Long Island briefs

BABYLONTown airs meetings

on Cablevision

Babylon Town has begun broadcasting town board meetings on Cablevision's Government Access channel.

The town was the last in Suffolk County to broadcast or stream its meetings over the Internet, a practice also being adopted by some Nassau municipalities.

"Not everyone has the time to come down to town hall every time there's a board meeting," said Babylon Town spokesman Kevin Bonner, who said the town had focused last year on revamping its website and building a Facebook page.

"It's meant to increase transparency and increase accessibility," he said.

Most Babylon Town Board meetings are held during the day, and attendance rarely tops a few dozen.

The town is in talks to live-stream meetings or upload video onto its website, Bonner said.

For the broadcast, which is free to the town, town employees will add titles and fade-ins but will not otherwise edit the footage before dropping it off at Cablevision for broadcast, generally within two days after a meeting.

Each meeting will replay until it is replaced on Cablevision Channel 18, according to the following schedule: Saturdays at 10 p.m., Sundays at 8 a.m., Mondays at 5 p.m., Tuesdays at 8 a.m. and Thursdays at 1 p.m.

Cablevision owns Newsday.

HEMPSTEAD VILLAGESchool district plans

'hero/heroine' event

Hempstead school district officials will host the Hero/Heroine Program Friday to honor students, staff and community members as part of the district's African-American History and Women's History celebrations.

The free event, open to the public, is scheduled for 6 p.m. in Hempstead High School's auditorium, at 201 President St. The affair is expected to feature a red carpet, staff in black tie and gowns, and entertainment by students.

Among the honorees are school board vice president JoAnn Simmons; Front School Principal Richard Brown; high school Principal Reginald Stroughn; parent Antonia Williams-Guerra; community members Luther and Jean Ponders; community member Christine McDowell, a volunteer for about 20 years at the A. Holly Patterson Nursing Home; Army Sgt. 1st Class James Merritte; bilingual social studies teacher Carmen Zubietta; teacher Wendy Husbaun; teacher Sandra Murphy; Nassau County Judge Joy Watson; and teaching assistant Lenroy Raffington, who works with the girls track team.

A posthumous award will be received on behalf of former school safety employee Geraldine Seymour, who worked for the district for 25 years.

FREEPORT

Tours to South Shore

storm project sites

Operation SPLASH is hosting a brunch, boat and bus tours to see the proposed sites of a project to make Nassau County's South Shore more storm-resilient after superstorm Sandy.

"The Storm and the Norm" event will be held Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Operation SPLASH headquarters, on 202 Woodcleft Ave. in Freeport. The event is free, but tickets are required. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.

Interboro Partners, a Brooklyn-based architecture and urban design firm, assembled a team of international experts to craft ideas on how to address flooding threats from nor'easters, storm surges and stormwater runoff.

Interboro's project is called "Living with the Bay: Resiliency-Building Options for Nassau County's South Shore."

The firm is one of 10 design teams from Sandy-affected areas in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the federally funded "Rebuild by Design" program, initiated by President Barack Obama's Hurricane Sandy Task Force and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

On April 3, the plans will be evaluated by a competition jury to identify projects that may get HUD disaster recovery funds.

Interboro proposes to mitigate the damage from storm surges by deploying protective measures such as constructed marshes and dikes, manage stormwater to mitigate damage from rain events and improve water quality in the bay, as well as expand housing options in high and dry areas near public transportation.

For information, call 516-779-1312 or visit www.eventbrite.com and search for "The Storm & the Norm."

HEMPSTEAD/

OYSTER BAYExpressway lanes

to close for paving

Some travel lanes of the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway in the towns of Hempstead and Oyster Bay will be closed weekdays to accommodate paving and median work that started this week.

The lanes will close from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., the state Department of Transportation said.

For about 12 weeks, lanes between Merrick Road and Hempstead Turnpike could be closed in one or both directions, northbound and/or southbound, depending on the work being done, said Eileen Peters, DOT's spokeswoman on Long Island.

The detour for northbound travelers will be to Hicksville Road (Route 107) at all east/west roadways, then back to the expressway at Hempstead Turnpike, the DOT said. And southbound travelers will be directed to Hempstead Turnpike to Hicksville Road at all east/west roadways.

ALBERTSONIraq War vet, actor

meets students

Fifth-grader Michael Consenza doesn't speak, but using a special communication device he was able to deliver a message to J.R. Martinez on Wednesday morning, when the "Dancing With the Stars" champion visited the Henry Viscardi School in Albertson.

"I like you, J.R.," Michael told the actor and Iraq War veteran through the automated voice generated by the machine after the 12-year-old Brooklyn boy typed out the message using a tablet.

"I like you, too," Martinez, 30, said as he leaned over Michael's wheelchair and hugged the boy.

