Claire Anne Lincoln enjoys a playful moment her parents were able to capture on camera. (Credit: Lincoln family)

Not long after her first birthday, Claire Anne Lincoln was on the move. Even before she began walking, the bright-eyed toddler sped around the family’s Mattituck cottage in an Army crawl, exploring and chasing after her 3 1/2-year-old brother, Charlie, whom she emulated. 

Each day would bring a new discovery. On a Sunday night in November, as Judd Lincoln cooked dinner, his daughter squeezed into a small opening between the refrigerator and the wall. It was a new spot she had just found. In a five-minute span, Judd fished her out of the tiny space three times.

Even at only 14 months old, Claire had a way of knowing when she was doing something she shouldn’t. But she knew how to play it cool: She’d look over to her parents, smile wide, blow a kiss (mwah!) and wave. And then she was off.

“She already had me wrapped around her fingers,” said Judd, 36.

These are the small, innocent moments that Judd and his wife, Suzanne, 39, hold dear when they reflect on Claire’s brief life. She died suddenly on the afternoon of Nov. 14, just 68 days after celebrating her first birthday with Minnie Mouse cupcakes and pink balloons. In the months that have since passed, as life returns to a new normal for the Lincoln family, memories of Claire are ever-present. Recently, as he sat with Charlie playing with Matchbox cars, something they hadn’t done much since Claire died, Judd was reminded of how his daughter would be right in the middle. She’d snag a car, examine it briefly and toss it aside, inevitably annoying her brother.

“Those were memories that you have, memories that you made,” Judd said.

To lose a child is any parent’s worst nightmare. For the Lincolns, moving forward is an hour-by-hour, day-by-day process. They’ve relied on the support of friends, family and co-workers. A manager at Riverhead Building Supply, Judd said customers have approached him to share stories of tragedies they’ve experienced. One customer, a big, burly man, broke down in tears as he told Judd about his daughter, who had died in a car accident several years earlier, at 18. The pain never eases, the man told Judd; it simply becomes manageable.

Compounding the pain for the Lincolns, however, is one lingering, unanswered question: How did Claire die?

Claire Anne Lincoln just two months before her sudden, tragic passing. (Credit: Lincoln family)

SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

Claire’s mysterious death was a rare case of what’s known as Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood. While similar to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which involves children less than a year old, SUDC refers to the unexplained deaths of seemingly healthy children ages 1 to 18, according to the SUDC Foundation. It occurs in approximately one out of 100,000 children and affected 236 children between 1 and 4 years old in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“That’s the toughest part — just not knowing what happened,” Judd said.

Significant research into unexplained deaths has focused on SIDS, and has yielded common guidelines for parents such as placing infants on their backs in a crib. But little is known about SUDC, what causes it or how to prevent it, said Laura Crandall, executive director of the SUDC Foundation.

“We are still at the very early stages of research into these older children,” she said. “What makes it more difficult is that there has never been any public federal funding into studying SUDC.”

In 1997, Ms. Crandall’s 15-month-old daughter, Maria, died while napping. A physical therapist, Ms. Crandall was left with many unanswered questions. She felt isolated. Could her daughter’s death have been prevented? Were there signs she missed? If she had another child, would there be a similar risk?

She co-founded a program in 2001, connecting with a few families who had suffered similar tragedies, as a way to begin research and promote information. The SUDC Foundation, formed in 2014, grew out of that program. It’s the only organization worldwide dedicated solely to supporting research, raising awareness and assisting families affected by SUDC, Ms. Crandall said. Over 800 families worldwide now receive services from the Foundation.

That same year, the New Jersey-based foundation collaborated with NYU Langone Medical Center to create the SUDC Registry and Research Collaborative. It’s a partnership of NYU, Columbia University, the Mayo Clinic and national forensic pathologists. Dr. Orrin Devinsky, an expert in epilepsy and seizure disorders, is its principal investigator. The goal is to create a comprehensive database of SUDC cases that can be researched to one day explain the unexplainable. Over 130 families have enrolled.

Judd and Suzanne recently spoke to Ms. Crandall to begin the process of registering with the collaborative.

“The medical examiner essentially said to us, ‘We’re not giving up, but we need to pass the torch along to somebody who is better suited,’ ” Judd said.

The registration process has three parts, Ms. Crandall said. The first is a full case review by experts including pediatricians, clinical specialists, cardiac pathologists, neuropathologists and forensic pathologists. They examine the mother’s prenatal records, the child’s pediatric records and the death investigation. The second part is an extensive interview with family members to better understand the subtleties of a child’s life that may not emerge from medical records. The third part is a genetic study conducted at Columbia University under the guidance of Dr. David Goldstein, director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine. Both parents, and sometimes other relatives, are screened in that process.

“We know there are some genes associated with sudden death that have been published and are well known,” Ms. Crandall said. “There are genes associated with neurological conditions in terms of severe forms of epilepsy and seizure disorders. There’s also different cardiac conditions that are known to be associated with certain mutations on certain genes.”

When mutations are identified in children, the research team examines them case-by-case to determine whether the altered gene may have contributed to death and genetic counseling is provided to the family in turn.

“I’m not holding my breath that they’re going to find a reason,” Judd said. “But maybe it’s one more case for them to find something and maybe they’ll find something that they hadn’t found in other kids. Maybe they’ll find something that will help in the long run.”

Dr. Michael Caplan, Suffolk County’s chief medical examiner, said his office sees an average of one SUDC case a year. The first he encountered, early in his career, remains a vivid memory. It was Labor Day weekend 1993 and Dr. Caplan had recently finished his forensic fellowship. He was examining a 7-year-old. He performed a full work-up, including X-rays and testing for infectious diseases. He could not find an answer.

“I remember after all of that, I was devastated because it was my job to try to find an answer for this family and I couldn’t,” Dr. Caplan said. “I do remember meeting with them in person. Although I couldn’t find an answer for them, the two things I could show them were all the steps that I did to try to find an answer. And secondly, to tell them what it was not. I was at least able to rule out some things.”

Dr. Caplan said it typically takes a few months, following an autopsy, toxicology reports and ancillary studies, before a case is declared to be SUDC. For example, the medical examiner will try to find any electrolyte abnormalities, dehydration, diabetes or infectious disease that went undiagnosed. Blood and other body fluids can be tested for genetic metabolic abnormalities that could clarify a sudden unexplained death, he said.

“After several months, after doing all of that, that’s when, if there is still no answer at all, it is a truly unexplained death,” Dr. Caplan said.

Fundraising is underway to transform Mattituck-Laurel Library’s toddler section into ‘Claire’s Corner.’ (Credit: Joe Werkmeister)

CLAIRE’S CORNER

One day in mid-December, Eric Goodale, Judd’s co-worker at Riverhead Building Supply, pulled him aside. Around the same time, a colleague met with Suzanne at Hyatt Place East End in Riverhead, where she’s a sales coordinator for the hotel and Long Island Aquarium.

These co-workers, along with Mr. Goodale’s wife, Amanda, had hatched a plan to create a memorial in Claire’s honor at Mattituck-Laurel Library.

Library director Jeff Walden got a call from Ms. Goodale, who filled him in on what had happened to Claire and explained their plan for a memorial. Their employers, they said, would handle fundraising to cover the costs.

“She wanted to try to do something special for the family and she thought of the library,” he said.

Mr. Walden and Karen Letteriello, who heads youth and parenting services for the library, began to brainstorm. They quickly agreed on a plan: upgrade the library’s toddler section. At a meeting with library directors, Ms. Goodale and Caryn DeVivo, who also works with Suzanne and has been instrumental in organizing fundraising, suggested calling it “Claire’s Corner.”

“The parents and toddlers of the community will be able to enjoy it for years to come,” Mr. Walden said.

HOW TO HELP

To donate funds toward Claire’s Corner, visit gofundme.com/mgu358-claires-corner. Donations can also be made directly to Mattituck-Laurel Library, P.O. Box 1437, Mattituck, NY 11952.

The goal is to create a new entryway and add bookshelves, new carpeting and interactive toys. Mr. Walden said the final plans will ultimately depend on how much money the library has to work with. A GoFundMe page has already raised nearly $9,000 toward a goal of $20,000.

