Local lawmakers want to prevent what Mr. Krupski’s letter calls a “solid waste disposal crisis affecting over 3 million residents of our towns.”

The lawmakers are trying to underscore to Albany the importance of Long Island’s four waste-to-energy facilities, located in Islip, Hempstead, Babylon and Huntington. According to a 2023 letter to the federal Environmental Protection Agency from Martin Bellew, president of the Islip Resource Recovery Agency, these facilities were built and began operations between 1989 and 1992, and all currently operate under long-term service agreements with municipalities and receive residential waste streams from nine of Long Island’s 13 towns.

“Collectively,” Mr. Bellew told the EPA, these facilities “provide Long Island’s only ‘on-Island’ disposal capability for 1.5 million of the more than 2.6 million tons of municipal solid waste generated here each year.”

Mr. Krupski’s recent letter notes that this waste produces 970,000MWh of electricity for the region annually.

The idea for all town supervisors to write to Ms. Hochul emerged from a meeting of the Suffolk County Supervisors Association a few months ago, Mr. Krupski said. They support an Aug. 19 letter to the governor from Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine on the same topic. The letters were all sent together as one package as the end of September, Mr. Krupski added.

“All the supervisors are very concerned about this,” Mr. Krupski said in a recent interview. “I think 75% or 80% of the solid waste is shipped to the incinerators right now. They burn the garbage and generate electricity on Long Island. If New York State decides that these incinerators have to close, then we have to ship all the garbage off. They said it’d be another 180,000 trucks a year on the road. It’s a tremendous amount of garbage so we’re trying to prevent that.”

The letters identify some immediate priority action issues for Gov. Hochul to address. The first item requests that public and private waste management facilities not be designated as “obligated entities” under the New York Cap and Invest Program, which is meant to encourage consumers, businesses and other entities to transition to low-carbon alternatives by applying a price on pollution.

The second item urges that the Long Island Power Authority should renew and provide long-term extensions of Power Purchase agreements with the four Long Island WTE facilities, “with a rate not less than the average cost of purchased power paid by LIPA from all sources, escalating annually and preferably closer to the rate LIPA has agreed to pay for offshore wind energy.”

The letters’ final request calls for designation of the energy produced at WTEs statewide as a “renewable source, as it is by the federal government and in most other states. WTE facilities must be able to continue to sell their electricity to the grid post-2040.”

The letters conclude that failure to address these issues will only add to the already increasing costs of solid waste management — particularly for households — and will directly result in town budgets that exceed the 2% cap on tax levy increases.

Finding ways to reduce the waste stream is one way of taking action immediately, Mr. Krupski said.

“We’re looking for more of a regional solution. We’re working on seeing if we can do a better job with food waste, which takes up about 20% of the waste stream, and do anything we can do locally so it doesn’t have to be shipped,” he said.

The post Area officials urge Gov. Hochul to enact waste management plan appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

The new center will be equipped with the latest diagnostic and therapeutic technologies according to PBMC medical director Dr. Jeffrey Zilberstein.

“The way we imagine it, it’ll offer comprehensive diagnostic, evaluation and treatment for really all types of disease, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumors, concussion, epilepsy, headaches, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease,” he said. “Stroke is the major emergency, where time is brain but we’re envisioning a comprehensive center, starting with building around this emergency.”

The announcement of the new center was made at PBMC’s 2024 annual gala, which honored the couple, held at Westhampton Country Club, where generous donors added $1.7 million to support the new center.

The hospital put in for a certificate of need to the state of New York and once reviewed and approved, the hospital can move forward with the project. Dr. Zilberstein said that they anticipate the center will be up and running in the next year to 18 months.

The emergency department opened this summer and expanded capacity by 75% along with adding patient beds, increased space for specialized care and introduced new technology including a dual-bay trauma unit, comprehensive radiology capabilities and connectivity to Northwell Health’s e-ICU system and telemedicine, Riverhead News-Review reported.

“We’re really excited to build this new Neurosciences Center, which is going to be called the Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch Neurosciences Center,” Dr. Zilberstein said.

