Notes From KPCA Meeting June 19

By Joe Flynn

Kaitlin Gallagher, KPCA Scholarship winner.The Kings Park Civic Association (KPCA) met on Tuesday, June 19 with a full agenda of items to be discussed.  KPCA acknowledged two 2012 scholarship winners Kaitlin Gallagher and Corey Robert Byrne.

Second item on the agenda was the demolition of buildings at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center. The demolition is expected to begin in late July.  Mike Rosato, Nissequogue River State Park Foundation chairperson, informed the Association about a June 14^th meeting that took place regarding the demolition. A controlled demolition will allow National Salvage and Service Corporation to contain the asbestos in the 19 buildings scheduled to be demolished.  The Nissequogue River State Park will remain open while demolition takes place although Kings Park Boulevard and Old Dock Rd may close during the demolition of buildings adjacent to the road. Saint Johnland Road is expected to remain open during the demolition.

Director of the Smithtown Library, Robert Lusak, was the speaker for the evening and addressed the status of the Kings Park Branch and the Smithtown Library renovations.

Lusak expressed excitement about the reopening of the libraries, describing that every square inch of the buildings has been given attention, especially the elevators and emergency staircases that were hazardous or just plain broken before. He declared that the question he faces most often is: why do we still need the libraries?

Kings Park Branch of the Smithtown Library“We are the only tax-supported institution that serves all of its constituents,” is his answer. All of Suffolk County’s libraries have been responded to the technological revolution that makes e-books so easy to access; each of Smithtown’s branches will now contain e-book technology, and the staff is trained to use and answer any questions about it. Beyond this, Lusak described the library setting as a “community center,” which can accommodate children’s programs, senior citizen programs, community events, and something for everyone in between.

Mr. Lusak did not specify a date for the reopening of the two buildings, due to the fact that they have already been postponed for several weeks, but he said he expected the project to last for another “two to three weeks.”

The final item for the night pertained to several zoning issues that have been a source of disagreement between the Town of Smithtown and Civic Association officers Sean Lehman and Mike Rosato. There have been concerns that the Santilli Property, behind the driving range on Old Northport Road, would be used for sand mining, these concerns have been put largely at bay thanks to Department of Environmental Conservation monitoring.

More urgent is the dispute over properties west of that development, between Indian Head Road and Pulaski Road. Neighbors have consistently complained of strong odors coming from the properties. The Town is aware that this land is zoned for light industry, but many of the landowners currently engage in heavy industry, such as junk storage and concrete production, for which they are not zoned. Mr. Lehman and others present expressed strong displeasure with the handling tactics of Town Supervisor Pat Vecchio and the Smithtown Planning Department, which have included ignoring the problem for more than 40 years.

This precedent has led to several losses in court when the Town attempted to sue property owners. Lehman rescinded KPCA’s earlier decision to support a “heavy industrial overlay,” which would have permitted existing violations but protected the future of the development. This decision came in light of Planning Director Frank DeRubeis’s definition of some heavy industrial activities, such as asphalt production, as light. Currently, Rosato’s plan is to zone all the properties for light industry, which would terminate the violations should the owners ever decide to sell the land.

Notes From KPCA Meeting June 19

The Kings Park Civic Association acknowledged its 2012 scholarship winners, Kaitlin Gallagher and Corey Robert Byrne. Kaitlin was present at Tuedsay’s meeting.  From a competitive high school class, Kaitlin was chosen because of her contribution to over 20 fund raisers, including the Guide Dog Foundation and Brain Injury foundations, as well as her high level of leadership in the various organizations of which she is a part. Congratulations, Kaitlin and Corey!

By Joe Flynn

Kaitlin Gallagher, KPCA Scholarship winner. The Kings Park Civic Association (KPCA) met on Tuesday, June 19 with a full agenda of items to be discussed.  KPCA acknowledged two 2012 scholarship winners Kaitlin Gallagher and Corey Robert Byrne.

