LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – After three members of the same family were killed in crashes in Lindenhurst, those who live and work in the area insist something must be done to stop tragedies on a busy roadway.
A man who owns a body shop on Montauk Highway gave police the surveillance video of the hit-and-run crash that killed Pauline Aluska earlier this week.
“After the guy hit her, he slowed down to make sure he ran somebody over. He didn’t know what it was, maybe,” he told WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall. “When he saw he hit somebody, he burned out of here in a small black pickup truck.”
You only have to spend a short time in the area to see drivers exceeding the speed limit, Hall reported.
“It’s a drag strip. The average car is going maybe 80 miles per hour,” the shop owner said. “We’ve had people constantly begging for a light, or a nightlight, for people. It’s very dark at night.”
A traffic light is set to be installed at South 13th Street, where Aluska, her brother John in 2015, and 18-year-old Brittany Walsh in 2012 were all killed.
“Maybe it could have saved this woman’s life, maybe it could have, no one will ever know,” homeowner Domenic Roseto said Monday. “It’s a danger zone, just one big danger zone here.”
“Where’s the traffic light? It’s supposed to be coming soon, we need it. We really need it because everyone speeds so fast,” homeowner Mary Jane Stoker said.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Local leaders in Lindenhurst are calling for something to be done to slow speeding drivers along Montauk Highway.
As TV 10/55’s Long Island Bureau Chief Richard Rose reported, the renewed call for greater safety measures comes on the heels of an accident that badly injured a 10-year-old boy.
As the nearest vehicles started to slow, the young boy suddenly darted out into the road and was struck by an oncoming vehicle. The boy was sent flying 15 feet in the air before he landed on the sidewalk.
“I knew it was going to happen,” said Michael Vuraldor.
Vuraldor, an electronics vendor, said there have been so many accidents at the intersection outside his store that he moved his surveillance cameras to directly show the pedestrian walkway.
There are no traffic lights at the pedestrian cross walk. A warning sign is just 150 feet from the intersection following a bend on the highway, Rose reported.
“From either direction, you can’t see the corners at 13th and 9th streets until you pass that bend,” said Lindenhurst resident Meg Meggiotta.
Meggiotta, a long-time resident, said there have been at least four deaths since the road was widened to five lanes about 20 years ago.
“We almost lost a young boy trying to cross this road, which is very difficult. How many people have to die before something is done?” said Suffolk County Legislator Kevin McCaffery (R-Lindenhurst).
McCaffery wants the state Department of Transportation to eliminate one lane in each direction.
Pedestrian advocates said the lanes should at least be modified.
“Narrower lanes, well-designed medians, a number of things which makes the road seem narrower, which makes drivers more diligent and cautious,” said Elissa Kyle of Vision Long Island.
State highway managers told Rose they will soon meet with village officials to find ways to prevent future tragedies.
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LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A Lindenhurst man has been charged with DWI after an alleged hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a motorcyclist Friday night.
According to Suffolk County Police, the driver of the 2013 Apollo mini-motorcycle, Richard Scheuermann, was headed northbound on North 8th Street in Lindenhurst when he collided with a 1999 GMC Safari van in front of 120 North 8th St.
The 19-year-old Scheuermann was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was listed in stable condition with severe injuries to his leg, police said.
The driver of the van, 43-year-old Frederick Hoffman, fled the scene of the crash, according to police. But was later arrested by officers and charged with DWI and leaving the scene of an accident with serious physical injury.
Hoffman was expected to be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip Saturday. It remained unclear Saturday night if he went before a judge.
Police said both vehicles were impounded for safety checks and that the investigation is ongoing.
Detectives are urging anyone who may have witnessed the crash to call the First Squad at 631-854-8152 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will remain confidential.
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LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A man was critically injured late Sunday afternoon when his jet ski crashed offshore from Long Island.
Roldando Moreno, 45, was riding a Yamaha WaveRunner in the Lindenhurst cut of the Great South Bay when he jumped the wake of a boat, Suffolk County police said.
Moreno crashed into the 23-foot Chapparal boat around 5:25 p.m., police said.
Moreno, of Huntington Station, was taken to shore by another boater, and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip once on land, police said.
No one on the boat was injured.
Detectives asked anyone with information on the crash to call the Suffolk County police First Squad at (631) 854-8152.
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A dog is recovering after it was brought to a Long Island animal shelter in “horrible condition” last week, the Suffolk County SPCA said.
A man found the Shih Tzu-type dog in an abandoned house in Lindenhurst and brought it to the Town of Babylon Animal Shelter on July 17, according to the organization.
Neighbors said the last tenants moved out almost a year ago, but it wasn’t believed they owned a dog.
The dog was so matted and the nails so overgrown that the pooch could barely walk when it was brought to the shelter, Gross said.
“The dog looked like an old mop,” Gross told WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall. “It’s one of the worst cases of matting…The dog obviously was suffering, it couldn’t walk well because of the matting.”
Workers spent three hours shaving off four pounds of matted fur from the 11-pound dog.
“You couldn’t even get — a flea would not be able to penetrate the matting on this dog. That’s how bad this was,” Gross told CBS 2’s Don Champion.
Ziggy, dog found in abandoned Lindenhurst home, after getting a much-needed shave. (credit: Suffolk County SPCA)
The dog is about 5 or 6 years old and has been named Ziggy. It will have to go through extensive physical therapy to learn how to walk properly again, the SPCA said.
“Quite literally every single one of his hairs were being pulled and twisted 24 hours a day,” said Dr. Patrick Maguire, with New York Veterinary Specialty Center.
Vets and staff at New York Veterinary Specialty Center are now helping Ziggy recover, Champion reported.
“We all want to see that this dog gets a good home and we also want to see this person brought to justice,” Gross said.
After another week or so of physical therapy and care, vets said Ziggy should be ready for adoption at the Babylon Animal Shelter.
A $2,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Suffolk County SPCA at 631-382-7722.
The dog could barely walk when it was brought to the Town of Babylon Animal Shelter on July 17 because his fur was so matted and nails so overgrown.
Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk SPCA, said the dog looked like an old mop.
