June 26, 2003
List of papers
Zwire: publisher of 11 local
Amityville Record
Baldwin Herald
Bellmore Herald
Carnarsie Courier
Commack Times
Dan's Papers: Bridgehampton
E Hampton Independent
East Hampton Star
East Meadow Beacon
Farmingdale Observer
Fire Island News
Floral Park Dispatch
Garden City Life
Garden City News
Glen Cove Record-Pilot
Gold Coast Gazette
Great Neck Record
Hicksville Illustrated News
Levittown Tribune
Long Beach Herald
Long Island Advance
Long Island Business News
Long Island Catholic
The New Island Ear and
Long island Press: entertainmment, lifesyle news.
Manhasset Press
Massapequan Observer
Merrick Herald
Mineola American
Muttontown News
Nassau Herald (5 Towns)
New Hyde Park Illustrated
NYPress weekly.
News-Review (Riverhead)
Oceanside / Island Park Herald
Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot
Plainview-Old Bethpage Herald
Port Washington News
Queens Courier
Q Gazette: Western Queens, NYC.
Queens Tribune
Rockville Centre Herald
Roslyn News
Sag Harbor Express
Smithtown News
Southampton Press
Staten Island Advance
Suffolk Life
Suffolk Times (North Fork)
Syosset-Jericho Tribune
Three Village Times: Elmont, Franklin Square, West Hempstead.
Times-Beacon-Record
Valley Stream Herald
Wave of Long Island, archives: Rockaway.
Westbury Times
Western Queens Gazette
June 25, 2003
LIRR Port Jefferson line yard 0
Local homeowners and concerned citizens turned out for the
LIRR and MTA’s public scoping meeting at East Northport
Middle School on Monday. The scoping meeting was one of the
first steps in a long process to establish a viable site to
build an electric train housing, cleaning, and maintenance
facility between the Huntington station and Smithtown.
EAST NORTHPORT-COMMACK
Small Voices Make Loud Noises
Public cries out against public outcry against facility.
By Brian Ferry
‘Not in my backyard’ would be the appropriate conclusion
to be drawn from public comments heard by Long Island Railroad (LIRR)
and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials on Monday.
A scoping meeting held at East Northport Middle School was one of
the first steps in a process that the two agencies are undertaking
to establish an environmental impact statement that will allow the
construction of a train storage, cleaning, and maintenance facility
somewhere between the Huntington station and Smithtown on the Port
Jefferson line of the LIRR.
The meeting opened with an information session at which two separate
maps — one of Huntington, Greenlawn, and surrounding areas,
the other of East Northport, Commack, Smithtown, and surrounding
areas — were made public for the first time. The maps showed
the proposed sites that the LIRR and MTA are considering. There
was a stenographer available to record questions and comments for
the LIRR and MTA, and some of the agencies’ officials made themselves available to answer questions and concerns.
The maps showed 19 sites that met the agencies’ “initial
list of alternatives.” In order to make this list, a site
needed to meet three basic criteria — location (between Huntington
and Smithtown and within approximately 1/4 mile of the LIRR right-of-way),
size (able to accommodate either an 1,800-foot-long by 425-foot-wide
facility or 1,800-foot-long by 250-foot-wide facility), and use
(the site should be either vacant or underutilized).
Out of the 19 sites listed, 13 were determined to have “fatal
flaws” according to the LIRR and MTA. Fatal flaws included
constructability issues, conflicts with major infrastructure such
as utilities, pre-existing use, protected natural areas, and historic
structures, among others. Included in these 13 eliminated sites
were the playing fields of Harborfields, Northport, and Kings Park
high schools, designated parkland in Kings Park, and a New York
state Department of Environmental Conservation protected site in
Kings Park.
Sam Zambuto, a spokesman for the LIRR, stated the reason for including
such areas.
“That’s a listing of land that could accommodate a
yard adjacent to the track because of its size and location,”
Zambuto said. “You look at everything that’s possible
and then see if it’s conceivable. [It’s] the very first
broad stroke of possible sites that would accommodate a 16-track
yard. And then all of those areas identified were checked if a particular,
obvious flaw would not make it a candidate for a yard.”
He elaborated further on the reasoning behind the initial inclusion
of high school athletic fields.
“When the sites are first determined by using aerial photography,
it showed areas where there are parcels of land that appear vacant
and of sufficient size and proximity to the railroad to be a site
considered,” Zambuto said. “In the cases of these three
sites and some further evaluation, what appeared to be vacant land
were school playing fields and therefore eliminated.”
