The Garden City News (12/27/19)

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LIGHTING UP THE SEASON

The Christmas spirit was in the air at the Garden City Community Church Nursery School’s annual Christmas program on December 13th. Above, children sing “This Little Light of Mine.”

2019: Village news in review

BY RIKKI N. MASSAND

The Village of Garden City and its municipal government enjoyed a very festive, productive year in 2019 celebrating the Sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of Garden City’s founding by Alexander Turney Stewart in 1869 as well as the 100-year anniversary of the village’s incorporation, often referred to

as “Garden City’s Gentleman’s Agreement.”Dr. Theresa Trouvé became Garden City’s first female mayor in 14 years and second overall in 100 years when she took her oath of office on April 8. The mayor holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from New York University; an M.A. with Distinction and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Administration

from Hofstra University, and a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University with honors in French. In 2015, Mayor Trouvé received the Woman of Distinction Award for commitment to one’s community from New York State Assemblyman Edward Ra.

Trouvé told a capacity audi-

See page 47

Village lease to add parking at Stewart athletic fields

BY RIKKI N. MASSAND

The Village of Garden City will be providing 45 additional parking spaces near the Stewart Field park, after signing a lease agreement with Nassau County, the Board of Trustees announced during a December 12th work session.

The Board also discussed a the possibility of creating new 100 yard synthetic playing field at Community Park since the existing one is in heavy demand.

Stewart Field lease

A lease for the village’s use of a stretch of Nassau County property behind Stewart Field, adjacent to Stewart School in the easternmost section of Garden City, has finally been executed after plans were first brought up at a Board meeting on December 6, 2018.

“We finally got the Nassau County Legislature to sign the lease agreement with the Village. We will clear out decades of overgrowth and vegetation immediately north of Stewart Field (part of the circa 1908 Vanderbilt Parkway) and we will make this a half-park/half-parking area. Once it is cleared out village staff can begin creating the commemorative signage and park area for the Vanderbilt Parkway,” Trustee Brian Daughney explained.

Garden City’s Superintendent of Public Works Joseph DiFranciso said the DPW expects to have bid specs in to the village’s Purchasing Department by January 31, 2020.

“Hopefully we can advertise either by February 7 or February 14 which would allow us to do a bid opening by about February 28 or the first week in March. If so we would be able to award this project at the March 19 Village Board of Trustees meeting. If we did that and started work in early April it should take between two and four weeks to complete, finishing this project by late April or the start of May at the latest,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Robert Bolebruch raised a point about installations of lighting for the new parking spaces, as he recalled when his children played, parents picked up kids after practices “as nightfall hit quickly and kids and adults need to be able to see and be safe.”

Trustee John Delany, a representative of the East POA

See page 33

Happy New Year!

We would like to wish all of our readers a Happy New Year!

This is the time of year to take stock of the past year and plan for the future, and although the nation’s divisions have deepened over the past year, locally things seem a bit better.

The Village is still considering what to do about St. Paul’s, and that may cause divisiveness in the coming year. But the Board of Trustees has moved quickly to address cleaning up the village’s drinking water, which is laudable. (Just before deadline this week we learned that the state has given the village a $9 million grant to offset some of the costs.)

Obviously, the St. Paul’s redevelopment project will have to take a back

seat to paying for clean drinking water, so we think that a consensus may arise soon that a scaled down St. Paul’s project would be more acceptable to the taxpayers.

On other fronts, the residents are increasingly concerned about increasing traffic and speeding even on residential streets. This may be a byproduct of drivers using GPS programs to avoid heavy traffic on the arterial streets. It has been good to see increased enforcement by the police department, and we hope this continues into the new year.

We will continue to report on these and whatever other issues arise in this, our 97th year of publication.

As usual, we welcome readers’ suggestions about stories of interest.

7th Street/Franklin Ave. Safety

To the Editor:

I’m glad to see that the BOT is focusing on the safety issue at the intersection of 7th and Franklin. Several years ago, after the incident in lower Manhattan/West Side Hwy where a driver deliberately mowed down and killed pedestrians, I had urged that the Village address this issue.

In recently walking up Fifth Avenue in the city, I noticed very effective large slabs of stone at the corner of 5th Avenue and 65 Street.

They appear ‘natural,’ are very heavy, low, maintenance-free (unlike planters which attract garbage, rodents and require maintenance), do not block any vision, do not require any opening of the existing sidewalk and can also provide seating on the sidewalk side. Drivers bent on hurting pedestrians will clearly notice them as safety barriers, thereby providing a deterrent.

Steve

Laura BAYMACK

I’d urge the Village to consider similar barriers. if the city and a major house of worship can put these barriers on Fifth Avenue, perhaps the most famous street in the world, surely Garden City can follow their example.

The scope of the research should also focus on the intersection of Stewart and Franklin, which, while not having as much pedestrian activity, also represents a high-risk situation.

James Bauer

Baby Shower Thank You

To the Editor:

Thank you to the many parishioners and village friends who donated gifts last weekend to our Christmas Baby Shower for the benefit of Long Island’s maternity centers.

