Greenport Village Hall

Mitchell Park Marina and the Greenport Village Skate Park are set to receive almost $140,000 worth of repairs this summer.

During a special meeting Monday, Village Board members appropriated $114,000 for Sea Coast Construction of West Sayville to replace and repair a portion of the village-owned Mitchell Park Marina pier.

Village officials said the dock repairs were needed before hurricane season got into full swing.

Also Monday, the board appropriated $25,000 in funding to repave and remove unused equipment at the Moore’s Lane skate park.

The spending plan comes two months prior to the first village0run Skate Park Festival.

Previously, a private organizer hosted the event at the park, which had fallen into disrepair after years of neglected.

cmurray@timesreview.com

Former Southold resident Joseph E. Dorobkowski died June 2 in Stewart, Fla. He was 84.  

He was born Jan. 9, 1930, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to Joseph and Anna (Piskor) Dorobkowski. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army with 82nd Airborne Division and was honorably discharged due to injury.

Family members said Mr. Dorobkowski was an avid fisherman and captain prior to moving to Southold. He owned and operated a charter boat on Woodcleft Canal in Freeport. After moving to Southold, he owned and operated JED plumbing before retiring to Florida in 1989.

He was predeceased in 2002, by his wife of 52 years, Joan and his son, Joseph in 2007. He is survived by his daughter, Catherine Cierach of Southold; three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Cremation was private.

Gertrude Moebius Mothersele Ali passed away peacefully June 4, 2014, at the age of 89. She had been a resident of Cutchogue and Mattituck for 50 years and a summer resident of Cutchogue since childhood. She died from complications of cancer at Peconic Landing in Greenport. 

She was born in Nutley, N.J., on Dec. 8, 1924, the second of four children of Agnes and Charles Mothersele. Her father, an immigrant from England, was a golf pro, and her mother later became one of the Peconic Bay Impressionist painters. Gertrude was a 10th generation descendent of the Rev. John Youngs, first settler and founder of Southold Town.

Gertrude lived in Nutley through high school, summering in Cutchogue at the large home her grandfather Kurt Moebius had built on Fleet’s Neck in 1917. She attended Maryland College for Women, during which time she worked part time at a psychiatric hospital. After that, she commuted from Nutley to New York City to work for Johns-Manville Corp., first as a mail girl, then as a secretary. While working there she took engineering classes at New York University. She then worked at Syracuse University and Dixie Paper Cup Company as an assistant quality control consultant with Edward A. Reynolds, who became her first husband. They married in 1948 and had three children, one of whom died shortly after birth.

Before moving to Mattituck in 1964, Gertrude, Edward and their two children lived in Ligonier, Pa., for about 10 years. During that time, they spent every summer in Cutchogue at Gertrude’s mother’s home, known as the “Big House,” often with her sisters and brother and their children. There was no television, and evenings would find her, her mother, and her sister Charlotte playing Scrabble after drinks on the porch overlooking Peconic Bay (often while shelling peas or husking corn) and dinner with the children. Her children remember her reading and singing songs to them every night at bedtime.

After Gertrude’s first marriage ended, she married Frank Ali on May 7, 1974. They enjoyed dancing and traveling together, and lived in Brookville, N.Y., for a number of years. In 1985, they built a house on part of the family land in Fleet’s Neck, Cutchogue, where Gertrude lived until shortly before her death.

Gertrude, “Gert” to her family, was a talented pianist all her life, playing classical compositions from memory through her 89th year. She loved horseback riding as a young woman, and would save her money to go to the Cimarron Ranch in Putnam Valley, N.Y., on weekends. She enjoyed sailing and tennis. She taught Sunday school and was a Brownie leader. As a member of the North Fork Community Theatre in the 1960s, Gertrude appeared in many plays including “Blythe Sprit” and “Mary Mary.”

Like her mother, Agnes Mothersele, she enjoyed painting, especially in the Sumi-e style of Japanese watercolor brush painting. She was skilled at bridge and golf and was a member for many years at North Fork Country Club in Cutchogue. She was also a gifted gardener, raising orchids and other exotic flowers, as well as vegetables, year after year from her own seeds.

Fit and active her whole life, as recently as last summer Gertrude could be seen swimming daily in Peconic Bay, and she was a frequent patron of Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library and local seminars.

She was predeceased by her daughter Susan; her husbands, Edward Reynolds and Frank Ali; her sisters, Janet Melot and Charlotte Lynn; and her brother, John Mothersele. She is survived by her daughter Honor Reynolds of Durango, Colo.; her son, Chris Reynolds and his wife, Elizabeth Kelly, of Milton, Vt.; four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; her sister-in-law, Muriel Mothersele; her brother-in-law, Grant Leslie Lynn; and numerous nieces and nephews in her large and close extended family.

