As the Greenport Village Board prepares for yet another public hearing on its proposed law regulating short-term rentals, a number of letters opposing the measure were submitted last week.

One of them came from a lawyer who had represented clients who challenged Southold Town’s short-term rental law in 2016.

Attorney Salem Katsh said he is representing clients who live in Greenport and who have been short-term renting for many years.

“They are scrupulous in who they rent to, are excellent neighbors and no one has ever had reasonable complaints about any of their tenants,” Mr. Katsh wrote in a letter to the board.

The latest public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27.

One of his main arguments against the village proposal was also part of the previous challenge: that people who were offering short-term rentals before the enactment of new regulations are automatically permitted as “grandfathered” uses under a section of the village code dealing with uses that don’t conform to zoning but existed prior to the enactment of zoning.

The state Supreme Court ruled against the challenge to Southold’s law in 2017, saying that Southold’s code “prohibits any use not expressly permitted” and that short-term rentals have never been permitted.

Ms. Katsh has challenged that ruling in the state Appellate Division, and he said he’s confident he will win the appeal.

He said the proposed Greenport law could also end up in court.

Mr. Katsh says the zoning districts in the town code  “do no more than specify what physical structures are allowed on land zoned in that district. They have nothing to do with how the structure is subsequently used, including by whom or for how long it is occupied.”

Greenport officials made changes to the proposal following a July 26 hearing and didn’t get much opposition — until now.

“In the past week, we got 15 letters from people who own houses here saying this is going to hurt their investment,” Mayor George Hubbard Jr. said at last Thursday’s Village Board work session.

The village had a held a 90-minute public hearing on the proposal July 26, during which more people spoke in favor of the proposed law than against, although there were several who opposed it.

Greenport is one of the only municipalities on the East End that doesn’t specifically regulate short-term rentals.

In the proposed law, the village is defining a short-term rental as less than 14 days and a long-term rental as a period of at least one year.

As of Monday, the village had received 19 letters opposing the proposal.

“Short-term rentals provide the comfort of staying in a private home where you can host a large group of friends and family that would not be possible in a hotel or typical B&B,” wrote Zachary Russell of New York.

“I am so sad to hear that Greenport is considering getting rid of all non-owner-occupied short-term rentals of less than 14 days,” wrote Kaitlyn O’Hara of Cape May, N.J.

But village Trustee Doug Roberts said the proposal does not ban all STRs in Greenport, and said there has been a lot of misinformation about the plan.

The proposed law would limit short-term rentals of under 14 days, allowing them only in two-family homes that are either owner-occupied or occupied by a long-term tenant, someone renting for a year or more.

Village attorney Joe Prokop offered to answer questions about the STR law from the board at last Thursday’s Village Board meeting, but added, “Anything that might be the subject of litigation at any time, I caution you not to discuss, because this is a public meeting and I don’t want this meeting to become ‘Exhibit A’ to something in the future.”

Mr. Hubbard said that under the proposed law, an owner or long-term renter of a house could do a short-term rental up to twice a month.

Mr. Roberts asked if short-term rentals are not permitted in the village now.

Mr. Prokop said that under village zoning, if something is not specifically permitted, it’s not allowed.

Trustee Julia Robins asked how many complaints they’ve had about short-term rentals in the past two years.

Village administrator Paul Pallas said they’ve had no specific complaints about short-term renters.

Ms. Robins said the proposed legislation is a “feel good” law, and she doesn’t feel it will accomplish much, because short-term rental owners can find other ways to advertise their properties that aren’t as easily detected on the internet.

Among the arguments made against short-term rentals at the July 26 hearing were that they tie up available housing stock in the village and eliminate potentially affordable homes; they constitute commercial use in a residential area; and they are not required to adhere to the same safety standards or to pay the same sales and occupancy taxes as hotels and bed-and-breakfasts.

tgannon@timesreview.com

The post Attorney says Greenport’s proposed short-term rental law could end up in court appeared first on Suffolk Times.

A memorial service for former Southold resident Fern Berry Mutlos will be held Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Southold. Family and friends are welcome.

Mrs. Mutlos died Aug. 11 at the age of 93.

The post Mutlos memorial set appeared first on Suffolk Times.

A 39-year-old Rocky Point man was arrested Sunday night for breaking car windows in Greenport, according to Southold Town police.

A witness observed the male subject smash the windows of three vehicles on Third Street and one on Adams Street and notified police around 11:30 p.m., according to a police press release.

The man was located a short distance away from the scene and identified as Kyle Frisina.

He was arrested for felony criminal mischief and taken to police headquarters. During his processing, Mr. Frisina grabbed a hold of a computer mouse and broke the cord, resulting in an additional misdemeanor criminal mischief charge, Southold police said.

The post Cops: Man arrested for smashing car windows in Greenport appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Joanne Mary Cummings Hughes passed away in Dunedin, Fla. Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, after a courageous battle with cancer.

Joanne was born in Brooklyn May 4, 1945, to Cecelia and Thomas Cummings. She graduated from Shelter Island High School in 1963, and from Wyckoff Heights School of Nursing in Brooklyn.

She worked 33 years as a dedicated nurse at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, where she met her future husband, Gilbert Hughes. Joanne and Gil celebrated 52 years of marriage in April 2018.

In 1998, Joanne and Gil retired to Dunedin. The ultimate caregiver, Joanne worked part time, then volunteered at Palm Garden Nursing Home as long as her illness allowed.

She was known by her family and friends as a loving, caring person with a heart of gold, generous beyond words and knew no strangers. A true-blue New York Yankees fan, Joanne will always remain as a bright light in the hearts of her loving family and her many, many friends.

She is survived by her beloved husband Gilbert; her loving children, Colleen (Harry), Lori (Mike) and Tommy (Tianna); cherished grandchildren, Anthony Breese and Trent Hughes; caring sisters, Maureen Smith (Karl) and Peg Cummings (Moe); several nieces, nephews, cousins and much-loved family pets.

A graveside service will be held at Our Lady of the Isle Catholic Cemetery Saturday, Sept. 29, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Suncoast Hospice — for information, phone 727-467-7423 — and cancer research.

This is a paid notice.

The post Joanne Mary Cummings Hughes appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Deborah Ann Barrett of Riverhead and formerly of Greenport died Sept. 25. She was 92 years old.

The family will receive visitors Thursday, Sept. 27, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Horton-Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport.

The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday, Sept. 28, at 11 a.m. at St. Agnes R.C. Church in Greenport, with burial to follow at the church cemetery.

A complete obituary will follow.

The post Deborah Ann Barrett appeared first on Suffolk Times.

After Mattituck’s Viki Harkin finally put away a ball for the first point of the match — a long, hard-earned point — Westhampton Beach girls volleyball coach Lenny Zaloga called over to his counterpart, Frank Massa. “Frank,” he said, “this is going to be a long one.”

For a while there, Tuesday’s non-league match looked like it had the makings of a five-setter. It was settled in three sets, however, although there were some long points and entertaining volleyball along the way. In the end, though, the result was similar to most of the meetings between the two coaches, who between them have 65 years of experience coaching their respective teams. As Massa put it, his career record against Westhampton remains “one and whatever.”

Despite Class C Mattituck’s efforts, Westhampton, a Suffolk County Class A finalist the last four years, showed its quality in a 25-21, 26-24, 25-18 result on its home court.

“I love going up against Lenny Zaloga, I love it,” Massa said afterward. “I’ve learned a whole lot from him. I think he’s one of the top instructors in the county, if not the top one. He knows a lot about the game. By me watching him coach, I’ve learned a lot about what he does, how he does it, and I always know he’s going to have a strong team. He’s never had a team that we’ve come to play and I would say, ‘Wow, that team wasn’t that good.’ They’re always good.”

