Golf News From Smithtown Landing Men's Golf Association

By Jerry Gentile

On May 15-16, The Landing Cup (a two-man team event) was completed this past weekend. The sunny weather conditions made for good golf.

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The Championship Flight was won by two perennial contenders for the Club Championship, Ray Hubbs and Lefty Pat McQuade.

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The A Flight was won by Robert Brickley and Glen Downing (148) who continues to be playing phenomenal golf.

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The B Flight was won by two colorful players in Rob Martin and Ken Wolf also with a fine net (148). They both have fine swings.

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C Flight was won by Ron Hottinger (Still swinging well) and (Ageless) Dick Stevens with a super (147).

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D Flight was won by a Starke but this time it was Jim Starke with a Blind draw and an excellent (146) net total.

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Low Gross went to Ed Haliasz (75) and Low Net to SLMGA President Saul Rosenthal (67).

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Kudos go out to Vin Viggiano, Robert Brickley, Chris Shannon, Saul Rosenthal and The true ageless Octogenarian Bob Popko who has been a great athlete and competitor for many years and a joy to play with. A “Tip of the Hat” to him. They all qualified for the Masters Tournament. Another super “well done” goes to Tom McCrave for his Eagle on #6. Please do not hesitate to go to our website for SLMGA information.

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See you at The William Quinn Memorial Tournament. Best, JG PR SLMGA Board Member

Suffolk Closeup: Bridget Flemming Democratic Candidate For Congress

SUFF0LK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Legislator Bridget FlemmingBy launching a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives this month, Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming is moving early and strongly to get the Democratic nomination to run next year. In recent years Democratic primary battles have diverted Democratic fundraising and complicated the party’s runs in the lst Congressional District.

Ms. Fleming is clearly likely to get the Democratic Party’s designation.

At a press conference on May 3 at which she announced running for the seat held since 2015 by Republican Lee Zeldin, Ms. Fleming was flanked by Suffolk Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer; the presiding officer of the Suffolk Legislature Rob Calarco; a bevy of town Democratic leaders; and John Durso, president of Local 338 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

If Ms. Fleming ends up winning the lst C.D. post, she would be the first woman to represent Suffolk County in the U.S. House of Representatives since the seat was established and held in 1789 by Declaration of Independence signer William Floyd of Mastic.

If Ms. Fleming, a Noyac resident, wins, she as an East Ender will follow Tim Bishop, a Southampton Democrat, who held the seat from 2003 to 2015 and, earlier, Otis Pike, a Riverhead Democrat, who held it from 1961until his retirement in 1979.

Might gender figure in her run? Women have made gains in being elected to the House. Currently, of its 435 members, some 118 are women. But that’s a minority—yet more than 50 years ago when there were just 13 female House members, or 30 years ago when there were but 19. The numbers have increased in the last several years going to 72 in 2007.

The two women who ran for House seats from Suffolk last year—Nancy Goroff in the lst C.D. and Jackie Gordon in the neighboring 2^nd C.D., both Democrats—were defeated. The lst C.D. covers the five East End towns, all of Brookhaven, most of Smithtown and part of Islip. 

Also, being an East Ender could be a liability as the Brookhaven town is the political gorilla in the lst C.D. political room—the largest town in area of New York State’s 932 towns (bigger than all of Nassau County) and the second most populous town (after Hempstead) in New York State. In Suffolk, many voters traditionally vote based on their geography.

Mr. Zeldin is from Shirley in Brookhaven town where he has done well. It seems quite probable at this point that he will get the Republican designation to run for governor of New York next year, also announcing early for that run. In recent weeks he has gotten the endorsement of many Republican county committees. His run for governor would open the lst C.D. seat. Would the GOP pick another Brookhaven resident to run in his stead? That is likely.

However, Ms. Fleming’s county legislative district encompasses not only Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island towns but also includes a section of southeastern Brookhaven—as far as Eastport to the west. She thus has had visibility in that portion of Brookhaven.

Meanwhile, she will be on the ballot this year for re-election to the legislature.

