Bid to honor late Suffolk lawmaker by naming preserve

Suffolk Legis. Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket) is proposing to create a nature preserve memorial honoring Nora Bredes, the former lawmaker and leading foe of the never-opened Shoreham nuclear plant, who died last month.

Viloria-Fisher said she will file the measure shortly but it cannot be acted on immediately because county law bars consideration of naming county sites until at least six months after a person’s death.

The lawmaker wants to create the preserve which is part of the county-owned 43-acre Forsythe Meadow in Stony Brook, which was Viloria-Fisher’s first land acquisition as a legislator, but a property Bredes long championed before she left office to move upstate.

“Many people describe it as the last forest in Stony Brook,” said Viloria Fisher.

An upstate memorial service for Bredes, who died of breast cancer at age 60, is planned for Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. at the sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, 220 Winton Road South. A local memorial service for Bredes is also in the works, but no date has yet been set.

Viloria-Fisher is also putting together a team of walkers to honor Bredes at the Oct. 2 Walk for Beauty in Stony Brook, Long Island’s first breast cancer walk, now in its 18th year.