The array of adorable baby clothing, colorful, made-with-love knitted caps, sweaters, booties and blankets, along with layette items, disposable diapers and infant formula, was extraordinary

and clearly conveyed the great love that you share for the mothers and babies. Thank you very much for your generosity.

We wish to sincerely thank the hundreds of dedicated and loving volunteers who staff the maternity-help centers. They counsel and assist mothers and fathers, urging them to recognize the beautiful gift that they have been given in their unborn child, and provide them with tender support to help them choose life for their babies.

These wonderful volunteers are at ground zero in the battle to save babies’ lives, and their courage and devotion are exemplary. God bless them all.

Lastly, we thank the members of our parish’s Respect Life Ministry and Knights of Columbus who, in addition to their own gift donations, assisted in the collection, sorting and delivery of the Baby Shower gifts to the maternity centers.

For your readers’ reference, herein are the names and contact details for some of Long Island’s award-winning maternity centers who provide free and confidential care to mothers and fathers facing uncertainties in their pregnancies:

The Life Center in Hempstead at 516408-6300 or www.aaapregnancyoptions. com; Regina Residence in Merrick at 516-223-7888 or www.catholiccharities. cc/our-services/regina-maternityservices, and MOMMAS HOUSE in Wantagh at 516-781-8637 or info@ mommashouse.org.

For women who have experienced an abortion and may be seeking healing and confidential counseling, the wonderfully gentle Sisters of Life in Manhattan offer caring programs for post-abortive women. During 2020 in the New York area, the Sisters will hold Days of Prayer and Healing for Women on January 18, February 8, February 22, (en español), March 21, and May 16.

For more information, visit https:// sistersoflife.org/what-we-do/hope-

See page 51

New rain garden will combat flooding problems at EHS

BY GARY SIMEONE

The parking lot at the Ethical Humanist Society in Garden City just received a new addition to help combat ongoing flooding problems. A rain garden was recently placed around the perimeter of the parking lot to cut back on flooding issues and to curtail urban runoff.

Jim LoPresti, President of the Ethical Humanist Society , said that the parking lot has had drainage issues for years and after it rains, the lot is filled with at least six inches of water.

“Most of our members are an older population and this issue has been inconvenient at best and dangerous at worse, especially in the colder weather,” said LoPresti. “We had the rain garden installed a week and a half ago and there was no disruption to the parking lot or to any of our members.”

LoPresti said a dry well was originally installed in the lot and that he went to the Garden City Building Department, seeking another dry well to help with the water drainage issue.

“They told me that they did not handle that sort of project and outsourced it to architectural firms.” said LoPresti. “I got in touch with an architect who suggested the idea of the rain garden because it was less money to install and

also better for the environment.”

The architect happened to be a former member of the Ethical Humanist Society, and was also part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension, a non-profit foundation who helps to preserve local eco-systems.

“He suggested a man named Rusty Schmidt, who is a landscape ecologist who has installed numerous rain gardens around the country,” said LoPresti. “He came to one of our monthly meetings and laid out the advantages of having a rain garden as opposed to a dry well.”

Schmidt, who is employed by Nelson, Pope and Voorhis in Melville, finished installing the rain garden in two days.

A few members of the EHS helped with the planting of the shrubs and flowers under the guidance of Schmidt’s staff.

Schmidt said that a rain garden is usually buried in the ground 6 to 12 inches deep but was installed 9 to 10 inches at the Society, around the perimeter of the parking lot.

“The way it’s set up is that if 1.2 inches of rain falls, all the water ends up going in the garden and not down in the drain,” said Schmidt. “If more than 1.2 inches falls, it will end going down the drain.”

He said that the reason this is important is because the dirtiest water is usu-

ally the first inch of rain that falls and that all goes into the rain garden.

“All of that water or runoff including sand, cigarette butts and things like petroleum and heavy metals will soak into the garden in one day or less. When it eventually reaches the groundwater level it will be clean enough to be drinkable.”

The way this is done is the healthy soils and plant roots that are part o the garden, do all of the work cleaning the excess runoff and the heavy lifting by absorbing the heavy metals and petroleum products. The bacteria in the soil which includes various types of protozoa, eat up the excess runoff capturing a hundred percent of it in the soil.

Schmidt said secondary things like the nitrogen and phosphorous that is found in runoff is 70-80 % cleaned up by the presence of the rain garden.

“The rain garden really does two important things. It adds an aesthetic appeal and it cleans and purifies the

water,” said Schmidt. It also is a better option than a dry well because it works better, is less expensive to maintain and it lasts for a longer period of time.”

He said that this is something he’s very proud of because he knows it’s better for the environment and will help to sterilize the runoff that enters the garden.

“The water that gets filtered through will produce cleaner water instead of what normally occurs going through the dry well. It is also made up of native Long Island plants and shrubs and plants that are water loving and drought tolerant.”

LoPresti said he already sees the rain garden doing its job, after a pretty big rainstorm hit the area recently.

“It looks like it really solved the flooding issue we had and even though it looks good now, it will look even better in the spring when everything is in bloom,” said LoPresti.

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Happy New Year!

