It Takes A Leader To Make An Eagle Scout

Matinecock District (BSA) Trains Scouting Leaders to become an “Eagle Scout Coach”

On Wednesday evening, September 14th, over 70 Scout leaders and volunteers gathered at Hauppauge High School for a two-hour seminar on becoming an Eagle Scout Coach.  The training was provided by the Matinecock District, Suffolk County Council, Boy Scouts of America.  It was led by Matinecock District Advancement Chair David Hunt and Past Chair Herb McGrail, who have a combined 30 years experience in coaching Boy Scouts to attain the Eagle Scout Rank.  Participants were led through Eagle Scout Service Project, a community service project that takes an average of 9 to 12 months for an Eagle Scout candidate to complete.  Eagle Scout Coach is now an official adult position in the Boy Scouts of America. 

“”Last year, 90 Scouts achieved Eagle Scout Rank in the Matinecock District,” explained Mr. Hunt, “and our objective is to increase that number every year.  The service projects that they provide not only benefit our communities, but they are also a springboard for providing leadership experience to our young men, and giving them confidence in their leadership abilities.” Plans are to offer this training seminar twice a year, so the next one will be early next year.   The date has not yet been set.  

Suffolk County Council, Boy Scouts of America, serves over 12,000 youth, boys and girls, and is powered by over 2,000 adult volunteers. For more information about the Cub Scout or Boy Scout programs, please contact the Suffolk County Council (BSA) at (631) 924-7000.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - "We're Doing It" 100% Renewable Energy Becoming Reality

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman    

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell sat back the other day and spoke with satisfaction about the town’s plan to have 100% of its electricity come from renewable energy—safe, clean, green power—by 2020. That’s just four years away! 

After the East Hampton Town Board in 2014 unanimously adopted a resolution to have all the town’s electricity come from renewable sources, Mr. Cantwell said: “Making the switch to clean energy is just the right thing to do, both for the environment and for keeping more money in the local economy and creating jobs here.”

At East Hampton Town Hall recently he commented: “We’re doing it!”

East Hampton is to meet its 100% renewable energy goal through solar energy, from panels on town-owned land and rooftops, and from wind energy from off-shore wind turbines like those Deepwater Wind is now completing east of the town in the ocean near Block Island. 

East Hampton became the first municipality on the East Coast to adopt a 100% renewable energy goal but other governments in the U.S.—among them cities such as San Francisco—have done the same, as have nations around the world.

Every town on Long Island could do it, too. There’d be different mixes —like there needs to be different mixes globally depending on energy resources, although solar power runs through all.

An energy revolution is underway.

“The World Can Transition to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy,” declares the website of The Solutions Project headquartered California. “Together ,” it continues, “we can build a stronger economy, healthier families, and a more secure future. 100% clean is 100% possible. Join us.” The website—http://the solutionsproject.org—is full of information on 100% renewable energy programs happening. Among the articles: “139 Countries Could Be 100% Renewable by 2050.” The Solutions Project, supported by leading U.S. foundations including the Park Foundation, last month launched “The Fighter Fund, a new grant-making program for community-based groups on the front lines of the fight for clean energy and climate justice.” 

And a fight is occurring. “Holding Clean Energy Hostage,” was the title of an article last month by Cathy Kunkel of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and M.V. Ramana of the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University in the journal Reason in Revolt. Companies tied to “traditional” energy—coal, oil, gas and nuclear—seek to block “renewable energy every step of the way.”

The sun does not send a bill. Neither does the wind. Once the infrastructure for renewable energy is built, energy flows—freely. And this threatens the old power order.

But there are new companies—like Deepwater Wind—making huge advances in renewable energy technologies that the old order can’t put a lid on. 

Just last week, for example, a new firm, Insolight, announced development of solar photovoltaic panels with 36% efficiency. The most advanced solar panels for use in space have 25% efficiency. Several years ago the efficiency of solar panels was measured in single digits. Now most are 18% to 20%, and the SunPower company last year began producing panels with 24% “world record” efficiency. With 36% efficiency, less space for panels is needed. Meanwhile, the price of solar panels has gone down dramatically.

Regarding wind, the United Kingdom last month gave the go-ahead for what’s to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm. This August 7, Scottish wind turbines generated “the total amount of electricity used by every home and business” in Scotland, reported the U.K. newspaper The Independent. 

There are big advances in energy storage—to end criticism of renewable energy being intermittent. “Holy Grail of Energy Policy in Sight as Battery Technology Smashes the Old Order,” was the headline last month in another U.K. newspaper The Telegraph

“There’s enough wind and solar to power the world,” said Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” on CNN last month. And there are other renewable sources including those involving water—tidal power and wave power as we see daily on Long Island, now being tapped around the world.