“We’ve had a lot of people donate things,” Ms. Goodale said. “People are working with us. As Jeff reaches out to different designers for the library and they hear the story, they’re willing to work with the price a little bit and be more forgiving of when they receive payments.”

While Claire had never been to the library, Charlie has been a frequent visitor. Judd said his mom, Nancy, has been taking Charlie there since he began walking. He loves using the 3-D printer and always brings home a little figure.

“That kind of made it a little extra-special,” Judd said.

The support from the community has been overwhelming, he added.

“You really see how much people care for each other,” he said.

MOVING FORWARD

More than two months after Claire died, her crib remained positioned at the foot of her parents’ bed. The plan had been for Claire and Charlie to begin sharing a room. But they worried Claire might awaken her brother, a sound sleeper since he was 1 month old, might be woken up by Claire. On the day Claire died, Judd and Suzanne were both at work in the afternoon. Judd received a call from the babysitter alerting him that Claire had been found unconscious. A Riverhead Town police officer rushed Claire to Peconic Bay Medical Center about a half-mile away. Judd called Suzanne and told her she needed to get to the hospital. At PBMC, the couple received the devastating news from a doctor: Claire had passed. Around 8 p.m. they settled back in at home. The exhaustion finally caught up with Judd around 3 a.m. and he fell asleep for a few hours.

He awoke the next morning to a brief moment of peace. Then reality came rushing back as he looked over to the empty crib.

“There are still days it sinks in and hits you a little harder than other days,” he said.

Every morning, Judd begins his day at Cutchogue Cemetery. It’s a chance for him to have a few minutes alone. Becoming a parent has been the greatest gift in his life, he said, and in that peaceful, quiet moment, he can reflect.

“For me, that helps,” he said. “It kind of sets the tone for the day and I feel like, ‘It’s OK.’ ”

joew@timesreview.com

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They are a mystery in so many ways. Who were they? Where did they come from? What was the nature of their spoken language? Who were their ancestors? 

The people who came to what would become Long Island some 10,000 to 13,000 years ago, as the 300-foot-high wall of ice retreated north, have names given them by archeologists and anthropologists who have plumbed their secrets. They are the Paleo Indians. Or the Clovis people.

When they crossed from what is now Siberia, over a land bridge called Beringia, into modern day Alaska, they arrived in a new world where there were no human beings. Their descendants found their way south — by boat along the western coast or through gaps in the ice wall. And then east. All the way east. All the way to the ocean.

Following giant animals like the woolly mammoth, these people were the first human beings on what is now our Long Island and, at some point, on the bony finger that would become the North Fork. We know they were here because collectors have found their most beautiful legacy: the Clovis Point, a distinctive, fluted stone arrowhead or spear point that dates back around 10,000 years.

Hold one in your hand. See the fluting, or channels, cut on both sides of the point. Eye its beauty. Its ingeniousness.
Understand that a person created it. You are holding the ancient history of a long-gone people we know only by what they left behind.

“They are truly beautiful,” said John Pagliaro, a Shelter Island artist and an avid collector of arrowheads and other artifacts left behind by the people who lived here for so long before being evicted by incoming Europeans in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

He spends many weekends on beaches on the island and in Southold looking for points. Awed by them, Mr. Pagliaro has a collection of perhaps 1,000 points, many that bear the distinctive look of Clovis Points or their successor, the Fulsom Point. They speak
volumes to him about the people who made them, as their story is writ in stone.

“They tell us the story of the people who were here,” he said.

Some 14 Clovis Points are known to have been found on Long Island and authenticated by experts. One of them sits handsomely in a glass case at the Southold Indian Museum, home to a unique collection of artifacts of eastern Long Island’s first people.

Lucinda Hemmick, president of the museum, holds the Clovis Point in her hand. She hands it to a visitor. It is remarkably light, beautifully carved, a unique invention designed to kill the big animals. The visitor tries to picture the person who made it, and imagine how it must have felt to have lost something so precious — only to have it discovered in Greenport thousands of years later by Orient farmer Roy Latham.

“This is what we have that shows people were here then,” Ms. Hemmick said. “They were nomads who wandered here following the big animals. They didn’t stay to occupy the land because there was only tundra here, no trees, or anything that grew they could eat. That would come later. But these people were here first.”

Lucinda Hemmick, president of the Southold Indian Museum points to some of the archeological discoveries on display. (Credit: Rachel Siford)

She picks up another beautiful stone piece, a Fulsom Point, from the museum’s collection. It is probably 8,000 years old. It was found in Cutchogue by an amateur collector named Harrison Case. Like the Clovis Point, it is named after the place in what is now New Mexico where points of this style were first found.

“It was later when food could be planted here that people began to settle and occupy the land, to build villages along the creeks,” Ms. Hemmick said. “Societies were built along family lines. The population grew significantly. The creeks were filled with food. This was a rich place. They were here for thousands of years before anyone else came along, and there were many of them, particularly along the coast, when Europeans first arrived.”

John Strong, a historian of Long Island Indian history who taught at Southampton College and is a prolific author, said those first inhabitants arrived in small family groups of perhaps 25 to 40 people. Consider, he pointed out, how many people it would take to bring down a huge mammoth with spears.

“Once you had a food base here, maybe around 8,000 years ago, you saw human beings begin to settle down,” Mr. Strong said. “Then villages were established and the population grew and you begin to see permanence.”

Scientists divide time periods by name, such as the Paleo period, the Archaic period, the early and late Woodlands periods.

These periods were spread over thousands of years. During that time, Indian communities grew, their customs and languages became more sophisticated and they perfected trade routes with their neighbors that covered hundreds of miles. They became the Algonquian Indians we know of today.

Local Indians traded items such as the blue rims of clam shells or the center column of a conch shell that were cut up and used for decorative beads, and in return received stone from the west to be carved into points.

The North Fork and Shelter Island in the early and mid-twentieth century were noted for their amateur archeologists, like Latham, Case and Charles Goddard, a Mattituck lawyer. What they found — including a remarkable collection of clay pots, stone axe heads and thousands of points — became the core of the Southold Indian Museum, which was organized in 1925. Ground was broken for the museum on Main Bayview Road in 1962.

A clovis and folsom point at the Southold Indian Museum. (Credit: Rachel Siford)

What unites experts like Mr. Strong, Lisa Cordani-Stevenson, an archeology professor at Suffolk Community College, and Gaynell Stone, director of the Suffolk County Archeology Association, is their desire that these first people not be forgotten, that their history be studied and that residents today know who they were — and are aware that their descendants are still among us.

Mr. Pagliaro’s collecting is a way for him to honor these people.

“We need to understand what happened here,” Mr. Pagliaro said.

By the early 1600s, as Europeans began to arrive on eastern Long Island, the lives of the native people fundamentally changed for the worst. In terms of their longevity here, their demise as large, self-sustaining and intact communities happened in the wink of an eye. They went from a free people to a destitute and even enslaved people within two generations of the English settlers’ arrival.

“The Indian people here were in a very good place, and then all of a sudden that changed,” said Ms. Cordani-Stevenson.

About this series: The North Fork History Project is a 16-part series telling the stories of the place we call home. This is the second chapter. A third installment will be published Feb. 8.

swick@timesreview.com

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“What do I do now?”

That’s the most common question immigration lawyer Christopher Worth of East Quogue is hearing lately, since the recent announcement that Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador would end next year.
TPS was granted to people from El Salvador after two earthquakes in 2001 devastated the Central American country. The Department of Homeland Security, seeing that infrastructure and other damaged services have since been repaired, announced Jan. 9 that El Salvador is no longer threatened by “the original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes.” The protection is set to terminate Sept. 9, 2019.

A similar announcement was made for Haitians with TPS and a decision by the Trump administration on the legal status of Hondurans is expected. Citizens of that country who came here under the provisions of that law also face losing that protection.

On Sunday, Mr. Worth presented information and outlined a basic framework of options that Salvadorans covered by TPS may have to remain in the country. He made his case in conjunction with the North Fork Spanish Apostolate at St. John’s Church in Riverhead.

