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New Southampton Town solar array marks milestone in reuse of dumping sites
In an effort to attract more locals to watch over its often understaffed easterly beaches, the Town of Southampton is launching a new lifeguard certification course in Bridgehampton this month. Nicholas Grasso reports in NEWSDAY that the basic lifeguard training course, for which anyone can register online, will begin May 27 at the Bridgehampton Tennis & Surf Club. For those looking for “surf” lifeguard certification, meaning they are qualified to watch over swimmers in ocean waters as well as the calmer bay areas, training will be held at Sagg Main Beach in Sagaponack starting June 7. Scholarships to cover certification costs are available through the STAR AquaCenter, a Southampton-based nonprofit.
Southampton Town will also host lifeguard training at Suffolk County Community College’s Eastern Campus in Riverhead, as it has in previous years. That course will begin May 13.
Kristen Doulos, the Southampton Town parks director, said she generally has no trouble finding staff for the town's four beaches west of the Shinnecock Canal. But most lifeguards, especially those coming from hamlets west of the town, do not want to drive farther east on an often-bottlenecked Sunrise Highway to work, she said.
Doulos hopes the new training course in Bridgehampton will attract local high school and college students, as well as teachers who have the summers off, to cover its eastern beaches: Flying Point, Foster Memorial, Mecox, Sagg Main and W. Scott Cameron.
“Sometimes we can’t open all five beaches out there,” Doulos told Newsday on Friday.
***
More than 4,500 people ended up in Long Island hospital emergency departments in 2024 for what the state calls cannabis syndrome, a reflection of what experts say is a lack of knowledge of the potential negative effects of marijuana. Heavy, long-term use of marijuana can lead to nausea, vomiting and severe stomach aches. Overconsumption, even once, can lead to paranoia, psychosis or anxiety. Young children can experience breathing problems. David Olson reports in NEWSDAY that experts say people can consume marijuana responsibly, but it’s easier than in the past to overconsume because cannabis is far more potent. The THC concentration in cannabis has risen from 1.5% in 1980 to 30% or more today.
"We have this notion of, ‘Oh, it’s benign. My grandfather used it,’" said R. Lorraine Collins, director of the Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research at the University at Buffalo and a public health professor there. "It’s not your grandfather’s cannabis anymore. It’s way more potent."
A small but worrying number of cases involve young children who find gummies and other products that look like candy and unknowingly ingest cannabis, doctors say. More cases involve teenagers: People 15 to 19 have by far the highest rate of emergency department visits and hospitalizations in New York of all age groups, state data shows.
Some of those getting higher than expected are older adults who may not have used marijuana for decades, in part because they didn’t want to seek out an illegal dealer. With legalization, they are comfortable going into a licensed store, said Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of the Garden City-based Family and Children’s Association, which provides substance use services. Surveys show that, in the era of expanded legalization, marijuana use is declining among adolescents but increasing significantly among middle-age and older adults.
***
The Southampton History Museum will hold a Spring Fair this coming Saturday, May 10, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of Rogers Mansion, 17 Meeting House Lane in Southampton. The event will celebrate history and culture and feature demonstrations by skilled tradespeople, live performances of 19th-century music, stories of famous and lesser-known Long Island legends, interactive crafts, and games and toys for all ages, and more.
The Southampton History Museum is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization chartered by the New York State Board of Regents and incorporated under the New York State Education Department.
The Southampton History Museum states that their mission is education: “We educate diverse audiences about Southampton’s history and culture through our unique historic sites, archives, collections, and engaging public programs.”
For more information, go to southamptonhistory.org.
***
The Town of Southampton’s new 11,000-panel solar array atop the capped North Sea Landfill is a recent milestone in the reuse of former dumping sites on the East End, and its ribbon-cutting this spring caps an era of growing acceptance of solar arrays to power Long Island’s electric grid. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that other projects on the East End are currently going through planning review, but they are facing more criticism, in part due to the current public backlash against Battery Energy Storage Systems, which can be used in conjunction with solar arrays to store excess power.