This year is no exception. Westhampton (5-1, 3-1 League VI) looks capable of making another strong postseason run with players like powerful outside hitter Cortina Green (11 kills, one block) and sure-handed setter Olivia Jayne (24 assists).

Mattituck (5-1, 5-0 League VIII) has undergone some changes since last year, although Harkin, a junior All-Conference outside hitter, and junior libero Jordan Osler, the League VII Rookie of the Year in 2017, are back with returning starting middle hitters Jillian Gaffga and Rachel Janis.

The first place Tuckers look like the class of League VIII and are bidding for their first league championship since 2004. Westhampton, though, represented a stiff test for Mattituck.

Mattituck shot out to a somewhat stunning 9-1 lead in the first set and even after Westhampton tied it at 12-12 with a service ace by Isabelle Smith, the Tuckers traded blows with the Hurricanes. Mattituck’s two setters, Miranda Hedges and Ashley Young, both rookies to the varsity game, did well, feeding balls to Harkin, nicknamed the “Flying Squirrel” for her aerial athleticism.

Westhampton took the set point, though, when a communication lapse on Mattituck’s part led to a ball dropping to the floor amid confused Tuckers.

“It doesn’t cost any money to open your mouth,” Massa said. “We got to learn that that could mean the difference between winning and losing.”

The second set was the real heartbreaker for Mattituck. A kill by Charlotte Keil gave the Tuckers a 24-22 lead. Zaloga called a timeout, and then Mattituck disintegrated. In succession, Mattituck committed a service error, a double contact and a hitting error before Green slammed down a kill to win it for Westhampton.

“I thought we had it,” said Harkin.

Massa said: “It’s the basics of the game that’s going to win or lose it, the routine plays. We’re going to make spectacular plays and so is the other team. It’s what team makes the more routine plays is the team that’s going to win.”

Harkin ended up with 13 kills and Hedges had 11 assists.

“In all the sets, there were brackets of time where the girls played really good volleyball, but those times have to be longer and the miscues have to be shorter,” said Massa.

Harkin had mixed feelings about the match. “I think my team did really good,” she said. “We obviously could have done better. I think we definitely need to work on finishing matches because we’re really good at fighting, but I feel like we need to pull it together at the end and win it.”

Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done against a team like Westhampton.

“We’ve known each other for a long time so we kind of know what to expect when we’re going to play each other,” said Zaloga, who also coaches some of the Tuckers on the Long Island Fury club team. “A lot of my kids know a lot of his kids, so it’s nice to be together. A lot of long points. A lot of good defense kept the ball off the floor. He’s got a good hitter, I’ve got a good hitter, so we kind of know they’re going to cancel each other out.”

For now, though, Massa’s record against Zaloga remains one-sided: one and whatever.

bliepa@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Mattituck coach Frank Massa makes a point to his players during a timeout in Tuesday’s match at Westhampton Beach. (Credit: Bob Liepa)

The post Girls Volleyball: Tuckers fight but fall in Westhampton appeared first on Suffolk Times.

The mouth of Greenport’s Sterling Harbor is filling up with sand, and local officials say it needs to be dredged, something that hasn’t been done for a long time. 

“My understanding in talking to a fair amount of boaters coming out of the creek is that they’re starting to run aground,” Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said at last Thursday’s Village Board work session. “It’s getting shallower and shallower as storms keep coming through.”

The shoaling is occurring in the section of the harbor nearest Sandy Beach Point, she said, adding that she’s also spoken to residents in that area who seem to favor the dredging. 

It’s been many years since the harbor was dredged. Ms. Phillips found a number of news accounts and documents dating from 2011, when the village tried to get the harbor dredged but was unsuccessful. 

Mayor George Hubbard Jr. said Suffolk County, which often does dredging projects on the East End, wouldn’t do this one at the time since it’s federal jurisdiction. 

Village administrator Paul Pallas said the state Department of Environmental Conservation also wanted a significant amount of soil testing done before agreeing to allow the dredge spoil to be placed at Sandy Beach Point.

“The thought at the time was that it was rather expensive,” Mr. Pallas said. “And that’s were we left off. It never moved forward from that point.”

Ms. Phillips, whose husband is a commercial fisherman, said she’s hoping to establish a dialogue involving the village, Suffolk County, New York State, the federal Army Corps of Engineers and other officials to work toward getting the dredging started. She also said grant money may be available for the work. 

Stirling Harbor Marina, Greenport Yacht Yard (formerly Brewer’s) and other private and commercial businesses account for more than 350 boats that regularly use Stirling Harbor, she said. 

“We have a community advisory group here made up of slip rental customers and storage customers and one of the concerns that they have expressed is that the channel is getting narrow and it’s also getting shallow for some of the boats that come in,” said Mike Acebo, the general manager at both Greenport Yacht Yard and Stirling Harbor Marina. “My customers have asked me to try and get active in trying to take care of that somehow.”

Neither he nor Ms. Phillips could recall the last time the harbor was dredged, but Mr. Acebo said he thinks it’s been 15 to 20 years.

Greenport’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, which was last updated in 2014, lists 1976 as the last time Stirling Harbor was dredged.

Dave Bergen, a former Southold Town Trustee who was involved in trying to get the harbor dredged in the past, said his research indicates it was last dredged in 1986 by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

In addition to the dredging project, Ms. Phillips says the breakwater extending into Greenport Harbor from Youngs Point is falling apart. 

Mr. Acebo said rising sea levels have made the breakwater less effective. 

“We have seen the sea level rise in Stirling Harbor in the last 20 years, because now we can have boats that have seven-foot draft approach our marina almost at any time,” he added. “Therefore, the water in a storm surge, will override the breakwater” and cause damage to downtown Greenport. 

He said if the channel to the harbor is filling in faster than it used to, despite rising sea levels, then it’s filling in faster than the sea is rising. 

“So there is a problem,” he said. 

Village Board members supported the idea of trying to get the dredging started.

Ms. Phillips said she was just hoping to begin that process before contacting state and federal officials. 

“If we’re holding it up because they’re waiting for something from us, we need to get that taken care of and just do it,” Mr. Hubbard said.

“This needs to be done,” he added. “It’s only getting worse each year.”

tgannon@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Sterling Harbor in Greenport. (Tim Gannon photo)

The post Effort launched to dredge Greenport’s Sterling Harbor appeared first on Suffolk Times.

The Fishers Island Waste Management District has submitted a site plan to Southold Town’s Planning Board for construction of a transfer station. The plan includes converting an existing garage on Whistler Avenue into a meeting space.

Also proposed are a 4,500-square-foot mixing building, a 2,400-square-foot maintenance building and a 600-square-foot shop building.

The intended site is 9.3-acre property in the Residential Low-Density zoning district, next to the Fishers Island School District and Fishers Island Community Center. The Fishers Island Airport and Fort Wright are on the southern border of the property.

The waste management district is not allowed to process more than 2,000 tons of material per year, but a planning staff report estimates that it currently handles less than half that amount annually.

Twelve parking stalls are proposed, as required by code. Two sheds of undisclosed dimensions will need to be relocated.

The project will be classified as an unlisted action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. 

Two concrete pads of 1,300 square feet each are proposed for a wood grinder and a shredder to sit on.

Planning staff recommended that the applicants provide stormwater drainage calculations, parking calculations, lot coverage percentages, dimensions of the buildings to be relocated and more specific landscaping details.

The Fishers Island Waste Management District must also submit a photometric plan for all exterior lighting, exterior signage information and renderings and estimated truck trips in and out of the proposed facility.

rsiford@timesreview.com

Photo caption: The Southold Planning Board held a work session Monday. (Rachel Siford photo)

The post Fishers Island Waste Management proposal to expand appeared first on Suffolk Times.

