

A scene from last year’s festival. Photo from PJCC

In addition to the races, there will be a day-long festival featuring numerous performances including the famous Lion Dance, Taiko and Korean Drum performances, martial arts demonstrations and Asian singing. Cultural and educational vendors and retailers will be on hand as well including representatives from Power Home Remodeling, Pure Mammography ­­— Lake Grove, Northshore Properties Realty, Renewal by Anderson Windows, Mather Hospital, Stony Brook Chinese School, Rebel Thaiboxing and T-Mobile for Business. 

Always a highlight, food this year will include pot stickers, veggie lo-mein, burgers, tacos, bacon quesadillas, and empanadas and there will be an abundance of children’s activities including origami, trick yo-yo demonstrations, face painting, and Chinese calligraphy and crafts, courtesy of the Port Jefferson Free Library. In addition, an educator from the Center for Environmental Educational and Discovery will bring Ozzy the bearded dragon and other ambassador animals.

“The harborfront park lends itself to this event, with our team encampments, the performance stage for all the Asian entertainment and plenty of room for our food trucks, sponsors and vendors! This will be a great team building day and lots of fun. The Chamber is very proud to be  hosting this unique event,” said Ransome.

The event will be held rain or shine. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and come enjoy the festivities! For more information, call 631-473-1414 or visit www.portjeffdragonracefest.com.

Schedule of Events: Saturday Sept. 17

7:45 a.m.  

Team Captains Meeting on the Great Lawn at Harborfront Park

8:30 a.m.  

Opening Ceremonies with Master of Ceremony Suzanne Velazquez, Asian Veterans Color Guard, Singing of the National Anthem by Sophia Bloom, and Blessing of the Dragon, ‘Eye Dotting’ ceremony

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

Food Vendors, Cultural Crafts, Children Activities, Retail/Educational/Nonprofit Vendor Tables

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  

Continual Dragon Boat Races in Port Jefferson’s Inner Harbor

10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. 

The Sound of Long Island Chorus:

Americana Program and Traditional Chinese Songs

10:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.

Long Island Chinese Dance Group

A scene from last year’s festival. Photo from PJCC

11:15 a.m. to noon

Chinese Classical Long Fan Dance, Chinese Folk singing, umbrella dance, and instrumental performance of “Big Fish” by Port Jefferson High School Music Group

12 p.m. to 1:20 p.m.  

Lunch Break (no racing)

12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Taiko Tides Drumming and Oroshi Drumming contest

12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. 

Parade of the Team T-shirts Contest 

Best Drummer Costume Contest

1 p.m. to 2 p.m.  

Shaolin Kung Fu Lion Dance 

Kung Fu  & Tai Chi Demonstrations

2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.  

Galante Martial Arts demonstrating Tai Chi, Armis (Filipino Martial Arts) and Jiu Jitsu

2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. 

Stony Brook Youth Chorus

3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Yana Dance Group – Chinese Traditional Dance

3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Yixin Dance Center – Chinese Classical Dance

4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Rebel Thaiboxing Demonstrations

4:30 p.m.

Last Dragon Boat Race

5 p.m.

Closing Ceremonies and Awards