The Port Times Record - January 19, 2023

Photo by Raymond Janis

Kevin LaValle elected as Brookhaven town clerk

BY RAYMOND JANIS EDITOR1@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

In a special election held Tuesday, Jan. 17, Town of Brookhaven Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden) was elected as Brookhaven town clerk.

Former Town Clerk Donna Lent (I) retired in November, prompting a special election to complete her unexpired term ending in 2025. An unofficial tally from the Suffolk County Board of Elections indicates LaValle secured victory handily, defeating the Democratic candidate, Lisa Di Santo of East Patchogue. So far, he has received 6,396 votes to Di Santo’s 4,940.

In an exclusive phone interview, LaValle reacted to the election outcome.

“I’m really excited that the residents of the Town of Brookhaven put their faith in me to run a very critical department,” he said. “I’m excited about the opportunity ahead of me. Once I get sworn in, I look forward to taking on that challenge.” To his opponent, he added, “It was a great race. I wish her the best.”

Upon assuming this townwide position, LaValle will oversee a more than 25-person staff. In the meantime, he said he intends to speak with staff members, get an idea of the day-to-day operations and “start to see the office as a whole and see what we can improve.”

“I think that that’s going to be a little bit of a process to get that all together, but I’m excited to sit down with everybody,” the town clerkelect said, adding, “It’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but I’m excited for it.”

New state election laws require at least a week for the election results to be certified.

LaValle will vacate his seat on the Town Board when he is sworn in as clerk, triggering another special election — this time for his Brookhaven 3rd Council District.

The outgoing councilman pledged to remain active in the eventual transition process. “I think there are some people out there,” he said, referring to prospective candidates. “The leadership of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, they’re going to have to make the decisions on that.”

He added, “The 3rd District has been my home my whole life. It’s been a great honor to be able to represent it over the last nine years, so I’m certainly going to take a keen interest in who’s going to take over after me and certainly be a helping hand in that transition.”

LaValle could be sworn into office as Brookhaven town clerk as early as Wednesday, Jan. 25. Under town code, the board must set a special election between 60 and 90 days from the opening of the vacancy.

Brookhaven Town Clerk-elect Kevin LaValle. File photo by Raymond Janis

Westerly wall on the drawing board at East Beach bluff, trustees debate rideshare service, school capital bond and landfill

BY RAYMOND JANIS EDITOR1@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

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, also TBR News Media website], 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 Stationbased 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, also TBR News Media website].

“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.

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

County picks groups to receive $25M for first round in opioid settlement

BY DANIEL DUNAIEF DESK@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

County Executive Steve Bellone (D) announced the names of 34 organizations who will receive $25 million to combat the opioid crisis in the first round of funding secured by the county’s settlement against manufacturers, distributors and others involved in the crisis.

The grant recipients, who were among the 111 that applied for funding, include community groups, nonprofits, for-profit groups and county agencies and will receive the funds over a threeyear period.

The county hopes to provide funds in the next couple of weeks to combat a crisis that COVID-19 exacerbated in the last few years.

“We had begun to make real progress in the battle and in 2019, deaths declined for the first time in many years,” Bellone said at a press conference Jan. 12 announcing the recipients chosen by a bipartisan five-member committee. The pandemic “reversed that progress and, once again, we saw opioid-related deaths rising.”

Funds from the settlement against manufacturers and distributors of opioids total over $200 million, which the county will distribute over the next 20 years. The second round of funding will begin later this year. The county encouraged some of the groups that didn’t receive funding in the first round to reapply, while opening up the opportunity to other organizations that are similarly dedicated to prevention, education, treatment and recovery.

Urgency

County Legislature Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon), who helped select award recipients, said the committee received over $170 million worth of requests.

“The goal is not only to have an immediate impact, but to have a long-standing impact,” he said in an interview. The committee wanted to take a “multifaceted approach when funding these organizations.”

Richberg said the group took a considerable number of hours to put together the list of recipients for the first round.

“We understood the urgency to make sure this came out in the best way possible,” he said.

The minority leader appreciated the perspective of fellow committee member Sharon Richmond, president of the Northport-East Northport Community Drug and Alcohol Task Force and a victim-advocate whose son Vincent died from opioids in 2017.

Richberg described Richmond as a “beacon of strength” who helped guide the group in the right direction.

At the press conference, Richmond said her son would have been “honored to know that so many people are going to get so much help” with these funds.

Reaching out

The leaders of the groups that will receive this money have numerous approaches to combat an epidemic that has robbed the community of family

members, friends and neighbors.

“We want to reach individuals in the community and not necessarily have to wait for someone to come to our emergency departments,” said Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, assistant vice president of addiction services for Northwell Health.

Northwell’s Project Connect Plus will receive about $3.5 million, which is the largest single award in the first round of funding.

Project Connect Plus would like to expand its reach and is partnering with domestic violence organizations and with Island Harvest food bank to create a pathway for people to access support.

“The goal of this initiative is to make sure we can navigate people [to services], build partnerships and ensure that people trust the process,” Kapoor said.

Project Connect Plus is emphasizing the importance of ongoing contact between health care providers and people who need support to defeat drug addiction.

He contrasted the attention most patients get after an operation with the lack of ongoing attention in the health care system for those people who come to an emergency room for drug-related problems.

Hospitals typically reach out to patients numerous times after knee operations, to check on how people are feeling, to make sure they are taking their medicine, to check for infection and to remind them of future appointments.

Someone with a substance use disorder

typically receives no phone calls after an emergency room visit.

“If [the health care community] is doing right by people with knee surgery, why not take the same approach” for people who are battling addiction, Kapoor said. “We continually engage people to make sure they are not alone.”

Project Connect Plus is also partnering with other organizations, including Community Action for Social Justice, which is working toward increasing safety around drug use.

CASJ’s executive director and co-founder, Tina Wolf, provides direct services to reduce the risk for people who use drugs, such as syringe exchange and risk reduction counseling, overdose prevention training and harm reduction training.

CASJ is receiving $1.5 million from the opioid settlement.

“It’s a significant amount of money that will have a significant impact,” Wolf said. “It means a lot to us to have the support of the county around harm reduction efforts.”

Wolf said the funds will enable CASJ to double its existing harm reduction efforts in Suffolk County, which is important not only amid an increase in substance abuse in the aftermath of the pandemic, but also as people develop wounds amid a change in the drug supply.

In the last few years, amid volatility in drugs used in the county, some fentanyl has included xylazine, a pet pain reliever and muscle

relaxant. In Philadelphia, Puerto Rico and Long Island, among other places, xylazine has caused significant nonhealing wounds.

“Some of this money is for wound care issues,” Wolf said.

Other grant recipients include Hope House Ministries of Port Jefferson ($600,000), Town of Brookhaven Youth Prevention Program ($75,000) and Town of Smithtown Horizons Counseling and Education Center ($111,000).

A comprehensive list

The award recipients will update the committee on their efforts to ensure that the funds are providing the anticipated benefits and to help guide future financial decisions.

Groups have to report on their progress, Richberg said, which is a part of their contract.

County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) was pleased with the work of the recipients.