“So many people have built lives here, have children here, own businesses and homes, and they are just trying to understand if and how can they stay in the United States.” Mr. Worth said in an email. “People really just want to know what they need to do to stay here legally.”

That question was on the mind of one local man under TPS, who declined to give his name after the session but said he was confused about what his next step would be. The man, who attended the meeting with his wife and daughter, said he’s lived in the United States for nearly two decades. He owns a house and pays taxes, he said.

There are over 14,700 Salvadorans living on Long Island under TPS, according to a letter the Nassau and Suffolk county executives sent to members of Congress. That’s 14,700 out of a total of 16,200 Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries living in New York State, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.

Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate said this news garnered a “huge reaction” among Salvadorans over what ending the protection means and if there are paths that can be taken toward legal status.

Mr. Worth said it’s important for people not to panic as they navigate their options.

“They have a year and a half to make a plan — whether it be to pursue another legal status here or, if there are no good options, to plan to depart,” he said.

Sister Margaret advised at the meeting that people should get to work making a plan “ayer” — which means “yesterday” in Spanish.

“On the other extreme, they should also avoid taking drastic action by immediately submitting an application for status that they might not be eligible for,” Mr. Worth said.

People should find an organization or attorney they trust to get a better idea about what lies ahead, Mr. Worth said. He also said Sunday that there is no “magic solution.” No one option will work for everyone and numerous factors are involved, including whether a person holds a work permit or has a family member with legal status.

Sister Margaret said the North Fork Spanish Apostolate. (Credit: Kelly Zegers)

Sister Margaret said the North Fork Spanish Apostolate has organized a second meeting with Mr. Worth to further explain possible paths toward staying in the country.

“This is hitting some of the farms and farm workers,” she said.

Rob Carpenter, administrative director for the Long Island Farm Bureau, said he is not certain what the breakdown is in terms of farm workers on the North Fork, so it is unclear what the impact could be if many Salvadorans leave the country.

“I would like to reinforce that we really need to find a way to keep valuable farm workers in this country,” Mr. Carpenter said. “Just trying to have a means of enforcement is not reforming the system … I think by any means necessary that we can have to find a workable immigration system is the most important thing.”

Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), in a statement provided by his office, emphasized the temporary nature of the protected status.

“After a hurricane decimated El Salvador in 2001, President George W. Bush granted Temporary Protected Status to El Salvadorians in need,” Mr. Zeldin said. “Seventeen years later, with El Salvador no longer suffering from the impacts of this 2001 hurricane, we are reminded that this program exists to provide temporary status, not permanent status. This 17-year situation underscores the deep flaws of our nation’s immigration system, one that must be fixed through legislative channels.”

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Nassau County Executive Laura Curran sent a letter to local members of Congress, including Mr. Zeldin, calling on them to extend protections for Salvadorans on Long Island. They released an analysis by the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning that predicted a “dire impact” and “massive economic hit” locally if TPS for Salvadorans ends.

The letter cites projections that ending the program would result in an $800 million annual loss in household spending and potential loss of 13,500 jobs, among other possible local economic effects,and constitute a “blow to homeowners” in terms of unpaid loans, leading in turn to a worsening of the “zombie” home problem both counties face.

“Worst of all, the timing of this decision adds insult to injury,” the letter states, referencing the recent federal tax legislation that eliminates state and local tax deductions. The tax changes, combined with the impending end of TPS for Salvadorans, “will exacerbate the negative impact to the housing market and create a one-two punch that we simply cannot afford,” according to the county executives’ letter.

After the Department of Homeland Security announcement, Mr. Cuomo urged immigrants to seek out information on their rights. A

“Know Your Rights” seminar will be held by CARECEN, the Central American Refugee Center, at 91 N. Franklin St. in Hempstead on Thursday, Jan. 25, at 3:45 p.m. Additional seminars will be announced.

“This federal administration’s decision to tear families apart, disrupt small businesses and lead those who have become part of the American fabric to an uncertain future, is disgraceful and unjust,” Mr. Cuomo said in a Jan. 9 statement.

Top caption: Mr. Worth at last week’s meeting. (Credit: Kelly Zegers)

kzegers@timesreview.com

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Microphones were set up and a camera focused on the live action on the basketball court. The play-by-play announcer excitedly described the scene with the help of a color commentator by his side, feeding him statistics. Meanwhile, a sideline reporter was combing through the bleachers, searching for an interview.

Nothing too unusual — except for one thing. This wasn’t ESPN, Fox Sports or any other television network or station, for that matter. No, this was GPO TV, Greenport High School’s student-run broadcasting service, conducting a livestream broadcast of a boys basketball team game on the internet.

Alumni, players’ relatives and anyone else can now watch live broadcasts of the Porters’ home games on computer screens, tablets or smart phones thanks to GPO TV. Including its inaugural broadcast of a Dec. 13 Stony Brook-Greenport game, GPO TV has livestreamed five boys games so far and one girls game, between Bishop McGann-Mercy and Southold/Greenport, last Wednesday.

The broadcasts have been judged a success by school officials and those involved in production.

“Oh, it’s incredible, far beyond our expectations,” said Ryan Case, director of educational technology at Greenport High School.

David Gamberg, the Greenport and Southold school superintendent, said: “It took off, unbelievably so. We’ve gotten feedback from all over the states, all over the United States and even overseas from England.”

Kevin Webster, a sports enthusiast (and chairman of the Southold Town Board of Assessors), had spoken with Mr. Gamberg on multiple occasions over the years about the possibility of broadcasting games.

Mr. Gamberg recalled: “I said: ‘I think the technology is very doable. We could do a live broadcast.’ And we finally put all the pieces together this year and we did a trial run of it and it worked.”

Every game that’s broadcast needs a play-by-play announcer. In stepped Mr. Webster, an East Marion resident who had done work on the radio station at Ithaca College before working for several years as an on-air personality for WBAZ in Southold.

“He’s got a great radio voice,” said Mr. Gamberg.

Kevin Webster and Tommy Tsaveras call a Southold/Greenport girls basketball game earlier this month. (Credit: Krysten Massa)

Mr. Webster, who had been out of broadcasting for some 20 years, said he’s having a ball calling the games.

“I’m a huge sports fan,” he said. “I love just watching the players go up and down the court, being able to describe the action
and feel the excitement of the crowd in my headphones.”

Aside from Mr. Webster and Mr. Case, who watches the livestreams during games from a nearby coach’s office in order to make sure the picture and audio are right, all the others involved in putting together the broadcast are students.

Junior Tommy Tsaveras serves as the color commentator and tracks statistics. His previous broadcasting experience was nil.

“It was just an opportunity that came up and I took it and it’s been working out really well,” said Tommy who, like Mr. Webster, wears a purple Greenport athletics polo shirt while broadcasting. “It’s really exciting. I love doing it. I look forward every time we have a game.”

One of the most interesting jobs belongs to senior Ella Watts, the sideline reporter who roams the gym in search of interviews.
Ella, who also anchors GPO TV’s weekly newsmagazine program, said she was asked if she was interested in doing some sideline reporting. “I only had one game that I was going to do and then it turned into a bigger thing,” she said. “It has become a lot bigger than we expected it to be.”

Ella, who is also involved in theater, said she was nervous during that first game. “I had never done anything like this,” she said. “I was really nervous because people were going to be listening to my voice and I didn’t want to mess up. I didn’t even know who I was interviewing, but we kind of just went with the flow and it ended up going really well.”

Clearly, Ella has grown more comfortable and has shown she can ask tough questions to go with the fun ones. During Friday night’s game between Southold and Greenport, for example, she put Mr. Gamberg on the spot. She asked him, “So, being the superintendent of both Greenport High School and Southold High School, who are you rooting for?”

Mr. Gamberg, wearing a purple and red tie (a mix of both school colors), answered: “Can I plead the fifth or no comment? Actually, the truth is I win, either way.”

Others are involved in the broadcast, too, like cameramen Jake Mazzaferro and John Wright and technical coordinators Blayr Corazzini, Shannon Colfer and Kai Kaufman.

Greenport Boys Varsity Basketball vs Southold – Jan 19, 2017 from GPOTV on Vimeo.

To recruit students for the broadcasts, a student broadcasting club was created.

