Community Corner

Eye to the East: Supersized Sign May Welcome Drivers to Hamptons Again

Also this week, on the North Fork, Southold officials are hoping a government task force will help cut down on the tick population.

Washed Up Whale Buried; Researchers Believe It Was Struck by Ship

A  last Friday on  in Hampton Bays was examined and buried last weekend, according to Kim Durham, the rescue program coordinator at the .

Durham said it took personnel from the Suffolk County Parks Department nearly four hours to move the nearly 40-ton whale for forensic examination and burial with equipment chains snapping due to the whale's weight. 

It’s time for Suffolk County to start spending time and money on getting rid of ticks, says county Legis. Ed Romaine. Because for many residents, one bite from a tick carrying Lyme disease has become a matter of life and death.

Find out what's happening in Commackwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Romaine is part of a newly formed county tick task force, created in June to study the spread of tick and vector-borne related diseases, and to develop a comprehensive needs assessment. During Tuesday’s work session, he told the  that this is the second tick task force he’s been involved in, and he’s going to push for the group to visit Southold Town for a public meeting in September.

The first task force formed two years ago and focused on Lyme disease — a tick-borne disease affecting hundreds in Suffolk County. Several medical professionals were onboard to talk about their concerns with how Lyme is treated, and how the disease is too often under-reported and misdiagnosed.

Find out what's happening in Commackwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A new incarnation of controversial and oft-derided anti-speeding billboards that once stood along County Road 39 in Southampton may be in store as part of an effort to reduce accidents on the highly traveled roadway.

In light of a  that closed the highway for nearly six hours, as well as other serious accidents across town this year, the Town Board held a discussion Friday on how to address speeding and other traffic hazards, such as distracted drivers. The prospect of new billboards was raised, as the Town Board, Police Chief William Wilson and Town Director of Transportation and Traffic Safety Tom Neely weighed the best traffic-calming and accident-reducing measures.

The old billboards — which featured a life-size police car and a cop pointing a radar gun — alerted motorists that the speed limit is 35 miles per hour and "strictly enforced."


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