Nesconset Neighborhood Says "NO" To Sonic

by Joe Flynn

On Tuesday, June 26^th, the Smithtown Board of Zoning Appeals held a public hearing in response to increasing opposition to the Sonic Drive-In restaurant proposed for Route 25 in Nesconset, opposite the Smith Haven Mall. The restaurant, which has locations across America, currently has only one branch on Long Island, on Deer Park Avenue in North Babylon. Remembering the notoriously heavy traffic following the opening of the restaurant last year, the neighbors in Nesconset are determined not to let that happen to their development.

Initial traffic is only a short-term concern, however. The location of the proposed restaurant is a highly controversial one directly between a major business district and a residential community. The property is currently wooded, serving as a buffer between residents and the noise of traffic. Nearby, where the Sonic restaurant is intended to go, the restaurant Ragazzi already causes some discomfort to neighbors, including a smell of cooking garlic that blows into people’s houses.

What makes Sonic unlike other fast-food places on Long Island is its drive-in system, customers park in a row parking at Sonic in North Babylonof car stalls and place their orders through a speaker system. The food is brought by carhops on roller skates, and a sound system entertains the diners with music. Compared to any other fast-food restaurant, this setup is far noisier and exposed to the properties around it.

“It’s really outdoor dining,” says neighbor Nora Dettling, whose property is directly adjacent to the proposed site. She lists many of the complaints presented at the hearing, including noise, increased traffic, and the dirty air and smell of car exhaust and food. On top of all this, the outdoor situation encourages strangers to wander onto her property and teenagers to spend time there late at night. Safety, convenience, and comfort are all at stake for those who live nearby.

Nora’s husband John Dettling had additional problems with the proposal. He says that the Zoning Board seemed sympathetic to residents, even though he was not personally allowed to speak before the BZA, as he was considered to be represented by the Country Pointe Development’s attorney. But he says the traffic plans, announced at the meeting, confirmed his worst fears. In addition to spill-through on Alexander Avenue, there is a proposed lane to allow cars to idle while waiting for a stall. “A McDonald’s would be a thousand times better, because it’s all contained inside. This business model would leave us living next to the Lincoln Tunnel.”

The Zoning Board is designed, like any court system, to make its decisions based on zoning and planning regulations rather than on popularity. The proberty zoned for business, would require a long list of variances before it comes to fruition. A significant part of the dispute lies under the restaurant’s classification; the town prohibits a curb-service restaurant on that property, but Sonic is applying as a counter-service restaurant with curb-service facilities, since it does include a handful of tables for indoor dining. To the neighbors, this definition makes all the difference, and they are willing to fight to make sure this neighbor does not move in.

Marion Carll Farm - Commack's History Or Is It History?

By Chad Kushins and P. Biancaniello

Bldg. on Marion Carll FarmMarion Carll Farm is in the news again for all the wrong reasons.  There is a tug-of-war going on between the Commack School District, Marion Carll’s heirs,  Commack Community Association (CCA) and Friends of Marion Carll Community Farm (FMCCF). 

Currently the Marion Carll Farm belongs to the Commack UFSD. The heirs of Marion Carll have filed a lawsuit accusing the district of violating the terms of Marion Carll’s bequeath and would like to see the property revert to them.  The CCA and FMCCF have been working to preserve the estate. The two organizations were championing the reuse of the property for an equestrian center and educational facility for the Association For Help of Retarded Children (AHRC). The district was finalizing negotiations with the AHRC before notification of the lawsuit was received.

The CCA and FMCCF fought an attempt (2010) by the district to sell the property to the Holiday Organization of Westbury, developers of The Hamlet in Commack. A referendum on the proposal to sell the property for $750,000 was held June 24, 2010  the proposition was defeated.  

In March of this year seventeen of Marion Carll’s heirs took legal action against the Commack School District and New York State.

In response to the lawsuit brought about by the heirs of  Marion Carll, the Commack School District filed a 24-page memorandum stating the district’s position on its ownership of the 9-acre plot of farm land where Carll once lived. 

The District’s response was announced at the June 14^th Board of Education meeting by Superintendent of Schools Donald James, who, reading from a prepared statement, claimed that the district’s actions are both to end the land dispute brought on by family members of Carll, and also to remove certain restrictions in the late woman’s will which dictate the land’s future usage.

