Flynn Memorial Complex To Get $4 Million Renovation

Town of Smithtown Presents $4 Million State-of-the-Art Park

(SMITHTOWN, NY:)  Smithtown Town Officials unveiled details for a $4 Million renovation of Flynn Memorial Softball Complex during the April 9th work session. David Swift Architects and RDA Landscape Architecture led the presentation to the Town Board, giving an interactive tour of the Old Commack Road park reconstruction.

“Flynn Memorial was once an economic boom for the town of Smithtown. Based on favorable discussions with the USSSA, local sports leagues and a number of other major organizations, we are confident that this reconstruction will generate major tournaments while providing our youth with state-of-the-art ball fields to play and compete on.” - Supervisor Ed Wehrheim

The park’s four fields will be resurfaced with synthetic turf with a built-in drainage system underneath. This modern approach to field maintenance will allow playtime after rain and is much friendlier on the environment, not requiring nitrogen fertilizers to maintain. The fields are equipped with warning tracks and pitchers’ warm-up mounds. The park will feature LED Energy efficient sports lighting for night games, a rare feature among fields across Long Island. In the center of all four ball fields, a two-story air conditioned building will house a concession stand, pro shop and handicapped accessible bathrooms on the first floor with the second floor for officials, giving them an all access view of the entire field. The design also includes additional parking and a storage garage to keep field equipment on hand for ease of access.

“We’ve already begun talks with a number of softball leagues and tournaments… These weekend events will help to attract tourism, dining and shopping that will help our local mom and pop shops with foot traffic, thousands of dollars in town fees… the potential to revive our small business districts is endless.” Councilman Tom Lohmann, Parks Liaison

Fans will enjoy covered bleachers to stay cool in the summer sun, and protective fencing along the outfield and backstops to protect pedestrians walking from each field. The playground will also be relocated more central to the fields.

Flynn Memorial Park park was constructed in 1979. This is the first renovation/rebuild since it’s dedication. Two of the four ball fields are slated to be completed by 2020 with a completion date ready for the 2021 season.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Chair Of County Human Rights Commission Rabbi Dr. Steven Moss Retires

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Rabbi Dr. Steven MossA central figure in the realms of social justice and religious life in Suffolk County, Rabbi Dr. Steven Moss, for 28 years the chairperson of the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission, is retiring. 

Not only has Rabbi Moss led the commission but he is co-chair of the Suffolk County Anti-Bias Task Force, and over his 25 years with the county task force has gone from town to town in Suffolk successfully working for the establishment of town anti-bias task forces.  

Further, he is chairperson of the Suffolk County Community College-based Center for Human Understanding and Social Justice featuring the Holocaust Collection. 

And he is director and founder of STOP/BIAS, an educational program for bias/hate crime offenders.

He served three terms as president of the Suffolk County Board of Rabbis.

And he holds the rank of Chief of Chaplains with the Suffolk County Police Department and been a department chaplain since 1986.  

Also, he is co-chair of the Islip Town Anti-Bias Task Force and was a long-time member of the Islip Town Board of Ethics.

Since 1972, he has been the rabbi at B’nai Israel Reform Temple in Oakdale and thus is the longest-serving synagogue rabbi in Suffolk County.

He will become rabbi emeritus at B’nai Israel upon his retirement in July. He is involved in “redefining” his many other positions. For example, he will step down as chair of the Center for Human Understanding and Social Justice, but will remain a member of its board.

He would like “to remain involved” in activities here but is “aware of the responsibility anyone has as a chair.” At B’nai Israel, “when needed by any congregant I will come back,” he said. He notes his long and deep connection with the families of the congregation. “I named the current president and bar mitzvahed him.” When a teacher or doctor retires, she or he “can’t continue, but a rabbi is always a rabbi.” 

He and his wife, Judy, will be spending part of the year in Florida and part at their home in Holbrook. 

The retirement of Rabbi Moss—although he still will be involved in some of his many activities—represents an incalculable loss for Suffolk County. Nevertheless, his many decades of service have been a huge gift to this county and its people. 

I know Rabbi Moss well. He was our family’s rabbi when we lived in Sayville. My wife, Janet, and I became friends with Rabbi Moss and Judy, a teacher. I’ll never forget when they first came to our house and he spoke about how, in addition to being the rabbi at B’nai Israel, he ministered to cancer patients—including children with terminal cancer—in New York City. What a commitment to humanity that reflected. He mentioned last week that he was a chaplain for the New York Board of Rabbis working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 1970 to 2000 and “the longest-serving chaplain” for the board.

