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Three Village

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Deanna Bavlnka and William Connors celebrate after the elections Tuesday night. Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy

Voters approved the Three Village school district budget Tuesday. The $189.5 million budget received 2,401 votes in favor and 723 against.

Residents also re-elected trustees William Connors and Deanna Bavlnka. Board president Connors received 2,200 votes and Bavlnka, 2,052. A third candidate, Jeffrey Mischler, who had hoped to unseat either Bavlnka or Connors, got 1,095 votes.

Connors, a board member since 2012, plans to continue the work the board had started and to “maintain the academic programs and quality that the district has been known for within the fiscal reality.”

Connors was previously on the board from 1994 to 2006.

Mischler, who congratulated the trustees, said early in the evening that it had been a “clean campaign” and that he was pleased that he’d been able to “stick to being green.” He had run his campaign primarily on social media.

Before the results were in, Bavlnka, a trustee since 2011, said she was very optimistic about the budget, which was her priority, because it directly affected the students in the district.

At the 2.79 percent cap on the tax levy increase, next year’s budget restores programs and staff cut in recent years. They include the return of fourth- through sixth-grade elementary health classes, high school American Sign Language, full-time elementary school social workers and increased guidance and counseling at the three secondary schools.

District officials have also said that declining elementary enrollment and retirements will make it possible to balance elementary class sizes and add a STEM teacher to each elementary school to help with science and math enrichment and remediation. At the secondary level, the administration will add 1.2 full-time equivalent English as a second language (ESL) positions to fill a state mandate. Positions will be added to reduce math and English class sizes and to restore electives in technology, social studies, science and math.

Three Village plans to restructure its administration for the 2015-16 school year without additional costs. New positions include a coordinating chair for junior high foreign language and districtwide ESL, a coordinating music chair as well as  assistant directors for pupil personnel services, health and physical education and instructional technology. The 2015-16 budget includes money to restore security, clerical, maintenance and operations staff.

While a $1.65 million increase in state aid played a role in meeting the district’s budget, a $3.6 million decrease in retirement system costs and 5 percent drop in health insurance also helped. Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Jeff Carlson said that Three Village also has benefited from increased revenues from tuition paid by nonresidents attending its special education and Three Village Academy programs. That has netted an additional $1.2 million for the current school year.

The favorable financial situation means that the district will be using less money from its fund balance and reserve accounts to balance the upcoming school year’s budget. It’s the reason the tax levy increase will be higher than the 0.81 percent budget-to-budget increase, Carlson said.

The district will continue to undertake capital improvements covered by the bond residents approved in February 2014. An anticipated $3.39 million from the state’s Smart Schools Bond will go toward facilities for the prekindergarten program, as well as classroom, school safety and security technology, Carlson said. With a state-approved government efficiency plan that shows at least a 1 percent saving to the tax levy and with the budget within the cap, residents will be eligible for a tax freeze credit, he added.

Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said the 77 percent approval of the budget sends an important message about support from the community and confidence in the school board and district.

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Cold Spring Harbor
Voters passed a $64 million budget, 335 votes to 130. Proposition 2, to spend capital reserve money on various projects, passed 318 to 107. Proposition 3, to establish a new capital reserve fund, passed 314 to 114. Board President Anthony Paolano and Trustee Ingrid Wright ran unopposed for re-election and received 366 and 359 votes, respectively.

Commack
Community members passed Commack’s $185 million budget 1,927 to 575.

Comsewogue
The district’s $85.2 million budget passed, 1,024 to 204. Proposition 2, to add bus service for 38 John F. Kennedy Middle School students, passed 1,096 to 134. Three people ran unopposed for board seats and were elected, board President John Swenning, Trustee Rick Rennard and newcomer Louise Melious.

Harborfields
An $80.5 million budget passed with 82.5 percent voter support. Voters also supported a proposition on the ballot to establish a new capital reserve fund, with 79.4 percent in favor. Incumbents Donald Mastroianni and board President Dr. Thomas McDonagh were returned to the board, and voters elected newcomer Suzie Lustig. Candidates Chris Kelly and Colleen Rappa fell short.

Hauppauge
Voters passed the district’s proposed budget, 1,458 to 442. Michael Buscarino and Stacey Weisberg were elected to the board with 1,098 and 1,122 votes, respectively. Candidate Susan Hodosky fell short, with just 984 votes.