She has an exceptional public record. Before moving to Noyac in 2001 with her husband, Bob, she was for nearly a decade an assistant DA in Manhattan. She served as a member of its Trial Bureau and also Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit and then was chief of the unit that tackled fraud in public programs. She was first elected to the Southampton Town Board in 2010 and won a seat on the Suffolk Legislature in 2015. Last year, she was edged out of being the Democratic candidate in the lst C.D. as result of a three-way Democratic primary won by Ms. Goroff.

“For too long our district has been represented by someone who cared more about his job than he did about those of his constituents, and someone who cared more about his own political future than he did about our future generations,” Ms. Fleming said in her announcement. “That changes the day I’m elected to Congress and that’s why I’m running.”

Mr. Schaffer said: “Bridget Fleming is the champion Long Island families need fighting for them in Congress in this critical moment in our nation’s history. As a tough-as-nails prosecutor, a town councilwoman, and a county legislator, Bridget has the backbone to stand up to both parties in Washington to deliver tax relief for our middle-class communities in Suffolk County.”

Ms. Fleming commented: “This is going to be an expensive race.” Indeed, these days millions of dollars are spent in campaigns for seats in the House. But, she says, it is a “flippable district,” yet a “formidable challenge.”

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. 

Suffolk Closeup: Full Circle For Suffolk County Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman 

“I’ve been doing this since I was 12,” Suffolk County Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer was saying the other day about his involvement in Suffolk politics.

Now 57 years old, Mr. Schaffer has been the Suffolk Democratic chair since 2000. As county Democratic leader, “I especially love the generational stuff—getting young people into politics,” he said. It’s kind of full-circle for Rich. 

He’s a former member of the Suffolk County Legislature—elected to it at but age 22. On the legislature he charted an independent course—indeed, informed independence has been a hallmark of Mr. Schaffer’s route in Suffolk politics and government.

He’s been Babylon Town supervisor for more than 18 years. After two series of terms, he is the longest-serving supervisor in Babylon history. And this year he’s running for re-election. 

“I’m a homebody, most comfortable staying local,” says Mr. Schaffer of North Babylon. “I love doing the supervisor’s job—I kind of love doing both, being supervisor and county Democratic chair.”

And, also, he is chair of the Suffolk County Supervisor’s Association,

I’ve known Rich for decades. He’s always been—and still is—a self-effacing, open and available guy. For example, he lists not only his office phone but his cell phone number on the Town of Babylon website for constituents to call.

How many government officials do that!

He was speaking the other day by Zoom to the Suffolk-based group Reachout and Rebuild, “a grassroots group of activists,” it describes itself. Starting by explaining how he began in Suffolk politics at 12, he said it was because “Tom Downey’s brother [Jeffrey] and I were good friends.” Mr. Downey had gone on to be elected to the House of Representatives after a stint as a Suffolk County legislator. 

Mr. Schaffer subsequently worked for Babylon Town Supervisor Tom Fallon and the town’s deputy supervisor, Pat Halpin, who became supervisor, and town board member Sondra Bachety, who became a county legislator and the first woman presiding officer of the legislature. 

Mr. Schaffer graduated as a political science major from SUNY Albany—where he further learned applied politics as its student association president. He attended Brooklyn Law School. But then “in the middle of law school” he was asked to run for the Suffolk Legislature.

And he won in 1987—a victory that led to his losing his law school scholarship, he noted. He had to finish up as an evening student and thus was not entitled to a scholarship.

On the legislature, his independent bent included working closely with Legislator Fred W. Thiele, Jr. of Sag Harbor, then a Republican, both environmentally and reform-minded. 

This independent quality continues. For example, although Steve Bellone is the Democrat currently in Suffolk government’s top county job, county executive, Mr. Schaffer has firmly broken with him. This has included in recent times Mr. Schaffer corresponding with other Democratic chairs throughout New York warning them about Mr. Bellone who is seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He’s told them that Mr. Bellone is “not statewide candidate material.”

Rich left the county legislature in 1992 to be Babylon supervisor through 2001 and returned as supervisor in 2011. In recent elections he’s received 70 percent of the vote.