As Greenport sees it, the broadcasts are a win-win, bringing players greater exposure, giving fans an opportunity to watch games they cannot attend and training students in the broadcasting field.

Thanks to the broadcasts, viewers from afar can see Ahkee Anderson making a flashy reverse layup, Jaxan Swann sticking three-point shots and Tyrus Smiley delivering no-look, behind-the-back passes.

It doesn’t hurt the broadcasts that the Porters have a strong team this season. They are currently ranked fifth in the state among Class C teams by the New York State Sportswriters Association, with an 11-2 record, 5-0 in Suffolk County League VIII as of Monday.

These broadcasts, posted and archived on the Vimeo livestreaming platform (vimeo.com), are made possible by technological advances that have made them significantly more affordable.

“Three years ago it would have cost us probably 10 times what it costs now,” Mr. Case said. He added, “The technology just keeps getting better and better and better, and it makes it easier and easier and easier for us.”

Mr. Gamberg said: “The cost factor to do something like this could have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars [years ago], and now it is all inconsequential. For a couple of hundred bucks you get a license from Vimeo to be able to do the broadcast.”

From atop a set of bleachers in the Richard “Dude” Manwaring Gymnasium, one camera covers all the action.

Live broadcasts can be exciting — and scary. The first broadcast had some bumps.

“The first run-through we had, we mistakenly put the wires under the bleachers and during the game, the kids pulled the wire apart, so we went dead,” said Mr. Case.

Tommy Tsaveras interviews Southold/Greenport senior Liz Clark after the team played Bishop McGann-Mercy last week. (Credit: Krysten Massa)

Welcome to live broadcasting.

“You never know what can happen,” said Mr. Webster.

But with each broadcast, Mr. Case said, the product gets better and better. “We all have big smiles on our faces because it just looks great and sounds great and it’s a lot of fun to do,” he said.

Officials believe Greenport is one of the pioneers among Suffolk high schools in livestreaming games. “We’re, I think, one of, I’m going to say a few, that actually livestream,” said Greenport athletic director Chris Golden.

Could livestreaming high school sporting events become the norm in the near future? Perhaps.

“There’s a tech side, there’s a sports analyst side … there’s a journalism side,” Mr. Gamberg said. “You put the pieces together and the technology is so great to livestream that we know that the audience can grow. We know that this is an opportunity to explain who we are.”

Just how far and wide the broadcasts reach was reflected in viewing statistics the school district released for the Dec. 20 Mattituck-Greenport game. The numbers show 546 “plays” and 131 “finishes” in total, with viewers from 23 states and one from Ottawa, Canada. “Finishes” reflects the number of viewers who watched the entire broadcast to the end. New York had 401 plays and 66 finishes, and within the state Southold led the way with 119 plays and 15 finishes.

What has surprised Ella the most about these livestream broadcasts?

“How many people are watching it, how many people actually watch the entire game,” she said. “Who would have thought that would have happened here?”

Top Caption: Kevin Webster, clockwise from bottom left, with the GPO TV team before a girls basketball game last week. He is joined by Tommy Tsaveras, John Wright, technology director Ryan Case, Shannon Colfer, Blayr Corazzini, Ella Watts and Jake Mazzaferro.

bliepa@timesreview.com

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When his family’s farm turned 350 years old in 2011, Riverhead’s Lyle Wells had 60 L.L. Bean jackets printed displaying the words “Wells Homestead Acres 350 Years.” 

It was a quiet tribute to a 12-generation tradition he said he wanted to see continue for many more centuries.

When asked if he’d be celebrating that particular anniversary that weekend, Wells replied that he’d be doing what the Wells family has always done on its land in Aquebogue.

“Work as usual,” he said.

A leader in the farming community and the modern day face of Riverhead’s oldest farming family, Mr. Wells was killed Thursday evening in a farming accident. He was 62 years old.

Riverhead Town police were called to Mr. Wells’ farm at 4162 Sound Avenue at 7:22 p.m. Thursday for a report of a man found trapped in a piece of farm equipment.

Police said he became trapped in a manure spreader while working on the farm.

Riverhead detectives are continuing to investigate the apparent accident along with OSHA. The spreader and the tractor were impounded for further investigation.

Mr. Wells’ brother, Brett, 58, said he believes the accident occurred sometime after 4 p.m. when Lyle was working the farm by himself.

“He was always doing that this time of year,” Brett said of Lyle working the spreader. “He was in the back behind his house on Sound Avenue. I think he was standing behind the machine cleaning it out, but we don’t know. We don’t really know what happened.”

Lyle  Wells was recognized as a true leader in the Long Island Farming community with an outspoken voice and a gift for growing produce. He had established a reputation for growing some of the finest asparagus in the region. He was the former president of the Long Island Farm Bureau and a one-time member of the Riverhead Town Planning Board.

News of Mr. Wells’ death stunned his community.

“I’ve known Lyle since he was about 3 feet tall,” said Richard Wines of Jamesport. “I guess the best way to describe him was the father of our land preservation efforts. For years he was head of the committee to oversee land preservation in Riverhead. He was instrumental in getting our first Transfer Development Rights program going.”

It was an effort to keep alive a way of life his family spent generations cultivating. In fact, it was at a Nov. 20, 1661 Southold Town Board meeting that Aquebogue was established with 40 lots and William Wells was allotted three pieces of property for his family to farm near Phillips Lane on Sound Avenue in Aquebogue. According to a 1937 article in the County Review, an earlier version of this newspaper, the Wellses are the only Riverhead family from that era to still farm their land under the same name. There are currently three Wells families farming here.

“His mother was once the town historian, Justine Wells,” Mr. Wines said. “Another of his ancestors Daniel Wells led the building of the Jamesport Meeting House. Daniel Wells the Second was first supervisor in Riverhead. He has very long roots in Riverhead.”

Former Southold Town supervisor Thomas Wickham, whose family has farmed in Cutchogue since 1699, said he was stunned at the news of Mr. Wells’ death.

“That’s horrible,” he said. “He was very active in farming matters on the North Fork. We were two farming families supplying directly to a market in New York City, Fresh Direct.”

Ken Cereola of nearby Palmer Vineyards said seeing Mr. Wells on his tractor was part of the daily routine on Sound Avenue.

“It was an extension of what we see here everyday,” Mr. Cereola said. “He was a great man. We’re running out of men like him.”

Mr. Wines said Mr. Wells has been very innovative, trying new crops and new technologies in his career.

“Clearly the agricultural community will miss him as both a fellow farmer and a leader,” Mr. Wines said. “He was very active in all things that help preserve, protect and enhance agriculture in Riverhead.”

Long Island Farm Bureau administrative director Rob Carpenter said Wells’ impact on the agricultural community goes back decades and pre-dates their 30 years of working together.

“He would take all the time needed to explain a program to anyone who wanted to learn about farming — a legislator, a community member, another farmer,” Mr. Carpenter said. “It’s a big loss. You just can’t replace a Lyle.”

Frank Beyrodt of DeLea Sod Farms, a fellow former LIFB president, recalled Mr. Wells’ “infectious laugh.”

“Everyone would start laughing because of his style of laughter,” Mr. Beyrodt said. “It was an honor that he graced our community and our town. Him having gone through life in this community made the rest of us better.”

Funeral arrangements were not immediately available Friday morning. This story will be update with those and more obituary details once available.

Top Caption: Mr. Wells in one of his asparagus fields in Northville. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch Photo)

gparpan@timesreview.com

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Congressman Lee Zeldin was joined by other East End officials for a press conference Friday denouncing the U.S. Department of the Interior’s plan to make 90 percent of the nation’s outer continental shelf open to oil and gas drilling.

The proposal threatens Long Island’s environment, economy and way of life, Mr. Zeldin  said.

“There’s bipartisan support up and down the East Coast to take the entire Atlantic coast off the proposal altogether,” Mr. Zeldin (R-Shirley) said from a podium at the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead.

The drilling announcement came from U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke on Jan. 4 and has since prompted an outcry in coastal states. Florida received an exemption from the drilling proposal days later, after opposition from its governor, Rick Scott.