Huntington
A $120.3 million budget passed, 1,228 votes to 301. Proposition 2, to spend just over $1 million in capital reserve monies to pay for state-approved projects, passed 1,252 votes to 251. Four people ran unopposed for re-election or election: board President Emily Rogan got 1,193 votes, board members Xavier Palacios and Tom DiGiacomo received 1,139 votes and 1,185 votes, respectively, and newcomer Christine Biernacki garnered 1,189 votes. Rogan, Biernacki and DiGiacomo won three-year terms. As the lowest vote-getter, Palacios will serve the remaining two years on a term of a vacated seat.

Kings Park
Voters passed an $84.7 million budget, 2,065 to 577. A second proposition on the ballot, regarding a school bus purchase, passed 1,998 to 542. A third proposition, regarding a capital project to replace the high school roof, passed 2,087 to 455. Incumbent Diane Nally was re-elected to the board with 1,821 votes, while newcomer Kevin Johnston was elected with 1,886 votes. Incumbent Charlie Leo fell short in his re-election bid, garnering 1,108 votes.

Middle Country
Middle Country’s $236 million budget passed, with 1,863 votes in favor and 579 against. All three school board incumbents — President Karen Lessler and Trustees Jim Macomber and Arlene Barresi — were running unopposed and were re-elected to their seats.

Miller Place
Newcomer Keith Frank won a seat on the school board, edging out candidate Michael Manspeizer, 781 to 287.
“I’m just looking forward to the next three years,” Frank said. “I have big shoes to step into.”
Residents also passed the district’s $70 million budget, with 964 voting in favor and 262 voting against.
Board President Michael Unger said voter turnout was low “as a result of a good budget and good candidates.”

Mount Sinai
Voters approved the $56.7 million budget with 1,241 in favor and 316 against. Newcomer Michael Riggio was elected to the board with 993 votes, followed by incumbent Lynn Capobiano, who garnered 678 for re-election to a second term. John DeBlasio and Joanne Rentz missed election, receiving 624 and 321 votes, respectively.

Northport-East Northport
The $159.6 million budget passed, 3,281 to 788. Proposition 2, to spend $1.2 million in capital reserves, passed 3,561 to 504. Incumbent David Badanes, former trustee Tammie Topel and newcomer David Stein were elected to the board, with 2,446 votes for Badanes, 2,130 for Topel and 2,548 for Stein. Incumbent Stephen Waldenburg Jr. fell short of re-election, with 1,290 votes. Newcomers Peter Mainetti, Josh Muno and Michael Brunone missed the mark as well, with Mainetti garnering 1,018 votes, Muno receiving 542 votes and Brunone getting 1,039 votes.

Port Jefferson
Voters passed a $42.4 million budget, 491 to 130. Proposition 2, to create a new capital reserve fund that would help replace roofs throughout the district, passed with 467 votes in favor and 122 against.
Trustee Vincent Ruggiero was re-elected to the board with 468 votes. Write-in candidates Tracy Zamek, a newcomer, and Trustee Mark Doyle were elected with 246 and 178 votes, respectively. There were a number of other community residents who received write-in votes, including former board member Dennis Kahn, who garnered 58 votes.

Rocky Point
The $78.7 million budget passed with 788 votes in favor and 237 against. Board Vice President Scott Reh was re-elected to a third term, with 679 votes. Newcomer Ed Casswell secured the other available seat with 588 votes. Candidate Donna McCauley missed the mark, with only 452 votes.

Shoreham-Wading River
The school budget passed, 910 to 323. Michael Fucito and Robert Rose were re-elected to the school board, with 902 and 863 votes, respectively.

Smithtown
Smithtown’s $229.5 million budget passed, 2,582 to 762. School board President Christopher Alcure, who ran unopposed, was re-elected with 2,295 votes, while newcomer Jeremy Thode was elected with 2,144 votes. MaryRose Rafferty lost her bid, garnering just 860 votes. A second proposition on the ballot, related to capital reserves, passed 2,507 to 715.

Three Village
Voters passed a $188 million budget, 2,401 to 723. Incumbents William F. Connors, Jr. and Deanna Bavlnka were re-elected, with 2,200 and 2,052 votes, respectively. Challenger Jeffrey Mischler fell short, garnering only 1,095 votes.

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File photo

Update: Police reported at 6 p.m. on Tuesday that Edwin Phelps, the possibly suicidal Setauket man who went missing on Monday evening, has been found unharmed.

A missing Three Village man might be suicidal, and police are seeking the public’s help to find him.

