Editorial - Suffolk County Ballot Proposals

There are two Suffolk County Proposals on Tuesday’s Ballot - Ballot Proposal #4 (Suffolk County Proposal #1) and Ballot Proposal #5 (Suffolk County Proposal #2)

Ballot Proposal #4 - Suffolk County Proposal Number One - A Charter Law to Consolidate Financial Management Functions in The County Department of Audit and Control. Enactment of this proposed Charter Law would abolish the office of the Suffolk County Treasurer.  The Department of Finance and Taxation, which is currently headed by the Treasurer, would also be eliminated. The message from the County Executive is that the consolidation of these two departments would lead to savings of more than $800,000. There are 62 counties in New York State and Suffolk County is the only one that has two separate departments headed by elected officials.  Those opposing this consolidation claim that the savings from consolidation would be much less and losing an elected position diminishes the publics right to have a say in county government. 

Smithtown Matters Urges a YES to Ballot Proposal #4.

Ballot Proposal #5 - Suffolk County Proposal Number 2 - A Charter Law Amending the 1/4% Suffolk County Drinking Water Protection Program (DWPP) for Enhanced Water Quality Protection, Wastewater Infrastructure and General Property Fund Tax Relief for Suffolk County….Resolution No. 579-2014 is a Charter Law that extends the sunset period found in Local Law No. 44-2011 from 2013 to 2017 to allow the use of excess Assessment Stabilization Reserve Fund balance for deposits to reserve funds for the payment of County bonds or retirement contributions to provide general property tax relief; mandates, commencing in County Fiscal Year 2018 and continuing   through Fiscal Year 2029, the restoration of funds allocated from the Assessment Stabilization Reserve Fund in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017;(LWV)

Diverting money from our Drinking Water Protection Program is unacceptable. Paying that money back by bonding is making taxpayers pay twice without getting the service they paid for in the first place.  Additionally, we shouldn’t burden our children and grandchildren with debt due to retirement costs payable in 2014-2017.  

Smithtown Matters encourages voters to vote NO on ballot proposal #5

Pat

Editorial - Smithtown Matters On NYS Ballot Proposals

Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 4 is fast approaching. In this day and age voters have access to a lot of information so vote wisely on the ballot proposals which will be found on the back of your ballot.  

LWV info on 2014 Ballot Proposals

There are five ballot proposals. Three New York State Proposals and two Suffolk County Proposals. 

SMITHTOWNMATTERS’ EDITORIAL POSITION ON NYS BALLOT PROPOSALS -

NYS Ballot Proposal #1 is about the drawing the state’s electoral map.  This is being touted as a step forward to the political gerrymandering that currently takes place.  State residents were promised an independent commission.  “Under the proposed amendment to the State Constitution, the commission will consist of ten non-legislative members: eight members who are appointed by the four legislative leaders and two members appointed by the original eight, who cannot have been enrolled in either of the two major parties in the preceding five years. The amendment would prohibit certain individuals from serving on the commission, including: any person who has served in the New York state legislature in the last three years, statewide elected officials, members of Congress, spouses of these groups, legislators’ staff, lobbyists, state officers or employees and party chairs.” (LWV)

The new plan is supported by many who think that a small step in the right direction is enough.   It is not.

SMITHTOWN MATTERS URGES A NO VOTE ON NYS PROPOSAL #1

NYS Ballot Proposal # 2 is a no brainer. A yes vote will allow for our NYS elected officials to receive bills electronically. This is a faster and more environmental way of handling the 1,000 plus pieces of legislation that routinely cross an officials desk. A digital bill may be read on line or printed according to the legislator’s preference.

SMITHTOWN MATTERS SUPPORTS NYS PROPOSAL #2

NYS Ballot Proposal #3 - The NYS Bonds for School Technology Act - A yes vote would allow NYS to borrow up to $2 billion for Pre K classrooms and to modernize classroom technology.  There is very little support for this proposal outside of NYC.  The technology will be outdated well before the bonds are paid off. Borrowing $2 billion puts the state close to it borrowing limit.