I recall vividly 1973 and the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, when it looked like Israel could be destroyed, Rabbi Moss giving a sermon at B’nai Israel providing comfort and wisdom to a synagogue full of frightened congregants.

He will be moving to “the next stage in my life—moving to a different spiritual stage in my life.” He will be translating a 17^th Century book “on death and dying” out of the mystical teachings of Judaism of the Kabbalah, writing a book on his spiritual encounters with God, and a history of “the anti-bias task force” activity in Suffolk County.

Rabbi Moss is an avid cyclist and on June 18 will embark on a 60-mile ride from the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to Krakow, a center of Jewish life before the Holocaust. Also, he will visit Vilna in Poland where in the 19^th Century “my grandmother’s grandfather served as a rabbi.” 

Raised in Belle Harbor in the Rockaways, he was “always interested in Jewish spirituality and religion.” Indeed, at his home synagogue, he recalled, he gave a sermon when he was 11. At 12, he wrote to the graduate school for rabbis and cantors, Hebrew Union College, asking for admittance to study to be a rabbi. He was advised that he needed to graduate college first. And he did, at NYU, and then when he arrived at Hebrew Union there was “an amazing thing at the interview—they had my letter.”

His involvement in social justice, he said, derives from “a rabbi’s role and the role of the Jewish community and Jewish people that we must be inclusive, that God is in every human being, that we are all equal before God. And everyone in the community, every person, has an equal role.” 

His Temple B’nai Israel is a success story in Suffolk. “When I came in 1972, 50 families were members. Now there are 400.” A spiritual success story, too, is Rabbi Steven Moss.

There will be a gala lunch in honor of Rabbi Moss at the Watermill in Smithtown on June 23. Reservations can be made through Temple B’nai Israel.

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 Town Board Unveils Renovated Board Room

Victor Liss Town Board Room After RenovationVictor Liss Board Room Before Renovations(SMITHTOWN, NY:)  Town of Smithtown officials unveiled the all new Victor T. Liss Board Room during the April 9th Town Board Meeting. Prior to start of the meeting, Supervisor Wehrheim led the Town Board in commending those responsible for the renovations, recognizing their outstanding craftsmanship.

“The craftsmanship and detail that went into remodeling the people’s boardroom is a true testament to how devoted our parks and public safety staff is to the community. They worked weekends and nights to get this job completed on schedule and they did it for a third of the price, had we have hired an outside contractor.” - Supervisor Edward R Wehrheim  

Renovations to the boardroom included completely gutting the walls and ceiling to insulate the room and install a white coffered ceiling, LED energy efficient lighting, custom built wood dais and podium with white granite top, handcrafted wood panelling, flooring, an updated HVAC system, state-of-the-art live streaming camera and cyber security systems. The renovations were made for approximately $80,000; with a quarter of the cost covered by proceeds from outside funding.

Theatre Review - Theatre Three's 'Second Stage'

Theater Review - ‘Second Stage’ Review by Jeb Ladouceur - Produced by Theatre Three, Port Jefferson

Since 1998 Theatre Three in Port Jefferson has conducted an annual festival consisting of five or six one-act plays, all of which are presented in a roughly two-hour period in the ‘Ronald F. Peierls Theatre‘ section of the 160-year-old Main Street playhouse. The festival serves a number of purposes: it offers live professional entertainment for the theater-going public, functions as an outlet for the talents of playwrights who might not otherwise be so accommodated, and provides local actors a convenient conduit for their talents.

For those who might be unfamiliar with Theatre Three’s intimate ‘Second Stage,’ it is ‘in the round’ and is located on the building’s lower level, immediately beneath the broad ‘Main Stage,’ with its familiar proscenium.

This year’s half-dozen brief dramas and comedies were chosen from among four hundred submissions world-wide, and in keeping with Theatre Three’s festival regulations, are all being produced here for the first time on any stage.

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While the six presentations understandably vary greatly in style, pace, and message, two of the productions stood out for this critic … and they are worthy of highest accolades for both writing and acting. Significantly, one (For a Moment in the Darkness We Wait) is a heartbreaking treatment of loneliness as experienced by two men, strangers unknown to one another, and separated by age, background, and status. They show us in piercing detail the universality of man’s need for affection and understanding. Veteran Douglas J. Quattrock and newcomer Ryan Schaefer are remarkable in this poignant vignette.

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The other standout, (The Unforgivable Sin of Forgiveness) a comedy and a good one, is so rat-a-tat funny that the audience virtually pleads for the two actors, an improbably married couple, to slow down and let us catch our breath between belly laughs. Of course they do not … and we are all the more victimized by the side-splitting hilarity from the pen of playwright Rich Orloff. Antoine Jones and Tracylynn Conner drew the assignment from Director Jeffrey Sanzel (who directed all the plays) and they couldn’t have been funnier.