The coalition is also calling on Mr. Zinke, who Mr. Zeldin called a friend, to extend the public comment period on the proposal and to hold a public impact hearing on Long Island.  It’s currently planned for Albany.

Local leaders echoed the front against the Interior proposal in a show of bipartisan support across layers of government.

“I’m so happy to hear you’re willing to put politics aside and to do what’s right for our community and for our environment and for the future of our communities,” said Riverhead Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith.

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said the proposal not only threatens the Atlantic Ocean, but the Long Island Sound as a transport route. It would undo years  of collaboration between federal, state and local governments as partners in efforts to restore the Long Island Sound, he said.

“What desecrates the ocean will sooner or later desecrate the shore, all so a few well-heeled interests can go on a treasure hunt,” Mr. Russell said. “This cannot happen.”

State assemblyman Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor) said the proposal is a “horrible idea.” He criticized the fact that a hearing would be held in Albany, a long way from the ocean.

“We need to be heard,” he said.

A major message was how protecting the environment protects the local economy, from tourism to small business. Discover Long Island president and CEO Kristen Jarnagin spoke of tourism to the island as a $5.6 billion annual industry and said it’s about protecting the catalyst to business attraction for years to come.

Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski (D-Cutchogue) said investing in fossil fuels as opposed to renewable energy sends a “terrible message to the next generation.”

“If you live on Long Island, the economy is the environment and the environment is the economy,” he said.

Speakers warned against potential environmental ramifications of drilling, such as oil spills that are known to endanger wildlife and coastal ecosystems. Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, called it a “risky scheme” that would turn over the oceans to the oil industry and forever threaten ecosystems and local communities.

She pointed to recent efforts in offshore wind and solar power as the path to follow.

“You ever hear of a wind spill? I think not,” she said. “We know what’s the right choice, we know what the wrong choice is. We have to stop being fossil fools.”

kzegers@timesreview.com

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About 20 people turned out at Greenport Village Hall Thursday afternoon to support the North Fork Art Collective’s proposal to open a “studio/retail space” at 15 Front St., but it turned out that most of them didn’t need to speak, as the board was already prepared to approve the application. 

When it began time to ask for public input, acting Planning Board chair Mary Given said, “before you tell us that this is a great idea for Greenport, we agree.”

“We are all ready to approve it, so you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” said John Cutugno, a planning board member.

No one spoke in opposition to the proposal.

The collective, a group of seven artists whose work often has a nautical theme, actually had the same use just four doors east, and is simply relocating to a different storefront. The collective had to find a new home as Kate’s Cheese Co. is looking to open there soon.

The Planning Board approved the same application last July, at 19 Front St., as a “retail/cooperative art studio.”

After debating Thursday as to whether this new site is a gallery or studio, George Solomon, an attorney representing the collective, said the same use that was approved in July at the other location should be applied to the new site, and the Planning Board agreed.

The site is located in the Waterfront Commercial District, which permits both studios and galleries.

Village Administrator Paul Pallas said that state law requires two bathrooms that are open to the public for a gallery and one for a retail use

But, Madison Fender, one of the artists in the collective, said it is not a gallery.

“We have a working studio space,'” she said. “We make work and we hang it on the wall, and if customers want to come in and see what we’re working on, they can purchase something, but we don’t identify as a gallery. And that’s not what we were approved for in the first place.”

In the end, the planning board decided it should be considered a studio/retail space and only one bathroom is required.

The collective had been issued a notice of violation for a Dec. 19 pop-up concert held at its prior location, and while planning board members said that wasn’t the subject of the hearing Thursday night, the issue of allowing public gatherings at the studio was raised, as officials said the maximum occupancy of the storefront is 45 people.

Mr. Solomon said the gallery generally doesn’t have large groups of people.

“It’s a small, intimate group,” he said.

The village has been trying to bring artists into the community for 30 years, he said.

The Village Board of Trustees is considering changes to the section of its code dealing with public assemblies. The North Fork Art Collective was not fined for the concert, according to Mr. Pallas.

Photo caption: Artists Kelly Franke, Madison Fender and Kara Hoblin peer over instant photographs at the current North Fork Art Collective in Greenport the week it opened. (Credit: Vera Chinese file photo)

tgannon@timesreview.com

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A Patchogue man was arrested for criminal possession of marijuana and criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony, according to Southold Town police.

Raymond Fuccillo, 25, was stopped on Main Road in Greenport on Sunday around 1:30 a.m. for not wearing a seat belt. Officers smelled an odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. Police found a backpack with a large quantity of marijuana, a prescription pill, cocaine, packaging material and a scale, officials said.

Mr. Fuccillo was arrested and released on bail with a future court date, police said.

• Brian Shedrick, 32, of Southold was arrested last Thursday for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, police said. He was stopped for a traffic violation in Greenport around 1:14 a.m., when officers discovered he was driving with a suspended license and with no front plates, the report states.

• Robert Howard, 30, of Greenport was arrested on Saturday around 2 p.m. for violating an order of protection, police said. He was released on $100 bail with a future court date to face the misdemeanor charge.

• A Southold woman reported on Friday that her Bridgehampton National Bank debit card was stolen the day before, police said. On Thursday night, she noticed a $165.95 charge at the Mattituck CVS, officials said. An investigation revealed a man used her debit card to purchase Blue Dot gift cards, which are not traceable, the report states. The card was canceled.

• A Laurel man called police when he was alerted that people were hunting on his private land last Thursday, police said. Four men were found and they said they used to hunt on the property and did not see that it was now posted as private, the report states. They were each issued a summons for hunting on posted land around 9:30 a.m., 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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These are dramatic and worrisome times in our country for immigrants from some Spanish-speaking countries. In January, the Department of Homeland Security announced that a program called Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador will end in September 2019. 

TPS, approved in 2001 by former President George W. Bush, allowed citizens of that country to come to America in the wake of two devastating earthquakes. In its January announcement, DHS said disrupted services and damaged infrastructure had since been repaired and, thus, those refugees who came here under TPS should go back.

A similar announcement was made for Haiti’s TPS and a decision by the Trump administration on the legal status of Hondurans is expected, meaning citizens of that country who came here under the provisions of that program also face losing legal protection.

Beyond these cases, of course, is the ongoing drama surrounding the hundreds of thousands who came here under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that protected the undocumented immigrants referred to as “Dreamers.” They came as children and were granted protected status by the Obama administration, a status the Trump administration disagrees with.

Earlier this week, after several days of a federal shutdown, the House and Senate approved temporary funding to keep the government open and paying its bills. At the heart of the dispute over the shutdown was the dispute between Republicans, Democrats and the Trump administration over the status of the Dreamers.

In essence, the Senate Democrats gave in to their GOP counterparts and agreed to a temporary funding measure to keep the government going, all on the promise from the GOP majority leader that the Dreamer issue will be taken up. Critics within the Democratic Party blasted the decision to end the shutdown and said there are no assurances that the House, the Senate or the White House will come to the aid of the Dreamers.

On Tuesday, in fact, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise told reporters that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s pledge to act on immigration next month — the very reason the shutdown ended — would have no impact on the House. Mr. Scalise ruled out any “amnesty” for immigrants and said any deal on immigration would have to include billions of dollars in funding to build a border wall.

For the 14,700 Salvadorans living and working on Long Island under the TPS program, the bitter immigration debate has caused a toxic level of worry about their futures. Many don’t know what to do, as a reporter heard while covering a recent presentation in Riverhead by immigration lawyer Christopher Worth.

“So many people have built lives here, have children here, own businesses and homes, and they are just trying to understand if and how they can stay in the United States,” Mr. Worth said. “People really just want to know what they need to do to stay here legally.”

Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate said farm workers are among the Salvadorans who feel their lives here are in a state of limbo. And Rob Carpenter, administrative director for the Long Island Farm Bureau, said he could not calculate how large the impact would be on local farms if many Salvadorans had to leave the country.

“I would like to reinforce that we really need to find a way to keep valuable farm workers in this country,” Mr. Carpenter said. He called on Congress to create a workable immigration system.

That idea is a very good one, but the mood in the White House, and in the House and Senate, doesn’t bode well for finding a path to that solution.

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You could say Southold Town police officer Ryan Springer’s distinction as the department’s 2017 Officer of the Year was more than 365 days in the making.

