Rocky Point School District administrators and Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner, third from left, and Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker, third from right, flank filmmaker Leon Adler, fourth from right, and author Bea Ruberto, fourth from left. Photo courtesy RPSD
Joseph A. Edgar Elementary School students recently learned about Sound Beach when they participated in an assembly program featuring local filmmaker Leon Adler and author and Sound Beach Civic Association President Bea Ruberto on June 7.
Adler directed the film, “The History Upon Our Shores: Sound Beach, NY,” based on the book, “Sound Beach: Our Town, Our Story,” by Ruberto.
The event for third and fourth graders, coordinated by Rocky Point’s director of humanities, Melinda Brooks, gave students a glimpse into the process of storytelling, research and the value of preserving local history.
Students welcomed the creative duo, presenting artistic gifts of thanks for their visit. The school also welcomed Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner (R-Rocky Point) and Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai), who shared their experiences representing the local community.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Legislator Nick Caracappa shake hands during signing ceremony. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page
A countywide housing initiative recently got a bit sweeter for veterans and people with disabilities.
Public officials, veterans and disability advocates together with community members gathered Friday, June 9, at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge, where Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) ceremonially signed two landmark pieces of legislation.
U.S. Census Bureau data indicates Suffolk County is home to over 56,000 veterans, the highest concentration of any county across New York state and among the highest in the nation. The census also indicates that 6.1% of the county’s 1.5 million residents are with a disability under 65.
Under the new local laws passed unanimously by the Suffolk County Legislature last December and signed officially by Bellone in January, funds and housing units will now be set aside to accommodate veterans and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“We are committed to, in this county, making sure that everyone in our community is included,” Bellone said during the recent ceremony.
Legislator Leslie Kennedy speaks during the signing ceremony event. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page
The two bipartisan legislative packages were introduced by Majority Leader Nick Caracappa (C-Selden) and Legislators Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset), Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Stephanie Bontempi (R-Centerport) and Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai), among others.
Caracappa, who chairs the county’s Veterans & Consumer Affairs Committee, noted the sizable veteran and disabled populations, suggesting the county is pursuing a proper course for these historically underserved communities.
“We have far too many veterans on our streets [who are] homeless,” he said. “We have far too many individuals, family members, neighbors, friends with disabilities who are willing, able, ready for a life of independence and dignity.”
Kennedy decried the lack of initiative across all levels of government in supporting these demographics. “We would be nowhere without our veterans, and we have done so little to assist them as life goes on,” she said. “This is us moving forward.”
The county legislator added, “For those with impaired abilities, they deserve to live on their own.”
Trish Calandra of Wading River, in an emotional address, shared the story of her two children with autism, who are both now living on their own.
“To see them living this great life was something I really needed to help others achieve,” she said. “There’s still more to do. We need to get this across this state. We need to get this across this country. We have so many people who need assistance and need help.”
At podium, Tom Ronayne, director of Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page
Tom Ronayne, director of Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency, celebrated the legislation, noting that Suffolk County has “set the bar high.”
“For the people who are most directly affected by what is happening here today, their lives are changed profoundly,” he said. “They can lay down and go to sleep knowing that they have a safe, affordable place to live and that tomorrow will not challenge them in the ways that yesterday may have.”
He concluded, “Welcome to Suffolk County because this is how we do it here.”
In the depths of the Long Island Sound, stationed among the crustaceans and fish, lie hundreds of thousands of lobster traps.
These traps, a shadow of a once-vibrant lobster industry, have been abandoned for decades. Yet still active, they perpetuate a dangerous trend for marine life: ghost fishing.
Ghost fishing isn’t a supernatural phenomenon. It is a problem created by humans. It is the result of fishermen abandoning old but sometimes still functioning lobster pots and similar fishing gear in the Long Island Sound. While there are few lobsters left, those that remain can still be trapped, along with other sea life. With no way to escape, they end up dying a needless death.
The problems don’t end there, as Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) explained. “People are like, ‘It’s fine, no one sees it,’” she said. “But that’s not true because a lot of these lobster pots are starting to break down. They’re partly plastic, and the plastic is polluting the water.”
The solution, the county legislator insisted, is to remove the ghost gear as soon as possible. New York state law, however, prohibits the removal.
“No person other than the licensee shall set out, tend, haul or unduly disturb, or take or remove lobsters from, a lobster pot or trap or other commercial gear, or damage, take, remove or possess such gear,” New York’s Environmental Conservation Law states.
