Work has started on the South Haven Church Cemetery!
On the first really fine day of Spring, with the temperatures near 70, members of the Fire Place History started preparation work for the South Haven Presbyterian Church cemetery restoration. Betty Budney, John Deitz, Eben Ludlow, Diane Martens, Richard Thomas, and Marty Van Lith are seen here excavating stones in preparation for their repair (where possible), and resetting.
Our stone mason, Hollis Warner of Riverhead, has straightened things out with the Town of Brookhaven and is ready to go -- but he is going on vacation next week, probably won't start until the week after, about April 27. In the meantime, community folks will need to excavate, clean and mark the location of the stones. If you are interested, contact Marty Van Lith, vanlith@optonline.net,
Hollis also has to get back to the Town with a cost estimate of Carmans/Miller and Azel Hawkins burying grounds, the other two sites he's contracted to do by December 31.
John Deitz, supervising; Eben Ludlow, workingg
Dian Martens and Betty Taylor Budney, probing for fragments
As a youth, Betty lived two houses from the cemetery.
Richard Thomas
Eben Ludlow, uncovering what at first appeared to be a buried headstone
but when excavated contained no text.
John Deitz, still supervising
Supervising is a tiring job!
Alewife are anadromous fish; they spend most of their lives in the ocean, but return to fresh water to spawn. An important food fish, bait fish, and favorite prey of striped bass, their runs are said to have been declining along the Atlantic coast partly due to construction of barriers on spawning tributaries. To combat the declining number of alewife and other native fish, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has constructed on the Carmans River Long Island’s first permanent fish ladder.
The fish ladder is said to permit fish to move upstream beyond a previously impassable barrier into Hards Lake in South Haven County Park, connecting two now isolated parts of this South Shore Estuary. Alewife and sea-run brook trout (a.k.a. "salters") now have access to spawning areas above the Hards Lake Dam. The Carmans River, which flows from Middle Island in the north to Bellport Bay in the south, holds the largest remaining population of brook trout on Long Island.
The barrier dam at South Haven is not new, at least on a human scale. A mill dam was first constructed there in the early 18th century. Several other early mill dams remain along the river, including two former mill dams at Yaphank and smaller weir dams built by various tenants principally to enhance fishing. Since the early 19th century, brook trout has been farmed in fish hatcheries for the stocking of the river. One can still visit a hatchery originally built by the Hards for their Suffolk Game Farm (see Suffolk Club & "Fireplace" Hard Estate) and I believe still maintained by Suffolk County.
Probably the most famous story of fishing on the river from the early 19th century concerns Daniel Webster. The river was very popular among well-heeled sportsmen. A huge trout had become legendary and Webster was determined to catch it. One Sunday, during services at the South Haven Presbyterian Church, one of Carman’s servants slipped in and whispered to Webster that the fish had been seen in the pond below the dam. Webster and Samuel Carman (owner of the dam, mills and surrounding land) sneaked out. Other congregants got the message and began to leave. The minister, seeing the hopelessness of continuing, ended his sermon and the whole congregation watched Webster catch the fourteen-and-a-half pound trout. The much celebrated trout lives on as a wooden replica on the weather vein of the church even today. The event was also memorialized in a Currier & Ives print. It is still said to have been among the largest brook trout ever caught.
A native South Haven resident, who was a young girl in the early 1930s, 200 years after the original mill dam was constructed, remembers the alewife runs as being enormous. They would come up the river and pool at the pond below the dam. They would be so dense that they would jump out of the river onto the shore. She remembers collecting them in baskets and wheelbarrows, and her mother would use them as fertilizer in the garden. She remembers that they were also smoked for human consumption, but were not to her taste.
I have visited the area below the South Haven dam many times, and have never noticed the alewives. This will be the first year that it has been in place during the Spring run. I'm sure someone will be keeping track of its effectiveness.
And maybe someone will explain to me how the little buggers know that climbing the ladder can be a good thing.
Opera, Organ and More
with Mihaela Buhaiciuc, Robert Price, Leon Livshin and Michael Douglas Jones.
Saturday, April 4, 5 pm
Old South Haven Church, Brookhaven Hamlet
Corner South Country & Beaverdam Roads
Benefit Summer Music Scholarship Program, of the Becker/Gambles Music Fund, South Country Education Foundation.
Tickets are $20 and available at the door.
