A Manhasset man was arrested under Leandra’s Law Friday night after driving without headlights along Main Road in Greenport, according to Southold Town police. David Pegno, 54, was arrested for felony driving while intoxicated after being stopped while headed westbound without headlights shortly before 8:30 p.m., police said. Mr. Pegno was driving with a 13-year-old child in the car and he then failed standard field sobriety tests, police said. He was arrested and transported to police headquarters for processing. Arraignment information was not immediately available. Leandra’s Law makes it a felony to drive drunk in New York with a child under the age of 16.

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Southold Bay constables John Kirincic and Kristopher Dimon helped the Coast Guard Sunday after a boat ran aground near Plum Island, Southold Town police said.

A release from the department said a couple on the boat, Mark Shikowitz, 64, of Syosset and Lauren Shikowitz, no age given, were in their 56-foot boat near Plum Island when it hit a rock at about 3:29 p.m. and ran aground along the southeastern shore of the island.

Ms. Shikowitz was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital with multiple injuries, including to her jaw, police said.

Further details were not immediately available.

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I’m Caroline Waloski and I am the curator at The Sirens’ Song Gallery in Greenport, 516 Main St.

I’ve been here now 13 years. Not only do I show my own work, but I show the work of local and international artists.

I’ve been interested in art since I was little kid, but I studied at the Cooper Union in New York City and I also studied at Pratt Graphic Center and the School of Visual Arts. I’ve been doing this for quite a few years now. I have also a background in advertising and promotion design, but now that I’m semi-retired, I’m doing my artwork totally.

Primarily, I’m an etcher and a printmaker, but I do painting and I’ve just gotten into doing crafts. So I’ve been doing jewelry and I’m also making usable art, like candlesticks, different little boxes.

I’ve been doing scrimshaw, but not in bone. I’ve been working on wood, and that’s how I got into the jewelry. I was doing little boxes and decorative items that looked like scrimshaw. I would take a piece of wood and I would heat engrave it with a woodburning tool. And then I started to lacquer them so they would be permanent and durable. Looking at them, I thought, maybe if I added color they would be interesting. So I started to polychrome them so the original pieces, that were more just heat-burned into a plain wooden item, started to take on color in another life.

Caroline Waloski of The Sirens’ Song Gallery. (Rachel Siford photo)

Most of my work has always been using my family as my muse. When my son was very little I started to use him as my subject. Then when I came out to Greenport, because it was a maritime community and a historical maritime village, I started to think of doing more sea-themed pieces.

I started to use the mermaid because we’re all made of water. We’re surrounded here by water. Being a mother and a creator, this amniotic sea with all life emerging from water.

The name, The Sirens’ Song Gallery, came up because of where we are in this maritime village and the lure of mermaids calling you to look at art and see what’s happening.

And to give the call to take a look, like food for the soul.

“The Work We Do” is a Suffolk Times multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. Read it first and see more photos every Monday on Instagram @thesuffolktimes and watch the video on facebook.com/thesuffolktimes.

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Keep looking up at towers and telephone poles and you will see more osprey than in years past as the population of young osprey on the North Fork has grown by about 50 percent over the last five years.

According to the Group for the East End, there were 198 active nests across the East End in 2014 and 301 active nests in 2018, resulting in a 47 percent increase of young produced over the five-year span. Additionally, The North Fork also has the densest population of breeding osprey, specifically in Southold Town.

There are 143 active known nest sites in town, with 60 of them on Fishers Island, Plum Island and Robins Island. Southold Town has nearly 50 percent of all osprey activity on the East End, the Group said. It is also the birthplace of 48 percent of all young.

Conversely, Riverhead has the lowest amount of nests, with 19 noted so far in 2018 with a little more than half were occupied. The Group said strong winds and surf due to Riverhead’s large shoreline frontage on the Long Island Sound contributes to the lower number of nests there. 

The Group has been working with local organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, Eastern Long Island Audubon and North Fork Audubon, since 2014 gathering osprey breeding data in the five East End towns.

Of the 519 known sites, 420 of them were active or in potential use in 2018.

Nesting site data was collected each summer, with Southold averaging 196 nests over the five years. Southampton averages 106, 64 on Shelter Island, 28 in East Hampton and 12 in Riverhead. 

Shelter Island also has the highest occupancy rate, the release said, at 80 percent. Comparatively, the five-year East End average is 69 percent.

But as the population increases, so do concerns. One such is the amount of birds nesting on utility poles.

“Nesting in trees we want, which is what some osprey once did, but nesting along electrical liens not so much,” Aaron Virgin, vice president of Group for the East End, said in a release. “I learn about a few instances each year, but PSEG has become a good partner by working with the local community to safely remove a nest and replace with a nesting platform disc.”

One example of this occurred in Flanders in April. One concern is that when osprey return to their nests with fish it could lead to electrical shortages, sparking fires and resulting in the death of a young bird unable to fly. 

However, the increase in osprey has led to residents asking to erect manmade homes for the birds. 

“On average I receive an inquiry a week seeking information about how to place an osprey pole on private property or to see if someone has the right habitat,” Mr. Virgin said in a release. 

He added that the Group is particular about where poles can be placed as the goal is for birds to nest in natural places, such as trees or old boat docks and other natural places in disrepair.

“At some point it would be nice if osprey could make it on their own and with the current robust population we may be near that time,” he continued. 

According to Mr. Virgin one of the main reasons for the increase in the birds is the changes in fishing regulations over the last decade, specifically regarding the amount of menhaden or “bunker” fish. 

The recent increase of osprey on the East End has brought the birds into “species of special concern” distinction in 1995, which is its current status. The species was previously listed as endangered in 1976, and later began to rebound. Its distinction became “threatened” in 1983. 

nsmith@timesreview.com

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Kaitlin Daniels is looking at the bigger picture.