Second on the agenda was the demolition of buildings at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center. The demolition is expected to begin in late July.  Mike Rosato, Nissequogue River State Park Foundation chairperson, informed the Association about a June 14^th meeting that took place regarding the demolition. A controlled demolition will allow National Salvage and Service Corporation to contain the asbestos in the 19 buildings scheduled to be demolished.  The Nissequogue River State Park will remain open while demolition takes place although Kings Park Boulevard and Old Dock Rd may close during the demolition of buildings adjacent to the road. Saint Johnland Road is expected to remain open during the demolition. Click here

Paul Graf - Smithtown Elementary's Principal Retires

By Chris Biancaniello

“I cannot forget from where it is that I come from. I cannot forget the people who love me and I can be myself here in this small town and people let me be just what I want to be.” John Mellancamp

Paul GrafPaul Graf has been the principal of Smithtown Elementary for almost 25 years, and now at the age of 60 he has decided to retire. He has been an almost iconic fixture to the students of Smithtown Elementary during their six years of schooling at the school. He plays songs on his guitar for birthdays and from time to time can even be spotted gliding down the halls on his scooter.

Mr. Graf is the quintessential elementary school principal, he’s eccentric and not afraid to do things that would be out of most people’s comfort zone. What else can you say about a man that dresses up as the Cat in the Hat every year, face paint and all? Beloved by his students and faculty, Mr. Graf’s time at Smithtown Elementary will not soon be forgotten.

He sat with Smithtown Matters to answer a few questions about the job, retirement, and what the future holds.

SM: Does it feel weird to be interviewed by a former student?

PG: Not at all, it’s a pleasure to see you again.

SM: Tell me a little bit about how you got to this point.

PG: I began my career as a BOCES teacher at what was at the time called “learning adjustment”. It was a failed experiment we called “Seton Hall”, where they put together all the kids from BOCES 2. At the time any child ages 5-21 with disabilities was put into this one building. It was insane. So I got out of there in one year and moved to the fourth grade. I taught fourth grade at Comsewogue Schools in Port Jeff Station for three years.

From there I moved towards teaching special education students. I was a special ed. teacher and taught students who had learning disabilities in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I spent my summers teaching kids who were skilled in theatre. I’ve been employed in the district here since 1987. I was also at Comsewogue as an assistant principal in 84-85 and I went from there to my first principal’s job at Terryville Elementary School. I took that job knowing the school was going to close, it was just a matter of gaining one year’s experience. I sent out one magical application in the spring of 1987 and Smithtown said “yes”, and here we sit!

SM: So 25 years?

PG: Just about.

SM: What are your plans going to be after retirement?

PG: I need a little time to rest reflect and then see what the universe has in store for me. I truly believe there is God and I think God is guiding me. I leave myself open to that kind of guidance.

SM: What are you going to miss most?

PG: The children. You know, in the school I can smile at any child and they smile back at me. In the community people are so fearful of strangers looking at their kids (laughs) that I have to be careful. But I will miss smiling at children.

SM: What are you going to miss the least?

PG: Discipline- discipline on school busses. It takes a lot of work to figure out what happened in there.

SM: What ultimately led to your decision to retire?

PG: I’m going to be 60 this summer and 38 years is plenty. And how many years do you get in life you know? I hope I get a good 20 years to go explore the world and I want to embrace that.

SM: Any particular travel plans?

PG: Oh yeah. I plan to be in Africa by next February or March, probably in the south like Tanzania.

SM: What are you expecting your last day to be like here?

PG: No different than any other day. I’ll take care of the kids, makes sure they have all the paperwork they need to be on their busses. Make sure they get home safe. My last day with children I expect it to be no different than any other day. But, I have a lot of cleaning up to do. I’m still working! I have to finish a number of things. I have to tie up school for Mrs. Lavery.

SM: That’s who’s coming in next?

PG: Yes, Janine Lavery from Nesconset, a really fine lady, and a great sense of humor very well rounded in literacy and elementary education. Very well grounded person.

SM: What is your favorite memory?

