The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has temporarily banned harvesting marine gastropods, including whelk, conch and moonsnails, in Deep Hole Creek in Mattituck effective Thursday, May 4, according a DEC press release.

The ban extends out 500 yards into the Peconic Bay in all directions of the northernmost tip of Marratooka Point and also Halls Creek to the east.

The ban is a result of DEC detecting marine biotoxins in shellfish at a monitoring station in Deep Hole Creek, the DEC said.

“The Department of Environmental Conservation, prohibit the harvest, taking, possessing, transporting or offering for sale carnivorous gastropods from the underwater lands described below, and continuing until a determination is made that marine biotoxins are no longer present at levels in shellfish that may cause carnivorous gastropods to be hazardous for use as food,” the DEC notice says.

An emergency closure line will provide updates on the closure at 631-444-0480.

The areas listed are “designated as uncertified for the the harvest of shellfish from May 1 through Nov. 30, annually,” according to the DEC.

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Bill Kitzerow plays the title role and Susan Cincotta plays his wife in the Neil Simon comedy ‘The Prisoner of Second Avenue,’ which wil be presented by Northeast Stage for three weekends, starting Friday, May 5, at Holy Trinity Church in Greenport. (Credit: Elizabeth Wagner)

Northeast Stage will present “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” for three weekends beginning Friday, May 5, at Holy Trinity Church in Greenport.

Performances are set for 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, May 5 to 20, and 5 p.m. Sunday, May 7.

Neil Simon’s 1970s black comedy is set in an Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan. During a heat wave and a garbage strike, a middle-aged couple copes with the husband’s loss of a job in the midst of a recession.

Cast members are Bill Kitzerow, Susan Cincotta, Philip Reichert, Kristin Whiting, Amie Sponza, Deb Rothaug, Richard Gardini, Alan Stewart and Lisa Dabrowski. The production is directed by Suzette Reiss.

Tickets are $16 in advance and $20 at the door. All proceeds will benefit Northeast Stage’s summer Shakespeare in the Park production of “The Comedy of Errors.”

Call 631-323-1425 or visit northeaststage.org.

See more photos by Elizabeth Wagner below:

From left: Kristin Whiting, Philip Reichert, Deborah Rothaug and Amie Sponza.

Deborah Rothaug (left) and Amie Sponza.

Philip Reichert.

From left: Deborah Rothaug, Bill Kitzerow and Amie Sponza.

The cast and crew of “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.”

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It was a celebration 20 years in the making, and the Southold/Greenport high school softball team was making up for lost time. So, the Clippers celebrated and celebrated, and then celebrated some more.

They screamed. They hugged. They danced. They threw confetti.

Moments like these haven’t come around too often for the Clippers, so they made the most of it Thursday after they clinched their first playoff berth since 1997 when a Tom McGunnigle-coached team reached the postseason. A 16-6 pasting of host Port Jefferson in a six-inning game shortened by the mercy rule did the trick, ending the long playoff drought.

“Right now I’m in shock,” centerfielder Toni Esposito said. She added, “This is a great accomplishment for our team.”

Leftfielder Liz Clark, who had confetti all over her hair, said: “I’m ecstatic. This is the best feeling I’ve had on a team.”

After Port Jefferson’s Ashley Catoggio grounded out to third baseman Hannah Sutton for the final out, the pitching circle became a mob scene, with joyful Southold players enjoying the moment they had been waiting for.

Shortly after, a pail of confetti was handed to them and they charged toward their new coach, Skip Gehring, dumping the confetti over him.

“This is really, really something special,” senior shortstop Katie Tuthill said. “I am so happy. It’s my last chance at a banner for anything, so I am just so, so excited. It was a great day.”

Southold (9-5, 9-5 League X), the 17th-ranked Class C team in the state by a New York State Sportswriters Association poll that was released Tuesday, has made great strides this season. Not only has the hitting improved considerably, but the defense has been clean and pitcher Ashley Hilary has done a commendable job keeping hits and walks down.

“The girls worked hard all year,” Gehring said. “They’ve had an exciting year. It’s been a total team effort. We’re scoring runs. We’re playing phenomenal defense. Ashley is pitching great.”

Southold used a seven-run burst in the sixth inning to make the score 16-1. The Clippers totaled 12 hits for the game, but also benefitted from 13 errors by Port Jefferson (2-12, 2-12).

Tuthill (three RBIs) and Clark (two RBIs) both went 3-for-5. Designated hitter Samantha Baldwin added three RBIs and Esposito scored four runs in addition to tripling.

Hilary hurled a four-hitter, with four strikeouts and no walks. She did not allow an earned run. Two of those Port Jefferson hits came off the bat of Isabella Koutsantanou.

So, what makes Southold a playoff team?

“I think it’s our defense, to be honest with you,” Tuthill said. “Obviously, we have great bats and we’re still working on them and they’re not always a hundred percent, but our defense is always getting an out and that is what is so important.”

Esposito gave props to Gehring, saying: “He believes in us. He’s helping us get more confident, and that’s really helping us as a team because once we believe in ourselves and each other, we can do great things.”

Well after the game, the Clippers could still be heard from a distance cheering as they made the long walk toward their team bus. One sensed that the celebrating would continue for a while.