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Cathedral of the Incarnation celebrates Twelfth Day of Christmas

On Sunday, January 5 at 4 p.m., the Cathedral Choirs will close out the twelve days of Christmas with their annual service “Twelfth Night and the Procession of Three Kings.” The service will feature carols and hymns that celebrate the end of the Christmas season and the start of the season of Epiphany. Following the service, the Cathedral invites everyone to “Ring INN the New Year” with a cocktail party fundraiser for The INN at the historic Victorian mansion on the cathedral grounds.

The annual service has become tremendously popular since it was instituted at the Cathedral seven years ago. While the Choir’s performance of Lessons and Carols has long been a Garden City tradition to kick off the Christmas season in December, Twelfth Night is quickly becoming the favorite tradition to end the season and welcome the New Year each January. Highlights from the Choir will include Bach’s Cantata 65 for the Feast of the Epiphany and Mendelssohn’s There shall a star from Jacob come forth. The congregation will sing favorite carols together as well, including We Three Kings, What Star is This, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, all with embellishment

from the choir.

The cocktail party fundraiser that follows the service is now in its third year, with three local sponsors returning to support the event for a second time: Culinary Heights, Perennial, and The French Workshop.

Culinary Heights is the go-to upscale catering business located right in the heart of Garden City. offering professional staffing and catering for events in addition to a fresh daily menu from their location on 7th Avenue. Perennial, which opened on Franklin Avenue just over a year ago, offers food with high quality, locally grown and sustainable ingredients served by knowledgeable, passionate people. The French Workshop has become a local favorite for excellent coffee, desserts, breads and more at their 7th Street location.

The service of Twelfth Night is free and open to all. The cocktail party is $60 a ticket, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to The INN, serving the hungry and homeless of Long Island. Tickets for the party should be purchased in advance at www.tinyurl.com/ TwelfthNight2020. For any questions, contact Kris in the Cathedral Office at kris@incarnationgc.org.

A cocktail party fundraiser will follow the Twelth Night service

At Winthrop Orthopedic Associates, we want you to get the care you need as quickly and conveniently as possible. That’s why our Garden City location is open until 8 pm

Monday through Friday.

Our specialists provide general orthopedic services for the whole family, including surgical and nonsurgical treatment for orthopedic trauma, sports injuries, degenerative diseases, and congenital disorders. Onsite imaging is available to immediately evaluate an injury.

Omid Barzideh, MD Hip & Knee Reconstruction

James Capozzi, MD Hip & Knee Reconstruction

Megan Chapter-Zylinski, MD Hip & Knee Reconstruction

John Gaffney, DO Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery

Jason Gould, MD Hip & Knee Reconstruction

Mark Grossman, MD Sports Orthopedic Surgery

Meredith Lazar, MD Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery

Omar Saleem, MD Hip & Knee Reconstruction

Gregory Sirounian, MD Hip & Knee Reconstruction

Glenn Teplitz, MD Hand & Wrist Surgery

Adam Wilson, MD Hand & Wrist Surgery

Henock Wolde-Semait, MD Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery

Ioannis Zouzias, MD Hip & Knee Reconstruction

Village to receive $9 million grant for water treatment

Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced $416 million in grants for critical water infrastructure improvements throughout New York State..

Garden City was awarded a grant of approximately $9 million to fund two of its Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) system projects, which have an estimated cost of $16.5 million. The Environmental Facilities Corporation awarded the grant money to numerous Long Island municipalities to help offset the cost of projects that protect public health and improve water quality.

To assist with the cost of installing the systems to address emerging contaminants like 1,4-Dioxane, grants for these projects will no longer be capped at $3 million but will now instead cover 60 percent of total capital project costs, the governor further announced.

To date, a total of $36 million in bonds have been authorized by the Board of Trustees to treat this issue.

“We appreciate these grants from the State and more importantly the potential for an extension on the implementation, all of which will go a long way to help offset the costs to the residents and allow us to do our due diligence with such a large investment,” SupT. of Public Works Joseph DiFrancisco

said. “I would remind everyone that we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that this contaminant issue was not created by the Village. We’re working hard to fix it, but we are also still pursuing the lawsuit to hold accountable the corporations that created this problem.”

Mayor Theresa Trouvé added, “Governor Cuomo’s announcement that Garden City will receive some nine million dollars in grant money from the Environmental Facilities Corporation via the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act, and the news of the relaxation of the cap, is a relief. We are in a more favorable position with more funding at our disposal. This grant money should cover up to 60 percent of our costs for water treatment.”

Since October, the Board of Trustees has authorized the purchase of remediation-related equipment to remove emerging contaminants from the water supply for Well Nos. 7 and 8, and 10 through 16. These approvals include the Trojanuflex Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) systems, Oxidant storage tanks, which are required for use with the system, along with water-shed UV reactor and control stations to house the systems.

Mayor@gardencityny.net

Once again we are blessed to enjoy the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays and festivities with family and friends. While joy is always the transcending theme, as we hope it is for all, we ask that you include everyone regardless of faith or private beliefs, in sharing this wonderful holiday season. Please take a few minutes to look in on your neighbors who may be alone or housebound to spread a little holiday cheer and comfort.

The Board of Trustees and the entire Village Staff wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah and a joyful and safe holiday season.

