Trending - Buy Books From Local Authors Smithtown Library's Local Author Fair

 By p.biancaniello

Authors presenting at the Smithtown Library’s Local Author Book Fair. L-R Claudia Reiss, Marilyn Fierro, John Merenda, Debby Peoples, Jim Ryan (back), Paula Klee Parish, Sara Ronan, Ralph Brady (back), Ann Agueli.

Buy local, shop at farmers markets, and farm to table are trends that help local farmers and businesses. A new trend people may want to consider is buying books written by local authors.

The Smithtown Library hosted a Local Author Fair on Saturday. Nine authors: Claudia Reiss Marilyn Fierro, John Merenda, Debby Peoples, Jim Ryan, Paula Klee Parish, Sara Ronan, Ralph Brady and Ann Agueli shared their stories and in the process shared a little of themselves. Smithtown was well represented by Kings Park resident Marilyn Fierro and St. James resident Paula Klee Parish. 

Three of the authors, Ann Agueli (When God Nods and Joy-Full Journaling for the Caregiver’s Spirit, Transformational Journaling for Mind, Body and Spirit),  Paula Klee Parish ( The Journey to Be Your Own Best Friend: How to Discover Your Power Within) and Jim Ryan (Simple Happiness) presented their inspirational and empowering self help books. 

Sara Ronan’s first book (The Price of a Passport)  is a personal account of her parents leaving Poland emigrating to Israel. Claudia Reiss’ (Stolen Light, Semblance of Guilt) two novels deal with female exploration and freedom of expression. Marilyn Fierro’s ( The Limitless Spirit of Martial Arts) book deals with her journey mastering karate becoming a black belt with international recognition and finding spirituality in the martial art.

Ralph Brady (Landmarks and Historic Sites of Long Island, Borrowed Times)  and John Merenda (The Soviet Network, Straight to the White House)  have written historical novels. Debbie Peoples’ (Hollow State) novel takes place in in 2024 with flashbacks from events occuring in the 1930’s. 

This was the  Smithtown Library’s second Local Author Book Fair. It is the brainchild of Adult Services Librarian Lauren Scottaline. The MC for the event was Gina Ferreira. The Library hosts numerous programs that are open to the public that are informative and free. The Local Author Book Fair was a wonderful opportunity to meet creative people who have a story to tell and the passion, fortitude and the bravery to put it out there for all of us to see and enjoy.  The nine authors were approachable and very willing to share their writing experiences and provide some advice. 

Buying books from local authors may be something you may want to consider for yourself or for gift giving during the holiday season, it may also be a trend that you embrace.

 * I plan to  read all the books presented at the book fair. Currently I am half way through and mesmarized by Debby Peoples Hollow State. Pat Biancaniello

LI Commission For Aquifer Protection Invites Comments On Groundwater Resources Management Plan

LICAP Announces Public Hearing Dates

Draft Groundwater Resources Management Plan now available for public review at LIAquiferCommission.com

The Long Island Commission for Aquifer Protection (LICAP) recently released its draft Groundwater Resources Management Plan, and is seeking to elicit feedback on the document during a series of public hearings.

A schedule of hearings is as follows:

Hauppauge-

Mineola-

Riverhead-

November 30th
3:00-5:00 PM, evening hearing begins at 6:00 PM William J. Lindsay County Complex,
W.H. Rogers Legislature Building, Building #20,
725 Veterans Memorial Highway, Smithtown, NY 11787.

December 5th
3:00-5:00 PM, evening hearing begins at 6:00 PM

Peter J. Schmitt Memorial Legislative Chamber, 1st Floor, Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building, 1550 Franklin Avenue, Mineola, NY 11501.

December 6th
6:00-8:00 PM
Evans K. Griffing Building,
423 Griffing Avenue, Riverhead, NY 11901

The 236 page plan is available for the public’s review at LIAquiferCommission.com. At the start of each public hearing, Steven Colabufo, a Water Resources Manager with Suffolk County Water Authority, will give a presentation summarizing the contents of the Plan, with public

comment immediately following the presentation.

The Groundwater Resource Management Plan, written and compiled by the members of LICAP, includes qualitative and quantitative groundwater data, outlines anthropogenic threats to groundwater, discusses existing regulatory groundwater management regimes, assesses the adequacy of existing groundwater management regulations, and most importantly develops actionable recommendations for legislative bodies.

