Robert Garelick was allegedly under the influence of alcohol when he performed dentistry on a patient Monday.

And you were afraid of dentists before this story.

Suffolk County police Monday arrested a Lindenhurst dentist for allegedly conducting a dental procedure while he was under the influence of alcohol.

The dentist, 57-year-old Robert Garelick, was arrested around 4:30 p.m. Monday after police received a complaint that he was allegedly drunk on the job. When First Precinct officers arrived they determined that Garelick was under the influence of alcohol while performing dental work on a patient, police said in a news release.

Police didn’t say what prompted the call but noted that there was concern about the dentist’s physical condition.

Investigators declined to elaborate on specifics regarding the case.

Garelick, a Melville resident who is licensed to practice dentistry by New York State, was charged with reckless endangerment. He is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013.

President Barack Obama laid out more than a dozen new initiatives Tuesday in the first State of the Union address of his second term, packing an array of issues into the hour-long speech, including four—climate change, immigration, veterans and gun control—of particular importantance to Long Islanders, a few of whom were in the audience.

Obama started off flat while discussing his budget and tax reform proposals, but he worked his way up to an emotional plea for Congress to enact new restrictions on firearms sales to reduce the number of gun deaths nationwide. He sounded encouraged by current immigration reform talks among lawmakers, but the president oscilated between urging the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to negotiate a compromise on the upcoming deficit reduction plan known as sequestration, and threatening to use executive orders if Congress doesn’t act on global warming.

“We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen, were all just a freak coincidence,” Obama said, referring in part to the Oct. 29 hurricane-nor’easter hybrid that ravaged LI and the Northeast. ”Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it’s too late.”

The president remained vague on most of his proposals, choosing to paint a broad picture of the goals he’s setting for the year to come, but did get into some specifics while discussing immigration and, to a lesser degree, gun control.

“Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals,” the president said, before rallying for a vote on the bill. ”Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because these police chiefs, they’re tired of seeing their guys and gals being outgunned.”

Among those top cops was John Aresta, the Malverne village police chief, whose uncle was among six murdered in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre. He was invited to attend by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), whose husband was killed and son injured in the same shooting spree that launched her to the national stage to advocate for gun control.

“I personally don’t see a reason why anybody would need a 30-round clip or a 10-round clip for an assault rifle,” Aresta had told Fox Business News  last month shortly after New York State passed sweeping new gun control laws in the wake of the Newtown elementary school massacre in December.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), the lone Republican among LI’s five-member Congressional delegation, wrote on Twitter that he was disapointed in Obama’s lack of focus on unemployment and deficit reduction, but co-authored an op-ed in Politico expressing support for ensuring background checks for all  gun purchases, with the exception of gifts between family members or temporary transfers for hunters. He noted national estimates that only four in 10 gun buyers are subject to such checks.

New York City got two mentions. Obama first touted the heroic nurses who evacuated newborn babies from the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan during Sandy, signaling Menchu Sanchez by name. She was seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama. He later extolled the benefits of P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York and IBM, where students graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in computers or engineering—a model he wants emulated nationwide.

The emphasis on improving education to better the economy dovetailed with his reasons for supporting immigration, a hotly debated issue on LI, where undocumented Hispanic immigrant day laborers have repeatedly been victims of Suffolk County hate crimes in recent years.

“Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants,” Obama said, emphasizing that reform must include stronger border security, cutting waiting periods, attracting highly skilled engineers and ”establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship—a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and … learning English.”

But some immigration issues are easier to solve than others. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) invited as his guests Dania and Nick Marvos, a Little Neck couple who were in the process of adopting a 1-year-old boy named Ari from Russia until two months ago when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning American adoptions of Russian children. The move was widely seen as retaliation for a recently passed U.S. law punishing Russian human rights violators.

“Waiting for news to see if we will be allowed to bring our baby home has been one of the most trying times in our lives,” Dania Mavros said in a statement released by Israel’s office. ”Devastating does not capture the emotional roller coaster that we are enduring every day.”

Congressman Israel said he is negotiating to help the couple complete the adoption process despite the new Russian law in an attempt to save their son-to-be from growing up in an orphanage. Thousands of other cases are also in jeopardy.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) invited Dina McKenna of Lindenhurst, whose husband, Sgt. William McKenna, died in 2010 of cancer caused by his exposure to toxic fumes from burn pits the military used for disposing of hazardous waste in Iraq. Bishop had laws passed to curtail the use of burn pits and require the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve its treatment of soldiers exposed to them.

“All veterans whose health may have been affected by toxic burn pits must be accounted for and given the health care and support they have earned,” Bishop said in a statement.

Obama’s nod to veterans came as he promised to better defend against cyber attacks, end the more than decade-long war in Afghanistan “by the end of next year,” prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons and isolate North Korea for its provocations in testing nuclear weapons potentially capable of being fitted on inter-continental ballistic missles. He reiterated plans to strengthen U.S. missle defense to block such an attack.

