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Port Jefferson Business Improvement District

Rich Daly doing a live carving on day one at the Port Jefferson Ice Festival. Photo by Julianne Mosher

By Julianne Mosher

The 5th annual Port Jefferson Ice Festival didn’t disappoint, yet again, with hundreds of people coming near and far to enjoy this winter wonderland. 

Spearheaded by the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District and partnering with the, the festival gives visitors and residents a bunch of fun activities great for all ages. 

The common denominator each year is the fantastic ice sculptures created by Rich Daly — owner and ice sculptor with Ice Memories, based in Mastic Beach. Daly said he spends three weeks preparing for the two-day-long festival, creating 30 ice statues to distribute around Port Jefferson. From dogs outside Skinmed Spa to a cheeseburger outside Tommy’s, there is quite the variety. For this festival alone, Daly said he carved 225 blocks of ice (that’s 70,000 pounds) slated for the weekend.

The festival began Saturday, Jan. 27, and was supposed to go into the Sunday. However, a rainy forecast postponed the second day until this coming Sunday, Feb. 4. While disappointing for some, people who missed the first day can now have another chance to enjoy the festivities. Some of those festivities include admiring Daly’s sculptures around town, character appearances — Spider-Man and Barbie were spotted — and horse and buggy rides. 

But the biggest crowd draw is the three live ice sculpture experiences by Daly occurring throughout the day. 

Daly became the world’s fastest ice carver, according to Guinness World Records, back in 2013. 

“I carved 18,000 pounds of ice into 61 different carvings in two hours and 52 minutes surpassing the old record by over an hour and a half,” he said. “So now we’re 11 years in, and it’s still my record, thankfully.”

Last Saturday, Daly stood with a 300-pound block of ice in the Meadow Parking Lot behind PJ Lobster House with nearly 100 people and children cheering him on. He took his ice pick, carved out a rough design of a dove and then started up his chainsaw to carve out the bird. In under 30 minutes, the bird was ready and admirers could be photographed with the new creation.

This year’s Port Jefferson Ice Festival will have its grand finale on Sunday, Feb. 4, featuring all-new ice designs throughout the village along with Daly’s live carvings. Parking is free.

Update: Because of the rain on Sunday, January 28, the second part of the Port Jefferson Ice Festival will be held on Sunday, February 4 from noon to 5 p.m.

By Julianne Mosher

Back by popular demand, the fifth Annual Ice Festival is heading back to the Village of Port Jefferson on January 27 and 28 from noon to 5 p.m.

Hosted by the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District (BID) in partnership with the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, the festival is a fan favorite that bring hundreds in to admire and pose alongside handcrafted ice sculptures created by Guinness Book World Record holder ice carver Rich Daly.

But that’s not all. According to Barbara Ransome, director of operations at the Port Jefferson Chamber, there will also be a new horse-drawn wagon available for rides (fee) and the now-sold-out Mac and Cheese Crawl.

Visitors can enjoy live music, performances by local Shine Dance Company, ice skating demos at the Rinx as well as character photo opportunities and interactive games (cornhole, bowling and tic tac toe) — made out of ice, of course.

Daly, who has been the star of the festival throughout its entire run, said that this year will be “bigger and better than ever.”

“We have about 200 blocks of ice ready for both days,” he said. “And while the ice is awesome, there are a lot of activities for families to do in Port Jeff, so it’s a great event.”

Daly said that on Saturday alone, there will be about 30 sculptures around town outside different Port Jeff shops. Sunday there will be another set ready to photograph with. 

And these are not small statues. The famed interactive graffiti ice wall set up in the Frigate parking lot stands large enough for a whole family to pose with, but what’s most fun to watch are the live ice carvings done by Daly in the flesh.

On both days, there will be three live ice carvings starting at 12 p.m. at Mill Creek Road, 2 p.m. at the Meadow Parking Lot and 4 p.m. at Pocket Park. Each carving lasts at minimum an hour. 

