St. James Fire District Answers Fire Call On Vanderbilt Ave

Working Together, Local Fire Departments Tackle Emergency

(click on photos to enlarge)

The St. James Fire District was successful in averting a garage fire that took place at a residence on Vanderbilt Avenue between Rodney Street and Livingston Street on Dec. 18. The fire started just before 10 a.m. and, through the collaborative efforts of several fire departments, was contained and stopped before it had a chance to spread to the attached home or any neighboring buildings. 

St. James Fire District Chief Edward Springer Jr. was first to arrive on scene at 10 a.m. and was quickly joined by First Assistant Chief Ryan Davis, Third Assistant Chief Frank Sapienza, Engine Co. 2, Engine Co. 3, Hook and Ladder Co. 7, the first responder vehicle and the ambulance. 

Numerous surrounding fire departments came to the district’s aid in this emergency. A Nesconset Fire Department engine, Stony Brook Fire Department’s Rapid Intervention Team and a Smithtown Fire Department ladder truck were on site. Nissequogue Fire Department and Centereach Fire Department had an engine and ambulance on standby, respectively. 

“We are grateful that our fast response and emergency services, combined with those of our neighboring fire departments, prevented a potentially disastrous situation,” said Commissioner Edward Springer Sr. “Nobody wants to suffer the devastation of a fire, especially during the holiday season. Thanks to our equipment and the vigilance of our volunteers, we were able to keep our community safe, which is always our goal.” 

SC Legislature Announces Organizational Meeting January 2, 2018

Suffolk Legislature Sets Organizational Meeting

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.  –  Suffolk County Legislators will hold their Organizational Meeting on Tuesday, January 2, at 11 a.m. in the Rose Y. Caracappa Legislative Auditorium located at the  William H. Rogers Legislature Building at 725 Veterans Memorial Highway in Hauppauge.

The annual meeting will feature the Presentation of Colors, followed by a performance of the Star Spangled Banner by Patchogue-Medford High School students and an invocation by Rev. Steven J. Hannafin, Pastor of St. Francis De Sales Parish in Patchogue. 

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone will offer remarks. Election of a Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officer will follow. Ceremonial Oaths will be before Honorable C. Randall Hinrichs, Suffolk County District Administrative Judge.

Legislators will appoint a Counsel to the Legislature, Clerk and Chief Deputy Clerk, adopt a schedule for general meetings, and designate depositories and official county newspapers. 

Legislators will also adopt the Rules of the Legislature, sign the official record, lay bills on the table and set the requisite public hearings.

For additional information, please visit www.scnylegislature.us.

SCWA Says Good Bye To Sheriff-Elect Dr. Errol Toulon Jr

SCWA Board Member and Suffolk County Sheriff-Elect Dr. Errol Toulon, Jr. after his final Board meeting Thursday, December 21 with (from left) Board Member Mario Mattera, SCWA Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey W. Szabo, Board Chairman James F. Gaughran, Board Member Jane Devine and Board Secretary Patrick G. Halpin. SCWA Wishes a Fond Farewell to Board Member Dr. Errol Toulon, Jr. 

Suffolk County Sheriff-Elect served on SCWA Board since 2010 

The Suffolk County Water Authority honored Board Member Dr. Errol Toulon, Jr., following his final Board Meeting last week. Dr. Toulon, who has been a member of the Board since 2010, will be resigning his post to serve in his new position as Suffolk County Sheriff beginning in January. 

During his time on the Board, Dr. Toulon supported such noteworthy initiatives as the New York State legislation that allows unpaid SCWA customer balances to be placed as liens on property tax bills, which is expected to save SCWA hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in previously uncollectable payments; SCWA’s Advanced Oxidation Process system to remove 1,4-dioxane from groundwater; and maintaining the Authority’s strong record of fiscal responsibility, helping the organization earn two AAA bond ratings in 2016. 

“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish for our ratepayers during my time on this Board,” Dr. Toulon said. “It has been an incredible seven years and I would like to thank my colleagues on the Board as well as the entire SCWA staff for their hard work. My experience here has truly been one of the highlights of my career.” 