On stages across the country, Aquebogue native Danielle Allen will soon go by a different name — Shprintze — as she joins the cast of the national tour of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Just a week after graduating from Wagner College as a theater performance major, said Ms. Allen, 22, she discovered she’d gotten the part in a new revival.

“It’s definitely a big transition, since this is my first professional show,” she said.

“Fiddler on the Roof” is set in pre-revolutionary Russia, where a poor Jewish man, Tevye, attempts to find husbands for his five daughters, one of whom Ms. Allen will play. Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher created an alternative version of the classic 1964 musical, written by Tony-winner Joseph Stein, with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.

The national tour begins Oct. 17 in Syracuse and concludes Aug. 25, 2019, in Forth Worth, Texas. The show will make stops in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities.

Most of the music in “Fiddler on the Roof” is heavily influenced by Hebrew hymns, and the musical itself is steeped in Jewish culture and traditions. While Ms. Allen has no Jewish roots, she said she’s interested in the culture. During her sophomore year at Wagner, she interned at the college’s Holocaust Center, where she learned about Jewish history and culture and later educated elementary school students in Staten Island.

“Even though ‘Fiddler’ takes place before the Holocaust, I find it incredibly interesting to track that community and their resilience over time,” she said.

Ms. Allen said she reserved a great deal of her schedule for auditions.

Danielle Allen and Patrick O’Brien play a married couple in the opening act of Neil Simon’s comedy ‘Plaza Suite’ back in 2007. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch, file photo)

“I had Tuesday, Thursday and Friday completely free for me to go to auditions,” she said. “So I was going to as many auditions as I could, just to get experience, and one of those was ‘Fiddler.’ ”

Ms. Allen’s mother, Mary, said her daughter worked hard for this opportunity and her involvement in the local arts scene has helped advance her career.

“She started at the East End Arts Council when she was 18 months old, and she actually stayed there until she was 18 years old,” she said. “I had no doubt she’d get to this point because she’s always been a natural-born performer.”

At East End Arts, Ms. Allen played piano and performed.

She said several East End institutions, including East End Arts, formed the foundation of her theater training.

In second grade, she eagerly took on the role of a Munchkin for Bishop McGann-Mercy High School’s 2003 performance of “The Wizard of Oz.” Ten years later, she received the Teeny Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for her performance in Mercy’s production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

“It meant a lot to me to be recognized for my work as an actor by someone outside my family and friends, and it helped to give me the confidence and validation I needed to pursue theatre as a career path,” she said.

Ms. Allen also studied at Mattituck Dance Studio for several years, performed in “South Pacific” and “Footloose” at North Fork Community Theatre and attended the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s summer camp before attending Wagner.

This past summer, Ms. Allen appeared in “Much Ado About Nothing” with Northeast Stage, a theater company based in Greenport. The production toured several East End towns.

Ms. Allen said that while her career goal is to be a working actor — meaning she’s able to support herself through acting without a part-time job — her dream is to be on Broadway.

“That’s what I’m working toward,” she said. “The dream would definitely be to originate a role in a new show on Broadway. Being a part of creating a brand-new work would be a dream come true.”

A full list of “Fiddler on the Roof” tour dates can be found at fiddlermusical.com.

Photo caption: Danielle Allen performed in McGann-Mercy’s production of “Jekyll & Hyde” in 2012. (Dominick Chiuchiolo courtesy photo)

The post Aquebogue native to star in national tour of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Deborah E. Corwin of Florida, formerly of Aquebogue, died Sept. 25 at Stony Brook University Hospital. She was 67 years old.

Born in Greenport Oct. 28, 1950, to Leslie and Dolores (Podlas) Corwin, she graduated from Riverhead High School in 1968 before attending Ohio University and getting her master’s degree at Stony Brook University.

She worked as an art teacher with the Mattituck school district for over 30 years. Family members said she loved to travel.

She leaves behind three brothers, Philip (Dianne), Timothy (Cathy) and Leslie (Victoria); her sister, Florence; six nieces and nephews, Adam (Mindy), Timothy Jr. (Dana), Ashley (Chris), Melissa, Jonathan and Sarah; and two grand-nieces, Cassidy Lee and Zoey Alexa.

The family will receive visitors Friday, Sept. 28, from 4 to 8 p.m. at McLaughlin Heppner Funeral Home in Riverhead. A funeral service will take place Saturday, Sept. 29, at 11 a.m. at St. Isidore R.C. Church in Riverhead.

Memorial donations may be made to the Mattituck-Cutchogue Teachers Association Scholarship Fund.

This is a paid notice.

The post Deborah E. Corwin appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Susan Underwood Ruthinowski of Riverhead passed away suddenly Sept. 25, 2018.

She was born July 30, 1959, to Reg and Pat Underwood.

Sue was the proud owner of Guys and Dolls in Riverhead for 25 years. Upon her semi-retirement, she continued to make her clients beautiful at Karen’s Hair Styling of Riverhead.

Predeceased by her husband, Danny, in 2010 and her sister, Sharon Nowack, in 2005, Sue is survived by her parents’ siblings, Nancy Underwood, Lori (Joey) Pipczynski, Debbie Underwood, Reg (Connie)Underwood; her brother-in-law, Mike Nowack; nephews Joey (Suz) Pipczynski III and Justin Underwood; nieces Heather (Scott) Nowack, Alyssa (Dan) Manzella, Kalei Pipczynski, Kristina Rowe and Jessica Rowe; and one great-nephew, Cooper Pipczynski.

The family will receive visitors Friday, Sept. 28, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at Heppner-McLaughlin Funeral Home. The funeral Mass will take place Saturday, Sept. 29, at 9:30 a.m. at St Isidore R.C. Church in Riverhead. Burial will follow at the church cemetery.

This is a paid notice.

The post Susan Underwood Ruthinowski appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Genevieve Leskody of Cutchogue, formerly of Valley Stream, died at Peconic Landing in Greenport Sept. 25. She was 100 years old.

The family will receive visitors Sunday, Sept. 30, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Mattituck.

The Liturgy of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Monday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel R.C. Church in Mattituck.

Interment will follow at Sacred Heart R.C. Cemetery in Cutchogue.

Memorial donations to the North Fork Parish Outreach would be appreciated. Envelopes will be available at the funeral home.

A complete obituary will follow.

The post appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Southold Town accepted a bid Tuesday for an audiovisual improvement project that will include installation of higher quality microphones in the lobby and meeting room at Town Hall.

The bid, from Adwar Video of Farmingdale, came in at $51,650. The microphones will be mostly be wired instead of wireless, said Lloyd Reisenberg, assistant deputy emergency preparedness coordinator. The wired mics are more reliable and provide better sound quality, he said.

Councilwoman Jill Doherty expressed concern about how the new sound system will affect Channel 22, the local station that broadcasts town meetings, but Mr. Reisenberg said he has no control of anything that happens outside Town Hall.

“We can certainly make it better here, but once it gets into cable, it’s an unknown,” he said.

He added that the sound quality will definitely be improved in the meeting space and the hallway.

“I think that the ability to enhance the presentation of what goes on in this room, both audio and visual, is long overdue,” Councilman Bill Ruland said.

rsiford@timesreview.com

The post Town accepts bid for audiovisual improvement project appeared first on Suffolk Times.

A story is told of a man standing on Northeast coastland on Sept. 21, 1938, gazing puzzlingly at an unusual gray cloud formation over the Atlantic Ocean. Gradually he realized, to his undoubted horror, that he wasn’t staring at clouds at all, but at a tremendous wall of water.

It was coming his way in all its ferocity.