The man, 34-year-old Setauket resident Edwin C. Phelps, had made suicidal statements to his girlfriend, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. She reported him missing at 7:45 p.m. on Monday and police issued a Silver Alert for him, under a county program that shares information with the public about missing people with special needs.

Phelps was described as Filipino, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 175 pounds. He was last seen wearing gray jeans, a black collared polo shirt and a jacket with the design of the Filipino flag, which is blue, yellow and white. His car is a red 2002 Toyota Solara, a two-door sedan, with the New York license plate GLY 8402.

Police said Phelps, an Old Town Road resident, is bipolar and has been suicidal in the past.

Anyone who sees Phelps or his car is asked to call either 911 or detectives at 631-854-8652.

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The King Kullen supermarket on Route 25A will close its doors next month. Photo by Phil Corso

A North Shore grocery chain is shuttering one of its locations next month just as summer breaks into full bloom.

Joseph Brown, senior vice president and chief merchandising officer for King Kullen Grocery Co., Inc., said the East Setauket location on Route 25A will close its doors for good on June 11, answering to rumors that have been swirling through the Three Village area over the last several weeks. The chain’s workforce, however, will be taken care of, Brown said.

“We do not anticipate a layoff of employees, as they will be offered relocation to other stores, including our nearby supermarkets in St. James and Selden,” Brown said.

The East Setauket King Kullen opened back in 2005 in the same shopping center as two other grocery chains — Wild by Nature and Super Stop and Shop. The former grocery chain also operates under the King Kullen brand, which Brown said was not going anywhere.

“It has been a privilege to serve the Three Village community and we remain committed to the area through our East Setauket Wild by Nature,” he said.

Andrew Polan, president of the Three Village Chamber of Commerce, said his group was sad to see the supermarket chain go after several years of service to the community. He said it was likely that oversaturation in the area could have made it difficult for King Kullen to prosper as it stood alongside two other major chains.

“Anytime something closes down, it’s a cause of concern for us. King Kullen is a longtime Long Island company and we’re sorry to see this happening,” he said. “I’m sure the increase in competition in the area has made it difficult for businesses to survive.”

King Kullen operates several other locations in communities near the North Shore area including Mt. Sinai, Lake Ronkonkoma, Middle Island, Commack, Northport, Huntington and Huntington Station among others.

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North Shore-based Founder’s Day Committee opens fourth-graders up to Setauket’s original settlement

Students with guide Donna Smith at the Amos Smith house (circa 1740). Photo from Beverly Tyler

By Beverly C. Tyler

The goals of the Founder’s Day Committee are to introduce the Vance Locke murals on the early history of the Town of Brookhaven to all the 4th grade students in the Three Village school district, and to introduce the students to Brookhaven’s Original Settlement in Setauket.

The Town of Brookhaven was founded in Setauket on April 14, 1655. In 2006, following the successful 350th Town of Brookhaven anniversary celebration in 2005, a group of local residents, Setauket PTA members and the Setauket School principal met and decided to invite fourth grade students from all Three Village Schools to spend a day at the Setauket School to see the recently restored murals and learn about their history.

The murals, in the Setauket School auditorium, were painted in 1951 by artist Vance Locke.

From 2006 through 2013, fourth- grade students from Three Village schools came to the Setauket School auditorium, learned about the murals and the history they portray, and viewed artifacts connected with the murals and their various themes.

Students were also treated to monologues by Setauket School sixth-grade students, dressed in period costumes, about the murals and the people in them.

In 2014, a change was made to provide students with a more direct and hands-on experience. Three Village fourth-graders were introduced to the murals and their history and then taken on a walking tour of the Setauket Original Settlement area. In 2015, the walking tour was improved, providing each class with a guide and adding visual details to the tour.

Evaluations by teachers have led to various improvements in the student experience. To date, teachers have been enthusiastic about the tour and the changes and improvements made over the years.

The mural talk and tour, on April 29 and 30, guided 20 fourth grade classes around the Town of Brookhaven Original Settlement area. The days were perfect, weather-wise, and the sight of more than 400 students learning about the history of the area brought it to life.

The Founder’s Day Committee, Barbara Russell, Brookhaven Town Historian; Donna Smith, Three Village historical Society director of education; Katherine Downs Reuter, Three Village Community Trust; and Beverly Tyler, who works as Three Village Historical Society historian.