“You should see our celebrations on the bus,” Tuthill said. “We’re going to Chick-fil-A. We’re happy.”

And they’re also going to the playoffs.

bliepa@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Jubilant Southold/Greenport players celebrate their team clinching its first playoff berth since 1997. (Credit: Garret Meade)

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Joining educators from around the country, administrators from four local school districts recently sent letters home to parents encouraging them to be aware of a controversial new Netflix series dealing with teen suicide.

In the letters, which were sent by superintendents in the Greenport, Southold, Mattituck-Cutchogue and Shoreham-Wading River school districts, parents were encouraged to watch “13 Reasons Why” with their children and discuss the sensitive subjects the series addresses. The Riverhead district plans to send a similar letter home to parents in the near future.

“This is a sensitive issue,” said Neil Lederer, interim superintendent at Shoreham-Wading River. “We’re urging parents to watch it with their children so that the children don’t misinterpret the message. They should then follow it up with discussions. Because sometimes, and I experienced this in the past, some students will process this as suicide being a glorification, and we don’t want to do that.”

The National Association of School Psychologists has cautioned that teenagers who watch the show — which is based on a popular young adult novel — without adult guidance and support could risk dangerous consequences. The show depicts numerous difficult topics — rape, bullying, bystanding, drunk driving and slut shaming, as well as the depiction of a suicide — which could be triggers for some individuals.

In an effort to help viewers better process the scenes they’re watching, NASP provided parents with online tips on how to approach the subject with their children. These include asking if your child or any of their friends have thought about suicide or exhibit warning signs, listening to your children’s comments without judgment and getting help from a school- or community-based mental health professional if you’re concerned for the safety of your child or their peers.

“It’s a lot to handle,” said David Gamberg, superintendent of Southold and Greenport schools. “It’s one thing for an adult to navigate it, but people even as young as elementary students have the potential to encounter that. So the subject matter is important to discuss and be aware of.”

• See also: How to combat teen suicide?

Ava Torres, a Greenport eighth-grader, agreed with the show’s creators, who have said the series is intended to generate discussion about suicide and offer hope to young people by proving they’re not alone in their feelings and experiences.

“It got kids to open up and realize if there is something going on, [they] should tell someone,” Ava said.

Fellow Greenport eighth-grader Shane Costello agreed, but felt the show was flawed in how it delivers its message.

“It’s important to talk about stuff like that because it’s kind of taboo,” Shane said. “The show kind of approached it in a weird way, though. It wasn’t displayed as a big talk about important material. It was displayed in a fun TV show.”

This is part of the reason critics and mental health professionals have claimed the show doesn’t achieve its goal. Instead, they say, “13 Reasons Why” glamorizes suicide and shies away from discussing mental illness.

NASP also criticized the show’s depiction of adults, saying parents and school officials in the series “do not inspire a sense of trust or ability to help.”

“It made counselors in all the schools look bad,” said Zoe Medina, a junior at Greenport High School. “And it neglects to provide other solutions to depression. Anyone more impressionable who is watching might think the only way out is suicide.”

With this in mind, local school administrators want students and adults to be aware of all the support their districts provide.

Each administrator listed school counselors and psychologists, social workers, nurses, teachers and administrators as people to whom students can turn should they want to discuss themes covered in the TV series and book — or anything happening in their own lives.

At Mattituck High School, “13 Reasons Why” is being discussed in health classes.

“[Ashley] Babst, our health teacher, has gone and done some research on criticism and concern about the TV show and is discussing those concerns,” principal Shawn Petretti said. “She’s asking, ‘Why is this a concern?’ and having that guided conversation with students.”

At Shoreham-Wading River, the district has made it a focus this school year to further educate the community about suicide prevention and mental health, Mr. Lederer said.

“We’re very sensitive to it because we had two suicides in our district this year,” he said. “We brought in a lot of speakers to educate and inform our community and we had staff training and student training in this issue.”

Overall, area school district officials and students alike agree the series can be beneficial in that it facilitates conversation about important topics. But they say those conversations need to include vital information they feel the creators of “13 Reasons Why” neglected to include in their story.

“There’s good to be pulled out of it,” Mr. Petretti said. “Kids think more about the impact of actions on other people. Everyone is so focused on themselves and don’t always concern themselves with the things they say or do. But some of the concerns that I saw were there was really no talk of mental health or mental illness, which always coincides with these sorts of things. That’s a big piece of it.”

Photo caption: Actors Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford in the new Netflix series ’13 Reasons Why’ in a scene from the show. School officials have sent letters to parents urging them to discuss the series, which is about teen suicide, with their children. (Credit: Netflix)

nsmith@timesreview.com

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The Greenport Village Planning Board approved both a three-story hotel on the corner of Front and Third streets and a subdivision of the former Greenport United Methodist Church property.

The 3-2 hotel approval —board members Lucy Clarke and John Cotugno voted in opposition — was conditional on the developer’s compliance with recommendations issued at a Planning Board meeting last month. Those conditions include limiting the hours of deliveries and the hours and usage of a rooftop area, as well as a ban on outside music.

The building, which would be built on the currently vacant lot at the southeast corner of the intersection, would feature a 60-seat restaurant on the ground level with 16 hotel rooms on second and third floors.