The Great Hurricane of 1938 was about to make landfall on the south shore of eastern Long Island, bringing with its unannounced visit unimaginable force, causing waves of devastation. Packing a fierce punch, with sustained winds in excess of 120 miles per hour and a peak storm surge of 17 feet above normal high tide, the swirling hurricane destroyed buildings, houses and other structures as wind, rain and sea joined forces. People and livestock were killed. Cars and boats were tossed about like toys. Trees were leveled like toothpicks. Power was knocked out.

Long Islanders had never seen anything like it before, nature’s version of shock and awe, the most powerful and deadliest storm in the region’s recorded history.

The hurricane, which marked its 80th anniversary Friday, had an impact that hasn’t been forgotten. Asked about that day many years later, a man interviewed by reporter/historian Everett Allen said, “That was when I stopped believing in God!”

On Long Island, the South Fork bore the brunt of the blow. After making landfall around 2:30 p.m., the Category 3 hurricane mixed with high tide during the equinox to make for the perfect storm, a storm that pummeled Long Island.

Some survivors on the south shore clung to rooftops that had blown off. Others who weren’t as fortunate drowned or were beaten to death by wreckage in the storm surge. A Westhampton Beach movie theater filled with customers was reportedly lifted off its foundation by the storm’s waves and carried out to sea, where it sank, drowning all inside. Montauk was temporarily an island.

The hurricane, roaring like a speeding train and making the destruction it caused soundless, whirled north. The North Fork didn’t experience the death toll that the South Fork did. Only one North Fork fatality was reported as a result of the hurricane, a minor miracle in itself. Emmett Young of Southold died after being thrown from the roof of a building.

Weather forecasters didn’t have the modern tools of today, so there was no advance warning of the hurricane. Those in its path didn’t know what hit them.

Jack Heaney of Greenport, 86, feels blessed he didn’t lose his life during the hurricane. Mr. Heaney was a second-grader at the time, and was allowed out of school to walk to his home in downtown Greenport when the eye of the storm crossed over the village. Before he could get home, though, winds kicked up again and Mr. Heaney found himself clinging to a chain-link fence for dear life until his older brother, James, saved him.

“My legs were blowing up and down,” he said. “It was something I’ll never forget.”

Nelson Vaz, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Center, said: “To experience a hurricane that would have 100- to 120-mile-per-hour sustained winds, that’s something most people have not experienced in a lifetime … It’s just something that for most people is going to be hard to comprehend.”

Because of ground softened by days of hard rain preceding the hurricane, trees were easily uprooted and flung aside like twigs. In a two-hour span, over 600 trees were uprooted. Greenport lost much of its green. “The beautiful, stately elm trees, which for years have been Greenport’s pride, are practically wiped out,” The Suffolk Times reported at the time.

When the eye of the storm passed over the area, Albertus Clark of Shelter Island looked at Hays Beach, where some of Shelter Island’s largest trees stood. “All you could see were stubs,” he told the Riverhead News-Review in 2008.

The late Paul Stoutenburgh was a Southold High School student at the time. “Our world had become a nightmare of rain, wind and uprooted trees,” he recalled in a “Focus on Nature” column he wrote for The Suffolk Times in 1991.

John Holzapfel delivered a presentation about the hurricane at Peconic Landing in Greenport on Saturday. In a video interview with Times Review Media Group’s Rachel Siford, he said: “The North Fork was on the right side of the hurricane and the right side of the hurricane is always much stronger — and especially with this hurricane because its forward speed was almost 70 miles per hour, so that adds to the speed of the wind, and together, that produced a lot more damage. The surge was a major, major destructive force in all of the waterfront properties and the docks, and a lot of boats were destroyed.”

Shirley Anderson of Mattituck, 88, attended the Peconic Landing event. She chuckled at the memory of running from fallen tree to fallen tree after the hurricane to bring eggs to a sickly friend. “The results of the hurricane, now we saw results all over the place and they were pretty bad,” she said. “And we had no idea that this was going to happen. It just, boom, it was there.”

The hurricane brought out some of the best in human nature. Among the heroes was Herman Ficken, manager of Greenport’s Metro Theatre. While some 60 patrons were watching a matinee, Mr. Ficken became concerned for their safety as the storm raged. He ordered them to file out of the theater just before it collapsed, The County Review reported.

Capt. Clarence Sherman of Shelter Island was a hero at sea. He skippered a ferry that departed Orient Point prior to 1 p.m., en route to New London, Conn. Halfway through the journey the steamer hit 125-mile-per-hour winds. A passenger on that ferry, Mrs. Edwin King, gave an account of the trip to The Suffolk Times. When crew members handed out life preservers, she said, “our hearts dropped as we felt that the end was near.”

However, Capt. Sherman guided the ship through rough waters until finally bringing it safely to shore in Groton, Conn., ending a 10-hour ordeal.

A child of the hurricane was born, as detailed in Mr. Allen’s book, “A Wind to Shake the World: The Story of the 1938 Hurricane.” Mrs. Joseph Gatz of Riverhead gave birth to a daughter at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport around the time the hospital’s roof blew off. Rain flooded the delivery room, but the attending physician reported the baby as being “healthy, vigorous, unaffected.”

The County Review reported that Old Steeple Church of Aquebogue “can no longer be called by that endearing name.” The steeple was laid low during the hurricane, as witnessed by Lettie Downs. The Aquebogue woman, in a 2008 interview with the Riverhead News-Review, said: “It gave me the strangest feeling when I saw the steeple come down. Things like that don’t happen, but it did.”

Some people must have wondered if the world was coming to an end.

Some 60 patrons were watching a matinee at Greenport’s Metro Theater when the manager, Herman Ficken, ordered everyone to leave just before the building collapsed. (Credit: Southold Historical Society)

Verne Campbell of Riverhead was a kindergartner at Pulaski Street School in 1938. Recollecting the event, she told a reporter: “I guess I felt like Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I was so frightened. The sky was gray and eerie and very terrifying.”

The noise was also memorable. Gertrude Reeves of Orient, a school bus driver at the time, told a reporter the wind was so loud she couldn’t hear the sounds of trees and poles falling.

The Southold Historical Society maintains oral histories of some who experienced the hurricane. John Stankewicz of Southold was one of them. “The 1938 hurricane, that was the worst,” he said.

Mr. Stankewicz, a seventh-grader in Peconic at the time, recalled what happened to his family’s two-car garage during the storm. “The car was in there, my father and brother were in the garage when the wind took that garage straight up in the air and threw it against the hill a hundred feet away from there, and my father and brother weren’t scratched,” he said. “My brother saw it coming and knocked my father down. I had a bicycle in there and it threw my bicycle in the pigpen.”

Ann Dixon of Southold survived a close call. She was in a friend’s car when a large branch fell on top of it. “So,” she said, “we got out of the car, went back into the school, turned around and looked out the door and there was a whole tree on the car.”

Pat Milford of Southold was 3 at the time of the hurricane, but heard an interesting tale from an older friend. Their school at that time did not have restrooms for boys, who used outhouses. While the hurricane raged, a teacher tried to reassure students, telling them: “Children, it’s just a little wind. Don’t worry about it.”

Just as she said that, all the outhouses blew down the street.

The archives reveal some amazing stories, like that of a man who had pulled himself onto a makeshift raft during the storm surge, only to discover it was covered by red ants that immediately swarmed all over him.

Another story tells of a Westhampton Beach man who, coincidentally, on the morning of Sept. 21 received in the mail a barometer he had ordered. Upset that the barometer gave what he thought was an incorrect reading for a hurricane, he went out to mail a letter to the manufacturer. Upon returning home, he discovered his house was gone.

After two hours over Long Island, the hurricane moved on, causing massive damage in New England before dissipating over southeastern Canada on Sept. 22.