Included in the remaining six sites were three around Pulaski Road,
Bread and Cheese Hollow Road (the eastern border of the Town of
Huntington and the Town of Smithtown), and Old Northport Road, an
area inside the land formerly occupied by Kings Park Psychiatric
Center, a vacant area near St. Catherine of Sienna Medical Center,
and an area adjacent to the New York State Armory, Manor Field Park,
and Huntington Commons Industrial Park in Huntington Station.
For an hour-and-a-half after the informational session, the crowd
of approximately 100 to 150 individuals and approximately 10 LIRR
and MTA officials collaborated in a public forum within the school’s
auditorium. Mark Sullivan, chief planning officer for the LIRR,
explained that the railroad needs a storage/maintenance facility
for electric trains somewhere on the eastern region of the Port
Jefferson line. Sullivan said that electrification reached the Huntington
station in 1970 and no facility was ever built to accommodate the
needs of such trains. He compared the current need for moving trains
from Queens to a location in Suffolk County to a homeowner wanting
to be able to park his or her car in their own garage as opposed
to having to walk several miles to get to it.
“Since the third rail reached there 30 years ago, no storage
facility has been built,” Sullivan said. He added that the
current practice of storing trains in Queens and sending them out
to Suffolk works, but is fragile with no room for expansion.
After Sullivan and a representative of the Federal Transit Administration
(FTA) spoke, individuals who had signed up at an outside table were
each given three minutes to voice their questions and concerns to
the officials. After the first speaker, the crowd let out a resounding
groan of disappointment when the officials stated they were simply
hearing concerns and would not be responding to them at the meeting.
A letter provided to this newspaper in advance of the scoping meeting
did state the second half of the meeting to be “a forum for
public comments,” rather than a question and answer period.
Larry Silverman, a former member of the LIRR Commuter Council,
brought numerous points to the attention of everyone in the auditorium.
He stated that it was unfortunate that so many opinions would not
be heard because disclosure of the potential sites did not occur
before the meeting. He made it known to any who didn’t already
understand that such a facility would be a 24-hour facility that
would bring light and noise pollution, traffic from employees and
shipping vehicles, and other impacts. Silverman alleged that placing
the facility farther away would cost the LIRR and MTA an additional
$10 million per mile, and suggested this was one reason they had
only limited areas to offer for consideration.
Michael Karp, an East Northport business owner and vice president
of the East Northport Chamber of Commerce pointed out that placing
the facility east of the Huntington station would require track
electrification to any stations west of that facility. He said that
if the Northport station became electrified, it could persuade commuters
from the Town of Smithtown to drive the short distance in order
to board an electrified train. This could leave the new Huntington
station garage underutilized and create a parking problem in East
Northport, he added. And because Smithtown residents would not be
able to park in the Town of Huntington-operated lots, their parked
automobiles would inevitably spill into nearby business lots, streets,
and residential areas, he said.
Commack resident Mark Serotoff said he obtained information concerning
the areas around the Huntington/Smithtown border, saying one of
them is designated as a Federal Superfund Cleanup site because it
was polluted with various chemicals. He provided the LIRR and MTA
officials with additional maps, reports, and photographs that he
obtained.
Various speakers also suggested that there are some 87 schools
in close proximity to the areas the LIRR and MTA are considering.
Some sites are within one to two miles of elementary schools.
The general consensus of many public speakers, including Huntington
councilmen Mark Cuthbertson and Mark Capodanno and Suffolk County
Legislator Jon Cooper, was that the LIRR and MTA should have made
more information available to the public, giving them more time
to formulate questions and opinions toward the potential sites.
When Cooper approached the microphone for his three-minute opportunity,
he stated the primary points that he felt the officials should know.
“At some point, you’re going to have to deal with the
public,” he said early on. He suggested that the LIRR and
MTA consider mailing postcards to each household in the areas affected
by these proposed sites. He said he understood this would cost money,
acknowledging “it would be a painful process for you short-term,
but it would be a benefit for this process long-term.”
“There are going to be many, many more informational sessions,”
Zambuto said. “This is a long process and this is the first
step. There will be other informational meetings and/or hearings
throughout the process. We felt it was a very constructive meeting
and it is the start of what will be a very aggressive public outreach
on this project.”
