Campaign Signs Become An Issue In Town Council Race

By Pat Biancaniello

An unanticipated snafu in the town council race has some Smithtown Democrats riled up. Specifically, the issue is the wording on town council candidate Tom Lohmann’s lawn signs, which according to Tom Lohmann, was a mistake. Lohmann’s signs inform residents that they should re-elect Lohmann who has never been elected. Lohmann was appointed by the Republican town board to his position on the board to fill a vacancy that resulted when Ed Wehrheim became town supervisor.

Candidate Amy Fortunato gave Smithtown Matters the following statement: “Obviously, signs don’t vote. Lawn signs or any other political advertisements are intended to inform voters, not to deceive.  It’s a logical impossibility to re-elect someone who wasn’t elected in the first place.  It’s clearly misstating the will of Smithtown voters. It’s pretty clear that the intent of these lawn signs is to mislead voters into thinking that my opponent was ever elected in the first place. The truth is Mr. Lohmann came in last place in the 2017 election with the fewest number of votes of all the six candidates.  For someone who was never elected to office to advertise for ‘re-election’ is a blatant mistruth and conveys to voters the false impression of legitimacy. It’s a strong reminder of our need for integrity, transparency and ethics by those who serve in public office.” 

Sounding a little frustrated in a phone conversation Tom Lohmann said that the signs cost over $700 and that they would remain. He emphatically denied that he was trying to mislead voters. Saying that he did not personally order the lawn signs, he stated  “the Re-Elect should have been removed, it was a mistake. When I am out campaigning I tell everyone that I was appointed.” 

Lawn signs are used by candidates to increase name recognition and when posted at a residence it signals support. The effectiveness of lawn signs on the voting public is debatable. A study of the impact of lawn signage on a political campaings from 2015 shows mixed results with a small impact on influencing elections.

People In The News - Myra Naseem & Elegant Eating

By Stacey Altherr

Myra Naseem  - Elegant Eating - 739 Smithtown Bypass, Smithtown

If you ask Myra Naseem how she juggled teaching, being a single mother of two teenage girls, and starting a second career, she will tell you that she is more herself when juggling many balls in the air and looking for something new and different.

“I’m the sort of person that has to change,” she said. “I wake up in the morning and take a picture from one room and put in a different room.” 

That ability to change – actually inspired to make constant changes – is what makes Elegant Eating such a success. Starting while she was still a home economics teacher and raising two teenage girls, she would cook for family and friends, often catering dinner parties and other small gatherings. 

She made a cake and some other dishes for her eldest daughter’s bat mitzvah, and the caterer at the time liked what he saw. He hired her to work for him, which gave her an early insight into the catering world. She was soon supervising.

“For me, supervising the staff on the floor was like a classroom,” said Naseem, 76. “It came naturally to me.”

By the time of her youngest daughter’s bat mitzvah, she catered the whole event, with help from current and former home economic students and friends.

During this time, she met Neil Schumer, who also worked for the same caterer and was graduating from college with a business degree. She and he became partners, opening their first storefront in an old deli in Stony Brook in 1986. From there, Elegant Eating expanded its catering business, eventually moving to their present spot on Smithtown Bypass. Although she never went to culinary school, her home economics background and ability to keep those balls in the air led to success. Schumer is strictly the business side, which Naseem said has always helped her concentrate more on the food side.

Elegant Eating currently has a staff of at least 14 people, with 12 of those in the kitchen. A separate wait staff goes out to work the parties.

With more than 30 years, Naseem has seen the business through good times and lean times. The key to success? That ability to constantly change with the times, and the dietary needs and wants of the clientele. For instance, no one wants bread anymore, she said. Crudités are out.

“I think people are much more willing to try new foods,” she said. “Especially vegetables.”

She has always tries to introduce a new idea or food item in her catering. She tells a story of bringing artisan bread years ago to a catered event, only to be told the bread was stale. She explained that it wasn’t stale, but a different texture.

More stories: The time she introduced Jicama at an event, she was told someone put raw potato on the table, or the time she was told the red lettuce was bad, because people were only eating iceberg or romaine.

“I would put out guacamole, and no one would touch it.”

She sees her role as educating the customer to the different variations of a dish they already have in mind. If they want Chicken Francese, she will ask them to think about rosemary chicken.

Not only has the food evolved over the years, but the business model itself. There are many less dinner parties and more corporate catering.