While there have been efforts to remove the equipment, the near million derelict traps still there continue to take a toll on sea life. “My vision is to have a massive flotilla … go out to Long Island Sound, remove hundreds of thousands of lobster pots and ghost gear,” Anker said.
The problem gets worse with the realization that some of the fishermen aren’t around anymore, Anker added. “Maybe they’ve left the area, they’ve passed away, they’re no longer fishing in the area. There’s all kinds of reasons and it’s really a detriment to our local nautical community.”
To address these concerns, Anker is working with New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (D-Sag Harbor) to draft legislation that could allow the state to remove the ghost gear after a designated period of time.
Organizations such as the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County have joined the efforts to remove as many ghost traps as the law currently permits. “What happens is they pay the fishermen about $850 to charter their boat for the fishermen to go and then retrieve these pots,” Anker said.
According to a CCE statement made in March, 19,000 traps have been recovered from the Long Island Sound under this initiative. The traps are then recycled or returned to their owners, and burnable debris from them is converted into renewable energy.
Cooperation of the fishermen has helped the process. “These are local fishermen, and they want to do more,” Anker said. “They’re out there trying to make a living doing what they can.”
She added, “We have one of the largest seafood industries in the country and we have to keep our water clean.”
Anker is also working on a separate $2 million project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that is focused on cleaning up the Sound and removing marine debris.
While there still may be many lengths to go before the Long Island Sound is free from ghost gear, with the help of lawmakers, organizations, and fishermen, the Sound floor could soon be friendly to all sea life, Anker hopes.
Sound Beach Civic Association President Bea Ruberto, left, and Dorothy Cavalier, Democratic candidate for Suffolk County’s 6th Legislative District, celebrate during the hamlet’s 2nd annual Spring Festival. Photo by Raymond Janis
Along New York Avenue in Sound Beach, before rows of storefronts and restaurant spaces — some filled, others not — thousands gathered on Saturday, April 22, for the 2nd annual Sound Beach Spring Festival and Street Fair.
The event featured dozens of local businesses and merchants tabling outside, along with food stands, face painting, music and other festivities.
The annual festival is hosted by the Rocky Point Sound Beach Chamber of Commerce, an organization founded in 2018 to draw businesses and economic development into the neighboring hamlets.
Gary Pollakusky, president and executive director of RPSBCC, said there was a two-year gap in the first and second festivals due to COVID-19. With public health concerns abating, the chamber picked up where it had left off before the pandemic.
“We had, I’d say, over 65 vendors, and we had thousands of people come through, all seeing for the first time some of the new businesses in Sound Beach,” he said.
Bea Ruberto is president of the Sound Beach Civic Association, the leading advocacy group representing the hamlet’s roughly 7,000 residents. She has been a leader in raising awareness for this private beach community.
“One of the things that we as a civic have tried to do for years is make people aware that we exist, make our representatives aware that we exist,” she said.
To do that, Ruberto has been forceful in distinguishing Sound Beach for its unique history and local identity. She authored “Sound Beach: Our Town, Our Story,” which was recently adapted into the documentary film, “The History Upon Our Shores: Sound Beach, NY.”
Gary Pollakusky, above, president and executive director of the Rocky Point Sound Beach Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Raymond Janis
The historical uniqueness of Sound Beach established, Ruberto has her sights on the future. She said the annual spring festival represents a vital organ in drawing attention to the area.
“I love it because it brings people outside of Sound Beach into Sound Beach,” she said. “We want people to get to know about our community.”
Though several restaurants and merchants are in business, the commercial strip is a ways away from a fully formed, traditional main street. That, Pollakusky said, will require additional advocacy work to keep occupants of the storefronts commercially viable.
“Seeing businesses come and go is heartbreaking sometimes because those are families that are local and that are losing their livelihoods,” he said. “To see a business that did everything that it could to survive and then fail, it’s heartbreaking.”
Pollakusky indicated that countering these trends will take time and effort from local organizations and government. He outlined his aspirations for the hamlet.
“I’d like to see that our storefronts are filled,” he said. “I’d like to see that people want to come to Sound Beach to live and to patronize our businesses.” The chamber president added, “I’d like to see that we have a robust business community that is self-sustaining.”
Putting this vision into action is not so cut and dry. Consistently, Sound Beach has competed for and lost out on limited grant funding against established downtown districts also debilitated by the pandemic.