East Hampton by “setting these bold renewable energy goals,” says Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, is “a visionary leader in the fight against climate change and an example of how we can all become part of the solution.”

The round-the-world flight of the solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse, completed in July, and, close to home, the boat Novela skippered by Long Island solar pioneer Gary Minnick of Flanders, arriving in Riverhead a week earlier, powered by the sun in a journey from Florida, are symbols of a the potentially bright new energy future.

Book Review - "Crisis of Character"

BOOK REVIEW

“Crisis of Character” - By Gary J. Byrne 

283 pages – Center Street

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur 

In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that this reviewer is not a fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Thus, we will attempt to soft-pedal this book’s many caustic criticisms of the current Democratic candidate for president … because it should not be assumed that the critique is intended as a device to promote the candidacy of Clinton’s opponent, Republican Donald J. Trump.

It is widely known that ‘Crisis of Character’s’ author, Gary J. Byrne, has written a no-holds-barred condemnation of the former First Lady and Secretary of State. What prospective readers of this runaway best seller might not know, however, is that the book is loaded with incidents in the career of the retired Secret Service Officer that touch on interesting aspects of life as a presidential protector, but refer only obliquely to Clinton. These vignettes may be referred to, it seems to me, without castigating Hillary Clinton in the process.

For instance, we might be surprised to learn that smoking cigarettes is very popular among Secret Service people. Indeed Gary Byrne reveals that during the Clinton administration, agents assigned to protect the president and his wife, knowing that Mrs. Clinton hated smoking and despised those who smoked, often intentionally lit up out of doors when they saw her coming … just to provoke her. The practice was not forbidden, and there was little that FLOTUS (the First Lady of the United States) could do about it.

Or this … a frequent White House guest of the Clintons, sex guru Dr. Ruth Westheimer, claimed she had been the one to persuade Bill Clinton finally to run for president. That fact is interesting in itself, but it’s perhaps compounded by the knowledge that the tiny woman had been a sniper in the Israeli Army during the early days of its founding . She once poked none other than Officer Byrne with her finger and boasted, “I can put a bullet in your chest from 200 yards, young man.”

As mentioned, we will not find it necessary to cite the litany of Secret Service complaints about FLOTUS, but it should be pointed out that for all his faults, the president enjoyed a reputation that was just the opposite of his wife’s: he was loved by those assigned to protect him. As Byrne says, “Find yourself in the same room with Elvis (his code name) and you are hooked. POTUS was very generous. You can’t help but like him.”

Of course, ‘Crisis of Character’ would probably be disappointing to most if it failed what I call the ‘Lewinsky test.’ In that regard, it shouldn’t disappoint. White House voyeurs will be titillated to know that Bill Clinton provided the notorious young intern access to his private phone line. We learn that the number was so secret it required not only a four-digit pass code, but one that was rhythmical in nature as well. Which is to say, entering numbers and letters had to be done at just the right pace for the code to work. Now that’s secret!

Another sample of this memoir’s intrigue comes in a heretofore unreported incident when the author tells of his concern regarding Ms. Lewinsky. Having become aware of the fact that “…she and the president (had) a behind-closed-doors relationship…” Gary Byrne detected a potential danger to the presidency. Accordingly, he went to Bill Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Evelyn Lieberman, and told her what he knew. “The next day,” Byrne writes, …Monica was gone.

It won’t come as any surprise that many Secret Service personnel are reported literally to have gone mad, and that over the years several turned to drugs and alcohol … performance enhancers and prostitutes … as well as illicit sexual affairs on the job. After reading ‘Crisis of Character’ one may well wonder how any of these beleaguered people managed to avoid such a fate.

Unfortunately, his book is poorly written (blame the editors at Center Street for that). It is not for literary purists, but it certainly is interesting, timely, and a bit disconcerting. Indeed, anyone contemplating a life as a Secret Service agent … or for that matter, a politician … might give that a second thought by the time they get to Chapter Eighteen.

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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eleven novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His newest book, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. It maintains that each wrote the other’s most famous work. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com

Early Morning House Fire On Eckernkamp Drive

There was a fire this morning at a two-story house located at 25 Eckernkamp Drive, Smithtown. Smithtown Fire Department received an alarm at 4:29 AM. 

According to Public Information Officer Jeff Bressler there were three residents in the home who were awakened by their smoke detector alarms. All the residents along with their dogs who safely left the home.  

The Smithtown Fire Department was assisted by Kings Park, St. James, Hauppauge and the Commack Volunteer Ambulance. 

