There were few questions from members of the Noyac Civic Council Tuesday night about the proposed renovation at the John Jermain Memorial Library. A notable exception was Jim Posner, a resident of Noyac and former member of the committee designed to plan an expansion of the library, who is at odds with the most recent proposal for the library.

As presented by library director Cathy Creedon at Tuesday night’s meeting of the NCC, the current proposal is to expand off the back of the historic building with a more modern design of steel and glass. The three-story addition would add about 7,000 square feet to the building, doubling its size.

Among the features in the new library would be an elevator — which the library does not have at present — a community room with a separate entrance so it can be used after hours, an expanded children’s section plus more room for the regular collection, a plaza for outdoor programs, a climate-controlled space for archives and a business center which will offer such things as computer and copier services for the public.

The library also hired a traffic planner, who has made a proposal for one of the stickier problems: finding parking. As planned, six parking spots, including handicapped, would be dedicated on the north side of Jefferson Street, in front of the library’s handicap entrance. The planner also proposes striping parking on the streets immediately surrounding the library.

Parking was one of the key issues for promoting a second library building to be constructed adjacent to Mashashimuet Park; a proposal Posner championed two years ago. That plan has been scrapped.

“In 1923 they noted the inadequacies of parking at this library, and thought they may have to put up parking limit signs,” Posner told the membership. “It’s the same streets, with the same amount of parking. It doesn’t do anything for Noyac.”

He noted the last bond the library tried to pass, for $8.5 million, failed two-to-one.

“And now they’re asking for $10 million,” he said.

He also criticized the appearance of a steel and glass addition “wrapped around” the historic building, calling it “ungainly,” and criticized the efforts of the current library administration to significantly raise money for the project.

“This committee has done practically nothing,” charged Posner, adding that “it is largely dominated by downtown interests.”

“Sixty-one percent of the people who voted in the last general election were from outside the village,” claimed Posner. “The (library) board doesn’t reflect anyone from beyond downtown.”

Creedon challenged Posner, saying, she too, was from beyond the village limits, as were four members of the board.

She also said the renovation has a lot to offer Noyac residents, not the least of which would be a leak-proof and well-heated building.

The library has also actively been seeking outside funding for the renovation, with potential donors for the archive space and children’s room already lined up. Beyond the $10 million bond, Creedon said she has promised the board she would raise another $2 million from private sources.

As for parking, she said the designers have already created several new spaces, and early presentations to village boards have been well received.

“Parking is not just a library issue,” she said, “but it’s a concern for the whole community.” She said there was no architectural design for the addition, and couldn’t be until the referendum had passed.

Civic council treasurer Nick Metz asked what would happen with the property the library bought adjacent to the park.

“We could sell it for affordable housing, or may hold on to it for the period of construction as a temporary facility,” said Creedon, “or use it later on for some library purpose.”

“What happens if the referendum doesn’t pass,” asked Metz.

“I’d go home and have a stiff cup of coffee and make plans for what to do next,” said Creedon.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Three years ago, the Sag Harbor Methodist Church congregation found itself in a dire situation. Only 15 parishioners consistently attended Sunday mass – a meager number by congregation standards – and the average age of a church member was around 72, said Pastor Tom MacLeod. After completing a full assessment of their former Madison Street home, a towering building – with a columned entrance – dating back to the 1800s, the congregation learned the space was in need of repairs totaling $1 million.
“My predecessors were in a crisis mode trying to figure out how to keep the building open,” said MacLeod, who took over the church in 2002, of the pastors before him. “It was overwhelming just figuring out if we had enough money to put the heat on … It would have been a matter of time before the church would have been ‘aged out.’”
Although unfortunate, the predicament of the Sag Harbor Methodist Church was far from unusual. According to MacLeod, Protestant churches have noticed a steady decline in numbers since the late 1960s. In fact, this phenomenon was one reason MacLeod entered the church.
“I was first involved [with the church] as a layperson … But one of my calls to the ministry was the decline of the church … It really grieved me to watch a church in decline. I wanted to know why we were accepting this … Why there wasn’t anything that could be done to stop it,” said MacLeod.
The Sag Harbor Methodist Congregation voted to circumvent certain death by selling the building to former Southampton Town Councilman Dennis Suskind for $2.9 million in spring 2007 and relocating.
“Almost all of us agreed that it was necessary for the survival of the church [to sell the building],” said church trustee Bruce Saul. “The survival of the church was more important than the survival of the building.”
As part of the agreement to move, MacLeod found an interim space for the congregation and a plot of land for sale just outside the village on which a new church would be constructed.
Coincidentally, the members of the Sag Harbor Methodist Church found themselves temporarily located in the former St. David African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church on Eastville Avenue. The AME Church, founded in 1840, had closed its doors nearly a decade ago because of dwindling membership and the steady aging of its parishioners.

