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Thursday, June 5, 2025 ~ Volume 70 ~ Issue Number 27 ~ $1.00
Ownership Dispute Hinders Mill Pond Restoration By Matt Meduri
The Stony Brook Mill Pond has long been a staple of the North Shore community, defining the border between Stony Brook and the Village of Head of the Harbor. In August, a near-foot of rainfall from Hurricane Ernesto blew out the century-old dam and caused the pond to empty into the Long Island Sound. The same fate befell the dam at Stump Pond in Blydenburgh Park. The restoration of both ponds have palpable community support, but an ownership dispute of the land on which the Mill Pond dam sat is stymieing reconstruction efforts.
Continued on page 12
The remnants of Harbor Road at the empty Mill Pond in Stony Brook (Credit - Matt Meduri)
Leaders Demand DoT Transfer Lawrence Aviation Site to MTA By Matt Meduri
Economics, ecology, proper development, and transportation. Those are the key concepts invoked by County, State, environmental, and local leaders in demanding that the State Department of Transportation (DoT) transfer the Port Jefferson property that once housed the Lawrence Aviation site to the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). Electrifying the northern line of the LIRR has also been a center of conversation for years, and leaders say that this transfer can fulfill the aforementioned key concepts. Unfortunately, bureaucracy is another key concept in play. Lawrence Aviation operated at the site on Upper Sheep Pasture Road from 1959 to 2003. Toxic chemicals led to the site becoming a federal Superfund site, an area designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that poses public and environmental health threats, often requiring long-term remediation to make the site viable. Continued on page 17
Officials stand on the Lawrence Aviation Property (Credit - Matt Meduri)
FULL STORIES ON:
‘Long Island Sound Day’ Page 3
$45 Million in Murray’s Message Career & Technical Ed. State Funds for Bellport Page 8
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