The commander-in-chief also made clear that while the military will not be sending large numbers of troops abroad for Iraq-style occupations, he vaguely referred to special operations forces that will continue to hunt al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan and wherever else they may be hiding. He made veiled reference to the continued deployment of predator drones despite recently renewed controversy over their use to kill American citizens working with terrorists, such as Westbury-native Samir Khan, the al-Qaeda propagandist killed in U.S. airstrikes alongside militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011.

“Where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans,” he said.

A driver uses their cell phone while behind the wheel.

Jacy Good learned while hospitalized on her 22nd birthday in 2008 that the Pennsylvania crash that nearly killed her claimed her parents’ lives—thanks to a teenage driver talking on his cell phone.

The White Plains resident who later dedicated her life to advocating against distracted driving shared those and other painful details during a panel discussion Wednesday at Lindenhurst High School.

“We need to change the way we think about this,” Good told students assembled at the school library. “When you are driving, do what it takes to not pick up your phone.”

Leading the discussion was New York State Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick), who pointed to studies that found drivers distracted by their cell phones are 23 times more likely to be involved in a collision.

“Distracted drivers put everyone’s safety at risk,” said Fuschillo, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “Technology enables us to communicate with one another almost whenever and wherever we want, but it endangers lives when drivers pay more attention to a text or email than to the road ahead.”

Trooper Frank Bandiero, who was also on the panel, said that distracted drivers—20,000 of whom were ticketed by state police between July 2011 and July 2012, including 1,400 on LI—are easy to spot since they drive erratically. He said that parents need to set an example for their kids by not using their phones while driving.

A recent survey found that 58 percent of high school seniors and 43 percent of high school juniors said they had texted or emailed while driving during the previous month, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

“Young people, we think we’re invincible,” said Kristen Curran, a senior at Lindenhurst High School who recently obtained her driver’s license and joined the panel. “We think we have so many more years to come, but that’s not the truth.”

A Lindenhurst man was arrested for drunken driving the wrong way on the Southern State Parkway following a hit-and-run crash early Saturday morning, New York State police said.

Leston Douglas was driving his Toyota Camry eastbound in the westbound lanes of the parkway when he struck a vehicle east of Route 110 in Farmingdale and fled the scene at 5:25 a.m., police said.

The 25-year-old suspect was apprehended shortly later when Troopers found him to be under the influence of alcohol, police said. There were no reported injuries.

Douglas was charged with driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident, driving the wrong way and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

He will be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip.

A 36-year-old Lindenhurst man died when his motorcycle was involved in a crash with a car in West Babylon.

Suffolk County police said Doris Wagner was driving a Nissan Maxima northbound on Great East Neck Road when she tried to make a left turn into a parking lot and her car collided with a southbound Suzuki ridden by John Hart at 4 p.m. Friday.

The victim was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he was pronounced dead. Wagner, 68, of West Babylon, was not injured.

First Squad detectives impounded the vehicles for safety checks, are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information on the crash to contact them at 631-854-8152.

An Islip Terrace woman was arrested for drugged driving after she was involved in a crash while an 8-year-old boy was a passenger on Wednesday morning, New York State Police said.

Margaret Dopfel was driving westbound on the Southern State Parkway when she rear-ended another vehicle near exit 36 in Lindenhurst shortly before 9 a.m., police said.

Troopers found the 46-year-old woman to be impaired by drugs after she submitted to a chemical test of her blood, police said.

Dopfel was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs, endangering the welfare of a child and driving while intoxicated with a child under 16 in the vehicle, a felony under Leandra’s Law.

The child was released to a family member.

Dopfel will be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Sandy damaged houses across Long Island, such as this one in Atlantique on Fire Island.

Superstorm Sandy went down in history six months ago as one of the biggest natural disasters to hit Long Island, irreversibly changing its landscape and washing away many residents’ sense of security.

While the widespread blackouts, lengthy gas-shortage lines, catastrophic flooding and mountainous debris piles are mostly just a memory, recovery efforts are still most visible on LI’s Atlantic Ocean-facing barrier beaches that suffered the worst damage.

“Sandy to some people is gone, it’s passed,” said James Mallot, the mayor of Ocean Beach, Fire Island’s unofficial capital. “We live it out there every single minute of the day.”

The village, like the rest of LI’s Sandy-ravaged beachfront communities, is rushing to prepare for Memorial Day weekend, the kickoff to the summer beach and tourist season that pumps billions into the local economy.

Meanwhile, a breach that Sandy caused in Fire Island’s federal wilderness area to the east of the residential communities remains open, which has become a point of contention between those who blame the breach on flooding in communities near the Great South Bay and others who argue it’s cleaning out the polluted waterways.

The storm, a massive hybrid of a category 1 hurricane that merged with a nor’easter, is considered the worst to hit the region since the infamous “Long Island Express” in 1938.