Although the fate of the AME church serves as a constant reminder to the Sag Harbor Methodist congregation of their once possible fate, the church numbers are now booming and they are preparing to break ground at the new property. The plan was in front of the Southampton Town Planning Board for the first time last week. CHECK THIS

“When Tom came, we started to grow,” said Carol Elmslie, a 21-year member of the congregation. “Tom brought a new openness and freedom to the church. He brings people from great distances and a big draw is the praise music instead of the organ.”
In an effort to attract new parishioners, and cut down on costs, church member Suzanne Lewis began to sing and play the guitar every Sunday.
“In all of the handbooks on church growth, they tell you to hire a music director and youth group leader … We didn’t have the funds available, so we decided to keep things simple and do the best we could with what we had,” said MacLeod.
The change in style seems to have paid off for the church. On Easter Sunday, almost sixty consistent members attended mass, as MacLeod preached with humor and humanism while describing the struggle between the Philistines and the Israelites. The congregation, however, squeezed into the space and only a few seats were left open.
“We are all looking forward to the new space,” said recent member Carol Jaswal. “Even on regular Sundays there are not many seats left.”
The public hearing on the church’s plans for their new space was closed without public comment on Thursday, April 9, at the town’s planning board meeting. Architectural engineer Matthew Sherman, of the Shelter Island-based firm Sherman Engineering and Consulting, gave the board a brief presentation on the church’s intended plans for the site. The church would like to construct a 6,776 square foot building, complete with sanctuary, basement, fellowship hall, kitchen and bathrooms at the corner of Carroll Street and the Sag Harbor/Bridgehampton Turnpike. The neighbors adjacent to the property, including Sag Harbor Village Trustee Brian Gilbride and Pamela Kern of Harbor Heights, are in favor of the project.
Paul Mott, however, of the Mott Family who sold the church the parcel, said he would like to see a 50-foot buffer of land between the edge of his property and the proposed church parking lot. As the plans stand today, there is 20 feet between the parking lot and Mott’s land.
To ameliorate the problem, Sherman suggested taking away a few parking spaces.
“We proposed 54 spaces … But we really need only 48. If we take six spaces out that would pull back [the space between Mott’s property and the parking lot],” said Sherman.
Overall, MacLeod expects the project to cost between $1.3 to $1.5 million, in addition to the $695,000 cost to purchase the land. MacLeod added that the church – after paying various taxes and agents’ fees – netted nearly $2.7 million in the sale of the Madison Street building.
Although, the property on the turnpike will no doubt serve the congregation for many years, MacLeod noted that the church moved four times since it first began in the early 1800s.
“We had to adapt to the needs of the church … But the church is not the building,” said MacLeod. “When I go to visit people in the hospital and tell them the church is praying for them. They don’t envision the building. They envision the people.”

Popularity: 3% [?]

A former Suffolk County legislator was among five suspects arrested Wednesday on grand larceny charges by fraudulently obtaining more than $50 million dollars in mortgages on dozens of homes in Southampton Town, including several a few miles from Sag Harbor in and around Noyac and Water Mill. 

In a second scheme, an East Islip man and a Farmingville suspect are charged with attempted mortgage fraud for filing bogus paperwork to attain mortgages for homes in Deer Park, Amityville, Jamaica, Queens and Brooklyn.

District Attorney Thomas Spota said the alleged frauds employed the use of straw purchasers to victimize lenders by filing false loan applications that claimed the homebuyers were employed by various corporations owned or controlled by the scheme’s participants. Another scheme, alleged to have been used to secure money, District Attorney Spota said, involved “mortgage stacking”; the creation of bogus title reports that concealed outstanding mortgages on properties and showed the homes to be owned “free and clear” and unencumbered by existing liens.  

Arraigned Wednesday in Southampton Justice Court on three counts of first degree grand larceny and first degree scheme to defraud are former Suffolk County Legislator George O. Guldi of 44 Brushy Neck Lane Westhampton Beach and Ethan E. Ellner, 54 Sagamore Drive Plainview. 

Guldi, 55, an attorney who served two terms in the county legislature, and Ellner, 49, an attorney and operator of Suburban Abstract, a title company in Stony Brook, allegedly defrauded lending institutions of millions of dollars by using forged documents, false employment and income information on applications, straw buyers, false powers of attorney, deed flipping, and mortgage stacking, said the district attorney in a press release Wednesday.