The Town of Southold’s Planning Board is in the final phase of review of a proposed 3-megawatt, 7,900-panel solar farm atop its capped landfill in Cutchogue, which has drawn out detractors who organized in response to a proposal more than two years ago for a BESS facility not far from the landfill, on Oregon Road.
A community solar project proposed by the Village of Westhampton Beach on village-owned land outside the village, in Quiogue, has also faced harsh criticism from neighbors, who have sued the village to stop the project.
In the meantime, Southampton Town has been signing up LIPA ratepayers for its community solar program, created as part of Kearsage Energy’s 20-year lease of the property atop the capped North Sea landfill. It’s the first such municipally run program on Long Island.
***
A new solar canopy that’s being constructed in the parking lot off Jobs Lane, adjacent to Agawam Park, has raised the ire of some Southampton Village residents. They say it is not an appropriate location for the array and also believe that Southampton Village officials did not include the public in the process of deciding to put it there.
Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that the canopy, which cars will be able to park underneath, is part of the Johnson Controls Sustainability and Energy Solutions Project that began in the village in 2023. The multimillion-dollar initiative, which was championed by former Deputy Mayor Gina Arresta, includes many green infrastructure upgrades throughout the village that will drastically reduce the village’s carbon footprint, bring several village buildings to “net zero” energy efficiency status, and reduce the Village of Southampton’s utility costs by more than 60 percent. Those goals are being achieved in many ways, one of which has been the installation of solar panels at various locations.
Southampton Village Mayor Bill Manger said earlier this week that the Jobs Lane parking lot was suggested by Johnson Controls as a good location for the solar canopy because it would not require the village to remove or cut down any trees to place it there. He said the village had considered other locations that would have necessitated tree removal, which he said he did not want to do. Mayor Manger said he understood the objection from some residents that there had not been much public discussion about the location but added that there weren’t many other viable options. “We were running out of possible locations,” he said.
***
Southold Town Senior Services hosts a Health and Wellness Fair this coming Thursday, May 8 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Southold Town’s Human Resource Center in Katinka House, 750 Pacific Street, Mattituck. Information about Alzheimer’s awareness, home care agencies and nutrition will be available, along with free mobile health screenings from Catholic Health’s Mobile Outreach Bus. For more information, call 631.298.4460.
The Senior Adult Day Care Program, also known as Katinka House, offers respite for caregivers while providing a full, meaningful day for participants in a cheerful, home-like setting. The Katinka House program is designed for frail or cognitively impaired adults, 60 years of age or older. The program provides socialization, engaging activities for cognition, nutrition, movement, recreation, and more. Breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack are included.
***
The high cost of living on Long Island can make already expensive divorce proceedings more complicated for couples looking to separate, forcing some to stay "unhappily" together, some experts said. Brianne Ledda reports in NEWSDAY that legal fees for divorce are substantial, with uncontested divorces starting at $335 in court fees and contested divorces costing upward of tens of thousands of dollars. Long Island's cost of living crisis has always been an impediment for divorcing couples, but it’s become more prevalent in recent years as housing and other expenses have crept up, said Maren Cardillo, a mediator with Divorce Mediation Professionals in Garden City. Higher mortgage rates in particular have made it more difficult for one spouse to buy out the other, she said. That, combined with high rent for apartments, sometimes forces couples to stay together under one roof but split up living space in the house.
“So many people together can barely pay all the bills. It’s like, paycheck to paycheck, month after month. And I’m talking about working people, professionals,” Cardillo said. “And then all of a sudden, we’re adding another rent to that.”
These financial issues lead some couples to stay “unhappily” together, because “there’s just no choice,” she added.
The financial issues that await individuals after separating from a partner can present a problem where “either alternative is untenable,” said Kathryn Leighton, legal director at ECLI-VIBES. So far as she’s aware of, there are no free legal services that handle contested divorces on Long Island.
In Suffolk County in 2022, 2,876 divorces were decreed, according to the most recent state data. The median income for households in Suffolk between 2019 and 2023 was $128,329.