The former "All My Children" soap star, who won the "DWTS" season 13 mirror ball trophy, spent more than two hours visiting with students at Viscardi, which services nearly 200 students from pre-K to grade 12 who have severe physical disabilities.

He joked with students, answered their questions, posed for photos -- including several selfies -- and purchased a candy bar from a 12th-grader who was raising funds for his senior class trip to Washington, D.C. Martinez even let a fourth-grader run his hand across his scarred face when the curious child questioned what had happened to him.

In 2003, while serving in Iraq, Martinez, then 19, suffered burns over 34 percent of his body when the Humvee he was driving ran over a roadside bomb. He spoke of how he was trapped inside the burning vehicle for five minutes.

After years of treatment, 34 surgeries and rehabilitation, Martinez said he not only regained his abilities, he learned "there is no such thing as a disability."

He told the students that although they may do things differently than other people, "you have nothing but ability."

OCEANSIDESisters deliver babies

in hospital together

Christina Santos-Santiago said she and older sister Michelle Clarke have always done everything together.

"It doesn't have to be anything big," Santos-Santiago said.

Last Friday, they did something kind of big together.

They both gave birth.

The sisters delivered children via cesarean section at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside. Santos-Santiago, 27, delivered Nicolas at 11:40 a.m., and Clarke, 29, gave birth to Savannah at 1:29 p.m.

Since the sisters' due dates aligned and they knew they would be delivering via C-section, they decided to have their special day together. Clarke said they approached their physician, Dr. Ira Bachman, about the idea, and he was all in.

Both sisters were already moms. Santos-Santiago, of Far Rockaway, has sons Jovanni, who turns 4 on Monday, and Dylan, 2. Clarke, of Fresh Meadows, has a 5-year-old son, Jacob.

But Clarke said that spending time together before her sister went in to have baby No. 1 of the day was still important.

"She was about to go through the same thing," Clarke said. "That made me feel more at ease."

The hospital put Santos-Santiago and Clarke in adjacent maternity ward rooms, making life easier for their mom and husbands.

While the new mothers were a little immobile Friday post-delivery, they managed to maintain their inseparable bond.

"We were FaceTime-ING," said Clarke, who added that Santos-Santiago could hear her new niece from close by and messaged: "Why is Savannah crying?"ISLAND PARKSandy victims plan

solidarity march

The citizens group Sandy Victims Fighting FEMA will hold a "Walk a Mile in Our Shoes -- Hurricane Sandy Relief" solidarity walk in Island Park Saturday to mark 17 months since superstorm Sandy struck Long Island.

The group plans to gather outside Island Park Village Hall, at 127 Long Beach Rd., at 10 a.m. to walk to the Long Beach boardwalk.

Similar events are scheduled Saturday in New Dorp and Midland beaches on Staten Island.

The main message of the event is that many people whose homes were devastated by Sandy still are homeless with a mortgage and in some cases haven't received federal or state aid.

In January 2013, about 250 people trudged a mile in Island Park in a protest aimed at calling on Congress to approve more federal dollars for local superstorm Sandy relief.

ISLANDWIDETax consultation

for Sandy victims

A free tax consultation is being offered from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday in Nassau and Suffolk counties for those affected by superstorm Sandy.

The Nassau clinic is being held at the Freeport/Roosevelt Economic Opportunity Commission office at 281 Babylon Tpke. in Roosevelt; Suffolk's, at the Babylon Public Library at 24 South Carll Ave.

The clinics, with experienced accountants and attorneys, are being sponsored by the EOC of Nassau County, supported by the Long Island Volunteer Center, as part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's collaborative disaster response and preparedness initiative.

To register for a clinic, contact Patricia Telfort at 516-246-1800.

SOUTHAMPTONTown officials plan

farmers market

With no supermarkets or large grocery stores to serve the communities of Flanders, Riverside and Northampton in the northwestern part of Southampton Town, officials plan to operate a summer community farmers market later this year at the town's David W. Crohan Community Center on Flanders Road.

The times the youth-run program will operate have not been set, but Southampton Town officials have received permission from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets to accept food stamps, WIC (women, infants, children) funds and senior farmers market nutrition program checks at the market.

Town officials say a quarter of the families with children in the area fall below the poverty line.

NEW CASSEL

Enroll for health care

at Sunday event

Residents can enroll for health care services Sunday at an event in New Cassel.

Nassau Legis. Siela A. Bynoe (D-Westbury) is sponsoring an Affordable Care Act enrollment drive from 1 to 6 p.m., in partnership with Planned Parenthood of Nassau County.

The event, at the Yes We Can Community Center, 141 Garden St. in New Cassel, is free and open to the public.

Those who attend can ask questions about health care coverage and meet with a trained navigator, fluent in Spanish and Creole, to enroll.

It is part of a national effort to provide eligible, uninsured members of the community with the information and support needed to enroll in new, affordable health insurance plans.

The enrollment deadline is Monday. Residents can ask questions by calling 516-750-2560.