LI briefs: Local chefs to teach cooking classes in Mattituck

MATTITUCK

Local chefs to teach cooking classes

MarGene Farms, one of Long Island's only certified organic farms, is holding another Tuesday night cooking class with local chefs.

Taylor Knapp, chef at First & South in Greenport, hosts Tuesday's class. Another, held this week, featured Steven Amaral, owner-chocolatier at North Fork Chocolates and former owner of Amarelle in Wading River.

The chefs' menus focus on seasonal produce from MarGene Farms.

Farmer Gene Krupski has installed two "high tunnels," greenhouse-like structures that concentrate the sun's heat so that he can grow vegetables into the cold weather. Amaral and Knapp will have access to fresh lettuce, arugula, kale, carrots, beets and more produce for their menus.

Class begins at 6 p.m. and lasts about 3 hours. The price is $30, in advance. For more information, call 631-298-7688.

- ERICA MARCUS

SUFFOLK COUNTY

Assault victims to get new programs

Suffolk County has received $205,000 in federal funding for sexual battery and domestic violence programs, including money for Suffolk police to upgrade panic alarms for domestic violence victims, state officials said Tuesday.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced in a news release the state has received $6.2 million under the federal Violence Against Women Act that Congress passed last year. Suffolk is one of more than a dozen counties that will receive the funding to bolster programs.

"This funding will provide much-needed resources to assist victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in every corner of New York State," Cuomo said.

The Suffolk Police Department will receive $66,745 to upgrade panic alarms for domestic violence victims and provide on-call pay for sexual assault nurse examiners, Cuomo said. The Suffolk County Probation Department and the Suffolk Victims Information Bureau will receive $102,350 to help pay for sexual assault nurse examiners who treat victims following an attack, officials said.

Retreat Inc., an East Hampton based nonprofit that provides services, counseling and shelter to domestic violence victims, will receive $35,600 to help pay for a victim advocate and two counselors.

The state will also direct $231,000 to two statewide nonprofits -- the Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Coalition Against Domestic Violence -- to begin a statewide project addressing sexual assaults on college campuses and another project to reduce domestic violence homicides.

- LAURA FIGUEROA

NORTH HEMPSTEAD

Town seeks to rid harbor of debris

The Town of North Hempstead is seeking a $250,000 federal grant to fund debris removal along Hempstead Harbor.

Town officials wrote in a grant application to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that removing debris is "part of a larger vision to return this area that has been historically subjected to intensive industrial uses and disturbance to a recreation hub." The proposed work, according to the application, will "substantially improve the shoreline/wetland ecology of Hempstead Harbor."

Supervisor Judi Bosworth has sought to draw attention to revitalizing the waterfront in Port Washington. A nature trail along Hempstead Harbor was extended this year, to become a substantial walk for visitors, and a restaurant at North Hempstead Beach Park has been proposed.

Town officials wrote in the grant application that the number of horseshoe crabs has dwindled along the Long Island Sound coastline in recent years. Many crabs become caught in the debris and "never make it to the shoreline to lay their eggs or get trapped on their way back out to the Harbor," officials wrote.

Once the debris is removed, the town is to seek additional funds to restore the native wetlands. The debris removal work is expected to be finished by June 1, 2017.

- SCOTT EIDLER

CENTERPORT

Giant pile of sand ready to get in shape

Dredging of the Centerport Harbor Navigation Channel was completed last week, according to the Suffolk County Department of Public Works.

Commissioner Gil Anderson said Monday that workers are finishing up by using the resulting sand to shape the beach.

The project's first phase started in 2011, when officials had enough funding to dredge two-thirds of the channel's mouth.

Workers started this phase of the project Dec. 1, Anderson said.

Gibson & Cushman Contracting, LLC, of Port Jefferson won the contract and will be paid between $962,500-$1.2 million depending on the amount of sand brought up from the harbor floor.

"It's vacuumed off the bottom and pumped and placed on the beach," Anderson said. "It's put into a big pile, then that sand has to dry; water has to run through it. Then they shape the beach."

Anderson said he did not yet know how many cubic yards of material had been recovered.

The process was paid for with county funds.

The primary reason for dredging is controlling the depth of the water for boat navigation, but when the resulting material is sand, it is applied to the shores as needed.

- VALERIE BAUMAN

OYSTER BAY

Contract extension to get close review

The Town of Oyster Bay plans to hire an outside attorney to review its retroactive extension last month of a contract that had expired almost a year earlier, supervisor John Venditto said Friday.

While the town attorney said the contract was done properly, Venditto said he wanted to have "fresh eyes" look at it. "I'm . . . telling everyone to stop in place and taking it to outside counsel," Venditto said.

In September, the town extended a contract with Ridge-based Residential Fences Corp. to replace town signs from last month to next November. No costs were specified in the resolution, as it was on an as-needed basis, and no work was done by the firm, officials said.