PHOTOS BY JEFF BRESSLER

 ADDITIONAL HI RES PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND AT http://www.smithtownfd.org/single-post/2016/09/17/EARLY-MORNING-HOUSE-FIRE-ON-ECKERNKAMP-DRIVE

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Trotta and Kennedy Say "No" To Environmental Initiative For Single Use Bags

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

A majority on the Suffolk County Legislature last week followed the path of New York City in approving a measure which would impose a five-cent charge by retailers for a single-use plastic bag—or paper bag—when shopping rather than following several Suffolk towns and villages that  have passed laws flatly banning single-use plastic bags.

The two county legislators who together represent most of Smithtown, Leslie Kennedy and Rob Trotta, voted against it.

Originally, Legislator William Spencer of Centerport introduced a measure similar to the laws enacted by the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton and Suffolk villages including Southampton, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Sagaponack, Quogue and Patchogue—and governments around the country and world—that ban single-use plastic bags. The Patchogue law took effect last week.

But his measure met stiff opposition from various business interests including the plastics industry, as have earlier proposed laws in Suffolk seeking prohibitions on single-use plastic bags. 

At a hearing on his bill in June, business interests urged Legislator Spencer to alter his bill to make it similar to one passed the month before in New York City setting a five-cent charge on a single-use plastic or paper bags. “I ask you to take a second look at the New York City bill,” testified Jon Greenfield, co-owner of a ShopRite store in Commack and others in Nassau County. 

A medical doctor as well as a legislator, Dr. Spencer responded that he was concerned that such a fee would result in those who could afford to simply paying for the bags and, “It creates almost a class system.”

But, subsequently, he agreed to change his bill to one like the New York City law which was originally to take effect next month but is now slated to be operational in February..

Dr. Spencer declared last week: “The goal of the policy is to reduce bag waste by incentivizing consumers to avoid the fee and Bring Your Own Bag.” He heralded his measure as “historic.”  County Executive Steve Bellone intends to sign it.  It would take effect on January 2018 unlike Dr. Spencer’s earlier bill that would have become operational a year after its passage was recorded with the New York Secretary of State.

The new bill also provides that “if this approach fails to reduce the use of plastic bags by at least 75% in three years, the idea of an outright ban can be revisited at a later date.”

Legislators voting against the measure included the two legislators who represent most of Smithtown, Republicans Kennedy of Nesconset and Trotta of Fort Salonga. “I am concerned that the bill calls for people to be charged a fee for using paper bags as an alternative to plastic, when paper bags have always been free,” said Mr. Trotta.  

Sarah Anker of Mount Sinai, regarded as a strong environmentalist on the panel, also voted against it and said that senior citizens she has heard from are especially against the five-cent charge. Like Dr. Spencer and Mr. Bellone, Ms. Anker is a Democrat. Also voting against the bill was Democrat Lou D’Amaro of North Babylon.

Voting for it were 13 legislators.

Much of the body of the new Spencer measure remains the same as the original. It still includes the statements that “between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year” and that “plastic bags account for over 10% of debris that washes up on our nation’s coastline.” It still declares: “This Legislature also finds that plastic bags can have a devastating effect on wildlife, birds can become entangled in the bags and different species of sea life can die from ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for food.”

It also still rebuts the rosy industry claim of plastic bags being recycled. “This Legislature finds that only 5 to 7 percent of plastic bags are recycled, in part, due to the fact that it costs more to recycle a bag than to produce a new one,” it says.

The big changes are the elimination of a ban, the addition of the five-cent charge, dropping a line stating the bill’s “purpose…to prohibit retail stores in Suffolk County from providing plastic carryout bags to their customers”—and paper takeaway bags being joined with single-use plastic bags. The latter is something the plastics industry has been pushing nationally. And the bill’s title was changed from a “Local Law Prohibiting the Distribution of Plastic Carryout Bags” to a “Local Law to Reduce the Use of Carryout Bags.” 

The new bill also says that it “will not impair or supersede any ordinance, resolution or local law enacted by a village or town within the County of Suffolk” on takeaway bags.

These towns and villages stood strong against the interests that opposed a ban on single-use plastic bags. On the other hand, a Suffolk Legislature majority with the expected backing of the county executive have decided on a compromise. Will the compromise work? If it doesn’t, will, as the measure says, “the idea of an outright ban” be “revisited at a later date?” 

An outright ban on single-use plastic bags is truly what is needed—whether industry likes it or not, but its power has been shown to be huge here and elsewhere on the single-use plastic bag issue.

The five-cent charge, not too incidentally, is to be kept by the retailers. 

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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.