The Greenport/Southold high school field hockey coach judges success by more than a win-loss record. For her, the team’s improvement and the growth of the program are what really counts.

With 24 players on the team, the Porters (3-11 last year) don’t have a junior varsity team. That puts even more emphasis on looking to the future.

“For me the end-all, be-all is not the record at the end of the season; it’s the growth of the program,” Daniels said, adding: “I love the fact that with so many young players and experienced leadership with my upperclassmen, we really get to create a program that is sustainable numbers-wise, and hopefully that will make us more competitive.”

With a young team, Greenport will rely heavily on its three captains — senior midfielder/forward Brittany Walker, senior forward Jules Atkins and sophomore defender Magdalena Rodriguez. Walker, who has been on the team longer than anyone else (five years), won the team’s Unsung Hero Award and shared the Coach’s Award last year with Atkins, a four-year varsity player. As the only returning starting defender, Rodriguez will be counted on to shore up the back line.

The only other two returning starters are junior midfielder Andrea Ochoa and sophomore Ella Mazzaferro. Mazzaferro played goalie last year, but her position this year is to be determined.

Others with varsity experience are: junior defender Irene Papamichael, senior defender Emelyn Azurda, junior defender Marley Medina, junior defender/midfielder Emma Quarty, senior defender Nereida Toribio, sophomore defender Ava Torres and junior Sophia Wachtel, an offensive player.

“I’m relying on my returners and so far they’ve been amazing leaders,” Daniels said. She continued, “They’ve really been setting a positive example for the younger girls.”

The newcomers are: Naomi Chicanowicz, Lane Dominy, Camryn Koke, Melissa Grzegorczyk, Angela Kollen, Ava Silvestro, Hannah Taggart, Gabriella Zaffino, Saylor Hughes, Hayley Skrezec, Anabelle Odell and Paige Wachtel. They’re all freshmen except for Wachtel, a junior.

“Definitely, we’re going to have to rebuild, and it’s going to be a learning experience for sure,” Walker said. “We have a lot of ninth-graders who haven’t played on the varsity level before. It will be a new experience for everyone, not just them, but it should be fun. We all get to learn from each other.”

Greenport is seeded near the bottom of Division II, so life isn’t expected to be easy, facing more experienced teams with travel-team players.

The Porters will play two of their home games on Southold’s new artificial turf field (Sept. 14 against Babylon and Oct. 5 versus Hampton Bays), but many of the players should feel right at home. Over 50 percent of the team is composed of Southold players. Last year the squad had three Southolders.

“Last year’s team was composed of a lot of seniors and their dynamic and experience,” Daniels said. “This year we have a lot of youth in our program. We have a lot of opportunities to get playing time and an opportunity to build numbers players-wise.”

That’s looking at the bigger picture.

bliepa@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Brittany Walker (left) celebrates a goal she scored for Greenport/Southold in a game last year against Hampton Bays with teammates Sophia Wachtel (29) and Jules Atkins (21). (Credit: Bob Liepa, file)

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A heat advisory went into effect at 11 a.m. Tuesday and will remain through 9 p.m. Wednesday as the temperature is expected to feel over 100 degrees during the warmest parts of the days, according to the National Weather Service.

The high temperature for both Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to be around 90 degrees and the heat index value will be between 95 and 104, according to the NWS.

A heat advisory is issued when the combination of heat and humidity is expected to make it feel like it is 95 to 99 degrees for two or more consecutive days or 100 to 104 degrees for any length of time.

“Extreme heat can cause illness and death among at-risk population who cannot stay cool,” the NWS advisory says. “The heat and humidity may cause heat stress during outdoor exertion or extended exposure.”

The heat wave is expected to break Friday with a high temperature in the mid-70s.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has also issued an air quality health advisory, which is in effect until 11 p.m. Tuesday. Air quality levels in outdoor air are predicted to be greater than an air quality index of 100 for ozone. Due to elevated pollution levels, the State Department of Health urges people to limit strenuous outdoor physical activity. Click here for more information.

Section XI, the governing body for Suffolk County high school sports, issued a full heat alert which means no practices are permitted for teams this afternoon. Practices for the upcoming fall season are in full swing now. Meetings are still permissible, according to Section XI.

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Johanna J. Boergesson of Southold died at home Aug. 28. She was 80 years old.

The family will receive friends on Sunday, Sept. 2, from 3 to 7 p.m. at DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Southold.

The Liturgy of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday, Sept. 3, at 10 a.m. at Saint Patrick’s R.C. Church in Southold, officiated by Father Peter Garry.

Memorial donations to the Southold Fire Department or National Autism Association would be appreciated. Envelopes will be available at the funeral home.

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Denis Noncarrow, town government liaison officer, and Leslie Kanes Weisman, Zoning Board of Appeals chairperson, met with the Town Board during a work session Tuesday morning to discuss the new special events permit law.

The law was adopted last month, which mainly shifted the decision-making responsibility from Ms. Weisman to the Town Board. A committee of five people was also formed last month to review special event applications and make recommendations to the board before they vote on it by resolution.

Various business owners who make their livings largely on special events at their venues were on edge about the new law and urged the town at several public hearings to reconsider. Town Supervisor Scott Russell had said this was purely an administrative adjustment and the only thing that was changing was who will review the applications in house.

Mr. Noncarrow said that the committee will largely function via email, unless there are any major discussions that must take place in person.

“The biggest thing we want everyone to know is that they can get their applications in early,” Mr. Noncarrow said.

Councilwoman Jill Doherty said there was some confusion with the public about when they can apply. Many expressed concern that 90 days prior to an event is too short notice because people book so far in advance, but that is actually the minimum amount of time allowed.

“They can submit [the application] any time in that year,” she said. “If they have an event in July, they can submit it in January.”