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Stony Brook students field questions at their final project presentation. Photo by Phil Corso

Nick Fusco is still in college, but he already has a vision for the Three Village community’s de facto Main Street known as Route 25A. He and his classmates brought that vision to his neighbors Monday night to show what a little dreaming can do for the North Shore’s future.

“Our community could look like this,” Fusco said in front of a projected rendering of a reinvented Route 25A complete with greenhouse spaces, apartment housing, environmentally friendly landscaping and more. “We’ve come up with ways to improve safety, aesthetics and, most importantly, functionality.”

Fusco and about a dozen other Stony Brook University students presented at the Setauket Neighborhood House on Monday evening as part of a final project for Professor Marc Fasanella’s ecological art, architecture and design class under the college’s sustainability studies program. The conversation, “Keeping a sense of place in the Three Villages,” involved four students presenting PowerPoint slides showing off their reimaged Setauket and Stony Brook communities, utilizing existing infrastructure to help employ ecologically-friendly additions and make Three Village a community that retains young people.

A student rendering shows what could be of a vacant field near Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso
A student rendering shows what could be of a vacant field near Stony Brook University. Photo by Phil Corso

“We looked at this as a tremendous opportunity for our students and for the community moving forward,” Fasanella said. “Are we dreaming? Of course we’re dreaming.”

The class built off the work of last year’s students, who brainstormed ways to bridge the gap created by the railroad tracks that separate the university from the greater Three Village community. Their proposals were met with great praise from residents, civic leaders and officials in attendance Monday. The ideas were bold, including anything from pulling buildings closer to the 25A curbside to make way for a greater “Main Street” feel to constructing a “green” multi-tiered parking garage near the train station for both retail space and commuter parking.

Shawn Nuzzo, president of the Civic Association of the Setaukets and Stony Brook, applauded the students for daring the community to take a different look at the future of Three Village. His group helped to sponsor the event alongside the Three Village Community Trust.

In an interview, Nuzzo said the Route 25A corridor, especially near the Stony Brook Long Island Rail Road station, has a long and troubled history and could use a facelift to enhance safety for pedestrians, motorists and anyone living in the area.

Nuzzo, who also studied environmental design, policy and planning at Stony Brook University, was also once a student in Fasanella’s ecological urbanism course and underwent a similar exercise in which he dreamt up projects to connect the campus to the nearby community.

“We need to have this discussion over what we want for our de facto Main Street. If we don’t decide, the developers are going to decide for us,” he said. “What do we want as a community? It starts with stuff like this.”

And the students’ visions did not fall on deaf ears, either. Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station) sat attentively throughout four students’ presentations and ended the meeting with encouraging words.

She said she was working alongside Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) to enact a comprehensive Route 25A study, which should be discussed in a community forum on June 30 in East Setauket.

“It’s our responsibility to engage and continue the visioning process,” she said, on behalf of civic leaders and lawmakers in the community. “We want to work on our ‘Main Street’ and put the community’s visions into planning.”

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Rohan Murphy, a wrestler who lost his legs at birth, shares his story to encourage kids at R.C. Murphy Jr. High School. Photo from Three Village Central School District

The words and story of Rohan Murphy captivated R.C. Murphy Jr. High School students and staff as the inspirational speaker visited the building in early April and encouraged all to live a life with “no excuses.”

Murphy, who lost his legs at birth, shared his story of overcoming life’s obstacles and physical challenges in order to achieve his personal standards for success.

He told the students how he pushed himself to achieve both academically and athletically, as he went on become a Division I college wrestler at Penn State University.

The event was held in conjunction with the annual town hall meeting, which serves to bring the entire school together to focus on a topic of particular importance.

At the end of his speech, Murphy joined the students’ lunch periods to speak in small groups in order to continue the conversation.

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Deanna Bavlnka, William F. Connors, Jr. and Jeffrey Mischler address the crowd. Photo by Andrea Moore Paldy

Not since 2012 have three candidates vied for two seats on the Three Village school board. The last time that happened, incumbents William F. Connors, Jr. and Deanna Bavlnka were running for their current seats, which will expire at the end of June.

This year Connors and Bavlnka are joined in the at-large race for two three-year board positions by newcomer Jeffrey Mischler. Their order on the ballot, determined in a drawing required by law, will be Connors, Mischler, and then Bavlnka.

Last week, residents gathered at R.C. Murphy Junior High auditorium to listen to the candidates respond to a series of prepared questions from the audience.

Concerning the importance of the arts, extra-curricular activities, vocational training and concerns about high stakes testing and teachers’ evaluations, the trio were in agreement.