On the quiet, calm morning of Sept. 22, Long Islanders could see in the light of day the full extent of the damage. In time, the rest of the country would learn what happened. The aftermath would have resembled an atomic blast to the survivors, had they known what an atom bomb was.

In her book, “The Great Hurricane: 1938,” Cherie Burns wrote: “Hardly a household or soul was untouched either by death, destruction, or trauma. Whole towns and those who lived in them were in shock.”

Mr. Holzapfel said, “After the hurricane, all the white houses were painted green, and they were painted green from the chlorophyll of the leaves just being blown apart.”

Incredibly, The Suffolk Times put out a paper the day after the hurricane, with the banner headline, “E.L.I. SWEPT BY TROPICAL HURRICANE.” The following day The Riverhead News came out with its lead story headlined, “TIDAL WAVE AT WESTHAMPTON BEACH; 13 BODIES ARE ALREADY RECOVERED.” Another headline below that read, “Many Scenes of Horror Are Almost Indescribable …”

Surviving black-and-white photos tell some of the story, but the statistics are mind-blowing. When it was over, 700 lives had been lost (about 60 on Long Island), about 63,000 people were left homeless, about 8,900 buildings were destroyed, some 3,300 boats were lost or damaged and approximately two billion trees were destroyed, according to the National Weather Service. The total monetary damage amounted to $620 million (about $11 billion in 2018 dollars). The hurricane changed the face of Long Island, creating new inlets, including the Shinnecock Inlet.

Prof. Scott Mandia, who teaches meteorology and climate change at Suffolk County Community College, said, “The psychological damage is hard to calculate.”

He said it’s not a question of if, but when a hurricane of that force or greater strikes Long Island in the future, calculating a 54 percent probability of that happening within the next 50 years.

“It’s a definite that we’re going to have one of those,” Mr. Mandia said in an interview following his presentation about the 1938 hurricane at the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library last Thursday evening. “What we don’t know is when. It could be tomorrow, it could be a hundred years, but as we keep warming the planet, we now increase the probability that this is going to happen. We’re loading the dice, putting the atmosphere on steroids, basically.”

Mr. Allen’s first day as a reporter for the New Bedford Standard-Times in Massachusetts was Sept. 21, 1938. He closed his book, “A Wind to Shake the World: The Story of the 1938 Hurricane,” by writing: “It was, in fact, one of the most thoroughly personal things I have ever experienced, and in one of the most thoroughly terrible ways. In twenty-four hours, I established a career and a direction in life. The price I had to pay for it was to watch the only world I had ever known well writhe in torment for the few moments required to destroy it.”

bliepa@timesreview.com

Photo caption: The front page of The Riverhead News tells the story two days after the 1938 hurricane struck.

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 XVI: Shelter Island’s place in Quaker history

Part XVII: 80 years ago, no one saw the Hurricane of 1938 coming

The post North Fork History Project: The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Mattituck Primary Care on Main Road held its grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony last week, even though it actually opened in March. 

The practice wanted to wait for Dr. Kerry Murphy to return from Iraq, where she’d been deployed with the 106th Rescue Wing out of Westhampton Beach just as the practice officially opened. 

She received a phone call March 15 with the devastating news that four fellow rescue wing members, including Tech. Sgt. Dashan Briggs of Riverhead, had been killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq. The caskets of her fallen brethren arrived March 27. Just three hours later, Dr. Murphy was deployed.

She has served as a flight surgeon in the New York Air National Guard for 17 years, where her main responsibilities include combat search and rescue, supporting missions and acting as a doctor to soldiers in the field.

“I’m glad I went [to Iraq],” Dr. Murphy said. “It was a good time to be with them.”

Her deployment lasted until June 11. Although she was away from Mattituck Primary Care during this time, she set up something much like a primary care center overseas. She was responsible for treating those with injuries and those who were sick.

“I had a beautiful, big huge tent, that was the cleanest place on the installation,” she said of her living situation in Iraq.

The title of flight surgeon can often be misleading, she explained. At the base in Westhampton Beach, she performs physicals for soldiers and is also required to fly with crews to learn about the stresses pilots experience. She is considered a “human system expert.”

Dr. Kerry Murphy. (Rachel Siford photo)

Her partner at Mattituck Primary Care, Dr. Katie Hough, stepped up to the plate and ran the practice in her absence. 

After Dr. Murphy’s duties ended, she spent four days at a Deployment Transition Center in Germany, decompressing and learning tools to transition back into civilian life.

Eager to get home to her husband and three children, she was also able to attend the ribbon-cutting, signaling the start of the next chapter in her life.

“The ribbon-cutting was really nice,” Dr. Murphy said. “I’m happy they waited for me to come back.”

Dr. Murphy grew up in Nassau County and moved to East Moriches with her family while working for the Air National Guard full time in 2006.

“We’re proud to have within our wing a physician like Kerry Murphy, who has honorably served our nation for so many years and also selflessly cares for those in local communities,” said Lt. Col. Curt Green, Dr. Murphy’s squadron commander. “She is an example of duty and devotion at its best.”

Dr. Murphy was a nurse for eight years before earning her medical degree, and was always interested in joining the military. During her residency, her husband recommended she join.

“It was funny because I didn’t really understand what my job position was going to be when the recruiter said, ‘Do you want to be a flight surgeon?’ I said sure,” Dr. Murphy said.

“It turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made,” she added. “I really enjoy working with them.”

Before starting her Mattituck practice, which is affiliated with New York University-Winthrop Hospital, she saw patients at a few other practices in Riverhead and Southold.

“I always wanted to be on the North Fork, and the opportunity presented itself to work with NYU Winthrop, and they’ve got a great reputation,” she said. “I grew up right up the road from Winthrop Hospital, so it’s like coming full circle.”

rsiford@timesreview.com

Photo caption: The ribbon cutting at the Mattituck Primary Care grand opening. 

The post Primary care doctor served in Iraq before treating local patients appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Listings prepared for Times Review Media Group by Suffolk Research Service, dated July 30-Aug. 5, 2018.

Brought to you by:

AQUEBOGUE (11931)

• Van Name, K & L to Byrne, Michael, 92 Colonial Dr (600-67-3-36), (R), $525,000

BAITING HOLLOW (11933)

• Manzi Homes East LLC to Suter, Christopher, 3 Mastro Ct in Old Orchard (600-80-2-2.19), (R), $489,900

• Keeney, C to Que, Agnes, 73 Kay Rd (600-115.1-1-44), (R), $239,000

CALVERTON (11933)

• Angelo, J to Ragone, Rose, 901 Bluffs Dr N (600-11.2-1-19), (R), $325,000

CUTCHOGUE (11935)

• Biggane, J & M to North Fork Haven LLC, p/o 8871 & 8865 Oregon Rd (1000-83-1-34.1), (R), $3,392,500

• Great Peconic LLC to Baker, Jonathan, 3015 Skunk Ln (1000-97-9-9), (R), $626,100

• Barry, R & J to 1855 Depot Lane LLC, 1855 Depot Ln (1000-102-1-9.1), (R), $1,330,000

• Godoff, H to Buchanan, Steve, 395 Meadow Ln (1000-116-2-21), (R), $642,500

EAST MARION (11939)

• Pantelias, K to Sutak, Benjamin, 2850 Rocky Point Rd (1000-31-2-2), (R), $510,000

FLANDERS (11901)

• Ramos III, E to Guzman, Felix, 100 Riverside Ave (900-143-1-55), (R), $345,350

MATTITUCK (11952)

• Brown, P & J & Gibson, D to McPhillips, Thomas, 3530 Westphalia Rd (1000-114-1-9), (R), $450,000