The commercial district’s small size is another limiting factor, cutting the hamlet off from certain types of grants.
“Sound Beach does not have a downtown,” Ruberto said. “We have two commercial nodes. Therefore, a lot of the downtown revitalization grant funding we can’t have.” The civic president added, “That has to be fixed.”
The Sound Beach commercial district is currently zoned J-2, a general business zoning classification typical for retail spaces. For Sound Beach to qualify for downtown revitalization funding, the Town of Brookhaven would have to rezone the hamlet to J-6, a Main Street Business classification.
Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner (R-Rocky Point) represents Sound Beach on the Town Board. Reached by phone, she commented on the difficulties of Sound Beach making use of those granting opportunities, stressing that Suffolk County should consider easing the criteria for qualification.
“Those funds are hard to come by,” she said. “I think the onus is on the county in being a little more flexible” in dispersing downtown revitalization funds.
Map of the Sound Beach commercial district, which is currently zoned J-2, a general business classification. Graphic from the Town of Brookhaven website
Currently, Sound Beach has much of the look and feel of a traditional downtown despite lacking the zoning classification of one. Bonner nonetheless remained open to the proposal to rezone the commercial district to J-6, potentially giving the hamlet a proper downtown and opening it to grants.
“If any business owner wanted to come in to become J-6, it’s certainly something that we would obviously entertain,” the councilwoman said.
The U.S. Census Bureau indicates that Sound Beach’s population shrunk by more than 2.5% between 2010 and 2020. This population decline is comparable to those of neighboring hamlets in the area, including Rocky Point, Miller Place and Mount Sinai.
Dorothy Cavalier, legislative aide to Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai), is running to fill the seat of her boss this November as Anker is term limited.
The candidate remarked upon the need for a larger governmental initiative to return small businesses to the area and keep residents from leaving the county for the Sun Belt.
“We’re losing a lot of people to Down South and other places, and we really need to figure out how to get them to stay here,” Cavalier said. “We need to get the small businesses back here because once we get the businesses to come back, the people will follow. They’ll stay.”
In the meantime, Bonner emphasized that the businesses in Sound Beach are still recovering from the aftermath of the pandemic. To support those businesses, she encouraged the community to continue patronizing local mom-and-pops in their hour of need.
“The pandemic really brought a lot of people to their knees financially, and our small businesses are the ones that suffered the most,” she said. “That’s why we have to invest with our dollars, to shop locally and support them.”
Pictured above, Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker, right, presents a proclamation to Lesaya Kelly. Photo courtesy Anker’s office
Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) recently recognized Lesaya Kelly for her years of dedication and leadership in the local and global community.
“As the founder of Crossover Christian Church, Lesaya has displayed outstanding leadership and has touched the lives of folks spanning all ages and backgrounds,” Anker said. “Lesaya has been, and continues to be, a powerful force in our community.”
Kelly has been in pastoral ministry for 35 years. She served in her homeland of South Africa before traveling worldwide for Youth with a Mission, an interdenominational Christian training organization. She then settled and became a U.S. citizen. When she met her husband, Chris, she relocated to Long Island, where they raised their daughter, Savanna.
For more information, contact Anker’s office at (631) 854-1600.
Above, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, right, joins Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker, left, who chose Walter Colleran for Legislative District 6. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page
In a sea of orange and green, Suffolk County officials, community groups and Irish Americans converged upon the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge on Friday, March 24, commemorating the first-ever Irish American Heritage Celebration in county history.
In 2019, the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously approved a resolution designating March as Irish American Heritage Month. Friday’s event marked the first such celebration sponsored by the county government.
Above, Legislator Leslie Kennedy with District 12’s pick, Matthew Kelly. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page
“We’re celebrating the incredible contributions that the Irish have made to the United States of America and to the world,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D).
The county executive also used the occasion to acknowledge the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, an Irish American heritage group with nine divisions across the county, including Port Jefferson, Selden, Smithtown and Huntington. Bellone said the AOH enriches Suffolk communities by celebrating Irish culture while giving back through various charitable endeavors.
Legislators from each of the county’s 18 districts had an opportunity to recognize an Irish American making an impact within their communities. Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) read off the biographical descriptions of each honoree.
Choral and bagpipe arrangements from several Irish American folk groups were performed, along with Irish historian Mike McCormack detailing the historical contributions of the Irish in Suffolk County.