Theresa A. Trouvé, Mayor Trustees: Robert A. Bolebruch, Louis M. Minuto, Stephen S. Makrinos, Mark A. Hyer, John M. Delany, Colleen E. Foley, Brian C. Daughney

GC Retired Men’s Club News

Schedule of Events

Monday, December 30

No formal meeting, but club is open for our use.

Monday, January 6

Regular Meeting

Monday, January 13

Sandwiches

About the G.C. Retired Men’s Club Meetings are at the GC Senior Center — noon to 4 p.m. — on Mondays and Thursdays. Lunch is served about twice a month. We welcome bridge, poker, cribbage, chess, backgammon and other card and non-card games. Poker players check with John Marino at 248-1770. For more information, call our membership chairman at 327-0226.

The Kordes K orner

John Ellis Kordes

PhotograPhy history

This is Homestead School built in 1958 along with Hemlock School and Locust School. This photograph was taken in the early 1960’s a few years after opening. These K-3 schools completed Garden City’s Public School system. This sprawling ranch design was similar to the new high school which had opened in 1955. Today, the architecture does not really hold up well but I believe the thought at the time was a one story building would allow easy evacuation through the windows in case of fire. Today, these schools are K-1 and those young trees in the photo have gotten quite large.

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FOR SENIORS fyi

Chi Kung Exercise and Meditation Class Forming

Please join Andrea Albergo for chi kung, which is considered a beautiful, peaceful path for body, mind and spirit. Andrea will show how to create a peaceful body by combining movement, breathing and meditation. This class is geared for seniors or the beginner adult.

The six-week session will begin Thursday, January 16 and will be held at 1 p.m. at Garden City’s Senior Center. The price for the session is $48. To register this class, please visit the Office of Recreation and Parks at 108 Rockaway Avenue, or, if you have a password you can register online at www.gcreconline.gardencityny. net.

Upcoming Trips for Seniors

Here are Garden City Recreation and Parks’ trip list for seniors who are residents of the Inc. Village of Garden City. If you would like to register for any of our trips, please visit the Recreation and Parks Office at 108 Rockaway Avenue. Payment must accompany registrations.

Thursday, March 19

Trip to see “La Traviata” at the Metropolitan Opera

We will travel by coach bus, leaving St. Paul’s parking lot around 3:15 p.m. When we arrive dinner will be on your own. There are many restaurants in the neigh-

borhood. Show time is at 7:30 pm and we will travel home when the opera is over. The cost of each ticket will be $80, checks only made payable to Village of Garden City. Space is limited so please register early by visiting the Recreation and Parks Office at 108 Rockaway Avenue. PLEASE NOTE: THIS TRIP IS NOW FILLED.

Exercise for Seniors

Recreation and Parks is offering the following exercise classes for seniors at The Senior Center on Golf Club Lane. Classes are open to all seniors ages 60 and older who are residents of the Inc. Village of Garden City. Classes might be cancelled due to a special event or trip so please check the bulletin board at The Senior Center for updates.

MONDAYS

Exercise with Felicia at 10 a.m.

Chair Yoga with Connie at noon Tai Chi with Connie at 1 p.m.

TUESDAYS

Chair Dancing with Felicia at 2:15 p.m.

WEDNESDAYS

Exercise with Felicia at 10 a.m.

Chair Yoga with Connie at 11 a.m.

FRIDAY

Exercise with Felicia at 10 a.m.

Resistance Bands with Felicia at 10:45 a.m.

Meditation with Connie at noon

Tai Chi with Connie at 1:00 p.m.

Scam alert: On December 18th the Garden City Police Department received a report about a phone scam in which a person, claiming to be from PSEG, called a resident stating he was behind in his monthly payments and needed to purchase gift cards to pay the bill or the power would be turned off. The resident, realizing it was a scam, called the police.

Grinch alert: Garden City Police investigated a report of someone damaging holiday lights at a Wellington Road residence on December 18th.

Water main break: Due to icy road conditions caused by a water main break on December 18th, Officers were assigned to safeguard the intersection of Stewart Avenue and Nassau Boulevard. The water department responded to the scene and corrected the condition.

Check forgery: On December 19th Garden City Police Department detectives arrested an 18 year old Queens man for allegedly intercepting a resident’s $28 check placed in the mail in August and then rewriting and cashing the check for $4,800. He was charged with grand larceny.

Water alarm: On December 19th Firefighters and Officers responded to a Franklin Avenue Building for a report of an alarm. It was determined that the alarm was activated due to a broken water pipe. Repair crews responded to correct the con dition.

License suspensions: As a result of a traffic stop investigation on 11th Street on December 19th, a 29 year old Levittown man was charged with driving with two license suspensions and driving in the wrong lane of traffic.

Car crash: Upon investigation of a two-vehicle crash on Cathedral Avenue, one of the drivers, a 26 year old Massapequa woman, was charged with driving with a suspended registration and unregistered operation.

Shoplifting arrest: On December 20th Garden City Police arrested a 39 year old Garden City woman for the alleged theft of merchandise valued at $350 from Lord and Taylor.