Business owners will be able to find the new application online and the board agreed the process for the applicant would not be much different than what is already in place.

Councilman Jim Dinizio was concerned about the committee, along with outside commenters like the Southold Police chief, discussing applications via email, because he did not believe it is efficient enough.

Ms. Kanes Weisman assured that everyone on the committee are looking at all the comments, and most of them are simple responses.

“The primary goal of the committee was to gather all the information and then to boil it down and give us the recommendation and go from there,” Councilman Bob Ghosio said.

rsiford@timesreview.com

Photo caption: The Southold Town Board held a work session Tuesday morning. (Rachel Siford file photo) 

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The Mattituck High School girls volleyball team is back in Class C.

The Tuckers must be A-OK with that, no?

“Can I tell you at the end of the year?” coach Frank Massa answered. “No, I’m generally OK with it.”

Mattituck (13-4) had a rather remarkable 2017 season. The Tuckers split their regular-season series with Class B powerhouses Elwood/John Glenn and Bayport-Blue Point, took second place in League VII and reached the first Suffolk County Class B final in their history. But that is where it came to an end for them, losing to Glenn in three sets.

“That was a very talented team,” Massa said of last year’s Tuckers. “There was a lot of experience, a lot of veteran leadership. We were solid at every position and we lost a lot of players from last year, so there’s going to be big shoes to fill.”

Mattituck had won five Suffolk Class C titles in a six-year span before being bumped up to Class B in 2016. So, Class C could mean an opportunity to advance far into the playoffs. Mattituck, which hasn’t won a league championship since 2004, has also been dropped down a league to League VIII.

But this is a largely untested Mattituck team. Some players are transitioning to new positions and others are learning what the varsity game is all about.

“The biggest difference is a lot of girls last year had a lot of court experience,” Massa said. “This year that is not the case.”

Massa, in his 32nd year as Mattituck’s coach, has a couple of high-profile veterans he can count on as the Tuckers try to reach the playoffs for a 15th consecutive year. Viki Harkin is a junior All-Conference outside hitter, and junior libero Jordan Osler was the League VII Rookie of the Year in 2017.

“Both of them are strong servers and play their position very well,” Massa said. “Viki passes and hits from the back row, and Jordan is one of the best passers I’ve ever had.”

Senior setter/middle hitter Jillian Gaffga and senior middle hitter Rachel Janis were also starters last year. More varsity know-how is offered by middle hitters Dominique Crews, Gabrielle Dwyer, Mikayla Osmer and Bayleigh Rienecker and defensive specialist Emily McKillop.

Making the jump up from the junior varsity are outside hitters Charlotte Keil and Jessica Mazzeo, defensive specialists Hayden Kitz, Veronica Pugliese and Julia Schimpf, middle hitter Kathryn Thompson, setter Ashley Young and right-side hitter Rylie Skrezec.

“They listen well,” Massa said. “They try to do the things I ask them to do. A little green right now, but with some court time and experience they should be fine.”

Greenport/Southold would like to forget 0-10 (as in the team’s record last year) and focus on another number: 37.

That’s the number of players who have come out for Greenport’s varsity and JV teams, the most Mike Gunther has seen as Greenport’s coach. Having so many players to work with is what Gunther calls a “happy dilemma.”

Gunther said he would like to retain 14-16 players for the varsity team. Ten players are returners. Last year Greenport had 13 players (12 healthy) on its roster.

Coaches like it when there’s competition for positions, and Gunther is no different. “If someone is not doing well, there is now a bench, waiting there to come in and take your spot,” he said. He said all the returners have improved, “but they’re so even that it’s going to be difficult to pick a starter.”

Liz Jernick, an All-League junior setter, captains the Porters along with senior middle hitter Emily Russell. Jessica Mele, a junior middle hitter, was a starter last year. Junior setter Rhian Tramontana also figures to be in the mix along with junior defensive specialist Andria Palencia.

Competing for spots as outside hitters are sophomore Courtney Cocheo, junior Jessica Villareal and senior Lupita Perez. Among the middle hitter candidates are sophomore Silvia Rackwitz and junior Isabelle Higgins, who broke an ankle early last season.

“The team is going to be scary hitting out of the middle,” Gunther said. “Every kid on this team will attack the ball. We will hit the ball from everywhere.”

Having a deep team works to Greenport’s benefit, especially this season. The Porters will play a lot of Friday and Monday games, with tournaments on some Saturdays. Gunther said, “At tournaments, I’m just going to go deep into the bench.”

Depth shouldn’t be a problem.

bliepa@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Viki Harkin, a junior All-Conference outside hitter, is one of the players Mattituck is counting on. (Credit: Garret Meade, file)

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Aug. 30, 1968

Plans to create a separate county combining the five eastern most towns — to be known as Peconic County — was gaining traction.

The executive directors of The Committee for a New County agreed on a plan for an informational campaign to support the change. “An overwhelming majority in the five eastern towns appear to favor the creation of a separate county,” chairman of the committee Edwin Sharetts said at the time.

Aug. 28, 1953

A group of five red warning lights became a landmark enabling aviators, seamen and motorists to identify the Village of Greenport from a great distance. The lights were installed on the 165-foot elevated steel water tank in the village.  

Aug. 26,1943

Greenport was witness to historic ship launchings. Four ships left the ways of the Greenport Basin and Construction Company: a mine sweeper, a submarine chaser and a two tank lighter landing craft.

Aug. 24, 1928

There was much enthusiasm among local golfers that Greenport was going to be home to a golf course overlooking Long Island Sound. The golf course was built upon the old Jackson place on the North Road. 

Aug. 24, 1878

Ground was broken on the Episcopal Church in Mattituck.

Back by popular demand, “Let’s Look Back” was a long-time feature from The Suffolk Times. We’re bringing it back online every Wednesday. Check back next week for more stories from our archives.

