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NYS Dept. of Transportation assessing Ponquogue Bridge
Crescent Duck Farm’s eggs have hatched. The eggs saved for hatching after last month’s outbreak of avian influenza at the Aquebogue farm produced 3,700 ducklings, Crescent Duck Farm President Doug Corwin said last night. About half of them are females. Corwin said he was hoping for a better result, but “so long as we can keep them avian flu-free, we will have just enough for a first generation.” Newborn females will start laying eggs at six months of age. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Corwin said last week he hoped 5,000 eggs would hatch. Some 15,000 eggs were sanitized and cleared by the state for hatching at an off-site hatchery. Of that number, 6,000 were discarded because they did not have embryos growing inside, a determination made by examining the egg with a light. The hatching of 3,700 eggs of the remaining 9,000 was a very low hatching rate, compared to normal rates, Corwin said. But the eggs were already old and a lower rate was anticipated, he said. “As a farmer, I was hoping for better,” Corwin said. With highly pathogenic avian influenza sweeping across the country, the potential looms for another avian flu outbreak. If it happens again, Corwin said, “We’re done.” Corwin said last week he expects the quarantine in place at his farm — Long Island’s last surviving duck farm — will remain in place for another 2-3 months. “We are truly doing our best to keep our legacy strong,” he said.
***
Assessments are currently underway by New York State Department of Transportation officials to determine what will be done to address issues with the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays after its closure last Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Town of Southampton. Michael Malaszczyk of Dan’s Papers reports that the bridge was closed after the department conducted a routine check on the structure and identified conditions that demanded the bridge’s closure. The Ponquogue Bridge, which runs over the Shinnecock Bay in Hampton Bays, is closed indefinitely.
“The state has been out there all day today, rechecking some of the spots that they had identified in the routine inspection, taking a kind of a deeper dive into it to really get a better handle on exactly what’s going on,” Ryan Murphy, a spokesperson for the Town of Southampton, said yesterday. “We’re still kind of in holding pattern, waiting to see what the new assessment data reveals to them and whatever actions they decide are necessary going forward.”
No further information on what was found to be wrong with the bridge was available, nor is a time frame on when the bridge could reopen.
“We hope it’s sooner than later, but we don’t know what the timeframe is yet,” Murphy continued. “The engineers were looking at the data over the weekend. I guess we could surmise that as a result of looking at that data, they wanted to get some additional information, so they sent a team back out today. They’ve been up on the bridge taking a closer look at things. I would imagine that we’ll be looking at at least another couple of days, or day or two for them to go over whatever their findings were today and figure out what can and can’t be done.”
Until then, the Town of Southampton advised drivers to pursue alternate means of accessing Dune Road, and urged everyone to be mindful of the effect the bridge’s closure could have on traffic for the area.
***
Top chefs from across Long Island — are coming together for a one-night fundraiser to benefit Crescent Duck Farm workers. “Flock Together: A Culinary Tribute to Crescent Duck Farm” will take place this coming Friday; February 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Tellers Next Door, 599 Main Street in Islip.
Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the event will feature nine top chefs at chef-led food stations, local cocktails and wines, an auction, and donation opportunities — all with proceeds going directly to Cresent’s displaced workers. Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue, owned and operated by the Corwin family since 1908, is Long Island’s last commercial duck farm. A confirmed bird flu outbreak last month forced it to immediately cease operations and cull its entire flock of Pekin ducks, nearly 100,000 birds. It has had to lay off nearly all of its work force, numbering some 75 people. Local breweries and businesses in and around Riverhead held a fundraiser February 1 at North Fork Brewing Company and raised over $18,000 for Crescent Duck Farm workers. For more info regarding this coming Friday’s fundraiser go online to Eventbrite. Supporters can also donate directly via GoFundMe here.