Oven fire: Garden City Police and

Fire Departments responded to a small oven fire on Cambridge Avenue on December 20th.

Casing cars? On December 21st a male subject, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and gray pants, was seen on a surveillance camera on the property of a Wydler Court residence pulling the door handle of a vehicle parked in the driveway.

Smoke, no fire: On December 21st Garden City Police and Fire Departments responded to a Franklin Avenue building for a smoke condition. Upon investigation, it was determined the condition was caused by a faulty cosmetic appliance.

Burnt food: Police officers and firefighters responded to a Tullamore Road residence for a smoke condition due to burnt food on the stove on December 21st.

Multiple suspensions: On December 22nd Garden City Police charged a 23 year old Queens man for allegedly driving on Roxbury Road with five license suspensions and

excessively tinted windows.

Gas leak: Police and firefighters responded to a Kingsbury Road residence for a natural gas leak on December 22nd. Firefighters corrected the situation by locating an open valve and closing it.

DWI arrest: On December 23rd, as a result of a traffic stop investigation on Rockaway Avenue, Garden City Police arrested a 37 year old Westbury man for DWI, passing a red traffic light, open alcohol container in vehicle, unlicensed operation, and unregistered operation.

Lock your car doors: A man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and gray pants was seen on a surveillance camera on the property of a Locust Street residence pulling on a door handle of a vehicle parked in the driveway on December 23rd.

Suspicious person: A Brompton Road resident was alerted via surveillance cameras of a male subject walking in her rear yard with a chair from her shed. The man, wearing a light-colored vest, dark jeans, and a wool cap, then left the area. Officers canvassed the area with negative results.

hears of new ambulance service success

NYU Langone-Winthrop Hospital Director of External Affairs Justin K. Burke speaks to homeowners at the Western Property Owners Association November general meeting.

The Western Property Owners Association (WPOA) welcomed Justin K. Burke, NYU Langone-Winthrop Hospital director of external affairs, to its November general meeting. Mr. Burke spoke about the hospital’s operation of an ambulance service in Garden City.

In September 2018, the Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a twoyear agreement with NYU Winthrop to provide ambulance service within the Village 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The contract provides at least two ambulances, each having one EMT and one paramedic aboard. The ambulances are stationed at the St. Paul’s campus, outside Cluett Hall; service began in January 2019.

Mr. Burke reported on the first tenand-a-half months of service as follows: The service received a total of 1,749 calls and made 1,319 transports to area hospitals. He told residents that the complaint breakdown includes 69% medical

complaints, including chest pain, shortness of breath, syncope/fainting, and abdominal pain, and 39% trauma complaints, mainly motor vehicle collisions and falls.

Residents in need of medical assistance are encouraged to call 911. Response time for ambulances here in Garden City can be as low as 5 minutes, which mirrors that of the Garden City Police Department.

The next general meeting of the WPOA is the annual Resident Electors Meeting, January 21, 7:30 p.m. at the Garden City Public Library, lower level. At this meeting, the Nominating Committee will announce its selection of Trustee Bob Bolebruch for reelection at the Village annual elections in March. If no additional candidates are nominated by petition, residents will vote to place Trustee Bolebruch on the ballot as the Western Section Trustee Candidate.

GC Library nominated for $50K state grant

The Garden City Public Library was recently nominated by NYS Assemblyman Ed Ra to receive a $50,000 State and Municipal (SAM) Grant for capital improvements including an updated Children’s Room. Library Board Chair J. Randolph Colahan and Library Director Marianne Malagon and the Board of Trustees thanked Assemblyman Ra for his efforts in securing the funding. The Library Board and Director are currently reviewing and updating a previous Space Study to finalize and implement plans for redesigning the space. Final approval of the grant is subject to review and consent by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) and other state agencies.

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The Library Director and members of the Board of Trustees toured the Children’s Room with Barbara Grace, head of Children’s Services, to discuss plans for updating the space utilizing funds from the SAM Grant obtained by Assemblyman Ra. Pictured from left to right are Library Director Marianne Malagon, Library Board Chair J. Randolph Colahan, Trustee Germaine Greco, Trustee Lola Nouryan, NYS Assemblyman Ed Ra, and librarian Barbara Grace.

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The history behind popular New Year’s traditions

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are a time to both reflect on the past year and to look forward to the excitement the months ahead will bring. There may be confetti, there are probably noisemakers and some bubbly is likely overflowing from champagne flutes.

New Year’s celebrations can be traced back thousands of years to ancient Babylon. And as with many holidays with deep histories, traditions are the hallmark of many New Year’s celebrations. While many people perform these traditions by rote, it can be interesting to delve into the history behind various components of New Year’s celebrations.

CHAMPAGNE

Toasting the new year with a sparkling wine can be traced back to French champagne producers. Champagne, a sparkling wine from a specific region of France, was used in the baptism of the Frankish warrior Clovis, according to the Champagne Committee of France. Soon, champagne became a key part of religious events, coronations and soirees — as well as secular rituals that replaced formerly religious rituals, ac-

cording to the book “When Champagne Became French” by Kolleen Guy. Champagne manufacturers eventually linked the bubbly to festive occasions with family, and New Year’s celebrations became another ideal time to pop the cork on a bottle.