Photo caption: The proposed Peconic County flag. 

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Earlier this month, Southold Town closed on the former Capital One building on the corner of Youngs Avenue for $3.1 million with plans to move Justice Court operations to a better location, but recent recommendations had the Town talking about what to do with the newly acquired building yet again.

The building currently holds Southold Town Annex, which houses the Planning Department, accounting and personnel departments. The space was previously leased prior to the purchase of the building.

The town adopted a bond resolution in March to secure the $5.5 million estimated to purchase the building and complete necessary renovations. The town has $1.9 million for upgrades, with an extra $500,000 in contingency funds.

Questions were raised from the police department and Department of Public Works about whether it would better to keep the Justice Court where it is now and move Town Hall to the new building just down the road, but Supervisor Scott Russell said at Tuesday’s work session that has already been examined.

Town engineer Jamie Richter said that by moving the Justice Court, which currently shares the town’s meeting space, as opposed to moving Town Hall, operations will only be disrupted minimally during the move.

“Basically we could fit the Town Clerk’s office, the assessor’s office, the tax receiver’s office and put them [in the new building], but first and foremost, you’re not going to gain another large meeting hall,” Mr. Richter said about moving Town Hall to the annex.

He also said the general idea was that the court should serve only as a court and not have double functions as it does now.

Mr. Russell agreed that if Town Hall was moved to the current annex, there would be similar problems with scheduling as there are now, because there is no space for a meeting hall in the former Capital One building.

Mr. Richter will move forward with plans to convert the building to a new Justice Court, which will be dedicated for that purpose and will not have a double use.

rsiford@timesreview.com

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Update (11:50 a.m.): First responders say a 58-year-old Babylon woman who was impaled on a mushroom mooring anchor in the Peconic Bay off Nassau Point in Cutchogue Tuesday is expected to make a full recovery.

The woman was injured when she fell off her paddleboard and became impaled on the mooring anchor that was submerged beneath the water’s surface approximately 50 feet from shore, according to Southold Town police, which responded to the distress call around 6:50 p.m.

The woman was in the water, being supported by a paddleboard and bystanders, when the Cutchogue Fire Department arrived on the scene. A Southold Town police officer was the first to enter the water to assess the situation and begin treating the woman, according to the Cutchogue Fire Department. 

The officer discovered that the top of the mushroom-type mooring anchor, which is commonly used to secure boats, had penetrated the upper part of the woman’s thigh when she fell, the CFD stated. 

Both the anchor and woman’s leg were below the water’s surface. But due to the anchor’s weight and nature of the injury, she could not be moved. This, according to the fire department, ruled out the uses of some conventional approaches — such as electric tools or a cutting torch — that could otherwise be used in such situations. 

Firefighters transported their tools down a bluff to the beach to aid the rescue. They used bolt cutters to cut away the chain and attempt to cut the upper portion of the anchor. However, they quickly discovered that the anchor was made of two-inch-round hardened steel and would require more powerful equipment, according to the CFD. 

Firefighters then turned to hydraulic rescue tools, known as the “Jaws of Life.” A portable gasoline-powered unit with hoses and a cutter were floated out to the woman on a paddleboard that was available on the beach, the department said. 

After approximately one hour, using a combination of handsaws and battery-operated reciprocating saws, rescuers were able to safely remove the woman from the water.

She was transported by a fire department boat to the New Suffolk boat ramp, then transferred to an ambulance for transport to a waiting Suffolk County police helicopter, which flew her to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment, police said.

Officials at the hospital didn’t return calls requesting an update on the woman’s condition. However, the Cutchogue Fire Department wrote in statement that “… due to the efforts and teamwork of everyone involved, the patient received the best care possible and is expected to make a full recovery.”

Original story (8 a.m.): A 58-year-old Babylon woman was rescued Tuesday night after becoming impaled on a mushroom mooring anchor in the Peconic Bay off Nassau Point in Cutchogue.The woman was injured when she fell off her paddleboard and became impaled on the mooring anchor that was submerged beneath the surface of the water approximately 50 feet from shore, according to Southold Town Police, which responded to the distress call around 6:50 p.m.

The woman suffered a leg injury that required Cutchogue Fire Department firefighters to utilize extrication tools to remove her from the water, police said. She was transported by Cutchogue Fire Department Boat to the New Suffolk boat ramp where she was transferred to an ambulance for transport to a waiting Suffolk County Police helicopter that flew her to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment, police said.

The extent of the injuries was not immediately clear.

Additional information was not yet available.

Photo caption: The Cutchogue Fire Department and Southold Police rescued the woman who was injured after falling off a paddleboard Tuesday night. (Cutchogue Fire Department courtesy photo) 

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The long vacant former Capital One Bank on Main Road in Mattituck could become a hotel, according to Southold Town Building Department records.

An application to construct a three-story, 200 room hotel at the site was submitted by Goggins & Associates of Mattituck on behalf of the property owner, Alan Cardinale, to the building department on Feb. 20. A notice of disapproval dated March 23 cites that town zoning prohibits buildings located in the business district from being higher than two stories. North Fork Patch first reported the notice of disapproval.

The proposed construction would require special exception approval from the Southold Zoning Board of Appeals and site plan approval from the Southold Town Planning Board.

Mr. Goggins did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

To date, the proposal has not been discussed at any public ZBA or planning board meetings. It is unclear if Mr. Cardinale will continue to pursue the project.

Mr. Cardinale, who runs Cardinal Management in Mattituck which owns both the Mattituck Plaza and Jamesport Center, purchased the property, then a supermarket, for $175,000 in foreclosure in 1982. He sold it to North Fork Bancorp for $975,000 two years later, according to town property records. The building served as the headquarters for North Fork Bank, until Capital One purchased the bank and the building in 2006.