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By WLIW-FMIn an effort to attract more locals to watch over its often understaffed easterly beaches, the Town of Southampton is launching a new lifeguard certification course in Bridgehampton this month. Nicholas Grasso reports in NEWSDAY that the basic lifeguard training course, for which anyone can register online, will begin May 27 at the Bridgehampton Tennis & Surf Club. For those looking for “surf” lifeguard certification, meaning they are qualified to watch over swimmers in ocean waters as well as the calmer bay areas, training will be held at Sagg Main Beach in Sagaponack starting June 7. Scholarships to cover certification costs are available through the STAR AquaCenter, a Southampton-based nonprofit.
Southampton Town will also host lifeguard training at Suffolk County Community College’s Eastern Campus in Riverhead, as it has in previous years. That course will begin May 13.
Kristen Doulos, the Southampton Town parks director, said she generally has no trouble finding staff for the town's four beaches west of the Shinnecock Canal. But most lifeguards, especially those coming from hamlets west of the town, do not want to drive farther east on an often-bottlenecked Sunrise Highway to work, she said.
Doulos hopes the new training course in Bridgehampton will attract local high school and college students, as well as teachers who have the summers off, to cover its eastern beaches: Flying Point, Foster Memorial, Mecox, Sagg Main and W. Scott Cameron.
“Sometimes we can’t open all five beaches out there,” Doulos told Newsday on Friday.
***
More than 4,500 people ended up in Long Island hospital emergency departments in 2024 for what the state calls cannabis syndrome, a reflection of what experts say is a lack of knowledge of the potential negative effects of marijuana. Heavy, long-term use of marijuana can lead to nausea, vomiting and severe stomach aches. Overconsumption, even once, can lead to paranoia, psychosis or anxiety. Young children can experience breathing problems. David Olson reports in NEWSDAY that experts say people can consume marijuana responsibly, but it’s easier than in the past to overconsume because cannabis is far more potent. The THC concentration in cannabis has risen from 1.5% in 1980 to 30% or more today.
"We have this notion of, ‘Oh, it’s benign. My grandfather used it,’" said R. Lorraine Collins, director of the Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research at the University at Buffalo and a public health professor there. "It’s not your grandfather’s cannabis anymore. It’s way more potent."
A small but worrying number of cases involve young children who find gummies and other products that look like candy and unknowingly ingest cannabis, doctors say. More cases involve teenagers: People 15 to 19 have by far the highest rate of emergency department visits and hospitalizations in New York of all age groups, state data shows.
Some of those getting higher than expected are older adults who may not have used marijuana for decades, in part because they didn’t want to seek out an illegal dealer. With legalization, they are comfortable going into a licensed store, said Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of the Garden City-based Family and Children’s Association, which provides substance use services. Surveys show that, in the era of expanded legalization, marijuana use is declining among adolescents but increasing significantly among middle-age and older adults.
***
The Southampton History Museum will hold a Spring Fair this coming Saturday, May 10, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of Rogers Mansion, 17 Meeting House Lane in Southampton. The event will celebrate history and culture and feature demonstrations by skilled tradespeople, live performances of 19th-century music, stories of famous and lesser-known Long Island legends, interactive crafts, and games and toys for all ages, and more.
The Southampton History Museum is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization chartered by the New York State Board of Regents and incorporated under the New York State Education Department.
The Southampton History Museum states that their mission is education: “We educate diverse audiences about Southampton’s history and culture through our unique historic sites, archives, collections, and engaging public programs.”
For more information, go to southamptonhistory.org.
***
The Town of Southampton’s new 11,000-panel solar array atop the capped North Sea Landfill is a recent milestone in the reuse of former dumping sites on the East End, and its ribbon-cutting this spring caps an era of growing acceptance of solar arrays to power Long Island’s electric grid. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that other projects on the East End are currently going through planning review, but they are facing more criticism, in part due to the current public backlash against Battery Energy Storage Systems, which can be used in conjunction with solar arrays to store excess power.