There will be a memorial service later this summer in Cutchogue for friends and family. Funeral arrangements were entrusted to Coster-Heppner Funeral Home in Cutchogue.

Memorial donations may be sent to Sunshine Society of Southold, P.O. Box 251, Southold, NY 11971; Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library, P.O. Box 935, Cutchogue, NY 11935; or North Fork Community Theatre, P.O. Box 86, Mattituck, NY 11952.

This is a paid notice. 

Phone scammers attempting to swindle victims into giving them cash are getting creative and attempting calls more frequently, according to warnings issued by local police departments.

The recent uptick in attempted phone scams include a number of different scenarios designed to frighten victims into sending money through a Western Union MoneyGram or a prepaid Green Dot Card.

No government agency will ever seek payment using these means, according a release from the Southampton Police Department. Suffolk County Police issued a simliar warning Tuesday.

Police are warning the public to never respond to telephone or Internet requests for money without first speaking to a trusted friend or relative as well as the local police department, authorities said.

Scenarios include:

• Claims of a grandchild or relative getting into trouble or being involved in an accident in another country and in need of money to get out of jail.

• Callers who claim to be an agent or police officer from the Internal Revenue Service collecting past due tax balances that are owed or face arrest.

• Callers claiming to be a police officer or a warrant officer with a warrant for the victim for failing to report for jury duty. The scammer will claim that unless a fine is immediately paid, the victim will be arrested.

• Callers claiming to be officials from an electric or gas utility seeking immediate payment of unpaid bills or face their utility being turned off.

“Scammers can be very aggressive and try to frighten their victims into compliance,” according to the warning.

Should residents receive any of these types of calls, they should advise the caller they are notifying police and hang up. Contact Southampton Town police at 631-728-5000, according to the warning.

Jeanne C. Tuthill of Mattituck died on June 8, 2014.  She was 96 years old. 

She was born in New Suffolk March 15, 1918, to Harry B. and Marjorie ( Fanning) Carter. Raised in Rockville Centre, Garden City and New Suffolk, she was trained as a nurse and worked at the former Central Suffolk Hospital in Riverhead.

Jeanne enjoyed quilting and traveling, gardening and the “farm life.”  For many years, she ran the raspberry stand on Route 48 in Mattituck and in earlier years raised turkeys.

She had been a member of Cutchogue Presbyterian Church and was more recently associated with Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Mattituck.

Predeceased by her husband, John Case Tuthill in 2013 and her son, Edward Tuthill in 1972; she is survived by her friends David and Sherry Steele and their family of Mattituck and numerous nieces and nephews.

Friends and family will receive visitors Wednesday, June 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. at DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Mattituck.  Graveside services and interment will take place Thursday, June 12, at 10 a.m. at Cutchogue Cemetery, where the Rev. Patrick McNamara of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer will officiate.

Memorial donations may be made to  Mattituck Fire Department Rescue Squad or Mattituck Historical Society.

This is a paid notice. 

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, calling for the banning of certain pesticides at the DEC’s Draft Long Island Pesticide Pollution Prevention Strategy hearing at Suffolk County Community College in Northampton last year. (Credit: Carrie Miller, file)

After 16 years of research and debate, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has released its strategy for safeguarding Long Island’s water supplies from pesticide contamination.

But that final document, at its heart, simply calls for more research and debate. 

The 126-page Long Island Pollution Prevention Strategy, released last Thursday, outlines a need for additional research on pesticides of concern and creates a “technical review and advisory committee” to weigh the human health risks associated with them.

• Scroll below to read full report

That committee will provide the DEC with information needed to support regulatory action in the future — an outcome stakeholders from both sides surprisingly called a “compromise.”

“We have to stop looking at self-interest and start promoting what’s in the public’s interest,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, who criticized the draft version of the strategy during a public hearing last April.

She said she believes the strategy could help protect groundwater “as long as those on the committee work aggressively and honestly with each other.”

• See also: Groundwater Protection and Pest Management

The DEC started drafting the proposal in 1998, when clean water advocates lobbied for strict regulations and even a ban on certain chemicals of concern. At the time, those in agriculture said proven science on potential health risks was a crucial, yet in many cases missing, component to pesticide policies.

At an April 2013 hearing on a draft version of the strategy, Ms. Esposito called for a ban on chemicals known as “repeat offenders” including metalaxyl, atrazine and imidacloprid.

Those three are among 117 different pesticide-related chemicals that have been detected in Long Island’s groundwater since 1996 and will be among the first materials the DEC will research and present to the committee for review.

Ms. Esposito said this is one of “a number of improvements which we are happy about,” the most important addition being a system for assessing the strategy’s success over time.

“How do we know it is working if you don’t have any way of testing yourself?” she asked.

