Vandals strike Flanders-Riverside holiday displays at busy intersection

Flanders and Riverside residents took another sharp slap in the face this week: Vandals struck the community’s holiday displays. Not once, but twice.

On Sunday night, someone stole two cords and vandalized holiday lights that the Flanders Riverside Northampton Community Association uses to decorate the green spaces where two welcome signs are posted at the intersection of County Road 105 and State Route 24, FRNCA president Vince Taldone said.

FRNCA volunteers Ray Kaminek and Steven Schreiber replaced the lights and extension cords, he said.

“But unfortunately, the replacement cords were also stolen and more lights damaged today,” Taldone said yesterday in an email. “The first theft was reported to police and we will file a second report in the morning,” he said.

“Without security at the site, we cannot afford to continue replacing expensive materials for our holiday lights,” Taldone said. The group lost several hundred dollars’ worth of lighting and electrical equipment, he said.

The only lights that remained there this morning were the ones stapled to the signs themselves. The holiday display had included lights on the surrounding trees, Taldone said.

Residents in the Flanders community and neighboring Riverside have been victimized by vandals and thieves who have smashed car windows and removed loose change and valuables from within, in a rash of dozens of incidents over the past several weeks — some residents put the number much higher, because many have not been reported to police, they say. Following the break-ins, an armed home invasion and a fatal shooting on a local street, residents on Nov. 24 converged on Southampton Town Hall to demand the town board provide increased police presence in their area of town. At that meeting, Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said the board had reached an accord with the town police union that will provide a stepped-up presence in the Flanders-Riverside sector after the new year.

Yesterday in an email to civic members, Taldone urged residents to keep in good spirits despite these setbacks.

“Nonetheless, it is still the holiday season and we have much to celebrate as the Riverside revitalization moves forward along with other improvements that will be so important to our future,” he wrote.

“Our community volunteers donated more than ever before to benefit our Phillips Avenue Elementary School as well as raised enough money from our 5K event to increase the number of our scholarship awards by 50 percent for our graduating seniors and college students in the spring.