Codefendants Donald C. MacPherson, 65, and Carrie Coakley of New York and Dustin J. Dente of Roslyn pled not guilty at their arraignments today in Southampton Justice Court.  MacPherson is charged with two counts of first degree grand larceny and one charge of first degree scheme to defraud.  Macpherson’s wife, Carrie Coakley is charged with first degree scheme to defraud.  Dente, 37, an attorney, is charged with two counts of first degree grand larceny. 

 “The damage these defendants single-handedly caused to our local economy is simply appalling,” Spota said.  The district attorney said the defendants engaged in “a seven-year mortgage fraud spree” involving dozens of several east end homes, including a house at 1106 North Sea Road in Southampton, and two Water Mill homes at 982 Noyac Path and 2027 Deerfield Road. 

 

The alleged scheme to defraud involved three basic forms of fraud:

Use of “straw buyers”:

Evidence gathered during the course of the investigation, said Spota, found the defendants used straw buyers (or as they called them “investors”) with fictitious employment and income information for use on mortgage applications to make the mortgage applicants appear far wealthier and thusly, a much lower risk for lenders.

Specifically straw buyers in the scheme charged Wednesday were falsely listed as having incomes as high as $45,000 per month as employees of companies the defendants owned.

One of these companies was Arena Studios, Inc. located at 407 Broome Street in Manhattan; a business that at one time provided dominatrix services. This club was also used by the defendants to successfully solicit straw buyers.

Another source of straw buyers for the scheme to defraud was Maximum Restraint Films and McPherson’s publication, The Soho Journal, said the district attorney, who added publication also promoted Hamptons rental properties fraudulently purchased and used as summer rentals by the defendants.  Another MacPherson firm, the Hamptons Consulting Group, he said, was used as the employer for a straw buyer to falsely report an annual salary of $325,000 per year on a mortgage application.

 

Fraud by Mortgage Stacking and Title Washing:

Mortgage stacking involves the acquisition of a second and in some cases a third mortgage on a house through the use of a bogus title report that falsely reports to the lending institution that no first mortgage exists on the property.

A 2004 mortgage disappeared from the title history of 982 Noyac Path, Water Mill facilitating a fraud in which the name and credit of a person was used to purchase and obtain a first and second mortgage on the property totaling approximately $1.7million dollars, said the district attorney.

The mortgage applicant, on paper, was fraudulently portrayed to have been employed at the SoHo Journal for 10 years as the Director of Sales earning $36,000 a month. In truth, the applicant was not an employee of the publication and had no knowledge that their name and credit was being used to purchase and mortgage a house in the Hamptons, the district attorney said. In 2007, the house went into foreclosure.

While in foreclosure, a straw buyer purportedly employed by Maximum Restraint Films with a monthly income of $45,000 was used in January 2008 to purchase and mortgage the Noyac Path property for another $2 million. The Noyac Path title report was again altered to falsely report to the lender that the first and second mortgage, totaling $1.5 million (and pending in foreclosure), had been satisfied, the release said.

 The mortgage stacking fraud and a straw buyer were also used by some of the defendants to illicitly obtain a loan for a house at 1106 North Sea Road, Water Mill. The investigation established the title report falsely cleared an original $1.25 million dollar mortgage after a new $1.8 million dollar mortgage was obtained.  The evidence found the proceeds of the new mortgage flowed into the accounts of defendants Ellner, Guldi and Dente, claimed the release.

A home at 2027 Deerfield Road in Water Mill, originally titled to Walter Guldi, the father of defendant George Guldi, with an outstanding mortgage of approximately $1.5 million dollars went into foreclosure in 2005. George Guldi acted as the attorney representing the estate in the foreclosure action.  In May 2008, the defendants are alleged to have washed the title of 2027 Deerfield Path of the original mortgage to receive a new $1.8 million dollar mortgage obtained in the name of a straw purchaser.  Proceeds of the stacked mortgage flowed into accounts controlled by Defendants Ellner, Guldi and Dente, the release said.

All three houses are or have been in foreclosure.

 

“We found the defendants repeatedly ignored the obligation to pay off existing mortgages and instead funneled the money into their personal accounts to finance their businesses and lifestyles,” District Attorney Spota noted. 

Arrested by Mortgage Fraud Unit detective investigators Wednesday for alleged mortgage fraud involving homes in western Suffolk and New York City are Ellner, Gary Small, 41, 9 Greentree Avenue in Farmingville and Victor Jinete, 34, of 35 Starlight Drive in East Islip.