Looking to Katrina for Perspective on Sandy Recovery Timeline

In the City of Long Beach on LI’s westernmost barrier island, officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday to commemorate construction of the new boardwalk to replace the old one that Sandy destroyed—although the Long Beach Medical Center is still closed.

“We came together months ago to mourn the loss of our boardwalk,” Scott Mandel, president of the Long Beach City council, told hundreds of residents who gathered for the event. “Today we come together to celebrate the rebirth of it. Long Beach is coming back better than ever.”

A five-mile stretch of badly damaged Ocean Parkway on Jones Beach Island just reopened last week after contractors rebuilt the roadway’s protective dunes that were washed away. Parts of Jones Beach itself are already reopened, but Robert Moses State Park is still closed.

And in the Hamptons, some millionaires have sparked controversy by building seawalls—work that may be challenged in court—in the hopes of protecting their oceanfront mansions, The New York Times recently reported.

Signs of a comeback can be found on mainland LI as well. Camp Bulldog, a makeshift support network in Lindenhurst that was a lifeline for residents coping in Sandy’s aftermath, closed over the weekend. On the North Shore, the West Shore Road seawall is nearing completion. And East Rockaway Junior-High School reopened Monday just in time to mark the six-month mark of the Oct. 29 storm.

Also on Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported that its four remaining disaster recovery centers in Long Beach, Island Park, Seaford and Copiague will become Disaster Loan Outreach Centers on Wednesday, indicating another milestone in the recovery process.

“New York has made tremendous progress in the six months since Sandy,” said Michael F. Byrne, FEMA’s federal coordinating officer for Hurricane Sandy operations. “But the work is not done.”

A 33-year-old Lindenhurst man was killed while riding a jet ski on the Great South Bay on Saturday afternoon.

Suffolk County police said Michael Mignone was riding his Yamaha jet ski near the New York State Boat Channel when he hit the anchor line of his 20-foot Trophy boat shortly before 5 p.m.

The U.S. Coast Guard responded and took Mignone to Venetian Shores in Lindenhurst on his own boat.

He was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he later died.

The boat and the jet ski were towed to the Suffolk police Marine Bureau in Timber Point for safety checks.

First Squad detectives said the incident appears non-criminal.

An 83-year-old Lindenhurst woman was fatally struck by a vehicle while crossing a road in West Babylon on Monday afternoon.

Suffolk County police said Amelia Couvertier was trying to cross Great East Neck Road when she was hit by a Toyota making a left turn from Montauk Highway at 3:20 p.m.

Couvertier was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, where she was later pronounced dead.

The driver, 73-year-old Carol Lawrence of North Lindenhurst, was not injured.

First Squad detectives impounded her car and ask anyone who may have witnessed this crash and have not been interview to call them at 631-854-8152.

A Lindenhurst man has been accused of stealing money from a church donation box in his hometown.

Suffolk County police said 43-year-old Leonard Degaetano was arrested Friday night after officers allegedly watched him take cash from Our Lady of Perpetual Help R.C. Church at 210 South Wellwood Avenue. He was charged with burglary and possession of burglar’s tools. Degaetano also faces another burglary charge for a prior theft at the church, police said.

First Precinct Crime Section and Community Oriented Police Enforcement officers set up surveillance at the church Friday after receiving complaints of thefts in the church, police said.

Surveillance video showed a male suspect using a wire-like object as a hook to steal cash from the boxes, police said. The man attempted to disguise himself by wearing a hood or surgical mask, police said.

Around 9:10 p.m. Friday, two officers inside the church allegedly observed Degaetano remove cash from the box and arrested him as he tried to flee, police said.

Police will continue the investigation. Anyone with information regarding recent thefts at the church is asked to contact the First Squad at 631-854-8152 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

One Year Later: Dozens of struggling homeowners rallied at Babylon Town Hall Saturday, Sept. 28. Many held signs and donned shirts that declared, “Homeless With A Mortgage.”

A scrum of small business owners huddled with local officials along Freeport’s Nautical Mile one recent Thursday to triumphantly declare that the resilient village had finally risen from the ashes—literally—after Superstorm Sandy had devastated the waterfront community.

Standing alongside these local shop owners was Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, there to tout the village’s resurrection after Sandy’s record storm surge sent saltwater cascading through the streets, wreaking havoc on the dozens of shops abutting the canal.

That was a year ago this month.

“The message here today is that the Nautical Mile is open for business,” he beamed, a few feet away from where a hurricane-ignited blaze ripped through several businesses on Oct. 29, 2012—the day the superstorm hit.

The county executive—who had walked these and many other battered streets in the days and weeks following Sandy—delivered another message: a hopeful plea for people to return to the Nautical Mile to celebrate its rebirth.

“Many of these businesses got open late in the season and they need your support here,” he continued. “Come on down for dinner, the weather is still nice, the restaurants are beautiful and we all have to do our part.”

As the one-year anniversary of Sandy approaches, Long Islanders across both Nassau and Suffolk counties will look back on the hurricane’s impact on the region and how homeowners and business owners bounced back.

