Roundup: East End land preservation fund revenue up

Revenue in an East End land preservation fund soared in April, driven by a surging real estate market, records show.

Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund revenue in the first four months of 2014 totaled $29.67 million, a 12.9 percent increase over the same period in 2013, according to figures provided by Assemb. Fred W. Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor).

The fund draws revenue from a 2-percent tax on most real estate transactions in the region, which includes the Hamptons and the North Fork.

The towns tap the fund to preserve and maintain open space.

Almost 90 percent of revenue this year came from Southampton and East Hampton, where home prices spiked 19 percent in the first quarter of 2014.
Thiele said the rising revenue means the towns will have the “necessary revenues to protect community character.”

Four towns — Southampton, East Hampton, Riverhead and Southold — have so far this year seen revenue exceeding that from in 2013, which was the second most successful year in the fund’s history.

Shelter Island’s fund has seen a 24-percent drop so far this year.

The towns have raised a combined $914.4 million since the program’s inception in 1998, 11 percent of it in the past 12 months, Thiele said.
— WILL JAMES


BRENTWOOD

Puerto Ricans subject of discussion
Panelists will discuss the growth, evolution and political tendencies of Puerto Ricans in Brentwood and other suburban areas tonight, as part of events gearing up to Sunday’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Day Parade in that hamlet.

The community of U. S. citizens born in Puerto Rico or to Puerto Rican parents brought the first wave of Hispanic residents to Long Island, as many city dwellers sought jobs and suburban life starting as early as the 1940s, event organizers said.

Nearly 58,000 still live in Suffolk County alone, making up the second-largest Hispanic subgroup in the region.

The discussion will touch on how the community developed and met challenges, as well as “how they overcame barriers and how they set up different institutions that would welcome the subsequent Latino communities that arrived,” said Luis Valenzuela, a member of the parade’s organizing committee and an advocate on immigration issues.

Guest speakers will be Carlos Vidal, an associate dean at Stony Brook University; Juan Cartagena, president and general counsel of LatinoJustice, a New York City-based advocacy group formerly known as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Teddy Acevedo, one of the community pioneers who were part of the first Puerto Rican parade in Brentwood in 1966.

The event will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Brentwood Public Library, 34 2nd Avenue. Registration begins at 6:30 p.m.
— VÍCTOR MANUEL RAMOS


OYSTER BAY

Reading program celebrates Dr. Seuss
Oyster Bay’s “One Town, One Book” summer reading program will focus on Dr. Seuss and add a few more books, town officials have announced.

Town Councilwoman Rebecca Alesia said the focus on Dr. Seuss was to celebrate the author and illustrator’s 110th birthday. Theodor Seuss Geisel, later known to the world as Dr. Suess, was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Children who read five Dr. Seuss books and keep a log will receive a certificate. The town will also hold a Dr. Seuss poster contest with prizes to be determined at a later date.

Oyster Bay’s version of the national program will be called Oyster Bay Reads, Jr. The town held its first program in 2012 with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” Last year, the town’s book was “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio.

Alesia said the idea came from seeing her elementary school aged son bring home Dr. Seuss books all year.

“The school did a huge push with Dr. Seuss,” she said.

Official logs can be downloaded from the program’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OneTownOneBookOysterBayReads.
— TED PHILLIPS


SOUTHAMPTON

New health center to offer affordable care
A new health center in Southampton aims to provide affordable health care to the South Fork’s year-round population.

The Kraus Family Health Center of the Hamptons and elected officials last week celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Hudson River HealthCare, a nonprofit based in upstate Peekskill, opened the center in March in a former nursing home building on the Southampton Hospital campus.

The 10,000-square-foot center provides family, dental, mental and women’s health care and offers a sliding scale of fees for uninsured patients.

It has served 800 patients in two months, 60 percent of whom were uninsured, said Anne Kauffman Nolon, president of Hudson River HealthCare.