Ellner, Small and Jinete pleaded not guilty in first district court in Central Islip today on four charges of Attempted Mortgage Fraud second degree.  Jinete also pleaded not guilty to one count of first degree scheme to defraud. The alleged schemes involve the use of straw buyers and title washing resulting in fraudulent mortgages being issued by duped lenders for properties at 64 Duke Street, Deer Park, 130-25 Inwood Street, Jamaica, 891 Glenmore Avenue, Brooklyn NY and 40 Darerka Street, Amityville.

 

Popularity: 14% [?]

Looking Out for Taxpayers

 

Dear Editor,

We are fortunate to have elected officials like Linda Kabot and Greg Ferraris setting the appropriate tone for reining in spending. Linda Kabot cut her salary by $5,000 when she took office as town supervisor of Southampton as well as freezing the salaries of administrators. As the town supervisor, she oversees a population of nearly 60,000 residents. In promoting more transparency, Supervisor Kabot posted the budget and salaries for the Town of Southampton on the town’s website.

Greg Ferraris, the mayor of the Village of Sag Harbor, and the village trustees likewise took a 10 percent pay cut.

Fred Thiele, our state assemblyman who represents 130,000 constituents, has not gotten a pay raise since 1999. He still earns only $79,500 a year as a member of the legislature. Assemblyman Thiele is always looking out for the taxpayers first.

These are just three public servants who attempt to set an example of running a leaner government. Supervisor Kabot and Mayor Ferraris chose to cut their salaries, not only discretionary spending in these difficult times. Their modest gestures communicate immeasurable good will to the public. It would be nice if the Sag Harbor Board of Education set the same tone for the 2009-2010 budget. Maybe the board should look into staffing ratios to offset any pay raises they contemplate.

Thomas Loreto

Noyac

 

Good News in the Snow

 

Dear Editor,

These days when all the news seems bad and I woke up to a snowfall that I knew would take me a week to dig out. I couldn’t help but feel a bit discouraged and somewhat gloomy.

Well, it didn’t turn out to be such a bad day, A gentleman passing by in his grey combination station wagon/panel truck/SUV (I’m not good at identifying cars these days) with Emerson written in chrome on the side, stopped and, taking a shovel out of the back of his vehicle, lent a hand. Cheerfully saying “community service,” he dug right in and quickly shoveled all the heavy buildup from the snowplows making the street accessible and then, just as quickly before we could exchange names, he went on his way.

How could anyone be discouraged after such an act of kindness? I thanked him then and if you know him, give him a pat on the back for a job well done.

Sincerely,

L. Freethy

Sag Harbor

 

Finding Educational Cost Balance

 

Dear Editor,

In last week’s editorial you refer to a per pupil cost of “upwards of $25,000 per year to teach a kid.” You then reflect on this statement and assert “the truth of the matter is it really doesn’t cost that much — not to teach them — since there are non-educational expenses such as transportation mixed in with the budget.”

Your entire premise needs further clarification.

This important statistic, data gathered by the New York State Education Department, and presented in “Vital Signs,” reports that the per pupil cost is calculated by taking the total budget minus transportation divided by school enrollment. It makes no assertion that this is a teaching expense only. It is a total per pupil expense in a school district without considering transportation, and a valuable starting point when analyzing or benchmarking a school district’s cost and efficiencies.

You join the ranks of many well-meaning people and groups that just don’t accept this and other valuable statistics available to them in analyzing and comparing district costs.

These valuable statistics include, but are not limited to the following: teacher to pupil ratio, teaching assistant to pupil ratio, total staff enrollment ratios, percent of Regents diplomas, and percent of graduates enrolling in four year college programs. These statistics must be incorporated with other statistics in guiding school districts to determine future strategic approaches to evolving needs. The teaching experience and higher education accomplishment of faculties should be compared when making any analysis, along with percentages of students in different programs, as well as many other considerations.

Finally, and importantly, the demographic make up of a school district should be analyzed and considered, and in addition, the economy of the district and beyond should play into the strategic planning of the future structure and cost of a school district. Currently, my understanding is, the Sag Harbor property taxpayers are composed of about 55% second homeowner taxpayers who do not vote here and their children are not enrolled in the school district, 20% senior citizens and around 10% of taxpayers who send their children to parochial and private schools at a minimal cost to the district.

As we move forward, we should make every effort to protect our community, consider all of our taxpayers and this difficult economy in our district’s educational planning. We should challenge and validate statistics as we analyze and benchmark comparable data.

I am sure that working together all responsible parties that influence strategic decisions for our school district can achieve results that reflect both a high quality education for our students, as well as a responsibility to the property taxpayer, many of whom are without a voice or a family participation in the educational process.

Respectfully,

Ed Drohan

Noyac

 

Pay Attention

 

Dear Editor,

They mean what they say. George W. Bush came into office trumpeting his “compassionate conservative” credentials. He meant just that: he gave tax breaks to the corporations and wealthy individuals towards whom alone his compassion was directed.