“It’s a fantastic list” that is “really comprehensive and varied in the type of services and the location geographically,” she said. “We do need so much out there.”

She believes the funds will “do some real good.”

Wolf said she hopes “we don’t all just do well in our individual projects, but we can link those projects together. I’m hoping there’s enough overlap that we can create this net together to really make sure people aren’t falling through the cracks.”

Suffolk County Legislature Minority Leader Jason Richberg, at podium, was on hand to announce the first round of recipients of opioid settlement funds at a Jan. 12 press conference. Photo from Steve Bellone’s Flickr page

School News

Port Jefferson School District Comsewogue School District

Coast Guard petty officer visits Port Jeff students

United States Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Brendan Bernath recently headed back to his base in Lake Erie, where his unit missions consist of search and rescue, law enforcement and homeland security. But first, he stopped in to thank the students of Edna Louise Spear Elementary School in Port Jefferson.

The school’s Buddy Program, the cross-gradelevel initiative of fifth graders from Kari Costanza’s class and first graders in Laura Kelly’s and Paige Lohmann’s class, created and sent holiday cards of gratitude to servicemen and servicewomen. Bernath’s visit was an opportunity to thank them on behalf of his colleagues for their gesture.

To prepare for his visit, the students brainstormed questions from how he spent his holidays to how fast his

boat travels on the water. They also created some welcome signs, choosing patriotic colors to honor him and his unit.

Bernath was thoughtful and engaging with the students, sharing a firsthand glimpse

into his everyday work and his mission to explore the world. He encouraged students to learn more about the waters of Long Island and the Coast Guard stations that welcome students to tour their facilities.

A generous offering from Trek Bicycle Store

BY SOPHIA GREGORIO DESK@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

For the second straight year, the Lake Grove-based Trek Bicycle Store has donated two bicycles to Comsewogue School District.

The bike store generously gave the bicycles to help those needing something for the holidays.

“Trek Lake Grove is happy to help families in the Port Jefferson Station community this year,” said store manager Catie Gregorio.

Comsewogue School District would like to thank Trek Lake Grove and anyone who donated to the needy during the holiday season.

Comsewogue High School principal, Michael Mosca, commented on the value such donations add to

the greater community.

“This is what makes our community special,” he said. “Everyone is willing to go above and beyond to help one another. We are very grateful

for our community partners and all they do for our students and our schools.”

High School.

Port Jefferson School District/One River School Exhibit

The One River School for Art and Design’s Port Jefferson Station location recently exhibited student artwork from the Port Jefferson School District’s fine arts department.

As a collaborative effort, student artwork across grades K-12 was showcased. An opening reception was held on Saturday, Jan. 7, welcoming students and families to

celebrate their artistic achievements.

The school district thanked art teachers Skylar Benatar, Meghan McCarthy, Nancy Randazzo and Stacey Schuman; director of music and fine arts Michael Caravello; and the One River School’s assistant director of education, Ellen Jones, for organizing this special community event.

Sophia Gregorio is a sophomore at Comsewogue

(Left to right) Social worker Taylor Cohen; social worker Alexia Bellini; and student-writer Sophia Gregorio. Photo courtesy Andrew Harris

Students in Kari Costanza’s class at Edna Louise Spear Elementary School with Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Brendan Bernath. Photo courtesy PJSD

Port Jefferson School District students and art teachers with director of music and fine arts, Michael Caravello (right). Photo courtesy PJSD

The following incidents have been reported by Suffolk County Police:

Mount Sinai massage parlor raided

Suffolk County Police arrested a Flushing woman on Jan 17 for alleged unlawful practice of a profession during a massage parlor raid in Mount Sinai. In response to community and quality of life complaints, Suffolk County Police Sixth Precinct Crime Section officers and the Town of Brookhaven Fire Marshal and Building Inspector conducted an investigation into New Blue Sea Relaxing Spa, located at 331 Route 25A, at approximately 4 p.m. Following an investigation, Lan Li, 35, was charged with Unauthorized Practice of a Profession. She was released on a Desk Appearance Ticket and is scheduled to appear in First District Court in Central Islip on a later date.

Wanted for Selden Petit Larceny

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Sixth Precinct Crime Section officers are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the woman who allegedly switched a price tag from an item in a Selden store in November. A woman allegedly switched the price tag on an Amazon Echo with a less expensive item at Target, located at 307 Independence Plaza, on Nov. 23. At the register she paid for the less expensive item before leaving with the Echo.

Wanted for Centereach Grand Larceny

Just released! Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Sixth Squad detectives are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the woman who allegedly used stolen credit cards in Setauket and Centereach last month. A wallet was allegedly stolen from Walmart, located at 161 Centereach Mall in Centereach, on Nov. 27 at approximately 6 p.m. A short time later, a woman allegedly used credit cards stolen from the wallet at Walmart, located at 3990 Nesconset Highway in East Setauket and Target, located at 235 Pond Path in South Setauket.

Farmingville woman injured in crash

Suffolk County Police Sixth Squad detectives are investigating a single-vehicle crash that critically injured a woman on Jan. 16. Susan Denise was driving a 2002 Jeep Liberty on the Long Island Expressway approximately 1⁄2 mile west of exit 62 when the vehicle struck the center median, flipped on its side, and caught fire at approximately 12:05 p.m.

Multiple good Samaritans flipped the car right side up and extracted Denise, who was getting burned, from the vehicle and over to the right shoulder. Denise, 56, of Farmingville, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital via Suffolk County Police helicopter in critical condition. The vehicle was impounded for a safety check.

Do you recognize this woman? Photo from SCPD

Gov. Hochul proposes additional funds for SBU research

BY DANIEL DUNAIEF DESK@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

provide $200 million in digital transformation and IT infrastructure across the State University of New York system, including SBU.

moving into the top 25-ranked public research universities nationally.”

UNIVERSITY

As a part of her State of the State address last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) proposed providing additional financial support to Stony Brook University’s research effort.

The governor proposed adding $200 million in capital funding for research labs at SBU and the University of Buffalo to invest in new and renovated research buildings, labs, and stateof-the art instrumentation.

In the proposal, the state would also match up to $500 million in state funds for SBU and three other university centers.

In the technical arena, the state would also

In a statement, Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis said “Governor Hochul’s announcement providing support for an endowment match, research labs, and innovative programs will help to propel Stony Brook to even greater heights.”

The SBU president added that the match would inspire “our philanthropic supporters to secure our long-term future while supporting current research and student scholarships. We are grateful to Governor Hochul for her visionary leadership and for providing the flexibility and mission-specific resources needed to advance our transformational goals of doubling research expenditures and

SBU officials added that the additional research funding will allow the university to grow its technology-transfer and business-incubation programs, which foster New York’s entrepreneurs.

“More robust research and entrepreneurship infrastructure will allow us to accelerate the commercialization of medical, engineering and other technologies generated from our faculty to start and grow companies across the state,” SBU officials explained in an email.

The university appreciates the governor’s support and officials look forward to seeing the final executive budget proposal with related details and working with the legislature to enact these proposals.

