SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Lee Koppelman Pivotal Figure In Suffolk County History

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Lee Koppelman was an important, indeed pivotal figure in Suffolk County history.

I knew Lee, who died last week, for a very long time. We first connected in 1962 at a meeting on the effort to create a Fire Island National Seashore. Lee had become the planning director of Suffolk County two years earlier and was in favor of the Seashore initiative.

My first “big” story as a journalist in Suffolk was writing article after article about the four-lane highway Robert Moses was pushing to build on Fire Island and what was being proposed as an alternative, preserving Fire Island as a National Seashore. Most officials feared crossing the powerful and vindictive Moses.

But Koppelman was a courageous, stand-up person.

A Fire Island National Seashore became a reality in 1964.

Koppelman came into Suffolk County government on the winds of reform. In the 1950s, Suffolk government and many local governments were here wracked by what was to be named the “Suffolk Scandals”—a decade of investigations of corruption led by a succession of special state prosecutors. The “Suffolk Scandals” led to adoption of a charter system of government to be led by an elected county executive. In 1960 H. Lee Dennison moved into that the post. Decades before, Dennison, an engineer, came to Suffolk from Hornell in upstate New York to work in the then-Suffolk Highway Department. He was ousted after writing a report saying Suffolk government was so mired in partisan politics that it was “doing nothing to encourage adequate county planning.”

Koppelman and Dennison first met when Dennison attended a presentation in Hauppauge of a “Hauppauge Comprehensive Plan” put together by Koppelman. Hauppauge was a sitting duck for intense development with the Long Island Expressway and a spur of the Northern State Parkway nearing it, Veterans Memorial Highway through it, county government buildings rising, and the once rural area eyed for commercial and industrial construction.

Dennison was impressed by Koppelman’s blueprint to deal with the looming development of Hauppauge in what he believed was a sensible and balanced way. He hired him as the county’s first planning director—to try to do the same for all of Suffolk County.

It was a time, Lee Koppelman would later recall, that Suffolk County was the “fastest growing county in the United States” in population and economically. At a significant financial loss, he left his landscape architecture practice and accepted the position.

His first chief concern was the preservation of open space in Suffolk. Back then, he would note, no land in Suffolk had been preserved by the county as open space other than Smith Point Park. And, he said, if action wasn’t taken developers would be “paving over”—as he put it—all of Suffolk County. He defined planning as working toward “better human habitation.”

Koppelman had long been impressed by the writings of Lewis Mumford which he was first introduced to from his books at the public library in Astoria, where Koppelman grew up. Mumford’s targets included suburban sprawl—what Suffolk faced. Referring to Levittown on Long Island, in his 1961 book, “The City in History,” Mumford wrote about “a multitude of uniform, unidentifiable houses, lined up inflexibly, at uniform distances, on uniform roads…inhabited by people of the same class…This is the ultimate effect of the suburban escape in our time…” Mumford had been a leader of the Regional Planning Association of America. 

Koppelman’s first major report as Suffolk planning director was on how to preserve open space here. By the time the Dennison administration ended 12 years later, many thousands of acres of county parkland had been created. John V.N. Klein succeeded Dennison as county executive, and Koppelman would work closely with him on the pioneering Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program which was to be replicated all over the U.S.

Throughout his 28 years as county planner, he was incorruptible. Richard Murdocco, a former student of Koppelman’s at Stony Brook University, where he later became director of its Center for Regional Policy Studies, has related: “He told me that he would never let anyone take him out to lunch, because he didn’t want to owe anyone anything, or give the perception that he was being swayed.” Murdocco now teaches at Stony Brook. Koppelman’s degrees included a Ph.D. in public administration from NYU.

Koppelman, who died at 94, was critical in putting a focus on saving the sole source of potable water on which Suffolk depends, its underground water supply. And he cast the light of intelligent planning on so much more. His biggest disappointment was the lack of affordable housing which for so long he pointed to as a huge need in Suffolk. 

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. 

Transformation Of Nissequogue River State Park Has Begun With York Hall Roof Rebuild

By Stacey Altherr

Work on York Hall, one of the many buildings in the Nissequogue River State Park slated for preservation, is now underway, giving a hopeful glimpse as to what is to come for the former psychiatric hospital grounds.

After years of neglect, vandalism, and the theft of copper flashing, the building’s roof is now being replaced. The new roof will protect the interior of the once-glamorous building, a one-story building with soaring ceilings and ornate balcony seating.

The repair to the roof is being funded by the Nissequogue River State Park Foundation and the Charles and Helen Reichert Family Foundation for a cost of about $550,000. It is to be completed by the end of April.photo courtesy of Dorothy Chanin

York Hall was one of the more significant buildings that appears to be salvageable in the restoration and re-use of the state-run state park. During the days of the psychiatric hospital, both staff and patients used the auditorium for plays and musical theater. It was used also as a community space, with organizations such as the boy scouts and local churches using the property as well, said John McQuaid, president of the Nissequogue River State Park Foundation. NRSPF was established in 2008 with the goal of uniting local community groups to renovate the park grounds and buildings. 