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The Festival, which features thirteen admirable actors from Theatre Three’s ranks, runs thru May 5. All tickets are $20.    

Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of a dozen novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His recent hit, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between the late Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Ladouceur’s newly completed thriller, THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT, was introduced at the Smithtown Library on May 21st. The book involves a radicalized Yale student and his CIA pursuers. Mr. Ladouceur’s revealing website is www.JebsBooks.com 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Environmental Battle To Save Fire Island From Robert Moses

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman 

 “Saving Fire Island From Robert Moses, The Fight For A National Seashore” is the title of a just-published book by Christopher Verga. It is about the battle to prevent public works czar Moses from building a four-lane highway the length of that ribbon of sand, paving over a paradise just off Long Island’s southern coast. 

The other evening, reading the book by Dr. Verga, who teaches Long Island history at Suffolk County Community College, brought memories back of a long time ago.

I’m a part of the book, but it’s a story that goes far beyond me—a tale of environmental success that has since served as a model for other environmental battles. To stop the would-be Moses highway, the National Seashore was created—and Fire Island was saved. It’s a story, too, of how three relatively small newspapers that challenged the Moses highway had a big part in this success.

Professor Verga writes, “When local politicians tried to block his projects, Moses used the media….Moses would silence any dissent that stemmed from rogue reporting, which could have threatened his power or overall vision.” He relates: “An example of Moses’ style of retribution was his retaliation against reporter Karl Grossman. In 1964, Grossman wrote an article in the Babylon Leader comparing Moses’ treatment of civil rights protesters at his World’s Fair to Bull Connors, and in response, Moses got Grossman fired from his job….” 

A central Moses ambition: highways and cars, although he didn’t drive—he was chauffeured. For years he sought a road on Fire Island although his “planning…remained secret.”  Then came a big storm in 1962 and Moses had his rationale: a highway would “anchor” Fire Island, he claimed. Media including “Newsday, The New York Times…and all other popular newspapers were under the influence of Moses and advocated support for his projects. The only local paper that had been strongly critical of Robert Moses was the Babylon Leader.” 

The Leader for decades had been taking on Mr. Moses, a resident of Babylon. In 1962, at the age of 20, I showed up at the Leader for my first job as a reporter and was assigned to go to Fire Island that weekend and write an article about the just-announced highway.

This front-page piece was to be the first of many articles. Professor Verga writes how I “became the first to report on the resistance” to the road and stayed on the story. He notes how the Leader was joined by Joseph Jahn’s Suffolk County News in Sayville and Paul Townsend’s Long Island Commercial Review. At times, we published the same article together.

  “These allies in the press soon began to make a difference. Babylon Leader’s Karl Grossman reported the story that made one of the biggest impacts by not just swaying mainlanders’ perspectives on the road through Fire Island but also challenging their trust in Moses. Grossman reported that during the twilight hours, Moses would routinely secretly replace sand that eroded along the Ocean Parkway [on the Jones Beach stretch to the west of Fire Island] after coastal storms. This story debunked Moses’ original claim that a parkway could anchor shifting and eroding dunes. The only problem was that Grossman’s story gained the attention of only the three papers that supported the cause.”

But then, Professor Verga goes on, attorney Irving Like, who with his brother-in-law Maurice Barbash were leaders of the Citizens Committee for a Fire Island National Seashore, brought a lawsuit to uncover how much money was being spent to keep Ocean Parkway in place. 

He describes how U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall embraced the idea of a Fire Island National Seashore—and was Mr. Moses mad at him! Also, Laurance Rockefeller, founder of the American Conservation Association and chairman of the State Council of Parks, began speaking out about how a Fire Island highway “would conflict with conservation”—and was Mr. Moses mad at him!

“Moses demanded that Governor [Nelson] Rockefeller silence [his brother] Laurance’s criticism,” notes Dr. Verga. The governor would not. “Moses, the most powerful person in New York, had met his match.” He reacted by quitting state positions, although holding on to running the 1964-1965 World’s Fair. 

My article and photos taken on the World’s Fair opening day of its private guards brutally attacking Long Island civil rights activists protesting racism in hiring at the World’s Fair ran in the Babylon Leader, which months before been bought out by a chain, and also appeared in the chain’s other newspapers. But I was no longer protected by the Leader’s former editor and its publisher. Mr. Moses complained to the chain’s New York City-based management and I got fired. I’ve nicely survived and, most importantly, Fire Island remains a beautiful, special, magical place. 

This excellent book by Professor Verga documents the complete story. 

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.