A bill to strengthen Suffolk County’s “social host” law was unanimously approved at last Tuesday’s county Legislature meeting in Hauppauge.
A bill to strengthen Suffolk County’s “social host” law was unanimously approved at last Tuesday’s county Legislature meeting in Hauppauge.
The Guardian Angels are expected to begin recruiting downtown next week, though Town Board members believe their presence will send the wrong message to potential visitors. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
Barth’s Pharmacy has stood on East Main Street since 1917 -— and in nearly all that time, no one has robbed the store.
But that changed in the past three years, during which the business has twice been targeted by armed robbers. The most recent incident occurred Friday, when a masked man burst into the store, held a gun to an employee’s neck and took off with an unspecified amount of cash, said owner Barry Barth.
“Nobody was physically hurt and that’s a good thing, but the mental anguish and the fear of having someone coming to your place of business with a handgun to rob you is overwhelming,” Mr. Barth told the News-Review. “We just went through this two years ago. You try to put this behind you and then it rears its ugly head again.” (more…)
Michael Didwell mug shot (Credit: Southampton Town police)
A Calverton man accused of extorting thousands of dollars from a woman by threatening to kill her ex-fiancé, her friend, and her three young children last June pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny in a Central Islip courtroom Tuesday.
Michael Didwell will be sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation as a result of his plea deal, according to county court Judge Fernando Camacho.
Mr. Didwell’s plea to the felony charge covers 24 other counts — including 16 counts of felony grand larceny — he had originally been charged with, according to online court records.
He was arrested by Southampton Town police detectives on Aug. 5, 2014 after an investigation into the threats, authorities said. Prosecutors said Mr. Didwell made phone calls and met his victim in person to carry out the extortion plot.
Prosecutors had alleged that Mr. Didwell threatened to kill a woman’s ex-fiancé and her best friend, and later expanded his threats to the woman’s children.
Prosecutors also say Mr. Didwell gave a full confession in writing following his arrest. Five orders of protection were issued against him.
Mr. Didwell’s attorney, Daniel Rodgers of Southampton, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
Mr. Didwell is due to be formally sentenced in April.
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Tony Yarusso of Riverhead was one of the last people to cast his vote at Riverhead High School at a minute before 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The Riverhead Central School District’s budget proposal passed 1,520 to 1,252 on Tuesday.
Though the voter turnout was about the same as last year’s vote, the results were much closer than in 2012, when the budget passed by nearly 700 votes.
Voters cast their ballots at four polling locations across the Riverhead area: Aquebogue Elementary School, Phillips Avenue Elementary School, Riley Avenue Elementary School and Riverhead High School.
Of the four voting locations, only a majority of Phillips Avenue voters cast ballots against the budget. Most absentee voters also voted no.
The biggest margin of victory for the budget proposal was at Aquebogue Elementary School, where about 63 percent of voters favored the budget.
There were two related propositions on the ballot. One was a proposal to establish a capital reserve fund to help build a new school bus maintenance facility. The other involved a plan to buy property in Riverside to help establish the facility.
While the first proposal was accepted, the proposition to buy the Riverside properties was defeated.
Phillips Avenue voters rejected both propositions by wide margins, while the land-buy proposal only found support at the Riley Avenue polls, where it came ahead by a single vote.
Newcomer to the board Chris Dorr took home most of the votes in two of the four polling places, raking in 423 votes in Aquebogue and 209 votes at Phillips Avenue. He came in second at the high school polling place by six votes, and only came in last at Riley Avenue.
Board member Amelia Lantz won re-election, while incumbent Jeff Falisi was voted out of office.
For a full breakdown of the vote results by polling place, see below:
TIM GANNON PHOTO | The Aid Auto Stores location on Route 58.
There will soon be another vacant store on Riverhead’s Route 58, as Aid Auto Stores will be going out of business and closing all its locations, company officials announced Thursday.
The Shirley-based chain, which has been in existence since 1966, has five locations, Riverhead, Shirley, Rocky Point, Ronkonkoma and Medford.
Aid Auto president Anthony Pirrera said a combination of a down economy, cultural and economic changes in the auto industry and “intense amount of competition” from national chains all led to the company’s demise.
“Nowadays, people lease cars, so they don’t have the investment they used to in a car,” Mr. Pirrera. “And you can pay $12,000 for a car and get a 100,000 mile warranty.”
Aid Auto has had a store in Riverhead for at least 20 years, Mr. Pirrera said. Before it was in its current location, which once housed Newmark and Lewis and before that Harrows, it was located in a different storefront in the same shopping center.
The company once had 17 or 18 stores on Long Island, he said.
He said the Riverhead store would likely remain open for another six or seven weeks.
He also thanked the company’s “loyal customers for their many years of patronage.”
The stores will have “going out of business” sales beginning today, July 5, and items will be sold at prices ranging from 10 to 30 percent off, according to a statement the company released Thursday.
“Discounts will be given on all products such as car washes, waxes, cleaning products, seat covers, floor mats, motor oil and a large selection of hard parts. All store fixtures such as wall units, shelving and lighting are also available for sale,” it states.
The Riverhead store is in the same shopping center where a Off Tracking Betting location closed last year and remains vacant.
An Aid Auto worker in Riverhead said staffers were told last week the store was closing.
“It’s been slowing down business-wise, so we all kind of figured that something was going to happen,” said the employee, who has worked at the store for the past three years.
The man, who did not want to give his name, said the store will close down in late August.
He’ll be looking for a new job in the meantime.
“Hopefully I can find something,” he said. “I guess I gotta start over now.”
With Paul Squire