Trotta Calls Out Dems For Extending Contract For Red Light Technology

By Stacey Altherr

The waiver committee of the Suffolk County Legislature extended for one year a contract for the company that provides the red light camera technology.

The waiver allows the county to bypass the Request For Proposal (RFP) process that requires any contract over $25,000 to be put out to bid.  The agenda item originally called for a two- to three-year extension.

The waiver committee, two chosen by the county executive and the other by the presiding officer, decides if the RFP process can be waived in cases of emergency or time constraints.

But Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta (R-Smithtown) protested the committee’s decision, saying before the meeting, that the contract with the company Conduent Inc. is not expired until the end of the year, and the county often “makes it an emergency” by waiting too long to ask for bids. All seven Republican legislators, under its Minority Leader Legislator Tom Cilmi, sent a letter saying the red light program should come to an end.

“It’s a shame that Tom Cilmi and the minority caucus are once again playing politics with public safety,” said Jason Elan, spokesperson for Suffolk County.

The red light technology has had its critics since its inception in 2003.  Installed as a way to catch drivers running red lights, or not stopping lawfully while making a “right on red” turn, Trotta contends that the program has increased accidents in many spots where they are located, in some cases more than 700 percent, and is only a way for the county to make money.

Trotta also notes that the contract is currently under a state investigation as to whether a licensed engineer inspected and signed off on all the traffic control devices, as required by law.

In February, a bill passed by the legislature would have added another legislator on the board from the opposing party, and require a super majority vote to override the RFP requirement. The bill was vetoed by County Executive Steve Bellone and failed to get the required two-thirds vote to override the veto.

Stacey Altherr is a former Newsday reporter now living in Sarsasota, Florida. Her beats included Smithtown, where she covered governmental affairs.  She now runs a café in Longboat Key near her home and writes freelance. Altherr has won many awards, including a 2010 Society of Silurian Award for community service journalism for a multi-part series, “Heroin Hits Main Street,” and a third-place National Headliner Award for public service for a multi-part year-long investigation on spending at fire districts on Long Island.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Time To Think The Impossible Life Without Plastic

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

I’ve been focusing in recent times on plastic—and I’ve not been alone. Media have been doing extensive reporting on the mess being made to the environment by plastic, especially the marine environment and the life in it.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis, who with his “Encyclical on the Environment” in 2015 established himself as highly knowledgeable about the scourge of environmental pollution that has befallen the Earth, and committed to action to try to undo the mess, is now zeroing in on plastic.

“We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic,” said the pope last month. “We need to pray as if everything depended on God’s providence, and work as if everything depended on us.”

The “Sunday Morning” show of CBS-TV in August had a remarkable segment, a “cover story”—its main feature—titled “Piling up: Drowning in a sea of plastic.” 

It began with technology reporter David Pogue declaring: “In the 1950s, a new material burst onto the scene that would change the world forever. Cheap, durable, sanitary, strong, and light…After 65 years of making plastic, we’ve pretty much mastered the art. What we haven’t yet figured out is what to do with plastic once we’re done with it.”

He interviews Roland Geyer, professor of environmental science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who says of plastic: “It lasts a really long time. It doesn’t biodegrade. So, it just sits there…We have statistics reaching all the way back to the dawn of plastic mass production, 1950. And if we add it all together, it’s 8.3 billion metric tons. So, if we take that and spread it out evenly over California, the entire state of California would be covered. And that would be an ugly sight.” Plastic—knee-deep.

They speak about plastic in oceans. “Every single year, somewhere between 5 and 12 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the ocean,” says Dr. Geyer. “Plastic in the ocean has a tendency to break down into other smaller pieces. And these tiny pieces then get taken up even lower down in the food chain. So, we know that it ends up on our dinner plates.”

“Wait a minute – there’s plastic in my food?” asks Mr. Pogue. 

“There is plastic in your food. Plastic in your sea salt. And there is plastic coming out of your tap,” responds Professor Geyer. 

“In fact, at this rate, the World Economic Forum predicts that by 2050, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish,” says Mr. Pogue, a calculation we wrote about here this summer.

As to the recycling of plastic—the big pitch by the plastic industry to somehow claim plastic is a sustainable product—Dr. Geyer says that as of 2017 the world recycled only about 9 percent of all plastic. 

And “even if you’re good about using your recycling bin, your plastic may never actually get recycled,” says Mr. Pogue. On a visit to a plastic recycling facility in New Jersey, he says, “For 30 years, we’ve had an easy solution for disposing of that dirty plastic: Send it to China.” 

Samil Bagaria, cofounder of GDB International, the company that owns the facility, says: “China was buying 50 percent of all graded plastic scrap in the world. Now that continued for, say, 20, 30 years.  And then there was I think a movie made by somebody, ‘Plastic China.’” 