Before being sworn in as a member of the Board in 2010, Dr. Toulon spent more than 30 years working in the criminal justice system, and was named Deputy Commissioner of Operations for the New York City Correction Department in 2014. A two-time cancer survivor, Dr. Toulon has cited those battles as having inspired him to further dedicate his life to helping others. 

“Our loss is the people of Suffolk County’s gain,” SCWA Board Chairman James F. Gaughran said. “We know Errol will do a terrific job as Sheriff and we wish him well.” 

The Suffolk County Water Authority is an independent public-benefit corporation operating under the authority of the Public Authorities Law of the State of New York. Serving approximately 1.2 million Suffolk County residents, the Authority operates without taxing power on a not-for-profit basis. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - 2017 In Review

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

As the year 2017 comes to an end, three major events stand out in this year in Suffolk County: the indictment and resignation of long-time Suffolk District Attorney Tom Spota, the results of the election here, and the beginnings of offshore wind development.

The indictment of Suffolk DA Spota is a tragedy for the veteran prosecutor. Of the district attorneys in Suffolk over the past 50 years—and I’ve known every one of them—Mr. Spota stands out to me to be among the best. He was no-nonsense when it came to corruption, of which there has been an enormous amount in Suffolk through the years.

His indictment is rooted in a friendship with someone he, in hindsight, should not have trusted. But Mr. Spota got to know James Burke when Mr. Burke was a teenage witness in 1979 in a matter that Mr. Spota, as head of the DA’s Homicide Bureau, was prosecuting: the murder by suffocation of 13-year-old John Pius in Smithtown.  

Then 14, the young Burke testified at a series of trials in which classmates were charged with killing John Pius by shoving rocks down his throat. 

That experience focused Mr. Burke on becoming a police officer, and police work was in his family already: his father and grandfather were cops in New York City. 

Mr. Burke became a city cop, too, for a year, and then joined the Suffolk County Police Department and rose through the ranks. Meanwhile, a friendship between him and Mr. Spota grew, and in 2002 after Mr. Spota, of Mt. Sinai, was elected Suffolk DA, he named Mr. Burke to head the DA’s squad of detectives. Mr. Burke held that post until becoming chief of department in 2011, its highest uniformed position.

    In 2015, Mr. Burke was arrested at his Smithtown home on federal charges that in the Fourth Precinct station house in Hauppauge, he beat a man who was handcuffed and manacled, who was suspected of breaking into his police vehicle, and then he coerced fellow officers to cover up what he did. 

Mr. Burke pleaded guilty in 2016 and is now imprisoned. Mr. Spota was charged in October by federal authorities, along with Christopher McPartland, the head of his political corruption unit, with obstruction of justice in connection with the cover-up of the assault by Mr. Burke. Mr. Spota then resigned as DA.

Election 2017 was an important election in Suffolk for women and a breakthrough for African-Americans here with Errol Toulon, Jr. of Lake Grove voted in as sheriff and becoming the first black to win a (non-judicial) countywide post.

I recall 1973 when Judith Hope became the first woman to be elected a town supervisor in Suffolk by winning the election for East Hampton supervisor. A good number of women have followed Ms. Hope since as town supervisors in Suffolk, among them Henrietta Acampora in Brookhaven; Barbara Keyser on Shelter Island; Mardythe DiPirro in Southampton; Jean Cochran in Southold; and currently in office, Angie Carpenter in Islip town. 

What a contrast to the centuries when the county’s governing body, the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors (replaced by a Suffolk Legislature in 1970) consisted only of men—because there wasn’t a woman town supervisor until Ms. Hope.

Election 2017 in Suffolk resulted in the victory of Laura Jens-Smith as town supervisor of Riverhead—the first woman to be elected supervisor of Riverhead since the town was founded 225 years ago. Elected with her to a town board seat was Catherine Kent.  In Southampton, Ann Welker was elected to the Southampton Board of Trustees—the first woman to become a Southampton Trustee since establishment of that panel 331 years ago. In Smithtown, Lynne Nowick was easily re-elected to the town board. And there were other female winners this year in Suffolk—which was a national trend.

The election of Mr. Toulon, former deputy corrections commissioner in New York City, is a milestone in a county with a long history of racism.  

When I started as a Suffolk-based journalist in 1962, the leaders of the major parties would not think of running a female for government offices other than for town clerk and town tax receiver—seen as kind of secretarial roles for women back then. 