Once finished, the community will be able to use York Hall once again as a local public indoor theater for music concerts, plays and other community activities. 

photo courtesy of Dorothy Chanin“Everyone is excited,” McQuaid said. “This is a really significant step forward, to see that property turned into a legitimate park.”

The next step will be to hire engineers to put together a scope of the work needed and specific costs to refurbish the inside and bring it up to code, McQuaid added.

Many local civic groups and community members asked for York Hall to be saved rather than razed, including the Society for Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, which placed York Hall on its 2017 list of Endangered Historic Places.

The 522-acre property, which sits on the Nissequogue River, was legislated as parkland by the state in 2001. 

The New York State Office of Parks held public hearings on how to best use this bucolic land that will protect its fragile environmental nature and be a community resource. Next up is the completion of the master plan, due by the end of this year.

“We are very pleased with the rate of progress of the master plan,” McQuaid said. “They have done a tremendous job taking feedback from all the constituents in the community.”

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Been To Russia And I Won't Be Going Back

By Karl Grossman

In addition to being on Long Island all my working life as a journalist and later a journalism professor, too, I have spent considerable time in Russia.

But as Vladimir Putin grabbed more and more power and seized dictatorial rule, I wouldn’t go back there under any condition.

The brutal invasion of Ukraine that he has had Russia embark on and led, and his declaration as it began that if any nation “tries to impede us…the Russian response will be immediate and lead to consequences you have never seen in history”—a brazen threat of starting nuclear war—were not surprising to me.

My involvement in Russia came after I broke the story in The Nation magazine after the Challenger blew up in 1986 about how its next mission was to loft a space probe fueled with plutonium, the most lethal of all radioactive substances. If the explosion had happened then, four months later, and the plutonium dispersed, the impacts could have been horrendous. 

My follow-up writings on the use of nuclear power in space included authoring a book The Wrong Stuff, writing many articles and presenting TV programs.

Dr. Alexey Yablokov ( photo BBC News)And I was contacted by Dr. Alexey Yablokov, the most eminent environmentalist in Russia, the former environmental advisor to Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev. He was long concerned about the space nuclear activities of Russia and previously the Soviet Union. There were accidents like in the U.S. program including one in 1978 when a Cosmos satellite with a nuclear reactor crashed to Earth, breaking apart and spreading radioactive debris over 500 miles of northern Canada.

Yablokov, described in one publication when he died in 2017 as the “the towering grandfather of Russian ecology,” invited me to Russia to share information on the nuclear-in-space issue. 

There would be many visits—seven in all—and presentations including, in 1998, in Voronezh,  organized by Yablokov’s Center for Russian Environmental Policy on “Toward a Sustainable Russia: Environmental Policy;” speaking in 1999 at the “All-Russia Congress on Protection of Nature”—in a packed sports stadium along the Volga River in Saratov—and, in 2000, presenting at a conference on “Health of the Environment” at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

We became friends and Yablokov stayed with us at our home in Sag Harbor. He enjoyed this area and was intrigued by the Shinnecock Indian Nation. 

I found through the years that not just Yablokov but the many Russians I connected with were remarkably warm and friendly. The Putin reign is one thing; the Russian people another. 

My last presentation was a keynote speech, “Parallel Atomic Universes,” at a “Russian-American Women’s Leadership and Nuclear Safety Activism” conference in Tomsk in 2002. 

Putin had become prime minister in 1999. And things were changing—quickly. There was repression of the press and a takeover of media by Putin allies. As to environmental progress, a huge reversal has begun. As Yablokov said from the podium at a 1999 environmental conference in Moscow: “The result of Putin’s politics is fascism.”

In recent days, here in the U.S. and around the world, Putin has been compared to Hitler. The comparison is apt.

The last time I was with Yablokov was 15 years ago. 

We met in New York where he had come to participate in a conference at the UN about whales. The plight of whales and dolphins had been an early research subject for Yablokov. He would go on to write hundreds of articles as well as textbooks on biology and ecology.

When we met that last time, Yablokov had become leader of the Green Russia component of the Russian United Democratic Party and was also deputy chairman of the party—acronymed YABLOKO—which was challenging Putin. He told me of being followed and of living in an authoritarian state.

Russia has been a surprise for me. For example, Tomsk—which is in Siberia—looks like Vermont with streams flowing amid woods of white birch. And, as noted, the people I’ve met are lovely. 

But Putin, this Hitler-like former KGB colonel who has amassed a multi-billion ruble fortune in his rise to power, has brought Russia down—and if he is not stopped, what will he do to the world?