PG: Oh god. There’s no one memory. There is something that struck me. I remember when I first got here, and it was in December or January, they had a school student concert and Gale Hershkowitz was the music teacher. She had the children sing to me “Consider Yourself” from Oliver. When I see that vision in my head it’s in Kodachrome. It’s not a vision that’s in sepia. It’s in Kodacolor. The reds and yellows were highlighted in ways that were just unreal. I remember being the room; I remember it being wintertime. I remember girls with bows in their hair like plaid bows and boys in their white shirts and everybody singing that song. Then the other one is the blue-skied days. Blue skies on the days of the ragamuffin parade, you know think about it, hundreds of parents come to see their kids and I’ll never forget just juggling pumpkins against the blue sky.

SM: What made you stick with being principal of Smithtown Elementary?

PG: My ego told me to go be the assistant superintendant or superintendant, but my brain made me ask why. What could be more powerful than having an impact on teaching and learning in an institution? For those reasons I made the choices to stay as an elementary school principal and make deep change in this wonderful suburban country school.

SM: If you could give one piece of advice to Mrs. Lavery what would it be?

PG: Smile at children. A Chinese paper cutter used to come to the school. He was a cultural arts guy. Here’s what he told me, he once sat me down and he said, “You need to be more happy. When children look at you, you’re the face of god. You need to smile at children.” It was great advice. You know, who knows what these kids have been up against that morning. Some kids have great parents, they get their stuff together and they’re on their way. Other kids might have had a rough ride. Parents are so busy between their responsibilities so that they can make a life for their child, given all those pressures kids are under a lot of pressures so the least I can do is smile.

SM: What’s different about being a principal today, from the day you started.

PG: The level of accountability is much higher. Tests are starting in grade three now. State tests and now the level of accountability; three times a year we are expecting a lot out of children and teachers.

SM: Has that made things tougher on you?

PG: I wouldn’t say tougher. It has made things tougher on teachers. We have to manage a lot of testing now. That is one thing we are very conscious of, the Testing calendar, and managing all the aspects of the testing calendar.

SM: What about from an administrative perspective. Has it been different working with all the different administrations?

PG: I’ve always worked hard to have a good relationship with my bosses because you know they’re just trying to do their jobs too. I’ve always worked to be cooperative and instructive and helped them know how they can serve the best interest in their schools. And that’s the best way to go about it. Your success is the boss’s success; the boss’s success is your success.

SM: What’s different about the kids over the years?

PG: The thing I’m most concerned about is self-preservation. I think that our students now are highly insulated. I think back to myself at the age of eight. I lived in Brooklyn, I would ride the train, and I would ride the subway! At the age of eight I would ride the subway with a friend who was nine to go to John Jay High School to go swimming in the summer. I had a lot of freedom and the children, and again they’re wonderful kids but I think they’re highly insulated. There are reasons for that of course. But, I think that kids have to explore the natural world and I think that children need to have a stronger sense of self-preservation. I mean I climbed trees; I climbed fences, and now kids trip on the sidewalk these days (laughs).

SM: What are you going to do with the famous scooter that you ride around the halls?

PG: (laughs) I think I have to give the scooter to Mrs. Lavery. Maybe she won’t ride it with her high heels on. Principal gets the scooter. One last thing, I have a quote I want to share with you. One of the songs I sing is called “Small Town” by John Mellancamp. There is a great line in it, “I cannot forget from where it is that I come from. I cannot forget the people who love me and I can be myself here in this small town and people let me be just what I want to be.”

SM: Why is this particular quote relevant to you?

PG: This is a small town and one of the things we do really well here at this school is give access to parents to enter into the lives of their children, and I think that’s really important. The reason we would have events over the years was so that parents could better understand the work of their children. I’m going to miss this like crazy. I come in I drive one hundred miles per hour to get here every day. But, at the same time its time to move on.

SM: Are you going to visit?

PG: We’ll see. It’s going be hard to stay away.

Mr. Graf’s final day with the students will be this Thursday, June 21^st. His replacement, Mrs. Lavery will certainly have some big shoes to fill.

