Gabriella Carucci Student At SHSW Named A LI Arts Alliance Scholar-Artist

HSW Student Named Scholar-Artist

Smithtown High School West student Gabriella CarucciGabriella Carucci, a student at Smithtown Central School District High School West, has been named one of 20 Long Island Arts Alliance Scholar-Artists for the 2015-2016 school year. 

The Long Island Scholar-Artists program recognizes students who excel academically and in the areas of music, music, visual arts, dance, theater or media arts. More than 150 students from public, private and parochial Long Island schools submit their best work.

Gabriella, who was chosen in the area of theater arts, will be recognized on Sept. 9 at an event at Half Hollow Hills High School in addition to an end of year reception at the Tilles Center at LIU Post. Gabriella’s profile and photo will also be published in Newsday. 

This is only the second time a student from the Smithtown Central School District has been chosen for this honor in the area of theater arts. Beyond their outstanding performance, students must have a near perfect GPA.

Photo courtesy of the Smithtown Central School District

OP-ED - Celebrate Women's Equality Day

By Larry Vetter

The 19th Amendment of the US Constitution is ratified granting women the right to vote. Celebrate Women’s Equality Day.

This year, women’s equality day is celebrated on August 26. It is somewhat amazing to think that women have only been able to vote in the United States for less than 100 years. August 18, 1920 was the culmination of what began in 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY. Essentially it took 72 years of protests and hard work to achieve this goal. Most of the women who began the struggle in 1848 never lived to see the results.

Obviously the right to vote was cherished by all citizens. Think of the struggle various groups fought and the numbers of Americans killed and injured in wars to achieve that right and to get to where we are today. Let’s now fast forward to 2015 Smithtown.

We have roughly 100,000 US citizens living in Smithtown of voting age. Of that number only about 82,000 are registered to vote. That means that 18,000 people don’t exist on voter rolls to begin with. Out of the 82,000 registered, roughly 18,000 per year vote in Smithtown whether it is a presidential year or simply local elections. Out of that group, roughly 12,000 votes are the same year after year with a straight across the line vote regardless of who is running. Therefore, those 12,000 people have been dictating how 100,000 voter-aged people’s town is run, money is spent and how we live our lives. To sum up, 18 to 19% of those eligible, vote each year. Those are the types of numbers reflected in disenfranchised areas such as poverty or crime-ridden districts where the populace feels the government has failed them. Smithtown is neither a poverty stricken nor a high crime area. So the question is “Why?”

There are several theories as to this phenomenon with the top being that a typical voter feels that their vote is meaningless. There may be some truth to that statement but the typical excuse I hear runs more along the lines of, “it was raining on election day”, “it was too cold”, or “I worked late and had to get home to the kids”.

Is it possible that maybe everyone is just tired of the annual “reality show” circus surrounding our politics? Instead of being a time to put our best foot forward, election season has become a time of airing out dirty laundry, slander and endless childish insults. It is well past time to take our government out of the hands of the people that treat it like a candy store, and elect individuals that can perform with skill and integrity and accomplish the jobs they were elected to do. Don’t we owe that to our children for whom we are to be role models and don’t we owe that to Susan B. Anthony for whom the 19th amendment is named.

Larry Vetter is the 2015 Democratic candidate for Smithtown Town Council

Nesconset Homeowners Receive New Septic System From Suffolk County

By Linda Allocco

Photos by Linda Allocco (click on photos to enlarge)

County Executive Bellone -“This is a small part of what we need to do”On Thursday, August 20th, County Executive Steve Bellone, along with various Suffolk County officials and regional environmentalists, attended the installation of an advanced onsite septic system at the Nesconset home of one of Suffolk County’s Septic System Lottery winners.

In October of 2014, County Executive Bellone announced 19 Suffolk County homeowners would receive free installation, six month monitoring and five year maintenance of an advanced wastewater treatment system. According to Bellone, this pilot program is part of the County’s attempt to stem the high concentration of nitrogen that threatens Long Island’s drinking water.

Out of 137 applications, 53 homes met the requisite qualifications. In December of 2014, lawmakers at the Suffolk County Legislature pulled the names of 19 winners. Jim and Donna Minet of Nesconset were one of those chosen to participate in this program.

