SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Visionary Farm Preservation Program Wins In Court

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

It’s a triumph for Suffolk County’s visionary Farmland Preservation Program!

The state’s Appellate Division last month rejected by 3-to-1 a ruling by a state Supreme Court justice in 2016 that hamstrung the program. Conceived by County Executive John V. N. Klein, the program, begun in 1974, is based on the brilliant and then novel idea of purchase of development rights. Farmers are paid the difference between the value of their land in agriculture and what they could get for it if they sold it off for development. In return, the land is kept in agriculture in perpetuity. 

The Suffolk program has since been emulated across the nation.

It has been central in keeping Suffolk a top agricultural county in New York State and so much of it green. Not only do the farms of the county, on some of the best soils on the planet, produce food and other agricultural products, but they are integral to the thriving tourism industry in Suffolk.

However, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society brought a misguided lawsuit which claimed that allowing “structures” on preserved farmland, as permitted by amendments to the program approved by the Suffolk Legislature, was not legal. And Justice Thomas Whelan supported the claim. 

Great credit for the successful appeal goes to current Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, the Suffolk Legislature and the County Farmland Committee. Once the lawsuit was brought, the county promptly arranged for the county to retain a law firm that has long fought for the environment, Riverhead-based Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley and Quartararo. Handling the appeal was a partner in the firm, Lisa Clare Kombrink, who has a specialty in farmland preservation as former Southampton Town attorney and in other public legal positions. In a statement, Twomey, Latham described the winning appeal as a “victory for Suffolk County agriculture…a big win.” The firm noted how it “fought back the efforts of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society to jeopardize the county program.”

If the ruling were allowed to stand it would “effectively gut the Farmland Preservation Program,” said Mr. Bellone. “If farmers can’t do the things necessary to run a successful operation, we can’t have farming here anymore.”

Legislator Al Krupski of Cutchogue, who is a fourth-generation Suffolk farmer, said: “There is great diversity in agriculture, and not everyone understands what is needed to operate a productive farm or agricultural operation. Agriculture is changing. Different farming techniques, new technology and methods are emerging, along with the opportunities they present. Infrastructure needs may change. We need to adapt to accommodate these changes if we want to preserve agriculture and farming.”

Legislator Bridget Fleming of Noyac said: “Our critically important agricultural industry will only survive if farmers can undertake the basic practices that make a farm work.”

The Appellate Division in its majority decision stated the county’s “special use permits” for accessory structures “all constitute or are sufficiently related to agricultural production.”

Justice Whelan “basically misconstrued what the county’s original intent was—to prevent the development of farmland but still allow typical and acceptable farm practices to be utilized,” explains State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. of Sag Harbor, an attorney. The Farmland Preservation Program “didn’t freeze in a moment of time” structures that could be on a farm. Farmers who have put their land into preservation under the program, said Mr. Thiele, have been
“entitled” to build sheds, barns and other structures “as long as they complied with the definition of agricultural practices. The idea was that farming is dynamic and that there would have to be changes in the future.” 

John v.H.Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, said Suffolk’s “landmark” Farmland Preservation Program “is about assuring the future of farming and agricultural production first and foremost” and, “Agricultural production by definition includes structures like barns, greenhouses and fences.” The program, “the first of its kind in the country, was created to protect not only farmland but farming. Farm operations by definition are the land, the structures, the improvements and the practices necessary to perform agricultural production.”

Rob Carpenter, administrative director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, emphasized that “farmers need to have the ability to change with the times…Farming today is very sophisticated and complicated…No farmer is going to preserve their land if they can’t continue as a farm operation and that means with modern agriculture having the necessary infrastructure in order to farm.”

By bringing its lawsuit, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society broke a long tradition of environmental groups in Suffolk joining in a “big tent” approach, working cooperatively with each other. Whether it had to do with open space, farmland preservation, preserving the pine barrens, clean water, battling nuclear power in Suffolk and challenging offshore oil drilling, they have—until the Pine Barrens Society’s lawsuit—worked in harmony. 

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. 

Smithtown Mourns Lt. Christopher Raguso

Farewell Lt. Christopher Raguso

A Family Man, An American Hero, F.D.N.Y.  

Maureen Rossi 

Lt. Christopher Raguso (Photo Stripes.com)Under the warmth of the mid-day sun, several thousand residents, firefighters from around the country as well as various law enforcement agencies lined the streets of Commack and Kings Park on Saturday March 31^st to honor the extraordinary life of Lt. Christopher Raguso who died in a helicopter crash on March 15 while serving as a member of the NY Air National Guard in Iraq. 

His wife and their two *children were surrounded by family and close friends as they rode in a F.D.N.Y. truck at the beginning of the procession.

