WESTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Lawmakers say trailers once used to house sex offenders on eastern Long Island have been hauled away after years of controversy led officials to find new lodging for the men.

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman and Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst announced the development Monday. The trailers had been in the Riverside and Westhampton areas.

The trailers were initially installed in 2007. At the time, some sex offenders got out of prison and couldn't find homes because they were barred from living near schools and some other places.

But the trailers spurred opposition from local officials. Ultimately, county legislators passed voted last winter to increase monitoring of sex offenders and get rid of the trailers.

Forty men...| read more ››

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) has introduced a new bill aimed at restricting the use of the pesticide Methoprene within county estuaries.

Locally, Methoprene is used to control mosquitoes breeding in estuaries, along with several types of ants, flies, lice, moths, beetles and fleas, according to the Cornell Cooperative Extension toxicology network.

The bill, introduced July 30, proposes strict application guidelines that only allow use of the pesticide when two or more bacterial larvicide treatments have proven unsuccessful in limiting the mosquito population, or when one or more diseases, such as West Nile Virus, have been identified in local mosquito populations, according to the proposed bill.

The pesticide is known as an insect growth regulator because it interferes with...| read more ››

(Montauk, NY) Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) introduced a bill on July 30, 2013, to establish strict guidelines for the use of Methoprene within estuaries in Suffolk County.

Methoprene, an insect growth regulator, is considered a biochemical pesticide that is acutely toxic to estuarine invertebrates, including valuable food and commercial species like crabs and lobsters. Environmental Protection Agency studies have found that Methoprene can be lethal to non-target organisms such as lobsters and crabs.

The lobster population in the Long Island Sound has decreased dramatically over the last decade, corresponding with the introduction of new pesticides such as Methoprene, into waters along the Long Island Sound.

“The county should be doing everything it can to limit the unnecessary introduction...| read more ››

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman has introduced a bill calling for Suffolk County to restrict where and when it uses pesticides to control mosquito populations around tidal marshes.

The bill would limit the use of a chemical pesticide known as methoprene over or near tidal waters, where it has been blamed by fishermen and environmentalists for killing or deforming some aquatic animals like crabs and lobsters. If adopted, the legislation would allow methoprene to be used in tidal marshes and estuaries only if a specific disease, like West Nile virus or eastern equine encephalitis, has been positively identified by county health officials in samples of mosquitoes from the region.

The bill also provides that the county’s Department of Health commissioner...| read more ››