As founder of Ice Memories Inc. based out of Mastic, Daly is one of only eight certified master carvers in the U.S. Since starting Ice Memories in 2000, Daly has won over 200 ice carving competition titles and received the Guinness World Record for carving 60 ice sculptures in under three hours. 

Compared to previous festivals which included Olaf from Frozen, a turtle and a lighthouse, “There will be new characters this year like Spider-Man and Barbie,” Daly said. However, this won’t be your typical doll-sized blonde fashionista.

“She’s going to be a big girl,” Daly laughed. “She’ll be about 6-feet-tall and start off at 2,400 lbs of ice.”

A rain date is set for Feb. 3 and 4. The event and parking are free for both days. For a full schedule and map of events, visit www.portjeffchamber.com. For further information, please call 631-473-1414.

By Michael Scro

Port Jefferson Business Improvement District held its 2nd annual Christmas Tree Lighting on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at the intersection of Broadway and East Broadway, where a crowd of resident families gathered to enjoy live music, dancing and a visit from Santa Claus, who joined in with the tree lighting.

The crowd was treated to dance routines from the Shine Dance Company, based in East Setauket, live holiday music from Erik McCormack, who played the famous tunes on his acoustic guitar, and hot chocolate to keep everyone warm.

The evening culminated in the arrival of Santa Claus, who sat in a large upright chair beside the tree before its official lighting.

Village of Port Jefferson Mayor Lauren Sheprow led a countdown to the tree’s lighting and thanked everyone in attendance.

“This is a truly special event the village looks forward to every year,” she said.

Santa then greeted the children and handed out candy canes while the tree shined brightly for the rest of the evening.

— Photos by Michael Scro/Media Origin

Pirates, puppies and pumpkins in Port Jeff … oh my!

By Julianne Mosher

Another rainy weekend might have canceled some of the Port Jefferson Oktober Harvest Fest’s first day of events, but it didn’t stop people from flocking to the village on a finally sunny Sunday.

Sponsored by the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce and the Business Improvement District, in cooperation with the Village of Port Jefferson, the 2023 Oktober Fest’s original program had events starting at 7 a.m. — some indoors, some outside. While the show still went on during the rainstorm on Saturday, Oct. 21, for some, one big event had to be rescheduled to the following day — the annual costumed dog parade.

Located outside of Fetch Doggy Boutique on East Main Street, dogs from across Long Island suit up the week before Halloween every year and head with their owners to show off their adorable canine costumes. This year, on Sunday, Oct. 22, people still came out with their furry friends despite the original date’s cancellation, marching downtown resembling an array of characters including the toys from “Toy Story,” a cowboy, a race car driver and a peacock.

But that wasn’t the only fun thing happening. A chowder crawl featuring local restaurants had participants warmed up on Saturday, and country line dancing was set up once the clouds cleared later in the day.

On Sunday, with warmer and sunnier weather, families were able to enjoy a pumpkin harvest maze and patch outside the Village Center, admire scarecrows — fake and real — out and about throughout town or participate in a variety of events, including a pirate scavenger hunt, pumpkin decorating contest and a pie-eating contest. The possibilities were endless.

Walking throughout town were big-headed costumed characters as local businesses used the weekend of fun for other opportunities. Tabu Boutique opened its doors not to just sell its usual earrings, clothing and accessories but invited East Coast Canine of Manorville to help get French bulldog puppies adopted.

The line was out the door for people of all ages to play with, pet and sit with the puppies — who were just a few weeks old — in hopes of giving them a new home.

Emma Darling, a fourth grader at Edna Louise Spear Elementary in Port Jeff, was one of the eager kids waiting patiently on line to get a glimpse of the pups.

“This is my favorite part of the day,” she said. “The baby puppies are just so cute.”

The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees is weighing sweeping changes to Chapter 41 of the Village Code, which handles ethics. This was one of the items considered at the Oct. 16 business meeting.

The village’s ethics counsel, Steven Leventhal, is preparing a draft for revisions to the ethics code, to be presented during a scheduled public hearing in just over a month.

Trustee Drew Biondo outlined some reasons for revising the Code of Ethics, including the possible formation of a board of ethics.