The applicant, Dan Pennessi of SAKD Holdings, still needs approvals from the Suffolk County Health Services Department, Planning Board chairman Devin McMahon said.

The proposed project previously received six variances, including one to allow just 10 off-street parking spaces rather than the 30 required under the village code.

The other five variances approved by the ZBA in December included a request to allow a third story on the building, for lot coverage 1.6 percent over the code limit, and building height variances to allow for an air conditioning unit, elevator bulkhead and a trellis above the 35-foot maximum allowed under the code.

“We’re very excited,” Mr. Pennessi said after the meeting. “We got good feedback from the village and the board, so we’re ready to move forward.”

Mr. McMahon said the next step for the project is to receive building department approval.

The former Greenport United Methodist Church, located on Main and First streets, received preliminary plat approval for three single-family homes.

Developer James Olinkiewicz now needs to prepare declarations for covenants of the single-family restriction and file it with the Suffolk County Clerk’s Office before he can return to the Planning Board for final plat approval.

During the hearing Mr. McMahon and Mr. Olinkiewicz agreed single-family homes were the best option for the property.

“It’s better for the neighborhood as a whole to restrict it to single-family homes,” Mr. McMahon said. “The subdivision is the highest and best use for the property. It’s in the best interest for the village to let this go forward.”

Mr. Olinkiewicz said he’d be willing to put a covenant on the deeds that would restricted multi-family homes at the site in the future.

The former church, which closed in June 2015, would become one single-family dwelling. The parsonage would become another house, and extra space towards the back of the lot would be used to place a third, he said. Mr. Olinkiewicz would remove an addition on the church that was built over nine decades ago in the process.

One concern, however, was the parking on the property as families move in. Neighbor Chris Dowling, agreed that single-family homes was the best use for the property, but said there’s already a parking problem in the area, and he believes the issue would only get worse with the subdivision.

Mr. Olinkiewicz said he doesn’t need the current parking lot and plans on making it a single driveway during the demolition of the back of the church, alleviating parking issues.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said the hotel approval was unanimous. It also referred to the rooftop area as a bar. Food and drink will not be permitted.

nsmith@timesreview.com

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Marie Ellen Bondarchuk, known as Mary Ellen, of Greenport, died May 4. She was 80. 

The family will receive visitors Sunday, May 7, from 2 to 6 p.m. at Horton-Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport. A 10 a.m. funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, May 8, Father Richard P. Hoerning of St. Agnes R. C. Church officiating.  Burial will follow at the church cemetery.

A complete obituary will follow.

The post Marie Ellen Bondarchuk appeared first on Suffolk Times.

The amount of students who refused to take state-mandated math assessments this week is similar to the English Language Arts opt-out rates in March, according to local school district officials.

Greenport had the highest rate of test refusals in Southold Town, with nearly 81 percent of students opting out of ELA.

Southold had the second largest opt-out turnout, with about 56 percent of students refusing to sit for the exams.

Nearly 51 percent of students at Oysterponds Elementary School, which runs a pre-K through sixth-grade program opted out and nearly 44 percent of Mattituck students declined to take the exams.

Below is a break down of math refusals by grade for each district.

Mattituck-Cutchogue School District

*26 students in grades 7 and 8 took the Regents Algebra or Geometry tests instead of the math assessment.

Southold School District

Greenport School District

*12 eighth grade students took the math Regents exam instead of math assessments.

Oysterponds School District

nsmith@timesreview.com

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Do you have all your clothes perfectly organized in your closet by color and item type? Or are you more the type of person who takes off your jewelry and stores it on the nearest piece of furniture you can find? You might even fit both these profiles.

Take this quiz from California Closets to find out just how organized your closet is. Then allow them to help you sharpen your skills and take your organization to the next level.

The post Quiz: How organized is your closet? appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Two Mattituck/Greenport/Southold high school wrestlers are going big time.

The pride of the Tuckers, seniors James Hoeg and Tanner Zagarino, who this past season became the first state champions in Mattituck history, will both wrestle for top NCAA Division I teams next season. The two training partners will not be far from each other, either. They are both headed to the state of Pennsylvania. Hoeg has committed to national champion Penn State while Zagarino made Pitt his choice on Sunday.

“It’s super impressive,” Mattituck coach Cory Dolson said. He added, “They’re not only going to Division I, but they’re going to high-level Division I, which is even more impressive.”

For the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Hoeg, joining the Nittany Lions will be the culmination of a dream. “Penn State has always been one of my favorite wrestling teams since I was little,” he said. “The dream was always, go to Penn State and get as good as you can get.”

Zagarino, 6-2, 205, said he weighed his college options carefully, but Pitt “was almost like a no-brainer the whole time.” He said, “I love the guys over there, and Pennsylvania wrestling … is just like the biggest wrestling community in the world.”

The two seniors are coming off dream seasons. Hoeg won the state Division II championship at 195 pounds and Zagarino grabbed the 220-pound state crown minutes later at Times Union Center in Albany. Hoeg finished the season with a 51-2 record and was 206-23 for his high school career. Zagarino’s 41-4 season capped off a 146-25 career with Mattituck.

“They really stepped their game up when it mattered most and they had unbelievable seasons,” said Dolson.