“I asked one of the veterinarians, ‘What is this dog feeling? What kind of pain is it in?’ and he said, ‘Well, if I grabbed your hair and twisted it, that dog felt that 24/7.’ That’s what kind of pain that dog was in,” Gross told 1010 WINS.
Workers spent more than three hours shaving off four pounds of matted fur from the 11-pound dog and Ziggy had to undergo physical therapy to learn how to walk properly again, Gross said.
The dog is about 6 years old and Gross said it appears Ziggy had been neglected for his entire life.
“The matting was just absolutely pathetic,” Gross said, adding that Ziggy is “still a sweet and loving dog.”
LI couple adopts Ziggy the dogLI couple adopts Ziggy the dog (Sophia Hall/WCBS 880)
"Ziggy," Dog Found Abandoned In Lindenhurst HomeZiggy, dog found in abandoned Lindenhurst home. (credit: Suffolk County SPCA)
"Ziggy," Dog Found Abandoned In Lindenhurst HomeZiggy, a dog found in an abandoned Lindenhurst home, was so matted and the nails so overgrown that the pooch could barely walk when it was brought to the shelter. (credit: Suffolk County SPCA)
Ball of fur removed from Ziggy the dogBall of fur removed from Ziggy the dog (Sophia Hall/WCBS 880)
Ziggy has been adopted by a Suffolk County couple.
“When I saw the picture of him before he got shaved I went pretty much ballistic,” Ziggy’s new owner said. “I went to my wife and I said, ‘We gotta do something about this dog.”
The director of the Babylon Animal Shelter said the couple has a lot of experience with dogs with special needs, 1010 WINS reported.
A $2,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction of those responsible for abandoning Ziggy. Anyone with information is asked to call the Suffolk County SPCA at 631-382-7722.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Multiple local government agencies on Long Island declared states of emergency Wednesday after a storm dumped nearly an entire summer’s worth of rain, causing major flooding in some spots that stranded motorists and snarled the morning commute.
From Tuesday evening until Wednesday morning, Islip got more than 13 inches of rain, more than the normal total for June, July and August of 11.75 inches, said Joe Pollina of the National Weather Service.
More than 5 inches of it fell in just a one-hour period, from 5 to 6 a.m. Wednesday, Pollina said. Holbrook got nearly 11 inches.
A state of emergency was declared in Suffolk County, where county Executive Steve Bellone called the weather Wednesday morning a “storm of historic proportions.”
“It was unprecedented and unpredicted — the size, the extent, the scale,” Bellone said at a news conference Wednesday, also remarking that “this could be a 500-year storm we just witnessed.”
Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci said the storm brought “a historic amount of rain in a short amount of time.”
The Town of Brookhaven within in Suffolk County also declared a state of emergency. Officials warned that the ground was saturated and could cause sinkholes, collapsing cesspools, and the uprooting of trees.
As 1010 WINS’ Gary Baumgarten reported, some Suffolk County homes were still sitting on lakefront property on Wednesday night, as water was having trouble receding even with the help of municipal pumps.
“Had about 12 inches of water in the basement and 4 or 5 inches in the car” one West Islip resident said.
While the storms had long since moved on by Wednesday night, standing water prompted officers to stand guard, and more problems were expected for the Thursday morning commute.
Flooding Wreaks Havoc On Roads
Even with the storms gone, some cars were still submerged under floodwaters late into the night Wednesday.
As CBS 2’s Dave Carlin reported, floodwaters were inching down slowly on Moffett Boulevard and other Islip streets, but a state of being back to normal seemed like a long way off Wednesday night.
Dacosta Symister’s Nissan Maxima was still submerged, with only its top part visible in the floodwaters along the Sunrise Highway.
It stalled, and Symister abandoned it around 6:30 a.m. Returning around 9 p.m., very little had changed.
“It hasn’t gone down much, as you can see,” Symister said.
Still, the situation was a far cry from Wednesday morning. According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, more than 13 inches of rain closed 11 major highways in the early part of the day – and in places that had never flooded before.
Many drivers were stunned that the parkway flooded so quickly.
“My car shut off, the water was just piling up. I started opening my windows in panic,” driver Laura Cutuli from East Meadow told CBS 2’s Weijia Jiang. “There was no way to get out. It was just, you were there and that was it. You couldn’t get off — the cars couldn’t move.”
“It looked like just pavement like that, like a puddle that I could go through and I got stuck,” one woman told WCBS 880’s Mike Xirinachs. “The wave of water just pushed my car up.”
“It was up to my waist,” said James Piano of Islip Terrace, who was rescued by firefighters after his truck was swamped. “That little Miata over there was floating in the middle lane, literally floating.”
As CBS 2’s Carolyn Gusoff reported, drivers who hit the road at dawn were still waiting it out six hours later, stymied by the unprecedented floodwaters.
“I got no choice. My exhaust is like, 12 inches from the ground. If I go, water is going to go in there, then there’s going to be a whole ’nother issue,” said driver Leonard Gjonbrekaj. “I just parked on the highway.”
“We got here, and the water just was overwhelming,” said driver Christopher Blum. “The cars were all getting stuck, and floating, actually.”
But in electing to stay put on the roads, Gjonbrekaj and Blum were in better shape than those who tried to navigate through. A total of 100 drivers had to be rescued from flood waters that turned cars into boats from the Southern State Parkway to the Long Island Expressway, as well as some major local roads.
“Next thing I knew, the water — I felt the water on my feet,” said stranded driver Pavel Mazirka. “The car turned off, and I started floating here.”
Medical student Pavel Mazirka, 24, who is in traning to become a doctor, did not see the lake ahead because of the blinding morning rain.
“Next thing I knew, the water — I felt the water on my feet,” Mazirka said. “The car turned off, and I started floating here.”
He bobbed for two hours both inside and outside his vehicle until getting help from Robert Widergerin, a Good Samaritan who rigged up a chain to pull several vehicles to high ground.
Two truck drivers did most of the heavy lifting. Drivers said their flooded out vehicles will have to go to the junk pile.
“Waterlogged – the motor gets locked up, the electrical system get compromised. The car is compromised; it’s salvage at that point,” said Bo Monte of Elite Towing.