As for running a black person for a countywide office: forget about it!

Meanwhile, 2017 was the first full year of operation for Deepwater Wind’s wind farm off Block Island—14 miles east of Montauk Point. The five-turbine array, America’s first offshore wind farm, heralds what is likely to be the placement of many wind turbines off Long Island.

Indeed, the Long Island Power Authority in 2017 gave its go-ahead to Deepwater Wind to build what the Rhode Island-based company has named its South Fork Wind Farm in the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles southeast of East Hampton. Also in 2017, LIPA gave the OK to Statoil, a Norwegian-headquartered firm, to build a wind farm Statoil has named Empire Wind south of the shores of Nassau County. 

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is bullish on offshore wind and sees it as a key element in the state’s plan to get half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. As of the new year—that’s only a dozen years away!

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 - Natural Solutions To Protect Our Shoreline

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

It’s a remarkable document produced by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation: “Living Shoreline Techniques in the Marine District of New York.” It lays out an approach to the coast that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should heed. It “emphasizes natural and nature-based solution to erosion control that will protect New Yorkers and the environment.” 

The Corps of Engineers has long been committed to taking on Mother Nature in battle—building sea walls, stone jetties called groins out into the water, and otherwise “armoring” the coastline with “hard” structures. 

But, as the DEC quotes its commissioner, Basil Seggos, as saying in a statement last month accompanying the plan: “The recent severity of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and the destruction left in their wake underscores the critical importance of New York’s Living Shorelines Guidance. Natural defenses offer some of the best protection from coastal storms and incorporating nature-based solutions into the state’s coastal resiliency planning and construction projects protects our communities. Using natural solutions is part of Governor Cuomo’s vision for more resilient coastlines better prepared to withstand the impacts of severe storms and to protect New Yorkers.”

The DEC statement then goes on to declare the state’s “guidance encourages the appropriate use of natural shoreline protection measures in place of hardened or man-made approaches to coastal erosion controls.”

What a contrast to, for example, what the Corps of Engineers has been up to in recent years in Montauk—placing sandbags at a multi-million cost on the beach, sandbags that have been ravaged in storms and will need regular maintenance at yet further taxpayer expense.

And the Corps is still pushing its Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point project—to dump massive amounts of sand along 83 miles of Suffolk County’s south shore at, now, a cost of $1.16 billion. This plan was first hatched when I first got into journalism on Long Island, back in 1962. Then its price tag was a small fraction of $1.16 billion, and got combined with Robert Moses’ scheme to build a four-lane highway the 35-mile length of Fire Island.  Fortunately, he was stopped and a Fire Island National Seashore was created in 1964 and the magical communities and wondrous nature of Fire Island not paved over.

But the Corps of Engineers, with some moderation, continues on with its plan—more than 50 years later. 

The DEC document is available online at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4940.html

“Purpose and Scope” open its 47 pages. “The purpose of this guidance,” it says, “is to: (A) encourage appropriate use of living shorelines in place of hardened approaches for erosion control, because living shorelines offer greater habitat and ecological value than hardened shorelines and revetments, (B) to encourage, where appropriate, modification of existing shoreline erosion control structures into living shorelines, and (C) to promote a consistent approach for permit application evaluations for living shoreline techniques.”

“This guidance is intended for a wide audience, state permitting staff, design professionals, and property owners,” it goes on. In Suffolk, county government, town board and town trustees have a special responsibility to read through the plan and follow its guidance. 

“There is a preference for the shoreline to remain in its nature state as much as is possible,” it says. “Living shoreline projects that mimic the natural environmental are preferred over hybrid options that utilize structural components. Projects should try and emulate the natural coastal process of the areas before options with structural components are considered.” 

Leaders of environmental organizations are thrilled with the approach.

Stuart Gruskin, chief conservation officer at The Nature Conservancy in New York, says “we commend” the DEC “for promoting natural solutions to better protect New Yorkers and our state’s valuable shorelines. Living shorelines provide natural storm buffers, like wetlands and marshes, which absorb floodwaters, protect our shores, and help address the cause of climate change by storing excess carbon.”

“Living shorelines are a key to protect New York marine life, homes and businesses in the face of expected climate change induced sea level rise and stronger storms,” says Joel Scata, attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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.