Lt. Christopher Raguso was a member of the F.D.N.Y.; Ladder 113, Engine 249 in addition to being a member of the New York Air National Guard.  He was also a volunteer firefighter with the Commack Fire Department.

Known as a guy who gave it all, regardless of what he was doing, Raguso leaves behind scores who loved him and respected him.

Young participant in the Lt. Christopher Raguso processionHis firefighter brethren came out in vast numbers with helicopters flying above the procession catching the enormity of the sea of blue which turned out to be an Ocean for Raguso and his family.   It was the second F.D.N.Y. funeral of the week and some the men of the F.D.N.Y. wore it on their fatigued faces with tears rolling down their faces as Raguso’s coffin went by.         

Commack and Kings Park were adorned in American flags and yellow ribbons for their local hero and in support of his family.  The 11:30 a.m. mass at St. Joseph’s was filled to capacity. Store fronts served as water stations and coffee stations for mourners. Tents were filled with food for the firefighters. Roads were closed.  Only firefighters were permitted on Old Dock Road.  Parking was a challange, many members of the community walked from their homes to pay their respect.

The enormous procession began at the Commack Fire Department when it rolled into Kings Park, there was a terribly sad silence.  Eerie at times, minus the bark of a dog, the sound of a baby crying. The crowd waited and waited to see the motorcade as it slowly rolled through the streets of Kings Park.

Young and old came out – people were on rooftops filming – a news station filmed the entire procession from their copter and donated the video coverage to the F.D.N.Y. where they have a dozen plus videos on YOUTUBE: Search Funeral Raguso, the coverage is extremely well done.

Thirty-nine motorcyles were part of the motorcade representing the F.D.N.Y. riding organizations.  

Store fronts served as water stations and coffee stations for mourners. Tents were filled with food for the firefighters. Road were closed.  Only firefighters were permitted on Old Dock Road.  Parking was a challange many members of the community walked from their homes.

New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio and New York City Fire Chief Daniel Negri attended the funeral services said by Fr. Sean as well as other dignitaries from around the Island. Speakers lined the streets near St. Joseph’s so mourners could hear the mass. 

A town came together and pulled off a huge event that involved local county, state and New York City officials.  Tony Tanzi is President of the Kings Park Chamber.  He said he has never been more proud to be part of this town; he said when one of us is down, we are known for all coming together.  

He wanted to thank everyone for their time, donations and complex coordination efforts: 

• His fellow members of the K.P. Chamber of Commerce, 
• The K.P.F.D., and  
• Local Businesses Big and Small 
• The Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
• The LOAH (Ladies Order of Ancient Hibernians) 
• The Girl Scouts, 
• The Boy Scouts, 
• The Knights of Columbus,  
• Angels Without Faces, 
• Kings Park Youth, 
• VFW – KP Post
• The American Legion
• Abiding Presence Lutheran Church
• The Kings Park Soccer Club and 
• The Suffolk County Police Department 
• The Smithtown Highway Dept and 
• The Smithtown Parks Department, 
• St. Vincent de Paul

“I surely hope I have not failed to mention everyone.  It was an impressive coordination - every day during the planning people just gave their all,” said Tanzi.  

To Help the Raguso family who have two children under the age of 7 please see below message:

According to the FDNY Foundation, “Donations in Lt. Raguso’s honor can be made to the Scholarship Fund to Benefit the Children of FDNY Lieutenant Christopher Raguso by clicking here and selecting the fund in the drop down menu.” LINK:   https://www.fdnyfoundation.org/donate/

* correction - the article originally stated Lt. Raguso and his wife had four children they have two children.

Amy's Perspective - Minimal Requirements Not Pathway For Improved Smithtown

Communication Concerns – Social Media, Town Meetings, Agendas

There’s got to be a better way!

A commitment to communication together with active listening are essential qualities necessary to improving our community, including residents, businesses and government relationships.  It takes effort and ingenuity to keep Smithtown informed and involved in the administration of our town’s activities and development.  Developing an overall consensus (through a town-wide survey) and then forming a town plan is vital to ensure that Smithtown thrives in the future while appreciating our past and addressing the concerns of our residents.

The funding promised by the State of New York will come to fruition if and when our town provides the Comprehensive Master Town Plan that details our clearly developed intentions.  Realizing the money offered by Gov. Cuomo requires that our town present a plan that reflects Smithtown’s interests and requirements to prosper. These funds need a plan that is formulated and supported by the input of our town’s citizenry.       

Real communication goes beyond providing the minimal, legal requirements.  The effort to inform and interact with Smithtown’s taxpaying residents would enhance our town’s quality of life.  It would be a positive change towards inclusion and meaningful communication.  Our new administration has the potential to improve community relations through social media and enhanced interactive website. This level of commitment to communication, outreach and transparency takes ingenuity and creativity.  