It was on the second day of last January that Officer Springer was dispatched to a call of a suspicious vehicle in Laurel, where he found a U-Haul parked and running with two people asleep inside. Officer Springer noticed a marijuana grinder and large stack of cash in the driver’s lap, so he woke the subjects and began questioning them, Southold Town Police Lieutenant James Ginas said.

During questioning, Officer Springer realized the mens’ stories didn’t add up and a search of the vehicle yielded a black face mack, tin snips, pellet guns, marijuana, a large knife, work gloves and more cash in a locked bag, Lt. Ginas said.

One man was also found to be wearing a nylon holster, black bandana around his neck and a whistle on a lanyard. Officer Springer recognized that the men fit descriptions of two robbery suspects police were notified about earlier and detained them. Detectives from Southold and Riverhead police arrived and identified the men as suspects from a string of armed robberies throughout Suffolk County.

“It is because of Officer Springer’s attention to the particulars of a routine call in his sector, his skill of questioning and his observation skills that led to the arrest of two men that were actively involved in armed robberies throughout Suffolk County,” Lt. Ginas said.

Officer Springer was honored Friday at the Southampton Kiwanis Club’s 48th annual East End Police Awards dinner at the Sea Star Ballroom at the Hyatt Place East End.

A 20-year veteran of the department, this is Officer Springer’s second time being honored at Police Officer of the Year. He and officer William Brewer were honored in 2015 for saving the life of a Cutchogue man who was overcome by carbon monoxide that June.

Lt. Ginas also presented Officer Springer with a proclamation on behalf of Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell “recognizing [his] outstanding work in this matter.”

“It’s excellent,” Officer Springer said Friday. “It’s a great honor … I was just kind of in the right place at the right time.”

Caption: Officer Ryan Springer with Lt. James Ginas at the Kiwanis Club dinner Friday. (Credit: Nicole Smith)

nsmith@timesreview.com

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A popular parable starts with a young boy throwing starfish that washed up on the beach back into the ocean. An old man comes up to him and asks what difference he can make as thousands of starfish still line the beach? The boy picks up a starfish, tosses it in the water and says, “I made a difference for that one!”

It’s a saying Catherine and Robert Harper live by and a way of life that earned them the distinction as Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association Citizens of the Year at a reception Wednesday evening.

Beginning in 2016, the 29-year Mattituck residents have played a key role in getting local support to help their neighbors through Rebuilding Together Long Island, a chapter of the national nonprofit which relies on volunteer labor and donated materials to perform no-cost repairs for homeowners in need. Until the Harpers got involved, the Long Island chapter only extended as far east as Mastic Beach.

“Robert and I have always been concerned for the welfare of others,” Ms. Harper said. “It took several years to bring Rebuilding Together Long Island out to the North Fork. There was such a need. We wanted to keep community members warm, safe and secure at no charge to them.”

The Harpers remembered people they have helped over the years, some of whom were in the audience Wednesday.

“I think of the 93-year-old woman in Mattituck who no longer needs buckets and punch bowls in her living room because we went in and repaired her roof,” Ms. Harper said.

Karen Intorcia of Cutchogue was one of the recipients of the Harpers’ good will. After her oldest son died in 2013, she took responsibility for raising her grandson Liam, 4. The space wasn’t ideally set up for raising a child and needed some TLC.

“Bob and Catherine are just amazing, I am inspired by them,” Ms. Intorcia said. “I am so grateful to know them and they took Liam in as family. You don’t see this too often in people.”

“Karen and my little buddy Liam over there, I have to say, they are now family,” Mr. Harper agreed.

The Harpers expressed the need for more volunteers in their organization; no construction experience required.

“Community service connects, it bridges ideological, political and economic differences. It focuses on our common humanity and shared community,” Ms. Harper said.

MLCA president John Carter said the group chose the Harpers not only for their interest and commitment to their community, but for their compassion for the people in it.

“Their accomplishments are simply amazing,” Mr. Carter said. “If you’ve ever worked with them, you try to keep up. They bring energy and commitment and a range of really valuable skills.”

Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell and Councilman Jim Dinizio were in attendance and presented them with proclamations.

“Government really isn’t a separate entity, it’s a collaboration with the community,” Mr. Russell said. “It takes a lot of hard work and commitment and the commitment that you two make to this community is already paying dividends.”

Before Rebuilding Together Long Island, the couple was involved with the Bellport Hagerman East Patchogue Alliance, which provided housing services like rehabilitation, counseling, and senior assistance. Mr. Harper is also a member of the town’s Historic Preservation Commission.

“To see so many people here, whose lives we have touched and who has touched our lives in return is wonderful,” Mr. Harper said.

risford@timesreview.com

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While family and friends prepare to say their final goodbyes to Lyle Wells, his children have created a scholarship fund in his name to help carry on his legacy. 

A 12th-generation farmer known for his asparagus, Mr. Wells was killed in an accident involving farming equipment Thursday evening. He was 62.

A celebration of his life will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, at Martha Clara Vineyards on Sound Avenue. Mr. Wells was cremated. The celebration had originally been planned for Wells Homestead Acres, but was changed Tuesday due to weather conditions.

His children, Jess, Matt and Logan, asked that donations be made through youcaring.com to support the Lyle C. Wells Passion for Agriculture Fund. 

They said in a post on the website that the fund “will support aspiring farmers who are studying or beginning their careers in local agriculture.”

“Dad’s passion and love of farming spanned his whole life. He was recognized as a true leader in the Long Island farming community with an outspoken voice and a gift for growing produce,” they said.

He was also a former president of the Long Island Farm Bureau and a member of the Riverhead Town Planning Board.

Photo caption: Lyle Wells was 62 when he died on Jan. 25, 2018. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch, file)

tkv@timesreview.com

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Joan M. DiLeone of Southold died Jan. 26 at Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue on at the age of 82.

She was born in New Gretna, N.J. July 27, 1935, to Siri (Solderling) and Earling Holt. On May 4, 1958, she married Michael C. DiLeone in Merrick, and together they made their home in Amity Harbor and West Babylon before moving the North Fork over 20 years ago.

On the North Fork, she was a member of the Southold Historical Society and used to give tours of the Horton Point Lighthouse during the summer and the historic kitchen during the winter months.

She loved nature encounters with deer, playing the piano, Elvis and painting.

Surviving are her husband Michael; three children, Gary (Jennifer) DiLeone, Lorraine (Frank) Pepe and Jennifer (Gary) Ruta; two sisters, Carol Mapleson of Port Richie, Fla. and Patricia Kohlhepp of East Setauket and 11 grandchildren, John, Michael, Frank, Joanne, Marc, Richie, Nicole, Kaila, Stephanie, Steven and Samantha and nine great-grandchildren, Vincent, Nick, Kaylee, Aliana, Alexis, Seven, Bella, Ben and Maddy.

The family received friends on Jan. 29 at DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Southold. Funeral services were officiated by the Rev. George Summers.

This is a paid notice.

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My name is Irene Pleitez. I work here at the pizzeria La Capricciosa in Greenport.

My day basically starts around 9:45, 10 a.m. I come in and turn on the ovens, make sure they’re nice and hot because we wait for the school kids to come in. Usually that’s my first rush. 

I start all the specials. I make all the specialty pizzas we have — all the chicken, and cheese, and pepperoni — and basically just get creative throughout the day and keep the case nice and full with pizza to attract the eye of the people. I work all day pretty much.

We prepare everything here on premises. I do not make the dough but I help sometimes because I’m into pizza now. The dough is super important. Sometimes it’s a little harder or softer than usual, but with time I learned how to deal with the different types.

For me, everything matters, from the start to the last little bit of cheese I put.

The shape of the dough, the flour, to put enough sauce, enough cheese.

Make it nice, make it even. Every bite counts.

I just liked watching the guys and then I got more into it I asked questions and after like three years, I started practicing, like playing around, playing with the dough. They would let me make pizza. My co-workers were encouraging me to do it; that’s a big part of how I started. I was a little nervous the first time, but after the first day I think I got confidence.

I like that I can get creative. I like when I get the reaction of people, like, “Wow, what is that?” I try new recipes and try them myself and let my co-workers try them. I like that I can experiment with what I think would be good on a pizza.