He sees Suffolk as a “purple” county with Donald Trump winning here in 2020 by only 232 votes compared to 51,440 in 2016, and Democrats having successes in a variety of contests over the years. He also notes changing demographics are advantageous to Democrats.

His efforts to get young people “more involved” in the Democratic Party includes promoting “Young Democrats” clubs and getting young people on the executive board of the Suffolk Democratic Committee. 

He’s encouraged minority candidates. Under his leadership, Errol Toulon, now Suffolk sheriff, became the first African-American in a countywide elected post, and DuWayne Gregory, the first African-American to be presiding officer of the legislature.

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. 

Suffolk Closeup: LIA's Kevin Law Asks For Federal Funds To Bury Electric Lines

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

On his last day as president and CEO of the Long Island Association (LIA), Kevin Law sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer requesting federal help for the undergrounding of electric lines on Long Island. And Mr. Law knows the situation well. Before becoming in 2010 the head of the LIA, the region’s largest business organization, Mr. Law was president and CEO of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) which owns those lines.

Long Island is heavily treed and has near dependence on transmitting electricity through lines on poles. Getting hit with a big storm means outages. More extreme storms can be expected as a result of climate change, and thus even more widescale outages. 

Last year I told in this space about an article on T&D World, a website for utilities, headlined: “It’s Time for Utilities to Reconsider Undergrounding Power Lines.” It stated that “climate change is unquestionably generating intense, costly storms…a hard fact that utilities must confront.” It said “most utilities opt not to bury power lines due to cost. But leaving so much of our power infrastructure exposed to environmental assault may not be worth the short-term cost savings.”

Indeed, undergrounding electric lines is more expensive than stringing lines on poles. But needing to be considered are the huge costs of post-hurricane, post-storm electric restorations. We must recognize too, the terrible hardships which extended outages cause Long Islanders.

Mr. Law on April 1 wrote to Messrs. Biden and Schumer: “As our country continues to respond and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, this is indeed an opportunity to reimagine and rebuild a new economy. The Long Island Association… supports your efforts to invest in our national infrastructure and create new through the proposed American Jobs Plan. Your efforts to invest in our roads, bridges, rails and offshore wind industry are commendable and we are hoping Long Island gets its fair share of these funds as Long Island historically contributes billions more to the U.S. Government than we get back in federal support.”

“As for the $100 billion earmarked to update the country’s electric grid, we encourage you to make these funds available to make electric grids more resilient to climate disasters on Long Island,” he stated. “Portions of this pot of funds should be used to bury the electric grid on Long Island. Owned by the Long Island Power Authority, our region’s electric transmission and distribution system is primarily above ground and contains approximately 10,000 miles of overhead lines.”

“Major storms, including Hurricane Isaias, Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Gloria demonstrated the immense vulnerabilities of our grid,” said Mr. Law. “These storms caused significant disruption and widespread damage such as downed trees and fallen power lines and left most of Long Island’s residents and businesses in the dark, with some out for longer than a week.”

Mr. Law declared: “The modernization and hardening of the country’s electric systems could increase our economic competitiveness around the world, spur additional growth and create jobs while establishing a more resilient infrastructure to combat the negative impact of climate change. The undergrounding of Long Island’s power lines would advance those goals while benefiting every single Long Islander.”

It is great that Mr. Law—as he closed out his tenure at the LIA—addressed this important issue. It’s high time to get electric lines on Long Island lowered into the ground.

I wrote in the column last year about my 1986 book, Power Crazy, and how on its cover was a photo of a Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) pole with it and its electric lines tilted at a 45-degree angle after Hurricane Gloria struck the year before. The book started, I noted, with how Hurricane Gloria caused a loss of electricity to 700,000 customers of LILCO (whose poles and lines were acquired by LIPA when it was established.) But Power Crazy pointed out, service to 96 percent of telephone customers on Long Island had not been interrupted. 

Why? 