Dale Moyer, associate executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, which helps train farmers on proper pesticide application, called the draft a “scientifically sound and balanced approach” — which is in tune with what those in agriculture were calling for.

He said representatives from Cornell would be on the committee and will be joined by state and local health and environmental officials to look at chemicals of concern — and potential alternatives.

“If there aren’t any [alternatives] then we have to look at whether there is way to use the material without impacting the environment,” Mr. Moyer said.

“It’s not necessarily a yes or a no” on whether to ban particular materials, he said. “It’s more about understanding how the material should be used and applied” to keep it from leeching into groundwater.

Bob DeLuca, president of Group for the East End, said the plan lacks a timeline for research and committee decisions.

He said deadlines would help both the regulatory agency and commercial applicators and farmers who “want to know what is expected of them and when.”

“You need an obligation to say in 24 months, we’re going to hit this target,” Me. DeLuca said. “If you just have the strategy that says DEC is going to get around to doing something, these things fall to the wayside.”

cmiller@timesreview.com

Long Island Pesticide Pollution Prevention Strategy

Nuria Russell is escorted into Southold Town Justice Court Tuesday. (Credit: Paul Squire)

A New Suffolk woman was arrested early Tuesday morning following an incident at a Cutchogue house owned by Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, according to a press release issued by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. 

Nuria Russell, 50, the supervisor’s estranged wife, was charged following an incident at 9:30 p.m. Monday in which she allegedly broke a front window to gain entry into the supervisor’s house on Oak Street.  Ms. Russell allegedly violated an order of protection issued June 3 and served upon her Sunday by entering the house when Mr. Russell was present and again when she later phoned the supervisor from Southold Town Police Headquarters, according to the criminal complaint.  She was arrested at 12:50 a.m. Tuesday, a DA spokesperson said.

Appearing without an attorney in Southold Town court Tuesday, a barefoot Ms. Russell pleaded not guilty to two charges of second-degree criminal contempt and a charge of fourth-degree criminal mischief. She was released on her own recognizance by Judge William Price, according to the DA’s office.

Ms. Russell told Judge Price she is living with the couple’s two children at the house in Cutchogue and that as of Monday the supervisor was no longer living in the house.

“We are sleeping at Oak Street and it has been transitional,” she told the judge.

However, a DA spokesperson said Ms. Russell told police she lives at an address in New Suffolk. County court records show that a lease in Mr. Russell’s name at that same New Suffolk address expired at the end of April. An attorney for the New Suffolk property owner declined comment Tuesday.

Mr. Russell told police he stays at the Cutchogue address, the DA’s office said.

In 2011, Mr. Russell took a 17 day leave of absence from his Town Supervisor job following a police incident at the Cutchogue house that April. He said at the time police were responding to a 911 call “as a result of my poor health. The fact is that for some time now I have allowed myself to become physically and mentally fatigued.”

On her way into the courtroom Tuesday, Ms. Russell told reporters ”you’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I’ve done nothing wrong, just know that,” she said.

“I’m fighting a lot of injustices right now,” she added on her way out of the courtroom.

When contacted on his cell phone Tuesday, Mr. Russell called the arrest a “private family matter.”

“I hope our family privacy will be respected,” he said, declining further comment.

Ms. Russell is scheduled to return to town court July 18, though Justice Price said Tuesday that the town judges plan to recuse themselves from the case.

“I am going to do the arraignment and after that this case is going to be transferred to a different court,” he said.

gparpan@timesreview.com

Here are today’s top stories. To make sure you stay on top of local news, follow The Suffolk Times on Facebook.

Listings prepared for Times/Review Newspapers by Suffolk Research Service, dated March 31-April 7, 2014.

CUTCHOGUE (11935)

• Stoutenburgh, P Trust to Dickerson, Robert, 320 Billard Rd (1000-98-1-25), (V), $275,000

FISHERS ISLAND (06390)

• US Bank National Assoc to Parsons Jr, Harris, 172 Hedge St, Lot 9 (1000-10-7-9), (R), $215,860

FLANDERS (11901)

• Booker, T to Fiorire Corp, 42 Brown St (900-140-2-36), (R), $58,000

• Broidy, M to Flanders Boulevard Prprts, Properties LLC, 43 Flanders Blvd (900-144-2-31), (V), $57,500

• Wenz, S by Admr to Anderson, Steven, 319 Oak Ave (900-166-1-34), (R), $249,900

• Skovron, S & J & Braun, D to DiSario, Michael, 105 Pleasure Dr (900-166-4-18.1), (R), $270,000

• Bush, K & LaCava, H to Mikucka, Piotr, 444 Flanders Blvd S (900-167-2-21), (R), $250,000

• Brzozowski, T Trust to Barron, Shawn, 124 Pleasure Dr (900-169-1-13.2), (R), $350,000