Elegant Eating also does a lot of memorial services. Since people who have moved out of town remember her so well, they will call their old friend to cater the event.

And, of course, weddings. Those have also changed over the 30 something years, said Naseem, from catering halls to weddings in barns out east or on private lawns. Elegant Eating can cater to large crowds with specialized dishes. 

“We cook on a different level, with unique presentation.”

There is a lot to owning a business, she said, since the burden is always on the owner. If the walk-in refrigerator goes down and you lose the food, you have to pay for it. 

“It isn’t as easy as it seems, and it isn’t for everyone.”

Naseem has seen it changed for small mom-and-pop style business. It’s hard to compete with the vast shopping sprees available on the internet. But it is possible to succeed in a small business.

Her advice to new entrepreneurs? If you have a dream, be sure to set a goal and write it down.

“If you set yourself up for success, you will do it. You have to feel really strong and really positive.”

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Environmentalist Irving Like Has Died We Must Keep Going

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Irving Like, an environmental giant in Suffolk County, New York State and the United States, has died. 

Irving Like (photo Legacy.com)Mr. Like was instrumental in getting the Shoreham nuclear power plant abandoned; was a key in the successful fight to stop the four-lane highway that public works czar Robert Moses sought to build on Fire Island and to create instead a Fire Island National Seashore; he was the author of the Conservation Bill of Rights that’s part of the New York State Constitution; and he established a model since emulated across the U.S. of exposing the deadly dangers of nuclear power at proceedings of federal nuclear power licensing agencies that otherwise are kangaroo courts. And there was so much more.

Attorney Like, of Bay Shore, never stopped fighting for the environment. He was still involved in crusades and litigation when he passed away on October 3 at 93.

I began writing about Mr. Like in 1962 and was regularly in touch with him through the years since. Our last communication came on September 20 when Irv emailed me about his crusade to have UNESCO designate Fire Island a World Heritage Site. This, he said, would result in international protection for that extraordinary barrier beach. In the email, Irv related how “my wife Margalit to whom I was happily married for 69 years” had died. “What keeps me going are the environmental projects I care about & the knowledge of people like you. Let’s keep going!!!” 

I was 20 years old starting out as a reporter at the Babylon Town Leader when I first wrote about Irv. Mr. Moses, a Babylon resident, had just announced his Fire Island highway. I was dispatched to Fire Island and wrote a lengthy front page article on how the highway would pave over the exquisite nature and magical communities of Fire Island. It was my first big story. 

Irv and his brother-in-law, Murray Barbash (who passed away in 2013) swung into action creating the Citizens Committee for a Fire Island National Seashore. Irv and Murray figured there wouldn’t be a way to stop Moses on the state level. After Moses suffered what was a then record loss in a run for governor, he instead amassed vast influence in New York particularly through commissions. Needed was federal involvement to stop Moses’ highway. Also, the National Seashore goal would make the campaign positive, more than anti-highway. In 1964 the Seashore became a reality, the highway stopped.

Irv and Murray flipped that strategy on Shoreham. They determined that the nuclear project couldn’t be stopped on the federal level—with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) never having denied a construction or operating license for a nuclear plant anywhere, anytime. (This has continued with its successor agency, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.) So they formed Citizens to Replace LILCO with a focus on using state power, especially the power of condemnation, to stop Shoreham and the Long Island Lighting Company. They worked to establish a Long Island Power Authority with the clout, if LILCO persisted with Shoreham and its plan to build seven to 11 nuclear power plants on Long Island, to eliminate LILCO. The Long Island Power Act was enacted in 1985 and LILCO gave up turning Shoreham over to the state for a nominal $1 to be decommissioned as a nuclear facility.

Irv had gotten involved in challenging nuclear power in Suffolk earlier. He was attorney for the Lloyd Harbor Study Group which fought a previous LILCO nuclear plant project in Lloyd Harbor. LILCO, in the face of the opposition in that upscale village in Huntington Town decided to shift the location of its first nuclear plant to Shoreham. It assumed the Lloyd Harbor Study Group and Irv would not go many miles east to continue the battle. But they did. 

The AEC construction permit hearings for Shoreham lasted two years and were the longest hearings it ever held. Irv understood he wouldn’t be able to win. But as he wrote in a paper delivered before the American Bar Association in 1971 and in a version published nationally, the AEC hearings, although fixed, could be an “educational forum to alert the public” about the perils of nuclear power and spur people to political action. 

