Long Island briefs

SOUTH FARMINGDALEPark expansion plan

requires rezoning

The Oyster Bay Town board has scheduled a hearing at 10 a.m. Dec. 17 on a proposed change of zone for two Heisser Lane properties acquired by the town for expansion of Ellsworth Allen Park.

The properties at 53 and 57 Heisser Lane are in a light industrial zone, and the board proposes to rezone them for recreational use.

One property contains a dilapidated shed where landscaping vehicles were stored and the other a single-family house.

The park, which had 16 developed acres, is getting an additional 21.5 acres of facilities.

On the eastern end of the park that is now vacant land will be four ballfields with a storage facility in the middle and one small ballfield near Motor Avenue. In the middle of the complex will be the new 18,000-square-foot community center.

In the northwest corner of the park, two multipurpose fields are to be constructed. In the southwest corner of the park, a roller hockey rink, handball courts, basketball courts, a spray pool and two playgrounds will be built around an existing community building.

A walking and jogging exercise path will circle the entire property.

SAG HARBORSchool votes approve $9 million in bonds

Sag Harbor School District voters approved two bond propositions that will pay for $9 million in school improvements.

"I am very pleased for this community and our students," Interim Superintendent of Schools Carl Bonuso said in a statement. "We worked as a team to provide our students with what they need to succeed."

Proposition 1, to raise $7.35 million, passed Wednesday night, 740-369. At the Pierson Middle/High School, improvements and renovations will take place on the auditorium, a kitchen, technology classrooms and a parking lot. At the elementary school, additional gymnasium storage space will be added and a parking lot fixed.

Proposition 2 also passed, but by a slimmer margin -- 585-507.

That bond, for $1.62 million, will pay for a synthetic turf field at the middle and high school building, a two-lane walking track, a new scoreboard and a concrete area outside of the cafeteria.

Work will tentatively start in the fall of 2014 and will be completed by the fall of 2016.

EAST HAMPTONMontauk lighthouse

to be lit for holidays

The biggest holiday structure lighting on Long Island will take place at Montauk Point on Dec. 1, when the Montauk lighthouse is lit for the Christmas season. The event starts at 11 a.m. and runs to 4 p.m. Santa will be there, admission to the museum is free, and pony rides will be available for young children.

Santa will be joining the Springs public school marching band and the East Hampton High School jazz band for a parade down Main Street and then up Newtown Lane in East Hampton on Dec. 7, starting at 10 a.m. Local school groups, the fire department and boy and girl scouts are also in the parade, and Santa comes in every year on a sleigh, traditionally pulled by members of the local Kiwanis Club dressed as reindeer. After the parade, Santa is expected to greet children at the Huntting Inn.

Hundreds of people are expected to gather outside the Maidstone in East Hampton village from 4 to 6 p.m. on Dec. 9 to watch the annual holiday tree lighting. A children's choir will provide holiday music, and there will also be cookie decorating and a toy drive.

HUNTINGTONTown to add bus stop

at new Target store

Target shoppers who ride the bus in Huntington can soon get a lift to the new store on Jericho Turnpike.

Town officials plan to add a bus stop at the Huntington Station store on the H20 route of the town-operated Huntington Area Rapid Transit bus system.

The town board unanimously approved entering into an agreement with the Minneapolis-based Target for the stop at a recent board meeting.

"We were able to reroute the bus, and we tested it with a few people, and they loved it," Town Supervisor Frank Petrone said. "So rerouting it was simple, so we figured we'd do it."

The H20 route starts in Halesite and ends at the Walt Whitman Shops on Route 110.

"It's a nice meeting spot for people, they can leave their car there and transfer out if they wanted to," Petrone said. "It provides a nice opportunity."

Construction on the stop should be completed before the height of holiday shopping season.

This year for the first time since the HART system was put into place in 1978, the town made changes to the routes. The changes included replacing the existing three routes with four new routes, and adding 20.5 miles to the system.

For general information on HART, call 631-427-8287.

HUNTINGTONNewsday to share

'Throwback' photos

Lauren Selsky's title of "NYSC Princess" may be unofficial, but it still earned her a sash and a memory special enough to share with the world on Throwback Thursday.

Selsky, 30, is a Plainview native who graduated from Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School in 2000. In the summer of 2003, she worked at the New York Sports Club location in Huntington, where she met friend Linda Franceschini.

One Friday night, Selsky and Franceschini came back to the gym after it was closed, put on some promotional swag and made sashes to crown themselves.

"We loved working there, and this was at the end of the summer," Selsky remembers of the picture, which she shared on Instagram last Thursday as part of Throwback Thursday, a popular social media theme.

These days Selsky, who now lives in Delray Beach, Fla., spends a majority of her time chronicling others. She's a freelance television producer who worked for NBC's "Today" show and now works for clients including ABC's "Good Morning America" and Fox News.