He told investors his name was Madoff, but they paid no attention until he mad(e)-off with their money.

The Republican Party wants Sarah Palin to be their next Commander-in-Chief. They just might mean it until they find out who she is paling with across the Bering Strait. Watch out! However, that could mean good relations with Russia.

It is time we started paying very close attention to what people say — especially prominent business and public figures. Failure to do so could be costly. People don’t always mean what they say or say what they mean. But they sometimes do.

Yours sincerely,

David Carney

Sag Harbor 

Popularity: 10% [?]

Some have observed that it takes someone getting killed to put up a stop light at a dangerous intersection. Will it take more than that to get some traffic calming in Noyac?

In one week’s time, at a tiny yet increasingly treacherous stretch of Noyac Road, we have seen one man killed and another woman nearly killed. It is apparently only a miracle that saved a young woman on her first day of work from escaping being crushed by a pickup truck that came hurtling through the side wall of The Whalebone General Store last Friday. Exactly one week before, on a slick road, a driver failed to negotiate the bend in the road and slammed into a tree just feet away from The Whalebone. The driver was killed and his two passengers were injured.

Alcohol has apparently been involved with the most recent accident, and speed may be a contributing factor in both, which underscores the need for creating a safer environment for both the drivers and the pedestrians who frequent the increasingly busy hamlet.

The area around The Whalebone and Cromer’s Market is a nexus for pedestrian and vehicular traffic that is going uncontrolled. It has become a very popular shopping area — which is great — but coupled with increasing car and truck traffic and a winding country road, the stretch is begging for a safer plan.

Southampton Town has made a couple of proposals to calm this section of the road, by installing a median and actually moving the road further to the south by about 16-feet in order to make it easier for vehicles to get in and out of the parking lot.

But frankly, more needs to be done, and by the events this past week, they need to be done soon. We suggest the town take a good look at traffic from Trout Pond to the Waterside Condominiums in an effort to find ways to slow traffic before it gets into the business district. We wouldn’t mind if traffic crawled through the area —  think bulb-outs, neck-downs and medians that, by design, force cars to slow down.

It would give pedestrians a better chance at crossing the road safely, and — at the rate things are going — probably save a couple of lives. 

Popularity: 12% [?]

Call it what you will: fate, luck, a miracle, but the fact that no one was killed when a truck plowed through the wall at the Whalebone General Store in Noyac on Friday afternoon is certainly remarkable. It appears that, at least for two women, tasks that took them out of the normal routine of their day contributed to their lives being spared.

At about 2:40 on Friday afternoon, a driver who has told police he felt dizzy while driving eastbound on Noyac Road, apparently blacked out, crossed over the west bound lane of traffic and went through a small garden supply area next to the building before crashing through the wall and landing completely in the store.

“He apparently went a bit airborne, since there is a small retaining wall just outside the building,” said Kristen Heine, whose family has owned the popular general store since 1985.

The truck drove over the store’s check out counter where, normally, an employee would have been taking care of a customer, perhaps buying a greeting card, or trying their luck with the lottery.

The driver of the truck, a 2005 Chevrolet pickup, has been identified as Donald W. Calabrese, 62, of Sagaponack, and has since been charged with driving while intoxicated.

Photos of the site show the truck surrounded by wrecked counters and shelving, balloons, gift items and boxes. Even a stuffed animal sits in the foreground. The photos do not show the lone employee at work that afternoon, who was standing only a few feet away from where the pickup came to rest. As it turns out, Friday was her first day on the job.

“The whole day was a series of unplanned events,” said Linda Heine, Kristen’s mother. She said the young woman who was working when the crash occurred was actually filling in for another woman who had to leave early that day.

“I didn’t do what I was supposed to on Friday,” she said. “I’m almost always there.”

Indeed, Mrs. Heine had returned recently from the annual gift fair in New York City, and had planned on spending the afternoon at the Whalebone, making follow-up calls and making sure orders for new stock were received.

Instead, Mrs. Heine accompanied her husband, George, to the eye doctor.

Mr. Heine had ordered a new pair of glasses and wanted his wife to see them.

“I trust her opinion,” Mr. Heine confided.

“I really didn’t want to go,” Mrs. Heine admitted. But she agreed to the trip to Southampton.

Also that day, the woman who normally would have been working had to leave early, and the Heines called in a new woman to help out.

“She’s a friend of the family and I was very impressed with her when I first interviewed her,” said Mrs. Heine. “She knows what she is doing.”