Connors, current president of the Three Village school board, referred to extra-curricular activities as “co-curricular,” explaining that for many students, those programs “are something that really makes all the difference in the world in their happiness and success in school.”

Connors, 70, has lived in the district since 1973. He retired as associate vice president of academic affairs for Suffolk County Community College and said he hopes to continue to use his professional and past board experience to shepherd the district through the fiscal challenges presented by the cap on the tax levy.

All three candidates agreed that high stakes testing is a problem for both students and teachers.

The emphasis should not be on the test, but on the materials being taught and on “teaching these kids the right way to study and the right way to learn,” responded Mischler, 44.

A high school business teacher in Center Moriches, where he also taught seventh and eighth grade math for eight years, Mischler and his wife have lived in Stony Brook for eight years. They have two — soon to be three — sons at Nassakeag Elementary School.

Mischler said he hopes to represent “the teachers, the parents, the working families” and to make sure that “financial decisions are made soundly.”

Bavlnka, the director of human resources at P.W. Grosser Consulting, an environmental engineering firm, spoke of the importance of advocacy and encouraged parents to write to government officials to protest high-stakes testing.

“We need to have our voices heard and stick together and work as a team,” the mother of two W.S. Mount Elementary students said.

A 1983 Ward Melville graduate, Bavlnka wants to continue the district’s momentum and emphasis on academic excellence and “inclusiveness to maximize each student’s chance to reach their own unique potential.”

When the discussion during the hour-long Meet the Candidates Night turned to finances, Mischler promised to examine some of the Common Core programs the district pays for, such as Go Math!, to make sure they are working.

“I’m still on the fence whether it’s effective or not,” he said of the math curriculum that was just recommended by the elementary math committee.

If funds remained, Mischler said he would use them for special needs programs in the elementary schools.
Bavlnka, 50, referred to the upcoming school district budget, which includes elementary STEM teachers, and the restoration of social workers and American Sign Language, as an example of the board’s sound financial decisions. The district’s move to natural gas heating and preparation to go solar also point to the board’s efforts to save money, she said.

“We are thinking business. We are thinking revenue and efficiency and conserving. And we’re doing a great job at it,” she told the audience.

Connors, father of four Ward Melville graduates, said he would like to do more to get secondary students out of study halls and into more electives.

“We have to work with employee groups and work with them within the fiscal realties we are now facing,” Connors said regarding the district’s long-term financial health.

“That involves a change in mindset of all of us.”

Asked about term limits, Connors, who was previously on the school board from 1994 to 2006, serving as president for the last 10 years, joked that he was definitely against them.

“The community certainly can decide if I’m representing them well,” he said.  “And if they feel that the Board of Education needs some new blood, new ideas that I don’t offer, they can elect another individual.”

Bavlnka said continuity and consistency are important for building relationships. It’s also important, she said, because educational law can be “overwhelming” and “one big chunk to take on.”

Mischler does believe in term limits. “I always look for a fresh look sometimes. You know yourselves if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you may start to fall into the same pattern,” he said.

“I feel like it’s a chance for the public to make a decision.”

That decision will come on May 19. Voting for the board seats and 2015-16 school budget will take place from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Three Village elementary schools.

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This state Department of Environmental Conservation map hilights special groundwater protection property in yellow, which includes a lot in the center on which a North Shore developer hopes to build.

A Setauket-based civic group is drawing a line in the sand as a North Shore developer looks to build three houses on an environmentally sensitive area.

Brookhaven is home to two of Long Island’s nine special groundwater protection areas, designated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and Charles Krohn of Windwood Homes, Inc. has applied for variances to divide his land within one of them — in East Setauket near Franklin Avenue and John Adams Street —  into three separate plots. But Shawn Nuzzo, president of the Civic Association of the Setaukets and Stony Brook, argued the town should adhere to existing zoning laws there to protect the area’s aquifer.

The DEC’s special groundwater protection area in question is a large, oddly shaped chunk of land on the North Shore that includes Stony Brook University, St. Georges Golf and Country Club, Ward Melville High School, wooded properties on the southern part of Setauket, pieces of Lake Grove and more.

“[This area] is critical to ensuring the future potability of our underground water supply,” Nuzzo said in a statement read aloud at the April 22 Brookhaven Town Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. “Granting variances to allow for these substandard lots would serve to undermine not only the state environmental conservation law, but also … Brookhaven’s own adopted comprehensive land use plan.”