Capital One announced that they would shut their doors in 2011 and the building has been vacant since 2012.

In 2012, a Suffolk County task force was created to bring a long-term pediatric care facility to the county. The Capital One office was floated at the time as a possible location, but that plan never materialized. In 2015, volunteer members of the town’s economic development committee discussed plans to attract a nonprofit outpatient pediatric psychiatric facility to the North Fork and several committee members identified the former bank as a prime location.

Photo caption: The former Capital One Bank in Mattituck. (Credit: Rachel Siford) 

tsmith@timesreview.com

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Dr. Bala Hari Pillai of Laurel died  Aug. 28.

The family will receive visitors at Tuthill-Mangano Funeral Home in Riverhead on Thursday, Aug. 30, from 4 to 6 p.m., followed by a memorial ceremony at 6:30 p.m., also at the funeral home.

A complete obituary will follow.

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Listings prepared for Times Review Media Group by Suffolk Research Service, dated July 2-8, 2018.

Brought to you by:

BAITING HOLLOW (11933)

• Scotti, R & Senatore, B to Portillo, Anthony, 104 Fox Hill Dr, #104 (600-11.1-1-4), (R), $268,500

• Baiting Hollow Owner to DeJoseph, Anthony, 1313 Bluffs Dr N, #3303 (600-11.2-1-175), (R), $380,516

• Baiting Hollow Owner to Gebbia, Doreen, 1213 Bluffs Dr N, #3304 (600-11.2-1-176), (R), $389,000

• Baiting Hollow Owner to Americo, Josephine, 1412 Bluffs Dr N, #3306 (600-11.2-1-178), (R), $399,000

• Siebert, M to Goodale, Kevin, 36 Beach Way (600-39-2-12), (R), $555,000

CUTCHOGUE (11935)

• Caufield, T to Mondello, Lawrence, 21800 Route 25 (1000-109-1-2), (R), $540,000

FLANDERS (11901)

• Moorer, J to LPD II LLC, 78 Brookhaven Ave (900-145-1-45), (R), $125,000

• NPVP LLC to Sierocki, Grzegorz, 510 Maple Ave (900-167-3-7.4), (R), $430,000

JAMESPORT (11947)

• Gilbert, W & V to Theofanis, Peter, 25 Pye Ln (600-70-1-29), (R), $1,600,000

PECONIC (11958)

• Cassara, R to Steir, Iris, 30185 Cabots Wood Rd (1000-73-4-1), (R), $2,691,500

RIVERHEAD (11901)

• Van De Wetering, J to JAJB Holdings Inc, 903 Sound Shore Rd (600-8-2-13.7), (R), $612,500

SHELTER ISLAND (11964)

• Clark, K to Simons, Taylor, 2 Margaret’s Dr (700-18-2-34), (R), $1,055,000

• Morales, A to McCormack, James, 3 Thompson Rd (700-23-3-23), (V), $285,000

SOUTH JAMESPORT (11970)

• Gettner, M & S & Shureih to 23 Second Street LLC, 23 Second St (600-92-3-19), (R), $116,667

SOUTHOLD (11971)

• Poster, P & M to Friedberg, Michael, 1230 Kimberly Ln (1000-70-13-20.13), (R), $1,180,000

• Stadler, J Trust to Sommer, Henry, 385 Grissom Ln (1000-78-1-29), (R), $725,000

WADING RIVER (11792)

• Tressler, J by Referee to Wells Fargo Bank NA, 103 Cliff Rd E (600-27-3-24), (R), $611,193

• Barker, D & P to Staker, Brian, 182 Farm Rd E (600-57-1-1.15), (R), $500,000

• Vanwickler, D to Thompson, Andrew, 72 Dogwood Dr (600-72-1-12), (R), $375,000

• Neidhart, T & A to Henrich, Edward, 1 Baileys Ct (600-73-1-1.26), (R), $735,000

• Fortis Realty Group to Spence, Shane, 54 Stephen Dr (600-114-1-28), (R), $390,000

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

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It was 38 minutes into the one-hour Quaker meeting before anyone said a word.

Gathered on the grounds of Sylvester Manor, seated in a wooded glade on a jumble of rough-hewn logs fashioned into long benches, there were six at the meeting, seven if you count the small white dog on Shelter Islander Jim Pugh’s lap. They sat largely in silence, until Mr. Pugh gathered the group of Friends together in a circle of hands and called the rise of meeting.

In a time when listening is out, venting is in and most of your friends are people you never actually see, the Quaker approach to worship is distinct, even a bit strange. It must have seemed as strange in the 17th century, to the Puritans of colonial New England, and is one reason Shelter Island’s Quaker history, which goes back to the founding of Sylvester Manor in 1652, is relevant today.

Quaker practices include plain speech, modesty, avoiding showy things such as flags and grave markers and an unwillingness to swear an oath. Activists for peace and social justice, Quakers have advocated for women’s rights and the abolition of slavery.

The Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers, was established by George Fox in England in the mid-17th century, around the same time Nathaniel Sylvester and Grizzell Brinley married in England and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to become the first European residents of Shelter Island.

The Sylvesters brought Quaker practices and beliefs with them. When the passage of anti-Quaker laws in 1656 imposed punishments such as branding, ear-cropping, imprisonment and later banishment and death, Nathaniel and Grizzell Sylvester made Shelter Island a refuge for persecuted Quakers.

The best known of these was the Quaker martyr Mary Dyer, who left her husband and six children in Boston in the early 1650s; moved to England, where she became a Friend; and returned to Boston as a Quaker preacher in 1657 only to be arrested and banished on pain of death.

George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement. He is known to have visited Shelter Island.