But those effects are still being felt, say local officials and advocacy groups—many of whom continue to have weekly recovery meetings despite all the work that has already been done. They point to the carcinogenic mold continuing to spread menacingly through walls; homes still gutted down to their skeletons because insurance money has yet to arrive; displaced families living in trailers or hotels or small apartments while also paying mortgages; the steady rise in food-pantry visits; more-and-more people seeking treatment for mental health issues related to the storm; and stalled infrastructure projects yet to be completed.

The reality is that thousands who never thought twice about treating their families to a seafood dinner along the Nautical Mile can no longer afford to. Some have depleted their life’s savings and live with the constant fear that things will continue to get worse.

And those on the frontlines with storm-ravaged residents are worried that Long Islanders less-affected by Sandy have already put the devastating storm behind them.

“So many people on Long Island think Sandy was a year ago, it doesn’t matter anymore,” says Richard Schneider, a Red Cross volunteer and Presidential Volunteer Service Award recipient from Merrick. “The fact is that there still are so many that need so much help.”

LIVING WITH SANDY

Pattie and Victor Calcano had just finished up Tropical Storm Irene-related repairs on their Berger Avenue home in Amityville when Sandy barreled into LI.

The storm swallowed their home and forced the Calcanos to level the entire house and replace it with a two-bedroom trailer that they’ve been living in with their three children ever since.

“It’s just basically holy hell,” Pattie says with a tired laugh.

The loss of their home has been made harder by the ongoing battle with their insurance company. The Calcanos have also been forced to shell out a $30,000 rental fee for the trailer while also paying for a mortgage on a house that technically doesn’t even exist. Thus, their savings account has dried up.

After what they had gone through with Irene, Pattie was sure they’d be able to do all their repairs by June. But the miniscule amount of insurance money they received compared to what they could get didn’t even start trickling in until then, forcing them to postpone repairs.
“People say, ‘How are you doing?’ says Victor. “You’re tired of saying ‘horrible.’”

Their story is all too common in a post-Sandy Long Island.

Debbie Lemaire and her family picked up a Christmas tree last December and plopped it inside their small hotel room they had been living in since Sandy poured 46 inches of saltwater mixed with a toxic blend of oil and sewage into their Lindenhurst home.

The entire house was gutted, forcing them to seek shelter elsewhere. The Lemaires are now living in Wantagh, where they pay $2,700 a month on top of the existing mortgage on their South 8th Street home.

“Even people in the same neighborhoods don’t see [that Sandy still exists],” she says softly. “Support your neighbor and help us cut through this red tape. We paid the insurance premiums for 30 years. God bless the people who didn’t have insurance, they got their money, they made the repairs, they’re back.”

WHERE’S THE MONEY?

Three months after Hurricane Sandy battered the Northeast Congress finally approved a $60 billion aid package to help pay for the storm. Yet nearly one-year later, much of that money has yet to make it into the hands of homeowners and local municipalities who need the cash the most, say local officials and residents.

“No funding has come to us yet,” blasts Mastic Beach Village Mayor Bill Biondi. “We’re still waiting for the governor to release the money that’s supposed to be coming to us.”

Mastic Beach, which still has around 75 homes deemed uninhabitable and 12 that have been lifted, was one of the hardest-hit areas in Suffolk County, thanks to a breach in Westhampton Beach and two more breaches on Fire Island, which acts as a barrier for coastal communities to its north.

LONG HAUL: Bill Johnson (top), of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, has been volunteering on LI since the day Sandy hit. Southern Baptist and other groups worked out of a cavernous warehouse (bottom) but were forced to relocate. (Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press)

Federal aid will handle the $700 million cost of a half-century-old Fire Island to Montauk Point storm mitigation project plan that is supposed to strengthen 83 miles of shoreline and would calm fears in communities such as Mastic Beach that a storm surge would torpedo through unabated like it did during Sandy. The hurricane has overcome the plan’s biggest hurdle—funding—but rebuilding barrier island dunes is not slated to start until January, with raising thousands of South Shore homes on stilts to come later.

Biondi says he walks into his office every day hoping to find a letter or a voicemail telling him money is on its way.

“I never thought here in the United States people would still be waiting, a year later,” he adds.

But the state insists projects are in the works.

In September, 21 communities from South Valley Stream to Mastic Beach began meetings under the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program, which puts the onus on these towns and villages to come up with their own unique plans to strengthen their communities. Their plans have to be submitted by April 2014 in order to receive a slice of the $750 million Gov. Andrew Cuomo has allocated for the projects.

Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer says the town received federal aid for emergency work done during and after Sandy, but acknowledges that homeowners will have to hold on a little longer until New York Rising is completed.

“[We] still have a number of people who are not home who don’t have a clear answer as to how they’re going to get home,” he says. “That’s my biggest concern. We need these programs to move quicker.”