The Hydro-Action system installed at the Minet’s home uses an extended aeration activated sludge process wherein microorganisms which treat wastewater remain in the treatment process for more than 24 hours.

“The County wants to thank Jim and Donna for participating in a program that is vitally important for our County’s future,” Bellone stated.

Referring to the $383 million in funding Suffolk County has received from New York State and the federal government for proposed County sewer projects, Bellone explained that although the County hasn’t seen this kind of money in 40 years, there is much more work that needs to be done. 

“This is a small part of what we need to do,” Bellone said. “We won’t tolerate the decline of our water quality. This problem won’t be solved overnight and I expect future administrations to be just as committed to it.”

In Suffolk County, about 360,000 residents rely on septic systems. That is roughly seventy four percent of Suffolk households.

Bellone remarked, “Sewers aren’t enough. We need a compressive way to look at other means to figure this out, like this one,” referring to the Minet’s new advanced wastewater treatment system.

Attending the Thursday morning press conference, along with the County Executive and the Minet family, were Suffolk County Legislator Leslie Kennedy, Suffolk County Water Quality Czar Peter Scully, Suffolk County Director of Planning Sarah Lansdale, Suffolk County Director, Division of Environmental Quality, Health Services Walt Dawydiak, Suffolk County Public Works Special Projects Supervisor Boris Rukovets, Business Development Manager of Hydro Action Pete Sabo, Executive Director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment Adrienne Esposito, marine scientist Chris Clapp from the Nature Conservancy, and member of the Suffolk County Council on Environmental Quality Mike Kaufman.

Extolling the program, Legislator Kennedy, referring to Long Island’s sole source aquifer, stated, “What we put in, we run the risk of drinking.”

Suffolk County Water Quality Czar Peter Scully “We are in it for the long haul”According to Suffolk County Water Quality Czar Peter Scully, “This is long journey where every step is an important step forward. We are in it for the long haul.”

Echoing the sentiment of everyone in attendance, homeowner Jim Minet expressed excitement about the program. “We are raising two children on Long Island and we are concerned about their future.” 

Although the size of the septic system surprised Minet, he concluded it is a small price to pay to help improve Long Island’s water quality.

According to Pete Sabo, Business Development Manager of Hydro Action, at the end of the pilot program, Suffolk County will be in a better position to provide guidelines and approve nitrogen-reducing systems for use in homes all across the county.

Book Review - "Little Beasts"

BOOK REVIEW

‘Little Beasts’ – Matthew McGevna - 286 pages – Akashic Books - Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur

There’s no questioning that Long Island’s Matthew McGevna is an excellent writer, maybe even an inspired one … but so is my cousin Chesley. The difference is that Chesley makes no claim to being a novelist.

When a writer enters into a compact with readers who have invested a small amount of money, but more significantly, eight or ten hours of their valuable time, in return for a well-told fiction, the least the author can do is provide a tale that fits the genre’s general description. In ‘Little Beasts,’ based on the notorious Pius murder in Smithtown, McGevna lives up to the deal only fifty percent of the time … strangely, in the second half of the book.

This is particularly unfortunate, because one can envision crowds of eager, but soon-to-be-disillusioned readers, immersing themselves in Matthew McGevna’s promising imagery when, on the very first page they read: ‘This is the town of Turnbull…The smell of salt from the ocean to the south is faint in the hot air…’

“Aha!” We say, “Smithtown’s been re-named Turnbull, and transported to the author’s native South Shore.” Perhaps it’s just as well. North Shore residents … and especially we sometimes provincial inhabitants of Smithtown … don’t appreciate being reminded that one of the most brutal crimes in the annals of juvenile homicide was committed right down the street. Let the stigma fall on the likes of a thinly disguised Mastic Beach (where the gifted McGevna was born and raised) … ‘a stretch of land on the south shore of Long Island that juts out into the Great South Bay like a sore thumb, has one road in, one road out.’

But alas, these compelling descriptions prove only to be teasers. Though the well-crafted poetic pictures and metaphors fill 150-or-so pages, and taken individually are pleasing … in the aggregate they produce disturbing repetition that ultimately leads to that most disastrous of literary afflictions … boredom.