GREENPORT (11944)

• Hughes, R to Samet, Joseph, 1195 Main St (1000-34-1-8), (V), $50,000

• Hughes, R & M to Samet, Joseph, 1155 Main St (1000-34-1-9), (R), $250,000

• Bracken, R & L to Spar, Sonia, 575 Tarpon Dr (1000-53-5-6), (R), $376,500

• Parsons, A & Umanoff, J to Gessner II, Robert, 200 North St (1001-2-6-11), (R), $295,000

MATTITUCK (11952)

• Suffolk County Nat Bank to Mattituck Equities, LLC, 10900 Route 25 (1000-143-3-4.2), (C), $900,000

ORIENT (11957)

• Cohen, B & P to Sullivan, Ryan, 1855 Village Ln (1000-25-3-12.3), (R), $1,312,500

PECONIC (11958)

• Watson, E to Kaplan, Justin, 30653 CR 48 (1000-73-4-5), (R), $2,450,000

• RSC Classic LLC to Cirnigliaro, Giovanni, 695 Robinson Ln (1000-98-5-7), (R), $390,000

RIVERHEAD (11901)

• Rozmus, C to Federal National Mortgage, Association, 158 Northern Pkwy (600-107-1-50), (R), $311,204

• Hudson City Savings to Atkinson, Darryl, 123 Hubbard Ave (600-112-1-9.2), (R), $365,000

• Lilvic Management LLC to ONR, LLC, 1383 Pulaski St (600-121-1-3), (R), $200,000

• Rosen, M to Maxman Management LLC, 159 Railroad St (600-128-3-12.2), (C), $235,000

SHELTER ISLAND (11964)

• Licht, B to Hudon, Paul, 97 S Ferry Rd (700-23-3-33.1), (V), $247,500

SOUTHOLD (11971)

• Brown, S to Solowsky, Peter, p/o 1820 Leeward Dr (1000-79-7-44.1), (V), $125,000

• Brown, S to Rzeszut, Joseph, p/o 1820 Leeward Dr (1000-79-7-44.2), (V), $125,000

• Manzi, M to McDermott, Kevin, 405 Cedar Point Dr W (1000-90-2-27), (R), $653,509

WADING RIVER (11792)

• Amodemo, M to Nedos, Alice, 23 Faye St (600-33-1-9), (R), $285,000

• DeNobile, M by Executor to Rossner, Patricia, 107 16th St (600-34-1-42), (R), $100,000

(Key: Tax map numbers = District-Section-Block-Lot; (A) = agriculture; (R) = residential; (V) = vacant property; (C) = commercial; (R&E) = recreation & entertainment; (CS) = community services; (I) = industrial; (PS) = public service; (P) = park land; as determined from assessed values in the current tax rolls.)

Chris Ujkic has won seven straight titles in the Bob Wall Memorial Tennis Tournament. (Credit: Garret Meade, file)

Registrations are being accepted for the Bob Wall Memorial Tennis Tournament. The tournament, sponsored by Times/Review Newspapers of Mattituck, will be held over a six-week period this summer from the last weekend in June through the last weekend in July. 

A portion of the proceeds from this year’s tournament will be directed to assist with the rehabilitation of Robert Wall, a former Riverhead High School tennis player left paralyzed following a boating/diving accident. Robert is the son of Bob Wall, the late founder of the tournament. The finals will be played on Saturday, Aug. 2, at Robert W. Tasker Park in Peconic. The rain date is Aug. 3.

Click here to register.

For assistance with registration, contact Sonja Reinholt Derr at 631-354-8050. For more information, call tournament director Jim Christy at 631-298-8085.

An advocacy group launched a campaign called “Humanity is the New Black” after the popular Netflix showed filmed at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead. (Credit: Grant Parpan)

Conditions at the Riverside jail aren’t what they seem on the hit Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.”

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit against Suffolk County two years ago, they’re much worse. 

The advocacy group has launched a publicity campaign called “Humanity is the New Black” to coincide with the Riverside jail’s appearance in the an episode of the popular drama, whose second season was released June 6.

The NYCLU claims inmates at the jail are forced to live in “appalling conditions,” according to a press release issued by the group.

• Get the news to come to you: like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

“Suffolk County should take the energy it put into wooing Hollywood into cleaning up the shocking conditions in its jails,” said Amol Sinha, director of the Suffolk County Chapter of the NYCLU. “Raw sewage bubbles from the floor, toilets explode, rodents and roaches infest the kitchens, black mold covers the walls, and drinking and bathing water runs brown and smells of sewage.”

Suffolk County Sheriff’s Chief Michael Sharkey said he couldn’t comment on specific allegations included in the suit.