“New York Telephone began placing cable underground wherever feasible in the early 1970s in connection with a nationwide trend to avoid visual pollution and increased corporate concerns for cost-reduction,” explained company spokesperson Bruce W. Reisman. “Cost studies clearly indicated to us that it would simply be less costly for us over the long term to place much of our telephone cables underground. It is generally less expensive to maintain a telephone plant when it is underground. This is because underground facilities are less likely to be damaged by falling trees or branches, high winds, ice storms, etc…” 

What’s good for telephone lines is good for electric lines—going underground.

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. 

Suffolk Closeup: What Books You Read Is Determined By Book Publishers

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

With major publishers, one after another, buying up other major publishers, the existence of a small, independent, highly active book-publishing firm in Suffolk County is notable. The company was put together by Martin Shepard, who passed away in December, and Judith Shepard, his wife.

HarperCollins, in a $349 million deal last month, bought Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a venerable U.S. publishing company. Will Harper Collins, owned by Rupert Murdoch, follow in its tradition? Highly unlikely. And this is just the latest consolidation among major publishers. As The New York Times reported in its story on this sale: “The book business has been transformed by consolidation in the past decade.” 

This has included Penguin Random House buying Simon & Schuster last year—in a $2 billion deal. That acquisition, said The Times, “has drawn scrutiny from antitrust regulators and has raised concerns among booksellers, authors and agents.” 

It and the other consolidations in book-publishing should raise concerns for everybody. For books, newspapers, radio and TV and other media, many voices, a variety, are needed to keep people fully aware. As English free press crusader John Milton centuries ago described it, a “marketplace of ideas” is vital for an informed citizenry.

The good news is that here in Suffolk, along Noyac Road in Sag Harbor, there is a publishing house—literally a house—a trailblazing operation begun by Marty and Judith.

Judith had been an actress, Marty a psychiatrist and author. In an interview with book reviewer Norm Goldman on the website www.bookpleasures.com in 2011 he related how he had written 10 books, all these for major publishers. When he wanted to “revive an out-of-print book” and “when none of my publishers wanted to reissue it, we decided to do it ourselves…So that’s how we began: starting two imprints: Second Chance Press and The Permanent Press.”

Mr. Goldman started the interview by speaking of their commitment “to publishing works of social and literary merit and how, over the decades” their publishing house “gained a reputation as one of the finest independent presses in America.”

Marty also commented in that interview how his going into publishing was “an extension of my own life-long sense of rebelliousness from arbitrary and misguided authority.” For instance, during the Vietnam War, he noted, he co-founded Citizens for Kennedy/Fulbright—“the first ‘Dump Johnson Movement. We had chapters in 15 states, preparing to deny LBJ renomination, and eventually [President Lyndon] Johnson retired.”

Marty said of major publishers that they “no longer give new and mid-list writers the attention they deserve, and if a first- or second-time author doesn’t sell a minimum of 10,000 copies, that’s it: on to the small independent presses with you. This is good for us, but bad for new writers and for the public who are being fed the same formulas over and over again. The joke is that despite all this, the conglomerates are still losing money while pursuing their dreams of what might make ‘Best Sellers’ instead of choosing ‘Best Books.’”

And this was before the consolidation further producing homogenized publishing.

Marty and Judith published three books I wrote. The first was Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power. After the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in 1979, Hilda Lindley of Montauk, a top New York literary agent, got in touch with me knowing of my journalism on nuclear power and asked if I would write a book on nuclear power. I began writing it but then Hilda came back telling me no major publisher was interested saying nobody would be interested in nuclear power several months past the TMI disaster. An environmentalist, she was shocked. I ran into Marty, told him what Hilda had encountered, and he and Judy said they would publish the book. It’s been out now for more than four decades and become an important handbook on nuclear power especially because it’s full of facsimiles of actual key—and damning—government and corporate documents.

In 2011, after the Fukushima catastrophe and the earlier Chernobyl disaster, Marty thought major publishers would now be interested in reissuing my book on nuclear power, updated. He asked me to put together a new edition. Meanwhile, he approached major publishers but got the same “no” that Hilda got.

So Marty and Judy took the new edition—and put it online for free downloads!

How’s that for a bold, independent press operating from 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.