“I knew I was going to be about 15 minutes late getting back,” said Mrs. Heine,” but I felt she could do anything.”

And it was the new woman’s attentiveness and reliability that possibly saved her life.

When Mrs. Heine spoke to the woman — who she asked not to identify — about her chores for the first day, she asked her specifically to vacuum and straighten up an area about two aisles away from the counter. So after only about a half hour into her first day, and after helping a couple of customers with the purchase of lottery tickets, the young woman found herself straightening up the aisle.

“She reached down to turn on the vacuum and heard a terrible explosion,” said Mr. Heine. “She thought she blew up the building.”

At the exact moment the woman flipped the on switch, the pickup came barreling through the wall, creating a giant cloud of smoke.

“At first she couldn’t see the truck,” said Mr. Heine.

But as the smoke cleared, she found herself pushed up against a glass candy counter and the checkout counter pressed up against her legs.

“She could have been cut to ribbons if the glass had broken,” said Mrs. Heine.

“It was her work ethic that saved her life,” said Mr. Heine. “She was told to clean up that aisle, and that’s the first thing she did.”

While not injured, the woman was taken to Southampton Hospital because she was shaken by the accident. Calabrese was also taken to Southampton Hospital, but apparently did not sustain any injuries. He was arraigned on Saturday in Southampton Town Justice Court.

“For all intents and purposes I was supposed to be there, sitting at the counter checking on the orders,” said Mrs. Heine. “There were no customers in the store at the time, no delivery people, someone buying lottery tickets had just left.”

“It’s a miracle no one was killed,” said Mr. Heine. “I don’t care what you say; God was in the store that day.”

 

Popularity: 11% [?]

On Friday, January 30, at around 7:05 p.m., Southampton Town Police received a report of a single motor vehicle accident on Noyac Road which took the life of 21-year-old Evaristo Choy Lix, a Noyac resident.

An investigation revealed that Lix was driving his 1998 Saturn four-door sedan westbound on Noyac Road when, according to police, he collided with a tree on the north shoulder of the road at the intersection with Elm Street. The reason Lix lost control of the vehicle is unclear, say police, and the accident is still under investigation.

Following the accident, Lix was flown by Suffolk County Medevac to Stony Brook University Hospital where he died from his injuries. Two passengers in the car were also injured. One occupant was also flown to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was listed in stable condition. The second passenger was transported to Southampton Hospital were he was treated for his injuries and later released.

According to a police source, an autopsy will be conducted to rule out intoxication as a possible cause of the accident.

Lix was a native of Guatemala, born September 19, 1987 to Juan Roman Choy Nij and Yolanda Lix Camey. He was employed locally as a carpenter.

Lix is survived by his parents; siblings Marta Julia, Teresa, Julia Rosaura, Ana Diselida, Alexander, Maria Asuncion and Florinda; and grandparents Anacleto Choy and Rodrigo Lix; all of Guatemala.

The family received friends on Wednesday, February 4, at the DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Mattituck. Lix’s remains will be returned home for interment in his native Guatemala.

Popularity: 9% [?]

In the area along Noyac Road, where Cromer’s Country Market, the Whalebone General Store and George Heine Reality lie, a facelift may soon take place. The area has long been a target of concern given the number of customers frequenting those businesses and the difficulties experienced when maneuvering in and out of the parking lot. Engineers hired by Southampton Town will revisit the idea of traffic calming in that stretch of Noyac Road based on a plan that has been on and off the table in recent years. Now, there is the possibility of a phased-in approach for the plan.

On Friday at a town board work session, Southampton Town Planning and Development Administrator Jefferson Murphree said that the town is trying to work closely with property owners to come to consensus on a plan that will slow traffic in that area, while also providing a happy medium for the business owners.

The plan presented on Friday in Southampton Town Hall shows improvements along Noyac Road that include the addition of an island in the middle of the road, just west of the shopping area. That island is designed to slow traffic around the bend just past the intersection of Elm Street and Noyac Road. In front of the businesses, an additional 16 feet of roadway is proposed to widen the road. The additional land would come from a vacant property across the street, which is owned by the Town of Southampton.

The engineers of P.E., L.K. McLean Associates proposed adding a raised median that would run almost the entire length of the businesses in the shopping center. The median would be similar to the median in front of village hall in North Haven and composed of grey brick.

The shop owners in the audience, however, worried that a raised median would negatively affect their businesses and do not like the idea. Neither does Chuck Neuman, president of the Noyac Civic Council.

“We have talked about this for four years. Let’s get a conclusion — build the whole damn thing without that,” said Neuman pointing at the median in front of the shops.

“We have talked about the improvements for a long time and talked to business owners to come up with a compromise,” said councilman Chris Nuzzi.

