August 19, 2008, Farmingville, NY – At Tuesday night's Town Board meeting, Brookhaven Councilwoman Kepert responded to the Coalition To Save The Yaphank Lakes by ushering in a resolution to officially change the name of the Upper and Lower Lakes in Yaphank to Willow and Lilly Lakes respectively.

Last month, the Coalition reached out to Councilwoman Kepert and shared with her information they discovered while researching the history of the lakes. With the help of the Yaphank Historical Society, articles from the Patchogue Advance dating back to 1882 and 1883 were uncovered and referred to Upper Lake as Willow Lake and Lower Lake as Lilly Lake.

Robert Kessler, of the Coalition To Save The Yaphank Lakes stated “We wanted to restore the names of the lakes to their original names to be more in keeping with the historic nature of the Town of Yaphank.” Councilwoman Kepert strongly supported this request, “It was my pleasure to bring forward a resolution which restores the historic integrity of both the Upper and Lower lakes in Yaphank by giving them back their rightful names of Willow and Lilly Lake. The coalition cares deeply about the quality and integrity of the lakes, and has been working to restore the lakes to their former beauty.”

The Coalition to Save the Yaphank was formed in October 2007, with a mission to restore, protect and preserve the Upper and Lower Lakes in Yaphank from the problem of invasive species. The Coalition is represented on the Town’s Carmans River Protection Working Group that was formed in December of last year to develop strategies to clean and protect the lake from the invasive species.

Photo: From L to R: Audrey Kessler, Councilwoman Kepert, Robert Kessler at the Kessler's home
in front Willow Lake holding pictures of signs that will be placed along the lakes.