Riverhead public safety dispatcher Tanya Newman was honored as 2015 employee of the year yesterday by the town’s Labor-Management Committee. Newman was on duty the night of Feb. 15, 2015 when a call came in from a hysterical young girl who said she’d just been chased from her Wading River home by her mother’s ex-boyfriend, who she’d just witnessed shoot her mom.
Newman worked to talk the 14-year-old girl out of going back into the house — likely saving her life, since the gunman also shot and killed her older sister before turning the gun on himself. At the same time, she and the other dispatchers on duty dispatched police and EMS to the scene.
It was a harrowing call and its memory remains vivid to this day, Newman told RiverheadLOCAL in an interview last month, after being honored by the Riverhead Police PBA. See Jan. 17 story.
Yesterday, the town board, joined by members of the labor-management committee recognized Newman at the start of the town board’s regular meeting. She was presented with a gift certificate from the committee, a proclamation by the town supervisor and bouquets of flowers from her two children.
“You walk into that shift one way and you leave a different person,” Newman said in the interview last month. “My life was changed that night.”
Yesterday the board also recognized Violet Burns for her effort to honor and cheer veterans at the Riverhead Care Center on Veterans Day. Violet made cards and presented them to the veterans at the nursing home, Councilman John Dunleavy said. Dunleavy conducts a ceremony for veterans at Riverhead Care Center each year on Veterans Day. He presented Violet with a certificate of appreciation.
Micro-breweries, brew pubs, micro-cideries and micro-wineries are now allowed uses by special permit in the Village Center Zoning Use District. The town board yesterday adopted a local law to add those uses in the VC district, as long as they are no less than 200 feet from a house of worship and no less than 500 feet from a school.
Richard Ehlers was appointed counsel to the Riverhead Planning Board. Ehlers, who retired as Riverhead town justice at the end of 2015 is returning to a role he held for many years counseling the planning board.
The 3rd Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be held in Jamesport on Saturday, March 19. The town board yesterday approved a parade permit for the event, scheduled to take place between 2 and 4 p.m. on Main Road between Washington Avenue and the Jamesport Fire Department headquarters on Manor Lane.
More parking is now allowed on the east side of Howell Avenue, outside Riverhead Town Hall. Parking had been prohibited 375 feet north of Route 25. That is now reduced to 30 feet, immediately north of the corner. The change was made due to parking shortages at the town hall/police/justice court facility.
Meet Angel, a “sweet, loving” mixed-breed female, about 2 years old, available for adoption from North Fork Animal Welfare League. “She loves all people and is great with other dogs,” according to the organization.
Angel, accompanied by handler Ariel Reichel, visited the Riverhead Town Board meeting yesterday. If you’re interested in giving Angel a forever home, visit her at the Riverhead Animal Shelter on Youngs Avenue in Calverton. Call 631-369-6189, ext. 2.
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