The Town of Southold’s Planning Board is in the final phase of review of a proposed 3-megawatt, 7,900-panel solar farm atop its capped landfill in Cutchogue, which has drawn out detractors who organized in response to a proposal more than two years ago for a BESS facility not far from the landfill, on Oregon Road.
A community solar project proposed by the Village of Westhampton Beach on village-owned land outside the village, in Quiogue, has also faced harsh criticism from neighbors, who have sued the village to stop the project.
In the meantime, Southampton Town has been signing up LIPA ratepayers for its community solar program, created as part of Kearsage Energy’s 20-year lease of the property atop the capped North Sea landfill. It’s the first such municipally run program on Long Island.
***
A new solar canopy that’s being constructed in the parking lot off Jobs Lane, adjacent to Agawam Park, has raised the ire of some Southampton Village residents. They say it is not an appropriate location for the array and also believe that Southampton Village officials did not include the public in the process of deciding to put it there.
Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that the canopy, which cars will be able to park underneath, is part of the Johnson Controls Sustainability and Energy Solutions Project that began in the village in 2023. The multimillion-dollar initiative, which was championed by former Deputy Mayor Gina Arresta, includes many green infrastructure upgrades throughout the village that will drastically reduce the village’s carbon footprint, bring several village buildings to “net zero” energy efficiency status, and reduce the Village of Southampton’s utility costs by more than 60 percent. Those goals are being achieved in many ways, one of which has been the installation of solar panels at various locations.
Southampton Village Mayor Bill Manger said earlier this week that the Jobs Lane parking lot was suggested by Johnson Controls as a good location for the solar canopy because it would not require the village to remove or cut down any trees to place it there. He said the village had considered other locations that would have necessitated tree removal, which he said he did not want to do. Mayor Manger said he understood the objection from some residents that there had not been much public discussion about the location but added that there weren’t many other viable options. “We were running out of possible locations,” he said.
***
Southold Town Senior Services hosts a Health and Wellness Fair this coming Thursday, May 8 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Southold Town’s Human Resource Center in Katinka House, 750 Pacific Street, Mattituck. Information about Alzheimer’s awareness, home care agencies and nutrition will be available, along with free mobile health screenings from Catholic Health’s Mobile Outreach Bus. For more information, call 631.298.4460.
The Senior Adult Day Care Program, also known as Katinka House, offers respite for caregivers while providing a full, meaningful day for participants in a cheerful, home-like setting. The Katinka House program is designed for frail or cognitively impaired adults, 60 years of age or older. The program provides socialization, engaging activities for cognition, nutrition, movement, recreation, and more. Breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack are included.
***
The high cost of living on Long Island can make already expensive divorce proceedings more complicated for couples looking to separate, forcing some to stay "unhappily" together, some experts said. Brianne Ledda reports in NEWSDAY that legal fees for divorce are substantial, with uncontested divorces starting at $335 in court fees and contested divorces costing upward of tens of thousands of dollars. Long Island's cost of living crisis has always been an impediment for divorcing couples, but it’s become more prevalent in recent years as housing and other expenses have crept up, said Maren Cardillo, a mediator with Divorce Mediation Professionals in Garden City. Higher mortgage rates in particular have made it more difficult for one spouse to buy out the other, she said. That, combined with high rent for apartments, sometimes forces couples to stay together under one roof but split up living space in the house.
“So many people together can barely pay all the bills. It’s like, paycheck to paycheck, month after month. And I’m talking about working people, professionals,” Cardillo said. “And then all of a sudden, we’re adding another rent to that.”
These financial issues lead some couples to stay “unhappily” together, because “there’s just no choice,” she added.
The financial issues that await individuals after separating from a partner can present a problem where “either alternative is untenable,” said Kathryn Leighton, legal director at ECLI-VIBES. So far as she’s aware of, there are no free legal services that handle contested divorces on Long Island.
In Suffolk County in 2022, 2,876 divorces were decreed, according to the most recent state data. The median income for households in Suffolk between 2019 and 2023 was $128,329.