“The Suffolk County Correctional Facilities, as well as every correctional facility in New York State, are overseen by the New York State Commission of Corrections and they have set standards that correctional facilities have to meet to house prisoners,” Chief Sharkey said. “And we meet those standards.”

The NYCLU has urged fans of the show to post photos in support of the lawsuit, to share details about it on social media, and to email County Executive Steve Bellone urging him to address the allegations.

The group’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in April 2012 on behalf of a handful of inmates. It claims that conditions at the Riverside and Yaphank jails violated their constitutional rights by forcing “cruel and unusual punishment” upon them.

As a result of their confinement and exposure to conditions at the county jails, the handful of inmates named as plaintiffs in the suit have suffered “intestinal illnesses, skin conditions, respiratory infections, fungal infections, nose bleeds, headaches, blurred vision, and dizziness,” according to the complaint.

“Even corrections officers at the [Suffolk County Correctional Facility] have commented on the deplorable and inhumane conditions at the facilities, describing them as unfit for animals,” the suit alleges.

The group has since claimed that in the two years since the suit was filed, the county has “refused to make even basic fixes” at the jails and is “actively stalling” to slow down the lawsuit.

Mr. Bellone could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jason Porter, a former inmate who spent two months at the Riverhead jail, said in NYCLU’s press release that he encountered moldy showers and overflowing toilets while incarcerated.

“One night, the toilets in just about every cell exploded,” Mr. Porter said. “The place was flooded with raw sewage. We retreated to the table area, where we sought refuge for 30 hours. I couldn’t explain the smell in a million years. Nobody should ever be forced to live in a place like Riverhead.”

NYCLU’s lawsuit is still pending in court.

psquire@timesreview.com

SUNY/Oneonta junior pitcher Steve Ascher was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 17th round. (Credit: SUNY/Oneonta Athletic Department)

Steve Ascher, who was a Yankees fan growing up, may one day get the chance to pitch against the Bronx bombers — as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays made Ascher, a 20-year-old left-hander from Cutchogue, their choice in the 17th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Saturday.

“It’s honestly a dream come true,” said the SUNY/Oneonta junior, who was the 517th player taken. More than half of the 1,215 selections in the 40-round draft that started last Thursday and concluded Saturday were pitchers.

Ascher, who was a standout for Mattituck High School, leading the Tuckers to a Long Island championship in 2011, said he thought he might be drafted in the 10th round.

“I was hoping I would be called the day before,” he said. “I thought I would be disappointed but you can’t be disappointed when you’re drafted.”

Before the draft, Ascher had reported to the Cotuit Kettleers of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. This is his account of how events unfolded:

On Friday night he talked to an advisor who said he had received calls from the Kansas City Royals and the Rays, expressing an interest in selecting him. He also received a call from the Mets, inquiring about his signability. On Saturday, Ascher was leaving for a doubleheader when he took a call from a Royals scout who asked if he was still signable. “I told him I was,” said Ascher.

The Kettleers players who were draft eligible were permitted to carry a cellphone in their pocket. While the Kettleers played in the doubleheader Saturday (Ascher wasn’t scheduled to pitch until Monday), Ascher was involved in another game of his own: a waiting game.

Ascher was near the dugout when he received the first inkling that something significant had happened. He received a text from an Arizona Diamondbacks scout. It read simply, “Congrats, brother.”

Then he learned he had been drafted.

Ascher said he has received a flood of digital support through social media. “I all of a sudden became popular,” he said. “My phone and my social media has blown up.”

Ascher said he had 300 likes on his Facebook page. “I don’t even know if I know 300 people,” he said.

Among those Ascher heard from were members of the current Mattituck High School team, which that day had lost to Rye Neck in a regional final.

Ascher posted the following message to his Twitter account on Saturday: “Thank you for all the support and congratulations. It means a lot!! It’s amazing to be a part of the RaysBaseball!!#DreamComeTrue”

Thank you all for the support and congratulations… It means a lot!! It’s amazing to be a part of the @RaysBaseball !! #DreamComeTrue ⚾️

— Steven Ascher (@StevenAscher) June 8, 2014

This has been a magical year for Ascher. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound hurler was presented with the Don Axtell Pitcher of the Year award, given to the top pitcher in the State University of New York Athletic Conference. Ascher posted a 6-4 record with a 1.82 earned run average for SUNY/Oneonta this past season. He struck out 82 and walked 20 in 69 1/3 innings, the most thrown by any of the Oneonta pitchers.

“He had a phenomenal year,” said SUNY/Oneonta coach Ben Grimm.

Last summer may have been a breakthrough of sorts for Ascher. He said his fastball was timed as fast as 92 miles per hour while pitching for the Danbury (Conn.) Westerners in the New England College Baseball League. He went 4-2 with a 3.88 ERA, 35 strikeouts and nine walks in 44 innings that summer.

