Jan 1
Major fires, a mass food poisoning, recession,
teenage vandalism, beach erosion, higher taxes, “Scandals”
jury investigations, and strikes that grounded airplanes
and suspended publication of metropolitan
newspapers marked the year of 1958. Somehow, we all
muddled through.
The Brookhaven Town Planning board is considering
a change of zone application submitted by Mike Stiriz,
well-known general contractor of Lake Drive,
Patchogue, which if granted would pave the way for a
huge shopping center in the vicinity of Swan Lake Drive
and Franklin Street in Patchogue.
The president of The Peoples National Bank, G.
Howard Hatfield, fell and broke his elbow while walking
on ice in Bellport on Saturday afternoon. The arm
was operated on and set with a pin by Dr. Jesse W.
Mahoney of Patchogue. He is expected to remain in the
hospital for approximately a week.
A 30-year-old Merrick man escaped unhurt last Tuesday
after his car skidded and flipped on its roof in
South Haven. Dominick Mambrino told police that he
was heading eastbound on Montauk Highway at about
7:35 a.m., tried to pass an unidentified car, hit a patch
of ice and flipped over. The mishap occurred 1,000 feet
west of Old South Country Road.
Retiring Public Welfare Commissioner J. Milford
Kirkup Jr. has been named acting superintendent of the
Suffolk County Home and Infirmary in Yaphank. His
appointment to the new position, created several
months ago, was announced Monday by his successor
as commissioner, John L. Barry of Patchogue.
A New Year’s gift to the Frank Abrahall family of 370
Rider Avenue in Patchogue was the arrival home on 10
days’ leave of three sons, all members of the U.S.
Marine Corps. Robert is a corporal stationed at Camp
LeJeune, N.C.; Don is a private stationed at Cherry
Point, N.C.; and Frank is a sergeant also stationed at Camp LeJeune.
A small Fish and Wildlife service seaplane winging its
way from a duty assignment in North Carolina to its
home base in Kingston, R.I., swooped down and
snatched an 18-year-old Babylon lad from a freezing
death Dec. 21. Walden Boettger, a senior at LaSalle Military
Academy, was among a group ice boating at the
mouth of the Carmans River, when his DN, three-rudder
ice boat, which was cruising at about 60 mph,
plunged through the ice and started settling fast.
William D. Snow, of R.I., flying past the area when
Boettger cracked through the ice, brought the plane
down, taxied as close as possible to the struggling man
and rescued him. He flew Boettger to solid ice near the
shore where his friends were. ■
Jan 08
Ten-year-old Denise Doncourt certainly needed a
helping hand when she fell through the ice on Blue
Point creek Friday afternoon. Struggling desperately
to lift herself out, and fighting against the drag of wet
clothes that threatened to pull her under, she got that
helping hand from a Girl Scout who had been hiking
by while working for her “foot travel” badge. The Girl
Scout, Sandra Farrands, 12, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
William Caldwell of Atlantic Avenue in Blue Point,
was presented with a scarf as a memento of the rescue.
Both girls are students at Blue Point Elementary school.
Joseph M. Bruno, president of the Grover Sleep
Product Company Inc., manufacturers of exclusive
sleep products, will open a factory and showroom at
116 South Ocean Avenue, Patchogue, on January 16.
A recently instituted police juvenile aid bureau and
the Patchogue Village Recreation program have
brought about a substantial drop in juvenile crime,
according to village officials.
This past December was the coldest December in
the last 32 years, according to the latest weather statistics
compiled by the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island.
Highly controversial ordinances legalizing bingo
will go before Brookhaven and Islip town voters
within the next few weeks and, as the day of decision
draws near, officials have begun mulling cost to the
taxpayer should the referendums pass.
Wind gusts measuring up to 65 miles per hour and
temperatures that fell below 10 degrees marked the
weather situation in this area from Sunday night on.
The wind made power lines “dance,” and about 4
p.m. Monday power lines wrapped together and
short-circuited near the Medford Avenue school. One
of the wires burned right to the ground.
The last phase of the Patchogue Bay Power
Squadron piloting course was completed for
Matthew Aviano of 111 Roe Boulevard, Patchogue,
last Wednesday when the officers of the squadron
traveled to the Holtsville sanatorium and presented
Mr. Aviano with his certificate. Mr. Aviano is recovering
from a respiratory ailment at the sanatorium.
For the last two weeks of 1958 the Bellport Ambulance
chalked up seven trips.
Permits for the construction of seven new homes in
the village of Bellport, three garages, seven additions
and three alterations were issued during the last six
months of 1958, according to the records of village
building Inspector George H. Piermann.
About 70 friends and relatives attended an open
house given by Mr. and Mrs. William J. Wright in celebration
of their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday
at their home at 26 Bell Street in Bellport.
The first baby of 1959 and the last infant born in
1958 at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital are both offspring
of Moriches Bay area residents. Melody Gail, a
7-pound, 11-ounce daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ald
Endresen of 107 Woodside Drive, Mastic Beach,
arrived at 7:36 a.m. last Thursday. The last baby born
in 1958 is Susan Hope, the 8-pound, three-ounce
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A. Arnzen of Jarvis
Lane, Center Moriches, who came into the world at
7:45 p.m. December 31. ■
More than 100 firemen from three departments
battled a stubborn, wind-swept blaze in bitter, below freezing
weather as fire ravaged the home of Dr. and
Mrs. George Cotzias at 36 Brown’s Lane in Bellport
Friday night. Damages are estimated in the vicinity of
$50,000 by Bellport Fire Chief George Hawkins. The
cause has not been determined as yet, but wiring in
the kitchen wall is suspected, Dr. Cotzias said.
