Maurice Wertheim Grandson Visits Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge

On Tuesday, June 7, 2011 Tom Langman, grandson of Maurice Wertheim, visited the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge and shared with the refuge staff family history and remembrances. He hopes to be able to be present at the dedication of the new Refuge headquarters building, along with some of his cousins.

The deck of the original Wertheim family hunting lodge on the banks of the Carman's River. To left is Marty Van Lith, Brookhaven hamlet historian and environmentalist.

l.-r: Tom Langman, furthest back is Ann Bell, Public Affairs, and in foreground is Michelle Williams, Director of the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

Peacock Seen Wandering the Woods and Yards of Brookhaven Hamlet

Update on our Fire Place Cemeteries

 

From: Martin VanLith 

Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2011 7:42 PM
Subject: Update on our Fire Place Cemeteries
 

Dear All,

 

I toured our historic cemeteries today and had to pinch myself to see if I was imagining things. It seems that the Town has finally started maintaining them. It only took six years and a lawsuit to get to this point. Too bad the Miller cemetery was excluded from Judge Tannebaum's decision. However, today I received permission from the homeowner on Brook Nursery Drive, whose backyard abuts the cemetery, to cut a path to it between his property and a Town Sump fence to the west of him. 

I was especially encouraged with the work done at the Southaven Church cemetery. Not only did they mow the grass but they also replaced broken fence pieces and have started grinding down the many stumps. And with the Carmans cemetery they mowed a 10' border outside the fence.

Councilwoman Kepert's office has been nudging the Parks Department about once a week for the past several months. Below is my reply, with pictures, to an e-mail I received from her office on Friday. 
 

--Marty

 

Begin forwarded message:

 

From: Martin VanLith  

Date: June 5, 2011 6:59:25 PM EDT
 

To: Liz Krolik

Cc: Connie Kepert

Subject: Re: cemeteries
 

On Jun 3, 2011, at 4:02 PM, Liz Krolik-Alexander wrote:

Hi Marty,

 

I'm hearing that work is getting done at the cemeteries.  Share any info you have.

 

thanks, Liz

Hi Liz,
 

Yes, there has been work done on the cemeteries. Two weeks ago I met with Town Parks Department district 4  supervisor Ed Halvison and one of his aides (Chris) and we toured the cemeteries. Ed Halvison was a very pleasant person and said he would do the Brookhaven hamlet cemeteries. However, at least one of them, the Barteau cemetery, might require a survey before he could clear the right of way to get it.  
 

This weekend I toured the cemeteries and found that Halvison had done at least four since we met. An additional two of the easily accessed cemeteries were mowed in mid-May, so six of the eight cemeteries have been done. Halvison may have also mowed the David Hawkins cemetery, I haven't checked this one in over a week. 

 

Here are some pictures of the cemeteries I took today:

 

This is the Rose Cemetery located off Jared's Path. I believe it was mowed in mid-May-

 

This is the Azel Hawkins Cemetery off Stillwood Road adjacent to Brian and Mary Jane Cullen's house. This was the first one that Halvison did a little over a week ago. They did a great job with it-

 

This is the Hulse cemetery along Fire Place Neck Road. The Town has been maintaining this cemetery for over a year now (easy access) and was mowed in mid-May-

 

Next two pictures are of the old Southaven Church Cemetery just off Montauk Highway near the Carmans River. 

 

 

Halvison also ground-down some stumps that were in the Southaven Church cemetery-

 

The next two pictures are of the Carmans Cemetery, after whom the river is named. It is located in the former Robinson farmland-

 

Looking west over the Carmans cemetery. Again, Halvison did a great job here-

 

The next three pictures are of the Richard Corwin Cemetery off Beaver Brook Drive. A hugh tree had fallen across it this winter and Halvison cut it up and gave the firewood to the homeowner living near it-

 

After Halvison removed the fallen tree I put up the interpretive sign for the cemetery (Richard Corwin, a personal body guard for George Washington, was at the battle of Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis). 

 

 

This picture of the David Hawkins cemetery was taken two weeks ago, so I don't know if Halvison got to it yet. 

 

This last picture, like the others was taken today, is of the overgrown Barteau cemetery, the one Hollis is waiting to repair-

 

In short, I am delighted to see all the work that Ed Halvison has done in the two weeks since we met. If you have an opportunity please get the word to him that Marty and the Fire Place History Club say thank you.

 

--Marty

 

 

Stop the Sludge Community Forum, June 2, Bellport High School, 7 pm

Click Image for enlarged view

Former Howard Robinson Store in South Haven May Be Nature Center

Picture: Marty Van Lith, 2005

Nature center eyed at vacant town building

Originally published: Long Island Newsday, May 19, 2011 7:39 PM
Updated: May 19, 2011 8:28 PM
By PATRICK WHITTLE patrick.whittle@newsday.com

A Brookhaven Town-owned building that has sat vacant onMontauk Highway for about three years could be the site of a new nature center.

The town is planning a June public hearing on whether to allow a Brookhaven Hamlet man to use the facility at 2979 Montauk Hwy. in the hamlet as an environmental education center and kayak rental business. The center would provide access to the Carmans River.

Brad DeSantis would pay the town $26,100 per year to use the facility, according to documents filed at Town Hall. DeSantis also would make about $70,000 in improvements to what town officials describe as a rundown facility in need of repairs.

"The dock there has been deteriorating. It's great that we are getting someone in there," said Councilwoman Connie Kepert, who represents the area.

"It's difficult to be able to get into the Carmans down there." The town board is scheduled to vote Tuesday to set a public hearing on the contract with DeSantis. The hearing will likely be June 14, Kepert said.

The contract would allow DeSantis to manage the facility for five years with a two-year option to renew when it expires, at the town's discretion, town documents state.

The property was the site of a Glacier Bay Sports facility. The building is about the size of a medium-sized single-family home, said Parks Commissioner Ed Morris.

"They are going to offer educational-type tours of the river," he said. "It's going to offer recreational opportunities at that location and it's also going to bring revenue to the town."

The property was purchased by the town for $490,000 in June 2008. It is near the junction of the Carmans River and Great South Bay.

The Carmans River is the subject of the Carmans River Watershed Protection and Management Plan, which would attempt to preserve the river by steering new development outside of its watershed. The town is attempting to shepherd the proposal into law.

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