• Viviani, C to Perrone, Guy, 1825 Deep Hole Dr (1000-115-14-18), (R), $465,000

ORIENT (11957)

• Levy, R & Vilardi, R to Auriemma, Daniel, 280 Greenway E (1000-15-2-20), (R), $573,500

RIVERHEAD (11901)

• Raspino, N & G Trust to Delta Construction Group, 89 Sandy Ct (600-15-1-5), (R), $380,000

• Kijowski, K to Fisher, Virginia, 797 Reeves Ave (600-43-1-5), (R), $230,000

• Steilen, G by Executors to Walters, Tammy, 3305 Carnoustie Ct (600-64.2-1-35), (R), $307,000

• Kruk, D by Executor to LoRusso, Janice, 4101 St Andrews Ave (600-64.2-1-79), (R), $324,900

• Sweeney Jr, M to Mavra, Christopher, 114 Kings Dr (600-104-2-32), (R), $345,000

• RJT Realty Associates to Red Rose Speedway LLC, 1432 W Main St (600-119-2-12), (C), $635,000

• Lornan Realty Assocs to Red Rose Speedway LLC, 1414 W Main St (600-119-2-13), (C), $635,000

• Liso, D to Cabrera, Rafael, 250 Newton Ave (600-127-3-39), (R), $360,000

SHELTER ISLAND (11964)

• Harwood, N & M to 65 Peconic LLC, 65 Peconic Ave (700-25-1-29), (V), $670,000

SOUTHOLD (11971)

• Gamper, C & Eder, M to Kelly, Daniel, 2895 Wells Ave (1000-70-4-13), (R), $1,826,000

• Gallagher, D & R to Titus, Andrew, 3140 Minnehaha Blvd (1000-87-3-40), (R), $675,000

WADING RIVER (11792)

• Kaliabakos, P & A Trusts to Mercado, Kevin, 3 Oak St (600-33-5-58), (R), $253,000

• Villas at Roanoke to Achnitz III, William, 18 Wema Rd (600-33-6-15), (R), $363,000

(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.)

The post Real Estate Transfers: Sept. 27, 2018 appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Since Sabrina Basel wasn’t feeling too well, Mattituck/Southold/Greenport girls soccer coach Chris Golden started the senior defender at outside midfielder. Less than a minute into the match, Basel must have been feeling a whole lot better.

Just moments after the opening kickoff, Basel scored her first goal of the season, kick-starting MSG’s 7-1 throttling of Port Jefferson Thursday at Southold High School.

It was a big day for Basel, being Spirit Day and Senior Day for MSG’s seven seniors from Southold and Greenport.

“It was just like a buildup of a lot of hype, energy and it just felt really good,” said Basel.

Basel delighted the home crowd — and the MSG bench — with her quick strike, assisted by Claire Gatz.

“You couldn’t have scripted it any better,” Golden said. “I was thrilled to death for her.”

It was a sign that it would be MSG’s day.

Basel said her goal came so early in the game that it felt unreal. “It didn’t feel like it actually went in,” she said. “Then I was like, ‘Oh my God, it actually went in the goal.’ Yeah, it was exciting.”

And witnessed by Basel’s parents, Joline and Michael.

The Basels participated in the pregame Senior Day ceremony along with Southold’s Marie Mullen, Rosie Mollica, Caitria Demeroto, Sam Dunne and Krissy Woreysz along with Greenport’s Jillian Golden.

Goal scoring, which had been a problem for MSG (3-6 overall and in Suffolk County Division II), no longer seems to be a worry. MSG had managed only two goals in its first six games (all losses, five by shutout). The team has knocked in 16 goals in its last three games — all wins.

Part of the explanation for that is the schedule, which has become more forgiving after a brutal start in which five of Class B MSG’s first six opponents were Class A teams.

“Scoring was an issue at the beginning of the season, but I think now we finally connected with our chemistry,” Basel said. “Now that we’re playing teams that are more on our level, I think we’re playing smarter and now we realize that we can beat these teams.”

MSG snapped the dreadful losing streak with a 7-0 thumping of Amityville Monday and then pulled out a 2-1 triumph over Southampton Wednesday, with Lauren Zuhoski scoring off a Maggie Bruer corner kick with 51 seconds to go.

Stuff like that is bound to build confidence, which is what Golden said his team needs most.

“It’s tough to start the season 0 and 6,” he said. “Despite everything you do to keep spirits high and keep their confidence up, still at the end of the day we were 0 and 6, and we were kind of beaten up a little bit.”

Notably, MSG has won these three games and scored those 16 goals without the services of senior forward Jillian Golden, who is out indefinitely with a broken right wrist. Golden led Long Island last season with 33 goals in addition to picking up 16 assists.

But scoring wasn’t an issue Thursday. Nikki Searles bagged her first two goals of the season. Kaitlin Tobin, Francesca Vasile-Cozzo, Gatz and Amber Rochon also found the net. Zuhoski had two assists, with assists also coming from Halle Foster, Searles, Madison Schmidt and Dunne.

MSG nearly had more goals, but Zuhoski struck a shot off the crossbar, Rochon sent a close-range attempt off the goalpost and Tobin hit a post herself.

Sarah Santacroce made five saves and was denied a shutout when Hailey Hearney deposited a late penalty kick for Port Jefferson (3-8, 3-7).

“I think … we have a lot of talent, so we have a lot to work with,” Zuhoski said. “We got to know each other better on the field. We just needed the confidence of the first win to get the other wins.”

The top four Class B teams in Division II will make the playoffs, and MSG has done itself a world of good with a 2-1 record against Class B teams (Port Jefferson being one of them). Another Class B team, Hampton Bays, remains on the schedule.

“This really pretty much put us in the B playoffs,” Chris Golden said. “It’s great to see the kids smiling and the kids feeling good about themselves.”

One of those smiles was on Basel’s face.

“It did feel like a special day for me just because it was Spirit Day at school and it was Senior Game and homecoming on the turf, so it was just like there’s so many things that made it special. Definitely one to remember.”

And to feel good about.

bliepa@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Mattituck/Southold/Greenport senior midfielder Rosie Mollica attempts a shot during her team’s 7-1 defeat of Port Jefferson (Credit: Bob Liepa)

The post Girls Soccer: MSG lifts spirits with third straight win appeared first on Suffolk Times.

A public hearing will be held Tuesday, Oct. 23, on a proposed revision of the town’s rental permit law.

The law would require owners of rental properties to obtain a permit, adhere to property maintenance guidelines and allow inspections of the property. Rental permit laws have brought crowds of concerned property owners to previous public hearings throughout the past year.

“At this point, it’s bare bones,” Ms. Doherty said. “I don’t think it’s evasive to the general public.”

She said the law is necessary to ensure that the town is able to follow up on complaints, because it is currently unable to inspect residential structures.

“We had plenty of public input, certainly at the public hearings,” Supervisor Scott Russell said. “A lot of issues were raised. All of those concerns, and I mean all of them, besides one or two unreasonable ones, have been addressed and this is as streamlined as you’re going to get. It’s as straightforward as you’re going to get.”

A copy of the proposed law should be available to view on the town’s website.

Ms. Doherty said people do not have to wait until the public hearing to ask her any questions.

The post Hearing set for proposed revision of the town’s rental permit law appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Soccer has always been in Andrew Sadowski’s blood.

Even before he kicked a ball at the age of 5, the Southold High School boys soccer coach already had been influenced. His father played at Farmingdale State back in the day. A cousin of his grandmother’s performed for Birmingham in England.

So, it seemed only natural that Sadowski started participating in the beautiful game as a 5-year-old for the Glen Cove Soccer Club in the soccer-crazed community on the north shore of Nassau County.