PBMC is going to be the only hospital in Eastern Suffolk County that will be able to perform a cerebral mechanical thrombectomy, an endovascular technique for removing blood clots from the brain after an ischemic stroke, according to the national institute of health.

“What that is, is having an experienced interventional neurologist go into the brain with a catheter and take the clot out that’s causing the stroke,” Dr. Zilberstein explained. “What we do today is we have to send those patients west and when you’re having a stroke time is brain cells, and so having the ability to perform that procedure, along with everything else that the Neurosciences Center is going to provide here is going to be truly revolutionary and paradigm shifting for the community.”

Interventional neurologist and director of stroke at PBMC, Dr. Richard Jung said he’s “deeply grateful” to the Harnisch family for their generosity.

“This donation will have a profound impact on our ability to provide high-quality neurological and especially stroke care to our community,” he said in a hospital press release.

The hospital will assemble a team of highly skilled interventional neurologists, neurosurgeons and dedicated healthcare professionals to staff the center.

The Harnisch family joins a number of other generous PBMC donor families including Emilie Corey, who, along with her husband Michael, recently donated a separate $5 million to support the development of the Emilie Roy Corey Center for Women and Infants.

“The technology is here, and we’re bringing it to PBMC because it will save lives and brain function,” Mr. Harnisch said. “We think it’s a game-changer for people with neurological conditions.”

The post $5 million donation funds Neurosciences Center at PBMC appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

The fundraiser for the Riverhead-based non-profit, which provides myriad resources for breast cancer survivors and thrivers on the North Fork, will take place at Riverhead’s Tanger Outlet Center, a sponsor of the event. Participants can pre-register on the NFBHC website or register on site from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m.

The all-volunteer, non-profit organization – which was founded in 1998 by Ann Cotton-DeGrasse and the late Antonio DeGrasse, with the help of Riverhead Rotary — supports local breast-cancer patients with programs such as the Helping Hand grants. NFBHC also funds stage IV research at select laboratories. Proceeds from this event allow the group to continue to provide free services including gentle yoga, massage therapy, reflexology, and “Strength For Life” exercise to breast-cancer patients and survivors. They also have access to the Rita Duva Boutique, which offers wigs, scarves, hats and prosthetics.

Maj. Bill Grigonis and Mattituck-Southold NJROTC will do the presentation of the colors and George Dupree from Living Water Church will do the invocation to kick off the event. The opening ceremony starts at 8:45 a.m. with greetings from Tanger Outlets Marketing Director, Lesley Anthony. Mara Urshel, president of Kleinfeld Bridal from TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress,” is the emcee this year. The walk starts at 9 a.m. and is over by 11 a.m. 

The registration fee to participate in the 5K is $35. The first 300 entrants receive a gift bag.

Registrants can enjoy breakfast that includes coffee, tea and juice with muffins, granola bars and fruits. Raffle tickets for prizes donated by Tanger Outlet stores will also be available.

“The annual 5K walk at Tanger Outlets brings together breast cancer patients, survivors and thrivers, community members, elected officials and leaders in the breast cancer community,” the organization’s president, Melanie McEvoy Zuhoski said in a press release. “Tanger has partnered with us on the walk for the past 25 years and secures numerous gift baskets and other high-end items for the raffle. Proceeds from the walk help pay for the free services we offer to breast cancer patients and support our Lend A Helping Hand Program.”

Bernadette Tuthill, vice president of the non-profit and the co-chair for the 5K event, initially got involved with the coalition after her breast cancer diagnosis in 2016.

“After I got done with my treatment and started feeling better, then I started volunteering with the coalition, and from there, I joined the board, and now I’m VP and the co-chair for the walk.”

Ms. Tuthill said the coalition is excited to have Ms. Urshel join in the 5K walk, which she explained, is held at the end of September to lead into October and Breast Cancer Awareness month.

“They really are just very community oriented,” she said. “They care a lot about the cause. They bring such positive energy to our walks every year so we’re just so excited that Mara agreed to be the emcee this year and we know she’s going to bring that kind of energy to our opening ceremony.”

