Welcoming the New Year with new goals and resolutions

The Tide is welcoming 2024 in the Moriches with admirable New Year’s resolutions from many of our local faces. What is your New Year’s goal?

Daniel Panico, Brookhaven Town Supervisor

“To preserve more open space, streamline town processes, work with the new county executive on the Town of Brookhaven to perform inspections of county DSS housing, and to increase recycling rates.”

Karen Dunne, Brookhaven Town Councilwoman

“My personal New Year’s resolution for the Town of Brookhaven is for me to be able to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. I am already trying to attend meetings to bring me up to speed regarding pending projects and areas of most need and hope to jump in fully come January.  On a lighter note, I look forward to taking over Dan Panico’s council office, hiring my own staff, and giving it a woman’s touch.”

Marcie Litjens, Center Moriches Free Public Library Director

“2023 brought many positive changes to the library. We were excited to install new energy-efficient lighting, convert from oil to natural gas, and rotate the stacks for wider, more accessible aisles,” she said. “We continue to see more people coming in to use the library to borrow items and take advantage of non-traditional services such as passports, notary, museum passes, and our items from Library of Things collection.”

Additionally in 2023, the Friends of the Library group added a puzzle exchange area and with their financial support, they purchased a piece of land adjacent to the library.

In 2024, she said, they plan to use the land to expand the parking lot, which is already at capacity most days. In addition to extra spaces that are wider, they plan to designate more handicap parking and walkway through the parking lot. This year, they also plan to continue to work on getting their Sustainability Library certification. 

Marc Weiss, Waterdrinker Family Farm

“This new year, [I’m] planning to tackle creative side projects that have always been on my to-do list. Not sure what I’ve been waiting for,” he said. “[I’m] working on my first-ever children’s book and I’m racing to get it done before the new year. In 2024, I want to try to create one children’s book every two months so that at the end of the year, if all goes well, I will have six new books for the world to see. Everyone has a side project and we all have a story we are just waiting to tell. 2024 is the year!”

James Mazzarella, Suffolk County Legislator

“So many New Year’s resolutions involve dieting and losing weight. As elected officials, our hectic schedules force us to eat wherever and whenever we have time. This is not necessarily conducive to eating healthy. Although my diet is not terrible, I would like to put more effort into making better and more healthy decisions when it comes to eating,” he said on a personal note.
“The most recent election has brought me new geographic areas to represent. Part of my resolutions for this year will be to become more familiar with the organizations and more importantly, the residents in these communities,” he added as part of his goal as an elected official.

Cassy and Keith Caputo, Helping Makes U Happy

“Our resolution at HMUH is to broaden our horizons. While we are truly blessed to have so many community volunteers to help us with select projects throughout the year, what we really need are a few more dedicated board members who can commit the time and energy needed to help us with the bigger picture of accomplishing our mission: administrative, idea generation, planning, and execution.”

Dr. Ronald M. Masera, Center Moriches Union Free School District

“The district’s New Year’s resolution is to continue our commitment to inspiring our students and staff to meet their full potential by supporting the social, emotional, and academic needs of all students!”