Residents of our communities will have the opportunity to attend a wonderful and unique concert on Saturday, April 4th. The concert "Opera, Organ and More" is being presented by the Becker/Gambles Music Fund Committee of the South Country Education Foundation, Inc. The concert will be held at the historic Old South Haven Presbyterian Church in Brookhaven Hamlet (at the intersection of South Country Road and Beaver Dam Road across from the Bellport High School) at 5:00 p.m. The Church dates back to 1828 and, in addition to its architectural elegance, holds the wonderful story of Senator Daniel Webster sneaking out of a service to catch the famous 14 ½ pound trout in the nearby pond, a replica of which can be seen as the weathervane on the Church spire. The Church now is the home of the Hinners Organ which was built in 1913 for a church in Sayville, and had several homes prior to being installed in the Old South Haven Church in 1961. In 2006, the organ was fully renovated by the Odell Organ Company thanks to a bequest by a former member of the choir, Roger Kickerer. The organ will be played at the concert by Robert Price who holds his Masters degree from the Mannes College of Music. He has been employed as an organist for over twenty years, and holds the prestigious certification by the American Guild of Organists.
The concert’s vocal portion will be provided by local artist Michael Douglas Jones, bass, and Mihaela Buhaiciuc, soprano, a native of Romania who currently teaches voice at the University of Mobile, Alabama. Mr. Jones and Ms. Buhaiciuc will sing both art song solos and duets, including a duet from Don Giovanni by Mozart and from Don Pasquale by Donizetti. Michael Douglas Jones made his New York City debut in Madame Butterfly, and has sung many operatic roles for several opera companies including those in Victoria B.C., Anchorage, Sarasota, El Paso, and Montreal. Mr. Jones won the prestigious Jessie Award for "outstanding performance by an actor in a leading role" for his creation of the Marquis in 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade by Hannan. Ms. Buhaiciuc graduated Summa cum laude from the Brasov Music Conservatory in Romania and holds a PhD from Stony Brook University. In September 2008, Ms. Buhaiciuc gave a solo concert at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In addition to concertizing, she is active in music education outreach programs, including giving Master Classes at the South Country Schools and the Port Jefferson Schools.
Mr. Jones and Ms Buhaiciuc will be accompanied by Leon Livshin who studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory before coming to the U.S. on a full scholarship to study piano at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He has an active soloist and chamber music schedule, and teaches at Stony Brook University.
Tickets for this concert will be available at the door for $20. Proceeds will go to the Becker/Gambles Music Fund to support summer music scholarships for students in the South Country Schools. In addition to wonderful music, you have the opportunity to dine at The Bellport which is offering concert attendees a prix fixe dinner for $22 (For dinner reservations, please call 286 7550.)
Visit South Country Education Foundation at http://www.scefonline.org/
Good Afternoon Everyone,
I just wanted to provide all of you with a quick update on the on-going cemetery project. It is as follows:
1. The Parks team assigned to visit, locate and photograph ALL recorded cemeteries in the town have gone through the complete list, Parks list. There are quite a few that have NOT yet been located and a second go round will be done after collating all the data they brought back, cross-referencing against the Town Historian's List and the Town Assessors list.
2. Inventory forms will be entered and photo's with maps (refer to sample provided to you previously) will be the next inventory phase of the project.
3. On those located, we will pull together a maintenance needs/requirements list and begin addressing them as quickly as possible. As a matter of fact, routine maintenance is already underway at some of the cemeteries as we have crews available in the districts to do them.
4. Upon completion of the data entry, photo and map entry and secondary check to find those we can't locate, you will receive copies of the survey forms along with a summary listing of maintenance issues to be addressed such as fence replacement, tree/shrub pruning, headstones that need to be reset, etc.
I hope you will find the above information helpful and we are working as quickly as possible to pull the entire package together with accuracy.
I would like to extend large thanks to Ed Gregory and his team for following through so diligently on physically locating the cemeteries, documenting and photographing them. This has never been done before and they did a really fine job.
If you have any questions or if I can be of further assistance regarding the above, please let me know.
Thank you and regards,
Carol
Carol A. Bissonette
Deputy Commissioner, Parks, Recreation & Sports & Cultural Resources
Office#: 631-451-6112
Cell #: 631-831-3291
cbissonette@brookhaven.org
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was finally at the table on Jan. 23, a first since the Beaver Dam Creek Water Quality group has been meeting with Brookhaven Town and county officials to address the leachate plume emanating from the town landfill. The town’s search for monitoring wells had also been tackled. This is the group’s fourth meeting since it first gathered to grapple with solutions in September.