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On Thursday night, the organization held their final public release of the season, where six critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles swam away off Hampton Bays’ Tiana Beach as hundreds of spectators cheered them on.

The Riverhead-based non-profit organization responds to stranded or injured “sea turtles, seals, small cetaceans [dolphins and porpoises] in New York State,” according to its website. This summer, they released an estimated 60 animals back into the wild — including  sea turtles and seals — according to Maxine Montello, the nonprofit’s rescue program director.

The six turtles all stranded during cold-stun season, which begins late fall when water temperatures sink to below 50 degrees, according to the National Aquarium. Ms. Montello described the malaise as “ a phenomenon similar to hypothermia.”

“Because [the turtles] are cold blooded, they can’t regulate their own internal temperature,” she said. “They’re here all summer, and then it turns to fall and winter pretty quickly and so they don’t get the environmental cue to move on, and because of that they stay here and they get continuously exposed to this quick drop in temp and they become debilitated, and they float at the surface.”

Starting in November through early January, the organization goes to the beaches in the region finding cold-stunned sea turtles, Ms. Montello said.

“Many of them have heartbeats of less than one beat per minute, where normally it’s about 32 beats per minute,” Ms. Montello said. “They also are not breathing on their own so they need to be intubated. They’re super dehydrated because they haven’t been eating anything or drinking anything and so it takes us about eight to nine months to rehab them, have them gain weight, be able to get their shells under control — some of them come in with shell damage — and get them to be able to go back in the wild.”

All six turtles were between 3 and 5 years old. As each one arrived at the rehabilitation facility, according to Ms. Montello, it was named after other animals.

“That’s probably the best part of the job for the team, is the naming,” Ms. Montello said. “We always do a new naming theme, so this year doing animals named after animals has been fun.”

The turtle’s names are Axolotl, Echidna, Manta Ray, Sunfish, Piping Plover and Cuttlefish. Volunteers in three groups of two released the six turtles.

Some released sea turtles have satellite tags affixed to their shells so their locations can be tracked on a on a map available on the NYMRC website. But Kemp’s ridley turtles have spiky shells, making it challenging to attach the tag. Instead, Ms. Montello explained, they receive flipper tags and have microchips placed under their skin. 

“These are all great tracking for if the animal was found again, say it stranded or somebody saw it on the beach nesting , they could look at those numbers and report them, they could call any rehab with those numbers or any sea turtle network.

Once released the hope is that these turtles will head south and move towards warmer waters, Ms. Montello said.

“We’re a small not-for-profit, and so all our donations are coming from the general public and so we’re happy to have the support here and be able to have everybody come here and see these animals go back to the wild and any donations, big or small, really helps the organization,” she said.

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Her dedication to the organization has been further solidified since she took over the role of Executive Director in June.

“I took a big leap of faith,” Ms. Weiss said. “I kind of teased that I was part of that ‘great resignation,’ I left a really big position job to work in a non-profit. It was my first nonprofit experience and then it just snowballed from there.”

As a board member Ms. Weiss participated in the organization’s innovative efforts to keep the arts council active during the pandemic. In 2021, Ms. Weiss resigned from the board to join the non-profit’s team as a Membership & Gallery Coordinator and then later that year, she transitioned to the role of Creative Director.

In that role she facilitated all of the organization’s major exhibitions in their gallery and numerous other East End Arts member satellite gallery spaces. She also oversaw the marketing and membership initiatives. 

Ms. Weiss described both roles as a “natural fostering of relationships.”

“Everything kind of wove together,” she said. “So in this new role here, I’m going to continue with all of that.”

Ms. Weiss said the board unanimously voted her into the position of Executive Director.

“Wendy has significantly engaged the professional working artist community on the East End,” Board President John McLane said in a press release announcing Ms. Weiss taking the top job at the organization. “We cannot be more optimistic about the opportunities in front of East End Arts in the next several years.”

A donor had once told Ms. Weiss that East End Arts is good at combining inclusivity and excellence, which stuck with her and is something she hopes to continue. 