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. 

Three Smithtown Octogenarian Women Dorothy Chanin, Carolyn DeHart, Peggy Micciche Living Life To The Fullest

By Stacey Altherr

Women have seen many changes through the decades, from getting the vote with the passage of the 19^th amendment in 1920 to the Equal Opportunity Credit Act of 1974 which prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, sex, age and marital status for credit transactions. (That’s right. Women could be denied credit because of their marital status before 1974). 

Sandra Day O’Connor was chosen by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 when he promised to name a woman to the next Supreme Court opening. And Title IX, which opened up equal access to women in high school sports, or risk withdrawal of federal funding, helped young high school female athletes rise to the ranks for high-performing and higher-paid professional athletes.

These three Smithtown women, all octogenarians, have seen the frustratingly slow progress for women through the years, and are still active members of their community. Here’s their stories.

Peggy MiccichePeggy Micciche*, 85, St. James, was always an adventurer and athlete. After college, she and two friends traveled two months through Europe, and another time, she spent two months camping out in national parks cross-country. 

“The best trip was when I bicycled along the Danube River,” she said. “We started in Germany and ended up in Vienna. It was 35 miles a day.”

A retired math teacher and director of the math and computer department in North Babylon, the St. James resident said that changes happened in the early 80s when North Babylon hired Dr. William Leary, originally from Boston and who oversaw the city schools there during the busing racial riots. Leary, much to the chagrin of many of her male colleagues, chose women for administrative roles for the first time, including Micciche as department chair. 

The biggest change over the decades, said Micciche, is women’s sports. When she was playing basketball in the 1950s, women wore uncomfortable uniforms, could only play on half a court, and there were only four schools that had a girls basketball team.

Title IX changed things for the better.

“No one came to the games,” she said. “Boys had leagues, and everyone came to the games. Before Title IX, women and men did not have equal rights in sports.”

In 1953, Micciche was elected president of the General Organization, the school’s student organization at the time. Both the vice-president and secretary-treasurer were also girls, and it was so unusual that it was an all-female slate, that a local newspaper wrote a story about it.

During her high school years, few girls went into math and science, like herself. Most went to secretarial school and got married, she said. 

Peggy in her 70’s with friends on a bicycling trip in EuropeAt a monthly assembly, there would be a bible reading and a reciting of the Lord’s Prayer at her public school, despite the separation of church and state contained in the First Amendment, and it was very unusual for unmarried women, such as herself, to own their own home.

Even on the golf course, there were disparities. Women couldn’t tee off until later in the morning so that men could play first at many private country club courses. 

She is happy to see the changes for women.

“The world is open to them now,” Micciche said. “They can be doctors, go to college and to law school—in fact, there are more women than men in college now.  They can be vice president of the United States.”

*Apolgies to Peggy for the misspelling of Micciche.

                                           ———————————————————————

For Carolyn DeHart, 81, Nesconset,  her life has been about the music. She played violin all through high school and wanted to be a music teacher, but changed her mind and became a nurse when she “saw a very handsome doctor” on a TV show. While studying nursing, she fainted on the bed of a patient, she said, and realized hospital work wasn’t in the cards for her.

Instead, she concentrated on her first passion- music- and studied piano under three different concert pianists, including one from the Julliard School of Music.

DeHart wanted to further her violin studies but was married with a young child. Soon, the marriage was over, and she started teaching piano lessons at home to make ends meet. She met her husband Ronald DeHart, also a piano teacher, and they have been making beautiful music in their home ever since. Married now for 49 years and after raising four children, the couple still teach music.Carolyn and Ron DeHart

“We started a real home business,” she said. “At one time, we had 120 students between us.”

DeHart says that working from home with her husband shielded her from much of the struggles young women her age endured in the workplace, but her success shows what can be accomplished with a passion and a plan. 

“We are down to 45 students now,” she said. “People may still see me as a role model because I am still teaching. I work out every day. And I still practice my instruments for an hour-and-a-half every day.”

She is now teaching grandchildren of her original students, helping many get into NYSSMA and even playing at some of their students’ weddings.

“Music is my greatest joy,” she said. “It gives back exactly what you put into it. I think that is true of a lot of things.”

                        ————————————————————————————————

Dorothy ChaninDorothy Chanin, 82, Kings Park, worked as a technical assistant in the Natural Sciences department at the western campus of Suffolk Community College, officially retiring in 2001, but staying on part-time until around 2019. Because she worked in labs, she was required to stay on top of changes in technology, which serves her well even now.

The Kings Park resident takes classes in photography and languages through Stony Brook University’s OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which teaches non-credit classes to adults.  She takes Spanish classes, she said, because her son’s partner is Peruvian and she wants to be able to communicate with his parents since they don’t speak much English.