Amanda Daflos SHS Class of '96 - Building A School And A Future For Children In Nepal

Former Smithtown resident aims to construct school in impoverished Nepal

By Chad Kushins

Photos courtesy of Amanda Daflos and the Nepal Maure Village School Project

Amanda Daflos with a school class in KathmanduWhen Amanda Daflos graduated from Smithtown High School in 1996, she had no idea that her college years would lead to a passion that would inspire the next decade and a half of her life. 

Attending Hamilton College in Upstate New York, Daflos opted to study abroad for seven months, her adventure finally leading her to the village of Kopan, located in Nepal.  There, she lived with a local native family, and not only learned to read and write Nepali, but also to witness, first-hand, the economic and social obstacles that all but dominate areas of the third-world.  It was a harsh lesson that she never forgot.  While attaining her master’s degree at the University of Colorado, Amanda stayed in contact with her friends in Nepal, putting into motion an ambitious project that will finally see a launch date this month.

“I had originally studied in [the village of Kopan] as a student,” Daflos told Smithtown Matters, “and I’ve felt very connected to there since that time.  I made a lot of friends there and it’s a very rich, interesting culture … I’ve worked on and organized a number of different projects and charities for that area, and it’s been a great way to stay connected.”

Eventually settling down in Colorado, Amanda founded Aleigh Productions, a public relations and event consulting firm specializing in work with non-profit organizations and also became the Director of Programs for the International Mountain Explorers Connection [IMEC], a non-profit organization focusing on assisting people who live in developing mountain regions throughout the world.* Now a manager for Deloitte Consulting, Amanda’s experiences shaped a career-path of unique insight into what would become her Nepal school construction project.

“Staying connected, the idea came out of being in contact with friends and the families I know there,” Daflos said of the earliest concepts to build a school in the area and how she could uniquely help from her place in the Children in Maure VillageU.S.  “I thought to myself, ‘How can I not do this?  It’s in my power to help in this way, and I have the background for it … Partnerships have been really important, and I’ve gotten a lot of inside help to get this off the ground.  And that partnership exists, where [the villagers] really want this school to happen and many people involved want to see it done for them.”

Joined in her crusade by business partner John Oliva, Amanda co-founded Nepal Trek and Trail Run, aiming to Amanda Daflos (right) and Nima Dorje Lama who are the project founders for the Nepal Maure Village School Build Project introduce to others the beautiful, culture, and unfortunate economic strife within Nepal and its surrounding country.  On a continuing basis, both Daflos and Oliva take tourists, who sign up for a ten-day hike and run through Katmandu and the Annapurna Mountains with a portion of the proceeds used to support other organizations working in that region.  

The plot of land that will soon to be leveled, paving the way for the new village high school.In November of last year, Amanda visited the home of close friend, former mayor of the village of Maure, Jagat Man Lama.  On that trip, she quickly learned the current woes of the village, particularly those affecting the local schools and young students.  In Maure, the 35-year-old middle school not only had fallen into a certain amount of disrepair, but students older than the seventh-grade level are forced to make a three-hour round trip walk to school every day because of the village’s lack of a proper high school.  With the extreme difficulty of having to make such a daily journey, many students opt to quit school prior to attending high school, finding it easier to work within the agricultural community, conducting work in the fields or in other local areas that require manual labor.  In the end, these students don’t really have a choice.

Daflos explained, “It’s a very challenged place and a still-evolving country.  It’s very, very rural – almost like A traditional native woman of Maure village.  the side of a mountain – and so, it’s also very agricultural.  With their current situation, all students in the village, after grade seven, have to walk if they want to continue their education – and many decide that it’s just too much and settle into a job without the means to advance further.

“Knowing those numbers,” added Daflos, “it was the real reason that we want to fix up the standing middle school and add a brand new high school.”

Amanda and her team have found that for $30,000, the local middle school in Maure can be repaired and enough land can be acquired to build a much-needed high school and playground.  In order to logistically commence the project, each step for the school was broken down into phases, the first of which would see much-needed repairs made to the standing middle school as the high school’s land acquisition continues, leading up to its construction. 

