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A2 « THE LONG ISLANDER - JANUARY 19, 2017 . - LongislanderNews.com Please mention The Long Islander Newspapers when doing business with our advertisers. GREENLAWN Harborfields Grad Killed In Snowboarding Accident By Jano Tantongco jtantongco @longislandergroup.com _ A former Harborfields High School football coach and Greenlawn resi- dent died Saturday in a snowboarding accident in upstate Highmount at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, reports said. Reports from Highmount indicate that Brian Conners, 25, of Greenlawn, was killed following an accident that occurred while he was snowboarding on a trail at the center at around 11 a.m., Saturday. There were no other details available, but state police are reportedly investigating the incident. While a senior at Harborfields High School, Conners also became close friends with Brian Dolan. They both went away for school for teaching after they graduated in 2009, with . Conners going to SUNY Cortland and Dolan going to University of Delaware. Eventually, Conners felt he wasn't in the right place, and dis- cussed with Dolan. Soon, they decided to come back home to pursue their true passion: coaching. The two went on to study at St. place back home at Harborfields. \It was truly one of his passions, and I've been joking lately, this was the first year that we didn't coach together, and I have more losses this year than I did with Brian sitting next to me on the bench. - He just made everyone around him better just by being there,\ Dolan said. Dolan thanked his best friend, since he said he followed in Conners' foot- steps back to Harborfields. \He's definitely always going to be the better Brian, that's for sure,\ Dolan said. Conners was regarded as a \phe- nomenal athlete\ and \all-around great kid,\ said John Valente,, the school district's athletic director. \It's such a tragic loss. What he had in front of him was just unbelievable,\ Valente said. Conners began volunteering as a junior varsity football coach for Harborfields in 2013. When the posi- tion of head coach opened up the next year, he took it and stayed there for two years. He also earned his teacher certification. \He immersed himself in the culture of it. There was no such thing as an in- Brian Conners, a 25-year-old Green- lawn resident and former Harborfields JV football coach, reportedly died in a - snowboarding accident on Saturday in upstate Highmount. there to always do,\ Valente said. Then, this past year, Conners served as a JV football coach for the Smithtown Central School District, © Valente said. Conners had aspirations to be a math teacher while also coaching. \I think that gave him a flavor that was something he wanted to pursue in life,\ Valente said. \The coaching is per- haps what made him shift gears in his field of study and wanting to give back Valente called Conners' ability to reach through to his athletes without \rah-rah\ yelling nothing short of \magical.\ Valente recalled speaking with Conners years ago at an end-of- season evaluation. You have a coaching skill set, and maturity and poise as a JV coach that many of my varsity coaches may lack,\ he told Conners. Conners is survived by parents Mike and Jackie, brother Christopher, grandparents Annette and Capt. Ed McGrath. He was. predeceased by grandparents Charlotte and Donald Golden. Visitation will be held at M.A. Connell Funeral Home (934 New York Ave., Huntington Station) tomorrow, 2-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. A funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Centerport on Saturday, 9:45 a.m. _- Memorial contributions can be made to St. Jude's Children's Hospital (Stjude.org) or to the Wounded Warrior Project (Woundedwarriorproject.org). Dolan added that Harborfields is now making wristbands with Conners' signature slogan, \Count on me.\ \\Whatever it was, he would be Joseph's College and soon found their MELVILLE season or off-season... Brian was just to the kids. And, he was a natural at it.\ there for you.” Residents Question Impact Of Planned Home Goods By Jano Tantongco jtantongco@ longislandergroup.com Plans to irescind covenants and restrictions and ©, approve a zone change that would pave the way for a | Home Goods to be built on a protected plot of land in Melville drew opposition from neighbors during last week's Huntington Town Board meeting. Nine residents spoke during a public hearing in regards to the site, which is just behind Bertucei's Restaurant at 881 Walt Whitman Road and is protect- ed by covenants and restrictions. Those include stipu- lations that if the land is developed then 0.8 acres of the property must be dedicated as parkland for the adjacent West Hills County Park; a privacy fence must be created; and hours of operation must be limited. . The applicant wants the town to remove the covenants and restrictions and approve a zone change to allow it to move forward with plans to build a Home Goods on the plot. Huntington-based attorney Michael McCarthy is representing the applicant and spoke during the public hearing. McCarthy said he spoke with local residents, including Alissa Taff, president of the Sweet Hollow Civic Association, about limiting the store's hours in order to lessen impact on nearby residents. McCarthy said there is an agreement to limit hours of delivery, along with trash and recycling pickup, to 9 a.m.-7 p.m. There is also an agreement to maintain a landscape buffer between the Home Goods and West Hills County Park, he said. McCarthy later said in an interview Wednesday that there are buffers planned for the western and northern property lines. The western buffer, which is adjacent to a bowling alley, is planned to be 30 feet wide. The northern buffer, which is adjacent to the park, is . planned to be 12feet wide. Plans also call for a park- ~ing lot car lane between both buffers and the building, which sits 60 feet from the western property line and 44 feet from the northern property line. He said the town is appraising the 0.8 acres of land that would. have been designated under the current covenants and restrictions. Once that is done there is a plan for the applicant to dedicate \a sum of money commensurate with the value\ to the town. Those who spoke at the last week's public hearing raised concerns of potential impacts to traffic and con- gestion. Others questioned the buffer between the pro- ject's parking lot and the county-owned park. Johanna Stewart-Suchow, co-president of Melville- based Piermcat Association of Rollingwood, said the - proposed land buffer is \not reassuring.\ \We coexist with our commercial neighbors. That requires buffering and limitation on usages in the back of that property,\ she said. \In the summer, we will hear everything that's going on back there.\ Stewart-Suchow, also a former Huntington assistant town attorney, said she was part of the original group of neighbors who initially negotiated the covenants and restrictions for the property back in 2002. At that time. the town board granted a zone change for the property, turning it from an R-10 residence district to a C-1 office-residence district, and also added the covenants and restrictions. There was also a condition that, if the property wasn't developed w1thm two years it would then the zoning would revert back to residen- tial. It was never developed. \ \I'd like to ask the board to do some balancing here: the community's integrity and the return that they can get as a commercial C-1, Why do they need a big box store?\ Stewart-Suchow said. , Alissa Taff raised concerns over what she said is a lack of buffer zones. \They're squeezing in every inch to the fot line, which the other properties don't,\ Taff said. “It s real- ly a mess and it's not fair.\ Taff also called into questlon the publlc hearing itself, since it refers to the zoning as C-1, when she argues it should have reverted back to R-10 as per the covenants and restrictions. \According to the ruling, C-1 does not exist, mak- ing this hearing invalid. How can you rule on some- thing doesn't exist?\ Taff said. A.J. Carter, town spokesman, relayed an answer to that question from town attorney's office on Tuesday. He said a local law must be amended the way it was enacted, which includes holding a public hearing. He added that a zone change is a local law, so when town board approved it, that law was filed with the state. To change it back, a new public hearing and enactment would have had to take place. Despite the clause in the covenants and restrictions . suggesting otherwise, the zoning would not automati- cally revert back. And, since there have been no other proposals to develop the property, it has remained in the: C-], glesignation ever since. - Meee \eke mes E AES oo oo Plea.