The meeting room quickly erupted in debate with audience members and town representatives all talking at once, arguing their case for improvements along that road — the Noyac audience not in favor of the implementation of a median in that area.

“When the delivery trucks are there, [in the parking area] there is no way for people to get in or out,” said Linda Heine, owner of the Whalebone.

“An alternative is a plush island,” engineer Ray Dibase responded. “The drawback is that drivers could drive over it. We think a raised island is more effective.”

“We had this discussion last year,” Nuzzi said in an attempt to move the argument forward. “We need to get beyond that.”

Neuman said that what business owners would like to see is a “safe shopping experience.” He added this was the first time he was hearing of the additional 16 feet of property to be used to widen the roadway.

Nuzzi, who requested the work session on this project, explained that the goal of the project is to slow traffic, constrain cars on either side of the road and to add a turn lane. The issue that remains, he said, is the barrier between the westbound traffic and the businesses.

Supervisor Linda Kabot responded that it is important to get the project underway because the funding, which had originally been earmarked for the roundabout at Long Beach Road and Noyac Road, would have to be re-directed.

“We are getting ahead of ourselves,” Nuzzi explained, “We need to come to consensus if we are okay with proceeding with this project without that barrier.”

Town board members agreed that the plan could go forth with the improvements — minus the barrier.

Murphree said that the engineers will go back and work on what may be “shovel ready” for a phased-in approach to the project.

 Nuzzi said on Monday that he is working on securing the funding for the project. He added that the town will measure results of traffic calming after the first phase of the project is completed, and if that shows the median is still necessary to improve the situation, the town could implement it at a later date.

Councilperson Nancy Graboski added that she wouldn’t want to see a “shovel in the ground” for this project between May 1 and September 15, so as not to interrupt traffic flow on Noyac Road during the busy summer months.

Nuzzi responded that he would like to see the project completed before the summer, if possible. 

 Illustration above shows proposal to create median in front of Cromer’s Market/Whalebone General Store.

Popularity: 5% [?]

by Jim Marquardt

 “Oh yes, Christmas dinner with your family would be wonderful. We just don’t eat pork, but we will like anything else you serve…No, Muslims don’t drink wine or any other alcohol…We would be happy to be with you. Thank you. Thank you.”

Early in the afternoon on Christmas Day we drove 33-year old Firas, his younger brother Ali and their mother Malkia to our house. At the door Firas asked, “Should we take off our shoes?” Not a bad custom, but we said “Not necessary.” Firas proudly presented my wife Ann with a bag of Starbucks Coffee. Malkia wore a black head scarf called a “hijab” and we were afraid our grandchildren — five, three and two-years old — might be uneasy, but they were more interested in riding a plastic roller coaster than in noticing our Iraqi guests.

Because Firas had worked in Baghdad as an engineer for Bechtel, an American company, Al Qaeda killed one of his brothers, mistaking him for Firas, then kidnapped and killed his father. A surviving sister and brother are still in Iraq with their spouses and Malkia’s grandchildren. Whenever our two-year old grandson Sam went near her, Malkia smiled and finally he let her kiss and hug him. Firas told me that when they arrived in America last spring, his mother cried for weeks.

Before the Iraqi family joined us on Christmas, we thought about the strangeness and isolation of coming to America from Iraq, through Syria where Firas had fled, and being dropped down in North Haven. They lived for several months with Marie Maciak, a film-maker and instructor at the Ross School. Firas had worked for her as a translator in Damascus and she fought through a bureaucratic maze to gain refugee status for him, Ali and Malkia. They recently moved to a small cottage in Sag Harbor but must leave it before summer and are looking for a permanent place they can afford.

A couple of months ago we drove to the Suffolk County Social Service office in Riverhead to fill out Medicaid forms. Several uniformed officers kept watch in a large room where men and women, some with children, sat waiting to be interviewed. Others lined up at windows labeled “Medicaid Applications” or “Public Assistance.”  A large sign on the wall said, “NO weapons, threats, cursing, alcohol or drugs, or disorderly conduct. Persons violating these rules will not be able to conduct their business for the day and may be subject to removal from the building.”            

Christmas dinner went well and we were pleased when Malkia felt comfortable enough to accept a second helping. Firas is determined to support his family without charitable assistance. He works part-time at Ross School and teaches Arabic classes while Malkia opens boxes in the storage room at TJ Max. She gets a ride to the food pantry at the Whaler’s Church on Tuesday and stretches the food for a week. Twenty-three year old Ali was a welder in Iraq, but lack of transportation makes it difficult for him to find work. He is gradually picking up English which Firas tells him is needed for life in America.