According to state data, $266,148,756 in public assistance funding from the federal aid package has been dispersed to LI, though mostly for emergency work following the storm. Nassau County says residents have received $323,768,556 for individual assistance.

“Nassau County continues to recover and rebuild from the damaging impact of Hurricane Sandy,” Mangano said in a statement to the Press. “We continue to fight to get residents the Federal dollars they need to rebuild their lives.”

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone was not made available for comment. The county also didn’t respond to a list of questions for this story.

Several residents still struggling to get back on their feet put the blame on the federal government. They say local officials are handcuffed and can only do so much.

“It’s still not done and it’s a year,” Lindenhurst-native Joan Ensulo says of repairs to her home because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declined her application for funding. “And I’m not half as bad as half of all these people with children who are not in their homes and homes who had to be lifted.”

Bayville is the only North Shore village among the 21 communities under New York Rising. Its mayor, Doug Watson, is doing what he can to help residents in the meantime, but he understands why residents are upset.

“We are forging ahead at the speed of government,” he says, with a hint of sarcasm.

CATASTROPHIC FAILURE

Local government hasn’t been taken off the hook entirely.

In Nassau, residents living near the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant have derided lawmakers for delaying most of the $722 million in borrowing requested by Mangano—$262 million of that has been approved—after the Sandy storm surge led to a catastrophic failure at the plant, spewing sewage into streets, waterways and homes.

A man who lives near the plant blasted the 19-member legislature at a recent meeting, accusing them of playing politics with residents’ lives, and admitting to “foolishly” believing lawmakers would come to a deal that would fix the plant and finally put an end to what he called “Sunday smell”—an obnoxious odor which disappeared last summer but returned after Sandy.

“For God’s sake, fix my problem,” he said, adding, “Sooner or later your going to kill this community, [and] you’re going to have a lynch mob on your hands.”

Republicans have a 10-9 majority in the county legislature, but need a supermajority of 13 votes to approve borrowing. Democrats have argued for more oversight before approving hundreds of millions of dollars that would add to the county’s mounting debt load. FEMA is expected to pick up the tab but only after the county already borrows the money for the repairs.

“After investing $70 million in upgrades to the plants, Hurricane Sandy created further damage,” Mangano said in a statement. “The time is now for Democrat legislators to lay politics aside and partner with me in creating a state-of-the-art environmentally friendly facility that protects both our residents and local waterways.”

Bay Park isn’t the only major facility that suffered critical damage during the storm.

Long Beach Medical Center is the last remaining major hospitality yet to reopen since Sandy. The entire basement—basically the center of the hospital’s operating system—suffered major flooding and the hospital has yet to recover.

“There wasn’t anything you needed to run a hospital that probably wasn’t included in the basement,” says LBMC spokeswoman Sharon Player.

Thousands living on the barrier island have signed a petition pleading with the state to step in to get the hospital back and running, fearful of what could happen without an emergency facility on the island.

But it appears the 162-bed hospital—down from 200 at its peak—was in dire straights economically even before the storm, making the medical center a good candidate to merge with another facility on the South Shore, possibly South Nassau Community Hospital.

“The medical center had been losing money, we are a hospital that serves a lot of Medicare and Medicaid patients,” Player says. “We don’t look at it as a bad eye to be serving people who are struggling.”

Player declined to go into detail regarding a potential merger, citing a non-disclosure agreement. LBMC lost $2 million in 2011, she notes. Figures for 2012 aren’t available because Sandy struck before the end of the year.

Still, the LBMC has done what it can to continue providing treatment to residents, specifically in mental health because many suffered deep, emotional scars that came to the forefront in the months after the storm. Others also joined in the effort to aid Long Islanders battling inner demons.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: Dozens of charities worked together after Hurricane Sandy to assist in recovery efforts. They held weekly meetings in this room inside a former former Sleepy’s warehouse to help those still struggling. (Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press)

Inner Struggle

“The ongoing cost and the increased debt that’s coming for folks that were already struggling is really a story that’s not getting covered,” says Gwen O’Shea, CEO and president of Health & Welfare Council of Long Island, and who has also been leading efforts at the Long Island Volunteer Center, which just recently moved out of a cavernous warehouse in Bethpage that the furniture company Sleepy’s provided to her and dozens of other charities, for free. Mental health, she adds, is “falling under the radar…And we have serious concerns when the anniversary does hit, what are the implications going to be for people from a physical and mental health perspective?”

“Can you imagine having three kids, working a full-time job, taking care of your elderly parent and trying to keep it all together for 10 months, 11 months?” she adds.

Mental health experts point to the stress of rebuilding and the financial struggle that befell many Sandy survivors as evidence why mental health treatment is critical in preventing people from falling into a black hole that they’ll never climb out of.

But some people may be too proud—especially former breadwinners, who never experienced a problem this devastating—to ask for help.