SMITHTOWN MATTERS URGES A NO VOTE ON NYS PROPOSAL #3

Pat

Book Review - "PERSONAL"

Book Review “PERSONAL” – a Novel

Lee Child – 352 pages – Delacorte Press - Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

Call it blasphemy … but in “PERSONAL” the great Lee Child has finally gone to the well once too often. Now, even his most devoted fans (among whom I once numbered myself) are looking with a jaundiced eye at the most recent account of ‘Jack Reacher’s’ exploits and shaking their heads in disappointment.

The dismay is not over the dynamic prose the expatriate Brit employs in describing the two or three encounters his six-foot-five, 250-pound protagonist uses to reduce his adversaries to pulp—they are as vividly rendered as ever. The problem is, the encounters consist of perhaps two dozen pages out of 350, and the rest of the time there is little to justify the reader’s six or seven hours invested in wandering the mean streets of Paris (‘Nine drivers out of ten on their cell phones.’) … Arkansas (‘Not much grew there except small, hardy weeds and bushes.’) … or London (‘The outer hinterland felt vast, and the bus was slow…’). And those were the more intriguing parts!

Your humble critic is well aware that non-stop violence can be as boring as three hundred and fifty pages of Parisian cell phones, hillbilly weeds, or English trams, but there’s got to be a middle ground somewhere. Or maybe not.

In the insipidly titled “PERSONAL,” gone are the compelling descriptions of small-town America that riveted us in Child’s dynamic “ECHO BURNING” where a small Texas town, ‘Echo,’ itself becomes one of Child’s characters. Gone is the sense of loss we felt when the shabby little village was torched like a miniature Atlanta in ‘Gone With the Wind.’ And all that remains is the hulking former military policeman whom author Lee Child refers to in this new book as “Sherlock Homeless.” Surely that’s not the cleverest nickname he can dream up.

This so-so ‘thriller’ represents the second shock to Child’s reputation in a couple of years. In 2012 shrimp Tom Cruise was cast as the huge ‘Jack Reacher’ in the film of the same name, and in the face of criticism by ‘Reacher’s’ disbelieving fans, Child offered the following lame statement to support the obviously misguided casting choice: “Reacher’s size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way.”

In other words, ‘You’ve just been had, folks. And I, the omniscient Lee Child, will make up any excuse I want, to have the magical heartthrob name, Tom Cruise, attached to one of my books.’

Well, the justification limps just as badly as one of tough guy ‘Reacher’s’ victims who’s been kicked in the family jewels. Perhaps Child would have us believe that Parisian cell phones are metaphorical connections to the netherworld, that permit him to know in advance when a bullet is going to be blown aside by a gust of wind (in “PERSONAL” that really happens, dear Reader). Or maybe Arkansas crab grass is symbolic of the durability which is ex-cop ‘Reacher’s’ hallmark. And it could be, I suppose, that the snail’s pace of London transport is intended to alert us to the sluggishness of Child’s next chapter … and the next … and the next…

Ironically, those drawn-out spells of leisurely movement and lifeless dialogue are made all the more intolerable as we await the re-emergence of the invincible ‘Jack Reacher’—the one we know and love. Because we have to give Lee Child this: He is unparalleled at coming up with new and nasty ways to have his hero fell four opponents at a time … all without breaking a sweat … usually with his bare hands.

That ‘Reacher’ resorts to rapping an adversary with a foot-long monkey wrench in this, the author’s nineteenth novel, might itself be a metaphor for the fact that Child is (dare we think it?) finally running out of steam.

                        __________________________________________________________

Award-winning Smithtown writer Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eight novels, and his book and theater reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. In Ladouceur’s next thriller, “Harvest” due this month, an American doctor is seized and ordered to perform illicit surgeries for a sinister gang of organ traffickers in The Balkans.

 

Eric Homeyer - Kings Park's Boy Scout Troop 75 Giving Back To Community

By Dana Klosner

Eric Homeyer, 16, a junior at Kings Park High School and member of Boy Scout Troop 75 in Kings Park is on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout. His project has been welcomed by fly fisherman throughout the community.