Previous recognition

The proposed funds come a year after the governor designated SBU and The University of Buffalo as New York State’s flagship universities as part of her plan for “A New Era for New York.”

The governor proposed additional funding

for several efforts. The funds would help construct a multidisciplinary engineering building on campus. She also supported a partnership between SBU and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for NeuroAI, an initiative that combines neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

She suggested expanding the Stony Brook Center for Clean Water Technology research to include wastewater treatment technology and creation of the Suffolk County Wastewater Management District, both with the goal of protecting Long Island’s aquifer system.

The state could also support the modernization and repair of scientific labs and could fund “Grand Challenges” that will encourage cross-disciplinary research.

With additional funds, these universities would also have the ability to continue to hire top-rated faculty and researchers.

SBU and Buffalo are members of the Association of American Universities.

Annual research expenditures at the two universities are also a combined $663 million, including affiliated institutions.

Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis, pictured above, during her State of the University address on Oct. 12. In a statement, she said the state’s support ‘will help to propel Stony Brook to even greater heights.’ Photo from Stony Brook University

LEGALS

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Peace Pole erected at Mount Sinai Congregational Church

BY RAYMOND JANIS EDITOR1@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

Congregants, community members and peace advocates gathered Sunday, Jan. 15, outside the Mount Sinai Congregational Church to erect a Peace Pole.

The ceremony was part of the international Peace Pole Project, a program that has spread to every country with the universal message of global peace.

Kevin Mann, president of the Rocky Point Rotary Club, attended the service. Though not a member of the Congregational Church, he traced the church’s long history championing various social causes throughout American history.

“Before the term ‘social activism’ was invented, this congregation was doing it,” he said. “This congregation’s history goes all the way back to being a part of the Underground Railroad. They also had the first free men of color as members,” adding, “They were always ahead of the curve and involved in every single social activism movement.”

Sunday’s peace ceremony carried symbolic significance as well, marking the 94th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Tom Lyon is a congregation member and co-founder of Building Bridges in Brookhaven. “Martin Luther King did get the Nobel Prize for Peace,” Lyon said. “That wasn’t just about the United States. That wasn’t just about segregation. He talked about universal love, unrequited love. … That’s kind of the concept: the universality of peace.”

He added that King “spoke out against the Vietnam War, which became very controversial. That was in 1967, exactly a year before he was killed.”

To Lyon, peace is often caricatured in popular culture as passive, even pacifistic. The example of MLK, he said, awakens one to the possibilities of peace, something he viewed as highly active and courageous.

“Martin Luther King was always talking about how being a person of peace takes much more courage, much more strength, than a person who just gives into their anger or acts out violently,” Lyon said. “To seek peaceful solutions often is more difficult, more challenging, but in the long run, that’s what we feel we’re called to do.”

Corridor of Peace

The Peace Pole planted at the congregation is part of a major local effort tied to the Peace Pole Project, the proposed Corridor of Peace, coordinated by the Rotary.

“We are attempting to declare a Corridor of Peace, which is [routes] 25 and 25A and four school districts at the moment — Rocky Point, Miller Place, Shoreham-Wading River and Longwood — that will designate how

they want to make their communities a more peaceful environment,” Mann said.

Through this initiative, Mann hopes community members can better understand the problems unique to their area and work toward positive change. “You have very common themes and issues — food insecurity, inequality, housing, opioid addiction — many things,” Mann said.

Through the project, he sees an opportunity “to continue to increase the quality of life for people in the corridor.”

Lyon added to this sentiment and vision. He said members of the corridor could find unity through shared values and a mutual desire for peace. “Hopefully, people in the communities of peace will be reminded that’s the connection

with the Peace Pole Project,” he said. “You see one in front of a couple of stores or another in the neighborhood where you are walking. It’s just a reminder.”

Conflict abroad

Mann and Lyon defined the Peace Pole Project as apolitical, a program committed to the mantra, “May peace prevail on Earth.” However, both acknowledged the ongoing human conflicts around the globe, namely the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Lyon said the Peace Pole Project reminds Americans of the need to promote peace, especially when the United States is not at war. “It’s sometimes easy to be a little complacent when things are going good for us as Americans,” he said. However, the project is “a universal thing,” and the cause for universal peace applies equally to Americans as it does to Ukrainians and Russians.

Outlining the Rotary’s response to Russian belligerence, Mann said the club has sponsored training for trauma nurses and has even brought a 9-year-old Ukrainian girl to Long Island for heart surgery.

“There’s no political stand involved, but there are people in need,” he said. “We’ve been very, very active in the Ukrainian concept … and bringing focus to the Ukraine issue.”

Finding peace

Despite the war and violence dominating the headlines and news cycles, Mann maintains that humans are naturally peaceful. Drawing

from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he said peace usually endures for long periods of human history, with brief interruptions of war.

“For long periods of history, peace has prevailed,” Mann said. “For short periods of history, war has broken out.”

Finding a silver lining in those interruptions of war, Mann added that technological advancements had accelerated during wartime.

“One of the byproducts of war breaking out, as bad as it has been, is that it has led to technological and medical advancements that have helped humanity.”

Defining some of the problems inherent to these times, Mann said high-speed communication and mass media culture now spread news and images of war quickly and widely. At the same time, war remains a lucrative international business.

“The military is a business that drives economies, unfortunately,” he said. “Peace hasn’t gotten that kind of focus internationally.”

As warmongers in the press continue to drive nations into battle, and as arms dealers continue to profit from the blood spilled on the fields of human strife, Mann maintains that there is still room for hope.

“Polio is almost being totally eliminated, and malaria is well on its way to being controlled,” he said. “Over the last hundred years, people have worked to make those things happen,” adding, “They’ve happened despite diverting resources to other causes, so I think there’s great room for optimism.”

Above, Tom Lyon (left) and Kevin Mann pose with the newly planted Peace Pole outside Mount Sinai Congregational Church. Photo by Raymond Janis

‘Martin Luther King was always talking about how being a person of peace takes much more courage, much more strength, than a person who just gives into their anger or acts out violently.’

— TOM LYON

Dimitrios ‘Jim’ Tsunis Sr., 94, entrepreneur and businessman

PREPARED BY JIM TSUNIS JR. DESK@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

Dimitrios “Jim” Tsunis, Sr., a man known for his charitable endeavors and Long Island business ventures, died at his home in St. James on Christmas Day. He was 94.

OBITUARY

Tsunis was born in Brooklyn to parents who emigrated from Platanos, Greece. He is predeceased by his wife Emily Tsunis. Together, they raised five children in Belle Terre and had a home in Palm Beach, Florida. He had a celebrated life that included meeting many TV personalities and sports greats. He was said to have “known them all.”

As a kid, Tsunis was an avid ball player and spent one summer as a bat boy for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Despite being a big Yankee fan, he found it amazing to be getting dressed in the same locker room as Ralph Branca, Gil Hodges and Pee Wee Reese. A few years later, during a tryout with the Giants, on consecutive pitches, he took Carl Hubbell deep down the left field line for home runs.

