Grave Endeavor

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/brookhaven-to-care-for-forgotten-cemeteries-1.2871163

Brookhaven to care for forgotten cemeteries

Originally published: May 11, 2011 6:57 PM
Updated: May 11, 2011 7:33 PM

By PATRICK WHITTLE patrick.whittle@newsday.com

Fire Place History Club member talks about the work Brookhaven Town needs to do to maintain�abandoned 18th and 19th century cemeteries, such as Woodruff Cemetery in Brookhaven Hamlet. Videojournalist: Patrick Whittle (May 4, 2011)

Martin Van Lith stepped gingerly around the four headstones in the
Woodruff family burial plot -- an overgrown piece of Bellport woods
-- and silently read the inscription on the grave marker of Esther
Woodruff, 1775-1851.

"We have loved her on earth, May we meet her in Heaven."

Her husband's marker, however, lay broken in half. The Woodruff burial ground, and about 20 like it in Bellport and Brookhaven hamlet, have gone largely unmaintained for years. But thanks to the efforts of Van Lith and his group of local history buffs, Brookhaven Town will soon begin caring for some of the forgotten cemeteries.

Van Lith and the Fire Place History Club have for years pressured Brookhaven officials to comply with a state law that requires towns to maintain abandoned cemeteries. The ones in Bellport and Brookhaven hamlet mostly date from the 18th and 19th centuries; the number of graves in each range from two to 40, Van Lith said.

Prompted by the club's lawsuit, State Supreme Court Justice Melvyn Tanenbaum last year issued a decision requiring the town to begin maintaining nine of the burial grounds, deemed by the club as historically significant. Brookhaven is set to begin the work "within the next three weeks," said town spokesman Jack Krieger.

Van Lith said his group will assist with maintenance if the town provides access to the sites and mows lawns. Such tasks are too much for the club to undertake; many sites are overgrown with vegetation that makes them inaccessible by foot, he said.

"The average age of my group is 68," he said. "We can't do it."

Councilwoman Connie Kepert said the town will work with the club, and said the graves show the area has "enormous history that we take for granted." Town Historian Barbara Russell welcomes the help, but said the club should consult the Greenfield, Mass.-based Association for Gravestone Studies.

"It's not a matter of going to the stone and getting some glue," Russell said.

The nine cemeteries to be maintained are located south of Sunrise Highway between Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge to the east and the Bellport train station to the west.

The Woodruff ground, located off South Country Road in Bellport, is one of about a dozen abandoned cemeteries in the area not slated to be refurbished. Van Lith said he would like to see the town maintain more cemeteries, but added "it's not like we're going to ask them to refurbish every cemetery in town."

Sharon Miller, whose home abuts the tiny Woodruff cemetery, said she would like to see the site maintained. The burial plot includes the final resting places of Matthew, Stephen and Esther Woodruff and Esther's husband, Stephen Robinson -- all of whom died between 1851 and 1875.

"We would be thrilled if the town did something with this," Miller said. "It gives respect and integrity."

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT: DECLARATION AS SURPLUS AND SUBSEQUENT SALE - COUNTY OWNED LAND IN YAPHANK

April 28, 2011

Re: DRAFT GENERIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR DECLARATION AS SURPLUS AND SUBSEQUENT SALE OF 255 ACRES OF COUNTY OWNED LAND IN YAPHANK FOR MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT PURPOSE

Dear Members of the CEQ Board,

Let me begin by commenting that it is unclear to most in the Brookhaven hamlet community that the DGEIS for Legacy Village was still an ongoing process given all of the new developments related with this same land. To begin, it should have been tabled during the time while Brookhaven Town is undergoing a Carmans River Preservation Plan.

This week the CEQ should have put the plan aside and announced either a postponement or cancellation after the County Legislature voted to kill the Legacy Village proposal and replace it with their own plan. This is all extremely confusing to the lay people whose lives will be very much affected by the proposal.

Equally distressing is that DGEIS comments are due immediately after the report that Legacy Village’s author has been convicted of improprieties by the district attorney. It’s no wonder that public confidence in government is at an all-time low.

The Fire Place History Club, like the rest of the Brookhaven hamlet community, has been opposed to the idea of building a mini-city on 255 acres of County land in Yaphank since it was first introduced by Executive Steve Levy in 2005.

For the past 60 years, there has been an ongoing effort to protect Carmans River, beginning with the donation of 1,500 acres along the lower river by Maurice Wertheim in 1947. In 1962, New York State began a program of stream corridor protection by condemning Ken Hard’s 1,600-acre game preserve, today’s Southaven Park. In 1974, through the lobbying efforts of this community, the Carmans River was included in the NYS Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers Act. Since then millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent acquiring Carmans River
watershed land, the most recent last week with NYS’s purchase of 99 acres adjacent to Cathedral Pines, for $5 million.