Homeyer, with the help of his father and Caleb Smith State Park Manager Clarence Ware, as well as help from his fellow troop members, has built 8 benches in the water at Caleb Smith State Park on the south side in the Nissequogue River where fisherman fly fish.

“I got into fly fishing during Boy Scouts,” Homeyer said. “I like it because it’s nice, peaceful and calm. I like going to Caleb Smith State Park. For my Eagle Scout project I wanted to do something with fly fishing.”

Homeyer approached Ware and asked him what he would like done. That’s when the idea of benches in the water came up. It would be a great place for older fly fisherman to rest, sit down and take a break, Homeyer quoted Ware as saying.

The project took one year from approval to completion, including fundraising projects, receiving permits and building time. In all 260 hours. The actual time it took to build the benches was three days, done over two weekends.

“I got a lot of help from my troop,” Homeyer said. “They helped at the fundraising car wash and they helped with the construction.”

Homeyer held a car wash on May 25^th at Kings Park High School. He also received donations from fly fishing clubs throughout the community. In all he raised $2,600. He spent a little over $1,000 on the benches, the rest of the money will be used to stock the river with trout.

Homeyer had help from his dad and Clarence Ware in the design of the benches. Then he bought wood and built the benches in the water.

“We put in two locust posts,” he said of the construction.  “We notched them. Then we put two 2X6’s in the notches which became the support beams in the bench. Then we put two more 2X6’s in and that became the part you sit on. I also put a ruler on the benches so you could measure the size of your fish.”

Homeyer, who has been a Boy Scout for five years, said he has learned a lot about being a leader through this project. He also learned how to follow up with people and what it’s like to supervise a project.

He got involved with Scouting because he thought the activities sounded fun and a lot of his friends were in it.

“I got to experience hikes and see places I wouldn’t normally see,” Homeyer said. “I feel like I became a better leader.”

“This project was a great idea,” said Glen Homeyer, Eric’s dad. “He spent a lot of time working it out with the parks department and the DEC. He had to get permits through the DEC. He was very excited about it and he didn’t drop the ball at any point in time. His mother and I are very proud.” 

“He’s an exceptional young man,” said Ware. “I’ve dealt with a lot of young people. He stayed on the case and got the job done.”

McMahon Family's Spooky, Creepy Haunted House Ready For Halloween

By p.biancaniello

The McMahon family of Commack love Halloween.  The family, Richard, Christine, Nicole and Shaun, want to share their love of Halloween with like-minded souls. Soooo for the past 12 years on October 1 they begin to convert their lovely normal home at 4 Peppermint Rd. in Commack into the Spooky, Creepy Haunted House of Commack and the neighbors love it!

What started out as a family fun activity has grown over the years into a gathering of family, extended family and neighbors all interested in celebrating the gruesome, macabre and hideousness of Halloween. 

Over the past twelve years (the McMahons even hosted their Halloween Haunted House after hurricane Sandy) the number of exhibits have grown, the number of visitors has grown and after visiting with the McMahons it is plain to see that their enjoyment has grown too. Son Shaun is away at college but plans on being home in time to do his part to make sure visitors have a ghastly experience just as sister Nicole did when she was away at school.

The McMahons love Halloween and they love Commack.  Rich and Christine (Keller) graduated together from Commack HS North in 1981. They raised their children in the same home that Christine grew up in.  Nicole graduated from CHS in 2006 and Shaun 2013. The family is close. Nicole, with a huge grin  explained how much thought and work goes into the preparation. With a laugh she says it is really worth the effort. “Seeing kids smiling, some screaming and parents jump or scream in surprise makes it a lot of fun. Sometimes we get special requests to frighten a specific person and we do and it’s fun.”  

The McMahons understand that sometimes things can be overwhelming for young children, so they keep a careful eye on the kids reactions. But adults they’re fair game!  

“It’s for the kids and for the community. It’s for everyone to enjoy” said Rich McMahon. What makes all the work worthwhile for the McMahon family is seeing the surprised faces, hearing the shrieks and knowing that on this one night they have scared everyone happy.

Visitors are welcome to join the McMahons at 4 Peppermint Rd, Commack on Halloween after dusk.