As a teenager, he caddied at Engineers Country Club becoming a regular for boxing greats Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis. Tsunis left high school early to enlist in the Marine Corps spending time at Paris Island, Camp Pendleton, Pearl Harbor, China and Guam, all after World War II. In China, he famously recalls being “stunned” to have been fortunate enough to eat dinner with a four star General. After being honorably discharged and returning home to Brooklyn, Tsunis ran the Rotisserie Restaurant in Great Neck with his brother Charlie, thus starting his long “career” in the restaurant business.

After selling the Rotisserie, he enrolled in night school and received his high school diploma a few months later. He then briefly

worked as an assistant at the Eagle Pencil Company. Thereafter, through a chance meeting with a family friend, Tsunis was fortunate to meet the president of National Dairy, who promptly hired him as a salesman for $106 per week. He remained in the dairy business for several years (Sheffield Farms, Crestwood Dairy in 1951 as Sales Manager, and Kings Dairy up until 1954). In 1955, with money borrowed from his Uncle Louie, he purchased Presske’s Dairy in Lake Grove. During one reverse commute from his mom’s Brooklyn home, Tsunis stopped to help a motorist with a flat tire on Jericho Turnpike, in Centereach. That gentleman was R. Ford Hughes, chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Party, and he provided Tsunis with his initial connection to the world of Long Island politics.

In the 1960s, he started in the real estate development business and banking business. In March of 1961, Tsunis was appointed to the board of directors of Tinker National Bank by then president, Cecil Hall. Tsunis was simultaneously a member of the Centereach Chamber of Commerce, the CentereachLake Grove Lions Club, the Association of Developmentally Disabled Children, the Port Jefferson ELK’s Club, the Adelphi College Fund Raising Committee and vice president of the Harbor Hills Country Club.

Tsunis’ real estate developing career began in the early 1960s while partnering with close friend and Yankee Hall of Fame pitcher, Whitey Ford, on several projects continuing through the 1970s. The Ford Professional Building built in 1964 was a local landmark for decades in Port Jefferson Station. Tsunis was also appointed by Governor Rockefeller to the board of directors of the Brookhaven Industrial Development Corporation.

Starting in 1969, Tsunis, along with Whitey

Ford and Edward Long, began a legacy of philanthropic endeavors through a fundraiser golf tournament known as The Pinter Tournament of Stars. Their efforts ultimately resulted in the formation of the Long Island Charities Foundation. Jim was instrumental in raising funds for a wide variety of charitable organizations throughout Long Island for the next 50 years. The annual golf outing was attended by some of the then biggest names in sports and entertainment, including his close friend Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Namath, Joe Louis, Yogi Berra, Clarke Gilles, Thurman Munson, Phil Rizzuto, Gerry Cooney, Telly Savalas, Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Jackie Gleason, Frankie Avalon, and many others. The golf tournament continues today and is known as The Long Island Charity Classic.

Tsunis was also instrumental in launching what is now Dowling College, first as the Suffolk County extension of Adelphi University, and later as an independent college named for developer Bob Dowling.

“We were kidding,” Tsunis said. “We told one of his lieutenants we’d name the place after him for a couple million and he said OK. Who knew?”

He founded and ran many businesses and organizations throughout his long career including Presske’s Dairy, The Dutch Inn, Nickels’ Restaurants, Eagle Building Maintenance, the Melville Chamber of Commerce, Dowling College Founder and served as Smithtown Conservative Party chairman.

Jim was an avid golfer — still hitting them long and straight into his 90s — and was a member of several country clubs over the years including Port Jefferson, St. George, Wheatley Hills, The Presidential and Indian Hills. He was also a lifelong Yankees fan and sports enthusiast.

He is survived by his five loving children:

(Jim, Jr.) Tsunis (Theresa) of Belle Terre; Marsia Farrell (Leo) of St. James; and Alexia Zamek (Scott) of Port Jefferson; as well as by his adored grandchildren and great-grandchildren; LJ (Sonia) Tsunis, Arielle (William) Drepanis, Alexander Tsunis, Allie Zamek, James Tsunis, Paul Farrell, Amelia Zamek, John Tsunis, Sophia Tsunis, Sienna Tsunis, and Michael Drepanis. Donations to honor his memory may be made to the Long Island Charities Foundation in Melville. Please call 631-777-6272.

Harry Randall: farmer, firefighter and lifelong community servant

PREPARED BY KAREN ABRAMOWSKI DESK@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

A lifetime resident of Mount Sinai, Harry W. Randall passed away on Nov. 13. He was 86 years old.

He is survived by his wife, Florence, of 65 years of marriage; his three children, John (Liz) Randall, Karen (David) Abramowski and Anne (Joseph) Tacopina; nine grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Harry’s family had operated Randall Farms on North Country Road in Mount Sinai since the 1800s. His grandfather, Forrest B. Randall, built the farms. Many family members worked there. They learned important skills, played and loved the animals. Bailing hay, milking cows and cleaning stalls were rewarded with ice skating, chocolate

milk and horseback riding, to name a few.

Harry joined the Mount Sinai Fire Department as a young man. He was an ex-chief and ex-commissioner of the department with 70 years of service. When the siren would ring, he and other members would run. Being there for your community was critical, and a fire meant somebody was in trouble. It was a time when everybody looked out for each other with a sense of pride to be able to help. He could be seen cooking pancakes at the breakfasts and fundraising through different events held each year to

unite community members.

Harry W. Randall

He was a lifelong member of the Mount Sinai Congregational Church, where he sang in the choir. You could find him there volunteering for the annual chicken barbecue, working with youth groups, driving a tractor pulling a hay wagon full of carolers at Christmas time through all the local communities. He was head of many committees and president of Seaview Cemetery, Mount Sinai. After the farm was sold, he worked as superintendent of grounds and maintenance at the

Mount Sinai School District until retirement. In honor of his dedication to the schools, the Mount Sinai High School football field was named Randall Field.

Harry was also a member of the Miller PlaceMount Sinai Historical Society. You could find him at the William Miller House in Miller Place, in the barn, teaching kids on field trips about farming in the past. He loved history and telling stories of how things used to be.

He also served on the board of the Long Island Farm Bureau and was a member of the Moose Lodge in Mount Sinai.

Harry also had a great love of water. When he could find time, mainly on Sunday afternoons, you could find him splashing and laughing at the beach. His community involvement, love of people, stories and laughter revealed a full and wonderful life.

Louis Tsunis of Port Jefferson; George Tsunis (Stefanie) of Winter Garden, Florida; Demetrius

Dimitrios ‘Jim’ Tsunis Sr.

Judi Betts: A life of persistent giving to her community

BY RAYMOND JANIS EDITOR1@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

Everything Judi Betts ever did, she did with persistence. Whether selling raffle tickets, hosting guests or persevering through the sharp bouts of orthopedic pain later in life, she did so with a tenacious, indefatigable spirit.

OBITUARY

Those who knew her say a love of family, friends, community and country guided her. Like a high-speed locomotive, her wheels were always churning and churning away. Betts channeled her abundant energies and limitless altruism into the charitable causes that defined her life.

Now those wheels churn no longer. Betts died in her sleep Wednesday, Jan. 4, at the Sunrise of Holbrook assisted living center. In her passing, she leaves an enduring legacy of community service and an indelible mark upon the lives she touched.