An ambitious project, yes, but Daflos is passionate that the goal can be met – with the right amount of help.

“Our goal is still to raise that initial $30,000 by the end of this month,” Daflos added.  “The entire project is set into phases, and that sum will go very far in the first stage…”

According to Daflos, not only does she plan to make frequent visits to Maure while the project is underway – even planning a trip in July for the launch of the construction’s first phase – but is also in talks with local school districts to get students involved in raising additional funds to benefit the cause. 

Daflos believes that with the right attitude and social education, many high schoolers might become very inspired in learning about the diverse cultures and the disadvantages that students their own ages face in other countries – and how just a little understanding and support can lead to tremendous advances in the quality of life for someone else.

Who knows?  Amanda was once just a Smithtown High School student looking to help out, too.

Additional information about Amanda Daflos’ ongoing project to aid the village of Maure’s school construction, or about the many other concurrent initiatives to benefit that region, visit www.nepalschool.wix.com/project or www.cureblindness.org.

*This article has been amended 

FEMA To Reimburse Smithtown $4,296,115.57

FEMA Aid for Suffolk County, Smithtown and Brookhaven Town Follows Announcement of $5.1 Million in Army Corps Funding for Beach Restoration West Of Shinnecock Inlet PATCHOGUE — Congressman Tim Bishop hailed the recent announcements that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved federal grants for major debris removal in the aftermath of Tropical Storms Irene and Lee totaling $1,745,715 to reimburse Suffolk County, $1,009,769.38 to reimburse Smithtown and $4,296,115.57 to reimburse Brookhaven Town. In response to the August, 2011 disaster, County and Town governments deployed personnel from all departments to help with emergency debris removal and ensure public safety, and also hired additional contractors with special equipment to aid the cleanup effort. Last week, FEMA approved applications for reimbursement from the local government entities, with the federal government bearing 75% of the cost for debris removal within Town borders. The federal cost share is typical for FEMA Public Assistance grants. “After Hurricane Irene, County and Town governments responded quickly and comprehensively to help our community recover from the federally-declared disaster, and I strongly supported federal grant funding to reimburse Suffolk County, Brookhaven and Smithtown for their hard work,” said Congressman Tim Bishop. “I’m especially pleased that the federal government has stepped up to cover much of the recovery costs given the fiscal situation in Suffolk County.” Bishop said that additional FEMA grants for East End towns will likely be approved on a rolling basis in the coming weeks. The FEMA aid follows the announcement last week by Congressman Bishop that he has secured $5.1 million for a US Army Corps of Engineers dredge of Shinnecock Inlet this year, with sand from the dredged inlet to be placed on the badly-eroded section of beach known as West of Shinnecock Inlet (WOSI) to restore it to its condition before Irene. Federal funding through the Army Corps Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies program will cover the entire cost of the work, with no share of the cost borne by local government. On August 31, 2011, Congressman Bishop and a bipartisan coalition of 20 members of New York’s delegation in the House of Representatives wrote a letter urging President Obama to declare Irene a federal disaster in Suffolk County and all 26 New York counties declared disaster areas by Governor Cuomo. Once the President declared the federal disaster, Suffolk County became eligible for Public Assistance, including the reimbursement announced today. Bishop also successfully appealed directly to President Obama for Suffolk County homeowners and businesses who suffered damage in the disaster to be eligible for Individual Assistance (IA) grants due to the severe damage to private property in coastal areas. On September 8, Bishop hosted a meeting in Mastic with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) to help homeowners and businesses learn about the process for applying for federal disaster aid for individuals. Storm damage impacted 861 homes state-wide, with $16,798,899 in individual assistance provided to affected homeowners. “I advocated strongly for federal aid to repair the significant damage in Suffolk County from this federally-declared disaster, and will continue to work with my partners in local government to make the strongest possible case for aid in response to future disasters,” said Congressman Bishop.