Driver Jose Guzman was among those who were left with a wrecked vehicle. His friend, Juan Sanchez, said Guzman has limited insurance coverage and was looking at a total loss with no way to replace his vehicle.
The situation on the Southern State Parkway was also particularly disastrous, as multiple drivers had to be rescued from dozens of cars.
“We had occupants climbing out windows and vehicles, as they couldn’t open the doors,” said North Babylon Fire Department Lt. Tim Harrington. “Some of the water was over the vehicles’ roofs.”
Harrington was the first responder at the scene on the Southern State Parkway, and his uniform was still caked with mud hours later.
Ed Gelber was on his way to work when his Toyota Scion became partially submerged in a foot of flood water just off the Southern State Parkway in Bay Shore.
“Pitch dark, pouring rain and you just couldn’t see the depth of the water,” Gelber told 1010 WINS’ Derricke Dennis. “I was following everybody else and this is where I ended up.”
Laura Cutuli of East Meadow said she had no time to react when heavy rains trapped her on the Southern State Parkway.
“There was no way to get out,” she said. “It was just, you were there, and that was it. You couldn’t get off — the cars couldn’t move.”
“The cars started to float. So everyone just tried to pull to the side, and then the grass was full and that was it. They had to come rescue us,” said Pat Dalton, who was evacuated from the parkway.
Firefighters could not access the parkway with their trucks, so they walked a quarter mile through waist-high water to evacuate people.
No one who was trapped on the Southern State was hurt, but many came to the North Babylon firehouse to get help from the Red Cross as they worked out a plan to get home.
Meanwhile, waves of rainwater lapped up to the guardrails on Sunrise Highway, also in Bay Shore. The busy east-west corridor was rendered impassable.
“It’s been horrible,” a man said while sitting in his stationary car. “I had a doctor’s appointment – cancelled. I don’t know when I’m going to be getting home.”
“It feels like we had a huge hurricane without the winds,” a woman added.
“I wish I’d never left the house this morning — that’s how I feel,” added Pat Ciloa of Babylon.
Drivers got out of their cars and stood on the Sunrise Highway, watching it turn into rapids.
“Mind-boggling; frightening. You know, you think tsunami,” a woman said. “You get all this rain and it makes you, like a reality check.”
At least six cars were also submerged in flood waters on the Northern State Parkway, which was closed at Route 107. One driver whose car became stuck said he had to climb to safety through the sunroof.
“Literally, I’m driving and then all of a sudden, ‘boom’ — water,” Michael Dennis told CBS 2’s Vanessa Murdock. “I couldn’t even see that it was that high. It was really a nightmare.”
And side roads were no better, as water cascaded down from the highways. Residents said they heard the pounding before dawn, but did not expect anything like what they saw.
By mid-morning, the water had subsided in some areas and traffic began moving again along a road surface coated with a slippery-looking film of oil, dirt and grass.
Bellone said the rainfall amounts were more than what the county could handle.
“The drainage systems in the county, and you find similar numbers throughout the municipal systems, are designed to sustain a 5-inch storm over a 24-hour period,” he said. “This was 13 inches over several hours.”
Bellone said there was one weather-related fatality. He said the driver of a sport-utility vehicle was killed when the vehicle burst into flames after it collided with a tractor-trailer on the Long Island Expressway.
As for other means of transportation, the Long Island Rail Road reported scattered delays and some suspensions because of weather-related problems.
As late the evening commute delays persisted on the Montauk, Port Jefferson and Oyster Bay branches of the LIRR. Earlier, service was shut down altogether between Kings Park and Port Jefferson because of flooding east of Smithtown.
WCBS 880’s Ginny Kosola spoke with commuters at Penn Station who were heading home to face and repair damage sustained by the heavy rains and flooding.
“There’s this huge sinkhole in the backyard,” Dave Johnson of Port Jefferson said before heading home to help his wife with repairs. “There’s a 10-by-10-by-6-foot-deep hole in my backyard which is only about 40 feet by 40 feet anyway. Apparently an old septic tank gave way because we’re now on town sewer.”
John from Seaford was surprised to see so much flooding.
“I went through one area that had at least six inches of water. It wasn’t even like that during the hurricane. It was incredible,” he said.
LIRR service was back to normal late Wednesday night.
“Worse Than Sandy”
Some Long Island residents said Wednesday’s flooding was worse than Superstorm Sandy.
“It’s like devastation all over again. I think it’s actually worse than Sandy over by us, we had overturned cars,” one Lindenhurst resident told CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan.
“This is worse than Sandy,” another woman said. “This is unbelievable. No one was prepared for this. A little rain turned into a big disaster.”
“This is the first I’ve ever seen this,” one Babylon resident told 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera. “Even during Sandy, it wasn’t this bad.”
“I have never seen this,” one Bay Shore resident told CBS 2’s Gusoff. “Before and during Sandy, we didn’t have this because it didn’t rain. The rain this morning was ridiculous.”
“My basement has about four and a half feet of water in it, I’ve pretty much lost everything in the basement,” Babylon resident Anne Morrow told WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond. “During Hurricane Sandy, we got nothing so to me, this is unbelievable.”
Morrow’s daughters made the most of it by putting on their swimsuits and paddling down the street.
“Now I have a beach house in my backyard,” one daughter said.
Indeed, residents of block after block in western Suffolk County neighborhoods were stunned at the damage from the freak rainstorm.
Joseph Gregg of Lindenhurst was standing ankle deep in water that he said all came from the rain.
“It’s fresh water. I was in the backyard when one of the boats sank back there, and I went in, and I tasted – the water went in my mouth, and it’s fresh water,” Gregg told CBS 2’s McLogan. “It’s all rainwater.”
LIRR commuter Joe Smith of Lindenhurst and his neighbors awoke to a deluge.
“If it wasn’t for my sump pumps in basement, it would be a total flood-out,” Smith said.
From Amityville to Islip, families were caught off guard.
“I am trying to get in touch with my mother. We can’t even find where she is,” said Andrea Feaser of Amityville.