Most recently, Irv has represented Helene Forst’s Long Island Businesses for Responsible Energy battling the placement of giant toxic chemical-coated poles for transmission lines by PSEG and LIPA. Ms. Forst who worked earlier with Irv as co-chair of East End Shoreham Opponents, speaks of his “brilliance, positivity and resilience.” She reflects: “l was fortunate to be able to work side-by-side with Irving, passionately fighting the David and Goliath fights that needed to be fought.”

Irv’s important work goes on and on including his being counsel to Suffolk County challenging offshore Atlantic oil drilling and his involvement in the lawsuit on behalf of Vietnam War vets suffering from cancer caused by the use by the U.S. of Agent Orange,

We must all “keep going.” 

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.  

Indefatigable Amy Fortunato Asks Respectfully For Your Vote

By Pat Biancaniello

Amy Fortunato is on a mission to become Smithtown’s newest council person by winning the November 6th special election and she is indefatigable in her effort. Answer your door and you might find her standing there. Attend any event in any part of the town and you will see Ms. Fortunato shaking hands, listening to people and talking with them about her ideas. According to Fortunato her motivation comes from a strong belief that taxpayers need an “independent voice for transparency”  which she feels is missing on the current Town Board which is currently one hundred percent Republican. Willing to set aside partisan labels, Amy feels compelled to be an advocate for Smithtown taxpayers, pledging to hold government accountable; irrespective of party.   

This is the second attempt to win a seat on the town board for both Fortunato and her opponent, Republican Thomas Lohmann.  In November 2017 she received 10,196 votes to win 17.60 per cent of the total vote count finishing third behind Lynne C. Nowick 14,132 votes and Thomas J McCarthy 12,969 votes.  Thomas Lohmann finished in sixth place receiving 5,394 votes or 9.31 percent of the vote in the 2017 election. Thomas Lohmann was appointed by the Republican town board to fill Ed Wehrheim’s vacant seat.

Amy Fortunato at 2018 Regatta on the RiverA political novice Fortunato is a pastor with a Master of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary, and a former Citibank manager with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. “While attending seminary, I learned what it means to truly listen.  I believe we need public servants who are stewards of the public trust.  We need honesty, transparency, and accountability.  We also need someone who will advocate for all interests, and not just those who are the most vocal or financially invested.”  She added, “It’s too easy for us to bring our own preconceptions and partisan opinions into a conversation, preventing us from effectively hearing another person’s concerns.  I plan to approach this position with an unbiased ear, endeavoring to listen to all points of view.”

Fortunato hopes to focus on taxpayer/residents quality of life issues which she says encompasses the need for discussion and action on taxes, water quality, traffic safety and congestion as well as crime and substance abuse. She hopes to work with other board members to create an independent citizen’s advisory board to guide development in the town. “ The mirage that exists adjacent to Whisper the Bull, is a travesty.  We must take action as a community to ensure that our children and residents can enjoy Smithtown’s natural environs, like the Nissequogue River without the visual affront of an adult entertainment venue.  It’s past time that we addressed this blight that our politicians have been unwilling to address.”   

People In The News - St. James Resident June Capossela Kempf

Writer June Capossela Kempf published in Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts

Akron, Ohio – The work of writer June Capossela Kempf of Saint James, New York, has been published in the current issue ofKaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts. Her poem, “Where’s the Bunny?,” appears in Issue 77: The Journey Continues.  Her work was selected from among more than 350 submissions considered for publication.

Kempf is an educator whose two books were published by Keith Publications, Yo God! Jay’s Story (2013) and Lady of the Dollhouse (2017). She was inducted into the Long Island Authors Circle in 2018. Kempf is inspired by the words of Maya Angelou: “One of the worst burdens is an untold story.”

The award-winning Kaleidoscope magazine is published by United Disability Services in Akron, Ohio.  A pioneer in the publication of disability literature and fine arts, the magazine expresses the experiences of disability from the perspective of individuals, families, friends, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.  The material chosen for Kaleidoscope challenges and overcomes stereotypical, patronizing and sentimental attitudes about disability.  The publication is now available at no cost online by visiting www.KaleidoscopeOnline.org.

United Disability Services has been meeting the social, vocational, community living, low vision, recreational and transportation needs of people with disabilities for nearly 70 years.  For more information visit www.udsakron.org.