“I think the whole purpose of this is to form a body, so that you have a board in place that can hear complaints, concerns, and then issue an opinion — founded or unfounded,” he said.

Mayor Lauren Sheprow said the envisioned ethics board would assist the village government by issuing advisory opinions for ethically complicated matters, such as determinations of possible conflicts of interest.

To resolve ethical dilemmas, “the board would consider the law, the case law, the ethics laws and make a decision,” the mayor added.

Deputy Mayor Rebecca Kassay inquired about powers to be conferred upon the proposed board of ethics, maintaining that municipal boards — such as the Planning Board or Zoning Board of Appeals — generally exercise greater latitude than advisory committees with decisions that are potentially legally binding.

“In my tenure here, boards are always looked at as much weightier” as “their decisions could then lead to lawsuits,” she said.

Kassay suggested forming an ethics committee, functioning similarly to other advisory committees to the village board, with the potential for upgrading that body into a board, noting, “While you’re working the kinks out, the stakes are a little bit lower as far as the decisions coming out of that body.”

Responding to these concerns, village attorney David Moran said the ethics board would function as an advisory body to the Board of Trustees, which would retain final authority to advance ethical controversies to outside agencies.

“They shouldn’t have the authority to send anything out to another agency, absent the approval of” the Board of Trustees, Moran said, adding that any other scheme would invest “way too much power” in the hands of private citizens appointed to the ethics board.

The board voted unanimously to advance the proposed ethics code changes for a public hearing Monday, Nov. 20. A draft of the proposed code amendment will be made available to the public seven to 10 days before the public hearing.

Resolutions

The board adopted an add-on resolution awarding a bid of $248,907 to Connecticut-based F&F Concrete to perform reconstruction of the Harborfront Park walkways. Over a third of this project is subsidized by grant money.

“This is critical timewise,” said village clerk Sylvia Pirillo. “We need to complete the work and pay for it and have proof of payment submitted so that we don’t lose our grant funding — all by the end of the year.”

The walkway reconstruction will take approximately five to six weeks, with administration officials targeting the first week of December for completion.

“There will be a lot of communication needs for what we’re doing with the farmers market and the closing off of the walkways,” Sheprow said.

The board also adopted a resolution to raise membership rates at the Port Jefferson Country Club. These rate increases were recommended by PJCC general manager Tom Natola and the Country Club Management Advisory Council.

Reports

Sheprow publicly thanked the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District for assisting the village in its holiday lighting expenses through a $5,000 contribution.

Kassay reported on a recent grant from PSEG Long Island for trees in PJV. She said the Conservation Advisory Council is exploring possible recommendations to the village board on potentially scaling back the use of gas-powered leaf blowers and other landscaping equipment, citing the issue of noise coupled with related environmental and health effects from the chemical exhausts.

Kassay maintained that the proposal would not ban the use of the equipment altogether but aims to reduce their use villagewide.

She also encouraged village residents to register for the various volunteer committees through portjeff.com/volunteer.

Following a recent Saturday sit-down event, trustee Bob Juliano conveyed several sentiments and recommendations from village residents, including concerns over the parking pilot program for Belle Terre residents, “the proliferation of apartments as opposed to condos in the village” and a question over the order of reports during public meetings.

Trustee Stan Loucks advised those who have not yet removed their vessels from the village kayak racks to do so by the end of November.

To watch the entire meeting, see the video above.

Take part in the annual Costumed Dog Parade on East Main Street on Oct. 21. File photo by Bob Savage

By Heidi Sutton

Looking for something fun to do with the family this weekend? Then head down to the Village of Port Jefferson as it transforms into the annual Oktober Harvest Fest on Oct. 21 and 22 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This year the event will be sponsored by the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce and the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District in cooperation with the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson. The two-day festival will feature a pumpkin decorating contest, a cherry pie eating contest, a pumpkin harvest maze and patch (fee), a self-guided art walk, cornhole games, a scarecrow meet and greet, strolling musicians, a pirate scavenger hunt (fee), horse and wagon rides (fee), ten-foot Tall Walkers, a scarecrow walk, a harvest photo op and much more.

