Community Meeting Planned To Discuss Improvements to Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton

Long Island Morning Edition

E-ZPass is warning about a text message scam in which unsuspecting commuters are tricked into providing payment and personal information. John Asbury reports on Newsday.com that customers have received texts claiming to come from “NY Toll Services” and seeking to collect tolls, according to E-ZPass. The messages may include a fraudulent website phishing for payment or other information.

Toll officials said the messages and website are not authorized by E-ZPass or other toll agencies. Anyone who gets the text claiming to be from a toll provider is urged not to click on the website link and delete the message.

“E-ZPass New York will never ask” for a customer’s date of birth, Social Security number or other personally identifiable information, toll officials said in a message posted on EZPassNY.com. Real communications from E-ZPass New York will just refer customers to EZPassNY.com and TollsByMailNy.com, they said.

Text message and phishing scams have been reported in other states using E-ZPass.

The MTA previously issued warnings about a scam email to E-ZPass customers, which may look like it appears from the E-ZPass Service Center and asks customers to download a list of unpaid tolls.

Anyone who suspects they may have received a fraudulent message can contact E-ZPass NY customer service at 1-800-333-8655.

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In an effort to beautify Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton, Riverhead Town is establishing a program to allow people to purchase a cherry blossom tree and marker for the park in honor of an armed services member. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the town would plant a six-foot tall cherry blossom tree and place a 12- by 6-inch granite slab with the name of the veteran at the foot of each tree, according to Council Member Ken Rothwell, Town Board liaison to the Riverhead Veterans Advisory Committee. Rothwell said the program would be open to both residents of the town and non-residents and cost $675, which covers the purchase of the tree, the marker and the installation of the marker. The new program could be approved by the Riverhead Town Board as soon as May 7. He said the idea came from the Veterans Advisory Committee as a way of both honoring local veterans and beautifying the park, which is undergoing changes with the addition of a hockey rink, paintball field and a new parking lot. The park is an “ideal location, right across the street from Calverton National Cemetery,” he said. The town has selected cherry trees that bloom at the end of May to coincide with Memorial Day weekend, Rothwell said. Once the trees are planted, Rothwell said the town could perhaps have a “cherry blossom festival” at the park in years to come.

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This coming Monday May 6th at 6pm, the Heart of Riverhead Civic Association will commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day at Riverhead Free Library to honor the memory of the lives taken and of all who risked or sacrificed their own lives to save others.

This year, explore and reflect on Hearts and Minds; hearing the thoughts and emotions shared on diary pages written in hiding or in deathcamps; the memories of survivors whose life’s work became keeping their stories alive; and the reminders, written in essays and poems, that the future is in our hands.

This free program next Monday, May 6th at 6pm in the Riverhead Free Library, is presented as a community service by the Heart of Riverhead Civic Association. Advance registration requested, but not required. Call Riverhead Free Library at [phone] to register.

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New York Institute of Technology students, who used Sag Harbor as a model for their senior thesis projects in urban planning, will present their work at a combined open house and critique on Thursday, May 9, at Sage Hall at the Sag Harbor Learning Center. “Envisioning a Resilient Sag Harbor” is the theme for the students in the Architecture and Applied Utopia studio taught by Associate Professor Dong-Sei Kim and Ronald Reed, a Sag Harbor architect who serves on the Village Planning Board. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that next week’s presentation, which runs from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., will include a video of five projects, presentations by the students and feedback from a panel of architects and members of the public. Reed said that it was unusual for the public to get to sit in on what counts as a final examination on the work. He said he believed the more open program would also serve the students well in their professional careers when they find themselves presenting ideas before governmental agencies and boards. Early last fall, the class visited Sag Harbor to get to know the village and work on initial ideas. Their design work was unveiled at a first-semester open house and preliminary review in December. Projects that will be presented this month for review include one for alternative transportation for the village and surrounding area, a plan to move vulnerable housing to higher ground, a proposal to add stories to commercial buildings for affordable housing, and a network of walking trails and bike paths with stops at key historic sites designed to encourage nonpolluting forms of transportation around the village. Since their initial presentations, students have focused on a series of timelines envisioning what the village will be like in 10-year increments out to 50 years. “They will transition into the environmental impacts that will creep up on us as time moves forward,” Reed said.