***
THE NEW YORK TIMES posted a story this week entitled, "They Help Make the Hamptons the Hamptons, and Now They're Living in Fear." Dionne Searcey and Ana Ley report in THE N.Y. TIMES that wealthy residents of the Hamptons demand perfection. Now, many of the people who make it "perfect" — Latino immigrants, some of them undocumented — are panicking about President Trump’s deportation orders. “Everybody is living in fear,” said Sandra Melendez, a trustee for the village of East Hampton and an immigration lawyer. “They think Immigration is coming out to get them.” In the Hamptons, with miles of privet hedges and luxury homes, Latino immigrants make up the bulk of the work force. Many of the workers arrived illegally or have overstayed their visa. Some have legal working papers but are worried they could be swept up in raids or that their undocumented family members and friends could. In both East Hampton and Southampton Towns, Latinos make up more than a quarter of the population, according to U.S. census figures. The student population in several south fork schools is more than half Latino. The disappearance of undocumented residents would have an immediate effect on some of the nation’s wealthiest residents. “Everyone relies on housekeepers and carpenters and tree cutters and grass cutters,” said Marit Molin, founder and executive director of Hamptons Community Outreach. “People come to the Hamptons to enjoy their houses, and who is going to take care of their houses?” Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organización Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, an advocacy group, said school districts and police departments should distribute clearer policies in both English and Spanish about how they plan to respond to federal immigration orders so that residents feel informed. “There’s sometimes a good degree of empathy. In this moment, empathy is not enough.”
***
An additional 6,000 small- and medium-size businesses across the state would receive low-interest bank loans in the next couple of years under an initiative put forward by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, her economic development chief said yesterday. James T. Madore reports in NEWSDAY that the initiative in Hochul's proposed 2025-26 state budget would boost funding for the Low Interest Capital program from $560 million to $1 billion, said Hope Knight, CEO of Empire State Development, the state’s primary business-aid agency, which administers the program.
She outlined the increased funding in remarks to local business executives, union leaders, educators and nonprofit leaders at a meeting on the campus of Long Island University in Brookville on Monday.
Knight explained that the state helps to reduce interest rates on business loans by depositing money with the lender, matching the loan amount that the borrower is to receive. The state accepts a lower return on its deposit, allowing the lender to pass the savings to the borrower. After four years, the lender returns the deposit to the state, she said.
Knight told Newsday, “We think we can serve approximately 6,000 small businesses” if the proposed funding increase is adopted by state lawmakers. The state budget is due by April 1.
To date, the program has resulted in $2 billion in loans to nearly 6,000 small businesses that in turn have invested more than $4 billion in expansion projects, according to data from the state budget division.
Knight said there’s only $7 million left in the program, which used to be called the Linked Deposit Program.
***
The Cutchogue Civic Association will host “The Challenges and Rewards of Policing Our Town,” a conversation with Southold Town Chief of Police Steve Grattan this coming Thursday, Feb. 27 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library, on Main Road in Cutchogue.
Chief Grattan will discuss the many and varied roles of the department, its biggest challenges, residents’ most pressing concerns and the most common types of calls the Southold Town Police respond to. Sgt. Robert Haase will also discuss how to prevent scams.
That’s this coming Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library, on Main Road in Cutchogue.
***
Last week, after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had theatrically laid down a “Rambo”-inspired challenge to President Trump, she found herself in Washington, face to face with the president’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. They exchanged pleasantries that Friday morning. Ms. Hochul mentioned her desire to reschedule a canceled meeting with Mr. Trump. And that was that until several hours later, when the governor received word that the president would see her around 6 p.m. Benjamin Oreskes reports in THE NY TIMES that the hourlong meeting was largely civil. They discussed at length how they both sat behind desks that Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was governor of New York before he became president, had used.
They debated several subjects including congestion pricing in Manhattan. Ms. Hochul told Mr. Trump she was frustrated that Sean Duffy, Mr. Trump’s transportation secretary, had quoted New Jersey’s transportation commissioner in his letter informing Ms. Hochul that the president was moving to kill the plan.
Ms. Hochul said she didn’t appreciate an outsider “telling New Yorkers like you and me what to do.”
Ms. Hochul left the president a booklet detailing some of the program’s early successes.
She said she told him about the reduction in traffic around Trump Tower, and tried to dispel his impression that there were now fewer people entering the central business district. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said yesterday that the program raised $48.6 million during its first month.
“He says: ‘It’s horrible. It’s not working,’” she recalled. “I say, ‘No, it is working. I didn’t know if it was going to work for sure either, but it’s working. You need to see this.’ And he said, ‘I’ll talk to Sean.’”
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, did not respond to a list of questions about the meeting except to say that “President Trump has made his position on New York’s congestion pricing program unambiguously clear. Thanks to his leadership, the slap in the face to working-class Americans that is congestion pricing is dead.”
