More Than A Dozen K-9 Police Units Scanned Manorville For Human Remains Connected To Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation

Long Island Morning Edition

The law enforcement search of Manorville grew in size yesterday, as more than a dozen K-9 police units from three agencies scanned sections of the hamlet's 6,900 acres of pine barrens looking for human remains in the Gilgo Beach homicide investigation. Grant Parpan reports on Newsday.com that cadaver dogs from the NYPD and State Police joined the Suffolk County Police Department's specialized K-9s to search a wide swath of land in Manorville and neighboring communities for the third consecutive day, an effort sources said could last more than a week.

From the woods near the power lines east of Connecticut Avenue to the forest land south of Middle Country Road in Ridge and U.S. Department of Energy property in Upton, the dogs and their handlers appeared to cover more land than they had a day earlier.

Police and prosecutors declined to say what has prompted the intense search of the hamlet more than 20 years after partial remains of Gilgo Beach victims Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor were found in the woods near Halsey Manor Road, leaving local residents to speculate.

Ali Krieger of Manorville told Newsday, “We live in a very wooded area and not a lot of streetlights, so people like to dump things…we’ll see what pans out. I’d like to know what they’re looking for.”

Manorville is more than 25 square miles, with much of its open space in the search areas between the Long Island Expressway north to Middle Country Road. The entire hamlet is part of the 100,000-acre Central Pine Barrens, more than half of which is preserved, wild lands.

Brian Higgins, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the former Bergen County police chief, said it would be rare to bring in so many specialized animals unless acting on a lead.

“So it's not just random,” he said. “Something in the investigation led you to believe this is an area you should be searching with cadaver dogs.”

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Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine visited a working farm in Riverhead this past Wednesday to sign legislation appropriating $15 million of new funding this year for farmland preservation. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that with Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey at his side, Romaine said he worked with legislators to increase the annual appropriation for the purchase of farmland development rights from $10 million to $15 million because the need to preserve farmland has reached a new level of urgency.

“We are in a struggle against development,” Romaine said.

The county executive said he intends to maintain at least that level of funding annually.

“Almost 6% of this county’s land is in farming, and we’re going to keep that number and look to increase it wherever possible,” Romaine said, standing at the edge of a field being prepared for planting at the Garden of Eve Farm on Sound Avenue in Riverhead. “We want to preserve our farm belt.”

The farmland preservation program is a critical investment in the county’s future, Romaine said, because farming is a crucial part of the county’s economy.

Suffolk’s first-in-the-nation program was conceived by County Executive John Klein in the early 1970s with input from county planners and the farming community.

Since Suffolk’s farmland preservation program was adopted 50 years ago, the county has protected approximately 11,000 acres of farmland through the purchase of development rights, according to county data. Another 9,000 acres in Suffolk have been protected through other preservation efforts, including county-town and nonprofit partnerships.

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For more than 60 years, the whaleboat races have been the main draw of Sag Harbor’s annual HarborFest weekend, bringing crowds to Windmill Beach and Long Wharf. But today, the boats that have been in service for 60 years are in need of more than a little tender, loving care after years of banging against one another and being otherwise bruised and battered.

To help raise money for the effort, the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce and The Sag Harbor Express will co-host a fundraiser at Baron’s Cove Restaurant and Bar at 31 West Water Street in Sag Harbor on Thursday, May 2, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Three of the five boats, which were purchased in 1964 for the inaugural year of racing at what was known as the “Old Whalers Festival,” will be restored, and funds are needed to cover the cost of labor and materials.

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Summer on Long Island means sun, surf, sand … and ticks. Lisa L. Colangelo reports on Newsday.com that the increasingly warm winters have made the voracious, tiny critters — which can carry a number of diseases — a year-round problem. But they become even more frisky in the warm months. Experts are warning people, especially those visiting Long Island’s parks and beaches in the coming weeks, to take precautions.

Every year yields more information about ticks and the illnesses they cause. Clinicians said treatment should be based on symptoms and that a new surveillance criteria for Lyme disease may create a more accurate baseline for cases. And testing for Lyme disease isn’t always needed.

Researchers are also learning that Black people may be diagnosed with Lyme disease at a much later stage because their symptoms, including the rash, are not always immediately recognized.

“Ticks are very adaptive arthropods,” said Anna-Marie Wellins (DNP — doctor of nursing practice) who works at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center in Hampton Bays, which opened last summer. “But we can outsmart them through education and prevention.”

How to avoid ticks:

• Check yourself every day. Ticks like skin folds such as under the arms, behind the knees, inside the belly button and around the waist. Children should be checked thoroughly as well.
• When going outdoors, pull socks up over pant legs and tuck in shirts. Wearing light-colored clothing can help spot ticks. Use insect repellent but make sure to follow product instructions.
• Shower as soon as possible after being outdoors. Throw clothing in a hot dryer before washing them.
• Talk to your veterinarian about protecting dogs and cats with treatments.

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The Village of Southampton was once again named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation to honor its commitment to effective urban forest management. The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.

“Tree City USA communities see the positive effects of an urban forest firsthand,” said Dan Lambe, chief executive of Arbor Day Foundation. “The trees being planted and cared for by the Village of Southampton are ensuring generations to come will enjoy a better quality of life. Additionally, participation in this program brings residents together and creates a sense of civic pride, whether it’s through volunteer engagement or public education.”

The Village of Southampton achieved Tree City USA recognition by meeting the program’s four requirements: maintaining a tree board or department, having a tree care ordinance, dedicating an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per capita, and hosting an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.

Southampton Village’s third Arbor Day Gathering will be celebrated this morning at 10 a.m. in Agawam Park and all are welcome to attend.

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The Southold Town Board has set a public hearing for Tuesday, June 18 at 4:30 p.m. on a proposed 12-month moratorium on hotel, motel and resort development proposals while the town updates its zoning code. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the board declined this week to take up a request earlier this April from the North Fork Civics coalition for a broader development moratorium while the zoning update is underway. That process is expected to be finished next spring with the help from a consulting company called ZoneCo.

In an April 10 letter to the board, and at a special meeting April 18 to discuss the hotel moratorium, members of the coalition asked the Southold Town Board to extend the moratorium to new commercial development, major subdivisions, special exception permit applications, zone change requests, and use variances.

In a presentation at the Town Board’s work session Tuesday Southold Town Planning Director Heather Lanza said she understands “why people want to put a pause on everything while we do the zoning update. People are worried about what might happen, and that we don’t have adequate protection in place.”

Ms. Lanza said the town Planning Department is not seeing a high volume of applications for large projects other than hotels, and her staff’s time that would need to be used to prepare the rationale for a moratorium “would be better spent on getting the zoning update done.”

“I think anyone proposing a project between now and next spring is taking a big risk, especially since those sorts of large projects are going to get the most scrutiny in the zoning update,” she said.