“Something I’m really looking forward to in this role is really starting to look at the organization from a higher elevation and start to see how we can strategically plan things to not only enhance what we already do, but make way for the things of the future,” Ms. Weiss said.

Aside from fundraising, which Ms. Weiss said is a priority for any non-profit, she plans to expand and seek sponsorships and underwriting for two of the organization’s current programs: the Arts and Music Program for All Abilities that works mainly with people with developmental disabilities and organizations that also provide service to them and the Satellite Gallery program.

“I think us being a regional arts organization is a little unique here,” Ms. Weiss said. “Each fork is very localized but our [organization] can be a little more enveloping to kind of unite the north and south forks and to kind of bring people together in a different way.”

Another goal of hers is to be a major player in the downtown revitalization efforts in Riverhead, which includes the creation of an amphitheater on East End Arts property as well as a Town Square neighboring their campus.

“This is our headquarters and our home base,” Ms. Weiss said. “So being partners with the town on those kinds of things, there’s lots of exciting things on the horizon there too.”

According to Ms. Weiss’ Linkedin profile, she most recently worked in a variety of administrative roles in the medical industry. Ms. Weiss was a graduate of Riverhead’s Mercy High School. She later earned a marketing degree from Johnson & Wales University.

Ms. Weiss is taking over for Diane Burke, who had been the organization’s executive director since 2019. Ms. Burke left the role to take a position at a Manorville-based nonprofit. Before leaving, Ms. Burke put together a transition plan, which aside from recommending Ms. Weiss become the next executive director, included recommendations to invest in supportive development and marketing staff. Ms. Burke contacted a “substantial donor,” who then gave $50,000 to fund the transition plan.

Ms. Weiss said her favorite parts of the job are working with her colleagues and community members and helping to curate the organization’s gallery exhibits.

“I have met, know, and gotten to know even better some really cool people,” she said. “It’s such a friendly group, there’s really a collaborative mindset. It’s just such a magical thing to kind of be a part of.”

The post Meet East End Arts’ new executive director appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

Mr. Reinertsen returned to the hospital Tuesday not as a patient but as a member of Slow Food East End — the local chapter of the global grassroots organization started in Italy in 1986 to promote access to “good, clean and fair food for all,” according to its website — to award the hospital with the organization’s prestigious Snail of Approval award.

“I left here both times in such a positive manner,” he said during a ceremony at the hospital. “I was treated better than at some restaurants. The food was — that’s the criteria we use — the food was Manhattan good.”

The Snail of Approval award is bestowed on businesses that represent the Slow Food East End’s ideals and calls attention to food-related enterprises — restaurants, farms and food producers — that excel in two or more of the following areas: sourcing, environmental impact, cultural connection, community involvement, staff support or business values.

This year, Slow Food, which is represented in 160 countries, has made a concentrated effort to give out more awards, said Sunita Narma, its vice chair of communications.

“It’s obviously about the food but it’s also about their employee practices and what they’re doing with the hospital,” Ms. Narma said. “Obviously the hospital is getting recognition for their medical work, but I think it’s great to be able to also focus on the food as nutrition aspect of it.”

Peconic Bay Medical Center is the only health care facility in the nation to receive this award, according to a hospital press release.

Mr. Reinertsen, who chairs the Snail of Approval award, nominated the hospital after his terrific experience. He outlined the rigorous vetting process the organization goes through before honoring an institution with the award. The first step, he said, is vetting the nominator.

“Then we interview the possible recipient,” Mr. Reinertsen said. “Unknown to them, we also interview workers and customers. I write up an evaluation and submit it to the board, then I submit it to national.”

Peconic Bay Medical Center’s executive chef Chris Singlemann said earning this award has been a team effort.

“I have an incredible culinary staff that has worked with me and has supported me, incredible dietary aides,” he said. “No one does it alone.”

Mr. Singlemann thanked specific Northwell Health leaders for the support and touted their hard work, including chef Bruno Tison, one of three Michelin-starred chefs working at Northwell Health, and senior vice president and chief experience officer Sven Gierlinger.