This proposal to sell 255 acres of publically owned land for the purpose of intense development in the Carmans watershed flies in the face of 60 years of preservation efforts. It is incomprehensible to me to be addressing a DGEIS concerned with things like traffic, parking, jobs and payroll, entertainment, etc, when the whole concept of undoing past preservation efforts is absurd. This is the very land that we are spending millions of dollars to protect.

Even more distressing is the intellectual dishonesty that was used to push this ludicrous idea to this point. Throughout the County Executive’s five-year promotional period there was no mention of the existence of the adjacent Carmans River. It seems clear to me that Carmans River was intentionally omitted from all literature to avoid environmental concerns. As far as I know, there was only one exception to this general deceit, an early discarded proposal named
something like The Villages at Carmans River, which showed a diagram of a boardwalk leading from the development out to the river.

The whole process that led to this DGEIS is questionable and seems to be a sham:

The signing of contracts with a developer before the legislature voted to declare the land surplus. The plan and the contract calling for massive development on land that is not zoned by the Town for this kind of density. And using taxpayer money for the propaganda promoting the plan.

The DGEIS lists four areas, A – D. My understanding of the SEQRA law is that this is segmentation, but I’ll let others more familiar with the law address this. No matter what else comes from this plan, the FEIS should recommend that area A be transferred to the County Parks Department to become part of Southaven Park.

For the areas B, C and D there is no meaningful discussion of a preservation alternative, such as turning these areas into a nature preserve or parkland.

The Draft EIS was prepared at the same time as the Town’s Draft Carmans River Plan, where the Town’s goal is for the nitrogen level in Carmans River not to exceed .7 ppm. The Town’s plan should be considered in a revised EIS before any consideration is given to declare this land surplus for the purpose of auction.

Sincerely,

Martin Van Lith, Chair

Caithness Grant for Historic Cemetery Restoration

March 29, 2011

Re: Caithness Grant for Historic Cemetery Restoration
Brookhaven Town Resolution 7609

Dear Councilwoman Kepert,

I have recently been informed that the Caithness Committee will be meeting, perhaps for the last time, in June. However, we still need a little more time to complete the restoration of one more of the six cemeteries that we had hoped to repair with the grant money.

This last cemetery is the Barteau Cemetery. The restoration work is being held up waiting for the Brookhaven Town Parks Department to open the access road leading from Montauk Highway to the Cemetery. Until this is done we cannot clear the cemetery of brush and inventory the headstones that need repair, nor can our stonemason, Hollis Warner, get his equipment into the cemetery.

I am writing to request that the Fire Place History Club’s remaining grant money, $1,685, be held until the Parks Department opens the access road to this cemetery so that the repairs can be made.

I would also like to urge you to please contact Commissioner Ed Morris asking him to make opening the access road to the Barteau cemetery his number one priority.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,
Martin Van Lith, chair

Opera and More .. Becker/Gambles Spring Concert

A voice and organ recital featuring:

Michael Douglas Jones, bass

Andrew Fuchs, tenor

Samantha Pruyn Guevrekian, soprano

Carol Weitner, organ

Daniel Ragone, piano

Performing works by Handel, Mozart, Puccini, Quilter, Schubert and Smetana

Saturday, April 30, 2011, 5 pm

Old South Haven Presbyterian Church, Brookhaven

Corner of South Country and Beaver Dam Roads

Tickets at the door $25.

Stop the Sludge Coalition

From: "STS. [Stop the Sludge] Brookhaven"
Date: April 22, 2011 11:15:29 AM EDT
Subject: Follow-up to last night's meeting

Good Morning,

Just following up on last night’s STS Coalition meeting. Two of the photographs that are attached were taken at the landfill approximately two weeks ago. They are installing new diesel fuel tanks for Town use inside the landfill, by the recycling area. The third photograph was taken from the Town Council’s Conference room on the 3rd floor at Town Hall.

The Executive Board held a productive meeting with Councilwoman Kepert on April 15th. She will prepare a resolution for the creation of a Landfill Advisory Board. We preliminarily compiled a list of organizations that will be appointed to the Advisory Board. In addition we are also reaching out to others with special expertise. Some of these individuals and/or agencies include: Larry Swanson; Ed Hubbard, S.C. Health Dept., BNL, DEC (Air Quality), EPA, as well as someone from SC Leg. Kate Browning’s office. We will be refining this list and identifying specific representatives from each organization as well as drafting purpose, goals and tasks of this board, after our meeting with Supervisor Lesko next week.