The two Tuckers have each other to thank, in part, for their success. For the past couple of seasons they butted heads daily in the Mattituck wrestling room, making each other better. The technical Hoeg and the explosive Zagarino have contrasting styles.

“Iron sharpens iron, right?” Dolson said. “So, you got two guys who are going after state titles wrestling every single day for the last probably two years, wrestling together every single day, making each other better. So, they’re very, very lucky that they had each other. There were definitely some fun days in there, especially when they were in bad moods. Those were the best days.”

While acknowledging that it could get dull at times, wrestling against the same training partner, Zagarino said Hoeg played a role in his state title. “Without James I know I couldn’t have done it,” he said.

“I’m not done wrestling,” Zagarino said. “I know I haven’t peaked. I know I can be so much better than I am now.”

Hoeg will not get a summer vacation. He will leave for Penn State on June 28, three days after high school graduation, for training and classes. He said, “It’s going to be tough leaving here and leaving our team behind, but there’s another team to be a part of.”

bliepa@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Mattituck High School seniors James Hoeg (Penn State), left, and Tanner Zagarino (Pitt) will both wrestle for high-level NCAA Division I teams in the state of Pennsylvania. (Credit: Bob Liepa)

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In the wake of Congress narrowly approving the American Health Care Act Thursday — replacing the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare” — local reaction from insurance and healthcare professionals was varied. 

And the U.S. Senate has yet to vote on the issue, so changes to the plan being pushed by Republican President Donald Trump are possible before anything becomes final.

Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) was one of 217 Republicans to vote in support of the plan, which was approved by just one vote.

“Almost everyone agrees that our current system is deeply flawed,” Mr. Zeldin said in a statement Thursday. “For example, just yesterday, Iowa’s last major insurer through the ACA, Medica, threatened to remove itself unless something is done to stabilize the markets. Imagine no option at all for an entire state? None! There are too many other examples of how this law is deeply flawed.”

Mr. Zeldin said the American Health Care Act “provides relief from billions of dollars of crushing taxes and mandates enacted under the ACA.”

But what about the more than 20 million Americans who became insured under Obamacare?

“It has the potential to leave a significant number of people without insurance,” said Paul Connor, president and CEO of Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport. “I think this Congressional Budget Office quoted 24 million and that’s a big number. One of a hospital’s primary legislative issues is to try to get health insurance coverage for folks. This does the opposite of that, we feel.”

Mr. Connor said the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the AARP have all come out in opposition to the AHCA.

Among the changes in the new plan would be the repeal of a requirement that employers with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees offer their staff coverage and another requirement that most people obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The AHCA also reduces Medicaid payments to states, and while it continues to allow people with pre-existing medical conditions to obtain coverage, it bases the rate of coverage for those people on the rate of risk the insurer will cover, Mr. Connor said.

So while a person may be eligible for coverage, they might not be able to afford it. Mr. Connor said the AHCA would provide $8 billion nationwide for pre-existing conditions, which he said is “woefully inadequate.”

“We want to make healthcare affordable, but over the last few years with Obamacare, some of these deductibles have made it unaffordable for a lot of people,” said Dr. Agostino Cervone, president of the medical staff at Peconic Bay Medical Center, who was speaking for himself and not the hospital.

He said the highest deductible he’s seen was about $1,200 per year and that was usually a young person or young family who would normally pay out of pocket.

Dr. Cervone said he thinks patients were making out better under Obamacare because it enabled them to go to a doctor and avoid putting off conditions until they get worse.

“If they didn’t have insurance, they wouldn’t visit a doctor because it would cost them extra money,” he said.

Overall, though, he said it’s too early to say if the AHCA would be better or worse.

Dr. Cervone recalled when Obamacare was first passed and “Republicans were saying people are going to die. Now the Republican plan has been submitted and Democrats are saying people are going to die.”

Anthony Cardona of Cardona & Company, a Water Mill-based insurance agency, said he doesn’t expect things to shift dramatically.

“My take [on AHCA] so far is that — not trying to get political on either side — there’s not going to be a whole lot of changes,” he said.

The problem is with the health care in general, Mr. Cardona added.

“At the end of the day, the cost of healthcare in this country is about $3 trillion, which comes out to about $9,500 per year per person,” he said. “Where is this money going to come from?”

Mr. Zeldin said there are “outright lies attacking this legislation,” such as a social media claim that 310,000 residents in his district would lose their healthcare coverage under the AHCA.

“The bill protects people with pre-existing conditions and gives states greater flexibility to lower premiums and stabilize the insurance market,” he said in his statement.

The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that enacting the AHA would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period.

But it also estimates that  14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law by 2018, and that this number would rise to 21 million in 2020 and then to 24 million in 2026.

tgannon@timesreview.com

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A Greenport woman reportedly found someone’s underwear near her chicken coop Sunday morning, according to a Southold Town police report. Police believe the underwear had been there for about three to six months and found it “wrapped around a tree and imbedded in the soil,” the report states.

• After police received a 911 hang-up call Friday around 3:30 a.m. from a Mattituck home, an officer investigated the residence and found a woman had fallen out of bed and attempted to use her emergency necklace, officials said. The officer helped the woman to a chair and tested the home emergency system, which was found to be in working order, police said.