“We just had our culinary nutrition meeting and I told everyone in the meeting that we just happened to have Ralph in our hospital,” Mr. Singlemann said, “but if he was in another [Northwell] hospital, the same award would have been given. This is just what is happening throughout this system and it’s phenomenal to be a part of it.”

Mr. Gierlinger told the audience that the effort to improve the culinary experience for everyone at Peconic Bay Medical Center started eight years ago.

“We were in the bottom of the bottom. The bar was really low for hospital food and we were probably there,” he said. “We were in the ninth percentile and today, with chef Bruno’s efforts and these amazing chefs and dietitians, we are in the 84th percentile for the entire company.”

While congratulating the chefs and dietitians and thanking Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling, Mr. Gierlinger added that he is “extraordinarily proud of Peconic Bay. It’s an incredible hospital, it serves amazing food.”

“We strive to be excellent in everything we do and food has been neglected for so many years in hospitals, unfortunately,” he added. “So many patients in this country right now and across the world are getting food that is really substandard and it’s our goal to change that.”

Mr. Gierlinger noted that PBMC also won Northwell Health’s annual Chefs Challenge in 2022. The competition started 13 years ago and is a “Top Chef”-style competition that asks chefs to cook a three-course meal they might serve to patients. This year, competing chefs had 90 minutes to create an appetizer using rainbow beets, an entrée with wild monkfish and a dessert with dried prunes. This year’s winning chef, from Phelps Hospital in Westchester County, got an all-expense paid trip to Napa, Calif.. Mr. Singlemann said receiving the Snail of Approval award has opened up opportunities to get more involved in the community.

“We’re doing a lot,” he said. “We have a master beekeeper that we’ve incorporated into our hospital. We have two beehives and we’re producing our own honey on the property. We have a culinary farm that we just collaborated with to do a dinner and it’s just continuing to open up more and more. Being part of the community is what Peconic Bay is all about.”

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“The amount of drugs he’s distributed over his life is chilling,” said U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert, who signed off on an agreement between prosecutors and the defense for the 25-year sentence. Yet she said in court that she “has great difficulty because in some ways, this case warrants more.”

“This is basically a sentence that’s at the very low bottom,” the judge said.

Mr. Douglas was described by prosecutors last month in a letter to the judge as “an experienced drug dealer with five prior state and/or federal drug felony convictions.” He was arrested in May 2022 while in possession of 105 grams of fentanyl and 135 grams of cocaine. He also has prior convictions that involve theft and burglary and “constant” felony-level narcotics conduct, according to the letter. 

Court records indicate that Mr. Douglas had been working to distribute drugs at least as far back as 2015.

Last fall, Mr. Douglas, 39, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and distribution of a controlled substance causing death. He admitted supplying a street-level drug dealer with the fentanyl-laced cocaine that killed Matthew LaPiana of East Marion, Seth Tramontana of Greenport, Seyed Navid Ahmadzadeh of Southold and Swainson Brown of Shelter Island.

Those four deaths were among six reported in Southold and Shelter Island townships across eight days in the summer of 2021.

Families of the victims were present at the sentencing  and Patricia LaPiana, mother of Matthew LaPiana, addressed the court.

“The mental, emotional and stressful pain has been unbearable to this day,” she  said “It’s an outrage that so many people in our small town of Greenport had to die.”

Mr. LaPiana’s sister, cousin and uncle were also in attendance.

Beverly Samuels, mother of Swainson Brown, described her son as an “amazing chef and amazing person to so many.”

“I mourn each and every day the loss of my son,” Ms. Samuels said. “Today, you have the opportunity to make sure that no other family goes through what I have gone through for the last three years.”

Defense attorney Richard Langone told the court that Mr. Douglas is not “inherently evil” and is just a “victim of his own bad judgment.”

“In the two years I’ve represented him, he has cried to me real tears that he would never have done such a thing like mix fentanyl [into other narcotics],” Mr. Langone said.

Speaking through tears, Mr. Douglas addressed the victims’ families, saying that “the worst thing I ever did was touch fentanyl.”