I tried to find some justification for the author’s flirting with this paradox … because Matthew McGevna is such a promising young poet. Perhaps, I thought, these irritating vignettes having to do with peer pressure and teenage angst, are clever devices, intended to annoy us. ‘Little Beasts’ is an annoying story, after all. But such rationalization has its limits … and one soon runs out of excuses for McGevna’s psychological reiterations.

One of the problems associated with the re-telling of a story whose outcome is a matter of public record, is that even when fictionalized it can hardly be made fresh. It’s the reason Shakespeare is offered in so many vastly different interpretations. Nobody ever passed on a promising production of ‘Hamlet’ because ‘…I’ve already seen it.’

But there are only so many variations on a theme wherein a child is suffocated by being force fed with rocks! … and perhaps that’s why McGevna wears us out with so much run-on psycho-baloney about the commission of the crime. Maybe he’s trying to re-invent it.

It doesn’t work.

What does succeed, though … to near perfection … is the account of one defendant’s experiences during the Pius murder trial. That event occupies the last one-third of ‘Little Beasts,’ and more than qualifies as a novella in its own right. Modern murder trials are so comprehensive in describing the crimes they address, that the entire narrative, which occupies so many early pages of this book, could have been eliminated and left to testimony delivered in the courtroom.

Perhaps the classically-trained and capable Matthew McGevna will one day reward his admirers (among whose ranks I now count myself) with such a trimmed-down version of this gripping story.

Again, he certainly is blessed with all the necessary skills.

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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of ten novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. Ladouceur’s newest thriller THE QUANTUM SYNDROME is patterned on the Atlanta child murders of the 80s and is set on Eastern Long Island. His next novel is titled “THE SEQUEL.” It will explore the odd relationship between Harper Lee and Truman Capote. The Website is www.Jebsbooks.com.

A $9 Minimum Wage For Town Employees? Not Today Says Councilwoman Nowick

archived photo of Councilman CreightonCouncilman Robert Creighton’s proposal for a $9 per hour minimum wage for town employees never even came to a vote at the August 11th Town Board meeting. The resolution was seconded by Councilman Wehrheim and as the vote began, Counciwoman Nowick moved to table the resolution. The five member Town Board agreed, including Mr. Creighton.

In a meeting in his office, Cerighton expressed disappointment and resolve. The disappointment was directed at Councilwoman Nowick, who Mr. Creighton said had supported the idea in discussions. The disappointment was for the young people who work as seasonal help who make below New York State’s $8.75 minimum wage.  Municipalities are exempt from paying minimum wage.

Councilman Creighton acknowledged that his proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour would not impact the 2015 seasonal employees. His resolution would become effective in 2016. He also acknowledged that the number of employees affected is small. His resolution was a reaction to his awareness that there was a disparity in the per hour salaries seasonal employees were being paid and how much a wage hike would mean to them. Some seasonal employees have been hired for $8 and others were being paid as much as $15 an hour.  “Honest to God, I believe the kids deserve the $9 per hour minimum wage.” said Creighton. Also in his mind was the $30,000 salary increase for Councilman/Deputy Supervisor Tom McCarthy, and the thousands given to Department heads.

Before making the proposal, Creighton checked with Town Comptroller Donald Musgnug and learned that a minimum wage of $9 for the approximately 150 seasonal hires would cost the town $7,000 less than Councilman McCarthy’s salary 2015 salary bump. The cost to the town for the $9 per hour minimum wage would run $23,000. “This seemed to be the appropriate time. If the resolution passed it would allow the Supervisor to include it in the 2016 Town Budget.” said Creighton.

“Really”, said Supervisor Vecchio. “A minimum wage when most of our employees make much more than that. Mr. Creighton is making a political decision. He is pandering to the families of the kids who work as seasonal help. We are facing a serious challenge in our 2016 budget. To keep within NYS’s  2% cap we are allowed a 0.73 percent increase. That doesn’t cover the increase pension and health care costs.” 

Mr. Creighton pointed to Newsday’s August 16 article by Lauren R. Harrison, “In the article the Supervisor said I am pandering for votes and playing politics. That’s unbelievable. Vecchio calling me a panderer? Everyone knows that Patrick Vecchio is the ‘King of Panderers’.” 

Councilman Creighton pledged to reintroduce the resolution and hopes to see it on the agenda as early as September 8. As of Wednesday, August 19 the resolution was still not in the system.