“People don’t expect tragedy to happen,” says Robyn Berger, division director of Huntington-based Family Service League. “And when it does, it’s very hard to move forward without someone to help you through it, particularly if you’re somebody whose never needed help in the past.”

Children, too, have also developed mental scars that require treatment, says Colleen Merlo, associate director of the Mental Health Association. Some are even showing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she says, adding that the slightest rainstorm can awaken horrific memories from last year.

“Children’s mental health was severely impacted,” by the storm, notes Merlo, adding that she expects her phones to be flooded with more calls from concerned parents.

The ongoing mental health crisis would be far more severe if it wasn’t for nonprofit organizations and other mental health treatment facilities that have gone door-to-door to check up on patients or lend a helping hand. A number of other groups, such as the Red Cross, The Health & Welfare Council, United Way of Long Island, and even charities from thousands of miles away have contributed in any way they can.

“I think so many peoples lives…are back to normal, and unless you go—if you’re out on Long Beach, you could still see destruction,” says Bill Johnson, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief North American Mission Board project coordinator and volunteer, who came all the way from Kentucky to help and has been here ever since. “But in so many of these areas, like in Island Park, or in Freeport, if you go down by the water, you’ll see a roll-off there that people are still putting stuff in, but outwardly, it doesn’t look that bad. But when you start looking inside, there’s still so many people that’s not back together.”

FIGHT ON

A camera is slung over Lance Walker’s neck as he makes his way through a crowd of people outside Babylon Town Hall on Sept. 28. He cuts through, holding signs declaring “Stop FEMA Now!” and asking, “Where is our money?”

Walker, one of the subjects of the Press’ Sandy coverage last year, was smiling as he walked—a hopeful glow radiating around him.

Last time we spoke, Walker was standing outside his Lindenhurst home, which just had been ravaged by Sandy’s storm surge. His eyes welled with tears as he grabbed a hold of his children, wondering if he’d ever be able to watch home videos of his kids growing up. It turned out he wouldn’t, the saltwater took care of that.

But things are improving. Walker is back in his home after living in two apartments since the storm, and his home is 80-percent recovered, he says proudly.

Lance Walker, a father and husband from Lindenhurst, was reduced to tears last year when we talked to him outside his home. A year later, he’s more hopeful that things will get better. (Rashed Mian/Long Island Press)

“It’s been a long road but we’ve come a long way,” Walker says.

As he continues to rebuild his Shore Road home, Walker admits that he’s in a better place than immediately after the storm. He has more hope because of the support of total strangers when he was at his worst.

“After the storm you realize how good people were,” he says. “I walked around for a couple of days without any shoes on, and somebody heard about it, and I had six pairs of brand new shoes…I’m actually more hopeful now.”

The year of torture that thousands on Long Island lived through has many people feeling less optimistic about the future. Things won’t get better until insurance companies unload more money and federal aid dollars start trickling down. Much of Long Island is still a broken puzzle board, with pieces strewn about. But there is hope.

Walker, who has been to hell and back, is moving forward with newfound resilience that has him more hopeful than ever.

“[Sandy] does still exist,” he says. “It’s a long process but we’re all learning from it. We’re meeting new friends. We’re finding out that there are people who really care and besides all the bureaucracy, we’ll get through it.”

“Don’t walk away,” he adds, “don’t give up, just hang in there, it’s worth it. It’s worth it.”

Christina Amato-Smith

Christina Amato-Smith of Lindenhurst doesn’t back down when confronted with a challenge, and she’s been faced with a few.

It took seven years of fertility treatments before she conceived her son, Anthony, who was born in 2003.

“When we were trying to have a child, it would fail, and I would say to my husband, ‘Gerry, we’ll do it again,’” she says. “I’m not a quitter.”

Her next challenge came five years later in 2008, when Christina had just turned 40 and found a lump in her breast.

“I will never forget how I was given my diagnosis,” she recalls. “I got a call from the doctor with the news. I hung up, and I looked at my mother and said, ‘I have breast cancer.’

Christina says she got her car keys and went to pick up her son from school. She didn’t allow the devastating news to change her routine.

“I was not going to let it beat me,” she says. “I was going to win this one. My son is my miracle. There is no way I am going to lose this battle.”

One month later, the Smith family received more bad news when Gerry Smith, Sr., her father-in-law, passed away. As a last request, he asked to be buried with a fork in his right hand and that a poem be read at the service called “A Woman and Her Fork.”

Christina said that the poem’s message was about a woman who was told to always keep her fork when the table was being cleared because there was always something better coming along, saying, “Keep your fork, the best is yet to come.”

While at the funeral, Christina’s cousin recommended that she see Dr. Dwight DeRisi, a surgeon from Glen Cove. Even though Christina had an appointment with another doctor, she agreed to see DeRisi. The next day as she waited in his office, she picked up a pamphlet on display about healthy eating entitled, “Beat Breast Cancer With A Fork.”

When she met the doctor, she says she felt an immediate affinity with him and thought, “This is where I need to be. He is like an angel.”