“It was just in the blood, I guess,” he said in a recent interview. “As I got older I enjoyed it because it was fast-paced, it was a contact sport. Back in the day, club soccer was played just in the spring time. Baseball was just too much standing around kind of stuff. Tremendous amount of skill obviously to play baseball, but I liked the challenge of using your body and your feet, do something that is rather difficult.”

Then Sadowski had an intriguing thought.

“I’ve been involved in the sport for almost 50 years,” he said. “How crazy is that? That’s a crazy thought.”

Not so crazy, given what the 54-year-old Sadowski has accomplished in his career.

As dean of all Suffolk County coaches in his 25th year at the helm of the Southold program, Sadowski has produced a 281-131-21 record. Those wins rank him third among active coaches and ninth overall on the all-time list in a county sport that goes back to the 1920s.

“Though Andrew’s career statistics are significant, he is not a coach of numbers — stats,” said junior varsity coach Lucas Grigonis, who played for Sadowski from 2001-2004. “He is much more concerned of the culture of the program, the moral, respect and idea of the attitude and approach to being a part of something greater than yourself.”

Grigonis, the unofficial historian of the Southold boys soccer program, has gotten to know Sadowski as well as anyone has on the soccer end. Sadowski can be demanding of his players.

“He’s the hard-nosed coach, demanding of players [which] comes with the territory,” he said. “The mindset is that you have to work for what you want to get. You have to earn it. There’s no other way to do it than to give it your all, basically. In terms of soccer, that being mental and physical alike, that’s why he has always been such a driving force.”

To appreciate Sadowski’s accomplishments, consider that not many coaches last that long in one coaching position these days — soccer or otherwise. Several Suffolk boys soccer programs have gone through 10 or 11 head coaches in the last quarter-century.

“I see it as a challenge each season to build and develop a team that is competitive as the prior team and to continuously work to even be better,” he said. “Certainly, coaching has changed. The mindset of kids has changed, not only in Southold, but everywhere. I enjoy the sport. This is what I do. I am a fan, I watch. I look forward to watching and suffering through Tottenham Hotspur games. Looking forward to when the [New York] Cosmos really do come back and try to find another home team to root for where I don’t have to travel to New Jersey or to Yankee Stadium, which I am not doing any more. I never thought of it how long I was going to do it. I guess now I am hitting the 25-year mark. How much longer do I want to do it? I’m not ever going to give up being a soccer fan, that’s for sure. I still enjoy working with the boys. I enjoy talking the game with the boys. I’ve been really blessed with having several of my students that have come back and wanted to coach in the program.”

Sadowski’s success has not gone unnoticed by his coaching colleagues and rivals.

Southold coach Andrew Sadowski, right, with his former player and assistant coach Lucas Grigonis at a practice in 2014. (Credit: Garret Meade, file)

“Andy brings the best out of the kids,” said Mattituck coach Will Hayes, who has played and coached against Sadowski. “Regardless of who the kids are, Andy brings the best out of his kids. That’s stuff they’ll take with them for the rest of their lives. Regardless of the wins and championship and everything else, from my opinion, the thing he can be most proud of is that his kids respect him. What he teaches them goes far beyond just the field. It’s truly very amazing.”

Ditto for Center Moriches coach Chris O’Brien, who helped establish Southold’s winning tradition along with his brothers in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“Andrew always gets the most out of the talent he has on hand,” he said. “As an opposing coach, we always knew we’d be in for a high intensity match when we played his Settlers. Many of his former players have gone on to have great collegiate careers, which is a true testament to his level of coaching.”

Southold has storied soccer tradition, although its debut was hardly an auspicious one under Dick Osmer, who had taken the helm of the varsity basketball team a year prior. The First Settlers fielded a team for the first time in 1956. They did not win or tie a game or celebrate a goal until the 1958 season, when Wendell Mealy had the honors of scoring. They did not celebrate a win until 1959, recording a 4-3-3 mark.

The Settlers’ best moments came during the late 1970s and early 1980s when they dominated Class C and Class D schools en route to an incredible six state championships in seven years (1979-1981, 1983-1985).

Southold has won 21 county championships, reaching the Suffolk final 34 times. The school has produced 20 league titles and 10 runner-up finishes.

“The numbers speak for themselves, but the real stories are the blue-collar work ethic, win-at-all-costs attitude, and David vs. Goliath mentality where year after year, the First Settlers proved that the size of the school does not judge the weight of heart,” Grigonis said.

SUFFOLK COUNTY COACHING LEADERS

1. Robert Muir, Mattituck | 509

2. Howie Heckman, Center Moriches | 381

3. John Eden, North Babylon | 366

4. John Ruffini, Hauppauge | 362

5. Ron Eden, Brentwood | 354*

6. Frank Schmidt, Sachem, Sachem North | 345

7. Sebe DiRubba, Commack | 332

8. Val Winter, Sayville | 295*

9. Andrew Sadowski, Southold | 281*

10. Neil Stam, Centereach | 276

*Active coach

Records include games through Monday

A graduate of Marist College majoring in history and minoring in political science, Sadowski went to work as a legal assistant in two large firms in New York City before venturing into teaching and working for the NYC Board of Education. He taught in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn for five years before he was hired by Southold.

When Sadowski took over the team’s reins on July 1, 1994, only months after accepting a position as a history and economics teacher at the high school, he had modest goals at the time.

“The goal was to continue to be competitive,” he said. “That’s really what the first goal was. Obviously, being from Nassau County, I didn’t know much about Southold soccer especially. I knew that they had some very good high school teams when I was playing at Marist College. We had one player from Southold, one even from Shelter Island that tried out for our team. I also knew they had been winning small school state championships as well. So I knew about the history of it. When I was hired my concern was to continue my development as a classroom teacher and continue my enthusiasm for that out onto the pitch.”

Which he did and then some.

The 2013 Southold boys soccer team, led by Ryan DiGregorio (4), Drew Sacher (8) and Zachary Ellis (18), prepared to take on Friends Academy in the Class C Long Island title. (Credit: Garret Meade, file)

During Sadowski’s tenure, Southold has won 10 league and county titles, missing the playoffs but once in 1995. He has accomplished so much. Yet, one honor has eluded Sadowski at Southold — a state championship.

“It’s been one of the most frustrating things,” he said. “When I reflect back on how many talented players I had, how many talented teams I had, it’s so hard to win. When Southold made their run in the late ’70s and ’80s, soccer was at its growing stage. I kind of wish I had more of a sense of what Coach Osmer had done and why he got so interested in it as well. And then what happened, in a lot of areas, soccer around Suffolk County got better and better. Nassau County got better, and the rest of the state got better. The game continued to grow. I don’t think it was because we got worse. I just think the quality of the competition is just so high now, at every school-size level that it’s very, very hard to win that state title.”

Despite Sadowski’s impressive record, he admitted it was difficult to pick out one game, although one encounter is memorable for several reasons — the 2001 Class D state semifinal against Parishville/Hopkinton in upstate Bath.

“They were at the time 21-0 or 22-0,” Sadowski said. “The scouting report that we had was that they were big, they were strong. Holy cow. We walked on the field for warmups and they must have had six guys, seven guys 6 foot or bigger. I just looked at them and I was like Holy Moley!”

Southold played its usual hard-nosed game. One of the Settlers’ top players, Brian Mosblech, collided with an opposing defender and had convulsions. Mosblech went to the hospital. After a Southold player was fouled near the top of the penalty area in overtime, Ken Heidtman fired the ensuing free kick into the wall. The ball bounced back to him and he pushed the ball around the wall to the left side and drilled it into the net for a 1-0 sudden-death victory.