This concern for communication and participation has been voiced on various occasion.  The interest to create a citizen’s advisory board and an open and straightforward process to participate in planning with ‘Smart Growth,’ principles applied for future town development has been stated repeatedly. 

Admittedly, there are regular meetings and legal postings.  The meetings are less than friendly and even occasionally overcrowded whenever too many presentations are scheduled.  The underpopulated meetings are scheduled in the middle of the day (2:00 PM) which makes it almost impossible for anyone who works to attend.  The agenda is published within one day of the board meeting, so it’s hard to review and prepare.  

Some of the agenda’s contents are necessary and detailed, while other issues are not fully explained or represented.  (As an example, legal payments and settlements mention the dollar amounts paid, but there is no description of the lawsuit and the actions taken to correct the problem that incurred the payout.) Regrettably, I discover the actual contents and town issues from print media in THE DAYS AFTER the Town Board meeting.  Clarity, transparency and explanations would be a huge benefit to our town as Smithtown moves forward.   

Commitment to real communication and the dedication to actively listening is possible through the efforts to reach out through various methods.  A user-friendly web site design and social media offer the opportunity to share information, interaction and engagement.  Town meetings could offer a more positive encounter by creating an approachable atmosphere while conducting Smithtown’s local administration.    

Amy Fortunato is a Smithtown resident who ran for Town Council on the Democratic line in 2017.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - How A Hard Fall Can Lead To Holes In Your Head

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Your faithful columnist now has holes in his head.  

Through the years, I have written now and then about physical maladies I’ve suffered. 

This was a humdinger—I’m just out of out of Stony Brook University Hospital for the after-effects of a terrible accident. 

SPLAT!!!!! I fell hard on my left cheek on a tile floor in a motel room in Fort Lauderdale in January. I didn’t notice a leg on the bed sticking out, and I tripped over it in the dark. I never suffered a worse fall. I thought I fractured my cheek. But initially, other than having a black eye, there were no impacts. It happened after we went out to dinner with friends in Florida. The next day, Saturday, I was feeling OK and we went to lunch with other friends with whom I have worked on my TV show. Then we flew back to Long Island that afternoon. 

Still no impacts. Sunday we were home and Monday I had the every-six months bladder check-up I need to take.  The next week I began teaching journalism again at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. Still, no impacts whatsoever.

Then, I had arranged a cataract operation for March 1 (I’ve been told I need this) and a couple of days earlier I saw my primary care physician, Dr. Allen Fein, a specialist in Family Medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital. Allen is also a friend. He said something was wrong—my gait was off, my retinas weren’t working the way they should, and he did other tests. His wife, Beverley, drove me to the emergency room at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. There they found in a CTscan two giant hematomas, deposits of blood, on both sides of my skull.

I was taken by ambulance to the Emergency Room at Stony Brook University Hospital (was never transported by ambulance before.) There I was given a choice—surgery or the use of steroids which, I was told, work some of the time to reduce hematomas. But these were very big ones. Still I opted for the steroids as a less invasive procedure. 

Things seem to be getting better for a couple of weeks, but then the slow gait and other symptoms came back, and Dr. Fein and Dr. Charles Mikell, the neurosurgeon I originally saw at the Stony Brook Emergency Room, strongly recommended surgery—what is called a “burr hole” procedure in which little holes are drilled in the top of your head to drain out the blood produced by the hematomas.  It is brain surgery, but in between the skull and brain and so ostensibly less invasive. Still, I was scared as could be about someone putting holes in my head, and after I was informed of possible unexpected adverse impacts, even more frightened.  However, at this point, a friend, also a doctor, whose wife as a nurse was involved with a lot of “burr hole” surgery, told me it is the main route in dealing with hematomas. 

Furthermore, a follow-up CTscan showed only a 15% to 20% reduction in the size of the hematomas with the steroids. The Feins told me how one of their sons had a comparable accident in a snowboard crash and was successfully operated on at Stony Brook with this “burr hole” procedure.

I had an appointment the next day with Dr. Mikell, arranged earlier, and we drove through the snowstorm from Sag Harbor to see him. Dr. Mikell had my wife, Janet, and me compare the two CTscans, and you could see my head was still full of this mass which was putting pressure on my brain and could cause a seizure. 

Further, Dr. Mikell, a young fellow, a graduate of Princeton and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, said that with the snow it would be a good time to do the operation because Stony Brook was not too busy and he would be able to do it the next day. And that’s what happened. His team was highly proficient. I was left with tubes coming out of four holes in my head leading to two plastic containers collecting drained fluid from my head. It was extremely difficult functioning with the tubes and also the monitoring equipment all over my body. By far, it was the worst several days in my life. I didn’t know if I would get out of this life-threatening situation. 