• SEE ALSO: In 2011, Ascher’s one-hit shutout carried Tuckers to L.I.C.

Grimm said he noticed a difference when Ascher returned to school after that summer season. “When he came back he was a different pitcher,” said the coach.

Ascher had pre-draft workouts with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Rays and the Mets. One of his workouts for the Mets was at Citi Field, a bullpen session in front of about 30 scouts, not to mention Jeff Wilpon, chief operating officer of the Mets, and the Mets’ general manager, Sandy Alderson.

“I thought I did the best I possibly could,” said Ascher, who reached 93 miles per hour in the workouts.

In a story on rayscoloredglasses.com, Drew Jenkins wrote that the Rays had managed to find a pitcher “with some polish in Steve Ascher” who could turn out to be a nice value from the 17th round. “Ascher is never going to dominate with stuff, but he features a solid 4 pitch arsenal,” Jenkins wrote. “He will come at hitters with a 4-seam fastball, and compliments [sic] it well with a slider, a slow curve, and a changeup. The changeup is the best of the three, and there is a chance he will ditch the slider as a pro.”

Ascher surely made his mark at Mattituck High School where he was a second team All-State player as a senior. Ascher had a remarkable senior year with the Tuckers, setting school records for wins (11) and strikeouts (119) in a season. He had a 0.68 ERA from the 72 innings he pitched that 2011 season.

Speaking of Ascher being drafted, Mattituck coach Steve DeCaro said: “I think it’s just a smaller achievement on the way to a bigger achievement. He’s going to go places, I think.”

For one thing, DeCaro said, Ascher has the right temperament. He said Ascher can give up a home run and then get right back to business without allowing it to bother him.

Ascher’s ever-present smile used to bother DeCaro, who took it as a sign that he wasn’t taking baseball seriously. “When he was young it used to drive me crazy,” said the coach.

DeCaro said it wasn’t until Ascher’s junior year that he came to realize that the smile was just a reflection of Ascher’s personality.

DeCaro pointed out that Ascher is one of four players from Suffolk County League VII in 2010 who have been drafted. The others are Chris Pike of Southampton (Rays), Tyler Badomo of Mount Sinai (Mets) and Max Watt of Babylon (Red Sox).

Ascher, who has an agent, Mike Giorgio, returned to his Cutchogue home on Sunday. Wearing a purple Rays cap and Rays shirt, Ascher put pen to paper, inking a contract with the team on Monday. Ascher said he is to fly Fort Myers, Fla., this week for a physical and mini-camp before joining the Princeton Rays to play rookie ball in Princeton, W.Va.

“I just want to make sure I stay working hard, stay dedicated and climb up the ranks,” he said. “I want to be in the pros.”

Grimm said he had a feeling that SUNY/Oneonta would lose a good pitcher in Ascher. He acknowledged mixed feelings, being happy for Ascher but also lamenting his departure. “You’d love to have him back as a senior because he’s a great ballplayer … but at the same time we had a gut feeling,” said Grimm.

DeCaro, who is a Mets fan, said he had hoped, for selfish reasons, that the Mets would pick Ascher.

“Now I’m a Tampa Rays fan,” he said. “There will be no divided loyalties, believe me. If Steven’s pitching, there’s my loyalty right there.”

bliepa@timesreview.com

Greenport Idol, with acts ranging from teachers rapping to Eminem and students playing instruments, was the lead story in the final school year issue of The Quill, Greenport High School’s student newspaper.

The 20-page paper featured a wide-array of stories written by students and features bios of the school’s top two students, valedictorian Mairi Creedon and salutatorian Briana Pagano. Briana was also the editor-in-chief of the paper, a position she held for the past two years.

The paper is produced under the guidance of advisor Jennifer Gibbs. Angelina Pagano is assistant editor, Sarah Tuthill is the layout editor and Neville Reece is the news analyst.

See the entire edition below:

The Quill

The water bill is designed to clean groundwater and prevent pollution and harmful algal blooms in the bays and Long Island Sound. (Credit: Katharine Schroeder)

After an up-Island assemblyman recently pitched a clean water bill creating a timeline for improving wastewater treatment systems, matching legislation has been proposed in the state Senate, potentially clearing the way for sweeping water quality reform in Albany before the end of next week.

If signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the bill stands to affect property owners throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties. 

State Assemblyman Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) unveiled his version of the bill, known as the “Long Island Water Quality Control Act,” at the end of last month.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) responded by laying an updated version of the legislation on the table Tuesday evening — with just 10 days left in the 2014 legislative session — that includes minimal changes considered “mostly technical in nature.”

Mr. Sweeney’s bill has been amended to mirror Mr. LaValle’s.