“People think of Southampton as a very wealthy community, but in the off-season it’s actually a very rural area, and rural communities have problems with recruitment of doctors,” Kauffman Nolon said.

The facility replaces two Suffolk County-run health centers on the South Fork that the county privatized and consolidated as part of a cost-saving plan.

The nonprofit, which operates 20 centers in New York State, including three on Long Island, spent $1.5 million building the center. The county contributed a $3.9 million grant.
— WILL JAMES


FRANKLIN SQUARE
DEC reclassifies metal-plating site

The State Department of Environmental Conservation announced that the Genzale Plating Co. Superfund site in Franklin Square has been reclassified as no longer presenting a significant threat to public health.

The site at 288 New Hyde Park Rd. was used for a metal-plating facility with a two-floor office building and an undeveloped backyard area that served as a parking lot and storage area. The facility electroplated small products such as automobile antennas, parts of ballpoint pens, and bottle openers from 1915 through 2000, according to federal documents. It discharged wastewater containing heavy metals and organic contaminants into the ground.

After cleanup and groundwater monitoring by the EPA in 2013, the agency affirmed its November 2012, determination that no further action is needed at the site. Continued monitoring is required.
— SID CASSESE

BAYVILLE

Board allows grant for fire rescue boat
Bayville plans to buy a fire rescue boat for its fire department using county grant money, village officials said last week.

The village board of trustees approved an inter-municipal agreement with Nassau County to receive a $100,000 grant that will be combined with a $50,000 grant awarded last year to help purchase the boat.

The 30-foot-long aluminum boat will have a fire suppression pump on it, Bayville Fire Company chief Edward Orski said, adding that the fire company is looking at potential sites to moor the boat.

Emergency responders using the boat will receive special training, Orski said.

The county grants won’t completely cover the cost of the boat.

Orski said he has been in contact with the office of Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) and the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management about additional funding.
— TED PHILLIPS


LINDENHURST

Developer plans housing on vacant lot
A developer has submitted an application to Lindenhurst Village to build senior housing on a vacant lot on South Smith Street.

Robert A. Curcio Jr. has applied to rezone the property to build 17 senior rental units, said village deputy clerk Doug Madlon. The village board last week referred the application to the village planning board.

The property would have to be rezoned from industry to senior citizen multiple residence, village officials said. The matter would be subject to an environmental review and then a public hearing, Madlon said.

Curcio is the developer of Montauk Villas and Great South Bay Villas in West Babylon, and the Deer Park Avenue Villas in North Babylon.

Senior housing has also been at the center of proposals from developers for the shuttered Edward W. Bower Elementary School in Lindenhurst. School officials have not made any decisions as to whether that land will be sold.
— DENISE M. BONILLA


NASSAU COUNTY

Beach closures lifted; shellfishing off limits
Nassau County lifted its closure of six beaches over the holiday weekend, after a Friday sewage discharge in Oyster Bay Harbor.

Shellfish harvesting remains off limits in affected areas as the state Department of Environmental Conservation tests the waters to determine whether it’s safe to resume harvesting.

DEC officials on Tuesday reported that the Oyster Bay Sewer District had discharged 150,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater from 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. on Friday, after a malfunction at the sewage plant.

The county health department on Friday closed Centre Island Bay Beach, Centre Island Sound Beach, West Harbor Beach, Laurel Hollow Beach, Soundside Beach, and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Beach.

County health department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain said testing found the bacteria enterococci at unsafe levels at Laurel Hollow and Soundside beaches on Saturday.

The county reopened half the beaches on Sunday and the remainder on Monday.

“Luckily Monday with the really hot day we were able to let people go in and swim,” said Oyster Bay spokeswoman Marta Kane.

At the DEC’s request, the district agreed to post a staff member to monitor the process until the manufacturer has completed a service visit.

The DEC has the authority to take enforcement action against the facility and “is in the process of determining appropriate action,” DeSantis said.
— TED PHILLIPS