Dr. DeRisi recommended that she begin chemotherapy immediately.

While in treatment, she received a book from her aunt as a gift. When Christina unwrapped it, on the cover was a picture of a cake with a fork. The book was called “The Best Is Yet to Come.”

“That was my turning point,” she says. “It was a sign letting me know this is where I was supposed to be.”

With the help of the Babylon Breast Cancer Coalition’s Lend a Helping Hand program, Christina tried to make her life as normal as possible. Her house was cleaned and they provided transportation if needed.

“That was so important to me,” she says. “I didn’t have the energy. I wanted to make sure my son’s life was the same as much as possible.”

Besides her family, other people depended on Christina. She is a successful salon owner who employs 22 people at Top Cuts in Bethpage as well as being a beauty educator for Joico, an international beauty and hair product manufacturer.

“My staff wanted to do a fundraiser for me,” she says. So in 2009 and 2010 they held a Cut-A-Thon and donated the proceeds to the Babylon Breast Cancer Coalition.

In 2011, Christina founded Beauty for a Cure and now funds four Long Island coalitions.

For the Cut-A-Thon, all regular salon services are donated by her staff on the day of the event. The shop begins its transformation at the beginning of October when the hair and beauty products on display are put away to make room for dozens of raffle baskets that line the walls. Prizes include Jet Blue tickets, trips to Disney World and sporting event box seats plus hundreds of other premium items. Food is donated by local restaurants and a DJ provides entertainment.

The Cut-A-Thon brings the entire community together. “We take over the parking lot,” she says, noting that last year more than 185 services were donated, and at least 300 people came to the event. “Strangers come in, people just stop by to say, ‘Thank you.’ The Plainedge Cheerleaders come every year to offer their support.

“We made $10,000 just on that day,” she explains. “Everything we raise gets divided among four Long Island coalitions.”

In total, more than $100,000 has been donated to Babylon, West Islip, Long Beach and Lean on Me in Great Neck.

The Cut-A-Thons have become so successful that Joico asked Christina’s assistance to create a template that other salons can replicate nationwide.  Locally, Safie Salon in Massapequa and Amore Salon in West Babylon host Cut-A-Thons. Joico was so moved by Christina’s commitment to help other women that they produced a flat iron in her name and donated a portion of the proceeds to City of Hope.

Christina says that for her, the hardest thing was losing her hair. “It’s what I do for a living,” she says. When she knew it was the right time, she asked her son to shave her head.

To help other women get through the trauma of losing their hair, Christina opens her salon any time before or after hours to accommodate them.

“People can ask me or call me for anything, though I don’t have all the answers,” she says, but she knows that sometimes just talking to someone who has lived through it helps.

In 2010, Christina opted to have a second mastectomy and had trans-flap reconstruction surgery that took more than 12 hours. She is now cancer free.

“It was my only option,” she says of the surgery. “It was a long recovery.”

Christina believes that she has been given a second chance at life and is not missing a minute of it.

Top Cuts was recently featured on Bravo’s reality show Tabitha Takes Over and the salon was renovated as part of the show.

To raise more money for Long Island women with breast cancer, Christina founded LAX for Hope, an all-girls lacrosse tournament which will be hosted by Farmingdale State College on Oct. 6th. Girls ranging in age from 9 years old to high school teens will be competing in the tournament, with 50 teams already signed up to play.

“They will be all pinked out,” she says proudly. Her ultimate goal is to raise enough money to donate funds to all 10 Long Island breast cancer coalitions.

“I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that I was diagnosed with breast cancer so I know what people go through so I can make a difference,” she says. “It makes it easier to do what I do.”

This year’s Cut-A-Thon is Oct. 26 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Top Cuts Salon, 3956 Hempstead Tpke., Bethpage. 516-579-8866. Info for Lax For Hope info can be found at BeautyForACure.org or email Christina@BeautyForACure.org

Suffolk County prosecutors say they’ve busted three men who allegedly created fake credit cards to rent cars that they sold for pennies on the dollar.

Two men from Brentwood and Bay Shore rented the vehicles from Avis, Hertz and other rental companies using authentic-looking drivers’ licenses and credit cards that a third suspect from Lindenhurst manufactured, authorities said.

The suspects rented late-model cars from the companies’ locations at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark airports, including a Mercedes and a newly rented 2013 Cadillac that they allegedly sold for $2,100.

The Lindenhurst man created the fake cards using equipment he purchased on e-Bay, including thermal printers, a “Tipper machine” used to imprint raised numbers on fake credit cards and “skimmer” devices that copy personal information from the magnetic strip on victims’ credit cards.

A fourth suspect, a Holbrook man, was arrested during the investigation for selling marijuana.

Authorities plan to discuss the case at a Wednesday morning news conference.

Suffolk Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer addresses supporters in Hauppauge on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013.

Suffolk County Democrats lost one key seat in their legislative majority but made up for it by unseating a renegade member who didn’t caucus with the party and recapturing another open seat.

