Fogbow

The South Fork Wind offshore wind farm is also the country’s “first commercial-scale wind farm,” according to its website. It is 35 miles east of Montauk Point, and New York first broke ground on the project in 2022.

Hochul said 70,000 homes will be powered by the 12 turbines, and it will result in the elimination of 60,000 cars’ worth of emissions.

“t is impossible to overstate how transformative the South Fork Wind project is,” Hochul said.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland also celebrated the turning on of the turbines with Hochul on Thursday.

Riverhead schools will see significant cuts to class offerings, programs, teaching assistants and support staff as a result of cutbacks proposed in the administration’s budget for the coming school year.

The Riverhead Central School District administration proposes eliminating a total of 56.8 full-time equivalent faculty, staff and support positions next year, Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business Marianne Cartisano said during last night’s school board meeting. Eliminating the positions allows the district to reduce potential expenditures for salary and benefits by $6.68 million.

The administration has proposed a $201.4 million budget for next school year — an increase of $9.4 million, or roughly 5%, over its current budget. The proposal would require a tax levy increase of 3.34%, the maximum allowed by the state-imposed tax levy cap in Riverhead next year. Several of the positions being cut were funded by a portion of roughly $20 million in federal coronavirus recovery funding the district received over the last three school years. The federal funding runs out this year.

Staff in the district’s four elementary schools and Pulaski Intermediate School would take the largest hit. A total of 10 full-time equivalent teachers, one elementary guidance counselor, one elementary psychologist, one elementary specialized math teacher and 18 teaching assistant positions would be eliminated next year, according to Cartisano. (Seven of the teaching assistant positions to be eliminated are currently vacant, she said.) An additional seven elementary school teachers are retiring and will not be replaced.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 1:13 pm
Also- 56.8 full-time faculty positions?

bill_g wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 10:34 am

Volkonski wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 1:13 pm
Also- 56.8 full-time faculty positions?

It does make you wonder who the short guy is.

Numerous gunshots were reportedly fired Wednesday morning in Riverhead, police said.

According to Riverhead Town police, a 911 call came in at 11:37 a.m. from a man who reported damage to his vehicle in the area of Oakland Drive South; authorities determined that the damage was caused by a gunshot. Upon further investigation, it was determined that numerous gunshots were fired in the early morning hours; no injuries were reported, police said.

A man barricaded himself in a Long Island home Friday afternoon after attacking someone with a machete, police said.

According to Southampton Town police, the incident took place around 3:07 p.m. Officers responded to a home on Pine Street in Riverside after a 911 call regarding a man assaulting someone with a machete, police said.

Upon arrival, police found a 24-year-old man covered in blood, suffering from a head wound, authorities said.

Police tended to his wound until the Flanders-Northampton Volunteer Ambulance Corps arrived and transported him to Peconic Bay Medical Center, authorities said.

Adonias Estrada-Sinay, 35, of Riverside, the man with the machete, barricaded himself in a Pine Street residence, police said.

Southampton Town Police Department's emergency service unit, New York State Police, and hostage negotiators from both departments responded to the scene, police said. Southampton Town police detectives worked with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office to obtain and effect a search warrant at the address, police said.

At 11:33 p.m., Estrada-Sinay was arrested and charged with assault, menacing, and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Estrada-Sinay was held overnight and brought to Southampton Justice Town Court for arraignment, police said.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:07 pm Greetings from Knoxville the halfway point on our drive to the North Fork.

Maybenaut wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 7:14 am

Volkonski wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 8:07 pm Greetings from Knoxville the halfway point on our drive to the North Fork.

If you’re going up I-81 and looking for a good place to eat, stop at the Southern Kitchen in New Market, VA (exit 264, turn right, then right again on Congress Street, then it’s on the left). It’s traditional diner food, but it’s really good and reasonably priced.

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 9:27 am Road trip!!!

Shamed former congressman George Santos, who was punted from the house last year over ethics violations, announced in a post on his X account last night that he has decided to call it quits in his independent run for the 1st Congressional District.

In the post, he says he doesn't want his run to be portrayed as reprisal against incumbent U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican from Amityville.

"Although Nick and I don’t have the same voting record and I remain critical of his abysmal record, I don’t want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house to Dems," he wrote.

"It is clear that with the rise of antisemitism in our country we cannot afford to hand the house to Dems as they have a very large issue with antisemitism in their ranks."

Staying in the race "all but guarantees a victory" for the Democratic party, he wrote.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine visited a working farm in Riverhead Wednesday to sign legislation appropriating $15 million of new funding this year for farmland preservation.

With Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey at his side, Romaine said he worked with legislators to increase the annual appropriation for the purchase of farmland development rights from $10 million to $15 million because the need to preserve farmland has reached a new level of urgency.

“We are in a struggle against development,” Romaine said.

The county executive said he intends to maintain at least that level of funding annually.

“Almost 6% of this county’s land is in farming, and we’re going to keep that number and look to increase it wherever possible,” Romaine said, standing at the edge of a field being prepared for planting at the Garden of Eve Farm on Sound Avenue in Riverhead. “We want to preserve our farm belt.”

Garden of Eve is an example of the county’s development rights program in action, said Romaine, who represented the North Fork in the County Legislature for 12 years. When the development rights are sold to the county, the land can only be used for farming, he said.

Farmers Chris and Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht, who hosted Romaine’s press conference and signing ceremony yesterday, sold the development rights on their 67-acre farm to the county early last year. They grow organic vegetables and flowers, selling directly to consumers through their CSA program and at farmers markets year-round.

The farmland preservation program is a critical investment in the county’s future, Romaine said, because farming is a crucial part of the county’s economy.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants like John V.N. Klein, who came up with this idea as county executive 50 years ago,” Romaine said. “We want to see farming stay stable, and be part of our history and our future.”

Suffolk’s first-in-the-nation program was conceived by County Executive John Klein in the early 1970s with input from county planners and the farming community.

In a September 1973 report to the legislature, Klein identified what he called “three major threats to Suffolk County agriculture”: increased real property tax burdens; mandatory liquidation of farms upon the death of the owners in order to pay federal and state inheritance taxes; and “the spectacular increase in the value of land for non-agricultural purposes.”

Klein’s proposal took aim at the third major threat, proposing to eliminate it “by the only fair and constitutional mention — acquisition of the property itself or of the development rights to that property.”

Klein proposed focusing the county’s efforts on Suffolk’s “prime agricultural lands, principally in Riverhead and on the North Fork.”

The plan, which called for the expenditure of $45 million to $55 million over three years, met with resistance from some legislators, who were divided along lines still familiar to Suffolk residents more than 50 years later: Republican vs. Democrat and West End vs. East End.

Despite resistance and controversy, the plan was adopted in 1974. At that point, there were 737 farms in Suffolk comprising 55,737 acres.



Since Suffolk’s farmland preservation program was adopted 50 years ago, the county has protected approximately 11,000 acres of farmland through the purchase of development rights, according to county data. Another 9,000 acres in Suffolk have been protected through other preservation efforts, including county-town and nonprofit partnerships.

This year’s $15 million allocation for farmland preservation will be funded by bonding authorized by the County Legislature on April 9.

Yesterday, Romaine also signed a separate bill authorizing the purchase of development rights on a 33-acre tract of farmland in Jamesport owned by Jets 139 LLC for $2.475 million. Funding for that acquisition came from the allocation of $10 million for farmland preservation in 2022.