Controversial Lake Ronkonkoma fireworks show, already rescheduled and moved, now canceled

A post-Memorial Day fireworks show planned for Saturday over Lake Ronkonkoma has been canceled after the display ignited political fireworks over concerns the pyrotechnics would affect nesting bald eagles.

Suffolk County Legis. Trish Bergin (R-East Islip), who had organized the event, announced the cancellation Tuesday in a news release. She cited an Islip Town law barring the use of motorboats and propeller-driven vessels on the environmentally sensitive lake. 

"As a result, the fireworks barge has no permitted means of reaching the designated launch location on the lake," her office said in the news release. "This difficult decision was made after exhausting all available options to move forward with the event."

Bergin's release added organizers were "deeply disappointed that the community will not be able to gather for this year’s tribute."

In a statement, Islip officials said they had not issued a permit for the fireworks, adding, "nor can we as it is in violation of town code." 

Controversy over the show, dubbed "Salute to Our Fallen," appeared to pit a museum honoring a local hero, the late Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a Medal of Honor recipient from Patchogue, against another American icon, the bald eagle.

Flyers advertising the fireworks listed the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Navy SEAL Museum in West Sayville as a presenter. 

But the museum's founder, Murphy's father, Daniel Murphy, said Tuesday that while he had lent his son's name to the event, the museum otherwise had no role in planning the fireworks.

"It has nothing to do with us. At all,” Murphy said in a telephone interview. “I don’t have a reaction or a comment one way or the other.”

The younger Murphy was killed in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005, during a mission near the Pakistan border. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2007.

A Brookhaven Town park bearing Murphy's name is located along Lake Ronkonkoma, where he trained before joining the Navy SEALs.

Rescheduled after earlier objections

The fireworks display already had been rescheduled from its original date on Memorial Day weekend and its location moved after veterans and history groups raised objections.

The show was to have taken place this past Saturday but was moved to this weekend when the Lake Ronkonkoma American Legion post and others said fireworks should not be used to mark Memorial Day, which they view as a weekend of quiet contemplation.

Critics also said the site from which fireworks were to have been launched was too close to eagles' nests.

Organizers had agreed to move the launch pad from land to the water before the event was canceled, officials said.

“Originally, my concern was it was being done on Memorial Day weekend,” said Vietnam veteran Fred Tartaglione, commander of American Legion Post 155 in Lake Ronkonkoma. He said those concerns were allayed when organizers agreed to change the date.

But he still had concerns because of potential harm to eagles and other wildlife.

“We finally have bald eagles now creating nests and breeding there," Tartaglione said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "There’s been a big history of trying to make the lake clean, and the problem is this [the fireworks] would go against all that.”

John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island, said the fireworks cancellation "reflects true environmental leadership and respect for Memorial Day."

Ellyn Okvist, president of the Lake Ronkonkoma Heritage Organization, said the history group favored protecting the national bird.

“We’ve given them [organizers] three other locations right in town, just not over the lake,” Okvist said Tuesday in a phone interview. “We finally have progress. We have eagles staying here.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.