Week in Review: Illegal Housing, Blizzard Rescue, Marine Center Repairs

Our top stories on Three Village Patch this week:

Civic Association Calls for Stiffer Penalties for Rooming House Landlords. The Civic Association of the Setaukets and Stony Brook wants heftier fines for unscrupulous landlords who are turning single-family homes into illegal rooming houses for university students, and has asked the town to release the names and addresses of those homes cited for such violations within the past year. Residents in Three Village have long complained about these houses to the Civic Association and to the Town of Brookhaven, saying the situation often turns an otherwise quiet residential neighborhood into a noisy, chaotic one. In a letter to Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine dated Jan. 24, the Civic Association said it had reviewed the current structure of fines and penalties for housing code violations, and found them to be too low.

Lee Cirillo helped the Setauket Fire Department execute a rescue the day after the blizzard. She and her wife were out exploring the snow in a snowmobile on Nicolls Road on Feb. 9 when a man flagged them down for help. He was a firefighter plowing part of the road so an ambulance could get through to aid a 44-year-old man who was experiencing cardiac problems while shoveling snow, and he thought perhaps Cirillo could help the patient get to the hospital. "There was no thought in it. They asked me for help and I was there," said Cirillo, a 1995 graduate of Ward Melville High School.

WMHO Turns to Indiegogo to Fundraise for Conservation Center Repairs. The Ernst Marine Conservation Center in the 88-acre West Meadow wetlands preserve stands five feet above ground level – but when Hurricane Sandy swept through the area and delivered a six-foot storm surge locally, the conservation center suffered major flood damage when close to a foot of water flowed through the building. "It destroyed walls, floors, sheetrock, insulation and caused destruction throughout the building," said Gloria Rocchio, president of the Ward Melville Heritage Organization, which owns the conservation center and has conducted programs there for more than 50 years. Now, the WMHO is turning to the community for help via an Indiegogo.com campaign called "Rebuild a Classroom in the Heart of the LI Wetlands." Rocchio said the organization hopes to raise $10,000 for the repairs needed to restore the Marine Conservation Center (MCC) so it's ready for the spring, when classes begin again.

Boys & Girls Club Relocates to New Clubhouse. For the Boys & Girls Club of Suffolk County, more space means more opportunities for kids to learn, play and grow. That's exactly what the organization's new clubhouse in Port Jefferson Station will offer, according to program coordinator Dina DeMeo. The BGC is leaving its Setauket clubhouse on North Country Rd. to establish a new one at Calvary Baptist Church on Jayne Blvd. in Port Jefferson Station. The new BGC facility will be introduced to the community at a Feb. 25 open house from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. "It’s going to help the community, which is our goal," DeMeo said. "It’s really the opportunity we’ve been looking for for a long time. You can’t have programs if you don’t have space, so this opportunity is wonderful."

Response Hotline Seeking Volunteer Counselors. Each year fields about 20,000 calls for help on its various hotlines, which include a national suicide lifeline, a 24/7 crisis hotline, a bilingual line and an online call system on weeknights. All of those crisis intervention services are staffed by trained volunteers – about 60 people per week. But Hurricane Sandy interfered with the organization's ability to retain its volunteers, and so the organization has recently issued a call for more volunteers.