June 23, 2003
June 22, 2003
June 21, 2003
Hauppauge/Islandia Marriott
Residence Inn Long Island Hauppauge/Islandia
850 Veterans Memorial Hwy.
Hauppauge, NY 11788
USA
Phone: 1 631-724-4188
Fax: 1 631-724-4186
June 19, 2003
Brentwood, Central Islip and parts of Bay Shore.
As of the 2000 census, about 1 in 6 residents in Port Washington and adjacent
Manorhaven were Latino -- but national trends show that number is probably
already a significant undercount due to recent growth.
Last year, voters and activists who insisted their communities needed more
minority representation won the creation of a new assembly district that includes
Brentwood, Central Islip and parts of Bay Shore. Philip Ramos, a veteran police
detective, edged out Phil Goglas, a Republican of Puerto Rican descent, to
become the area's first representative -- and the first Long Island Latino
Democrat ever elected to a state office.
Amanda Garcia, a community liaison with ACORN, the nonprofit advocacy group
with an office in Hempstead, says immigrants often have little recourse when
they are poorly treated.
June 17, 2003
LIRR Yard
LIRR officials have slimmed down to six the number of potential
sites for building a rail yard in Port Jefferson line,
ABOUT THE LOCATIONS
1 - Adjacent to state armory.
2 3 - North of LIRR tracks, south of Pulaski Rd.
4 - South of LIRR tracks, west of Sunken Meadow Pkwy.
5 - Vacant area of Kings Park Psychiatric Center.
6 - Near St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center
June 15, 2003
June 06, 2003
June 05, 2003
Halesite: NY 110 flooding
Incidents of flooding like this one earlier this year have become problematic and
routine on the stretch of Route 110 in Halesite. But some are questioning DOT’s
proposal for reconstruction, which includes roundabouts and other alterations.
Long-Islander File Photo
HALESITE: New Look For Route 110?
While addressing flooding, DOT floats ideas to spiff up New York Avenue
By Peter Gannon
State transportation officials, acting mainly in response to the chronic flooding
problem on the Halesite portion of New York Avenue, have begun meeting with
the public and local civic leaders regarding a proposed reconstruction and
drainage project for the state-controlled road. But besides addressing the
flooding issue, planners with the DOT seem ready to implement a number of
new traffic-alteration ideas that, while designed to clear up problems, have local
merchants concerned.
According to Peter Knutson, of Knutson Marine, some of the ideas proposed by
the DOT — like the implementation of roundabouts in place of traditional light
signals — would severely hamper his ability to conduct business. Knutson
estimates that the circles, as they were shown to him at a preliminary meeting
last month, would prevent roughly 50 percent of the boats he normally
transports down New York Avenue from getting through.
"I think a lot of it is ridiculous," said Knutson of the plan. "I do think something
needs to be done, but the way they're going about it — they need to be talking
more to the community."
Officials with the DOT however, insist the plans are designed to alleviate some
very real traffic problems, and are at this point too preliminary to discuss in
detail. But they did admit that at least some of the planning is based on an
appearance factor.
"The primary reason for the project is the drainage issue, although there are
some [traffic] movements that concern us," said Chris Williams, with the DOT's
planning department. "But a lot of the reconstruction ideas we are looking at are
based on smart growth principals…there's an appearance factor involved."
Tops on the DOT list of dangerous intersections are where both Abbot Drive and
Grist Mill Lane intersect with New York Ave., according to Williams. Residents on
those streets have reportedly expressed concerns, and officials with the
department have acknowledged that problems exist. Abbot Drive was mentioned
as the worst situation, as its intersection with New York Avenue is controlled by a
stop sign — but is right in the middle of a light signal controlling New York
Avenue, Park Avenue and Mill Dam Road.
"[The Abbot Dr. intersection] is one that doesn't operate typically," said Williams.
"We're looking at the overall crossing patterns…with the [proposed]
reconfigurations, Abbot wouldn't have the same complications.”
But there are some that question whether DOT’s plans for circles or other traffic
alterations are based strictly on the issue of safety. Kevin Coneys, of Coneys
Marine, admitted that he has seen some accidents in the area from his location
on New York Avenue, but stopped short of saying they were caused by poorly
designed intersections.
"I've seen some cars get banged around here in my 30 years, but no more than
in some other places, like in town…I think the main issue here is not the circle,
it's how do we get rid of the water?"
At the DOT's first public meeting last month at Huntington Library — where they
sought feedback from the community regarding ideas for reconstruction —
discussion did gravitate away from the main drainage issue to the idea of
roundabouts, acknowledged Williams. It was too early to tell what the consensus
was at that meeting, he said — as officials are still tabulating recommendations
— although he estimated that it was split right down the middle as far as those in
favor and those opposed to the new traffic-alteration ideas.