“That was just really one of those games where the guys lost one of the go-to players and they just persevered and just pushed through,” Sadowski said. Unfortunately, he wasn’t permitted to play again for health reasons and we were half a step behind in the final. … That semifinal was one of those moments that stand out of how the boys really learned about what teamwork was and playing together as a team.”

In the final, Southold lost to Manlius-Pebble Hill (Syracuse), 1-0.

SOUTHOLD’S COACHING HISTORY

Andrew Sadowski | 1994-2018 (277-128-21)

Eddie Greco | 1993 (14-1)

Craig Osmer | 1986-92 (78-39-8)

Bob Feger | 1984-85 (40-6-1)

Gene Maiorana | 1981-83 (48-10-4)

Dick Osmer | 1956-70, 1973-75, 1977-80 (135-93-8)

Joel Volinski | 1956-70 (14-1-7)

Records entering the current season.

Southold did not field a team in 1976.

Source: Suffolk County Boys Soccer Coaches Association

Being an assistant for the past nine years, Grigonis has seen another side of Sadowski.

“Really the first words that strikes me when I think of Andrew, he’s a family man,” he said. “He’s deeply dedicated to his family.

“If you actually know him, he can be a very nice, generous, sweet guy,” Grigonis added with a chuckle, “which obviously no one gets to know him that well.”

Southold Coach Andrew Sadowski spoke to his players during halftime of his 200th career win in 2011 in Bayport. (Credit: Garret Meade, file)

Sadowski’s daily 110-mile round trip to the North Fork from his Commack home allows him to plan his day or reflect on what transpired on the field or in the classroom.

“I definitely use it as a time to go through my day, analyze myself and the kind of things we need to work on as a team or what I need to work on to improve as a coach and as a teacher,” he said.

Sadowski has been married to Rosie for 30 years. He has three children — Emma, 26, Abigail, 23, and Jacob, 20. Abigail and Jacob have been fighting cystic fibrosis for years. Not surprisingly, they all played in the Long Island Junior Soccer League. Jacob is an outside midfielder for the Butler University club soccer team.

“He’s got a left foot that I wish I was born with,” Sadowski said.

Four years ago, the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted Jacob a wish. He wanted to see “real football,” Sadowski said, and the Sadowski family were guests of his beloved Tottenham Hotspur at legendary White Hart Lane against Stoke City in the director’s box in London.

“The other thing that was really exciting about it was that we had a whole itinerary of what we were not permitted to wear because we were invited,” Sadowski said. “One of the big surprises was that we were not told where our seats were. We were there for lunch, hors d’oeuvres, meet and greet former players, the whole nine yards.”

It will be back to reality come Saturday when Southold hosts Mattituck in its homecoming game on its new artificial turf field.

Through Tuesday’s games, the First Settlers were 4-3 overall and 4-2 in League VII.

Sadowski’s teams traditionally start slow and finish fast.

“That’s why you do it,” he said. “That’s why you work with kids, so that when you get those moments, when you see that growth and development, you see how they really appreciate the hard work that everybody puts in, that we can be better, be competitive, [go] as far as we can go.

“It’s no real different than in the classroom when the kids finally get the concept that you’re working on or understand that particular piece of history that we’re studying. Football’s the same way.”

Sadowski hopes for his team to repeat its traditional late-season surge this October and perhaps November.

“The issue with any team is trying to find a consistent level of play,” he said. “We’ve had some really super games that I thought we played outstanding and then we’ve had other games in between, ‘Oh, what happened?’ We just finished the game prior playing so well. We’re trying to find our comfort zone as a team, trying to understand what 100 percent work ethic individually and as a team looks like. We’re getting there, and really we’re really looking to find that consistency.”

The passion is still there. The desire to teach and coach and push for excellence is still there. Retirement? That’s not in Sadowski’s plans any time soon.

“I’ll let you know when I figure that out,” he said. “Right now, I don’t see myself going anywhere. Not for a while.”

One reason is because soccer is in Andrew Sadowski’s blood.

Top photo caption: Andrew Sadowski, in his 25th year as Southold’s coach, shows off his soccer skills during a recent practice. (Credit: Garret Meade)

The post Boys Soccer: Sadowski’s the name, soccer’s his game appeared first on Suffolk Times.

Public service runs deep in Brian Mealy’s blood.

The born-and-bred Mattituck resident serves on the Mattituck-Cutchogue Board of Education, the Eastern Suffolk BOCES board and Peconic Green Growth, mentors young people and tutors ESL through Literacy Suffolk.

That’s all on top of working as a clerk at Floyd Memorial Library and Peconic Landing in Greenport.

Mr. Mealy’s leadership in the community and efforts to promote diversity and inclusiveness in Southold Town has led the Anti-Bias Task Force to choose him as the 2018 recipient of the Helen Wright Prince Award.

“Brian is a true leader and role model,” ABTF co-chair Sonia Spar said in an interview Monday. “He really is someone who walks the walk. He makes our community better in every aspect, from the environment to education.”

After his election to the school board in 2016, Mr. Mealy helped reinstate its culture and diversity committee, which he now chairs. He said demographics at Mattituck High School have shifted since he graduated in 1995, when there were few Latino students. NYSED data shows that by 2017, Latinos accounted for 12 percent of the school’s student body. Working with the ABTF, Mr. Mealy has helped bring programs into Mattituck schools that promote welcoming environments and diversity.

“Even if we never make any systemic change, the fact that kids have a safe place to talk about their experiences is a positive thing,” he said.

He said that the district partnering with the ABTF sets an example for other school districts. “It’s important in terms of how we treat women, how we treat people of color. Do we treat people fairly? Is there intrinsic bias? Are we aware of it? I’m tickled that we’re having those conversations,” he said.

Environmental issues are also important to Mr. Mealy, who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the golden nematode program to study local crop damage. He presently serves on the board of Peconic Green Growth, a local organization dedicated to environmental protection and water quality.

“He’s young, but he’s an amazing person,” said task force member LeRoy Heyliger, adding that Mr. Mealy takes after his late parents, Otha and Dorothy. 

“Because of my parents, I grew up being involved in the community,” Mr. Mealy said, recalling that his parents were involved with the ABTF, Community Action Southold Town and the Riverhead Salvation Army, among other local organizations, and that many family traditions, like distributing meals during the holidays, centered on community service.

The award was created in 2015 to posthumously honor Helen Wright Prince, who taught at the school that opened in 1949 at a migrant labor camp on Cox Lane in Cutchogue.

Mr. Mealy learned of his selection at work last week when Ms. Spar hand-delivered the news in a letter. “I thought it was a speeding ticket,” he said, laughing. “I opened it and just didn’t know what to say.”

Mr. Mealy sees Ms. Prince as an inspiration and is awed by how much she accomplished with limited resources. “It makes me want to redouble my efforts, to be a good community member, to be a conduit of people helping one another,” he said.

While discussing his accomplishments, Mr. Mealy acknowledged another hero, Martin Luther King Jr., and the concept of the “beloved community,” one of the tenets of Dr. King’s philosophy. “To me, it takes work to maintain [the beloved community.] Citizens should be involved politically, socially or just helping a neighbor. I want to get busy doing that work,” he said.

Mr. Mealy, who wears a blue ABTF ribbon every day, described his selection for the award as both joyful and sobering. “I’ve had great opportunities, and now I want to create opportunities for others,” he said.

An award ceremony will be held Thursday, Oct. 4, at 6 p.m. at Peconic Landing in Greenport. The event will feature keynote speaker Dr. Georgette Grier-Key and an art exhibit displaying the work of local elementary students.

tsmith@timesreview.com

Photo caption: Brian Mealy of Mattituck is the fourth recipient of the Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force’s Helen Wright Prince Award. (Rachel Siford photo)

The post Mattituck resident to be honored by Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force appeared first on Suffolk Times.