Star Confectionary recieves enough donations to cover entire burglary loss

Long Island Morning Edition

Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday relaunched New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan, modifying it by calling for a lower $9 toll on most vehicles driving into busy parts of Manhattan and aiming to enact the program before President-elect Donald Trump could ax it.

The toll would begin Jan. 5, Hochul announced.

Yancey Roy and Alfonso A. Castillo report in NEWSDAY that Hochul, a Democrat, had put the plan on pause in June just before the originally proposed toll of $15 was set to take effect. The governor said the fee was too high for average New Yorkers, but many said the hold was more about taking the issue off the table for Democrats in an election year.

The $9 rate will stay in place for at least three years before the state seeks to phase in a higher rate, Hochul officials said. The $9 toll is the lowest the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could enact under the environmental study approved by the federal government. A key question is whether Hochul can get President Joe Biden's administration to quickly approve the plan prior to Biden leaving office Jan. 20. Another is whether Trump would have the power to kill the toll later as he has vowed.

Backers say congestion pricing would encourage the use of mass transit, ease gridlock and pollution, and provide billions of dollars in funding to help the MTA upgrade subways, commuter rails and buses with 10% going to the Long Island Rail Road. Critics have said New York should not make life more expensive for residents and commuters.

The MTA aims to use the toll revenue to finance $15 billion in infrastructure improvements.

The toll would be imposed on vehicles driving south of 60th Street in Manhattan and would be in addition to bridge and tunnel tolls. Discounts of up to 75% could apply after 9 p.m. Officials estimated the toll eventually would produce a 13% reduction in traffic congestion, though that is lower than the 17% they had projected under a $15 toll.

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Within two days after a burglar stole $10,000 from Star Confectionery, the iconic East Main Street luncheonette in Riverhead, the community fundraised enough to replace the stolen money. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that more than 130 individual donations to a GoFundMe started by one of the restaurant’s longtime employees totaled $10,850 for Papa Nick’s — as the beloved luncheonette is known locally — a downtown staple serving breakfast, lunch, candy and ice cream to Riverhead for more than a century.

“I can’t ask this community for more than what they’ve done for me. I mean, I’m so overwhelmed. It’s amazing. It really, really is,” said Anthony Meras, the third-generation owner of the restaurant. “With all that’s bad that’s going on, there’s still a lot of good in this world.”

Star Confectionery was broken into sometime between midday Monday and early Tuesday, according to Riverhead Police. Meras said the burglar forced open a basement door to get inside, then got into his safe, which contained $3,000 he was planning to deposit in his bank and around $7,000 to pay the business’s sales taxes. The burglar also stole a stack of $2 bills Meras had been collecting — a habit he picked up from his mother.

The GoFundMe fundraiser launched Wednesday night and was quickly shared on social media. It hit its fundraising goal Thursday morning.

The fundraiser is not taking any more donations; Meras asked for it to be shut down soon after it met its $10,000 goal.

“I’ve been there 25-plus years and we’ve had a lot of the same customers, same regulars, as long as I’ve worked there,” Papa said. “It’s old-school Riverhead. It’s people that have been in the town and this has just been a staple for them. I think it’s one of the few things in Riverhead that hasn’t changed.”

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There is an increased risk of fire spread today and a fire weather watch in effect tomorrow for Long Island, New York City and Lower Hudson Valley regions, the National Weather Service said today. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that northwest winds of 10 to 15 mph with gusts to 20 mph today and 30 mph tomorrow and low relative humidity values both days — 20-25 % today and as low as 27% tomorrow — once again sets up fire weather conditions conducive to increased fire spread should ignition occur. New York State has declared a burn ban through Nov. 30. Use extra caution if handling any potential ignition sources, such as machinery or matches, and ensure to properly extinguish or dispose cigarette butts, advises the National Weather Service.

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As the days get shorter and temperatures start to drop, Long Islanders are observing another sign of fall: flocks of turkeys traveling together from woodland to lawn to the edges of fallow fields, scratching for morsels to eat, chortling to one another to let the others know where they are.

"I have a flock that visits me every day around sunset and we kind of look forward to it," said Sally Newbert, who lives in East Moriches and is on the board of the Eastern Long Island Audubon Society. "They are very wary: The minute you come out the door, they pretty much take off. But they have become part of the neighborhood." Tracy Tullis reports in NEWSDAY that while the Department of Environmental Conservation doesn't have a specific estimate for their numbers, Chip Hamilton, a DEC field biologist, said wild turkeys on Long Island are "stable to increasing in population." And many observers note that they have been seeing many more of them strutting about in recent years. "There has been a robust recovery," said Robert DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End, a conservation organization. "They have proven to be very adaptable to the suburbs." Not everyone on Long Island loves these large birds. Hamilton said the DEC field office gets occasional calls from people who don’t want turkeys scratching (and leaving their droppings) in their yards, or from businesses who report a flock loitering in a road.

Millions of wild turkeys once roamed North America, from Maine to Florida and as far west as Colorado, thriving in varied habitats, including pine-oak forests, cypress swamps and grasslands. By the mid-19th century, they were disappearing across much of their range, including on Long Island, nearly wiped out by unregulated hunting and the clearing of woodlands for timber and agriculture, according to the New York Audubon Society.

In the 1990s, the DEC relocated about 75 wild turkeys from upstate to Suffolk County, and after a slow start, the birds have prospered.

The population has grown sufficiently enough in the past decade or so that the DEC added a spring turkey hunting season in 2023, after a fall hunt was legalized in 2009. This year's fall hunt begins tomorrow. The hunt is not popular with many birders, who are shut out from some nature areas during the hunting season. "It’s just the worst time," Newbert said, "because it’s migration season, when all the warblers are coming through."

On long Island, wild turkeys have been spotted as far west as Muttontown, and all the way east to Montauk and Orient Point, according to Hamilton.

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Long Island was New York State’s only region to see increases of farms and farmland acres, fueled by growth in Suffolk County, according to a report by the office of the state comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli and based on 2022 data.

Even as the state lost slightly more than 8% of its farms, Long Island saw an increase: 607 farms in 2022, a 3% jump from 2017. Long Island also saw an 11% increase in farmland acreage, 34,468 acres, over the same period. Nassau lost three farms, but Suffolk added 18, according to the report. Matthew Chayes reports in NEWSDAY that there are 30,650 farms in New York's 62 counties, making up 21.6% of state land. They range from 800-acre dairy farms in the western part of the state, to "sub-acre outdoor plots" in Manhattan.

The report analyzed industry data and economic indicators, including a census from 2022 taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Long Island farms had nearly $373 million in total agricultural sales in 2022, an increase of 64% from 2017," according to a news release about the report. "Farms in Suffolk County lead the state in sales of products directly to consumers, local retailers or local food processors, with more than $268 million in such sales. As a result, local dollars spent on agricultural products remain in the Long Island economy."

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