Some stood by helplessly as the waters rose, while others were quickly ordered out of flooded streets by the county Health Department. Parents such as Susan and John Viscusi of Lindenhurst were unnerved.
“We’re on the ground floor – I don’t have a basement,” Susan Viscusi said. “I’d love to know where all this water is going to go. We don’t really have a lot of a lot of sewage, you know, drainpipes here in this town.”
As the rain fell, driveways turned into rain-swollen rivers, and floodwaters reached more than 4 feet to meet clotheslines.
“I look out the window, and it’s teeming — the rain is coming in buckets. I look over to the right, and then my car is half under water,” John Viscusi said. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it out. You know, the water came up on all sides. The back of the house is pretty much done for – the back pool, the shed, my deck. The water came out of nowhere.”
The Viscusis on Wednesday afternoon called their insurance company, which just helped them through Superstorm Sandy. They were crossing their fingers that relief will be on the way again.
The residential neighborhoods of Farmingville were also hit particularly hard, CBS 2’s Jessica Schneider reported. The rainwater there caused flash flooding, created sinkholes, tore up a driveway, and left a car that had been parked on solid ground hanging on a ledge.
“I looked out to the backyard, and there was no backyard,” said Tara Wright of Farmingdale. “It was just water, and it looked like a river coming through my backyard.”
The flash flood alert buzzed on Tara Wright’s phone around 6 a.m. Seconds later, her son ran upstairs from the basement, telling her she had to get out of the house.
“We really thought the house was going to go down,” Wright said.
Water filled to the top of the basement stairs, forcing Wright and her mother and son to race for higher ground. Along with two dogs, they jumped right into the water and forced their way up the block to higher ground.
After the rain moved on, some basements were in ruins and had to be ripped apart.
“We just figured, let’s get all the sheet rock out of the house so there won’t be any mold, and then we’ll deal with this at a different time,” said resident Ozzy Delatorre.
But Wright’s home was the worst affected. Officials condemned the home hours after the flooding and fenced off the family’s pool. Wright and her mother and brother will stay with family until they figure out what to do next.
Cuomo said resources have been deployed to Long Island to help with the flooding and said the state’s Emergency Operations Center has been activated to monitor the situation.
He said 400 New York State Department of Transportation workers are out pumping water from roadways and clearing debris.
The Town of Brookhaven has also set up a hotline for its residents who have run into structural or electrical issues from flooding. The hotline is available at (631) 451-TOWN.
Rain Drenches New Jersey, Connecticut
The storm also slammed parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.
In New Jersey, nearly 9 inches of rain fell at Millville Airport in Cumberland County between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
There was more than 7 inches in Stafford, more than 5 inches at Atlantic City airport and in Manasquan and more than 4 inches in Tabernacle.
Buses are honoring tickets for NJ TRANSIT North Jersey Coast Line passengers because flooding in the Bay Head Rail Yard is making it difficult for crews to access the trains.
In Connecticut, streets were flooded in some parts. Unofficial rainfall amounts are as high as 8.9 inches in Chester with much of the region seeing more than 2 inches.
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NORTH BABYLON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) — Long Island was drying out and trying to clean up Thursday, after a “historic” storm that dumped a record amount of rain, swamped highways, flooded buildings and caused more than one sinkhole to open up.
Some roads were still impassable Thursday because of pooling water left behind from the storm.
MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma received 13.26 inches of rain from midnight to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the highest single-day rain total ever in New York state.
“The drainage systems are designed for five to eight inches of water in a 24-hour period. In this case, you had 13-plus inches of rain in a few hours,” said Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci.
Suffolk County and the towns of Islip and Brookhaven have declared states of emergency after what County Executive Steve Bellone called an “unprecedented” deluge.
Meteorologist Jack Boston called the storm a once-every-50-years event. He said it was powered by tropical moisture and thicker than usual clouds.
“It’s not just how much rain fell; it’s how fast it fell,” Boston said. “We’re talking about billions and billions of gallons of water, and it all has to go somewhere.”
Neighborhoods Left Ravaged By Floodwaters
Still reeling from Superstorm Sandy, many residents were shocked by the flooding.
“This is the worst it’s ever been around here,” said Islip resident Anthony Carbone.
“Shocking because we didn’t know we were going to get this much rain,” a Lindenhurst resident said. “It was a surprise.”
As CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan reported, anguished Islip residents were trying to dry out Thursday afternoon, as they dragged their sodden belongings out to the curb along Moffitt Boulevard.
Andrzej Sliwowski’s dining room was still soaking wet Thursday morning as he prepared to throw everything away. His elderly father-in-law pitched in with a dustpan.
“This year, it’s the biggest crisis ever,” Sliwowski told CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell. “We got about six inches of water inside the house in our ground floor area. The backyard was flooded, I think the deepest point was about three or four feet.”
Twenty-four hours after the historic rainfall, Sliwowski and his neighbors on the Garretson Avenue cul-de-sac in Islip still had ducks swimming in their backyards.
As CBS 2’s Jessica Schneider reported, the Lutz family of Islip was left with a backyard that was a soggy, sinking mess. Their two cars were ruined.
They snapped pictures of the waist-high water that inundated their neighborhood and left them paddling through their street to higher ground.
“It’s really weird to wake up to do your normal routine, and then wake up and have to take the canoe out because you can’t get out of your driveway,” said Kelsey Lutz. “I was docking my boat at my mailbox.”
This was not the family’s first run-in with Mother Nature. Just months before Superstorm Sandy, their house burned down.
“When Sandy hit, we were actually staying in a trailer – a double-wide — on the front lawn,” said Tom Lutz. “Mother nature is what it is.”
Horror stories were growing as homeowners sought emergency relief. The American Red Cross on Long Island was inundated as its crews went door to door.
One Islip neighborhood was without power Thursday, and a cancer patient in his flooded home was in need of help, the Red Cross said.
“His house is completely destroyed. Mold is already setting in,” said Deborah Moffitt of the Red Cross. “I mean, this is not healthy for him. He’s receiving chemotherapy.”
In Lindenhurst, residents recovering from Sandy had been walloped again. Houses in the process of being raised for protection from flooding saw rivers of rainwater.