Bob DeLuca, speaking on behalf of Group for the East End and the Clean Water Partnership, said the updated bill “represents the single most important piece of water quality planning and protection legislation in 30 years.”

Starting in 2017, new construction and any big renovation projects on Long Island would need modern waste treatment systems installed to better filter nitrogen from reaching ground and surface waters, according to the bills. High nitrogen levels in area waters have been feeding harmful algal blooms, which in turn have damaged the local ecosystem by depriving bodies of water of oxygen and negatively affecting area fisheries. Nitrogen levels have likewise been increasing in area drinking water.

Also starting in 2017, no property owner would be allowed to repair failing cesspools in certain “priority areas” — areas that Nassau or Suffolk counties have not yet formally identified. Those residents would instead have to install newer denitrification systems. In addition, any sprinkler systems installed after the start of 2016 must be equipped with rain sensors to override systems when sufficient rainfall has occurred.

The bill also addresses pesticide use in agriculture and calls for an evaluation of pesticide contamination in order to prioritize which chemicals present the greatest concern, and to make recommendations to prevent future contamination.

It also calls for the creation of educational materials for farmers about how to properly apply such chemicals.

Joe Gergela, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, called the regulations excessive.

“The language in the bill is still not acceptable,” he said, adding that the group will push for some adjustments.

Mr. Gergela said he had hoped the bill would refer to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s newly released pesticide strategy, which calls for many of the same evaluation and recommendation processes. He called it, essentially, an unnecessary duplication of efforts.

“We’re going to have some further recommendations, and we hope that they will listen,” Mr. Gergela said.

Mr. DeLuca said he and other water quality advocates — including Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society — have been in Albany since Monday meeting with members of both Houses and the governor’s office to lobby for support of the bill.

“[The bill] focuses on a long-term phase-out of old and failing systems” and “does not require everyone to rip up their existing system,” Mr. DeLuca said. “From our standpoint, the bill incorporates all of the key elements.”

Despite the positive effects environmentalists say the bill could produce, some local officials and environmental advocacy groups have questioned the transparency of lawmakers in drafting the legislation.

North Fork Environmental Council president Bill Toedter said he was “disappointed” in state Sen. LaValle for not taking the taking time to hear public comments and input before introducing the bill. He added that no official public hearings were held, which he called “inexcusable.”

Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski (D-Cutchogue), whose district spans the North Fork, said he was not consulted or asked for any input about the bill, despite requesting a meeting with Mr. Sweeney to discuss it.

cmiller@timesreview.com

A Shelter Island man with an arrest warrant for a probation violation was taken into custody last Thursday after he missed the ferry to Shelter Island and was seen sleeping in his car, according to Southold Town police. 

A woman called police about 9 a.m. to report that a vehicle on Route 25 in Cutchogue had been “parked in the parking lot for a long time” and said it looked like people were sleeping inside, according to the reports. A police officer went to the scene and found two men sleeping in the car. The men told the officer that they had decided to sleep in the car after missing the ferry back, police said.

But the cop found that one of the men — 27-year-old Justin Begg — had an active warrant for his arrest, according to the report.

Mr. Begg was arrested and taken to police headquarters to be picked up by Suffolk County Probation officers, police said.

Here are today’s top stories. To make sure you stay on top of local news, follow The Suffolk Times on Facebook.

Here is the Suffolk Times Service Directory for June 12, 2014. If you are interested in placing an ad, please call Karen, 631-354-8029 or email kcullen@timesreview.com.

Suffolk Times Service Directory: June 12, 2014

Plans to move and expand the Galley Ho restaurant were the subject of a public hearing Monday.(Credit: Barbaraellen Koch, file)

Last week’s coverage and editorial on the New Suffolk Waterfront Fund’s plan to relocate and renovate the Galley Ho restaurant received a large dose of feedback. Here are a sample of two letters to the editor written in response.

To the editor:

We, the undersigned, are the community members who paid for the full page advertisement in your paper last week voicing our concern about the proposed Galley Ho restaurant project and urging our neighbors to attend the Planning Board meeting. We asked Diane Harkoff to submit it on our behalf because she has an established account with Times/Review Newsgroup. The advertisement was not paid for by Legends Restaurant, contrary to your editorial statements.

Vicky Germaise
Howard Thompson
George Cork Maul
Ted Victoria
Kim and Dan Petrie
Aida Hartung

To the editor:

You were correct in last week’s editorial with many of your points, but you were wrong about the restaurant’s motivation. It would be very selfish of them to mind this plan merely because there’s a restaurant attached to it. We (Summer Girl), too, don’t support it, even though it would be a financial win for us. We are taking your advice and dropping the rhetoric and sticking to reality.