Malkia wants to return to Iraq, despite the dangers that remain, mostly because she desperately misses her grandchildren. She also suffers from the winter cold and would like to have access to a mosque where she could pray.

Firas told us that despite what we may have read in the media, life in Iraq before the “invasion” was quite normal. Healthcare and education were free, and Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds lived peacefully side by side. Intermarriage was unremarkable. He says that after the occupation, American civil authorities decided to allocate seats in the new parliament based on ethnic percentages. In his opinion this created rivalry among the Iraqis, and Al Qaeda exploited it to inflame the insurgency.

In unguarded moments Firas reveals ambivalent feelings about the war. While still in Iraq he had a friend who was held on unspecified charges in Abu Ghraib Prison. When the friend was released he showed Firas numerous wounds on his body from dog bites. Firas says, “He went a little crazy after that.” Firas exchanges emails with people in Iraq who tell him that the ”shoe thrower” has become a national hero.

But Firas suppresses such critical thoughts and talks more about his warmhearted feelings for Americans. He is amazed by the number of people in our community who have reached out to help him and his family. He contrasts this experience with that of Iraqi refugees he hears from in Sweden and Norway who say Arabs are discriminated against in those countries.

Asked what he likes most about the U.S., he says “your organization.” As simple a thing as busses and trains that run on schedules, which we take for granted, impresses him. (Apparently he hasn’t traveled on the LIRR too often.) Social services may entail miles of red tape but they eventually seem to accomplish results. Firas holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering from an Iraqi university and his ambition is to become a licensed engineer in the U.S. Through research on the Internet and phone calls to helpful educators and trade associations, he has learned the steps needed to achieve his goal.

Our adult children and their spouses talked to him about “networking” and using the Internet as a way to find someone who may know someone who may know of a job that fits his resume, while he works towards engineering certification. Unfortunately the Iraqis arrived in the U.S. in the middle of our economic turmoil. Sitting together after dinner, with the grandkids back on the roller coaster, we encouraged Firas not to give up, that most refugees in our history had to struggle through equally tough challenges. He knows it won’t be easy but he is eager to become part of the great American immigrant story. Despite all the problems ahead, his face lights up when he says that he and Ali and Malkia all love our new president.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Noyac residents were understandably infuriated — other, stronger, words were used to describe their feelings Tuesday night — at the lack of response they have been getting from Southampton Town for projects important to the community. It’s been over six years since the town conducted a hamlet study there, and still key recommendations are far from fruition; many languishing on the drawing board. Others not even making it to the drawing board.

In particular traffic calming planning along Noyac Road has been moving at a glacial pace, while the route — one of the most heavily traveled in the town — becomes increasingly dangerous.

A town plan called for constructing a median in front of the Whalebone/Cromers parking area, and a roundabout at the intersection of Noyac and Long Beach roads; but neighboring business owners felt the median would discourage customers and the roundabout was, apparently, too expensive. As a result getting in and out of Cromers and the Whalebone is still a challenge and the roundabout — well, that’s been shelved. And still the traffic roars through the hamlet.

We suggest the town look to what the state did in Sag Harbor and North Haven along Route 114. That state route is actually part of the same problem as Noyac Road: both are regularly used as bypasses. Trucks and cars destined to and from the east end use this route to avoid Montauk Highway. As a result, the traffic is heavier than it deserves to be.

Several years ago, the state conducted its first experiment with traffic calming right here in Sag Harbor. It examined what it could do between the East Hampton Town line and the ferry to Shelter Island to force traffic to slow down and to make the route more pedestrian friendly. Considering this is the State DOT we’re talking about, it was a pretty progressive concept.

They created a series of bulb-outs, traffic islands and medians that has made it easier to cross many of the streets, and it has further encouraged Sag Harbor to be a greater walking village.

At the same time, the narrowing of intersections to accommodate pedestrians — rather than the widening of roads to encourage faster traffic —  has forced vehicles to move slower as they negotiate the roads. Think of larger corners which make for shorter distances across streets and islands that give pedestrians a safe place as they cross wider roads. This is how one calms traffic. The result is slower traffic and a route that discourages vehicles that want to get somewhere in a hurry.

We believe the same concept should be brought to the stretch of Noyac Road between the Waterside and Trout Pond. What has developed here over the years is an environment that is absolutely hostile to pedestrians. Nobody in their right mind would walk to the deli or Cromers or the Oasis or to go swimming or hiking at Trout Pond. It’s even treacherous for bikers.

Noyac will never be a rural little hamlet again; but with good planning its business district can be a safer and more pedestrian-friendly place.

Popularity: 7% [?]