“I’m not a stranger to the people who died,” he said. “I didn’t plot. I didn’t scheme to hurt anyone.

“I grew up in this culture,” he continued. “I didn’t want this.”

Turning to his son in the gallery, Mr. Douglas said, “Whatever you do, just say no to drugs, even marijuana.” 

Mr. Douglas’ wife, Shiniqua Douglas of Texas, said after the hearing that she was “very unsatisfied” with the sentencing.

“He did not orchestrate them to do this,” she said. “Men got weak, they got hungry, they got desperate so they started doing things on their own. So every man needs to be [held] accountable and reliable for their mistake.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Maffei told the judge that Mr. Douglas “played Russian roulette with his customers’ lives.”

“Deaths were inevitable from this defendant’s conduct,” Mr. Maffei said. “The idea that he didn’t know that something was going to happen is laughable.”

Jesse Pace of Riverhead, who was also charged in 2022 with conspiring to distribute fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and crack cocaine over a seven-year period, is scheduled for sentencing  Aug. 1.

The post Riverhead dealer linked to 2021 fentanyl overdose deaths gets 25 years appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

Eileen Fenton, married to Mr. Fenton for 57 years, said that his persistence to have a birthday party was such that while in the hospital with declining health, Mr. Fenton would check in with her regularly for updates on planning the celebration. When the day finally came, which turned out to be one week before his death, there were over 60 party-goers dancing to Irish music at the bash. Ms. Fenton said he loved to socialize and be around others.

“He had a great time. They brought him out in a wheelchair,” Ms. Fenton said. “He was good and he was talking to everyone.”

Cornelius James Fenton, a psychologist, dedicated his life to helping Long Islanders struggling with mental health and addiction. Mr. Fenton died July 1 at his Jamesport home. He is survived by his wife Eileen Mary; daughters Kelly Sadowsky of Rutherford N.J. and Kate Fenton Charpentier of Queens; and two grandchildren, Adeline and Malone.

In 2020, a stroke in his right eye due to hemochromatosis caused the initial vision loss according to Ms. Fenton. The disorder causes extra iron to build up in the body to harmful levels and without treatment, can cause iron overload and damage many parts of the body, according to the National Institute of Health.

Two years later, Mr. Fenton started losing sight in his left eye as well, due to the same disorder. However, doctors caught it quickly enough to preserve some sight in that eye.  

Eight weeks ago a biopsy on an abnormal lymph node tested positive. Mr. Fenton had cancer.

“It was just quick moving and five weeks later he passed,” Ms. Fenton said.

His family received visitors at Tuthill-Mangano Funeral home in Riverhead July 7. A celebration of life was held on July 8 at St. Isidore R.C. Church in Riverhead.

Aside from helping community members through his work as a psychologist, Mr. Fenton was heavily involved in the community. He was a former district governor for Rotary International and past president of Riverhead Rotary and also spearheaded Hallockville Inc., which worked to preserve land and the historic farm houses that still sit on Sound Ave. at Hallockville Museum Farm in Riverhead.

According to his daughter, in fatherhood Mr. Fenton made sure to expose his children to many experiences and taught them to be kind to everyone.

“He always wanted to expose us to all types of people, all walks of life and expose us to whatever experiences he could give us, both positive and negative,” Ms. Sadowsky said. “We really had no exact understanding [of his impact on the community] until he was on his deathbed for the last 12 days of his life, when people were just flooding here to visit him and pay their respects and thank him.”

Mr. Fenton’s personality, humor and magnetism shone through, even in the midst of devastating disease, Ms. Fenton Charpentier said in the speech she gave at her father’s celebration of life.

“You saw the humor and beauty in this world even when you lost your eyesight,” she said. “We laughed together while the hospital walls closed in. You were talking about The Pogues to the hospital staff, while being transported to the beach house from [Memorial] Sloan Kettering hospital! You requested to listen to Genesis and asked to stop at Briermere Farm to buy a cream pie. The EMT worker texted me saying ‘your father is obviously not an ordinary man!!”