• Police contacted the MTA last Thursday around 11:20 a.m. after they observed the railroad crossing gates closed on Factory Avenue in Mattituck for an “extended period of time” with “no train in the area,” the report states. The MTA stated they were doing work in the area and no further action was taken, police said.

• A homeowner who lives on Marion Lane in East Marion contacted police last Wednesday after he heard “loud bangs” coming from his neighbor’s house and believed a burglar was attempting to break into the residence, officials said. Police learned the house was under construction and didn’t find anything suspicious, the report states.

• The owner of the King Kullen shopping center on Route 25 in Cutchogue contacted police last Thursday to report a Huntington man’s vehicle has been parked in the parking lot since December, officials said. Police advised the vehicle’s owner that his vehicle could be towed at his expense, the report states.

• Police received a report of a suspicious-looking man wearing a black baseball hat and orange shirt walking in yards on Factory Avenue in Mattituck around 8:40 a.m. Friday, the report states. Officers determined the man was a PSEG-LI employee reading meters in the area.

• A homeowner on Minnehaha Boulevard in Southold requested police assistance to dispose of fireworks she found in her basement Friday afternoon, the report states. An officer pulled out the wicks, placed them in water and “disposed them properly,” officials said.

• A homeowner on Rocky Point Road in East Marion contacted police Friday around 5 p.m. after she found water in her basement, officials said. Police found the water was coming from an outside faucet that was left on, the report states. The faucet was turned off and no further action was taken, police said.

Those who are named in police reports have not been convicted of any crime or violation. The charges against them may later be reduced or withdrawn, or they may be found innocent.

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In the debate about the Netflix television series “13 Reasons Why,” reasonable arguments are being made on all sides.

It’s easy to understand why parents might not want their teenage children to consume programming that presents sensitive material they may be unable to process emotionally.

It’s also correct for the filmmakers and fans of the show to point out that these topics should be discussed by families. In a sense, whether it was the intention or not, the show is providing a public service by provoking conversations in living rooms everywhere about teen suicide, drug use and sexual assault. In response to criticism from experts who feel the show glamorizes suicide, Netflix announced this week that it would add a viewer warning screen to the series’ first episode. The episodes depicting suicide and sexual assault already had viewer warnings.

Administrators at each of the local school districts that sent letters home to parents warning them about the sensitive nature of the show and encouraging them to talk to their children about it should be commended. That not only helps assure that the events depicted on screen are processed in a serious way, but it also raises these important topics for parents and students who may not be watching the series.

As reported in the April 6 edition of the Riverhead News-Review, at least three suicides have occurred in area districts this school year. If we’re not going to talk about this topic now, when will there ever be a better time? Let’s burst those bubbles.

We can’t continue to treat mental illness as something that is taboo. It affects every one of us on some level and teens need to know that it’s OK to feel something less than happy.

In a world where we can send just about anyone we know a written message at any time, it can be a challenge to sit down and have a real conversation — even with members of our own families.

We hope that parents will heed the advice shared by local school districts in response to the series. We hope they’re speaking to their kids without judging and are looking for signs of isolation, hopelessness, anxiety and depression.

We shouldn’t fear finding these characteristics in our children. What’s much more frightening are the potentially tragic consequences of never taking the time to look for them in the first place.

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The Suffolk Times has been named Best Community Weekly Newspaper by the Press Club of Long Island, the newspaper learned this week. 

PCLI, the Long Island chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, has also announced that it will award the Northforker Long Island Wine Press Best Magazine and Times Review Media Group reporter Kelly Zegers will receive the James Murphy Cub Reporter of the Year award.

“Knowing just how many community news publishers are producing high quality work across Long Island, we hold this honor in very high regard,” said Times Review Media Group publisher Andrew Olsen. “We’re particularly pleased to be recognized for the work we do as both a weekly newspaper and a magazine publisher.”

The Suffolk Times has been covering the North Fork of Long Island since 1857. The Long Island Wine Press was launched as a partnership with the Long Island Wine Council in 1992.

Times Review Media Group has made an effort in recent years to expand its portfolio of magazines, making Wine Press a quarterly publication and introducing a new Northforker magazine earlier this year. The next issue of each publication hits East End newsstands in June.

“We’ve made a significant investment in the Long Island Wine Press and it’s so great to be recognized for that,” said Wine Press editor Vera Chinese. “This is a credit to the hard work of staff and all our talented freelance writers, photographers and designers.”

Cub reporter Kelly Zegers, 23, joined the Times Review staff in November 2016, covering local government and other general assignment stories.

Kelly Zegers

A 2016 graduate of Stony Brook University with degrees in both journalism and political science, the Selden resident previously interned at Newsday and worked as a general assignment reporter for The Southampton Press.

“Kelly is a tenacious reporter who aims to get to the bottom of every story she tells,” said Times Review managing editor Jen Nuzzo, a fellow Stony Brook graduate and past PCLI Cub Reporter of the Year. “She embodies the passion the instructors at the Stony Brook J-School instill in each student.”

The awards will be presented at PCLI’s annual dinner at Woodbury Country Club on Wednesday, June 7. Also being honored that evening with induction into the Long Island Journalism Hall of Fame is legendary columnist Jimmy Breslin of Newsday, the New York Daily News and the Long Island Press. He’ll be posthumously inducted alongside longtime East Hampton Star publisher Helen Rattray and former PCLI president Carl Corry.