Barbara Ransome, Director of Operations at the Port Jefferson Chamber, is looking forward to seeing the fun unfold. 

“There will be events throughout the whole village so its very walkable, very accessible and very family friendly. You can park your car and choose from a large selection of activities,” she said.

Highlights this year include the annual Halloween costumed dog parade sponsored by Fetch Doggy Boutique along East Main Street on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., and a village-wide Chowder Crawl on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. According to Ransome, in the case of torrential rain, the parade and Chowder Crawl will be pushed to Sunday.

This year many of the businesses in the village will host activities in front of or in their shops. Fall Fun kids crafts will be offered at Kilwins, a B&B Paranormal Investigations Tour sign up sheet will be at the Port Jeff Brewing Company (fee), and Oktober Fest Tastings will be offered at Port Jeff Liquor, Whiskey Barrel, Spycoast and Pindar for adults, just to name a few. For a full schedule of events, visit www.portjeffchamber.com.

Up next in the Village is the Santa Parade on Nov. 26, the Festival of Trees at the Port Jefferson Village Center from Dec. 1 to Jan. 2 and the 27th annual Charles Dickens Festival on Dec. 2 and 3. For more information, call 631-473-1414.

The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees was back before the public Monday night, Sept. 18, for a business meeting spanning roughly two hours and covering a range of local matters.

Parking pilot program

With Deputy Mayor Rebecca Kassay as the lone dissenter, the board passed an amended resolution 4-1 enabling the issuance of parking permits for Belle Terre residents to park in metered spaces.

In this pilot program, which will last for the remainder of the 2023 calendar year, parking passes for Belle Terre residents will be offered at a prorated expense of $25. This parking pass does not confer access to the PJV resident lot on Arden Place.

Mayor Lauren Sheprow read an email into the record from Village of Belle Terre Mayor Bob Sandak, who characterized the parking pass initiative as mutually beneficial to both municipalities.

“For many years, the residents of Belle Terre have said that they would spend much more time in the village of Port Jefferson if they could have a simple and inexpensive way to park,” the email read. “Any solution you choose to adopt would be much appreciated by the residents of Belle Terre and would, I am sure, prove to be a financial benefit to the businesses of Port Jefferson.”

Outlining reasons for the program, Sheprow said the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District unanimously supported the proposal.

Trustee Drew Biondo considered the parking pass program “cost-neutral and revenue-producing.”

In supporting the motion, trustee Bob Juliano suggested that the pilot program offers 11 weeks to test and evaluate the program: “It doesn’t mean I’m going to approve it going forward, but let’s try it for the 11 weeks and let’s see what it produces,” he said.

Explaining her “no” vote, Kassay indicated that parking accommodations for village employees remain unresolved.

“For years, I’ve heard consistent requests from Port Jefferson business owners asking the village to consider making parking passes available to their employees who are spending $1.50 per hour to go to work,” the deputy mayor said in a subsequent email. “A solution for this concept, as well as the concept of parking permits for nonresident visitors, deserves a great deal of time and discussion from the village board, staff and community at large.”

She added, “I hope the 2024 paid parking season in PJV will begin with a convenient, comprehensive parking permit program for recreational visitors and local employees alike.”

QR code scam

Parking and mobility administrator Kevin Wood updated the board of a recent scam targeting some of the village’s metered parking signs.

“Some group of people or person — most likely this weekend — placed perfectly square, fraudulent QR codes over the existing QR code on some of the signs,” Wood told the board.

Those who scanned the fraudulent code “were offered a flat fee parking rate of $20,” Wood said, adding, “We don’t know exactly how many people were defrauded, but I will tell you we caught it very early Saturday night.”

Wood estimated approximately 12-15 parking signs had been tampered with, maintaining that all fake QR codes had been removed. He added that a detailed report on the incident was sent to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Proposed schedule change

The board debated a proposal to move its regular meetings from Monday to Thursday.