“[The property] was conveyed to the Commack Union Free School District in 1969 from the Estate of Marion Carll,” said James, reading the district’s statement.   “The deed was subject to the life estate of Alberta Ketcham Jenkins, Marion Carll’s niece, who resided in the house until her death in 1993 … The deed also contains several conditions restricting the use of the Property for historical and educational purposes.

 “If any of these conditions are violated,” James concluded, “title to the property reverts to Marion Carll’s heirs.” The district’s legal response was not available to the public at the meeting.  After some discussion the BOE agreed to have the document posted on the district’s website.   

The ongoing dispute became publicly heated in March of this year when Marion Carll’s heirs filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Supreme Court, claiming that the district had largely underutilized the property since being handed the deed in 1969, thus making the school district susceptible to accusations of mismanagement – a direct violation of the will’s stipulation that could give the acreage right back to Carll’s family, represented by Huntington attorney Arthur Goldstein.

Initially, the Commack School District formally announced that they would not comment on the matter, nor respond to the Carll heirs’ lawsuit at all, prompting an outpouring of criticism from residents and civic leaders alike.  The lack of action also prompted a strongly worded letter from Commack Civic Association President Bruce Ettenberg who, representing the association, threatened the district with legal action against the board and its members if the matter wasn’t taken seriously.  “If the District is not willing to meet and discuss the matter with us then we are prepared to take legal action against both the District and personally against each trustee and the Superintendent,” Ettenberg stated in his May 31^st letter.  “We hope such will not be necessary.”

Part II Thursday

Tim Bishop Cosponsor Of Resolution Recognizing Leadership Conference Of Women Religious

Proposed Congressional resolution gives ‘deepest appreciation’ for LCWR

Reprint - National Catholic Reporter (NCR)

In what seems to be the highest-profile response yet to the Vatican’s sharp rebuke of the group representing the majority of U.S. women religious, sixty-two members of the U.S. House of Representatives have cosponsored a resolution expressing the “deepest appreciation” for the sisters’ work.

Citing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) — the group which was the subject of the April rebuke from the Vatican — by name, the sponsors of the resolution acknowledge the work of sisters in the U.S. in the fields of education, healthcare, and social justice ministry.

That work, reads the resolution, helps “make our nation stronger” and the sisters “deserve our deepest appreciation.”

The measure, officially titled “Honoring Catholic sisters for their contributions to the United States,” was introduced June 18 by Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a Catholic who represents Connecticut’s third district and is a member of the non-profit organization Catholic Democrats.

Among the reasons given in the resolution for Congress to support the sisters are that they:

• •   “were instrumental in building the Catholic Church in the United States;”
• •   “helped establish the nation’s largest private school system, educating millions of young              Americans;” and,
• •  have answered Vatican II’s call to seek ‘justice in the world’” and “continue this vital mission today: teaching our children in schools, healing the sick in hospitals, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, administering major institutions, encouraging corporate responsibility, and advocating for public policies that honor human dignity.”            

The resolution also mentions the fact that, by the writers’ count, “since 1980, 9 American sisters have been martyred while working for social justice and human rights overseas.”

In an April 18 order to the LCWR, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered that the group revise its statues and programs and place itself under the authority of three bishops.

Statements from LCWR and Vatican officials since have seemed to indicate the two groups are at a standstill of sorts regarding the order. In a June 12 interview with NCR following a meeting in Rome on the matter, the head of the Vatican congregation, Cardinal William Levada, warned of a possible “dialogue of the deaf” between the group.

Days later, LCWR’s president, Franciscan Sr. Pat Farrell, told NCR June 18 she’s “not sure” of the best way for her group to continue its conversations with Vatican officials as they both “need to get beneath the polarizations out of which we’re speaking to one another.”

Members of LCWR are expected to address the matter more deeply in their upcoming annual assembly, to be held in St. Louis in August.

Among the cosponsors of the Congressional resolution are a number of prominent Catholic representatives, including Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jackie Speier of California, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, and Tim Bishop of New York.

Editorial - Affordable Care Act

We do a lot of things because our government requires it of us: we buy car insurance, vaccinate our children, follow speed limits, educate our children, put our children in car seats, our children wear helmets when they bike ride, we do not smoke in public places, we don’t burn leaves, we put fences around pools and we don’t serve alcohol to minors.  I’m sure you get my drift.  Government passes laws to protect and promote the well being of its citizens.

How many people would educate their children if a law didn’t require it?  How many people would not have their children vaccinated against the terrible diseases that now are almost unheard of in the United States?