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By WLIW-FMCrescent Duck Farm’s eggs have hatched. The eggs saved for hatching after last month’s outbreak of avian influenza at the Aquebogue farm produced 3,700 ducklings, Crescent Duck Farm President Doug Corwin said last night. About half of them are females. Corwin said he was hoping for a better result, but “so long as we can keep them avian flu-free, we will have just enough for a first generation.” Newborn females will start laying eggs at six months of age. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Corwin said last week he hoped 5,000 eggs would hatch. Some 15,000 eggs were sanitized and cleared by the state for hatching at an off-site hatchery. Of that number, 6,000 were discarded because they did not have embryos growing inside, a determination made by examining the egg with a light. The hatching of 3,700 eggs of the remaining 9,000 was a very low hatching rate, compared to normal rates, Corwin said. But the eggs were already old and a lower rate was anticipated, he said. “As a farmer, I was hoping for better,” Corwin said. With highly pathogenic avian influenza sweeping across the country, the potential looms for another avian flu outbreak. If it happens again, Corwin said, “We’re done.” Corwin said last week he expects the quarantine in place at his farm — Long Island’s last surviving duck farm — will remain in place for another 2-3 months. “We are truly doing our best to keep our legacy strong,” he said.
***
Assessments are currently underway by New York State Department of Transportation officials to determine what will be done to address issues with the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays after its closure last Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Town of Southampton. Michael Malaszczyk of Dan’s Papers reports that the bridge was closed after the department conducted a routine check on the structure and identified conditions that demanded the bridge’s closure. The Ponquogue Bridge, which runs over the Shinnecock Bay in Hampton Bays, is closed indefinitely.
“The state has been out there all day today, rechecking some of the spots that they had identified in the routine inspection, taking a kind of a deeper dive into it to really get a better handle on exactly what’s going on,” Ryan Murphy, a spokesperson for the Town of Southampton, said yesterday. “We’re still kind of in holding pattern, waiting to see what the new assessment data reveals to them and whatever actions they decide are necessary going forward.”
No further information on what was found to be wrong with the bridge was available, nor is a time frame on when the bridge could reopen.
“We hope it’s sooner than later, but we don’t know what the timeframe is yet,” Murphy continued. “The engineers were looking at the data over the weekend. I guess we could surmise that as a result of looking at that data, they wanted to get some additional information, so they sent a team back out today. They’ve been up on the bridge taking a closer look at things. I would imagine that we’ll be looking at at least another couple of days, or day or two for them to go over whatever their findings were today and figure out what can and can’t be done.”
Until then, the Town of Southampton advised drivers to pursue alternate means of accessing Dune Road, and urged everyone to be mindful of the effect the bridge’s closure could have on traffic for the area.
***
Top chefs from across Long Island — are coming together for a one-night fundraiser to benefit Crescent Duck Farm workers. “Flock Together: A Culinary Tribute to Crescent Duck Farm” will take place this coming Friday; February 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Tellers Next Door, 599 Main Street in Islip.
Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the event will feature nine top chefs at chef-led food stations, local cocktails and wines, an auction, and donation opportunities — all with proceeds going directly to Cresent’s displaced workers. Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue, owned and operated by the Corwin family since 1908, is Long Island’s last commercial duck farm. A confirmed bird flu outbreak last month forced it to immediately cease operations and cull its entire flock of Pekin ducks, nearly 100,000 birds. It has had to lay off nearly all of its work force, numbering some 75 people. Local breweries and businesses in and around Riverhead held a fundraiser February 1 at North Fork Brewing Company and raised over $18,000 for Crescent Duck Farm workers. For more info regarding this coming Friday’s fundraiser go online to Eventbrite. Supporters can also donate directly via GoFundMe here.