A dynamic team

Judith “Judi” Betts was born on Sept. 8, 1941, to Dominick and Jessie Annibale. She, her brother Kenneth and her parents soon moved to Bellerose, Queens, in the early ‘50s. Her father’s untimely death in 1955 was a profound loss to the Annibale family, prompting Jessie to raise the two kids on her own.

In 1959, Judi graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Manhasset, where she remained an active alumna and patron of the parish. She married in 1961, and then remarried in 1982 to Earle Betts, a World War II Navy veteran and board member at Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson.

Judi’s cousin, Ronnie Ridolfi, described Earle as a “perfect gentleman.” The Betts couple settled in a historic home on High Street, the nexus for various social gatherings and benefit events. Together, they were a dynamic team, joint advocates for numerous charitable causes and local organizations. Following Earle’s death in 2002, Judi carried her husband’s torch, Ridolfi added.

With unparalleled compassion and enthusiasm, Betts thrust herself into the world of Port Jefferson with the goal of continual community advancement. “She liked representing her area,” said Mary Ann Ridolfi, Betts’ cousin by marriage. “And she liked helping people.”

Master fundraiser

Betts was renowned for her untiring support of the many charitable causes and organizations to which she was committed throughout her life. The four organizations encompassing her values and community aspirations were St. Mary’s High School, Mather Hospital, Port Jefferson Rotary Club and the Boy Scouts of America.

Michael Sceiford, a friend and fellow Rotarian, characterized Betts’ community involvement. “She immersed her life in these

charitable causes,” he said. “Her personality was to never sit idle, to be out there trying to help the community through these different organizations that she was extremely passionate about.”

She also served on the Suffolk County Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Brian McAuliff, a past council president and longtime Scoutmaster, touched upon the intensity and conviction with which Betts pursued her fundraising obligations.

“If we had a meeting to do a fundraiser, everyone would take some notes, and a few days later, they would get to their tasks that they committed to,” he said. “Judi was on that task the very next minute. Being persistent about the cause, she was able to do some really great things.”

Jolie Powell, a friend and neighbor, said Betts excelled in fundraising. “She could sell tickets better than anyone I’ve met,” Powell said. “She loved the challenge, and she loved to hear that she was the one that sold more tickets than anyone.”

Interpreting this competitive impulse, Ronnie Ridolfi saw in Betts an earnest desire to effect positive change in the lives of others. “That was a drive that was in her, always to be more than the best,” he said. “By doing that with the fundraisers and the charitable contributions,” she had found her life’s task.

Persistence

A doctor once told Betts that the word “persistence” represented her outlook on life. “She didn’t give up,” Mary Ann Ridolfi said. “She would always tell you to be involved, don’t sit around, get involved and know what’s going on around you.”

Ronnie Ridolfi suggested this quality, along with her community-centric approach and relentless determination for service, were all innate qualities. “As a young lady, that was her calling,” he said.

Powell viewed this quality as an inherent feature of Betts’ personality. “She was like a warrior,” she said. “That’s what made her who she was and as far as doing what she loved to do best, which was volunteering.”

Sceiford said Betts’ philanthropic enterprise was undiminished despite declining health later in life. Fighting through chronic pain, she continued to support these causes until the very end. In the face of health problems, “she continued to persevere and push on,” he said.

Several people recounted one notable fundraising event organized at Betts’ historic home that raised $50,000 in 2021. The benefit brought together Mather Hospital and the Boy Scouts of America, Northwell Health president and CEO Michael Dowling, and various local officials.

McAuliff referred to the immense logistic challenges in bringing that event to fruition, especially given Betts’ health. “She was in a wheelchair, sometimes in and out of the hospital, and she still was able to pull off that amazing event,” he said. “It’s just a testament to her tenacity and persistence.”

Legacy

Betts brought in several foreign exchange students, highlighting another aspect of her character. Two such students, Elizabeth of Venezuela and Wenzel of Germany, remained in close contact with her and visited until the end of her life.

Friends and family remember Betts as an eccentric, charismatic, vibrant individual, a connoisseur of wine and an active promoter of the East End-based Pindar and Duck Walk vineyards.

She was also a proud American patriot. The Ridolfis maintained that she passionately supported her brother Kenneth, a Vietnam War veteran. “She helped Kenny a great deal with the VA,” Ronnie said. “He became sick, and she got involved with the VA to help him with his benefits.”

McAuliff said Betts’ patriotic fervor expressed itself through her volunteer activities. “She was a very proud American, very proud of the country, and saw the Boy Scouts of America as something that represented what was best about America,” he said.

For Sceiford, Betts’ inviting personality drew others into her web. Through this, she developed lasting relationships throughout her life. “She took her friends in as her family,” he said.

Through her example, he added that community members “can learn that they can truly make a difference in the community. … She did the work of what 25 other people maybe did. She made a huge impact to the community.”

McAuliff voiced a similar opinion. Reflecting upon Betts’ model of service, he added that her love for people and her selflessness would leave an abiding impression on those who remember her.

“Everybody who knew her became a part of her family,” he said. “I think that she adopted the community and the community organizations as her children,” adding, “It’s a life of giving, a life of persistent giving.”

Betts was laid to rest Tuesday, Jan. 10, alongside Earle at Calverton National Cemetery, her procession escorted by Suffolk County Highway Patrol, the bagpipers performing a moving tribute to a life well lived.

The four organizations to which Betts devoted her life were each represented at her visitation and funeral services. She will be greatly missed by family and friends.

Judith ‘Judi’ Betts

Photo courtesy Ronnie Ridolfi

Warriors fall to Wildcats, 86-21

BY BILL LANDON

DESK@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

The Comsewogue Warriors had their hands full when the undefeated Wildcats of Shoreham-Wading River came knocking Friday, Jan. 13, in a Div. IV matchup.

Looking to keep their perfect record intact, the Wildcats did just that. Their success hinged upon the senior quartet of Sophie Costello, GraceAnn Leonard, Colleen Ohrtman and Annie Sheehan, who put on a scoring fest to win the game, 86-21.

Comsewogue’s Jalynn Kirschenheuter did what she’s done all season. A long-range scoring threat, she drained three triples and two free throws for 11 points, and Hannah Ellis banked eight.

The win lifts SWR to 6-0 in league and 13-0 overall. The Wildcats now look to overtake Westhampton for the top spot in the division.

The Warriors — at 5-2 in league, 6-4 overall — were back in action Wednesday, Jan. 18, with a road game against Mount Sinai. The Wildcats retook the court Monday, Jan. 16, when they hosted Miller Place.

Jump ball! Photo by Bill Landon

Comsewogue’s Kyra Allgaier boxes out GraceAnn Leonard. Photo by Bill Landon

Comsewogue’s Mia Fernandes fights her way to the rim. Photo by Bill Landon

Comsewogue’s Maria Stamatopoulos shoots. Photo by Bill Landon

One-on-one with SBU retiree Dickinson as she embarks on new challenges

BY RITA J. EGAN RITA@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM

For Joan Dickinson, the new year will be a little less hectic after her retirement — which officially began on Jan. 6 — from Stony Brook University.