The 2017 documentary “illustrated the brutal truth about the contaminated plastic that developed nations were selling to China,” says Mr. Pogue. “It showed a desperately poor Chinese family eking out a living by hand-sorting these mountains of plastic trash.” Out of “national pride,” China decided “we don’t want to be the world’s dumping grounds,” he notes.  “So the Chinese government announced a new policy. Starting on January 1 of this year, China stopped accepting other countries’ plastic unless it is impossibly pure.”

Clay Warner, recycling manager at Garten Services in Salem, Oregon, says that now “we…have large volumes of the types of plastic that nobody will buy, sitting, waiting for somebody to buy them. And then you have to decide how long you’re gonna hold on to it before you end up throwing it away.” 

Mr. Warner comments that, “I do think, in my own opinion, that we do need to ban certain plastics and packaging.” Mr. Bagaria says: “We cannot imagine life without plastics. But we cannot continue to lead our life the way we are.  It’s not like, ‘Oh, let’s use this planet Earth, then we will move to another planet.’ No, this is what we have. We need to take care of this.” 

Yes, this earth is where we live. And, as Pope Francis said, we must fight the “emergency” of pollution by plastic and save the “marvelous…great waters” and life in them.

Suffolk County has taken actions. It has restricted the distribution of single-use plastic bags—and we’ve learned to live with that. It’s begun a voluntary program to get restaurants to switch to non-plastic straws. I was given a paper straw for a drink last week and it worked fine. Early-on, Suffolk banned the mass release of helium-filled plastic balloons. But that’s been only a start in which New York State, the nation and world must join together.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.  

Theater Review - 'Man of LaMancha'

Theater Review – ‘Man of LaMancha’

Produced by Engeman Theater – Northport

Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur

  Don Quixote – by Pablo Picasso

When I heard recently that Senator John McCain had decided to suspend the medical treatments that were keeping him alive … and that he had already planned every detail of his incipient funeral, including the music that he felt would best eulogize him … my first thought centered on ‘The Impossible Dream,’ from Man of La Mancha. That’s how iconic the anthem to perseverance has become for me.

As things turned out, we all now know, McCain chose to be extolled with a recorded Frank Sinatra rendition of ‘My Way,’ the stirring ballad of autobiographical praise written by Paul Anka. I remember wondering as Sinatra’s voice filled the church during the Arizona Senator’s memorial service, how much more enobling the affair might have been had the classic La Mancha ode to courage been McCain’s choice.

But there is an ancient Roman expression (“de mortuis nil nisi bonum”) which literally translated means “Let nothing be said of the dead but what is good.” Fair enough. It was, after all, John’s funeral, and if he was comfortable with the ringing tributes of ‘My Way’ and somewhat curiously, ‘Danny Boy,’ so be it.

Still, as I attended the opening of ‘Man of La Mancha’ at Northport’s lush Engeman Theatre last Saturday, and ‘The Impossible Dream’ was performed (magnificently, I must say) my mind wandered back to the Capitol Rotunda and the National Cathedral, where a courageous John McCain’s flag-draped coffin had been attended so honorably by members of the military. For those sad hours, I concluded internally that ‘The Impossible Dream’ was indeed John’s song.

But putting sentiment aside, it should be noted that musically … musically, mind you … Man of La Mancha is a sort of one-trick-pony. When the play’s unforgettable anthem isn’t being belted out by the production’s star, Richard Todd Adams, the other numbers frankly pale to near-insignificance by comparison. This is not as fatal as the observation might lead one to believe, however. For it’s during these musical lulls that Miguel de Cervantes’ immortal Don Quixote story line takes over and makes the adaption the memorable piece of theater it has become.

When it was introduced on the Broadway stage in 1965, not surprisingly, the heart-warming tale of a knight who sets out to restore gallantry to mankind, won Tony Awards for both Best Musical and Best Musical Score. The production moved to a number of playhouses on the Great White Way before making its final 2,328^th performance at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1971.

An interesting aside involves the iconic Rex Harrison who, having earned innumerable plaudits starring in My Fair Lady, was seriously considered for the Don Quixote role when Man of La Mancha was testing the theatrical waters in Connecticut. Unfortunately for Harrison, the musical demands of the score proved too much for poor Henry Higgins’ vocal range … and Richard Kiley wound up in the difficult role.

Performing in Northport with leading man Richard Adams are Broadway veterans Janet Dacal (she plays a peppery Aldonza) and Carlos Lopez (as the Don’s little sidekick, Sancho Panza). Both stars bring memorable performances worthy of Northport’s renowned theater … no small accomplishment when one considers the height at which Engeman invariably sets the bar for its featured artists. For example, the great Phyllis March plays the strong, opinionated Housekeeper to absolute perfection. She delivers her somewhat lesser role so artfully that we can’t take our eyes off of her. Aspiring actors would do well to study Ms. March’s technique.

This dream of a show runs thru Sunday, October 28. If I were a school teacher, I’d give extra credit to any student who brought me a Man of La Mancha ticket stub … and of course, an apple.

Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His recent hit, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s newly completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, was introduced recently at the Smithtown Library. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com 

St. James Bicyclist Suffers Serious Injuries In MV Crash At Moriches Rd

Suffolk County Police Fourth Squad detectives are investigating a motor vehicle crash that seriously injured a bicyclist in St. James today.

Nicholas McMahan was riding his bicycle eastbound on 5^th Street when he collided with a 2018 Toyota 4-Runner, driven by a 47-year-old Setauket woman, at the intersection with Moriches Road at 6:43 p.m.

McMahan, 22, of St. James, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment of serious injuries. Neither the driver of the Toyota nor her female passenger was injured. 

The Toyota was impounded for a safety check. Detectives are asking anyone with information on this crash to call the Fourth Squad at 631-854-8452.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - "Let's Not Hit The Snooze Button"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“The press keeps reporting that Florida’s red tide is a ‘naturally occurring phenomenon.’ This is wrong,” declared Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, on Facebook. “The hundred miles of dangerous red tide is caused by too much nitrogen!”

“Take heed Long Island. This is a wake-up call,” said Ms. Esposito, whose environmental organization is based in Farmingdale. “Let’s not hit the snooze button.”

What are the connections between the algal blooms that have been striking Long Island and those that are devastating much of Florida’s waters?

 “The issues are similar in that they are all harmful algal blooms that harm marine life,” says Dr. Christopher J. Gobler, chair of coastal ecology and conservation at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. “What we have now [in Long Island waters] is NOT toxic to humans, whereas the Florida one is,” he responds via email to our inquiry. “However, the one we get in spring—referring to the Alexandrium algae that produces lethal saxitoxin—“is toxic to humans, as are the blue-green algae blooms in lakes and ponds.”

Thus, there’s a link in terms of the algal blooms in both areas harming marine life and blooms in Florida and also some of the blooms here being deadly to humans.

“Our blooms are very strongly linked to nitrogen loading from land and occur in inland waters, estuaries,” Dr. Gobler continues. Many of the “Florida events” began “more innocently in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico” to then be “transported to near-shore regions where nutrients make them more intense.”

Kevin McAllister, founding president of Sag Harbor-based Defend H20 and a native of Center Moriches who for 15 years worked as a marine scientist in Florida, focuses on the Kissimmee River that “flows south to Lake Okeechobee. The lake, a shallow waterbody, would spill over to the south serving as the freshwater head to the Everglades.” But “historically it was a meandering river straddled by thousands of acres of freshwater marsh—natural biofilters of nitrogen, phosphorus, sediments and other pollutants.”  

“In the late 1960’s the Army Corps of Engineers canalized the Kissimmee for flood control” allowing for more agricultural uses. “In addition, Lake O. was diked to control water flow to the south. What the canalization did was negate the benefits of marsh filtration…Pollutants from agricultural activities were discharged directly to Lake O. When water levels in Lake O. are high, the canal gates are opened to dump water into the Indian River Lagoon and the Gulf.”

“The activities of Big Sugar”—sugar agriculture—produce water “laden with nutrients and other pollutants. Because South Florida, with its network of canals, dikes and water control structures has transformed into a geographical plumbing works to accommodate suburban sprawl and agricultural interests, the ramifications to water quality are profound.”

The “current situation” in Florida was “set in motion” by Lake Okeechobee “bursting at the seams” during an “extremely wet June. An enormous volume of nutrient-laden lake water was dumped to the coast.”

As to the connection to Long Island, “While excessive nitrogen directed to marine waters may be the fuel, the sources and means of conveyance are different. What I have come to believe seeing the explosion of harmful algal blooms locally and up and down the East Coast within the past 10 years is that climate change is a greater factor. It’s too coincidental for virtually every pond and embayment on Long Island to experience algal blooms within the same time period. The development scenarios surrounding waterbodies are not the same, yet the algal blooms are now omnipresent everywhere,” says Mr. McAllister. 

It’s somewhat complex. But there are strong parallels: nutrients—especially nitrogen—the key to the situations in Florida and here. Climate change—the heating of waterways—creates a soup in which algal blooms explode.

Another parallel: both areas are tourist meccas. Hotel bookings in parts of the Sunshine State are down precipitously. There’s been a substantial economic impact. Who would want to vacation at a hotel or a Florida home amidst the slime. 

Meanwhile, Newsday has just reported that “tourists spent $5.9 billion on Long Island in 2017, up 4 percent over 2016,” and there was this quote: “’Tourism on Long Island has been on an upward trajectory for the past several years,’ said Kristen Jarnagin, CEO of Discover Long Island.” How long will that influx annually of billions of dollars—important to the Long Island economy—last if the algal blooms that have struck our waters continue and increase? 

Needed in Florida and here is action—informed, wise and strong—to deal with situations that threaten the marine environments and economies of both places.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.