The unofficial election results of Tuesday’s election appear to ensure that Steve Bellone, in his sophomore year as Suffolk County executive, can still rely on the chamber led by Democratic allies despite the slight turnover.

“We’ve done a lot in two years,” Bellone told a crowd of several hundred cheering supporters at the IBEW Local 25 Hall in Hauppauge. “But you haven’t seen anything yet!”

The two biggest legislative upsets came when Republican Kevin McCaffrey, a Lindenhurst village trustee, won the seat held by outgoing temporary Presiding Officer Wayne Horsley (D-Babylon) and when political newcomer Monica Martinez unseated fellow Democrat Legis. Rick Montano (D-Central Islip).

“Right now the county executive has a veto-proof majority in there and people don’t like that,” McCaffrey told the Press at the Suffolk GOP gathering in Patchogue. “They want to be able to have some sort of balance in the legislature.”

There were a few nail-biters, including when Legis. Sarah Anker (D-Mt. Sinai) narrowly fended off GOP challenger Jennifer Juengst 52 to 48 percent, the same margin that William Lindsay Jr., son of the late presiding officer, beat Republican Anthony Musumeci.

But, the political makeup of the 18-member body will mostly remain the same as Republican Robert Trotta won the seat held by term-limited Legis. Lynne Nowick (R-St. James), keeping it away from Democrat Elaine Turley.

Democratic incumbents who held off Republicans include freshman Legis. Al Krupski (D-Cutchogue), Legis. Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), Legis. Robert Calarco (D-Patchogue), Legis. Dr. William Spencer (D-Centerport), Legis. Lou D’Amaro (D-Huntington Station) and Majority Leader DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville). Legis. Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills) ran unopposed.

Republican lawmakers who resisted Democrats include Legis. Tom Muatore (R-Ronkonkoma) and Minority Leader John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset). Legis. Tom Cilmi (R-East Islip) and Legis. Tom Barraga (R-West Islip) were both uncontested.

Third-party incumbents Legis. Kate Browning (WF-Shirley) and Legis. Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) were also re-elected.

Suffolk Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer, who was re-elected Babylon Town Supervisor, credited the wins to Lindsay’s father, who died this summer.

“We miss him dearly…he’s left us too soon,” Schaffer said. “But I know today he is with us. He is here and he is smiling down because the one thing he told me…was ‘Rich, don’t screw up Billy’s campaign.’”

Law enforcement authorities arrested five men Thursday, including a now terminated NYPD detective, in connection with a sophisticated three-year burglary spree that netted approximately $10 million in stolen property and cash from more than three dozen Long Island homes and businesses, prosecutors said.

The men were rounded up for their alleged role in the lucrative crime spree after federal prosecutors unsealed a four-count indictment Thursday charging the group with conspiracy and the interstate transportation of stolen property.

The alleged burglars initially escaped detection by utilizing cell phone jammers and police scanners during the three-year crime wave, which occurred during 2009-2012, prosecutors said. But they also used traditional burglary tools, prosecutors said, such as blow torches, crowbars, wire cutters and sledge hammers.

The men were identified as 40-year-old Nikitas Margiellos of West Babylon, 50-year-old Leonard Repka of Lindenhurst, 52-year-old Michael Figueroa of Mount Vernon, 37-year-old Victor Arias and 41-year-old Rafael Astacio, both of Copiague.

Astacio, an active NYPD detective during the alleged burglaries, who NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said has since been terminated, was also charged with illegally accessing the federal National Crime Information Center database, which is maintained by the FBI.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York declined to say how the investigation started, citing inability to comment on an investigation. But he did note that all the more than 45 burglaries all occurred on LI.

“The defendants were part of a sophisticated burglary crew that victimized Long Island businesses and residents for more than three years,” said Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Each defendant had a role to play in this band of criminals.”

George Venizelos, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said the men “did not discriminate” when selecting victims, adding that they “used a combination of physical labor and modern technology,” during the alleged burglaries.

In one example, four of the men spent three hours inside a Plainview business they allegedly broke in to on April 29, 2010 while Astacio and an unnamed coconspirator monitored police scanners and acted as lookouts, prosecutors said. The group eventually stole more than 45,000 pairs of sportswear worth approximately $3 million, prosecutors said, adding that they then transported the property across state lines and allegedly stole some sunglasses on the Internet.

During another alleged burglary six months later, the crew stole approximately $2 million in cash from a plastic surgeon’s office in Nassau County, prosecutors said.

Authorities fingered Margiellos as the alleged ringleader but directed their harshest criticism at Astacio. Lynch said the detective was “a police officer in name only, having sold his badge and his honor in exchange for his share of their ill-gotten gains.” Venizelos added that Astacio “betrayed his fellow law enforcement officers for a chance to line his pockets with his victims’ hard-earned money.”

If convicted, Arias, Figueroa, Margiellos and Repka each face 15 years in prison, and Astacio faces 17 years.