Despite her banishment, Ms. Dyer went back to Boston and was sentenced to death, but was spared at the last moment. In a bizarre public execution, during which two fellow Quakers were hanged before her, Mary Dyer was made to stand hooded on the gallows, and then suddenly spared. She then made her way to Shelter Island, where she spent the winter of 1659-60, a time historian Mac Griswold describes in “The Manor,” her history of Sylvester Manor, as “the happiest, most dedicated, least fractured time of her life. Her actions embodied her faith; all the rest of life’s concerns had burned away.”

But Ms. Dyer chose once again to return to Boston — and her fate. She was publicly executed in June 1660.

Nathaniel and Grizzell Sylvester also harbored Lawrence and Cassandra Sethwick, Quakers from Salem, Mass., after they were banished and two of their children were ordered sold into slavery. The Sethwicks fled across Long Island Sound to Shelter Island. Physically and emotionally shattered, they both died about a month after their arrival. A copy of Lawrence Sethwick’s last will and testament, written on Shelter Island and witnessed by Nathaniel Sylvester, is dated May 1659.

In 1661, King Charles II issued a royal order meant to stop the executions of Quakers in Massachusetts. It was personally delivered to John Endicott, governor of Massachusetts, by a London Quaker and ship captain named Ralph Goldsmith, who later settled in Southold.

Nathaniel Sylvester’s brother Giles, who was living in London, signed the petition listing the sufferings of American Friends, which prompted the royal order. Historians have posited a link between Grizzell Sylvester’s correspondence with her father, Thomas Brinley, who was in the court of King Charles, and the order to stop the executions of Massachusetts Quakers.

As joyful as the Sylvesters must have been to see the end of Quaker executions, the arrival of Friends’ founder George Fox on Shelter Island 10 years later was likely even more satisfying, as an indication of their prominent position. Mr. Fox had left England for a tour of America in 1671 and, after two months in Rhode Island, finally visited the island in August 1672. He wrote of preaching to hundreds of Native Americans from the porch of the Manor House and of trying to persuade slaveholders in America, such as Nathaniel Sylvester, to free the people they held in bondage. At the time, about 70 percent of American Quakers also owned slaves.

Nathaniel Sylvester died June 13, 1680, at age 70. Grizzell, in settling the estate, followed Quaker practice by declining to swear, “being a person that cannot take an oath for conscience sake,” and instead testified to the inventory of her husband’s estate, which included 23 enslaved people.

Grizzell died June 13, 1687 at 52. In keeping with Quaker practice, the Sylvesters’ graves bore no markers of any kind.

For most of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, the eighth, ninth and tenth owners of Sylvester Manor were members of the Horsford family. They spent summers at the Manor, and lived in Cambridge, Mass. Eager to recognize the history of the Friends and the Manor’s role as a refuge and haven, the Horsfords dedicated a monument July 25, 1884, to their Sylvester forebears.

They made sure it would be noticed and remembered. A large crowd, including most of Shelter Island as well as friends and colleagues from Cambridge, attended. A three-piece band and a choir performed. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, known for his dramatic poems about Quaker history, and a friend of Prof. Eben Horsford, wrote a special ode for the event about the Friends’ ordeal and island sanctuary. It included the lines: “A peaceful deathbed and a quiet grave/Where ocean walled, and wiser than his age,/ the Lord of Shelter scorned the bigot’s rage.”

In 1952, Andy Fiske, 13th owner of the Manor and a direct Sylvester descendant, called on Henry Cadbury, who had recently accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, to conduct a Quaker meeting on Shelter Island. Mr. Cadbury not only came and conducted the meeting, but established a Shelter Island Friends meeting that is still active, albeit with occasional fits and starts. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Friends met at the Garr estate; during the 1960s, at Union Chapel in the Heights; and, starting in 1970, outdoor meetings took place in the grove by the Quaker cemetery at Sylvester Manor.

And that is where six people sat last Sunday, with Friends past and present, in silent awe of all that was around them, and in search of all that is within.

Photo caption: A sign directs visitors to the Friends Meeting area on Shelter Island. (Charity Robey photo)

Part I: Before anything else, there was ice

Part II: Long before the ‘first families’

Part III: When English arrive, Indians disperse?

Part IV: So, who was really here first?

Part V: Slavery, an ignored part of our history

Part VI: Slavery on Shelter Island, a story not hidden away

Part VII: When was Cutchogue’s Old House built?

Part VIII: The Revolution ‘tore families apart’

Part IX: For one loyalist, all would be lost

Part X: From growing divisions within Southold, River Head town is born

Part XI: An epic saga of East End whaling

Part XII: Murders in 1854 shattered a hamlet

Part XIII: The Wickham murders part two

Part XIV: A Civil War on the North Fork

Part XV: Artists painted here for solitude in the years after the Civil War

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Parcels on Fishers Island may now be included in Southold Town Hamlet Density Residential District. 

Following a public hearing, the Town Board voted Tuesday to amend Chapter 280 of the zoning code. Currently, Article V states that the purpose of the Hamlet Density Residential District is to permit a mix of housing types and a level of residential density appropriate to areas in and around the major hamlet centers, “particularly” Mattituck, Cutchogue, Southold, Orient, the Village of Greenport and, now, Fishers Island.

Prior to this, according to Southold Supervisor Scott Russell, owners of property in the Fishers Island hamlet center could not apply for a change of zone. “The amendment cleaned up a glitch in the code,” Mr. Russell said.

According to town code, permitted uses in HD Districts, all of which are subject to site plan approval, are one- and two-family detached dwellings, town homes and row and attached dwellings.

Tom Siebens, director of the Fishers Island Utility Company, traveled to Southold from the island to speak in favor of the change during the public hearing.

“We’re not focused on more seasonal housing. What we need is more year-round housing,” Mr. Siebens said, adding that the utility company would likely submit a petition to the Town Board in an effort to provide housing to employees who live on the island year-round.