Village clerk Sylvia Pirillo said the existing meeting schedule often conflicts with holidays, adding that there are other logistical challenges for village staff.

“We’re recommending instead the second and final Thursday of each month” for board of trustees meetings, Pirillo said. “We also feel that for staff and for work product that this would be a more consistent schedule. We now have warrants that are once a month, and this would help with the processing.”

Biondo supported the schedule change, saying, “It’s good to try something new. If it doesn’t work, we can caucus and decide to go back.”

Kassay referred to the logic for changing the schedule as “sound.” However, she asked the board to consider public feedback before adopting the change.

“I, as a trustee, have learned that making large, sweeping decisions like this without giving the public a chance to have their voices heard is often greeted quite negatively,” the deputy mayor said.

The board did not hold a vote on the change of schedule.

New treasurer

The village’s new treasurer, Stephen Gaffga, attended his first board meeting Monday night, delivering a brief report on his plans for the office.

Moving forward, Gaffga said he would present monthly financials, including fund balance information, expenses and revenues, also budget transfers. He proposed some changes to office procedures.

“I want to be able to tighten up the procurement procedures here a little bit to be able to allow for more transparency in how the money is being spent — taxpayer money, country club money, capital funds — and to also allow more clarity when it comes to the warrants,” he said. “I think the more information there is, the better.”

To watch the entire meeting, including trustee reports, please see the video above.

File photo by Heidi Sutton/TBR News Media

The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, Feb. 21, to discuss parking, youth services at the Village Center and emergency repairs at Port Jefferson Country Club.

Parking

At the request of parking administrator Kevin Wood, the board passed a resolution to set the same managed parking rates and daily times as last season, effective March 15. The board also approved 24/7 metering of the Perry Street resident lot at $0.50 per hour, effective April 1, with payment exceptions for village residents and Perry Street permits.

Country club

Mayor Margot Garant reported on a wellhead at the country club in need of replacement, saying that a recommendation was submitted last year to remove the turbine from the well for inspection. 

“Apparently, if some basic maintenance had been done on the wellhead last year, it would have prevented the complete failure,” she said. “There’s a rubber gasket that sits on top of the pump, and the rubber gasket was completely blown, so it burned out the steel shaft below it,” adding “the whole wellhead has to be replaced.”

The mayor reported that the Farmingdale-based American Well & Pump Co. has “the significant component on their shelf available for us.” At a cost of $47,130, the board voted to approve the request, with the money taken from the PJCC fund.

Trustee Stan Loucks said that the cost to repair the wellhead “went from $10,000 to this number [$47,130] because of the lack of attention last year.”

Reports

Garant reported on an ongoing negotiation between the village and the village-based nonprofit Long Island Foundation for Education & Sports. This organization offers youth programs and rents a room in the Village Center. 

Garant said LIFFES currently requests a continued rental rate of $35 per hour, reduced from the $42 per hour pre-pandemic rate. Village treasurer Denise Mordente said the village receives roughly $31,000 in annual rent from the nonprofit. 

“If they were to leave because they could not afford it, there’s not another vendor looking to come in there, to my understanding,” Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden said. “Additionally, it’s a service to our residents and our families that is absolutely necessary for some.”

Garant added that the partnership with the foundation was not motivated by profit but rather by providing a needed service for residents. 

“It’s a win-win because the building is dormant during these shoulder hours — there’s nothing happening,” Garant said. “We’re servicing our residents. It’s a great program for the kids. And it’s a solid revenue line that we didn’t have before.”

Contemplating whether to comply with the request, board members agreed to schedule a meeting with LIFFES executives to work toward agreeable terms for both parties.

Snaden reported on a recent meeting with the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District. The BID agreed to contribute to spring season flowers and beautification and up to 50% on discounted LED lights for next winter.

The deputy mayor concluded her report by discussing progress with the planning board, as “Conifer II is ready to submit plans for the upcoming March meeting,” she said. “We should hopefully start seeing movement there.”

Loucks gave an update on the upcoming season at PJCC. “Today, we have 396 members, and we broke $1.3 million today,” he said. “A soft opening is going to be March 24. The hard opening is March 31.”