Dickinson retired after 25 years with SBU. For the past year and a half, she was assistant vice president of university and hospital community relations. Before her most recent position, she was community relations director in government and community relations for a decade after first working in the university’s communications department for 15 years.

Dickinson entered the world of academia in 1997 with a background in the corporate sector. While she found it to be different initially from her prior work experience, she tackled various roles, grew professionally and faced and met several challenges successfully.

Among the lessons she has learned during her tenure was the importance of listening.

“Every person has a story, and I became fascinated with hearing them,” she said. “That helped me become better at mediation and negotiation.”

She also discovered her leadership skills when “putting ideas and people together to solve a problem or create a program.”

Through the years, she interacted with people at SBU, local businesses and the university’s neighbors and worked to connect them with the right department at the college.

“I had the benefit of working with every corner of the campus community, and relationships with so many departments,” Dickinson said. “They are the ones who helped me get the job done.”

Relations with the community

One of the biggest challenges SBU encountered during her tenure was issues with off-campus housing in the Three Village area. University officials became involved with improving rental conditions for students and helping to make them better neighbors by working with former Town of Brookhaven Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station), the town’s Law Department, Suffolk County Police Department and the grassroots organization Stony Brook Concerned Homeowners. Dickinson said it was a good opportunity for the campus to work with the community.

“We all got together and came up with a plan, and I think that’s why that worked,” she said. “It was a very good town-gown solution.”

Tackling the issue led to better guidelines for rentals in Brookhaven, SBU programs to educate students on how to be good neighbors and what a legal rental as well as a rental agreement looks like. She said it was vital to teach students that tenants have rights, too. The program is still offered each semester.

“Some of the landlords were just in it for

the money, and some of the students were put in unsafe conditions,” she said.

Dickinson is proud of the K-12 program she ran while at SBU, which brings thousands of students from primarily underserved communities to the university for campus tours, hands-on learning activities, also empowerment and inspirational talks. The activities include a wide range of programs, including about health and STEM careers as well as art crawls. Dickinson worked with the Long Island Latino Teachers Association and several local school districts.

“The opportunity to bring students who never thought college was within their reach, bring them to campus and show them what’s possible, that was a lot of fun,” Dickinson said.

Besides interacting with the SBU community, Dickinson has been connected with local chambers of commerce and other organizations in surrounding communities such as Three Village, Smithtown, Middle Country, Port Jeff and Ronkonkoma.

“It was important to see how the communities live, because every community is different,” she said. “So, you find the best solutions to problems when you understand where the people are coming from.”

She said residents from various areas would call her when they had a problem with students or the university at large.

“I think that’s why having the community relations office is such an important part of the conversation between the campus and the community, because they did know they could call me at any time,” Dickinson said.

She added she always tried to relay to residents the value the university brings to the region as everyone is welcome to the campus to walk through the paths, look at art in some of the art galleries and more.

Overcoming the pandemic

She also created CommUniversity Day at SBU, which she called one of the highlights of her career, despite the event being stalled due to COVID-19. Before the pandemic, she said the university was able to organize three of the annual events, the last one being held in 2019, that invited local residents to campus.

Dickinson said she was disappointed when COVID brought it to a halt as each year she was building on the event to make it bigger and better, with more departments participating. By the third year, she described it as “a well-oiled machine” with a wide variety of activities.

As for the pandemic, during the earlier months, Dickinson pulled together a team and headed up a PPE drive for hospital workers that not only included personal protection equipment for employees but also donations of iPads, comfort care items, chewing gum and tissues from the community.

The first few months of the pandemic were an unpredictable and intense time at Stony

Brook University Hospital, she said. “We didn’t know from minute to minute what was happening, and I credit the leadership of the institution for getting us through that.”

The retiree said she will never forget the 2020 Easter season when store owners called to say they wanted to donate items because no one was buying anything. They donated flowers, chocolates, eggs that wouldn’t be used for holiday egg hunts and other seasonal items. Dickinson and a team organized the donations for hospital workers to take whatever they needed if they celebrated Easter.

“I will never forget this woman who stood there and looked at me and was crying, and she said, ‘I haven’t had a chance to go shopping for my son for Easter. Now he’s going to get something.’”

She added the hospital workers were working around the clock.

“I credit the hospital with saving our community,” Dickinson said.

Looking ahead

The SBU alum, who lives in Lake Grove with her husband, isn’t saying goodbye to the university altogether. She will teach two classes this semester in the honors college, after teaching at the university for 10 years. But with more free time, Dickinson, who said she is a writer at heart, plans to spend time on various personal projects.

Her former position, which she described as a “dynamic job” is still open as a replacement has not been found.

“Part of the reason why I liked it is I always said I never walked into the same office twice,” Dickinson said. “I never knew from one day to the next what was going to be on fire or put on my plate. It was always changing, and I found that that was just fun to me. That was just captivating. You never

knew, and it kept you on

I was never ever bored.”

Dickinson had some advice for

takes her place.

“I would recommend that the person, whoever takes over this position, that they have a clear understanding of where we’ve come from,” she said. “How has the university changed? How has the campus culture changed? And, understanding where we are now at this point in history.”

your toes.

whoever

The Three Village Chamber of Commerce awarded Joan Dickinson, second from left front row, with its Harold Pryor Award for her community service earlier this year. Below, Dickinson, left, and Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn. Photo above from Three Village Chamber of Commerce; photo below by Leah Dunaief

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EditorialArt is an antidote for a COVID-shaken world

The New York State Council on the Arts recently awarded its Regrowth and Capacity recovery grants to local nonprofits. The grants will help arts and cultural organizations continue to return to pre-pandemic capacity and creation levels by providing monetary relief.

The art community, along with other nonprofits and businesses, was severely impaired by COVID-19 guidelines that had prevented large gatherings of any kind in the early months of the pandemic in 2020. The effects of the lockdown have continued to linger as many people remain hesitant to participate in public events. NYSCA recovery funding efforts are commendable.

Arts organizations that had to furlough staff, cancel programs and cut back their usual offerings may now have a better chance of fully opening their doors again. Canceling programs led to less audience outreach and community support. Grants, such as the ones received from NYSCA, will give organizations the boost they need and, hopefully, remind people that these institutions are essential for community health.

The arts play a vital role in our society. Dance, music, galleries, public works of art and others help us relax; they remind us to take a break from our hectic lifestyles.

News cycles can be disheartening, painting a bleak picture of societies and the future of humanity. Creative works can help us liberate ourselves from these distortions, making sense of the world, improving our quality of lives and elevating moods.

The local economy tends to improve, too, with arts and cultural organizations due to increased consumer purchases and tourism.

Studies have shown that public works of art are beneficial to cities. An illuminated art installation is not only aesthetically pleasing but also can provide needed light along a dark street or path. Public works of art also help community members connect, and people within those municipalities may feel more represented. Art can be used to raise general awareness about various issues, encouraging civic engagement and opening minds.