Public comment on the plan will also be accepted in writing through Friday, December 8th. Written submissions may be mailed to LICAP, Attn: Seth Wallach, 4060 Sunrise Highway, Oakdale NY, 11769 or emailed to LICAP@SCWA.com.

The nine-member LICAP Board is expected to approve the finalized plan at the organization’s next general meeting on December 13 at the Suffolk County Water Authority Education Center located at 260 Motor Parkway in Hauppauge beginning at 10 a.m. All LICAP general meetings are open to the public.

LICAP is a bi-county entity created in 2013 through a joint resolution by the Nassau and Suffolk County Legislatures to address both quality and quantity issues facing Long Island’s aquifer system, and to advocate for a coordinated, regional approach to groundwater resources management. For more information about LICAP or the Groundwater Resources Management Plan, visit LIAquiferCommission.com.

Book Review - SOUL SONGS

“Soul Songs” - by Mili San

56 Pages – Outskirts Press

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

It isn’t often that an Arts Critic is choked-up (as they say) by the inspirational nature of a play, or book, that we are assigned to review. Those of us who have been engaged in this business for a number of years usually have, it’s become apparent to me, gotten rather blasé about the dramas and musicals we see … and especially the books we read.

I say ‘especially the books’ because, being reviewers, we are essentially writers ourselves. We must regularly prepare critiques for a public that expects our prose to be journalistically proper, and suitably descriptive of the production or volume under consideration. And when our reviews miss the mark, we hear about it—believe me.

Accordingly, book critics take an almost competitive (though hopefully not combative) approach to our assignment when picking up a book given us to absorb, then review. It’s almost as if (when doing so) we hold the subject authors to a higher standard than we would set for ourselves. In a real sense, we’re highly protective of our vocation.

This is understandable to most people, I imagine … it’s human nature, after all, to put one’s best literary foot forward when joining the company of other writers. We all, (particularly those of us who have authored books) are keenly aware that no work is ever truly completed until it’s read … and we do have some influence in that regard.

That said, I have recently been assigned to review a slim volume consisting of nine emotional essays and ten equally poignant poems. In these nineteen inspiring pieces, it’s almost as if the author is intent on displaying her literary versatility … such is the control over our heartstrings that she exercises with both genres.

Mili San’s obvious memoirs range from the brutal in her crushing DIFFERENT, NOT DANGEROUS: 

I instantly recoiled at the picture of a woman sobbing…a garland of two small decapitated heads around her neck.

To the tender, poetic expressions in BELOVED: 

I found me 

When I found you…

You fill all my dark places.

English is Mili San’s second language, and in some places one detects it. Her use of rhyme is occasionally less effective than the free verse that marks most of the book’s poems. But even so, I found only one instance of punctuation (in an essay) that I would have changed, such is this gifted woman’s impressive mastery of her working English vocabulary.

Above all, San is a writer whose boundless love of those who share her world, ranks her among the truly compassionate literary artists of our time. Her fine little book, ‘Soul Songs’ is appropriately titled indeed.

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 at the Smithtown Library on May 21st. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com

Police Make Two Arrests In Kings Park For Selling Alcohol To Minors

Suffolk County Police have arrested two people during a month long investigation at businesses located within the Fourth Precinct.

Fourth Precinct Crime Section officers conducted an investigation into the sale of alcohol to minors during which nine businesses were checked for compliance with the law.

The following clerks were arrested and charged with Unlawfully Dealing with a Minor 1st Degree after they sold alcohol to a minor.

• Thomas Watson, 22, of Northport, employed at Speedway gas station, located at 152 East Northport Road, Kings Park
• A 16 year-old male juvenile, employed at BP gas station located at 94 Pulaski Road, Kings Park.

 The following establishments were in compliance:

• Shell gas station, located at 700 Commack Road, Commack
• BP gas station, located at 621 Commack Road, Commack
• Citgo gas station, located at 100 Crooked Hill Road, Commack
• Speedway gas station, located at 2104 Jericho Turnpike, Commack
• Speedway gas station, located at 38 Indian Head Road, Kings Park
• Mobil gas station, located at 819 W. Jericho Turnpike, Smithtown
• BP gas station, located at 1007 W. Jericho Turnpike, Smithtown

Watson and the juvenile were issued Field Appearance Tickets and are scheduled to appear in First District Court in Central Islip on January 2, 2018. The State Liquor Authority is conducting a follow up investigation.