Trustee Rebecca Kassay reported on a recent meeting with Town of Brookhaven officials regarding the draft plans for a redesigned marina parking lot near the harbor. 

“We pointed out the entrance across from Barnum, where we’ve had multiple deaths in the village,” she said, adding, “The conversation came around to, ‘Do we really need that to be open at all?’”

Responding to this suggestion, Kassay said the town would consult with the Melville-based Nelson+Pope engineering firm to determine whether the lot could be reconfigured without an entrance or exit at Barnum.

The board voted to schedule a budget work session for March 20 at 3 p.m. The next meeting of the village board will take place Monday, March 6, at 5 p.m.

Despite the chiseled blocks of ice stationed around the village, downtown Port Jefferson was red hot last weekend during the 4th annual Port Jefferson Ice Festival, hosted by the village’s Business Improvement District.

This two-day celebration took place on Jan. 28 and 29, bringing together several local institutions, dozens of small businesses and a whole lot of ice. Roger Rutherford, Port Jefferson BID president and general manager of Roger’s Frigate, summarized the boost the festival brought to storefronts.

“This is the slowest time of the year for the business community,” he said. “This is our fourth annual, and it has really taken off and turned into something spectacular.”

Making the festivities possible required significant organizational collaboration between the BID and its partners. The Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce assisted by facilitating a mac ’n’ cheese crawl. 

With 12 participating restaurants, the crawl offered festivalgoers a chance to taste various cuisines from food establishments around the village. 

“This is the second year they asked us to be the administrators for the mac ’n’ cheese crawl,” said chamber executive director Barbara Ransome. “They go to 12 places. It’s four ounces of mac ’n’ cheese [per stop], so you’re talking three pounds [in all].” She added, “It’s a lot of mac ’n’ cheese.”

Thousands flocked to the village to partake in the fun, including trustee Stan Loucks who projected the weekend as one of the highest local turnouts on record.

“I have never seen so many people in our village,” he said. “The merchants were extremely happy with the crowd. They did very well this weekend, and I think it was terrific to see that many people walking around our village.”

James Luciano, owner of PJ Lobster House, reacted to the festival’s success in stimulating small businesses.

“This festival brings in a lot of business for us,” he said. “This time of year, you’re lucky to get a couple of tables for lunch and a couple of bar customers.” But, he added, “We’ve been full since we opened the door.”

Meltdown

‘The businesses were thriving, the restaurants were full.’

— Kathianne Snaden

The sizable show gave much-needed relief to storefront owners still recovering from the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost three years ago, the world and nation were shocked by the outbreak of the pandemic, leaving downtowns such as Port Jeff’s in disarray.

Indu Kaur is the owner of the Curry Club at SāGhar in Port Jefferson, an establishment that opened in February 2020, just weeks before the lockdowns. 

“We took over the business and had no idea that we were going to be shut down,” Kaur said, describing the impact of the pandemic on her business as “a huge tragedy.”

In the face of hardship, Kaur and her staff continued operations by donating meals, then reopened in the fall of that year. With a historic turnout villagewide, Kaur regarded the resurgence of the downtown businesses with delight.

“It’s so exciting to see everyone walking around, enjoying our village, enjoying the new restaurants, the new shows and our ice sculptures,” she said.

Outside Kaur’s restaurant lay a decorative ice sculpture depicting Ganesha, a Hindu deity tying into the theme of local renaissance. “Lord Ganesha is the statue that we all have faith brings prosperity, happiness and peace,” she said.

Icebreaker

Ganesha was just one of a few dozen ice sculptures displayed throughout the village. Many visitors stood and posed with the ice, which was often interactive. Some sculptures depicted animals, others tied in with the businesses for which they were custom made. 

Rich Daly, president and owner of Ice Memories, has created sculptures during each of the festival’s four iterations. He discussed the considerable effort and material that made it all possible.

“We do live carvings and have about 90,000 pounds worth of ice set up throughout town,” supplied by Riverhead-based Long Island Ice, Daly said. “Every year, we add more ice and more activities for everybody to do.”