“Chart Guthrie, New York state DEC fisheries manager for Region 1, reported that an invertebrate study was done in Beaver Dam Creek in both 2003 and 2008 but did not have the results with him,” said Marty Van Lith, who represents the Open Space Council.
Of the 51 people identified within the path of the plume, 21 were residing southeast of the landfill and 30 others were south of Beaver Dam Road. Van Lith said the town reported that currently well over 20 of the people contacted within the plume’s path were already using water from the Suffolk County Water Authority. The remainder of those in its path are getting notices by Suffolk County Department of Health, which is sending representatives door-to-door to test the wells. Those not receiving SCWA water will be given the chance to switch for free if they are on well water within the area.
Of the six wells SCDH tested, none showed contamination of leachate indicators, Van Lith said.
“The town agreed to put in a new well for the HOG (Hamlet Organic Garden) Farm and the question is where to put it,” said Tom Williams, vice president of the Post-Morrow Foundation. “They also found 70 percent of the monitoring wells, more than they thought.”
In an e-mail, Ed Hubbard, Brookhaven’s commissioner of waste management, said that the town was willing to help with the installation of a new well for the HOG farm. “I understand that the HOG farm has hired a hydrogeologist to work towards locating the proper placement of a new well and the proper depth,” he said. “Once we do a sample round or two in that area, we will have data that could be useful to begin relocation of the well.”
Hubbard confirmed about 60 or so wells had been found and looked to be in good shape. “Within the next two months our consultants will go out and redevelop the wells and begin taking groundwater samples,” Hubbard said. “Redevelopment involves making sure the well casing is secure and at the proper height and purging the water that is in the well to get clean samples.”
Claire Goad, president of Friends of Wertheim, said that the surface waters of Little Neck Run, Beaver Dam and Yaphank creeks had been tested in November. “But it takes three months to get the results,” she said. “(The town) agreed to test these surface waters every three months and the monitoring wells will be tested every six months.”
Another hopeful sign was the town’s recommendation that the current working group, chaired by Councilwoman Connie Kepert (4th District), is to be formalized by town resolution. Currently, Williams, Van Lith, Goad and Mary Jane Cullen, president of the Brookhaven Village Association, are the Brookhaven hamlet contingency. While Van Lith said they weren’t euphoric, the cooperative mood since they first met had improved and was more constructive and they cited some of Hubbard’s efforts.
Hubbard said additional gas collection piping and the installation of additional clean out chambers to jet out and clean the older leachate lines had been undertaken under his watch over the last few years. Two brand new leachate collection tanks that can hold about 50 percent more leachate than the old tanks and have a leachate aeration system built in were also added. “The current tanks are getting old and are on the future footprint of the landfill and would need to be replaced some time in the future,” he said. “I accelerated this part of the project in order to get additional capacity and to be able to clean out the old tanks and segregate the leachate by cells.”
George Costa, president of the Art Flick Chapter of Trout Unlimited, commented there still was no concrete solution proposed. “Our question is what (is the town) going to do about the plume?” he said. “Are you going to continue doing studies? Chart Guthrie (DEC) said the ammonia levels were a thousand percent above what they should be and that it is affecting the insect life and the fish and plant life. It’s not just fish. It’s all intertwined.”
Hubbard cited the DEC requirements to cap cells 1-4 to cut off leachate over time, which was done, as well as town funds for public water and the HOG Farm and increased frequency and locations of surface water sampling. “Any remediation effort would be problematic and most likely not very successful,” he said. “However, we are exploring options. We may install groundwater wells at one point but right now we will be installing geoprobes instead. Currently we are installing between 10 to 13 geoprobes at various locations.”
Beaver Dam Creek Water Quality group
The Beaver Dam Creek Water Quality group consists of Tom Williams, Post-Morrow Foundation; Marty Van Lith, Open Space Council; Claire Goad, Friends of Wertheim; Mary Jane Cullen, Brookhaven Village Association; George Costa, Trout Unlimited; Adrienne Esposito, Citizens Campaign for the Environment; Sean Pilger, Hamlet Organic Garden; David Tonjes, Stony Brook University; Suffolk County Legislator Kate Browning; Ed Hubbard, Brookhaven commissioner of waste management; John Turner, Brookhaven director of environmental protection; Wertheim National Wildlife Preserve; South Shore Estuary Preserve; Suffolk County Department of Health; NYSDEC; consultants David Tonges, Stony Brook University; and Dvirka and Bartilucci