I love it. I wouldn’t go back to any other job.

“The Work We Do” is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. It is made possible by Peconic Landing. See more photos on Instagram @thesuffolktimes.

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As one of Southold’s four seniors, Mario Contreras’ inclusion in the starting lineup Monday night was more sentimental than anything else. It was Senior Night, after all, at Southold High School.

By the time all was said and done, though, Contreras had put his own signature on the Suffolk County League VIII boys basketball game against Smithtown Christian.

Contreras, a senior shooting guard with only one previous season of basketball experience as an eighth-grader, is a little-used fan favorite. That was obvious in the first quarter when he delighted the home fans by sinking a foul shot and later making a layup off his own steal.

But the best was yet to come for Contreras. Late in the fourth quarter he made a steal and knocked down a jumper. Then, with the final seconds of a blowout counting down, Zach Grathwohl dribbled before firing a pass to Contreras in the corner. Contreras let the three-point attempt fly at the buzzer and it went in, putting the finishing touch to a 75-47 Southold rout.

Contreras, who was swarmed by teammates afterward, said, “I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.”

Fans and teammates were delighted for Contreras, who finished with eight points, three rebounds, three steals and one assist.

“He was incredible,” said Southold sophomore forward Steven Russell, who was incredible in his own right, putting up a triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, five steals and one block. “You can not make that stuff up.”

Contreras made his first — and possibly only — career start, joining fellow seniors Jared Palumbo, Grathwohl, Jacob Dominy and Russell in the starting five. He said he learned of his starting assignment the night before and was nervous.

“It was just amazing playing out here with the crowd,” Contreras said. “It’s something more than just playing basketball.”

Southold coach Lucas Grigonis said Contreras, who is known more for his soccer-playing ability, has athleticism and mental toughness. “I know he can handle pressure,” Grigonis said. “He can handle a challenge.”

The victory was vital to Southold’s playoff chances. Grigonis called it a “crucial must win. We knew that we could compete with them and get a win tonight, and that was our only focus.”

Southold (4-12, 4-4) must split its remaining four games in order to qualify for the playoffs.

The First Settlers charged out to a 22-9 lead early in the second quarter and didn’t ever look in danger of losing it. They stretched their lead to as large as 32 points when a Dominy free throw made it 70-38 with 5 minutes, 22 seconds left to play.

Southold received 10 points from Nick Grathwohl, nine from Dominy and eight from Max Kruszeski.

Smithtown Christian (1-13, 1-6) was led by Josiah Fennelly with 12 points and Gabriel Gibson with nine.

Contreras showed some good stuff. It didn’t surprise Russell, who said: “He has some talent. We’ve seen him in practice sometimes, just flashes. We knew he had it in him.”

Contreras did send a three-point attempt off the back of the backboard, but he more than made up for it with his last-second shot.

“Unbelievable,” Russell said. “That was awesome.”

Contreras said that final shot was “like a cherry on top. It’s something special.”

Photo caption: Southold’s four seniors, from left: Jacob Dominy, Zach Grathwohl, Mario Contreras and Jared Palumbo. (Credit: Bob Liepa)

bliepa@timesreview.com

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As the staff at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm on Shelter Island looks ahead to 2018 and the upcoming summer season, they will do so alongside two new key players who recently joined the team. 

Stephen Searl will be Sylvester Manor’s new executive director. He came on board in November to work alongside Jo-Ann Robotti, who retired Dec. 31 after two and a half years at the helm.

Also joining the staff, as director of operations, is Tracy McCarthy, who assumed her newly created post last month.

During a recent interview at the Manor House, the two shared a bit about their backgrounds, their new jobs and their vision for Sylvester Manor.

Mr. Searl brings a lifetime of agricultural experience to his new job. A Cutchogue native, he is a descendant of the Wickham family that has farmed in that hamlet since 1699.

“I grew up on Wickham’s Fruit Farm in Cutchogue, which is not unlike this farm,” he said. “We have over 300 acres and the farm has been in our family since the 1600s. Even the house I grew up in is of the same vintage as this house. There are remarkable similarities.”

Mr. Searl worked on the family farm during summers in high school and college. Back in the 1970s, his grandfather, John Wickham, was among the first farmers to participate in Suffolk County’s development rights program to preserve agricultural lands.

“He saw that farmland was being used for development and was concerned about the trajectory, and did not want it to turn into Levittown,” said Mr. Searl.

With a bachelor’s degree from the agriculture school at Cornell University and a master’s degree in natural resources from the University of Vermont, Mr. Searl has acquired extensive knowledge of farming and land use issues in his professional life.

He comes to Sylvester Manor having worked in land conservation for both the North Shore Land Alliance and the Peconic Land Trust. As a project manager at PLT, he worked directly with Sylvester Manor’s owners, Bennett Konesni and Eben Ostby, during the property’s transition from a private entity to a nonprofit educational farm. Also on the project was PLT’s Sara Gordon, who is now the planning and conservation consultant at Sylvester Manor.

“We could see this was going to be a really big project, so Sara and I worked together. She took the lead,” explained Mr. Searl. “We sold the development rights on the back fields, which is where the cows were last summer. We developed a conservation plan for the property, noting which areas were for agriculture, which areas were open space, and had another area preserved through a conservation easement.

“I was involved really early on, never thinking I would come back some day,” he added.

Tracy McCarthy is a lifelong summer resident who has lived on Shelter Island full-time for the last six years. With a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont and an MBA in marketing from the University of Connecticut, she comes to Sylvester Manor after running a family publishing business in Connecticut for 20 years. As director of operations, she explains that her job will be to oversee day-to-day activities of the organization and be a key part of the leadership team.

“It’s a small staff. Everyone gets overloaded and wants to do more,” she said. “By bringing one more person on to grab those bits, it’s a big step forward.”

Though the scope of Ms. McCarthy’s duties is still being refined, they will likely include communication and marketing efforts, which have previously been handled on a largely ad hoc basis, depending on who had time to do the work.

“The way I see it, I’m really there to help the rest of the staff do their jobs efficiently and effectively,” said Ms. McCarthy, who will also oversee the educational aspects of the farm.

“We’re doing a lot of this work already,” added Mr. Searl. “We’re just integrating it and taking it to another level. We are an educational farm, so we’re taking that ball and really running with it. Many of the things we’re thinking about have been done, but now we want to enhance and increase them.”

That means increasing food production on the farm and perhaps expanding the amount of livestock kept on the property. Down the road, Mr. Searl would also like to raise funds to renovate the manor house and restore the windmill to working order. But the primary goal for the near term is the continued mission of making Sylvester Manor a welcoming and open place for visitors.

“We want to make it so it’s easier to come here and understand how the farm and manor house fit together,” explained Ms. McCarthy. “The whole property is open to everybody. We’re not just a private farm.”

“Jo-Ann left a fantastic staff in place for us and I think she really helped turn the organization in the direction we’re ultimately going to go,” added Mr. Searl. “Thanks to her, we have all these great people we’re working with.”

Photo caption: Stephen Searl, Sylvester Manor’s new executive director, and Tracy McCarthy, the organization’s new director of operations, in front of the Manor House. (Credit: Annette Hinkle)

a.hinkle@sireporter.com

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Update, 10 a.m.: Highway crews have been out plowing the roads since 3 a.m., Southold highway superintendent Vincent Orlando said. With the snow tapering off, crews will go over routes again, then sand and salt the roads.

There’s a coating of ice below the snow, Mr. Orlando said, so he advised people avoid hitting the roads if they can.

“The roads are all very slippery,” he said. “It’s kind of taken everyone by surprise.”

Update, 8:35 a.m.: Southold Town Hall will also be closed Tuesday. Though it was initially supposed to open by 11 a.m., officials announced around 8:30 a.m. that it would be closed for the day. All town meetings have been canceled.

Update, 8:22 a.m.: The Greenport, Mattituck-Cutchogue, and Oyster Ponds School Districts joined the Southold School District in its decision to close Tuesday. Initially, all North Fork schools were calling for a two-hour delayed start.