Craig Scutturo said his street was like a river Wednesday.
“There was water that was rushing down the street in the morning going north, and then towards the afternoon it was heading back south,” he told WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell.
Scutturo is living in a trailer on his property because his house was destroyed by Sandy and he is still waiting for help.
Some Sandy-damaged homes are still unoccupied in Lindenhurst, and the Aug. 13, 2014, flooding has added to the misery for homeowners. (credit: Peter Haskell/WCBS 880)
Some Lindenhurst residents might give up on living there altogether, a contractor said.
“A lot of people are ready to move out and take their losses, because they’re not getting the help they need,” said Lindenhurst contractor Erik Galasso.
Many of the storm victims Wednesday were still waiting for funding from New York Rising. They blamed antiquated infrastructure – septic failures, and clogged sewers that should have been cleared.
In Brightwaters, a lot of small businesses lost everything.
And complicating the situation further was the fact that many homeowners live inland and have no flood insurance.
“This is not a flood area,” Sliwowski said. “We don’t have flood insurance, so this makes it really hard.”
At Islip Town Hall, emergency financial response teams took information from anguished and jaded homeowners, skeptical they would qualify for help.
“I blame it on the town, because they never fixed the sewers or the lines,” said Islip resident Calvin Gibson.
Nigel Jackson had five feet of water in his basement and was left to appeal to the town hall.
“Water came crashing through the basement door,” he said.
While many western Suffolk County homes were left in a condition that conjured memories of Sandy’s wrath, many homeowners were left without recourse.
“Here’s the problem — many of these homes on these creeks are not in a flood zone, so their insurance companies aren’t going to cover it, and that’s a huge issue for a homeowner, and then oh by the way, unless we get a disaster declaration and FEMA steps in, there’s no way for them to recover the cost of this damage,” Croci said.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said efforts were under way to secure funds.
“The federal government has both grants and loans. Now, we have to meet a certain threshold for grants. We have to find that there was $25 million in total damage in this storm,” Schumer said. “We’re having (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) on the ground to count that up tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, many in Bay Shore said conditions have vastly improved from Wednesday.
“Any street you tried to get down was flooded or there was a tree lying across the road,” resident Mindy Podesta told CBS 2’s Andrea Grymes. “But it’s much better today.”
During the height of the storm, firefighters encountered about 50 vehicles stuck in the rising waters on the Southern State Parkway in North Babylon.
Firefighters, who couldn’t access the parkway with their trucks, walked a quarter-mile through waist-high water to evacuate stranded people.
“We had occupants climbing out of windows because they couldn’t open their doors,” said Lt. Timothy Harrington, the first firefighter on the scene. “Some of the water was over the vehicles’ roofs. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Cars Left In Ruins; Sinkholes Remain A Threat
Meanwhile, the unprecedented rainfall destroyed hundreds of cars and flooded roads and paved surfaces. The damage became clearer Thursday afternoon after the water receded.
As CBS 2’s Carolyn Gusoff reported, flash floods gave way to sinkholes in many areas.
At Bay Shore Commons, a gigantic sinkhole opened up at a shopping plaza Wednesday, swallowing pavement in the parking lot.
Assessors at the scene said a pipe burst because of pressure from a nearby creek that was overcome by the rains. The broken pipeline traveled through the basement of a smoothie shop and that caused the sinkhole.
Witnesses said a car drove over the road and made it across the pavement just as the ground started caving in.
Samantha Galarde watched as the sinkhole developed to about 15 feet across and 10 feet deep.
“I was just standing outside and I saw part of the ground start going down and slowly but surely the whole thing caved in,” she told Haskell.
A day later, merchants were worried what might happen next.
“Is it going to swallow up those stores?” said area store clerk Peter Marcus.
As 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera reported, the town of Islip has identified at least a dozen potholes and sinkholes caused by the heavy rain. In one instance, a dock collapsed when part of Montauk Highway caved in due to raging floodwaters.
Croci said storm draining systems were not constructed to accommodate so much water at once.
“The water was trying to find a way back to the bay to get out, and it shows old, historic stream beds that are under a lot of our structures and roadways, and the amount of water is what has caused what you’re seeing here,” he said.
On Thursday, pumps emptied drains and flooded highways. AAA said the damage was proof that the infrastructure was aging out.
“We are living on the largess of ancient infrastructure, and we need to do all that we can to update the infrastructure,” said AAA spokesman Robert Sinclair.
But there is no fix for severely flooded cars. Once water reaches the electronics in a newer model, auto experts said it is safer to replace it.
“There are so many electronics and computers and modules in cars — even if they work today, six months from now, something’s going to go wrong,” said an auto expert from Michael Anthony Auto Service.
Alan Wodzenski did not think to bring his car to higher ground, because he lives inland. Now his car is severely damaged.
“The water level was up to here, and I’ve got water damage all in there,” he said.
Comprehensive car insurance covers flood damage, but some drivers drop it to cut costs.
Cuomo: Financial Assistance On The Way
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is providing direct help for Long Islanders whose homes and businesses were damaged by the storm.
He announced the deployment of the Department of Financial Services mobile command center to provide insurance assistance to people affected.
“We give them help and guidance and advise with respect to whatever coverage they have,” State Department of Financial Services spokesman Martin Schwartzman told 1010 WINS’ Derricke Dennis. “So, for example, many people have automobiles that are damaged. If they have the proper coverage of their automobile policy, we could advise them how to get those claims. To the extent of damage to their house, we can advise them how to file their claims.”
Keisha Francios, of Bay Shore, said she came to the mobile command center Thursday because she lost everything in the storm.
“All my clothes, furniture, my boiler — everything,” she said. “I don’t know what they can do to help, but something. I don’t know.”
“Two feet of water was in the home, and the office is flooded,” Nancy told WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs. “And I don’t have flood insurance because I wasn’t in a flood area.”
The center was to be open Thursday until 8 p.m. at the Islip Town Hall parking lot on Main Street. More locations are expected to open in the days ahead.
Suffolk County officials said the Red Cross has also set up temporary shelters for displaced residents impacted by the storm and said residents whose homes sustained structural damage should contact their local municipality.