I think we can all agree that there is a correlation between compliance to what we know is good policy and government legislation.

The Affordable Care Act may not be a panacea for all the health care issues facing our nation.  It will be expensive (although it is not as expensive as the Afghanistan/ Iraq wars). It has not been explained very well, leaving most people wondering what it is going to cost them personally.  The fact that it will not be fully implemented until 2014 makes it suspicious at best.

We know some of the benefits of the act already; children can be covered by parents insurance until they are 26, and pre-existing conditions will not prohibit one from getting coverage. Rates will not be raised and coverage will not be denied when someone is ill. Insurance providers will be required to invest in health care and to minimize administrative costs.

There will be more discussion and tweaking of the Affordable Health Care Act before it is fully implemented. It is in our best interest to put political rhetoric aside and try to find a way to make this policy work as efficiently and economically as possible.

To those who are of the belief that requiring individuals to purchase health insurance is equivalent to revoking an individual’s freedom I ask you how? Is this so very different from other government policy listed above?

There are real and there are imagined threats to individual freedom and I suspect that emotions run hot and cold as to what the threats may be.

Here are a few of the ways I think government is overreaching: having drones prowling the sky of the United States, posting cameras to monitor everything, allowing government access to personal conversations online and on the telephone, keeping files on private website use, killing American citizens in foreign countries and getting involved in an individual’s reproductive health decisions.

Requiring me to purchase health insurance does not make me feel less free.  Big Brother, now that’s enough to keep me awake at night.

Pat

Bobwhite Quails - Natures Way Of Reducing The Tick Population

By Chris Biancaniello

(photos added after today’s Bobwhite Quail Release)

Ticks, the cause of such ailments as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, have been multiplying unchecked on Long Island. According to the State Department of Health since 1986, there have 96,000 reported occurrences of Lyme disease in New York State. Eric Powers, a Long Island biologist is trying to combat this with an eco-friendly solution - Bobwhite Quails.

Bobwhite Quail Release - photo Smithtown MattersBobwhite Quails, native to Long Island, were once seen in abundance but as the population of people grew so did that of one of the quails predators - the house cat. With the increase in the cat population, the numbers of Bobwhite Quails started to dwindle and the tick population began to grow. Mr. Powers believes that the two are directly correlated. Bobwhite Quails are ground dwelling birds. They prey upon spiders, grasshoppers, and most importantly ticks.

That is why this Saturday, June 30^th, Mr. Powers is holding the 9^th annual Bobwhite Quail Release in Caleb Smith State Park, his main area of operation. He will be releasing over 200 birds in hopes that they will not only survive and breed, but they will help keep the tick population in check. The Quails come from classrooms across Long Island that are teaching incubation to students. Mr. Powers asked a number of teachers to incubate Bobwhite Quails instead of ducks. After they hatch, volunteers within the community help by raising them to ten weeks, when they are released to high-density tick populated areas. While Eric Powers releases most of the Bobwhite Quails, there are times when teachers and students release them in continuation of their class project.

Since the birds are native to Long Island, there is not much of a negative impact in releasing them, as opposed to something foreign that could end up reeking havoc on the ecosystem. “Lowering the tick population is a side effect of something that brings the ecosystem back into balance,” said Powers. The only reason some parks do not allow Quail releases is because of the changes that are necessary in order to create an appropriate habitat. “Caleb Smith State Park is most welcoming to my project. They have madeBobwhite Quail - First to be released. photo Smithtown Matters resources available for me to not only house the birds, but to also give my volunteers access after hours to attend to the birds. They have been very welcoming and very accommodating.”

Truth be told, the lasting success of the project depends mostly on people. “If we stop our efforts right now, the tick population in those areas will spike again.

Since the birds are ground dwelling and forage on the ground in open areas they are easy prey for all kinds of animals but especially cats. The Bobwhite Quail population can be decimated very quickly. “It’s mostly because we’re not addressing the fact that people let their cats out. Within six months or so after releasing the birds, the same problem reoccurs.” In fact Powers stated that only about 1% of the birds he releases would survive through the year to reproduce.

When asked what people can do to help support the cause he said, “The biggest thing that I’ve noticed is just keeping your cats indoors. In some towns across Long Island there are different town ordinances that say it is illegal to let pets roam the neighborhood. Just keeping pets contained in the house will have a positive effect on the environment.”

Caleb Smith Park Bobwhite Quail Release - photo Smithtown Matters