Mr. Fenton’s friend Father Peter Garry of St. Patrick parish in Southold said Mr. Fenton “gave a lot of people hope.”

“I mean, I think of myself as outgoing but his style put me to shame,” he said. “He was outgoing to everybody, that’s for sure.”

His natural charisma made him a coveted speaker and lecturer. Mr. Fenton held stress management seminars for anyone struggling with their mental health.

Mr. Fenton graduated from Holy Cross High School in Flushing. He then earned a degree in psychology from St. Michael’s College in Vermont and later a masters degree from Seton Hall University in New Jersey. 

He worked as a counselor and therapist in New Jersey, Staten Island, the Riverhead Correctional Facility and for 38 years at the Suffolk County Mental Health Department.

As a psychologist, he led the Bureau of Training and Education, creating a model training program for New York state. Mr. Fenton also helped organize mental health crisis teams for first responders to the 1996 TWA Flight 800 crash site and the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. 

After retiring in 2007, he continued giving back to the community, helping those struggling with addiction, many of whom were in Alcoholics Anonymous, like Mr. Fenton.

Some of the men Mr. Fenton sponsored in AA remain in touch with the family and were there in his final days. “They were really good to me,” Ms. Fenton said.

“He came home. He was in hospice for like 12 days here and these guys would call and say can I visit, can I come,” she said. “[They would come] in all these motorcycles and tattoos and the do-rags and they’d come and sit by his bed in the living room and they would just cry and just tell stories about how good he was to them.”

Mr. Fenton’s family knows his legacy of kindness will continue to live on.

“I would say that his legacy is immeasurable because it just continues on even though he passed away,” Ms. Fenton Charpentier said.

The post Jamesport psychologist Neil Fenton leaves behind a legacy of kindness appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

Riverhead police detectives and the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Department responded to the scene of the incident, which occurred at approximately 11:47 a.m., just east of Union Avenue.

“Upon Riverhead Police units’ arrival, it was ascertained that a 2018 BMW operated by 65-year-old Anthony Croce of Brooklyn collided head on with a 2002 Nissan operated by 67-year-old Matthew Schramm of Huntington Station. Both operators were the sole occupants of their respective vehicles and both sustained significant injuries,” the police press release stated.

Mr. Croce was transported via Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Mr. Schramm was rushed to Peconic Bay Medical Center with extensive injuries. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.

The investigation is ongoing, and police are encouraging anyone who witnessed the crash or has any information to contact the Riverhead Police Department at 631-727-4500.

The post Fatal car accident Friday on Main Road appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

Southold Town Board member Greg Doroski kicked things off by asking about the motivation behind and potential impact of a proposed Riverhead code-change that would allow agritourism inns and resorts along Sound Avenue, the main thoroughfare connecting the towns. He asked specifically if Riverhead officials viewed the proposal as a preservation effort or as an economic development opportunity.

“It’s a little bit of both,” Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said before deferring to fellow board member Ken Rothwell.

“We are overburdened by the tax bill,” Mr. Rothwell said. “We need to find ways in which not only can we preserve land but increase our tax base at the same time.”

Riverhead’s proposal would allow development across 100 acres of land located in its RA80 zoning district on the north side of Sound Avenue. That zoning allows low- to medium-density residential development while requiring the preservation of agricultural parcels, natural features and historic character. The proposal would divide each affected parcel, making 30% available for development and preserving 70% for agricultural use. 

The proposal also establishes setbacks for the resorts, with a minimum setback of 200 feet from Sound Avenue and 500 feet from the bluffs at the rear.

Asked by Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski asked if the if the proposed zoning change would apply to the “whole length of Sound Avenue,” Mr. Rothwell clarified that it would only apply to “approximately six parcels.” 

Mr. Rothwell described the legislation as a “tool for farming” and said a priority of the project is to retain the “agricultural, historical view and aesthetics.

“The developer must engage with a local farming operation — it could be farming of any type — meaning that they utilize these soils,” Mr. Rothwell said. “It could be a vineyard there, it could be farm-to-table ready, vegetables, anything in which they want to engage. This is an opportunity; it’s a tool for land preservation, for farmers … they can choose to use it or not use it.”

