Jet Blue To Start Nonstop Flights From MacArthur in October

Long Island Morning Edition

Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann visited a Manorville gun club the day before the disappearance of alleged victim Jessica Taylor, whose partial remains were found days later in the nearby woods, a law enforcement source told Newsday.

The new information comes after prosecutors shared a July 20, 2003, excerpt from a day planner that showed Heuermann was scheduled to attend a rifle training event at the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club on River Road that morning. Online researchers then used that information to find photographs that appear to show Heuermann training young marksmen attending a similar event at the private club in 2006. Grant Parpan reports in NEWSDAY that an indictment charging Heuermann with second-degree murder in Taylor's death was unveiled on Thursday. The superseding indictment also charged him with another second-degree murder in connection with Sandra Costilla's death in 1993. He pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.

A law enforcement source, who said Heuermann was affiliated with multiple “shooting clubs” in the area, confirmed the photos depict Heuermann at the exclusive 600-member club, which boasts a yearslong waiting list for membership. A spokesperson for Peconic River Sportsman’s Club later told Newsday Heuermann had attended “a few” public events at its 400-acre property but was never a member. He last visited the club for a shooting competition in April 2010, club spokesperson Kerry Goldberg said.

“Mr. Heuermann was not and is not a member of the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club,” Goldberg said. “Mr. Heuermann did participate in a few high-powered rifle events at the club, which were open to the public.”

Peconic River Sportsman’s Club, which was founded in 1948, runs along a portion of River Road and Connecticut Avenue across from the Enterprise Park at Calverton. Connecticut Avenue becomes Halsey Manor Road just south of the club.

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Suffolk County's red light camera program is scheduled to end Dec. 1 after a bill to extend it for five years failed in the State Legislature, leaving county leaders without a plan to make up more than $8 million in annual revenue. Scott Eidler reports in NEWSDAY that NYS lawmakers, who are up for reelection in November, did not extend the program before the legislative session ended last week. The state Legislature reauthorized Nassau County's camera program, which expires Dec. 1, for five more years.

With 216 camera systems in place at 100 intersections, the program is a major recurring source of revenue for Suffolk. The fine for ticket violations is $50.

Suffolk County issued 357,732 red light camera tickets last year, said Mike Martino, a spokesman for County Executive Edward P. Romaine, a Republican.

Suffolk Comptroller John Kennedy Jr., a Republican, told Newsday the $8 million shortfall in next year's county budget, “is going to have to be confronted and addressed, and we will work together to do it in the most prudent matter. It may mean some things have to be cut and trimmed. We will have to, working with the County Executive and the Legislature, tighten the reins on a budget that already has had diminished receipts on sales tax during the first half of the year.”

State and county lawmakers pointed fingers at each other yesterday for imperiling Suffolk's 15-year-old ticketing program.

The Suffolk County Legislature never took the required step of passing a “home rule message” to the state Legislature supporting the extension.

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The Mattituck Lions Club Annual Strawberry Festival opens today at 5 p.m. with Hulling Night, where thousands of volunteers from the community come to help hull the approximately 100,000 berries that will be used to make shortcake and alcohol- free daquiris for the festival. The carnival and food court will be open on Thursday night with special Preview Pricing. A “Lite” fireworks show will take place at 9:15 pm tomorrow.

Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the full festival opens Friday night and operates thru Sunday when Dads’ get free admission.

A “Great” fireworks show will take place at 10:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday, weather permitting.

Further info and a full schedule of events is at mattituckstrawberryfestival.com

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School districts may end up canceling school for “heat days” under a bill approved by the NYS Legislature last week that would set maximum temperature levels in classrooms and learning spaces and in extreme cases require students be sent home. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that the measure, which now heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her consideration, would require public schools to take action such as turning on fans and pulling down blinds if room temperatures reach 82 degrees. If temperatures hit 88 degrees, students and staff would not be allowed to occupy the space, according to the bill.

The proposed legislation aimed at protecting the health of students and teachers, comes as school districts statewide and across Long Island have faced rising temperatures in recent years because of climate change, experts said.

Health experts say increased heat cannot only adversely affect the health of students, but also their mental health and ability to learn.

New York State United Teachers President Melinda Person in a statement Saturday said the statewide heat standards are a “vital step toward making sure our classrooms are healthy spaces where the focus can be on teaching and learning.”

Some education groups, though supportive of efforts to keep students and staff safe, have concerns about the implementation of the bill.