The civic president said the town granted the area special protection in its 1996 land use plan — the most recently adopted plan to date — because of its environmental significance. In his testimony, Nuzzo asked the town to deny the requested variances solely to protect the environmental standards already in place, adding he was not opposed to development all together.

“If the applicant wishes to develop this property, we recommend they adhere to the town’s existing zoning ordinances,” he said.

Krohn, who lives in East Setauket, purchased the land from the town in September 2014 and said he was looking to build three homes between 3,000 and 3,500 square feet in the same community where Windwood Homes has already been developing for years.

“The houses might, in fact, be smaller than this footprint,” he said at last month’s Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. “These are not sold right now.”

Diane Moje of D&I Expediting Services in Farmingville represented Krohn at the hearing and said the goal was to make three equal lots for development.

East Setauket resident Thomas Cardno has lived near Franklin Avenue for nearly a decade and said he worries that overdevelopment would create a safety risk for young children, referring to the variance proposals as “jamming three homes on there” as a means to maximize profits at the expense of the families in the area.

The cul-de-sacs in the area are too crammed already, he said. “Just put two homes in there and call it a day, at this point.”

Moje, however, said the town has already granted similar variances for other homes in the surrounding area, making the current proposal nothing out of the ordinary.

“This is not out of character and not something this board hasn’t addressed previously, and granted,” she said.

Christopher Wrede of the Brookhaven Town Planning Department reviewed the proposal and said the variances posed no significant environmental impact. The Board of Zoning Appeals held the public hearing open, to get additional information in the coming months.

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Robert Reuter shares photos of historic homes

Beverly Swift Tyler House, 114 Main St., Setauket, built 1881. Photo from Beverly Tyler

By Beverly C. Tyler

“A historic district is an area containing buildings, structures or places which have a special character and ambiance based on historical value … of such significance to warrant its conservation, preservation and protection,” according to the Town of Brookhaven’s definition.

The town’s historic districts in the Three Village area was the subject of a talk on the evening of April 23 by Robert Reuter sponsored by the Three Village Community Trust. Reuter — a member of the town’s historic district advisory committee, president of the Frank Melville Memorial Foundation and vice president of the community trust — showed pictures of some of the most interesting homes, buildings and businesses in the historic districts and how many owners in the historic districts have benefited from the consultation and advice provided by members of the advisory committee.

This was one opportunity for residents to learn about the five historic districts in the Three Village area and the structures and environment of some of the most beautiful and significant areas of our community. A number of members of the advisory committee were on hand to provide additional information and examples of the many success stories locally.

The real beauty and significance of the historic districts is not just in the buildings themselves, nor their architecture but in the stories of the people who have lived in these homes over the past three centuries or so.

In 2002, Ward Melville senior Stacy Braverman wrote about a house in the Old Setauket Historic District: “From a very early age, I have loved 114 Main St., albeit from a distance. It has a perfect location — close to the park, post office, library and village green. Its distinctive color and stained glass windows make it unusual, but it still fits in perfectly with the area.”

In researching the house, Braverman found out the house was built for my grandfather. She also discovered that one owner was the first woman and the first Catholic elected to the Setauket School Board of Education.

In an interview, Braverman said she discovered that one of the most recent owners painted the house blue because a “helpful” neighbor told him that all houses in Setauket had to be white with black shutters at that point in time.

This is just one of many stories surrounding the people, architecture, setting and history of the homes and structures in the town’s five Three Village historic districts, which are located at Stony Brook, Old Setauket, East Setauket, Bethel Christian Avenue Laurel Hill and Dyers Neck.

With the town having 15 historic districts all told, it means that the Three Village area has one-third of the designations.

The community trust’s spring lecture series, “Keeping a Sense of Place in the Three Villages,” will continue with a Thursday, May 28, talk, “The Marion Lake Story: Defeating the Mighty Phragmites” and will conclude on Thursday, June 25, with a look at “Patriots Hollow State Forest.” All programs are 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Setauket Neighborhood House.

For more information, see the website at www.threevillagecommunitytrust.org/programs.

Details of the town’s historic districts, guidelines and other documents are available at the Town of Brookhaven website www. brookhaven.org/committees/historicdistrictadvisory.aspx.

Books, booklets and pamphlets on the homes and environment of the Three Village area as well as walking tour guides are available from the Three Village Historical Society, 93 North Country Road, Setauket. The society office and gift shop is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Beverly Tyler is the Three Village Historical Society historian.

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