Newsday was also awarded the Robert W. Greene Public Service Award for its “investigative series on the systemic flaws in Long Island’s judicial system that have allowed hundreds of cases to be sealed from public view despite regulations designed to make the courts more transparent,” according to PCLI.

More awards finalists will be announced in the coming days with the complete list of winners being named at the June 7 event.

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At age 8, Nick Krupski began helping out on his family’s farm — picking, planting and playing in the soil, as well as learning to drive in a five-speed pickup.

Twenty years later, he has significantly more responsibility than handing seeds to his father and grandfather, having officially taken over the operation last month and thereby continuing the family’s foothold in agriculture for a fifth generation.

For Mr. Krupski, 28, it was just a matter of timing. His parents had encouraged him to try other jobs before making the decision, which he did.

He earned degrees in environmental science and geology at SUNY/Cortland and went on to acquire a graduate degree in biology and education from Long Island University’s C.W. Post. He later worked in habitat restoration and as a field operator for the Suffolk County Water Authority.

But leaving the North Fork was never really in his plans, said Mr. Krupski, who is in the midst of his second year as a Southold Town Trustee, a position his father held for 20 years.

“My whole goal has always been to stay here and be involved in the community,” he said. “Between the farm and the salt water I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

It’s a quality of life thing, said his father, Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski (D-Cutchogue), who had run the family farm for more than 40 years.

“It’s a lifestyle and after he’s been out in the world, he has a good idea about what’s out there and what’s here,” he said.

The younger Krupski admits that as a child, he may not have appreciated growing up on a farm it for what it was, but looking back now, he said “it’s a bit a of a shocker” to realize he’s now running it.

Today, he is focused on the connection between agriculture and land preservation.

“It’s great to be a part of that because that’s why the North Fork is what it is,” he said.

“Especially on a day like today, you really appreciate it,” his father added. It was the first of May, a sunny and breezy day in Peconic, and all around things were turning green again.

Over the years the Krupski family farm has changed with the times and the needs of its customers. It’s something Nick Krupski said he’ll consider in the long term, but for now he’ll focus on learning the ropes. His younger sisters, Colleen and Kimberly, will be involved, too.

It’s important to be open to change, father and son agreed.

“I think at least with this farm, we’ve changed a little bit to cater to the people who are coming out to the small farms and the wineries, but then also keep the core values of what the locals want, which has always been tomatoes, corn,” Mr. Krupski said. One change that might make it a bit easier to run the business now, he said, is an upsurge in nutrition-driven people who seek out locally grown food that is not processed.

What does not change is the fact that it is a seasonal business, his father said. Farming is a gamble with Mother Nature, added Al Krupski Sr., a third-generation farmer, and the rich land is irreplaceable.

The transition between generations running the farm has no formula or set schedule, Al Krupski said. The work is done when it’s done, which Mr. Krupski said his son understands.

The youngest Krupski joked that so far it has been “organized chaos.” There’s definitely a learning curve, he said, which includes locating tools his father has moved among the family’s three farm locations in Peconic and Cutchogue, as well as upkeep on tractors from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

“It’s definitely a unique opportunity,” he said of his new role. “Part of who I am is because I was raised on a farm.”

kzegers@timesreview.com

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The outrage flooded social media in a swift, decisive avalanche Friday afternoon. Moments after The New York Times published an opinion piece by its newest conservative columnist, Bret Stephens, response from the paper’s liberal-majority audience bordered on hysteria.

The quick backstory if you missed it: The Other Times (as our former publisher Troy Gustavson referred to it in his columns) hired Mr. Stephens, the former Wall Street Journal editorial page editor and 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winner, last month in what appeared to be an effort to appease its conservative audience. Mr. Stephens was a regular panelist on the “Journal Editorial Report” that aired on Fox News. He had been an outspoken critic of President Obama’s foreign policy. But he was also someone who had been in the anti-Trump field during the 2016 election and, at least in that regard, on the side of liberals.

The Times faced criticism for hiring Mr. Stephens before he even wrote a word, based largely on the belief that the columnist is a “climate science denier.”

Mr. Stephens wasted no time diving into that topic in his debut column, “Climate of Complete Certainty,” which ran online Friday and in print Saturday. In the column, he wrote: “Claiming total certainty about the science traduces the spirit of science and creates openings for doubt whenever a climate claim proves wrong.” His argument, if I’m understanding it correctly, is that by using the worst-case scenarios in every case, climate change advocates run the risk of crying wolf to portions of the population who don’t yet seem concerned about our planet’s rapid demise. A reasonable reader might also read it and take away his point as being: climate change is tricky and unpredictable, so let’s just not worry about it for a while.

On Twitter, responses to the first tweet linking to the story were predictable in their outrage:

“Do we REALLY know Santa Claus isn’t real? Can I have a job now?” —@CheapyD

“Shame on you for giving this lazy dishonesty a veneer of legitimacy. This undercuts the hard work of actual journalists with @nytclimate.” —@bmcushing

“The only certainty is uncertainty. For instance, I have a NYT subscription currently. Will I tomorrow? Who can know.” —@wmcauliffe

The merits of the column can be debated. The opening, a comparison to Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign, drew particular ire from readers. The campaign, he wrote, felt with near 100 percent certainty that it would win the election. Until it didn’t.