One thing planners do seem more sure of is how to attack the recurrent flooding
problem. Officials at the DOT have determined there are two main causes: first,
that the elevation of the roadway in some places is not that much different from
the level of the harbor at high tide. In response to this, said Williams, the DOT
would raise the low points of New York Avenue to prevent water from flowing
freely onto the street during heavy rains. The second problem identified is that
the drainage pipes are too small to handle the amount of water that accumulates
on the road during those rainfalls. The proposed solution would be to replace
those drainage pipes with larger ones.
Another part of the plan, although its purpose is geared more toward water
filtration, is for a detention pond to be located on the former Naval Reserve
property, which would serve to collect natural run-off.
"This part is more of a water-quality improvement than a drainage solution,"
said Williams, who added that it would only serve to collect about the first
half-inch of water from a storm. Most water already flows into the existing
streambed, and engineers would simply channel the run-off through that basin,
he said.
Another issue raised by business owners, besides the possible long-term effects
of the project, is the possibility of the road being closed while repairs are made,
which Knutson said would hurt many of the smaller merchants along New York
Avenue. Coneys agreed with Knutson's contention that some of the larger
interstate boat-transport trucks would have difficulty getting through any
roundabouts, although he focused more on the possible road closing as an
immediate effect on their operation.
"We've survived through some other big projects, but the road was never
closed. If they are going to raise it, I don't see how they are going to do it
without closing it… It might end up looking nice, but it will come at some
expense," said Coneys.
Williams added again that plans are still in their early developmental stages, and
that planners are still welcoming input from the community. The DOT is working
with engineers from the Town of Huntington to help develop strategies for the
project, and is planning on sitting down with local civic leaders to discuss the
issues. The project, if implemented, wouldn't start until 2006 at the earliest, said
Williams.
© 2003 Long Islander Newspapers, Inc.
June 04, 2003
Brentwood, bilingual
Bilingual Specialist for Schools Brentwood to create new job
By John Hildebrand, Newsday STAFF WRITER
June 6, 2003
After nearly two years of negotiations with federal attorneys, the Brentwood
school district has agreed to hire a bilingual coordinator to work with its large
Spanish-speaking community - especially on issues of voting rights.
Nikki Nin-Brauch, a former academic administrator for the district, now retired,
is to be named to the new post at the next school board meeting June 19, district
officials say.
In related actions, Brentwood already has begun publishing ballots and voter
information in Spanish as well as in English, and has employed bilingual poll
workers in recent elections.
Bernard T. Callan, attorney for the Brentwood district, described the steps taken
as "a model of what should be done" to comply with federal civil-rights law.
"And it's the right thing to do," he added.
Negotiations began in June 2001 after some Brentwood residents complained
that voting in district elections was difficult for non-English speakers.
Brentwood is Long Island's biggest school district, with 16,000 students, and is
the area's only school system with a Hispanic majority - now about 55 percent of
total enrollment.
A legal consent decree, spelling out steps to be taken by Brentwood to ensure
voting rights of Hispanic residents, was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in
Central Islip.
Bilingual ballots and other aids for voters in communities with large numbers of
non-English speakers are a requirement of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Brentwood's new bilingual coordinator will be responsible for recruiting and
training additional Spanish-speaking elections workers, and also for general
outreach to the Hispanic community.
Marla Tepper, an assistant U.S. attorney for civil-rights litigation in Brooklyn,
said the district had been "very cooperative" in working out an agreement.
Despite such cooperation, ethnic tensions do surface from time to time in
Brentwood, as Hispanic residents seek a bigger voice in the running of the
district.
A half-dozen Hispanic candidates ran for four seats on the school board in
Tuesday's elections, splitting the vote, and none won.
"What happens here ... they're dictated by the establishment, and this has to be
penetrated," said one unsuccessful candidate, Carlos Garcia, a local attorney
whose four children have attended Brentwood schools.
June 03, 2003
Long Islander News
longislandernews.com:
Long Islander (Huntington);
Record (Northport (?); Half Hollow Hills;
Riverhead News-Review;
Shelter Island Reporter;North Shore Sun.
June 02, 2003
June 01, 2003
School elections 2003 June
Suffolk School district elections: results. [cache] funding matrix.
Nassau School district elections: results. [cache] funding matrix.