For more information from Suffolk County, click here.
There was one weather-related fatality on Long Island. Officials said a man died when a tractor-trailer hit his slow-moving sport-utility vehicle at the height of the storm on the Long Island Expressway.
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LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — As officials target vape stores and hookah lounges in one Long Island community, owners and patrons of those shops claim it’s unfair discrimination.
As CBS2’s Jennifer McLogan reported, two dozen vape shops and hookah lounges have opened across Long Island’s South Shore in the past year. The Village of Lindenhurst wants to put on the brakes, with a controversial proposal to ban all e-cigarette stores, medical marijuana dispensaries and water-pipe smoke shops.
Village officials decided to take action after hearing complaints from parents of children who passed by some of the lounges on their way to and from school and the local library.
John Lappas, who helps manage the store Clean Vapor, calls the proposed crackdown a Big Brother-type move.
“I don’t think it’s anything to be afraid of,” he said. “It’s 21 and up to purchase anything here.”
E-cigarette user Leo Pensa claims the devices are merely a stress reducer.
“On Long Island, there’s a big drug problem pretty much,” he said. “We should just crack down more on harmful drugs than e-cigarettes.”
“Or what about the underage drinking that sometimes happens in the bars on the strip?” added Christina Martin, who also uses e-cigarettes. “What about that? Why are you focusing on this industry?”
Martin said she believes vaping helped her break her addiction to cigarettes.
“I was a pack-a-day smoker at the time that I quit, and I was 18,” she said. “And I haven’t touched a single one since.”
New Lindenhurst Mayor Mike Lavorata said the jury is still out on health risks and he wants a safe and family-friendly environment
“We want people to walk our downtown and not have to look at vape stores,” he said. “In my opinion, vape stores and hookah bars and things of this nature just don’t fit in with the downtown we’re looking to create.”
If the ban is to go through, a law must be created and a public hearing held. The first chance for debate is 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lindenhurst Village Hall.
If the law is enacted, already-established vape stores and hookah lounges would not have to close, but no new ones could open and no medical marijuana dispensaries would be welcome in Lindenhurst.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A car filled with four people slammed into a fire hydrant and a tree early Monday morning on Long Island, killing two of them and critically injuring the others.
The crash happened shortly before 5:30 a.m. on North Wellwood Avenue and Lenox Street in Lindenhurst.
Sixteen-year-old Joseph Galdorisi, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
A 22-year-old female passenger in the backseat was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center, where she later died. Her name has not yet been released.
The driver, 17-year-old David O’Brien did survive. As did another passenger, 16-year-old Daniel Ozuroski. Both remain in critical condition at the hospital.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A Long Island community is mourning the loss of two young lives following a fatal car crash.
As WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall reports, a photo of 16-year-old Joseph Galdorisis is now attached to a tree on Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst, along with flowers and religious balloons. He and a 22-year-old female passenger were killed when a Mustang slammed into a fire hydrant and tree early Monday morning.
(Credit: Sophia Hall/WCBS Newsradio 880)
The driver, 17-year-old David O’Brien, and another passenger, 16-year-old Daniel Ozarowski, were seriously injured.
Grief counselors are on hand at the town’s high school Tuesday.
“I am hoping that everyone will grieve with the families as I am doing,” Lindehurst Mayor Michael Lavorata told Hall. “People have a tendency to speculate as to what happened or what might have happened. I have no clue as to what happened.”
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – Funds pledged to fix a deteriorating Long Island park remain in limbo.
Three years have passed since the community won a grant to upgrade outdated equipment in order to make their park handicapped accessible and safe for everyone. But as CBS2’s Jennifer McLogan reported, bickering in Albany may have stalled the check.
The Fusaro family, of Lindenhurst, is fighting for a fix. It’s been a decade since their tiny neighborhood park fell into disrepair.
“For years here, we’ve been trying to upgrade this park. The sand here is terrible, the equipment is outdated,” Christopher Fusaro said.
Homeowners lobbied for and eventually won a grant issued by the State Dormitory Authority three years ago. The organization administers park funding and pledged to rehabilitate the deteriorating Lt. Edward Weckerle Memorial Park, where there are rusted swings, splitting seats, an obsolete jungle gym, and trucked-in road sand.
“It’s uneven and it’s difficult for people to use with a stroller, and certainly if you have a wheelchair or any sort of mobility disability, you can’t navigate your way into this park,” Kristin Fusaro said.
But the promises remain unfulfilled — the check for $100,000 has yet to arrive. And the village is restless.
“I need the park done. It’s been three years. We’re tired of it,” Lindenhurst Mayor Mike Lavorata said. “I jokingly said, the money is languishing in purgatory and I want to bring it back.”
Others blame the delay on State House in-fighting. The GOP says wheels sometimes turn slowly and the project is moving forward. But Democrats claim no action was taken by the Republican majority.
“I don’t understand what the point of all this is in the end. If the money is available… there’s no reason for it,” Democratic New York State Sen. John Brooks, of Seaford, told McLogan. “If it’s done, get them the money so we can move on to the next thing.”
Meanwhile, residents have started a petition.
“Six hundred and 50 signatures in under a week or so… We haven’t really been able to get any information… Without that money, we really can’t do much of anything to this park,” said Kristin Fusaro.
A Dormitory Authority spokesperson told CBS2 it still has not received the paperwork. Once it does, final approval from the state department of the budget is needed before the $100,000 grant can be released.
The GOP senate spokesman in Albany said the paperwork has been completed and the majority leader recently signed off on the project.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Two women are facing charges after police say they stole a 75-year-old Navy veteran’s walker from outside a bakery in Lindenhurst.
It happened outside the Black Forest Bakery on North Wellwood Avenue around 9:15 a.m. Wednesday.
Police said surveillance video from the bakery captured the theft. In the video, police said both women can be seen coming up to the walker on the sidewalk and then taking off with it.
The Navy veteran, Richard Dixon, was inside the bakery at the time.
“I go out and the thing was gone,” Dixon told CBS2’s Marc Liverman. “Mad, sad and annoyed.”