Does that translate exactly into skepticism about the dangers of climate change? Seems shaky.

The backlash quickly took a turn one might expect from right-wing readers who disagree with a newspaper: canceling subscriptions. Almost immediately, readers on Twitter began posting that they were, or already had, canceled their subscription to the paper.

As a journalist, the more I thought about it over the weekend, the more my blood boiled, to the point that I began to forget about the original reason for outrage. Canceling a newspaper subscription over one article — let alone an article in the opinion section — strikes me as an overly harsh response. It’s like a husband or wife jumping right to divorce as the only solution following an argument. Forget about a mediator.

It’s the exact kind of thing liberals would mock right-wingers for when they canceled newspaper subscriptions based on endorsements for Clinton instead of Trump. Even at our paper, it wasn’t uncommon for people to boast on social media about canceling their subscriptions because we endorsed Clinton. Most of those people never actually paid for our paper anyway and read our content for free online. Our circulation department reported two lost subscriptions in the election aftermath.

I highly doubt all the people who claimed this week to have canceled their subscriptions will no longer consume New York Times content. They will. If we all stopped reading every publication at the moment we found something to disagree with, we’ll be left with only our own thoughts swirling in our head.

In this day of shrinking newsrooms, it’s more important than ever to support journalism, whether it be a little community paper like ours or a prominent global enterprise like The Other Times. Few, if any, newsrooms have the resources to report on as many critical topics as the Times, including climate change.

Canceling a subscription does nothing to help those efforts. If anything, it only comes across as petty.

The author is the editor of the Riverhead News-Review and The Suffolk Times. He can be reached at 631-354-8049 or joew@timesreview.com.

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A portion of a controversial fence bordering the Old Town Arts & Crafts Guild property in Cutchogue has been removed.

The fence was installed in November by the owners of an adjacent retail center and has since been a focus of concern among guild members and officials.

Guild president Bob Kuhne said a member of the Terp family, which owns the parking lot property where the fence sits and leases it to Southold Town, told him in early April that they would take down the part of the fence that obstructed access to the guild’s parking lot. That section of the fence has since been removed.

“That alleviates a lot of safety issues for us,” said Mr. Kuhne, adding that he appreciates the gesture.

After the fence was extended in March, he said, the guild was concerned that its parking area was too small to permit emergency vehicles to turn around and that visitors needed a second exit from the property, as well as more convenient access to a handicapped ramp.

Mr. Kuhne said previously that he believes the barrier was erected as retaliation for the guild’s opposition to a proposed expansion of the shopping center.

The neighbors faced a possible town code violation for conducting site work on the shopping center property without Planning Board permission. They received summonses for the violation, Southold Town attorney Bill Duffy said in March.

The guild still hopes the rest of the fence will also be removed, but Mr. Kuhne said “we’ll deal with it as time goes on,” adding that the group is “pretty satisfied” at this point.

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said at an April 25 Town Board meeting that he was glad the issue between neighbors had been resolved.

Photo caption: The fence pictured in late March. (Credit: Kelly Zegers, file)

kzegers@timesreview.com

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A large house party at a Mattituck home Saturday night led to a homeowner being arrested under the social host law, Southold Town police said.

It was the second arrest this year since the law expanded to become a misdemeanor instead of a violation.

Police arrested Pedro Diaz, 49, after responding to a call of underage drinking at a Factory Avenue home at about 10:43 p.m. Police found approximately 50 youths at the home and many of them were drinking alcohol, police said. Mr. Diaz failed to take corrective action, police said.

He was arrested and transported to police headquarters and released on cash bail, police said.

The post Cops: House party leads to social host law arrest appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Riverhead Town’s longtime Community Development Agency director is moving on, but not far.

Chris Kempner, who has been CDA director since January 2008, has resigned that position effective May 15 and will be taking over a new position as the associate director of the Stony Brook University Business Incubator in Calverton.

“I am looking forward to joining the Stony Brook University Economic Development team and to work closely with Dr. Yacov Shamash, vice president for economic development, who has accomplished so much for the region,” Ms. Kempner said in a press release.

“Together, we can undertake a concerted effort to reach out to eastern Long Island economic development officials and political leaders to accomplish the goals of creating more jobs and economic growth for the region.”

The Riverhead Town Board formally voted to accept her resignation on Tuesday and to appoint Dawn Thomas, who is currently a deputy town attorney, as interim community development administrator at an annual salary of $100,000.

The Suffolk County Civil Service department has given the town approval to appoint Ms. Thomas and says she meets the qualifications for a community development administrator, according to town’s resolution.

The Town Board also authorized Supervisor Sean Walter to sign an agreement with Ms. Kempner’s consulting business, called Free Money LLC, to provide project development and grant consulting services to the town.

The Riverhead CDA was established in 1982 and is responsible for obtaining grants for economic development projects, affordable housing and home repair programs, and other revitalization programs in town.

Ms. Kempner also is an attorney, a licensed real estate broker and a former Greenport Village Trustee.

She also was selected as the Riverhead News-Review’s Person of the Year in 2009.