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Barring any last-minute delays, North Haven Mayor Chris Fiore will present to the public a site plan for a park the village is developing at the former Lovelady Powell property and two adjoining lots at the North Haven Village Board’s May 15 meeting. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that the mayor said that was his target date after a nearly 90-minute discussion of the park — and the village’s plans for it — with the Southampton Town Board last Thursday. Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, a North Haven resident, has been pressing the mayor to submit a formal site plan for the park’s development since the village and town hosted a pair of informal hearings on the proposal last summer. The town is involved because the properties were purchased with money from the Community Preservation Fund. The site plan includes a walking path lined with maple trees along the former driveway to the Barclay estate, a pollinator garden, and a parking lot on the site of Powell’s house, which was torn down early last year as part of the agreement between the town and village because neither wanted the responsibility of maintaining it. The park will also include a trail that, if completed as proposed, would make a loop around the property, which would be made possible by the construction of a bridge over a man-made pond. Fiore has said that once the site plan is approved by the town, the North Haven Village Board will solicit comment and adjust it as desired.

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A community meeting has been planned to discuss improvements to Three Mile Harbor Road, or County Road 40, in East Hampton. Lisa Finn reports on Patch.com that the meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday, May 8 at 7 p.m. in East Hampton Town Hall, 159 Pantigo Road in East Hampton.

The Suffolk County Department of Public Works, and the East Hampton town board and town staff, along with Suffolk County Legislator Ann Welker are holding the meeting to discuss ongoing plans for improvements to Three Mile Harbor Road. Public comments will be received during the meeting, after the presentation.

The project aims to achieve the following goals to improve various aspects within the corridor, organizers said:

• Roadway resurfacing and pavement rehabilitation
• Construct new curb and sidewalk on both sides of the roadway, providing continuous pedestrian facilities throughout the corridor.
• Upgrade existing pedestrian facilities to conform with the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Install bike lanes on both sides of the roadway between Springs Fireplace Road and Copeces Lane
• Repair and upgrade existing drainage system
• Traffic signal improvements at Cedar Street and Collins Avenue
• Replacement of traffic signage and pavement markings

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Bobo the giraffe died last year at the Long Island Game Farm in Manorville because he was malnourished and living in conditions too cold for his species, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. John Asbury reports on Newsday.com that the 3-year-old giraffe died Oct. 2 “after a period of increased rain and decreased temperature,” and eating foods that didn't contain enough energy for him to thrive, according to an inspection report by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“The poor body condition of this giraffe may be attributed to the energy deficient diet,” the USDA report found.

“Such findings are associated with death in giraffes due to energy deficient diets and colder temperatures,” the report found. “Higher-energy feeds and temperature-controlled barns are associated with an increased survival of giraffes in such conditions.”

A necropsy after Bobo’s death found his body showed serious atrophy of fat, meaning body wasting due to malnutrition.

Giraffes are browsing animals, that, in the wild, eat leaves and shoots from shrubs and trees, flowers, fruit, vines and other vegetation, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

At the time of Bobo’s death, the game farm’s veterinarian ruled the cause as heart failure after the 12-foot animal collapsed. They noted the average life span of a giraffe in captivity is about 20 years.

Bobo was the game farm’s only giraffe and was living in a barn where the temperature was estimated at about 53 degrees, followed by more than an inch of rain in the three days leading to his death. The barn had a heater near the ceiling, but no surrounding insulation, chest-level heating or temperature gauge inside.

John Di Leonardo, an anthrozoologist and the director of the animal advocacy group Humane Long Island, said, “This animal basically starved and froze to death” from conditions unlike his native Africa.

Other animals kept at the game farm include zebras, foxes, lemurs, deer, bison and wallabies.