Selsky said the job was fun but also good training for the future, mentioning the responsibility of having to show up at 6 a.m. for the early shift.

"You have to follow rules," Selsky explained.

Well, at least most of the time.

(Do you have a Throwback Thursday item you're planning to share? Let us know by emailing litowns@newsday.com, or send on social media with the hashtag #NewsdayTBT.)

LEVITTOWNMacArthur staff

spoofs 'Fox' videoWearing a page boy wig, teacher Mary Anne Sanchez walked down one of the hallways at MacArthur High School in Levittown surrounded by some of her colleagues, who were disguised as a cow, a duck, a frog and other animals. Then, lip-synching to a video camera, Sanchez asked the all-important question: "What does the fox say?"

Earlier this month, a video surfaced on YouTube featuring Sanchez and more than a dozen other MacArthur faculty members re-enacting the popular music video, "The Fox," by Norwegian brothers Vegard and Bard Ylvisaker. While it hasn't garnered the 217 million hits that the Ylvisaker brothers' video received, as of Wednesday, the MacArthur version had been viewed more than 25,000 times.

"It's spreading among the alumni," said Sanchez, 42, of Wantagh, who teaches ninth-grade social studies and psychology.

Sanchez said the video was originally created for the school's Oct. 24 talent show to entertain the crowd while the judges were deliberating.

"This started because staff members wanted to keep the lineup of entertainment running smoothly at a students' event," said MacArthur High School Principal Kathleen Valentino. "They volunteered their own time after school to film the spoof to bridge the gap."

The 45-minute film shoot took place inside the school after the school day on Oct. 17, said Vincent Causeman, a social studies teacher and dean of students who can be seen in the video dancing around in a fox costume.

Causeman also runs the school's video club and edited the 4-minute, 16-second video. He said he uploaded it to YouTube on Nov. 6 after he was inundated with requests from students who missed the show, but wanted to see the video.

"I don't think anyone was surprised," Causeman said of the performance. "The staff is so great at taking part in whatever the kids are doing."

MINEOLATrustees again delay

on gas station, store

Mineola trustees have yet to approve a 24-hour gas station and convenience store after closing a public hearing on a developer's application.

Mayor Scott Strauss said after a nearly three-hour public hearing Wednesday on the application from Garden City-based Bolla Management Corp., to develop a gas station and convenience store on a former gas station site at 449 Jericho Tpke., the board will reserve its decision.

The hearing was a continuation of an Oct. 9 hearing that lasted nearly four hours. Strauss said he had continued that hearing to allow more residents to speak.

Residents on Wednesday fretted that the opening of the station and convenience store would add to traffic and introduce safety hazards on and close to Jericho Turnpike. Representatives for the developer have said convenience stores are essential for gas stations to thrive.

The size of the lot is 20,000 square feet and the accessory convenience store is planned for 2,460 feet, according to the developer's application.

RIVERHEADRevitalization puts

end to decorations

After three years, a holiday tradition has ended in Riverhead, the victim of an improved downtown economy.

East End Arts, which held an annual holiday window decorating contest to brighten up the empty stores on Main Street, has canceled the event. There just aren't enough empty stores left to make it worthwhile, said Executive Director Patricia Snyder.

The windows in empty stores were given out on a first-come, first-served basis after landlords gave permission to let people use their storefronts for the decorating, and no permanent paints or other difficult-to-remove materials could be used.

High school clubs and community organizations, an urban gardening group and even some local businesses got into the act, and in 2011 an organization calling itself the Elf Liberation Front got a weighted first-place vote of 137 points for its Occupy the North Pole display.

But now, there are only a handful of vacant store windows left -- not enough to have a real artistic competition. Instead, windows are filled with signs like "Woolworth Redevelopment, LLC" and "Coming Soon -- Goldberg's Famous Bagels."

ISLANDWIDELions Clubs to waive

fees for veterans

Lions Clubs International's board of directors recently approved a special pilot program to waive the charter or entrance fee for U.S. veterans of all ages.

The "Involve a U.S. Veteran" program waives the fee for any qualifying veteran in the United States who joins a new or existing Lions club through June 30, 2015.

Lions Clubs International, which has chapters throughout Long Island, will provide an entrance fee waiver of $25 ($30 for charter members) to the first 5,000 qualified U.S. veterans who join a local Lions club.

For more information visit the Lion's Club website, available through bit.ly/19uFgle.

WEST ISLIPNY Rising program

gathering input

The NY Rising Community Reconstruction Program will have a public open house in West Islip Monday for the community to provide input on the program. NY Rising was formed to provide additional rebuilding and revitalization help to areas particularly damaged by superstorm Sandy and other natural disasters.

Residents are encouraged to drop by the open house any time from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the West Islip Fire Department at 309 Union Blvd. A short summary of the program's progress to date will be presented at 6:15 p.m.

For more information, visit www.stormrecovery.ny.gov or email info@stormrecovery.ny.gov.