And so was the owner of the bakery, Tom Lorch.
“Sickening, sickening,” he said. “I hate anybody that steals something from someone else to begin with, but I mean a walker?”
So Lorch decided to do something about it and posted the surveillance videos. Almost instantly, the videos started going viral and offers started pouring in on social media to replace Dixon’s walker.
“I was shocked,” Dixon said. “Never in my life has anybody gone to bat for me.”
The community outreach didn’t just end on social media. People started bringing in walkers to the bakery. Two young kids even sent him a letter that they heard his walker was stolen.
“This is our Easter money for you to get a new walker. Thank you for serving,” Dixon read from the letter.
With the help of the community, police said they later identified the suspects as 22-year-old Monica Newcombe and 42-year-old Heather Lauro. They said Newcombe was arrested at a home Wednesday evening and said Lauro turned herself in to police.
Monica Newcombe and Heather Lauro (credit: Suffolk County Police)
The walker was returned to Dixon, so all those that were donated will be taken to a local veterans group on Long Island.
“Heartwarming,” Dixon said. “There are people that are good in the world. There are people that are good. It just takes a catalyst to get things going.”
The two women have been charged with petit larceny and received desk appearance tickets. They are scheduled to appear in court at a later date.
Police said Newcombe had four previous arrests, including one for criminal possession of heroin. Lauro was previously arrested for criminal possession of narcotics.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) – It was love at first sight.
Eight years ago, Kyle Cropsey, of Lindenhurst, slipped a note inside the window of a blue 1971 Volkswagen bus.
“Ever since I was young, I had an infatuation with these Volkswagen buses,” Cropsey told CBS2’s Jessica Layton on Thursday night.
Cropsey – who was 16 at the time – wrote the bus was his “future car.”
“I scribbled a note, ‘please call me,’ and I slipped it in right through the window and saw it fall to the floor and thought, ‘Oh my god, he’s not going to see it,'” he said.
Eight years ago, Kyle Cropsey, of Lindenhurst, slipped a note inside the window of a blue 1971 Volkswagen bus.
Fast forward eight years.
Cropsey got a call from Cris Mead, who lives in Oakland, Calif. It turns out Mead’s father Cornelius owned the van and kept Cropsey’s note. Cornelius Mead purchased the bus back in 1971 and used it to take cross-country trips, and kept a log book.
After Cornelius passed away, Cris was cleaning the bus out and he came upon Cropsey’s note in the log book.
The Mead family then decided to give Cropsey the bus, on the condition that he restore it and “go on plenty of adventures.”
“We were trying to figure out what to do with all of my dad’s stuff, and one of the things was the Volkswagen van. My sister came across a note,” Cris told Layton. “It choked me up when I read it. It’s just the way this whole journey has progressed has been absolutely amazing.”
Cropsey said “it was fate.”
“’We think my dad would want you to have the bus,’” he said. “After all these years, it came and found me.”
Cropsey picked up the bus, which Cornelius had named Matilda, from his widow last weekend. The engine runs pretty well and the radio still works.
The family wouldn’t take money but asked Cropsey to send photos of the restoration along the way and keep them updated on Matilda’s adventures.
“My friends will definitely be packed in here. We’ll have surf boards in here,” he said. “This will definitely be paid forward in one way or another.”
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A Lindenhurst man is facing multiple weapons charges after cops discovered nearly two dozen firearms, along with high-capacity magazines and an alarming cache of tactical gear, inside his home on Sunday during a search prompted by a “threatening message left at a school” in Rockland County.
Police in Suffolk County say they were notified by officials from the Clarkstown Police Department to check on Robert Csak, 32, after he left a series of threatening voicemails, directed at an employee, on the answering machine of the Summit School in Upper Nyack on Saturday.
Robert Csak, 32 (credit: Suffolk County Police)
Csak attended the school for youth with emotional and behavioral issues in 2002 and was identified through caller ID and school records, according to police.
“From every indication we have now he felt slighted by this individual from an encounter back in 2002 and was carrying a grudge,” Suffolk Police Chief Stuart Cameron said.
Csak wasn’t home when officers arrived, so police say his landlord let them into his house on 38th Street where they observed a tactical shotgun, crossbow, night vision goggles, high-capacity magazines, and an assault-style weapon.
After securing the apartment and obtaining a search warrant, officers recovered an additional 19 firearms, a silencer, more than 200 high-capacity magazines, a Tommy gun, an additional set of night vision goggles, bulletproof vests, gas masks, knives, asps, and a bump stock.
Authorities say the pizza delivery driver was arrested while on the job late Saturday at a red light and is facing multiple charges of criminal possession of a weapon.
Csak’s landlord of roughly two years says he had no idea his tenant was hiding the arsenal in his home.
“He kept to himself, you know, didn’t say much,” he said. “He came and went, I’m his landlord you know? Paid his rent on time and was always nice to me and texted me. Never really gave me any trouble.”
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — The Suffolk County district attorney says a pizza delivery driver with prior emotional problems threatened his former school and now is being held on a $750,000 bond after an arsenal of illegal assault weapons was found in his home.
Robert Csak, 32, of Lindenhurst, is facing multiple weapons charges after nearly two dozen firearms were recovered from his home, along with ammunition and an alarming cache of tactical gear.
The charges stem from an investigation started when the Clarkstown Police Department went to check Csak after he alledgedly left a series of threatening voicemails, directed at an employee, on the answering machine of the Summit School in Upper Nyack on Saturday.
Csak wasn’t home when officers arrived, so police say his landlord let them into his house on 38th Street where they observed a tactical shotgun, crossbow, night vision goggles, high-capacity magazines, and an assault-style weapon.
After securing the apartment and obtaining a search warrant, officers recovered an additional 19 firearms, a silencer, more than 200 high-capacity magazines, a Tommy gun, an additional set of night vision goggles, bulletproof vests, gas masks, knives, asps, and a bump stock.
Authorities say Casak was arrested while on the job late Saturday at a red light.
Csak attended the Summit School for youth with emotional and behavioral issues in 2002 and was identified through caller ID and school records, according to police.