Brian Fessler, director of governmental relations for the New York State School Boards Association noted school districts could feel obligated to upgrade their infrastructure, such as air conditioning systems, at a cost to state or local taxpayers.

Governor Hochul’s office said she will review the legislation, which, if approved, would take effect in September 2025.

State law currently imposes a minimum classroom temperature of 65 degrees, but there are no legal limits for maximum temperatures.

The bill would require school districts and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services to develop policies for extreme heat conditions in educational and support service spaces. The measure excludes certain areas such as kitchens.

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An $8 million increase in the estimated cost of a new upgrade to the Town of Riverhead’s wastewater treatment facilities was approved by the Town Board at last week’s meeting. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the cost of the project has spiked about 80% since the board first approved the plan two years ago. It was then estimated by consulting engineers H2M to carry a $10.5 million price tag. But when bids came in this year, the cost spiked to an estimated $18.65 million, according to H2M Senior Vice President Chris Weiss. The increased costs were largely the result of COVID supply chain issues, Weiss told the Riverhead Town Board at a June 4 public hearing. There were also some design changes, such as an increase in the size of the storage building, H2M wastewater engineer Nick Bono said.

The upgrade involves converting the facility’s existing sludge handling process to a Class A biosolids project. The current sludge handling process results in the production of a “sludge cake” that costs the town more than $500,000 per year to haul off and dispose at a landfill in Pennsylvania. Class A, or exceptional quality, biosolids meet the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for land application and surface disposal, according to an engineering report prepared for the town by H2M in April 2021.

The new system will save the town an estimated $25 million in operational costs over 30 years, mostly in reduced disposal costs due to the reduction in volume and weight of the biosolids that would need to be disposed of, according to an analysis prepared by H2M and presented to the Town Board by Bono at the May 15 work session. There is also the possibility that the town will be able to give the material away, avoiding some or even most, disposal costs.

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JetBlue Airways will start flying out of Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma in October, with nonstop service to three Florida destinations, Islip Town officials said yesterday. Brianne Ledda reports in NEWSDAY that JetBlue, the sixth largest airline in the nation, will become the fourth airline flying out of the Islip Town-owned airport, joining Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Breeze Airways.

Starting in late October, the low-cost carrier will operate daily service between Islip and Orlando, and four round-trip flights weekly between the Long Island airport and Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

The addition of the major airline is the latest in a spate of upgrades at the airport that have encompassed more than $100 million in planning and capital projects since 2016, including a ground transportation center and walkway and a fire rescue building.

The pending $2.8 billion Midway Crossing proposal is expected to build a walkway connecting a new MacArthur air terminal to Ronkonkoma’s Long Island Rail Road Station. The proposal calls for 2.7 million square feet of new construction, including a convention center, a 300-room hotel and health sciences facilities.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul may believe she has the power to unilaterally shut down the nation’s first congestion pricing scheme, which was slated to pump $1 billion a year into the coffers of the nation’s largest transit system.

Not everyone thinks she’s right, and her opponents are eager to prove their case in court.

Dana Rubinstein reports in THE NY TIMES that the New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, has assembled a collection of stakeholders to develop a legal strategy that would underpin one or more lawsuits seeking to get the central business district toll program back on track.

Mr. Lander is planning to outline the likely avenues of litigation at a news conference today. The gathering underscores the swelling outrage among environmental and transportation advocates who have spent years persuading the government to enact tolls on drivers entering Manhattan’s core — only to see Governor Hochul abruptly halt the plan less than a month before it was to go into effect.

Michael Gerrard, a prominent environmental lawyer at Columbia University, is spearheading the coalition’s legal strategy, alongside a New York University law professor, Roderick Hills, and Eric A. Goldstein, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Mr. Gerrard said the group believes Ms. Hochul may have violated a litany of laws, including the 2019 statute that the State Legislature passed and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed saying that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority “shall” implement the congestion pricing program.

“It creates a mandatory duty, and it doesn’t give the governor the authority to cancel it,” he said. “We believe that the governor broke the law by putting an indefinite hold on congestion pricing.”

He also contended that Ms. Hochul violated the state climate law, known as the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires the governor to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Starting June 30, the M.T.A. was planning to charge E-ZPass drivers as much as $15 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street, a move that would have raised roughly $1 billion a year in toll revenue. The M.T.A. was, in turn, planning to use that funding to support a $15 billion capital plan, which would have, among other things, enabled the purchase of new subway cars and buses, and the installation of new signals for a system seeing rapidly rising subway delays.