“Appointing Chris Kempner as associate director of the Business Incubator at Calverton will greatly strengthen Calverton’s contributions to the East End economy, creating new economic opportunities with sensitivity to the region’s unique heritage,” said Ann-Marie Scheidt, director of economic development at Stony Brook, in a release. “Her network of regional connections, as well as her outstanding skills and talents, will provide an invaluable resource for the Calverton program.”

The Calverton incubator first opened in 2005 and currently has six resident tenants, and 40 other companies that are regular users of the incubator’s agriculture and consumer sciences center.

Former Riverhead Deputy Supervisor Monique Gablenz had been the director of the incubator from 2005 until last fall, when she retired, and Jeff Salens was running the incubator until the end of 2016, when he retired, officials said.

The 24,000-square-foot facility comprises offices, conference rooms, and laboratories with both fresh and salt water access, as well as a state-of-the-art food processing facility, and aims to provide an environment to help new businesses succeed on the East End.

The Incubator provides the opportunity for businesses to collaborate with researchers, other scientists, faculty and professionals from Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the New York State Small Business Development Center who can guide and advise them from a product or business concept to commercialization, according to officials.

Among the companies that have benefited from the incubator are North Fork Chocolate, Subtle Tea, Long Island Pickle Company, Graphen Laboratories and Applied DNA Sciences, among others.

tgannon@timesreview.com

Courtesy photo: Chris Kempner

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May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month.

I am an attorney and share my time between the North Fork of Long Island and Connecticut, and, like many others, have lived my life aware of Lyme disease and tick bites, but thinking that taking three weeks of antibiotics will cure the disease.

As the weather warms and the tick season is upon us, I wanted to share that “just one bite,” never found and most likely occurring in the spring of 2009, completely changed my life.

I have always been a healthy person. But during the spring of 2009 I just kept getting more and more sick with very high fevers, drenching sweats and pain and body weakness. After several trips to the doctor, where strep throat and swine flu were ruled out and an initial Lyme disease test was negative, I returned to see my nurse practitioner. Even back in 2009 she had seen several cases of babesiosis and anaplasmosis (ehrlichiosis is another closely related disease), other tick-borne illnesses. Out of an abundance of caution, she tested me for babesiosis and anaplasmosis, as well as for Lyme. She called me with great surprise to tell me that I had this “tick trifecta” as well as pneumonia, most likely caused by the same tick bite.

When my nurse practitioner called, I was at work, having been struggling with even walking a block without feeling weakness and shortness of breath. I had never heard of babesiosis or anaplasmosis. When I looked them up on the CDC website at that time, they were considered “rare” diseases and I was surprised to learn that babesia, the parasite that causes the disease babesiosis, could cause death. Now they are not considered so rare since they are prevalent in this region.

I went through the ordinary treatment for these diseases, namely three weeks of antibiotics for the first two diseases and a second antibiotic with quinine for babesiosis (similar to treatment for malaria). I spent most of the summer in pain and unable to leave the sofa. I had brain fog, dizziness, muscle weakness, pain and many other symptoms.

And I was confident that I had beat the disease in autumn when I felt better. Yet, I was so wrong. I have been on disability for this chronic illness for several years and have never been able to return to work full time. My entire life has changed and every day needs to be managed. I used to travel to Europe a few times a year and now can’t even get to Chicago to visit my grandchildren. Yet, I tell the doctors I consider myself lucky… they laugh. But this is why I consider myself lucky:

• I have medical coverage for most of my treatments and tests.

• I have the support of friends and family.

• I have a job that has been flexible in accommodating my illness.

• I do not have Lyme arthritis so severe as to disfigure me; I do not have a Lyme heart condition.

• I can still walk.

• I have a husband who has taken the time to educate himself on this illness so he understands when I can’t do things.

• I have good doctors who believed in me.

• I am not deaf.

• I can still find joy in every day.

• I live in a nice home with great light so when I am inside I don’t mind it so much.

• I am not a child who will live with this her whole life.

• I am still alive. (There is no place where tick-borne disease deaths are reported. Yet in six months I have heard of about 10, many more than West Nile or Zika.)

Nevertheless, just one bite changed my life. Take all precautions to avoid being bitten and get treatment when you do. Careful inspection and using tick repellents are the first line of defense. And support lymedisease.org to get more research for accurate testing and treatment. And take the Lyme Disease Challenge at lymediseasechallenge.org and take a bite out of Lyme!

Maureen Massa is a part-time Southold resident.

The post Guest Spot: Just one bite … my Lyme disease story appeared first on Suffolk Times.

The Long Island Rail Road is planning track work at the Silvermere Road crossing in Greenport on Wednesday, May 17 and the road will be closed.

Workers are scheduled to repair the asphalt crossing surface and the tracks — both the steel rails, the wooden ties and the compacted stone bedding the ties rest in known as ballast, according to the LIRR. Vehicle traffic will be closed between 6 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Residents who need to travel during that time would need to pre-park their cars north of the crossing in advance of the closure. Pedestrian traffic will be allowed around the crossing, the LIRR said.

The work will also affect the trains that day. Customers traveling to or from the three North Fork stations should plan for additional travel time and be prepared to transfer between trains and buses at Riverhead.

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