“That [the utility company] wanted the change to create year-round housing made it an easy decision for the board,” Mr. Russell said.

The code change was the first of three agenda items pertaining to Fishers Island that passed Tuesday night. The board also approved a bond resolution authorizing sidewalk improvements there, estimated to cost around $620,000.

In addition, a public hearing was set for Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. regarding Ferry District improvements. According to a public hearing notice, the cost of replacing engines on the MV Munnatawket is estimated at $150,000 and expenses for dredging Silver Eel Channel are expected to total $140,000.

tsmith@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Fishers Island. (Cyndi Murray, file photo) 

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One company, the Sackler family’s Purdue Pharma, has played a critical role in instigating an epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States that killed 72,000 Americans last year — more people than perished at the peak of the HIV epidemic, or died in car wrecks or shootings last year.

Even now — as the failure to recognize opioid addiction as a chronic disease rather than a moral failing, and limits on insurance coverage keep people from long-term treatment — the painkiller industry is spending nine times more on lobbying to fight regulation than is spent by the powerful gun lobby.

Those were some of the striking takeaways from a fast-paced, sharply focused discussion of the opioid crisis presented Aug. 20 at East Hampton’s Guild Hall by the Hamptons Institute, which has been hosting panel discussions there throughout the summer.

It featured journalist Elizabeth Vargas as moderator along with three expert speakers: U.S. Navy Admiral (retired) James “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr., who co-founded Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic after his son died at 19 on his fourth day at the University of Denver; Dr. Joseph Garbely, medical director at Caron Treatment Centers; and New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, whose October 2017 article, “Empire of Pain,” threw the spotlight on Purdue Pharma’s role in pushing its invention, oxycodone, as a safe way to treat chronic pain — even after its addictive nature became clear.

Americans tend to talk about the opioid epidemic in its magnitude and complexity as a kind of natural disaster, Mr. Keefe said, but it is “much more man-made.” 

Before the oxycodone push, he noted, physicians had been careful to avoid using opioids to treat chronic pain, because they were understood to be highly addictive.

Because doctors seemed reluctant to prescribe it, “one company,” he said, began during the 1990s to push oxycodone “in very slick and suggestive ways” as “not so addictive.” That marketing strategy coincided with a “cultural shift” in the medical profession that allowed for aggressive treatment of chronic pain with oxycodone, Mr. Keefe said.

Purdue’s marketing claim that patients would need only two pills a day, one every 12 hours, “was a recipe for addiction,” Mr. Keefe explained, because withdrawal and the craving for more — a purely physiological process in the brain — begins after eight or nine hours.

There were early signs of trouble, “little pockets of abuse,” he said, but “the company did not react.” Instead, Mr. Keefe said, it denied any problem and blamed “addicts and drug abusers” — and hired “Rudy Giuliani to fight off any regulation” — a comment that elicited moans and groans from the audience.

“We really did think oxycodone was less addictive,” recalled Dr. Garbely. “We were told that by the reps” from Purdue, that “we could safely prescribe it, and we bought it hook, line and sinker.”

Adm. Winnefeld noted that oxycodone costs $1 a milligram, which means the addicted need to spend $240 a day to avoid withdrawal, and that heroin, at $20 per hit, is the much cheaper and readily available alternative.

Ms. Vargas called on the admiral to start the discussion with the story of his son Jonathan. Growing up in a military family that moved frequently, he was likable, athletic, good-looking and seemed well-grounded but in fact he suffered from anxiety and depression, Adm. Winnefeld said. He began self-medicating with marijuana, alcohol and other drugs.

He spent 15 months in an intensive inpatient program in New Haven, Conn., during which he earned certification as an emergency medical technician. “He wanted to help others,” the admiral said. Jonathan planned to become a paramedic firefighter when he entered the University of Denver.

“We dropped him at school and he was amazing, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” the admiral recalled. “We lost him on the fourth day of college” to a fentanyl-laced dose of heroin he had bought in Denver.

“We had missed a few signs” of his relapse: he was edgy, sweaty and nervous; “we thought college” was the reason, Adm. Winnefeld said. “Little did we know he had relapsed. We had lost him,” he continued, adding that the family will feel “sadness for the rest of our lives.”

Adm. Winnefeld said his goal now is “to help people avoid this.”

He praised print journalists for accurately depicting the nature of the opioid crisis but blamed “photo-journalism” for seeking out the skinny, tattooed and needle-marked “guy living under an underpass” to depict addiction. But, as he and Dr. Garbely noted repeatedly, opioid addiction strikes everyone — well-off people, educated people, good-looking people like Jonathan Winnefeld — just as easily as it strikes the poor.

Photo caption: Panelists (from left) Adm. Sandy Winnefeld, Dr. Joseph Garbely and Patrick Radden at the Hamptons Institute forum on opioid addiction on Aug. 20. Journalist Elizabeth Vargas was the moderator. (Peter Boody photo)

Peter Boody is news editor for The Sag Harbor Express. 

 This article is a part of The East End News Project. Three East End news organizations — the Times Review Media Group
newspapers, the Press News Group and The Sag Harbor Express — have joined together with Stony Brook University’s journalism program in a unique collaboration that focuses on the opioid epidemic across the region. If you can help by telling your story, please contact us at EENPopioids@gmail.com.

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Two men turned themselves into police after vandalizing the Greek Orthodox Church in Greenport last week.

Mitchell Maver, 22, of Burlington, Vt., and Wesley Brown, 21, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. surrendered to Southold Town Police Thursday. They are both charged with criminal mischief in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor.

A glass window pane on the southwest corner of the church, as well as flower pots and a large sign in the front of the church, were reported damaged by the priest around 7:45 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19, police said.

The two suspects were caught on security video committing the acts and called the church earlier this week to apologize, The Rev. Jerasimos Ballas said. The Rev. Ballas said the two men admitted to being drunk at the time, adding that they did not recall the details of the incident. A video clip of the surveillance footage released to media helped identify the suspects, police said.