“From every indication we have now he felt slighted by this individual from an encounter back in 2002 and was carrying a grudge,” Suffolk Police Chief Stuart Cameron said.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A Long Island woman is showing off the unlimited potential of a tiny home she’s created out of a school bus.
Some people call it a magic bus, but Catherine Ovejas likes to call it “apartment 84,” named after her children, who are eight and four.
It’s a 30-foot-long, 50-seat school bus that she gutted and turned into a tiny home that sleeps up to four people.
Catherine Ovejas’ tiny home inside a school bus. (Credit: CBS2)
“We have here what can be a sitting area, but also a sleeping area,” Ovejas explained to CBS2’s Marc Liverman.
She bought the used bus, and with a little outside help she spent six months converting it.
It’s about three feet from the sleeping area to the kitchen.
“We wanted it to be as self sustaining as possible, so there is a 55-gallon water tank secured under the bus,” she explained.
A few more steps and you’re in the back.
“This is our lounge. It’s a sleeping area. It serves a lot of different purposes: Dining,” she said.
There’s storage everywhere, Liverman reported.
“We have built in storage underneath the beds,” Ovejas said.
It doesn’t even feel like you’re on a school bus, Liverman reported. It actually feels like you’re in a tiny home and it’s only 225 square feet.
“We just passed the shower… this is the bathroom, there’s a shower tiny little tub and we have a toilet as well,” Ovejas said. “And it’s pretty spacious. It is pretty spacious.”
Catherine Ovejas’ tiny home inside a school bus. (Credit: CBS2)
She has a system for providing hot water.
“Around the corner from the shower you’ll see on demand instant hot water. So you can take hot showers,” she said.
She hopes she inspires others to create tiny homes.
“Just to increase creativity in people, to inspire them,” she said.
The bus was just completed in July. She expects to rent it out for $200-$300 a night.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Dozens of Long Island homeowners are learning they’ve been squatting on land they thought they owned.
It turns out a strip of their backyards belongs to their village.
So what now?
Carol Steinberg told CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff she has enjoyed her yard for 25 years, but the back chunk of it isn’t really hers. Yet, for years she’s been using it.
Behind approximately 50 Lindenhurst homes is a vestige of another time — public land known to surveyors as a “paper road.” On paper only exists “Richards Lane.” It’s mapped out, but has never been paved.
A 25-foot wide dirt alley that was created for deliveries is now invisible, filled in with sheds, fences and swimming pools.
Residents in one Lindenhurst neighborhood are at odds with the village over a portion of their backyards. (Photo: CBS2)
Former resident Linda Langone said she remembers coal deliveries in the 1940s.
“A lot of people like my mom and dad had coal heat at the back of the house, in the basement was a window and the truck would come down Richards Lane,” Langone said.
Back in 1974, her father bought the deed to her strip for $1, but now the Village of Lindenhurst wants to correct land records for other homeowners using the lane. It can now annex the public strip behind each home for $3 per square foot. On average, that would generate $3,000.
“I’ve been here so long, I feel they should have brought this up a very long time ago,” Steinberg said.
“I think $3 a square foot is a lot of money. I think if I still have to pay taxes on it, it should maybe be given,” resident Elmo Tarasi added.
However, officials said other residents have had to pay to annex other paper roads. Mayor Michael Lavorata denied that it’s a money grab.
“I can’t just give property away that is village property. I don’t think it would be fair to others who have had to pay in the past,” Lavorata said.
Municipal law expert Tom Wassel said villages have no choice.
“The village is not allowed to just give them the property because that would be an unconstitutional gift of publicly property. The property is owned by all of the taxpayers,” Wassel said.
Lindenhurst officials told CBS2’s Gusoff they’re not coming in with bulldozers to clear anything out on Richards Lane, unless a homeowner is thinking of selling. If so, they will then be required to clear any structures, or pay up.
Experts said it is not unusual for a municipality to have vestiges of public alleys or trails. It’s usually discovered when a home is surveyed during the sale.
LINDENHURST, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — You may notice at your local library things looking a little greener, and we are not talking about the color of the books.
There is a push to make libraries in New York state, and in turn their patrons, better stewards of the environment, CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reported Monday.
Public libraries practically invented the “re-use” concept. Now libraries are going even greener.
Lindenhurst Memorial has earned bragging rights as Long Island’s first library to be certified by the Green Business Partnership.
“Libraries share. That’s our basic philosophy,” director Lisa Kropp said.
Lindenhurst Memorial Library is pulling out all the stops in its going green initiative. (Photo: CBS2)
Kropp said every decision now is based on its impact on the environment.
Sharing means discarded books are resold or recycled, saving trees. Collection areas have been set up for everything from used batteries to prom dresses. Even children’s crafts are made from discarded items, sending dramatically less trash to land fills.
“Anything that we can think of that uses materials that we already have, that’s what we try to do. We don’t want to reorder,” said children’s librarian Jeanne Matias.
“We are trying to be a leader in our local community and show patrons ways they can make subtle changes that have a big difference,” Kropp added.
You don’t need help at the reference desk to find the changes — water refill stations, LED bulbs used to reduce energy consumption, and new non-toxic flooring.
“Previously we would have just opened a catalog and bought a very bright-colorful child-looking carpet, and now we are looking at it going, ‘What are those colors? What is the dye in this?'” Kropp said.
They have switched to compostable cups and eco-friendly cleaning products.
“They work just as well. There is no smell,” said head custodian Joan Dilluvio.
A compost pile will soon fertilize the library’s vegetable garden that shares its harvest with the community.
Eight other Long Island libraries are nearly certified in the New York Libraries Association model, which is being eyed nationwide.
“We want to lead by example. We want the communities to see, here in Brentwood, they have solar panels on the roof. They built these wonderful rooms here with glass, rather than hard walls. They are glass walls but you can see through them, so that they don’t have to put additional lighting in,” said Roger Reyes of Suffolk County Cooperative Library System.
Libraries have always been a place to seek knowledge, but now you will take away a lot more than a book or two. The takeaway is a living lesson in how to go green.
Lindenhurst is the first library on Long Island and third in the state to achieve Green Business Partnership.
