10/16/2026
There seem to be some questions. I posted this flyer last July and left it in the kiosks at Manor Farm, too.
+ We were notified last March that our license agreement would not be renewed.
+ I started asking for a meeting with the Parks Commissioner last September (that's 2025!) and never got one.
+ We had been asking about repairs in the farm house for the past 10 years! I have emails to prove it.
+ Originally our license fees went to the Institute for Cultural Affairs and that money was supposed to have been set aside for repairs needed at the site. There was plenty of money there but it was never used.
+ When the Institute for Cultural Affairs was abolished, our license fees went into the Town's general fund.
+ Many years ago, we asked about fixing up the barn for adaptive reuse. Town engineers told us that it was in bad shape and would NEVER meet any occupancy code and we'd be better off tearing it down and starting over. If we had stayed, I planned to approach the EOSPA committee for funds to redo the roof so it could continue to be used for storage at least.
+ In the beginning, only real special events were treated like special events. At some point, the town decided that EVERYTHING required a special event application (and that meant an additional fee for nearly everything). Yes, in the last year we were denied a permit for a couple groups because they were not from Huntington. Please note that one of the funding sources used to purchase the site REQUIRES that it be open to all. And I did NOT go seeking out of town groups.
+ There was some vandalism very early on. The Town put into the first license agreement that we provide an onsite caretaker. Our first caretaker did much of the deconstruction inside the farmhouse to speed up the process (that work needed to be done before the renovations could start).
+ Agriculture was NOT part of the original agreement. Some years in, we asked if we could do 1/2 acre demonstration farming intending this as an educational opportunity. It didn't work out that way; it wasn't the way I'd originally envisioned it. Now that I've seen the original deed, I'd say agriculture is contrary to the covenant on the deed.
+ No this isn't the end of Starflower Experiences. We started out by bringing presentations into schools across Long Island. We'll go on to other ways to help people live more sustainably. And we continue to run Repair Cafés in western and central Suffolk County. We already have dates to return to the Harborfields Public Library and the South Huntington Public Library and we promised to bring it back to the Town's Earth Day event. We're looking forward this June to celebrating the 10th anniversary of our very first Repair Café.