A building’s mural or art installation in a town may even help to foster pride in one’s neighborhood. Most of all, public art in our local neighborhoods, free cultural programs — whether at an art exhibit or concert at a local park — make these forms of expression accessible to anyone, no matter age or income.

For too long, our communities were isolated as elected officials and medical professionals worked to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, methods of managing the disease left many divided. For a nation and world scarred by isolation and angst, art offers us a path forward and a means to heal.

Many cultural institutions are ready to revitalize themselves. With NYSCA’s Regrowth and Capacity recovery grants, now they can. Let’s take this opportunity to reunite and reconnect through the arts, even if just for a few hours on a weekend day.

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Letters to the Editor

Defining a ‘good neighbor’ policy at St. Charles Hospital

Can Catholic Health/St. Charles Hospital be a good neighbor? Can the village zoning board require hospitals to be good neighbors?

Eleven internally illuminated signs are currently scheduled to be installed on the grounds of St. Charles Hospital. A variance from the Port Jefferson Village code was needed, since the code prohibits internally illuminated signs. At a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 12, a number of village residents expressed concern about the illumination of the signs.

Light pollution is disturbing to residents living nearby. Brightly illuminated signs near the street could be blinding to motorists and pose a traffic hazard.

The top portion of all signs will be white, announcing Catholic Health/St. Charles Hospital. Lower portions of the signs display information and directions. The white portion will be particularly bright when illuminated. The branding of the top portion will probably be reassuring to the motorist that he/she is still in the grounds of the hospital. Once on the grounds, however, the motorist needs to focus on the directions on the lower portion of the sign.

Following the public hearing on Jan. 12, there was informal conversation in which the chairman of the village Zoning Board of Appeals told residents at the meeting that the board agreed to the internal illumination and other variances requested for the signs, with the condition that it would be possible to lower the illumination if there were complaints.

A good neighbor policy would be to start with a lower illumination, however, and not wait for complaints. You may see an example of the intended illuminated signs at the emergency entrance from Belle Terre Road to the Catholic Health/St. Charles Hospital grounds. It may have been positioned before the hearing and the decision of the ZBA.

We ask Catholic Health/St. Charles Hospital to be good neighbors and to consider safety and needs of residents and motorists when preparing illuminated signs.

We ask the village zoning board to require St. Charles and other hospitals to be good neighbors when considering construction projects.

Incidentally, we feel Mather Hospital and the village zoning board missed an opportunity to be good neighbors when they considered cutting down trees to make a parking lot. Double-decker parking could have significantly reduced the number of trees cut down, for example.

Margaret Foster Janet McBride Nancy Rose Port Jefferson

Port Jefferson LIRR electrification has no juice

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s [D] 2023 State of the State speech and accompanying 275-page book omitted any reference to the proposed $3.6 billion LIRR Port Jefferson electrification project. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Feb. 7 public hearing for potential Federal Transit Administration funding of their 2023 Program of Projects also omits funding to advance this project. The FTA will be providing close to $1.8 billion under various formula and competitive discretionary grant programs in 2023.

Here is the link to the MTA Feb. 7 public hearing for their upcoming 2023 Program of Projects: new.mta.info/document/103001.

By not including this project in the Feb. 7 public hearing, is it the MTA’s intent to continue delaying consideration for electrification? What ever happened to the MTA planning feasibility study funded under the prior $32 billion 2015-2019 Capital Plan to look into the feasibility of electrification?

Additional funding to advance the project beyond the planning study is not included in the MTA current $51 billion 2020-2024 Five-Year Capital Plan. The next step would be finding several million to pay for a federal National Environmental Protection Act review. This is necessary to preserve future eligibility for FTA funding.

The most obvious source of funding from Washington would be requesting permission from the FTA to enter its national competitive discretionary Capital Investment Grants Program relating to New Starts and Core Capacity Process. Had the MTA asked this of the FTA? Will this project be included in the next FTA CIG Program report submitted to Congress by March 2023 for federal fiscal year 2024? We will not know if the project is included in the proposed MTA 2025-2044 20-Year Needs Assessment plan until it is released in October 2023.

Riders, transit advocates, taxpayers and elected officials are still waiting for the release of this plan to see if significant improvements to the Port Jefferson Branch project are included. Without completing these tasks, electrification of the Port Jefferson Branch will never become a reality for the foreseeable future.

Larry Penner Great Neck

Not only Santos economical with the truth

In the recently elected 118th United States Congress, the House of Representatives currently consists of 222 Republican members and 212 Democrats [with one open seat]. One of the more noteworthy congressmen is a young man named George Santos, who represents New York’s 3rd Congressional District, here on Long Island, and was elected as a Republican.

During his campaign, Santos found it helpful to “identify” himself with a number of desirable attributes, none of which seem to be based on factual objective reality. For example, he claimed to be a graduate of Baruch College, while his highest level of academic achievement is a GED high school diploma. He claimed to have been employed by Goldman Sachs, although the investment bank has no record of this. He claimed to be of Jewish heritage, although this has turned out to be untrue.

Why would any rational person believe that identifying himself, or herself, as something other than what he, or she, actually is, can lead to a successful political career?

Might he have been thinking about Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-MA], who identified as having Indian ancestry, when she took a DNA test that proved otherwise? Or Sen. Richard Blumenthal [D-CT], who identified as a Vietnam veteran, while he actually never set foot there?

Or perhaps Santos took the time to familiarize himself with the career of our president, Joe Biden [D], who is the master of embellishments. Biden claimed that, when he was young, he drove an 18-wheeler tractor trailer, which is a complete fabrication. He claimed that, in law school, he finished in the top of his class, when he was actually 76th out of 85. He claimed that, after he became vice president, he gave his Uncle Frank a Purple Heart medal that Uncle Frank had earned in World War II. Actually, his uncle had died nine years earlier, and he had never earned a Purple Heart. Biden claimed that he had been arrested in his youth while protesting for civil rights — this never happened. The list goes on and on.

Some individuals, including Republicans, Democrats and voters in New York’s 3rd District, have suggested that it might be a good idea to remove Santos from his congressional seat, and even to prosecute him for financial irregularities.

It is interesting to note that many of these people display their righteous indignation for offenses committed prior to one’s election, and yet show virtually unlimited forbearance for harmful, and even criminal, acts committed by persons actually “serving” in office.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [D] was caught with classified emails on her private server, in clear violation of federal law. Rep. Adam Schiff [D-CA-28] repeatedly lied about having “smoking gun” evidence proving that President Donald Trump [R] had colluded with Russian operatives to throw the 2016 election. Neither of these has been prosecuted, and both continue on their journeys, hopping down the bunny trail to fame and fortune.

If we are going to prosecute people and throw them out of office, let us start with the ones who have done the most harm to our great country.

George Altemose Setauket

Snapshots of life through the decades

Even as we study evolution, we ourselves evolve over time. No, we don’t learn to fly or to breathe underwater.

We change over the decades, in part because of social pressure and in part because, well, our cells, organs and experiences align to make us different decadal versions of ourselves. With that in mind, I’d like to share some snapshots from my life.

Biggest worry: finding parents.

Second decade:

Likes: time with friends, the freedom to drive somewhere on my own (later in the decade, of course).