Local offices are on the ballot this November, with legislative positions at the county and town levels up for grabs.
Suffolk County’s 6th District
Dorothy Cavalier, left, and Chad Lennon are the Democratic and Republican nominees, respectively, for Suffolk County’s 6th District. Left from Cavalier’s campaign; right courtesy Lennon
Six-term incumbent Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker is termed out, setting up an open contest to fill her seat. In Anker’s absence, two major party candidates — both attorneys — have emerged.
Dorothy Cavalier, Anker’s chief of staff, has received her party’s nod. Cavalier began her legal career with AIG and Dime Savings Bank of New York, later transitioning to a small family practice in Ronkonkoma.
She joined Anker’s staff in February 2019. Asked why she entered the 6th District race, she told TBR News Media that her four years in Anker’s office had opened her to the possibilities of government.
“I started to see all of the good things that can be done in government,” she said. “I would like to stay in office, hopefully taking her seat, so I can continue those good works and the good things that we started.”
She added, “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, and I think I’m the one who needs to be in the office to do it.”
If elected, Cavalier offered to prioritize environmental issues, focusing on measures promoting water quality and preserving open space.
“We need to protect our sole-source aquifer,” she said. “We need to continue to work on getting our water, keeping it clean and making it safe for everybody.”
The Democratic candidate cited coastal erosion along the North Shore as a critical situation for the 6th District. She also noted affordable housing and expanding mental health programs for veterans are priorities.
Representing the Republican Party in this race is Chad Lennon, an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and an attorney focusing on military and veterans law.
He has worked part-time for state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) as a special assistant for veterans affairs and U.S. Congressman Nick LaLota (R-NY1) as a congressional aide.
“I have been someone who’s served my country, and I wanted to continue to do that at the local level,” he said. “I believe my experience with being an officer in the military, being an attorney, as well as the other positions I have held bring a level of leadership that no one else is bringing.”
He added, “I think I have an ability to lead from the front, put myself at the point of friction and make myself available to the constituents of the district.”
Lennon committed to tackling issues associated with public safety, stabilizing the county’s budget and finances and thoroughly investigating the September ransomware attack against the county’s information technology network.
He pledged to “work with the county to make sure we find out what happened with the cybersecurity breach and make sure that we have accountability, policies and training put in place to make sure that this kind of breach does not happen at our county in the future,” he said.
The Republican also cited the need for “standing with local officials to stop the ‘Queensification’ of Suffolk County that Gov. [Kathy] Hochul [D] is seeking.”
Brookhaven’s 2nd Council District
Carol Russell, left, and Jane Bonner are the Democratic and Republican nominees, respectively, for the Town of Brookhaven’s 2nd Council District. Left courtesy Russell; right from the Brookhaven Town website
The boundaries of Brookhaven’s 2nd Council District underwent a considerable transformation during last year’s redistricting process. Most notably, the district stretched southward, now encompassing a sizable swath of Coram.
Incumbent Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner (R-Rocky Point) is up for reelection this year, along with the other six members of the Town Board. Before entering office in 2007, Bonner served as a legislative aide to Dan Losquadro (R), then-Suffolk County legislator and now incumbent Brookhaven highway superintendent.
Bonner also served as a trustee on the Rocky Point board of education and president of the Rocky Point Civic Association. In an interview, Bonner said she is running for reelection to continue working on various long-term projects.
“Every year you serve is like peeling another layer on the onion to tackle long-term issues,” she said. “In my years in office, we’ve done major stormwater remediation projects all along the North Shore, upgrades to our parks,” adding, “I would say, succinctly — to continue to do the good work on behalf of the residents.”
If reelected, Bonner said she would focus on the environment, noting, “We continue to battle and deal with climate change. The North Shore is always under attack, and there are more projects that I’d like to see come to fruition.”
Referencing examples of initiatives she has worked on with the Town Board, she cited cybersecurity, tax and spending caps and anti-nepotism legislation. The incumbent added that she would “continue fighting for Long Island to be a suburb and not a city.”
Challenging Bonner is Carol Russell, a resident of Coram. A retired nurse and trial attorney, she spent nearly 30 years defending doctors, nurses and other health care providers in litigation. Russell has also served as a mentor for the Dress for Success Brookhaven initiative and has volunteered to coach the mock trial team at Longwood High School.