But five days later, by Saturday, the hematomas had completely drained away. However, a CTscan showed that a spinal fluid deposit was now forming on the top of my skull. The doctors at Stony Brook were concerned as to whether this might increase. So they kept me under observation until Monday when a new CTscan found there was no increase. Flabbergasted and joyous, I was told I would be released. 

I will need follow-up medical attention. I’m not supposed to carry anything heavy, and there are other restrictions. The recovery time for this situation runs in the months. 

So that’s the (crazy and scary) story!!!!!

Incidentally, I have been told that this “burr hole” procedure goes back to cavemen time—that a caveman who was hit by another caveman on the head with a club would have holes drilled in his skull to drain off hematomas—that ancient skulls with such holes have been found. For me it wasn’t a caveman with a club—but a damn tile floor in a motel in Fort Lauderdale, not a caveman in sight.

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 - Part 3 Leaf Blowers Health Risks

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Last year, Long Island state Assemblyman Steve Englebright, chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Education, called on Basil Begos, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, to include information on his department’s website “explaining the hazards” of gas-fired leaf blowers.

“Additionally, it would be important to explain the advantages of switching to battery-powered equipment to reduce any health risks and reduce greenhouse gases,” wrote the lawmaker from Setauket.

Mr. Englebright continued that “the EPA has noted that the fine particulate matter from the using gas-powered leaf blowers poses serious health threats including cardiovascular and respiratory harm.”

This is one avenue in challenging gas-fired leaf blowers. 

Also last year, the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution, sponsored by Legislator Bridget Fleming of Noyac and Sarah Anker of Mt. Sinai, calling on the Suffolk Department of Public Works “to study the feasibility of alternatives to gas powered maintenance equipment.”

The resolution began: “Whereas the County of Suffolk has made environmental protection…a top priority…and national organizations including the American Green Zone Alliance, as well as local organizations including Huntington CALM—

Citizens Appeal for Leafblower Moderation—have identified gas-powered leaf blowers as a concerning source of pollution.” 

 This is another avenue for Suffolk in challenging gas-fired leaf blowers. 

 As we have been writing in this series of articles: gas-fired leaf blowers constitute a huge health and environmental threat. As Dr. Ken Spaeth, MD, MPH, of the Hofstra School of Health Sciences, has written, they are “extremely harmful to the health and the environment…Gasoline-powered leaf blowers pose multiple health and environmental hazards.” The use of them “for clean-up and routine landscape maintenance is exposing us all unnecessarily to pollutants and noise…When compared to an average large car, one hour of a gas-powered leaf blower use emits 498 times as much hydrocarbons, 49 times as much particulate matter and 28 times as much carbon monoxide.”

As to noise, the noise they make are “are in orders of magnitude—since decibels are on a logarithmic scale.” The “fine particulate matter—under 2.5 microns” that they spread “which easily gets into the lungs and even into the blood stream can cause premature death,” stated Dr. Spaeth, “heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure, and lung disease—including asthma attacks—and can result in the increase of chronic lung disease in the elderly.” 

Moreover, he stated, “there is environmental degradation.” Their high velocity “can destroy nests and animal habitats, desiccate pollen, sap and other natural plant substances, and injure or destroy small birds, small mammals and beneficial insects.”

Furthermore, Dr. Spaeth emphasizes, there are “alternatives” to gas-fired leaf blowers. “Alternatives include commercial grade lithium ion batteries or other electrical equipment.”

Also calling for restrictions on gas-fired leaf blowers is the Sierra Club’s Long Island Group. “The Sierra Club’s motto is ‘Explore. Enjoy and Protect the Planet,’” it explains. “Part of enjoying the planet is to hear its natural sounds—singing of birds, wind in the trees, and children playing in a toxic-free environment.” Gas-fired leaf blowers “interfere with all these and more, both while they are running and afterwards as the dust settles. Many communities across America have recognized these issues and put some basic limits on the use of leaf-blowers.”

On the front line of those laboring with gas-fired leaf blowers are often low-income immigrant workers and their health is being impacted. Gas-fired leaf blowers “can make an infernal racket, and environmental officials say that exhaust from gas-powered lawn and garden equipment is a surprisingly big source of air pollution,” the organization FairWarning has written in a study. 

This non-profit investigative news organization focuses on public health, safety and environmental issues and related topics of government and business accountability. “But are landscaping workers who use the equipment day in and day out exposed to harmful emissions?…With the help of a grant for the Fund for Investigative Journalism, FairWarning hired a health consulting firm and carried out testing among workers using gas-fired leaf blowers in Los Angeles. Among the conclusions: the gas-fired machines generated “far more” contaminants than “detected” at a “busy” LA highway intersection—“while the electric machines did not.”

From FairWarning and others, we’ve received plenty of fair warning about gas-fired leaf blowers. It’s high time for action—for widespread limits and bans on their use!