Daly got interested in ice sculpting during culinary school, where he first received an ice carving assignment. “Once they put a chainsaw in my hands, I just never let it go,” he said.

Given how a sculpture shapeshifts and reforms during the different melting stages, the temporality and mutability of the ice medium offer both challenge and opportunity for creative expression.

“It’s a temporary art form, which makes it unique,” Daly said. “Especially on a day like today or a weekend like this, Mother Nature just doesn’t want the ice to be around,” adding, “As it melts, it just kind of changes and transforms, and it’s pretty cool.”

Daly said the process is relatively straightforward for those interested in carving ice. Blocks of ice, he said, can be acquired at most ice plants on Long Island. “It doesn’t take a crazy amount of money to buy tools,” he said. “Just have at it. Start [carving] whatever inspires you.”

Tip of the iceberg

Spring-like temperatures and melting points played a prominent role throughout the festival, with some environmentalists ringing the alarm about the threat of climate change. 

Posted along Main, a small group of protesters lined the sidewalks with signs that read: “There is no planet ‘B’” and “Be nice, save the ice.” Holly Fils-Aime, president of the local environmental group EcoLeague, discussed how the melting sculptures signal a dangerous trend. 

“The fact that these sculptures didn’t last the day because it’s so warm out here in January is a great teaching device,” Fils-Aime said.

Picketing alongside Fils-Aime was village resident Myrna Gordon, who stressed the importance of local government in identifying environmental problems and implementing science-based solutions. 

“In my own village here in Port Jefferson, I think that a lot more has to be done with environmental issues,” she said. “Having an ice festival is wonderful — bringing people to the village, helping the businesses. But we also need to focus on very, very serious issues that are happening here.”

Frozen in time

Through the ice fest, scores of people interacted with the various facets of the community. While there wasn’t an ice sculpture outside the Bayles Boat Shop, boat builders continued their work on the Resolution whaleboat project. 

“We’re in the finalizing stages of lofting,” said John Janicek, treasurer of the boat shop. After that, the buildout of the keel and stem can commence.

As the whaleboat enters a pivotal moment in its buildout process, the village is undergoing a transition of its own, moving into the post-pandemic era. With downtown thriving once again, Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden gave her thoughts on these positive developments.

“It was incredible to see so many people enjoy the village this time of year,” she said. “The businesses were thriving, the restaurants were full. There were shoppers and diners, and it was great to see the comeback.”

Mayor Margot Garant analyzes coastal engineering drawings during a public meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Port Jefferson Village Hall. Photo by Raymond Janis

The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees convened Tuesday, Jan. 17. The board tackled a range of subjects from upcoming coastal engineering projects to a rideshare service and school district facilities.

A proposed westerly wall

Mayor Margot Garant reported a development to the coastal engineering plans at the East Beach bluff, where erosion threatens the village-owned Port Jefferson Country Club’s clubhouse facility.

With $3.75 million in federal funds secured for an upland wall to protect the building [See story, “Schumer secures funds for upper wall at PJCC …” The Port Times Record, Jan. 12], the mayor announced her team is exploring ways to finalize its upland plans.

A proposed “westerly wall,” originally pitched as an add-on extension to the upper wall to accommodate racket sports, is now recommended as a possible erosion mitigation strategy. Huntington Station-based engineering firm GEI Consultants “did confirm that they definitely feel we need to do both the main wall and the extension wall,” Garant said.

The village board put the upper wall projects to bid in October, announcing the cost projections the following month. The upper wall bid came back at approximately $3.3 million, with the combined upper wall and westerly wall project costing roughly $4.5 million.

Considering which option is most suitable for the village, Garant outlined why she favors constructing the westerly wall: “I believe that putting that second wall in there, now unequivocally, if somebody else is paying 75% of that cost, I think the westerly wall should go in,” she said.

Forecasting how to organize the racket sports facilities once the westerly wall is complete, Garant suggested it will be a problematic decision-making calculus regarding which racket sports to prioritize.