“I look at our society, nationally and locally, and I see it is so divided and so broken,” she said. “I think people want to be listened to and included. I think our Town Board can do a better job at that, and I want to be a part of that.”
She referred to existing dynamics within the town government as “sort of a one-party rule for a good number of years now, and I’m not really sure the Town Board understands its residents or at least part of its residents.”
She regarded the two central issues within the town as the affordability crisis and the looming Brookhaven landfill closure.
“I’d like to see what can be done to alleviate some of the tax burdens on our residents,” she said, adding, “And I’m particularly concerned about the closing of the landfill, which is going to leave a huge gap in our budget.”
She further cited homelessness as an area of concern, particularly in Coram. “Homelessness is not exclusively but predominantly a mental health issue,” she said. “I think that there are ways that we as a town, in partnership with the county and the state, can do better.”
An assortment of cannabis products resembling household children's foods and snacks. Photo courtesy the Town of Brookhaven Drug Prevention Coalition
Public officials and drug prevention advocates are sounding the alarm over cannabis products packaged for children.
During a recent Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Civic Association meeting, civic vice president Sal Pitti circulated a flier revealing various cannabis products resembling commonplace children’s foods and household snacks.
Pitti, who is also active with the Town of Brookhaven’s Drug Prevention Coalition, suggested these products are branded for children and attributes the problem to false advertising.
“We all grew up with Trix and Cocoa Pebbles when we were kids,” he said. “It’s a branding that people know, they recognize and might more easily purchase.”
‘This is going to open up a door to our youth that’s going to hurt them. This is just a bomb that’s waiting to go off.’
—Sal Pitti
Pitti detailed several potential dangers associated with tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana commonly known as THC, getting into the hands of young people. He said processed edible cannabis often has exponentially higher THC concentrations, which can get kids hooked on the substance more efficiently and create a gateway to harder drugs.
Recent statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse substantiate this claim. Samples analyzed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency since 1995 indicate that today’s cannabis products are nearly four times as potent as those collected in that year.
“They’ve sophisticated this technique to great extents,” Pitti said. “Now they’re making gummies, candies, granola bars, honeys and spreads out of this stuff. But the problem is, in processing all of this, that THC level has gone up dramatically.”
Pitti said packaging highly potent THC products to children signals potentially severe societal harm. “This is going to open up a door to our youth that’s going to hurt them,” he said. “This is just a bomb that’s waiting to go off.”
A crisis for children
Pitti is not alone in these concerns. Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) has introduced legislation targeting the practice.
Her bill cites the risks associated with underage THC consumption, such as impaired memory and coordination, and the potential for hallucinations and paranoia among minors.
In an interview, Hahn suggested marketing cannabis in a manner that makes it desirable to children represents a public safety hazard.
“If it’s intentionally designed to look like candy, the purpose is to confuse the consumer,” she said, adding, “If an adult purchases marijuana gummies that are packaged similarly to candy-type gummies and a young child gets their hands on it and eats it unknowingly, that’s a very dangerous situation for the child.”
Hahn’s bill would require packaging of THC products to be plain, containing clear warning labels and prohibiting the words “candy” or “candies.” She noted that the measure’s goal is to make THC products less enticing to kids.
“The packaging of the products is incredibly important,” the county legislator said, stating the bill would prevent merchants from “mimicking candy wrappers, having logos that are like cartoons or characters or having flavors that are attractive to children.”
Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai), chair of the county’s Addiction Prevention and Support Advisory Panel, has signed on as a co-sponsor to Hahn’s bill. She referred to child-friendly THC packaging as a harmful way for cannabis sellers to market their products.
“These cannabis folks see this as a marketing strategy,” she said. “It’s creating a problem, we know for a fact, and we’re trying to address that.”
State oversight
Marijuana was legalized in New York state in 2021 under the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act. The New York State Office of Cannabis Management is the regulatory arm overseeing the licensure, production, sale and taxation of cannabis throughout the state. In an email statement, the office confirmed the uptick in packaging branded for children.
“We have seen illicit sellers marketing products clearly imitating candies and snacks that target children,” said Lyla Hunt, OCM’s deputy director of public health and campaigns. “New York State would never allow those products to be sold in licensed cannabis dispensaries. Our enforcement teams are working every day to shut those sellers down.”