A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Women Breakthrough In 2017 Elections

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

In Suffolk County, as all over the United States, last week’s election saw great victories for women, and let me note—highly qualified women, to enter government. There were many breakthroughs.

Laura Jens-Smith, for example, was elected supervisor of the Town of Riverhead—the first woman to be elected supervisor of Riverhead since the town was founded 225 years ago! 

Through the centuries, only six women have ever been elected to the Riverhead Town Board. Winning with Ms. Jens-Smith last week to take a seat on the Town Board was Catherine Kent.  Ms. Jen-Smith is president of the Mattituck-Cutchogue Board of Education and a project director with the North Fork Alliance which combats substance abuse among area youngsters.  Ms. Kent for 31 years was a teacher in Riverhead.

In the Town of Southampton, Ann Welker was elected to the Southampton Board of Trustees—the first woman to become a Southampton Trustee since establishment of the panel in 1686. Yes, 331 years ago!

The Southampton Trustees predates the United States and was created by the royal Dongan Patent. It is one of the oldest governing bodies in North America. The Trustees serve as stewards for the more than 25,000 acres of bay bottoms, shorelines, waterways and marshes for the “freeholders and commonality” of the Town of Southampton.

Ms. Welker studied animal science at Cornell, has a graduate degree in business from Adelphi and has spent years teaching swimming including ocean swimming, paddleboarding and water safety to youngsters and adults.  

“I share my love for, respect of, and appreciation for our fragile marine environments and therefore create awareness and hopefully engagement with the environment on behalf of my students,” she noted during the campaign. She’s also a volunteer with the Eastern Long Island Chapter of Surfrider and involved with its water testing program.

Ms. Welker’s dad, John “Ral” Welker, with whom I taught for many years at Southampton College, would be so proud of his daughter’s election as a Trustee. Dr. Welker, who died in 2012 at 84, was a marine biologist and a founding member of the Southampton College marine science program.

In neighboring Nassau County, Laura Curran was elected the first female county executive in the history of that county. 

Women still have far to go on Long Island and in the nation in achieving government office. Here in Suffolk, for instance, there has never been a female county executive or a woman representing Suffolk in the U.S. House of Representatives or New York State Senate. There’s now only one female town supervisor among Suffolk’s 10 towns (with Ms. Jens-Smith there’ll be two).

Still, as a story last week in The Washington Post was headlined: “Women Racked Up Victories Across the Country Tuesday. It May Be Only the Beginning.” 

The first woman to become a town supervisor on Long Island was Judith Hope when she was elected to the helm of East Hampton town government in 1973. It was a time when at all levels of government were a virtual men’s club.

Looking at the results of last week’s election, I smiled when I saw the name Lynne. Nowick and her being re-elected with the most votes of any candidate for Smithtown Town Board. I first got to know Ms. Nowick 50 years ago, She was then Lynne Cannataro, the daughter of Eugene Cannataro, a farmer who for 24 years was a member of the Smithtown Town Board. I was covering Suffolk cops-and-courts for the daily Long Island Press and Lynne was the secretary of the late Al Mauceri of Hauppauge, chief of the District Court Bureau of the Suffolk DA’s Office. All the assistant DA’s working in the bureau in the then Commack-based District Court were, as I recall, men, all the secretaries women—a gender division widely existing in government and business then.

There would be change—fortunately for Lynne and us—in her time.  She ran for Smithtown receiver of taxes and then for the Suffolk Legislature on which she did a superb job focusing on environmental preservation, consumer issues and fighting drug use by youth. Term-limited after 12 years on the legislature, she first ran for the Smithtown Town Board. 

The Washington Post story began by noting that “until yesterday, only 17 of the 100 members of the Virginia House of Representatives were women. Now the number will surge to nearly 30.” There has been an “explosion of women candidates who have entered the political stage since Donald Trump was elected president one year ago. The wave is likely to continue. In 2018, 40 women are already planning to run for governor. Dozens more are considering congressional and other statewide office bids. And Tuesday’s results have already become a rallying cry for activists seeking to draw even more women into the public square.”