That contract -- which was to run from 2011 to 2012 with four optional one-year extensions -- had lapsed on Nov. 29, 2013. The town had extended it in 2012 but not in 2013.

"There's no question in my mind that there was an error committed in not extending the contract back for the second year back in 2013," Venditto said. "Whether that error is a fatal defect or simply a ministerial error, that's a question that's not resolved in my mind."

The town has not used the contract, which Venditto said may have been a factor in its being overlooked. Town officials say it's kept in place in event it is needed.

Last year, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office criticized the town for another contract with Residential Fences Corp. for fence installation that was originally awarded in 2008 with a low bid of $1.5 million. That contract was increased and extended, growing to $5.3 million over three years.

- TED PHILLIPS

PORT WASHINGTON

Call for comments on Superfund site

The public can comment on a plan to remedy contamination of a state Superfund site in Port Washington.

A hearing will be held in January, in addition to the one scheduled for Tuesday. The date has yet to be determined. State Department of Environmental Conservation officials say they are adding a January hearing because the Tuesday meeting conflicted with the start of Hanukkah.

The site is known as the Plaza Cleaners site at 966 Port Washington Blvd. The public can send written comments to the DEC through Jan. 10.

The property is considered a Class 2 site on the State Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Sites, which the DEC describes as posing "a significant threat to public health or the environment."

Remedies for the site include addressing a groundwater plume contaminated by volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

An investigation discovered that "the soil vapor and groundwater were contaminated by the dry cleaning operations formerly at Plaza Cleaners."

DEC officials wrote in a fact sheet posted online that the contamination is moving away from the site.

- SCOTT EIDLER

MASTIC BEACH

School district museum opening

The William Floyd School District Wednesday plans to dedicate a museum of artifacts tracing the district's history to its origins in the early 19th century.

The ceremony -- on the 280th anniversary of the birth of the district's namesake, a Mastic resident who signed the Declaration of Independence -- will mark the opening of the museum in two converted classrooms at William Floyd High School.

The museum will be named after longtime resident and former board of education president Rita Rech, who died last year at age 104, district officials said.

The museum's collection features about 300 objects dating to the district's founding in 1833, when it was known as District 32. Among the artifacts are uniforms, school equipment, newspaper clippings, photographs, event programs and a board of education ledger that was used from 1833 through the 1900s.

Objects were donated by alumni or found by staff "hanging around in closets," Superintendent Paul Casciano said. The museum will be open before and after school concerts, he said. Admission is free. "We want to bring people in as much as we can," Casciano said.

The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at William Floyd High School, 240 Mastic Beach Rd., Mastic Beach.

- CARL MACGOWAN

WILLISTON PARK

Fire-ravaged strip ready for new life

The site of a July 24 five-alarm fire that destroyed five buildings in one of Williston Park's business districts has been cleared of debris and has been transformed from a hole in the ground back to flat land.

Work on the Willis Avenue site, where The Place Bar, S & F shoe repair, Williston Plumbing, Hair Junkie Salon and a laundry were located, started in late October and was completed last week. It included razing the plumbing business and salon, and the hole left after the rubble was cleared and backfilled with soil. The other three structures were torn down immediately following the blaze.

"The weather delayed things a little bit," Mayor Paul Ehrbar said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Ehrbar said that in the next few weeks, the sidewalk that was damaged and removed due to the fire will be replaced. Until that work is done, temporary fencing around the area is expected to remain.

The mayor added that despite delays, the excavation project went smoothly because of cooperation from the landlords and their working to get the site remediated in a timely manner as the village required.

Ehrbar said the businesses, some of which relocated to other areas in the village, were not expected to return to the site and landlords have not finalized plans for the properties.

The restoration of the site was done by Sound Beach-based Horizon Contracting Services LLC.

- LISA IRZIARRY

EAST HAMPTON

Study will examine storm vulnerability

East Hampton Town has won a $250,000 New York State grant to study the strength of its coastline and its vulnerability to storms.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell said the town was awarded the grant on Dec. 11 and planned to begin the study in the "next few months" by gathering scientific data on the coastline.

"We're taking very seriously the impacts that more frequent storms, climate change and sea level rise will potentially have on our community in the future," he said in an interview Tuesday.

Cantwell said the town and outside organizations, including nonprofit groups that may assist in the study, will provide an additional $250,000.

Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said in a statement that the study "will strengthen the resiliency of existing communities in East Hampton, address the needs of future generations and involve broad-based public involvement to develop and implement a community plan."

East Hampton is a peninsula with 131 miles of coastline, and its beaches sustained severe damage in recent storms, including superstorm Sandy. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning an emergency beach-stabilization project in downtown Montauk.

In August, town officials announced they received a $10 million federal grant to buy up coastal properties and knock down houses in Napeague, a part of town prone to flooding and erosion.

- WILL JAMES