Dislikes: tough teachers eager to teach me too many lessons, rejections from friends, and too many questions from parents. Waiting for parents to pick me up (until I could drive). Developing an intolerance to dairy, which removed pizza, ice cream and mac and cheese from food options.

Favorite food: Good Steer burger supremes with a root beer and ballpark hot dogs.

those unsuccessful dates still bring a smile to my face.

Favorite food: Thai food at a restaurant on the Upper East Side.

Favorite sport to play: volleyball.

Favorite sport to watch: baseball.

Biggest worry: Finding enough time to exercise. Fourth decade:

Likes: enjoying the miraculous connection that comes from meeting girlfriend/wife. Listening to my wife laugh and seeing her smile. Holding my son and daughter and feeling them relax enough to go to sleep.

water. Hooray for independent swimming.

Dislikes: Driving everywhere with kids and their friends who made the car stink so badly at times that I opened windows in freezing temperatures. Watching kids disappear into their cell phones.

Favorite food: fresh fish on vacations.

Favorite sport to play: I barely played anything. I coached kids and bobbed and weaved between the entitled requests from parents.

Favorite sport to watch: daughter’s volleyball and son’s baseball.

Biggest worry: helping steer kids in the right direction.

Sixth decade:

Favorite sport to play: baseball

Favorite sport to watch: baseball.

Dislikes: trying to figure out how to handle when children got sick, needing something we didn’t have, and packing enough stuff in the diaper bag and the car for needy children.

BY DANIEL DUNAIEF

First decade: Likes: I adored my parents (most of the time). I also appreciated the opportunity to make new friends and to play any game that involved chasing a ball.

Dislikes: long distances running, homework, dark nights, losing electricity, sitting in the middle of a station wagon with my legs cramped under me.

Favorite food: pizza and grilled cheese with ketchup. It’s not for everyone, but I loved it.

Favorite sport to play: basketball.

Favorite sport to watch: baseball.

Biggest worry: Losing parents. Getting into college.

Third decade

Likes: getting a job where someone not only paid me to do something I wasn’t sure I was qualified to do, but also sent me on planes to do it. Spending time with friends. Going on vacations with friends and family.

Dislikes: working on weekends and holidays. Going on horrible dates with people who were a little too eager to see fights where teeth got knocked out during hockey games. Then again, some of

Favorite food: Who tastes food at this point? We inhaled it in between picking up the food the kids spilled on the floor or in the car.

Favorite sport to play: softball in Central Park.

Favorite sport to watch: my daughter’s active and exciting volleyball matches and my son’s soccer games. I knew nothing about soccer, so I could just be a supportive father and fan without offering unwelcome and unhelpful advice.

Biggest worry: How to keep kids healthy. Fifth decade:

Likes: holidays, vacations and not needing to stand over the kids when they got too close to the

Likes: time with family and friends, days when pain in my hip stays the same or, rarely, is less than the day before.

Dislikes: not knowing how to handle important technology, an awareness that I’m older than my friend’s parents were when I was growing up, and I thought they were old.

Favorite food: Anything that doesn’t keep me up at night.

Favorite sport to play: baseball or anything that doesn’t cause pain the next day.

Favorite sport to watch: baseball.

Biggest worry: The speed at which each day, month and year passes. The prevalence of anger for its own sake and the health of the planet our children are inheriting.

“Then give three cheers, and one cheer more, For the hardy Captain of” … no not the Pinafore but publisher of the North Shore Leader. With an appreciative nod to Gilbert & Sullivan, that line well applies to Grant Lally, who warned us of George Santos and his preposterous resume that rivals any tall tale. But unlike HMS Pinafore of 19th century fame for innocent entertainment, Santos may be a peril for our nation.

stole checkbooks from the elderly patients of his late mother, who was a home health care nurse, and forged checks to steal merchandise. And although he claimed to have graduated from prestigious schools, he is a high school dropout who earned a high school equivalency diploma. He portrayed himself as having worked for top line financial institutions. As to being Jewish with grandparents who escaped from the Holocaust, his mother was in fact devoutly Catholic and his grandparents were born in Brazil shortly after WWII began.

two campaigns have received large sums of money from Russian oligarchs close to Putin is cause for real alarm in the U.S. intelligence community.” They are afraid of a potential espionage threat, that he might be a foreign agent. Jim Geraghty, writing in the National Review and quoted by the Leader, offered, “For all we know, some foreign power may have bought itself a congressman. This isn’t outlandish speculation.”

like the thrust of this column to be a celebration of the prowess of what The NYT called, “a small weekly paper on Long Island.” Run by Grant Lally, a Republican lawyer and former House candidate, it did its job of functioning as a people’s watchdog, especially on affairs of government, and reporting courageously on its findings.

BY LEAH S. DUNAIEF

According to the Leader, a weekly community newspaper, and also The New York Times, PBS News Hour and other first line news outlets, newly elected U.S. Congressman George Santos (NY-3) is a deeply concerning fake who has totally falsified his background, assets and contacts, and who is a wanted petty criminal in Brazil. According to that country’s prosecutors, he

Most serious are his financial claims. He said he loaned $700,000 to his campaign from personal wealth that it turns out he doesn’t have. Lying on a resume is not a crime, but lying on federal financial disclosures is, with each violation bringing a possible five years in federal prison. So where, exactly, did that large money helping him get elected come from?

A recent report in The Daily Beast, according to the Leader, showed that Santos took $56,000 from a Russian money man, a cousin of a Vladimir Putin crony, who is under international sanctions. According to the Leader, “the fact that [Santos’s]

At this point, you, the reader, are probably asking yourself how it could happen that Santos wasn’t discovered far sooner by both Republicans and Democrats. According to an extensive lead article in this past Sunday’s The New York Times, he was. Republicans at several levels knew about the problem but did nothing to unmask the candidate for various reasons: inattention, underappreciated risks, otherwise distracted by the issues rather than the biographies, the promise of another GOP vote in the House, and other speculations. And some Dems knew, too, but were distracted or underestimated the threat Santos’s campaign posed.

Rather than go deeper into this issue, I would

“The paper published a pair of articles casting doubt on Mr. Santos’s claims that he owned extravagant cars and homes, and labeling him a ‘fabulist—a fake’, though it did not have other specifics that would later come out about his falsified resume or his past,” wrote The NYT on Sunday. “None of the bigger outlets, including The Times, followed up with extensive stories examining his real address or his campaign’s questionable spending, focusing their coverage instead on Mr. Santos’s extreme policy views and the historic nature of a race between two openly gay candidates,” The NYT continued.

Never underestimate a weekly hometown newspaper. Indeed, four cheers.

{Santos represents the 3rd Congressional District, which includes the Towns of Oyster Bay and North Hempstead and a small portion of northeast Queens.}

D. None of the above

RAISING THE BAR ON HEART CARE FOR OUR COMMUNITY

Mather Hospital, part of Northwell Health, has evolved to meet your needs by opening a state-ofthe-art cardiac catheterization lab. It’s lifesaving heart care you and your family can count on— available right here in your community.

Matherhospital.org/YourHeart