311 Call Center to Serve as Antisemitism Hotline

By Matt Meduri

Suffolk County’s 311 Call Center program was started in 2019 to offer non-emergency inquiries and government services and information to anyone who calls the line. The purpose of the 311 line was to alleviate non-emergency calls from the 911 line.

Essentially, the 311 Call Center has served as a point of contact between a resident and Suffolk County itself. Those who call the line can receive information and help including, but not limited to, county services and parks, tax filings, elected official directories, and similar forms of information. 311 operators are trained to direct calls to proper departments, especially 911 if a situation is deemed to be an emergency.

County leadership launched the plan on the basis that it would save taxpayer time and money to properly route calls, as well as alleviate public safety concerns by wasting time of 911 operators.

Now, four years after its creation, the 311 Call Center will serve, in addition to its current resources, as the county’s antisemitism hotline, to which callers can anonymously report acts that are considered antisemitic to the county for further review and investigation, if necessary.

“No matter how small, report it all,” was the operating line for Tuesday’s press conference at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge. County Executive Steve Bellone (D-West Babylon) headlined the initiative and the press conference and was joined by a large group of individuals who serve on various boards and committees concerning Jewish people and interests.

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By Matt Meduri

The wild weather of mid-to-late summer can be as harsh as it is unpredictable. A warm, sunny day can easily turn into a near-tornado of cataclysmic proportions before the lawn chairs can be taken in and the outdoor furniture can be covered. Smithtown, Brookhaven, and Islip are no strangers to these quickly-formed storms, as Ronkonkoma saw a tornado barrel down Portion Road in August of 2019, and Manorville saw an EF-0 twister later that season.

Although the last couple weeks has not seen quite as severe storms as summers’ passed, Ronkonkoma has seen some heavy thunderstorms and torrential rain that develops swiftly and moves even faster

Lake Ronkonkoma itself was no exception at the beginning of the month, as a sailor was caught in a flash storm, who required the help of not only the local fire department, but also a local man who was properly equipped to give immediate assistance.

Leif Easterson of Ronkonkoma sat down with The Messenger to discuss the unusual event in which the Lakeland Fire Department approached him for assistance to help a sailor who became stranded in the Lake during the wild storm.

“I was just in my backyard at the time and I had these firemen come up asking if I could help save someone in the water,” Easterson said.

Easterson, an avid sailor himself, described the origin of the incident:

“It was the typical flash storm, it was beautiful and sunny with some chance of thunderstorms, but in a moment’s notice the sky turned gray and we had a pretty bad storm rolling in. The sailor on the Lake was riding a skip sailboat, which is basically a row boat with a sail, and he got caught in the high winds and the mast came down.”

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