“We may be wanting to install more than three pickleball courts because the demand is so high and trying to get maybe an instructional court, and maybe just have the two [tennis] courts in the back,” she said. “We have to figure out when, how, where, timing, materials, cost. It’s complicated.”

She added, “The good news is we’re going to be building a wall. I think that saves a major resource for this community. I think it allows us to reinstate a racket ball campus. And I think it gives us a reasonable timeline to come up with an alternate plan, god forbid in 20 years, we need to have something different in place.”

Ridesharing service

Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden and Kevin Wood, director of economic development, parking administrator and communications committee head, jointly presented on a rideshare project. 

The benefits of the plan, as Snaden explained, are threefold: to offer residents easy access to downtown Port Jefferson, provide a safe means of return travel to their homes and ease traffic congestion.

“I think we have something that’s really going to work for the residents of Port Jefferson,” the deputy mayor said, adding that the goal is “to get them downtown, to save parking for the tourists and others, and to come down, have a nice evening and get home safely.”

Wood worked out how the village would implement such a rideshare program. “The plan that you have in front of you would be to combine world-class, Uber-like software with a black car service to be exclusively used and designed for Port Jefferson residents,” he said.

Offering a rough sketch of his vision, Wood said the service would operate Fridays and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. The village government would administer the software, which would be geofenced for Port Jefferson, meaning requests outside the 11777 zip code could not be possible. “If somebody wanted to go to Smith Haven Mall, they can’t,” Wood said. 

He proposed that rides could start at $5 per person and $12.50 for groups of three to seven people. These figures could be subject to change as the village would adjust the software and set its rates based on the community’s needs.

“The beautiful part about this is that if we find that $5 is literally not enough money or too much money, I think we have some leeway there and could change this stuff on a dime,” Wood said. “We can change things on demand. We can make new group rates. We could do special event rates.”

Village attorney Brian Egan inquired whether this program could create centralized drop-off locations for riders, preventing clutter of village roads and safety hazards from stopped vehicles. Responding, Wood said the village could train drivers to drop off and pick up riders to minimize these risks.

Garant put her support behind the effort, saying this will benefit residents who wish to access their downtown amid its busy season. “We all, I’ll speak for myself, feel we’re getting snowed out in the middle of the summertime,” the mayor said. “You can’t get down here, so I think this is going to be something that I’m really excited about.”

Reports

Egan updated the board on the ongoing negotiations with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The village is attempting to reclassify the Port Jefferson Clean Solid Waste Landfill as a transfer station, enabling the continued procedure of branch and leaf pickup services. [See story, “Garbage grief: PJ Village and DEC clash over landfill permit,” The Port Times Record, Dec. 1].

“I do think we have — at least with the DEC senior administrative staff — a very receptive ear,” he said. Referring to the permit dispute with DEC, he added, “I think we’ll have a cooperative resolution to it, and I am cautiously optimistic.”

Trustee Lauren Sheprow used her report to discuss a forthcoming capital bond at Port Jefferson School District. “The school district is looking at floating another bond in May,” she said.

Citing an article in Newsday, Sheprow said approximately 80% of federal COVID-19 relief funds have yet to be spent by public schools statewide. “$14 billion has not been used yet,” she said. “There’s $14 billion issued to New York State in COVID relief,” adding that the heating and ventilation systems proposed by PJSD may qualify under COVID relief conditions.

Sheprow added she might pitch her ideas to the school board during its upcoming meeting Tuesday, Jan. 24. She encouraged her fellow board members to attend.

Snaden reported on a meeting with the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District and the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce. This year’s iteration of the Port Jefferson Ice Festival, hosted by the BID on Jan. 28 and 29, will feature 27 ice sculptures at various storefronts and other locations throughout Port Jeff.

Trustee Stan Loucks reported on winter projects at PJCC. He said 188 members have already signed up for this year as of the time of this meeting. Trustee Rebecca Kassay was absent and did not deliver a report by proxy.

The board of trustees will meet again Monday, Feb. 6, with a scheduled public hearing to amend the village code concerning dogs and other animals.