***
THE NEW YORK TIMES posted a story this week entitled, "They Help Make the Hamptons the Hamptons, and Now They're Living in Fear." Dionne Searcey and Ana Ley report in THE N.Y. TIMES that wealthy residents of the Hamptons demand perfection. Now, many of the people who make it "perfect" — Latino immigrants, some of them undocumented — are panicking about President Trump’s deportation orders. “Everybody is living in fear,” said Sandra Melendez, a trustee for the village of East Hampton and an immigration lawyer. “They think Immigration is coming out to get them.” In the Hamptons, with miles of privet hedges and luxury homes, Latino immigrants make up the bulk of the work force. Many of the workers arrived illegally or have overstayed their visa. Some have legal working papers but are worried they could be swept up in raids or that their undocumented family members and friends could. In both East Hampton and Southampton Towns, Latinos make up more than a quarter of the population, according to U.S. census figures. The student population in several south fork schools is more than half Latino. The disappearance of undocumented residents would have an immediate effect on some of the nation’s wealthiest residents. “Everyone relies on housekeepers and carpenters and tree cutters and grass cutters,” said Marit Molin, founder and executive director of Hamptons Community Outreach. “People come to the Hamptons to enjoy their houses, and who is going to take care of their houses?” Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organización Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, an advocacy group, said school districts and police departments should distribute clearer policies in both English and Spanish about how they plan to respond to federal immigration orders so that residents feel informed. “There’s sometimes a good degree of empathy. In this moment, empathy is not enough.”
***
An additional 6,000 small- and medium-size businesses across the state would receive low-interest bank loans in the next couple of years under an initiative put forward by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, her economic development chief said yesterday. James T. Madore reports in NEWSDAY that the initiative in Hochul's proposed 2025-26 state budget would boost funding for the Low Interest Capital program from $560 million to $1 billion, said Hope Knight, CEO of Empire State Development, the state’s primary business-aid agency, which administers the program.
She outlined the increased funding in remarks to local business executives, union leaders, educators and nonprofit leaders at a meeting on the campus of Long Island University in Brookville on Monday.
Knight explained that the state helps to reduce interest rates on business loans by depositing money with the lender, matching the loan amount that the borrower is to receive. The state accepts a lower return on its deposit, allowing the lender to pass the savings to the borrower. After four years, the lender returns the deposit to the state, she said.
Knight told Newsday, “We think we can serve approximately 6,000 small businesses” if the proposed funding increase is adopted by state lawmakers. The state budget is due by April 1.
To date, the program has resulted in $2 billion in loans to nearly 6,000 small businesses that in turn have invested more than $4 billion in expansion projects, according to data from the state budget division.
Knight said there’s only $7 million left in the program, which used to be called the Linked Deposit Program.
***
The Cutchogue Civic Association will host “The Challenges and Rewards of Policing Our Town,” a conversation with Southold Town Chief of Police Steve Grattan this coming Thursday, Feb. 27 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library, on Main Road in Cutchogue.
Chief Grattan will discuss the many and varied roles of the department, its biggest challenges, residents’ most pressing concerns and the most common types of calls the Southold Town Police respond to. Sgt. Robert Haase will also discuss how to prevent scams.
That’s this coming Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library, on Main Road in Cutchogue.
***
Last week, after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul had theatrically laid down a “Rambo”-inspired challenge to President Trump, she found herself in Washington, face to face with the president’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. They exchanged pleasantries that Friday morning. Ms. Hochul mentioned her desire to reschedule a canceled meeting with Mr. Trump. And that was that until several hours later, when the governor received word that the president would see her around 6 p.m. Benjamin Oreskes reports in THE NY TIMES that the hourlong meeting was largely civil. They discussed at length how they both sat behind desks that Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was governor of New York before he became president, had used.
They debated several subjects including congestion pricing in Manhattan. Ms. Hochul told Mr. Trump she was frustrated that Sean Duffy, Mr. Trump’s transportation secretary, had quoted New Jersey’s transportation commissioner in his letter informing Ms. Hochul that the president was moving to kill the plan.
Ms. Hochul said she didn’t appreciate an outsider “telling New Yorkers like you and me what to do.”
Ms. Hochul left the president a booklet detailing some of the program’s early successes.
She said she told him about the reduction in traffic around Trump Tower, and tried to dispel his impression that there were now fewer people entering the central business district. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said yesterday that the program raised $48.6 million during its first month.
“He says: ‘It’s horrible. It’s not working,’” she recalled. “I say, ‘No, it is working. I didn’t know if it was going to work for sure either, but it’s working. You need to see this.’ And he said, ‘I’ll talk to Sean.’”
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, did not respond to a list of questions about the meeting except to say that “President Trump has made his position on New York’s congestion pricing program unambiguously clear. Thanks to his leadership, the slap in the face to working-class Americans that is congestion pricing is dead.”