Suffolk County plans to acquire beach property on
both sides of the Moriches inlet were revealed yesterday
in the wake of a controversy between two local
chambers of commerce on a proposal to condemn six
miles of Great South Beach for use by county residents.
Former Surrogate Richard W. Hawkins of Northport
and Suffolk Republican County Chairman R.
Ford Hughes of Patchogue were reelected president
and chairman of the board of governors, respectively,
of the Suffolk County Republican Club Inc., at the
organization’s annual meeting held last week at the
club house in Blue Point.
Contending that a boy tripped and injured himself
on ice “operated, maintained and controlled under
the direction of the village,” a notice of claim for
$300,000 was served on the Patchogue Village board Monday night.
The installation of one incinerator at a cost of
$890,000 may solve Brookhaven Town’s garbage disposal
problems, it was revealed Tuesday.
The current January 15 issue of The Patchogue Advance
marks the first anniversary of this newspaper’s
move from its old quarters on North Ocean Avenue to the
modern newspaper plant located at 20 Medford Avenue.
A night hearing will be held on the controversial
petition to rezone a 1,400-foot by 1,000-foot parcel
of land that would be used to build a huge shopping
center in Patchogue, the Brookhaven Town Board decided Tuesday.
Youth Fair, over the years a leading children’s retail
store in the Patchogue area, announced this week the
grand-opening today of a new store at 8 East Main
Street in Patchogue.
A tractor-trailer loaded with 16 tons of potatoes
collided with a freight train in Center Moriches on
Tuesday. Two occupants of the truck suffered slight
injuries, even though the cab in which they were riding
was hurled 35 feet from the point of impact.
A prominent Brookhaven woman was among seven
terrorized by a gun-toting stickup man in a swank
New York City beauty parlor last Wednesday afternoon.
Mrs. Barbara Potter, wife of E.N. Potter, a New
York City stockbroker, of Beaver Dam Road, was
one of the customers delegated by the man to collect
money from the others after he emptied the till of about $30.
Tuesday night at the Wesley house in Bellport
should prove interesting to all the women attending
the meeting of the Wesleyan Service Guild. A program
has been planned about Mexico in order that
all will become better acquainted with “our neighbor to the south.”
Two trips to hospitals, one to bring a patient home
from the hospital and assistance at the scene of a fire
comprised the past week’s activity for the Bellport ambulance.
Acting on a report on housing needs for students
next year and recommendations by Supervising Principal
Herman E. Chamberlain, the Board of Education
of Central School District 4 at its meeting Monday
night made plans to provide temporary classrooms
and to build for the future.
The winter program of Adult Education classes in
Central School District 4 will start January 26.
A 40-truck convoy will carry Long Island potatoes
to the deep south next week for the grand opening
of the Georgia State Farmers Produce Market in Atlanta,
set for next Thursday.
Many feel that persons who have been natives of
Alaska for three years would be used to the frigid
spell we’ve been having lately. But such is not the
case for the family of Airman Frank Brown, who
have just settled in Center Moriches after spending
three winters in Anchorage, Alaska. Airman Brown
has been in the Air Force for 12 years and is presently
assigned to Suffolk Air Force Base. ■
Jan 22
The Patchogue village election picture became more
complex this week as two of the incumbent Democratic
trustees, Robinson Roe and William Miller, declared
they will not run for re-election March 17.
The appointment of George Ball, 35, as executive
director of the retail division of the Patchogue Chamber
of Commerce was announced this week by Milton
Lenowitz, president of the division.
A proposed layout of the new Brookhaven Town
Recreation park located in North Patchogue off Barton
Avenue that was drawn by members of the recreation
committee of the North Patchogue Civic Association
was exhibited at a meeting of the association held last week.
A 55-store shopping center costing between 6 and 7
million dollars, featuring Macy’s and 11 other major
stores and a 52-alley bowling establishment will be
built on the Sunrise Highway, North Patchogue, if a
petition to rezone a 1,500 by 1,000 parcel of land to
a J business classification is approved, the North Patchogue
Civic association was told last week.
Aubrey H. Parker, the driver of a tractor trailer that
was in collision with a Long Island Rail Road freight
train in Center Moriches last week, will answer to
charges of failing to heed the signal indicating the approach of the train.
Newmark & Lewis, established for 35 years on Long
Island, has come to Patchogue with the seventh store in its chain.
A Shirley woman, mother of four children, was
arrested by Brookhaven police last Thursday and
charged with passing over $300 worth of forged
checks since October last year in markets and stores
from Patchogue to Center Moriches.
With the completion date set for May 15, construction
will get underway soon on the new entrance to
The Patchogue Theatre and the store adjoining the
theatre which were burned down in a $750,000 fire last October.
Over $500 towards a goal of $1,000 was pledged January
13 at the meeting of the Community Scholarship
Fund committee at Center Moriches High School.
Four trips by the Bellport Ambulance during the past
week were added to its ever-growing list of calls.
James Vincemzo Fucci, Suffolk County deputy sheriff
and popular Bellport barber, was instantly killed
early last Thursday morning when his car skidded on
an icy road and smashed head-on into a hard frozen embankment.
Four races were held by the South Bay Scooter club
on Sunday at the Bellport dock. The ice was hard, and
a good, steady 20-mile-an-hour wind blew over the
bay, making for an ideal racing day. ■