BALL DROP

While not everyone can venture to New York City’s famed Times Square to watch the ball drop in person, millions tune in around the world to watch it on television. Original celebrations in New York centered around listening to the bells of Trinity Church ring at midnight, but the New Year’s Eve celebrations were later moved to the New York Times building in 1904. Fireworks were part of those celebrations, but hot ash and sparks falling on spectators led to a ban on fireworks, and event organizers needed another spectacle to draw crowds, according to PBS. Publisher Adolph Ochs asked his chief electrician Walter Palmer to create something visually appealing. Inspired by the maritime tradition of dropping a time ball at harbor so that sailors could set their own timepieces while at sea, Palmer devised

the idea of dropping an illuminated ball on New

since 1907.

RESOLUTIONS

New Year’s resolutions can be traced to the Mesopotamians. Ancient Babylonians also made spoken resolutions during a 12-day-long New Year Festival. These resolutions were oaths made to the sitting or new king and were considered essential to keeping the kingdom

in the gods’ favor. The Romans also had a similar tradition of swearing oath to royalty at the start of the year. Many of these traditions merged into modern resolution-making, according to Live Science.

These are but a few New Year’s traditions. The history behind these traditions is storied, just like the holiday itself.

Year’s Eve. This has been tradition

2019 in Review

BY BOB MORGAN, JR.

As the holidays are once again upon us, as well as the dawn of the 2020’s, here are a few thoughts about some important events of the outgoing year, 2019. Obviously, no effort is made to cover every important topic.

I believe that in many ways the most important story of 2019 was the roaring American economy. At least for the moment, these are extraordinary times. The unemployment rate is at 3.6 percent, the lowest rate since 1969. Gains in jobs have been well distributed across the economy, with record low unemployment levels for both black and Hispanic workers, and some overall improvement in wage growth. The inflation rate remains under 2 percent, a historically low rate. Meanwhile the price of stocks, an important component of many people’s 401(k) plans, is at record levels, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average exceeding 28,000 at this writing. Residential homes have improved their value in most places. Economic growth remains good for this late in an economic recovery cycle after a recession.

Americans recognize that the economy is strong. According to a CNN poll this month, the United States economy now earns its highest ratings in nearly two decades, with 76 percent saying the economy is good or excellent, the best result since February 2001. 7 in 10 expect the economy to be good in a year, the best result since December 2003.

We obviously do not know what the new decade will bring and economies and markets go down as well as up. Trade tensions could create negative ripples and there are unaddressed long term problems like increasing national debt. But for the moment this is a strong economy of historic dimensions.

Perhaps the second most important story, in terms of long-term ramifications, is the continuing unrest in Hong Kong. The Chinese government basically seems unable to turn the page on mass pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which were strengthened by an overwhelming victory in local elections by antigovernment candidates. Basically,

China has two competing goals –maintaining one party political rule but also keeping the economy growing through international trade, of which Hong Kong plays an important part. How the government navigates this threat to its hegemony very much remains to be seen.

Another major event was the victory in Britain of Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, which won a substantial majority in the recent elections. The win by Mr. Johnson’s party ended a three year impasse following the 2016 Brexit vote and was the product of an unusually strong appeal by Mr. Johnson’s party to working class voters away from London. There are obvious possible parallels to our upcoming election. Now that Britain will definitively leaving the European Union, the new government may also be looking for stronger trade ties with the United States.

Of course, the vote by the House of Representatives to impeach President Trump was also a major event of 2019, capping off another year of tension and vitriol between Mr. Trump and his opposition. Even though Mr. Trump is only the third president to be impeached, I don’t think the story ranks that high in the rankings, however. It is far from clear that public opinion was swayed much by the efforts to impeach Mr. Trump, and his impeachment on a party line vote in the Democratic House will inevitably be followed by his acquittal in the Republican Senate, also almost completely on party lines. In the end the whole process will be overshadowed, as it should be, by the November 2020 elections, in which ordinary voters will ultimately decide who will occupy the White House.

In any event, we have all navigated through another year. Certainly the political clamor will remain high as we move into 2020, but for the next few days, we have holidays to celebrate and a new year to ring in, so let’s enjoy the moments together with our friends and family. Happy holidays and best wishes for a succcessful and healthy New Year.

Stewart School unveils book vending machine

Students at Stewart Avenue School in Garden City were overcome with joy when the school recently unveiled a new book vending machine during a special schoolwide assembly.

Thanks to the support of the Carle Place Stop & Shop and funds raised through the school’s Box Tops for Education effort, the book vending machine will serve a dual purpose: reward students who demonstrate that they are maintaining a positive school climate while also promoting reading throughout the building. Students who are seen performing random acts of kindness will be awarded a token which they can

insert into the machine to take home a book of their choice.

Stewart Principal Linda Norton turned the unveiling into a surprise for students. One student from each class was called up on stage in the auditorium to ask a question and possibly guess what the tall, covered object at the end of the room might be. Once the cover was pulled from the book vending machine, children were ecstatic! The goal is for every student to be awarded a token for being an inspired contributor to a culture of kindness, filled with avid readers.