Further compounding the issue, Hunt added that illicit dealers often do not follow the same protocols as their licensed counterparts. “We also have heard reports unlicensed storefronts are not checking ID when selling illicit cannabis products, heightening the importance of shuttering these operators before they can do more harm,” she said.
According to her, OCM has worked to curtail the issue through stringent guidelines, putting forth regulations regarding packaging, labeling and marketing to mitigate this technique.
“We at New York State’s Office of Cannabis Management are committed to building a safe, regulated cannabis industry for consumers ages 21 and over that also protects those under 21,” the deputy director said.
OCM’s regulations concerning packaging echo several of the items raised in Hahn’s bill, restricting words such as “candy” and “candies” while mandating that packages be resealable, child-resistant and tamper evident. The guidelines also limit the use of cartoons, bubble-type fonts and bright colors on the packaging.
Despite OCM’s approach, Anker said the work of local and state government remains unfinished. “More must be done,” the county legislator said. She added, “This product is legally new to the market, and you need to be aware and do your part as a parent and as a teacher … to protect the kids.”
Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (left) and Jim Malley. Photo courtesy Anker’s office
Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) recently presented former Rocky Point resident Jim Malley with a proclamation for his work with the Hauppauge-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 25.
Until his retirement, Malley was involved with IBEW Local 25 for 43 years, serving as one of only five financial secretaries in the history of Local 25.
Malley started his electrical worker apprenticeship directly out of high school. He rose through the ranks, participating in additional volunteer work and holding positions of leadership. Among these, he served as an examining board member, secretary of the executive board and vice president. He earned his bachelor’s degree during this time.
“Having known Jim throughout my service as a Suffolk County Legislator, it is an honor to recognize him for his lengthy union service, as well as his involvement in our community,” Anker said. “Having been brought up in an IBEW union family, I recognize the commitment and dedication it takes to serve both the union and our community.”
Bill Pellenz (left) with Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner. Photo by Raymond Janis
The Sound Beach Civic Association met on Monday, Feb. 13, at the Sound Beach Firehouse, joined by public officials, first responders and special honoree Bill Pellenz.
A past president and longtime civic member who also accrued over 50 years in the Sound Beach Fire Department, Pellenz was recognized for his contributions to the greater area. Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Jane Bonner (R-Rocky Point) presented Pellenz with a town proclamation.
Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) recognized Pellenz for his commitment to public safety. She recounted the many challenges faced in planning and launching the North Shore Rail Trail, which formally opened last summer.
Anker said Pellenz was instrumental in bringing attention to key safety needs for the trail. “He understands where to go with issues,” she said. “We were able to make additional safety measures because of you, Bill.”
Bill Pellenz (fifth from right) poses with public officials, civic leaders and first responders during a meeting of the Sound Beach Civic Association on Monday, Feb. 13. Photo by Raymond Janis
Representing U.S. Congressman Nick LaLota (R-NY1) was Peter Ganley, who presented Pellenz with a certificate of congressional recognition, particularly noting his efforts to support veterans throughout the hamlet.
William Rosasco, chief of the Sound Beach Fire Department, chronicled Pellenz’s long service to the department, starting as a probationary firefighter and working his way up the ranks to captain of Engine Company 2.
“In the 36 years that I’ve been a member of this department, it’s been a pleasure working with Bill and being able to call him a friend,” Rosasco said.
SBCA president Bea Ruberto discussed Pellenz’s several contributions within the civic, notably to Veterans Memorial Park.
“On behalf of the Sound Beach Civic Association, I want to thank you for all the work that you have done for this organization and the community,” she said. “Also, I want to thank you for all of the work that you will do,” to which Pellenz responded: “I’m not going anywhere.”
General meeting
William Doherty, the Suffolk County Police Department 7th Precinct’s new inspector. Photo by Raymond Janis
Following the ceremony, the civic held a brief meeting. Members were introduced to William Doherty, the 7th Precinct’s new inspector. In a brief statement to the body, he referred to his recent promotion as “the cherry on top of my career.”
“I look forward to working with everyone in this room through your elected officials and through my community liaison officers,” he said. “I tell you in my heart of hearts that this is the assignment that I wanted,” adding, “I don’t think I would have chosen any other precinct but the 7th.”
Ruberto reported that the civic would soon welcome a student volunteer from the Rocky Point school district, who will attend meetings.
“That’s one of the things that we really try to do,” she said. “We try to work with young people in our community.”
Following adjournment, the attendees enjoyed cake in Pellenz’s honor.
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