The reality is that this is more about protecting the Peconics, preserving our simpler way of life in our tiny hamlet, and about the needless development of our scenic waterfront and what FEMA has named “an area of special flood hazard.” This project was started by a concerned community for the community and the New Suffolk Waterfront Fund has accomplished their original mission — the property has been preserved for the future.

Kim and Dan Petrie
owners, Summer Girl boutique

This small, antique — and still working — mailbox on Main Street in Greenport is slated to be removed and replaced with a more modern collection box up the road. Some who live in or work in the area aren’t happy about that. (Credit: Paul Squire)

The mailbox is bolted to a cement pole in front of Claudio’s restaurant in Greenport, its blue paint partially chipped away. Near the rusty keyhole locking letters inside the box, a peeling sticker notes the collection time: Monday through Saturday, 1 p.m.

A small metal tab at the top of the mail slot, embossed with the phrase “Pull Down,” emits a high-pitched creak when pulled open before bouncing shut with a few rapid clanks.

Main Street business owners say they’ll miss that old box and its old noise if the U.S. Postal Service follows through on a plan to remove it and install a new mailbox a block or so up the road.

But the postal service says the collection box isn’t used enough, in part because it’s out of date.

“If I’d miss the sound, that means it’s getting used,” said Andrew Rowsom, co-owner of Preston’s Marine Supply across the street.

But the postal service has determined that the decades-old Main Street mailbox was too small to hold packages or large envelopes, said spokesperson Christine Dugas.

“A manager contacted the [Greenport] postmaster to take the postal box out because it doesn’t fit today’s needs,” Ms. Dugas said.

A new mailbox will soon be installed on Main Street near Capital One bank, at which point the old mailbox — which was restored a few years ago by Greenport’s previous postmaster — will be removed, she said.

Ms. Dugas said the box — which is thought to be anywhere from 40 to 60 years old, maybe more — will be preserved, perhaps by encasing it in a display box or shipping it to a nearby post office or a historian in Washington, D.C.

Leaving the box in place on Main Street once it’s decommissioned probably won’t be possible, she added, because customers might confuse it for a working mailbox.

“As far as I know, we’re not able to keep a mailbox on a property where it’s not being used for its original intent as a collection box,” Ms. Dugas said.

That’s not good enough for some of the town’s business leaders, who are working to keep their mailbox right where it is.

“We all feel like it’s a historic and important little mailbox to keep in service, especially since it’s in front of a historic restaurant,” said Peter Clarke, president of the Greenport Business Improvement District. “We are looking for any avenue to pursue to help keep it … It gets a lot of attention and we need to retain everything that is part of our history in Greenport.”

Janice Claudio, whose family owns the restaurant closest to the mailbox, said she’s considering launching a campaign to oppose the postal service’s plan.

“I just can’t understand the thinking why you would take down this recently restored, functioning tribute to our past,” Ms. Claudio said. “It’s just something that’s a relic of another time that makes Greenport the village it is.”

Across the street at Preston’s gift shop, longtime employee Marie Doroski gasped when she heard about the plan for the old mailbox.

“It’s an old fixture,” she said. “Send the person who came up with that in here. We’ll tell him off!”

Not everyone who works on Main Street said they use the mailbox with any regularity. Brittany Barszczewski, who owns Greenport Art & Design, said she normally ships big packages — boxes that won’t fit in the small mailbox.

“It’s cute, but I didn’t even realize it was there until this winter when I parked down by Claudio’s,” Ms. Barszczewski said.

But several business owners said they still use the mailbox, despite claims that it’s too antiquated to accommodate customers’ needs.

“I know it gets quite a bit of mail, because I know that the restaurant, the clam bar, we all use it and I see other people use it,” Ms. Claudio said.

The mailbox also serves another purpose: minor tourist attraction. Ms. Claudio said families take photos in front of the mailbox and other business owners said they hear summer visitors comment about the “cute little mailbox.”

Kate Costello of Southold, who was visiting Greenport with her family Tuesday afternoon, said she was surprised to hear the postal service was removing the well-known mailbox.

“Everybody knows it’s here,” Ms. Costello said. “They fight so hard to keep things rustic in this town … but they’re trying to get rid of this?”

psquire@timesreview.com

A 28-year-old man allegedly drove his mother’s car without her permission Wednesday night, then tried to resist police by climbing out of a patrol car window, according to a Southold police report. 

Police said they attempted to arrest Mattituck resident Thomas Dougherty about 9:05 p.m. on Old North Road in Southold after he took his mother’s vehicle for a drive. But while being placed under arrest, Mr. Dougherty allegedly tried to climb out of the patrol car, according to the police statement.

Police said the defendant had to be “forcibly placed” back into the car.

Mr. Doughtery was charged with resisting arrest and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, both misdemeanors.

psquire@timesreview.com