Stewart Avenue School students are ecstatic about the school’s new book vending machine. They earn tokens for the machine when they are caught doing something kind.

Photo courtesy of the Garden City School District

Super Readers show off their powers at Hemlock School

n Plumbing repairs

n Drain cleaning

Tracy Pignetti (front, left) and Kim Rothman’s (back, right) students were among the kindergartners at Hemlock School who donned capes and showed off their Super Reader ‘powers.” Principal Audrey Bellovin (back, middle) dropped by, sporting a Super Reader cape of her own.

Readers show off their powers at

Kindergarten students at Hemlock School in Garden City recently showed off their reading “Super Powers!” They donned special Super Reader capes as they read together and paraded through the school hallways in proud fashion as a culmination of their latest reading unit.

Students have been learning different reading strategies, or “powers,” including Pointer Power, Reread Power, Partner Power, Picture Power and Snap Word Power. They have been articulating these powers during group reading sessions.

Thanks to a team effort between the

school and parents, the youngsters were rewarded for their super effort. They were presented with capes that included a special SR logo for Super Readers on the back. Children wore their capes during their end-of-unit celebration and classes partnered to form reading groups.

The capes were truly a team effort. Parents chipped in for materials and formed a committee to make the capes. Principal Audrey Bellovin brought in her personal sewing machine to stitch the capes. It was a super effort all around!

n Heat repairs

n Installation of appliances

n Installation of toilets & sinks

n Water filtration systems

We pride ourselves on having the most professional and qualified plumbers in Nassau County. Neat clean and courteous.

Super

Hemlock School

Village lights menorah on first night of Hanukkah

Garden City Superintendent of Recreation and Parks Paul Blake lights the village menorah on December 22, the first night of Hanukkah.

BY RIKKI N. MASSAND

On Sunday, December 22, Garden City Mayor Theresa Trouvé presided over the annual Garden City Menorah Lighting, noting some Hanukkah history and symbolism of the menorah.

“There was at one time involved in a situation of war as the Jewish people triumphed (Maccabees over the Syrians). Also at times during the Holocaust they used this the symbolize and stand for their faith. Today, the Menorah Lighting is a happy and hopeful ceremony that often coincides closely with Christmas on our calendars. Children receive gifts at Hanukkah. I consider it a terrific learning experience to provide schools and children and we in Garden

City are happy to have this gathering and display,” she said.

Village Administrator Ralph V. Suozzi attended with his 14-year-old son Carter to participate in the ceremony, as Suozzi played Hebrew music from his smartphone for the lighting.

Trustee John Delany invited his daughter and family members to attend the annual event, and said he is particularly eager to show support, solidarity and good spirits during Hanukkah as growing up, “my neighborhood was basically 50/50, Christian and Jewish residents.”

“My next door neighbors were Jewish and very religious. They all went to temple every Friday night and I was at many of

Village Trustee John Delany, Garden City Mayor Theresa Trouvé and Village Administrator Ralph Suozzi gather on the Village Green for the menorah lighting ceremony on December 22.

the ceremonies. After 50 years of not seeing my neighbor -- I recently got in touch with them and visited,” Delany said.

Garden City Superintendent of Recreation and Parks Paul Blake “lit” the shamash on the village’s menorah. He explained how the shamash is the ninth “helper” candle lit before prayers are said and other candles are lit. The Village has an outdoor menorah with light bulbs and on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, including on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a staff member from Recreation and Parks will come to the Village Green to light another candle at sunset.

The December 22 Village Menorah Lighting came less than two weeks after

an apparent hate crime and targeted shooting incident at a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City, where four people were killed, including a police officer. Fourteen months ago, on October 27, 2018 at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack on the Jewish community on U.S. soil took place as a shooter killed eleven people and wounded six.

Two New York City Menorah Lighting ceremonies -- one at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the other at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza -- took place within an hour of Garden City’s event. The NYC Menorah Lightings were deemed the “World’s Largest Menorah,” standing at 32 feet tall.

Gathered for the Sunday, December 22 Village of Garden City Menorah Lighting ceremony are Village Administrator Ralph V. Suozzi, his son Carter, Garden City Mayor Theresa Trouvé, Village Trustee John Delany and his family members.

Registration for 2nd NSPC Health Science Competition Opens

Registration for the second Neurological Surgery P.C. Health Science Competition (NSPC HSC), a program of the Center for Science Teaching & Learning (CSTL), is now open at www.cstl.org/nspc. Last year the competition drew teams from 38 Long Island high schools and 50 prize winners shared $80,000 in score-based awards.

Created to foster interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs, applications for the 2020 competition must be received by no later than 12:00 p.m. (EST) on April 30, 2020.

A$25 non-refundable registration fee per team applies to all entries. The NSPC HSC is available exclusively to Nassau and Suffolk County high school student teams, the competition’s finals will be held on Wednesday, May 27, 2020.

Health and science careers are in high demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that healthcare related occupations are expected to generate 2.3 million new jobs through 2024, representing faster employment growth than any other industry.