“I only want to learn basic stuff,” she said. “I want to be able to greet them and say, hi and how are you.”

While she was satisfied in her career, she notes that women have a lot more opportunities now.

“There are more careers available to them,” she said. “Some of the things I was interested wouldn’t have worked out then,” such as ballet. Her mother discouraged her, she said, because it didn’t seem practical.

Chanin’s love of photography was part of her way to document her travels when she was younger, she said.Hairy Woodpecker Now, she takes photos almost every day, documenting the birds in her yard.

Born in 1939 and growing up in Manhattan during World War II, Dorothy remembers the remnants of it, but said she couldn’t imagine we would be at the brink of war again.

“Now I see war again and I am horrified,” Chanin said. “I couldn’t imagine this would happen again.”

Paddy's Back And A St. James Resident Recorded The Conversation

Paddy’s back

By June Capossela Kempf

I almost forgot about him. It was exactly one year ago that I first met Paddy, the leprechaun at the site of the old Viking pub.- ranting and raging about the landmark’s demolition and bemoaning last year’s parade cancellation. He had spent the whole year brooding in the bog, but upon hearing that this year, Saint James was going to resume the legendary march down Lake Avenue; he decided to emerge from his lair and make a grand appearance.

I spotted him, stomping on one of the newly created welcoming circles carved into the intercession of Woodlawn and Lake - hopping up and down like a wounded cave cricket. But instead of leaping for joy, he was trying to attract attention by directing a tirade of expletives at anyone who drove by. I parked over by the old Capital One building. 

“What’s the matter Paddy?” I asked.

“Aye, you’re just the one I want to be seeing,” he spoke. 

This can’t be good, I thought. He skipped onto a freshly painted shamrock and beckoned:

 ‘C’mere till I tell you.”

Being well aware of his tricky shenanigans, I cautiously approached him.

“I am deeply troubled by an injustice perpetrated by the officials of this town, and you, darlin’, can bring attention to it in your column.”

“Oh Paddy, I hope you are still not stewing about the Viking…”

“Nay! They’re filling that spot in quite nicely, “he conceded. “It’s the parade itself. The planners made a terrible mistake.”

This piqued my curiosity. 

“How so? 

“Your parade committee showed no good sense when they selected two grand marshals for the parade,” he screamed.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“He drew himself up to his full 36-inch stature - 42, if you count his top hat. He folded his little arms across his puffed-out chest and struck an imposing stance. Tapping one of his clogs on the pavement, the enraged sprite bellowed: “Must I spell it out to ya? “

“I am sure you will,” I said.

“There should be just one grand Marshall and that one dignitary should be none other than Meself!”

“What?”

Ordinarily, I would never intentionally engage in argument with an angry leprechaun, but what was needed to be said, needed to be said. So, I proceeded to tell the agitated elf, as gently as possible that:

Only human ‘people’ who were outstanding contributors to the good of the community were chosen for this honor and that sprites such as himself were indeed perceived as purveyors of mischief and mayhem - leaving them highly unqualified for the position.

“You know that you are not a real person – right?”

He was most agreeable with that assessment – even complimented. But being Paddy, he clung to the claim that he was indeed the perfect contender for the position. 

“Tis true…,” he proudly answered, “… but I can be assuming a human form in the blink of an eye.”

“Why Paddy, that would be deceitful - which brings up another issue: You are assumed to be a troublemaker rather than a pillar of the community.”

With the fury of an enraged Drago, his golden eyes morphed to blood red, he showed jagged flesh piercing teeth and displayed menacing razor sharp claws, making himself appear more hideous than threatening. 

“You’d better be watchin’ your words dearie,” he growled.” …  and remember who you’re dealing with…”

“Exactly” Your reputation precedes you. But to fake your identity only reinforces your bad standing in the community.”

There, I told him right out. He fell uncharacteristically silent. No doubt he was contemplating a suitable consequence for me. But instead of turning me into a toad, he mellowed a bit.

“So yore thinking that I do nothing to help others here? What about last year? I am responsible for resurrecting the theatre on 2^nd Ave. They are puttin’ on some fine shows there now, doncha know.. “

“You are taking credit for that?”

“ I am indeed. I put ideas under human bonnets, and the people I choose, carry out MY plans.”

Obviously, Paddy desperately wished to be recognized for all his unheralded good deeds. He rattled them all off in painful detail going back generations. Then conceded:

“Maybe sometimes I get a little bit worked up, but my intentions are noble.”

This was the moment I seized to suggest that he give up his idea of being Grand Marshall in return for being featured in this column once again. Surprisingly, he agreed. He clicked his heels and turned away, but I swear I heard him whisper- just before he disappeared.

“I got her again!”

June Capossela Kempf: Essayist and  Author of : Yo God! Jay’s Story, a memoir  and Lady of the Dollhouse, a YA mystery