Three upcoming community events

BAYVILLE
Meeting Nov. 12 to mull Sandy funding

A public meeting will be held Nov. 12 on possible efforts to make the village more resistant to damage from storms like last year’s Sandy.

The second of four planned meetings on local funding possibilities from the state’s New York Rising program will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at Bayville Intermediate School, 50 Mountain Ave.

Village officials hope to receive several million dollars from the program to erect a bulkhead along the north shore of Mill Neck Creek where homes were flooded by superstorm Sandy and Tropical Storm Irene the previous year.

A local planning advisory committee working with a consulting firm, CDM Smith of Manhattan, will make a recommendation to the state after the four meetings.

For more information or to submit comments, visit stormrecovery.ny.gov/nyrcr/community/village-bayville
— BILL BLEYER

PLAINVIEW
Free safety ID cards for kids issued Nov. 12

An Operation Safe Child ID program will be held at the Plainview-Old Bethpage Library Nov. 12 from 1 to 3 p.m.

Families can receive a free, wallet-sized ID card containing a child’s name, biographical information and a fingerprint image of both index fingers.

Should the parent wish to share the information, it can be digitally recorded and stored in a state database.

The session is sponsored by state Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) and the Nassau County district attorney’s office. For more information, call 516-739-1700.
— BILL BLEYER

SAG HARBOR
Village to mark War of 1812 Monday

On Monday, people across the nation will observe Veterans Day.

In Sag Harbor, they will also be celebrating the 200th anniversary of a little-known event that took place in a little-known war, a battle on the village wharf during the War of 1812.

It will be 200 years to the day that British troops from five barges came ashore in Sag Harbor to plunder food and pillage the homes and property of Long Islanders who were supporting efforts to break a British blockade.

Sag Harbor Village Dockmaster David Thommen spent years digging up the history of a fort on High Street where Maj. John Jermain commanded 60 men of the Fourth Regiment of New York Artillery and their nine 8-pound cannons, and opened fire on the wharf where 100 British soldiers were unloading from five barges.

His troops drove the enemy away, and nearly 100 years later the public library in Sag Harbor would be named in his honor.

But, while the Sag Harbor historical society placed a stone to mark the site of the fort in 1902, there was never a dedication. Nothing remains of the fort itself.

Now, on Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the American Legion post at 26 Bay St. in Sag Harbor, a ceremony to mark the event will be held, and Assemb. Fred W. Thiele Jr. will give a proclamation to village Mayor Brian Gilbride and to Thommen, officially honoring what he calls “Sag Harbor’s heroic moment in the War of 1812.”
— MITCHELL FREEDMAN