Southold Town Board member Brian Mealy asked if Riverhead has studied the potential traffic impacts of resort development. Mr. Rothwell replied that Riverhead would be required to do that only if a developer sought to create more than 250 rooms, and noted that, as written, the proposed legislation limits each resort to 150 rooms.

Mr. Doroski offered to share information with Riverhead officials about prior preservation initiatives within Southold Town and touting Southold’s “very successful land preservation program,” which he said has preserved more than 10,000 acres of land through the Community Preservation Fund.

Mr. Doroski also noted that he’d spoken with Riverhead’s agricultural advisory committee and noticed a lack of consensus on the proposal — and some opposition. Mr. Hubbard responded that some farmers felt the legislation was too restrictive.

“It’s not that,” Mr. Doroski countered. “It’s the fear that this doesn’t actually benefit small-scale agriculture. This is big-ag and more big development and really looking at the shift, the pressures of agriculture on small-scale producers are even greater than someone that can afford to go in and farm 70 acres.”

Riverhead has shelved the resort proposal multiple times due to disagreements with farmers and officials are still discussing the best way to refine the proposed legislation. “It isn’t done yet by any means,” Mr. Hubbard said.

“There’s a whole other side to this agritourism, and it’s a side that, if I were to discuss it, I would play devil’s advocate and counter a lot of things that [Mr. Rothwell] has said, because there’s a lot of the opposition we have in town and for various reasons, I tend to agree with a lot of those reasons,” the supervisor continued. “Farmers aren’t 100% on board with it for various reasons, the people don’t seem to be on board with it and you have to then weigh the negatives versus the positives and right now, I see a lot more negatives than any positives.”

The discussion then moved on to the SCWA’s North Fork pipeline plan, a $35 million project that would link the Pine Barrens aquifer to Southold Town. 

The pipeline is intended to reduce SCWA’s reliance on wells affected by salt-water intrusion and reduce capital outlays for construction of new well fields in the region.

Officials expect the project to be completed by 2030. However, officials from both Riverhead and Southold agree they want more information on this project before moving ahead.

“We have to be convinced here, from a quantity and quality standpoint — do we need this water coming from Flanders at great expense to the taxpayer,” Mr. Krupski said. “That pipeline’s not going to be free.”

Mr. Krupski asked Mr. Hubbard for Riverhead’s stance on the project.

“We know Suffolk County Water Authority would love to just march right on through Riverhead and come out here and take over your water and our water,” Mr. Hubbard said. “We have no desire whatsoever to ever give up our water district. Utilities like that are too precious to have in your hometown and have your own control with, and we can offer water at a cheaper rate than Suffolk County Water Authority does now.”

Mr. Hubbard said the original route the SCWA wanted to use for the pipeline — which he said would run through Peconic Bay Boulevard, Hubbard Avenue, Meeting House Creek Road — was unacceptable. 

“That just can’t happen,” he said. “[It would cause] too much disruption by the estuaries and everything close to the bay and all the estuaries they come off of, so we indicated to them that the only way we would even entertain this is if it went down [Route] 105 to Main Road/Route 25 and then came down Main Road out to here.”

But beyond the route itself, Mr. Hubbard also expressed skepticism about the overall project.

“Ultimately, [if] you don’t have the need for it out here, I don’t understand why they would invest that much money in it — or if [Southold doesn’t] want it out here, why they would invest so much money to try to come out and do this,” Mr. Hubbard said.

The board members also discussed holding a similar joint meeting again early next year. 

“I think this is a great idea,” Mr. Hubbard said. “I think Riverhead and Southold are kind of one and the same when it comes to a lot of issues.”

Mr. Krupski echoed Mr. Hubbard’s comments.

“It helps to talk,” he said. “We might have different paths on some things, but it’s good because [we have] so many different, common challenges.”

The post Riverhead and Southold Town Boards host rare joint work session  appeared first on Riverhead News Review.