“It is very hard,” he said. “Hopefully, they don’t get a record. I don’t want them to have their careers destroyed, but I want to know it is not appropriate to destroy a church. It is not nice.”

The two men told The Rev. Ballas they would pay the damages, which are estimated to cost thousands, after turning themselves into the police.

“It is good that they turned themselves in,” he said. “They are young kids that did a stupid thing. They said they were going to pay for it and I believe them because they don’t seem like the type of people that do this type of thing every day.”

The Rev. Ballas also said that since the incident community members have offered repair services and money toward the fixes.

Both men were released on $250 bail to appear in court at a future date.

cmurray@timesreview.com

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Visitors to the North Fork encounter dozens of options for farm-to-table fare, along with wineries and bucolic farm and water views to enjoy.

Potential employees have their pick, too. From restaurant line cooks and buspeople to tasting room staff and hotel workers, newspaper classified sections and websites like Indeed and Craigslist are brimming with employment opportunities in the hospitality industry.

As that industry booms, however, hiring managers are struggling to find staff.

And every season, some owners say, it gets a little bit harder.

“The only difference between this year and last year is [that] last year, I had two people apply for a job and this year, I had one,” said George Giannaris, owner of the Hellenic Restaurant in East Marion.

Ten or 15 years ago, Mr. Giannaris said, hiring just wasn’t an issue. “School would end and they’d all look for work,” he said of local teens. “We never had a problem.”

This season, he’s supplemented his staff with 14 foreign students through the J-1 work visa program, on which he relies. “It was an answered prayer,” he said of the program, which has helped him staff his restaurant for four seasons now.

Help wanted signs pop up every August, as college students who were home for the summer return to campus. But “the season” now stretches further and further beyond Tumbleweed Tuesday.

“Even with college kids, it was a big problem with them vanishing halfway through the season, or not being here for Labor Day,” Mr. Giannaris said. “It’s like a retail outfit not having employees at Christmas. But it’s become the norm.

“There’s no such thing as commitment anymore,” he added, echoing the sentiments of many local business owners.

According to a report published earlier this summer by the Pew Research Center, fewer teens are working summer jobs. At the start of the millennium, roughly half of all teens in the U.S. spent their summers working — lifeguarding, waiting tables, serving ice cream. Despite a growing population of working age teens (16 to 19), only about 35 percent nationwide held a job this summer, according to the report.

Susan Halladay, who manages Jamesport Bay Suites, says the seasonal nature of her business exacerbates the problem.

But like Mr. Giannaris, she says commitment is a rarity. Teens, Ms. Halladay said, often come in seeking a job running the paddleboard rental side of the business. “They think it’s glamorous and want to lie on the beach all day,” she said. “But then they see it’s hard work and scram.”

The Pew report suggests several reasons for the declining employment trend, including shorter summer breaks, more teens taking summer school classes and a growing number who perform unpaid community service or take unpaid internships to bolster their college applications, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count as employment.

Across the hospitality industry, owners and managers shared similar stories, attributing their hardships to a longer tourist season, rising wages and a strengthening job market that has allowed workers to seek employment in fields that offer more regular hours and with larger companies that can more readily offer incentives.

In 2014, for example, Starbucks announced a program that would cover the cost for employees to take online courses through Arizona State University. Recent job postings for the Halyard and Sound View Inn in Greenport advertise benefits, including health insurance, paid vacation time and rental housing assistance.

Every business owner interviewed for this story cited housing as a key factor in the labor shortage.

“The market is saturated with opportunity to work in the biz right now,” said Marc LaMaina, owner of Lucharitos in Greenport and Little Lucharitos in Aquebogue. “But the workforce has nowhere to live out here.”

The proliferation of short-term rentals, Mr. LaMaina said, is contributing to a growing housing crisis. “Greenport is working on the short-term rental problem. Once that is solved, you should see more ‘for rent’ classifieds. Then you will see fewer help wanted signs.”

An affordable housing project is also in the works for Southold. Conifer Realty and the Community Development Corporation of Long Island, partners on the project, aim to bring 50 affordable apartments to a 17.2-acre site on County Road 48 in Greenport.

In May, New York State awarded the project, known as Vineyard View, $5.7 million in funding. That project is still awaiting site plan approval. A public hearing on the project closed Aug. 8.

A new report released by the Long Island Association shows that dwindling wages paired with soaring home values have “categorically shifted the living arrangements and life choices” among millennials 23 to 34 years old.

In 1970, the report says, the median price for a home on Long Island was $180,000 and 68 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds owned homes. In 2018, the median home price is $450,000, and the home ownership rate among millennials is only 20 percent.

That disparity impacts the economy, as their research suggests that the reduction in households has resulted in an annual $707.2 million loss to Long Island’s economy.

Until projects like Vineyard View come to pass, business owners must think outside the box.

“I don’t really know what direction it’s going to go in,” Mr. Giannaris said. He said that without a staff, he could have to pull table service from parts of the restaurant. And there are other business woes, like a rising minimum wage, which could force him to raise menu prices.

“It’s going to take some creative approaches,” especially to solve the housing issue, he said, pointing out the vacant North Fork Bank/Capital One building on Main Road in Mattituck. “That would not make a bad place to put apartments in” for the workforce, he said.

Mr. LaMaina said staying open year-round helps him maintain a core staff.

“We can’t pay these elaborate salaries. We would sink come January,” he said. “So we have to stretch it out. Our team appreciates the year-round work and camaraderie, so they stay. We are a family here. Dysfunctional, yes. But still a family.”

tsmith@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Help Wanted signs have been on display at restaurants and businesses across the North Fork since mid-summer. (Tara Smith photo) 

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