Update, 8:05 a.m.: The Southold School District will be closed Tuesday after all. The district had initially decided on a two-hour delay, but officials decided that due to current road conditions it would be best to keep doors closed.

Originally, 7:32 a.m.: East Enders woke up Tuesday morning to more snow than expected.

The forecast Monday night was for one to two inches, but snow steadily fell overnight, leaving as much as six inches in some places on the East End, where the heaviest snow fell on Long Island. A winter weather advisory was issued for Long Island in the early morning hours and remains in effect until 10 a.m. 

Town and school officials on the North Fork called for two-hour delayed openings Tuesday.

Southold Town offices will open at 10 a.m. The town board work session scheduled that had been scheduled for the morning was pushed to 11 a.m.

The Greenport, Southold, Mattituck, and Oyster Ponds School Districts have two-hour delayed starts.

Photo caption: Locust Avenue in Cutchogue Tuesday morning. (Credit: Krysten Massa)

WITH KELLY ZEGERS

tkv@timesreview.com

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The Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association on Monday night laid out three options for traffic solutions at the intersection of Love Lane, Old Sound Avenue and Main Road.

The options are the result of research and input going back to 1999, when the Scenic Southold Corridor Management Plan was completed, followed by the 2005 Town of Southold Hamlet Study and the 2011 Mattituck Business Corridor Study. From March 2015 to April 2016, MLCA canvassed in front of of the Mattituck and Laurel post offices, Handy Pantry and the former Waldbaum’s to gather public opinion.

There has been several public meetings throughout this time where residents have voiced concerns for traffic and pedestrian safety at this intersection and in the hamlet as a whole. Other general concerns expressed included traffic flow on Love Lane, access to businesses and the impact on parking.

In November, Dunn Engineering Associates P.C. of Westhampton Beach completed a traffic calming draft report for this intersection.

Option 1 suggests using medians, raised pavement and crosswalks and other traffic calming methods to mediate traffic movement. There would be stop signs at the corner of Love Lane and on the corner where westbound traffic turns off Main Road  onto Love Lane. There would be no left turn allowed out of Love Lane onto Route 25.

“The reason for that is we feel that to do that turn you have to cross three lanes of traffic before you enter the fourth lane of traffic,” MLCA President John Carter said. “If you’ve looked at the intersection, it tries the patience of drivers and almost makes them take risky maneuvers.”

Mr. Carter pointed out this would be the cheapest of the three options and adaptable to future development in the area. However this option may cause a ripple effect on other streets and there may be a change in the traffic and parking pattern on Love Lane and Old Sound Avenue.

Option 2 builds onto the first option, but includes traffic lights to mitigate flow from Main Road to Love Lane and Old Sound Avenue and vice versa. This option will be more expensive than the first, but it would allow for a left turn off Love Lane on to Main Road.

Option 3, the one that got most attention from audience members, is a roundabout.

“It is especially efficient at moving traffic through an unusual or somehow irregular intersections, such as we have here,” Mr. Carter said.

Several community members spoke about the options and gave suggestions, such as making Love Lane a one way north road, lowering the speed limit from 30 mph to 25, and installing rumble strips.

Town engineer Jamie Richter explained that a roundabout is different than the traffic circle on Route 58 in Riverhead. This would be smaller than that, and just be one lane of traffic, not two, and would keep pedestrians in mind.

“There would be raised islands in the middle of the roads, so you would only be crossing one lane of traffic at a time,” Mr. Richter said.

Many residents suggested the town implement some sort of intermediary solution while they wait for a plan to be adopted. However, Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski warned that the solutions can be costly, and may impede efforts to get the desired option finished.

Michael Collins brought up the fact that Main Road is a state road, so everything must be approved by the County and State in order for any of these options to proceed. Mr. Richter estimated the roundabout project at about $6 million to $10 million.

“People don’t know how to use a traffic circle,” Robert Harper said. “I’ve seen many many close calls in Riverhead. To me this is very, very dangerous to cross and people ignore pedestrian crossing signs.”

Traffic lights were also questioned, because they could could cause backups in traffic.

“It seems all the bottlenecks happen at the traffic lights,” Mr. Harper added.

Community input will be submitted to the Southold Town Board. The next step is take the information gathered at the public hearing to a meeting with the state and county, according to Mr. Collins.

Photo caption: Three options for traffic at Love Lane intersection.

rsiford@timesreview.com

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Elizabeth Rawlinson Rowe, better known by her classmates at Vassar College (1952) as Betty Boop, left us Jan. 30, 2018, for a better place at the age of 87. Though she suffered no pain and never complained – much thanks to Julian Lewis and also Keasha King and Shameka Clark – she was confined to her bed at home over the last six months. 

Born in Bronxville, N.Y. Sept. 18, 1930, raised in Scarsdale, Betty spent her summers in Orient in a home on the Sound that her grandfather, Dr. Gribbon, had a local contractor build circa 1915. (Our present home is close by). These early years were a very happy time for her. Her parents were Mary Alice Gribbon Rowe, who died in 1960 and (James) Everett Rowe, who died in 1951. Her only siblings were Nancy Douglass, who died in 2000 and Eleanor Linderholm-Wood, who died in 2011. Betty attended Scarsdale High and graduated from Dana Hall.

She attainted a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics while at Vassar. She also received the Miss Vassar’s Brew Award in 1952 in connection with the 77-mile “Beer and Bikes from Yale to Vassar” event, which took place April 12, 1952, as reported in the Life Magazine issue of April 28, 1952, that featured a photo of Betty wearing the MVBA Sash, welcoming the exhausted Yale bikers.

Betty spent over 40 years of her life in Carson City, Nev. While there, she received the Carson City Soroptomist’s Woman of the Year award in 1974 and the Nevada’s Governor’s Art Award in 1980. She was a member of Lakeside Community Church in Reno, a charter member of Carson City Landmark Society, League of Women Voters, founder of the Carson City Arts Alliance in 1974 (now known as the Brewery Art Center), director of the Carson City Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Carson City Centennial, Bi-Centennial Commission from 1974 to 1976. Further, during much of the time in Carson City, Nevada’s capitol, she personally owned and managed State Agent and Transfer Syndicate Inc., a resident agent and corporate formation service.

In addition, Betty being Betty, not only started the newsletter for the Navy League, but was editor and publisher for over a year after she left Carson City for Long Island in 2005 to be with Walter Strohmeyer. She became Navy League Carson City Council vice president in 2004 and council president in 2005 and also served as council secretary from 1989 to 2006 and the membership doubles from 90 to 184 due to her great recruitment skills.

Early on her return in Orient, Betty became a member of Orient Congregational Church and involved herself with Orient Yacht Club newsletter and subsequently, the Shakespeare Club, a member and regent of Southold Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and other local organizations. However, her most important contribution upon her return to Orient was to be one of the leaders of the campaign which successfully repulsed the Suffolk County Water Authority’s attempt to control Orient’s ground water.

She also liked to snow ski and made many of her own beautiful clothes with a knitting machine.

Her children, all successful and happily married, are Elizabeth H. Van Wagenen (Bob), Kettner J. F. Griswold (Dana), Charles L. Block (Kaoru) and John E. Block (Susie). Her grandchildren are Sheri E. Van Wagenen, Christine F. Van Wagenen-Briner, Matthew R. Van Wagenen, Dr. Ashley E. Griswold-Haggarty and Kettner F. Griswold Jr.

A gravesite service at Orient Central Cemetery is planned for Friday, Feb. 2, at 11 a.m., the Rev. Geoffrey Proud officiating and Horton-Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport. A memorial service is scheduled to take place Saturday, May 12, at Orient Congregational Church, the Rev. Dr. Ann Van Cleef officiating.

“Other than the years we spent as childhood playmates at the sound beach and a teenage date to Coney Island, our “second chance” was the happiest time in our lives. Betty was a remarkable woman and she loved me.” -Walter Strohmeyer.

If the reader has a memorial gift in mind, please consider Orient Congregational Church.

This is a paid notice. 

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Janet M. Moore of Cutchogue died Jan. 29, 2018. She was 94 years old and was the widow of Frank Moore. 

Funeral arrangements, which are pending at this time, are in care of DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Mattituck.

A complete obituary will follow.

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