We discussed hosting a public meeting for all residents from the surrounding communities. We are tentatively looking at June2nd at 7 PM for this meeting. We need to confirm with our elected officials that they are available. A brief outline of an agenda was discussed. At our next meeting we will finalize these plans.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 28th at 7:30 PM. We will report on our meeting with Supervisor Lesko, finalize the list of appointments to the Landfill Advisory Board, and the agenda for the public meeting.

Last night we were asked to distribute the list of questions we were “required” to submit before Supervisor Lesko would schedule a meeting with us. The email correspondence has been inserted below.
Finally, just a bit of housekeeping information. During the process of forming the STS Coalition, we distributed information to our members on the list-serve. One of our initial messages was forwarded to someone outside of our Coalition – who then forwarded to someone else and so on. This provided access to our email contact information – which for many is a “personal” email account. For a handful of us we were besieged with emails. Having realized what occurred, it was determined that all future emails to our list-serve would be distributed as Bcc. Our current list-serve has grown considerably since the initial un-intentional released list. We are taking every precaution to protect our contact database. We just wanted to clarify for all that when you receive an email from sts.brookhaven@gmail.com, that information is being distributed to all on our list-serve. If any member of our Coalition wishes to distribute information to the list-serve, you can forward it to us and we will disburse your information. Hope this explains why our emails appear to be addressed to the individual recipient.
We wish everyone a Happy Easter and/or Happy Passover!
Regards,
Sharon

---

Dear Brain,

Thank you for agreeing to arrange a meeting between the STS Coalition executive board and Supervisor Lesko. As you requested, below you will find the questions and topics we are seeking to discuss. I look forward to hearing from you so that we can schedule this important meeting.

. Creating an advisory or liaison community based board to work with the Town in matters regarding the landfill. The objective is to enhance communication and allow for community involvement.

2. STS would like to have clarity on financial information regarding the landfill. Much has been said in the press but we would prefer to better understand the Town’s numbers and budget. Such questions include
· What amount of funds does the landfill generate per year for the Town Budget?
· What is the breakdown on the gross income projected for the landfill? How much revenue is generated from C&D, Ash, recycling, yard material, etc?
· Can you provide last year’s budget for the landfill – with the actual numbers for income and expenses and a breakdown of both?
· Does the Town have long term projects of income for the landfill? If so, what are they?
· Can our budget discussion include general operating and maintenance costs?

3. STS wants to discuss Cell 6 and Cell 7. This discussion would include such topics as
· When will Cell 6 close?
· When will Cell 7 open?
· How many phases of 7 are being planned?
· How will Cell 7 be used?
· What is the expected lifetime of this cell?

4. STS wants to discuss any future plans or ideas for reducing the Town’s solid waste. For instance, there was a “pay as you throw” committee and we are not sure what happened with that work.

Adrienne Esposito
Executive Director
Citizens Campaign for the Environment

Woodruff Cemetery Explored

Richie Davin, owner of Davin's Funeral Home along Montauk Hwy in Mastic has been asking me to go with him to the
Woodruff cemetery for nearly a year, which is behind his sister, Sharon's, house. Sharon is on left of 1st pix, her house is about 100 yards directly behind her to the north. Sharon was a classmate of mine at William Floyd. We poked
around and came up with one complete stone and big pieces of two other stones.
--Marty Van Lith


L. to R.:  Sharon, Betty Bundy, Diane martens, Richie Davin



Stephen Robinson gravestone







Hannah M. Woodruff, wife of Matthew Woodruff










Name not found

Stop The Sludge Coalition

The Stop The Sludge (S.T.S) Coalition was formed to address noxious and unacceptable odors adversely affecting residents, schools, businesses and the quality of life for all in the vicinity of the Brookhaven Town landfill. Since 2008, the Town accepted non-hazardous sludge from Long Island municipalities, including Huntington, Riverhead and North Hempstead. In June 2010, they also began receiving 10,000 tons per month of bio-solids from several New York City waste water treatment facilities.

On March 25, 2011, the New York State Department of Environmental & Conservation (DEC) modified the Town’s permit to remove the authority for the Town to accept non-hazardous sludge at the landfill.

While the Town Supervisor has indicated they will comply with DEC’s decision, we believe further action is needed to prevent future contracts by the Town of Brookhaven that negatively affects our communities.

• Our residents should NOT be required to bear the harmful impacts of NYC or any other communities’ disposal needs.
• We don’t want to fill the budget hole by filling the landfill with sludge.
• We believe community involvement is critical to shaping Brookhaven’s future. A Landfill Community Advisory Board is needed to guide Brookhaven’s future landfill decisions.

Visit the S.T.S. web site at http://www.stsbrookhaven.org/Welcome.html for further information