“As leaders in the medical

profession,” notes Michael H. Brisman, M.D., an attending neurosurgeon and chief executive officer of Neurological Surgery, P.C. (NSPC), “we must focus on inspiring and motivating young people to take interest in STEM education and pursue careers in health and science. This is especially important with the high demand for healthcare and medical science positions, locally and nationally.”

Student teams will be judged in one of five categories: Behavioral Sciences; Biology –Medicine/Health; Biology – Microbiology/Genetics; Health Related Biochemistry/Biophysics, and Bioengineering and Computational Biology. The five first place winners in last year’s competi-

Last year, Michael H. Brisman, M.D., CEO, Neurological Surgery, P.C. (NSPC), at right, received an award from Kevin Sanders, Center for Science, Teaching & Learning (CSTL), acknowledging NSPC’s sponsorship of the nation’s first competition for high school students to focus on STEM/health science. The 2019 competition finals were held at LIU/Post in Greenvale.

tion were: Feyi Rufai of Roslyn High School in the “Behavioral Sciences” category, Alessi Demir of Manhasset High School in the “Biology – Medicine/ Health” category, Michael Lawes of Elmont Memorial High School in the “Biology Microbiology/Genetics” category, Jason Sitt of Lynbrook Senior High School in the “Health Related Biochemistry & Biophysics” category, and Christopher Lu of John L. Miller Great Neck North High School in the “Bioengineering and Computational Biology” category. Each winner received a $5,500 prize. The exact breakdown of prizes can be found at www.cstl.org/nspc/hscprizes/.

“The young people who

were part of the first competition,” observes Dr. Brisman, “were brilliant and inspiring. Their understanding of medicine and health-related subjects was impressive. These students are exactly what we need to address the high demand to STEM, health science, and healthcarerelated jobs here on Long Island and across the nation. The first NSPC Health Science Competition exceeded our goals in terms of the number of schools and students who competed. I believe the 2020 competition will further motivate both those who participate and others, who observed these innovative young people, to pursue their interest and careers in healthcare and related sciences.”

For more information about the NSPC Health Science Competition (NSPC HSC), competition rules, and deadlines, please visit www.cstl.org/nspc or call (516) 764-0045

FREE YOURSELF FROM NECK AND BACK PAIN

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“Garden City Then & Now” on display at the GC Library

The Library is hosting the Centennial Photography Display Garden City Then & Now during the month of December in the gallery on the Lower Level of the Library. The subjects of the exhibit include Schools, Commercial Buildings, Houses of Worship, Public Buildings, Houses, Street Scenes, Stores, and Railroad Stations.

The Garden City Public Library is hosting the Centennial photography display “Garden City Then & Now” during the month of December in the gallery on the lower level of the Library.

The exhibit highlights eight aspects of the community and compares historic photographs from circa 1919 with present day photographs of the same locations. The subjects of the display include schools, commercial buildings, houses of worship, public buildings, houses, street scenes, stores, and railroad stations.

The display of photographic boards, which are on loan from the Village of Garden City, was created by Village Historian William Bellmer and Cyril Smith, members of the Village Centennial

Committee. Mr. Bellmer selected the photographs from the archival collection in the Stewart Room in the Library.

This year, the Village of Garden City is commemorating two landmark events: the Centennial as an Incorporated Village and the signing of the Community Agreement and the Sesquicentennial of Alexander Turney Stewart’s purchase of the land. The A.T. Stewart bronze bust, which sits atop the granite column between the Library and the LIRR station, was recently refurbished as part of the ongoing celebration. For more information on the history of the Village and events planned for this landmark year, please visit the Village website https://www.gardencityny.net/ .

Library Holiday Hours

The Garden City Public Library Holiday Hours

New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2019 - 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. New Year’s Day, January 1, 2020 - Closed

Views from the Bench

Garden City Public Library

Thursday, January 23, 2020 at 2 p.m.

Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco will present Views from the Bench, an informative program on the selection pro-

One of the Centennial photographic display boards Garden City Then & Now Houses features photos of houses in 1919 and compares them to photos from the present day. The display is at the Library on the Lower Level through the month of December.

cess for federal judges, cases and issues litigated in federal court on Long Island, and the challenges facing our criminal justice system on Thursday, January 23 at 2 p.m. All are welcome to attend this interesting and informative program. No registration is required.

It’s What’s Happening for Young Adults at the Library

Tweens and Teens Free Little Library

In December, the Tweens and Teens Department set up a Free Little Library. Books are free for patrons to take home. The Free Little Library will be available as long as free books are available. The Tweens and Teens Department will add new books to the Tweens and Teens Free Little Library as needed and as supplies last. Books target reading grades ranging from Grades from 6-12 and were published within the last year. Books have been donated by Young Adult Librarian Laura Giunta, which were given to her through her work on the American Library Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults 2020 Committee this past year. For questions, please contact Young Adult Librarian Laura Giunta via email at laurag@gardencitypl.org or via phone at 516-742-8405 x242.

Make a Suggestion for the 2020 Summer Reading Club Prizes

The Tweens and Teens Deartment and the Library’s Teen Advisory Board are already gearing up for the Tweens and Teens Summer Reading Club in 2020! The Teen Advisory Board is asking for tweens and teens entering Grades 6-12 in Fall 2020 to write down suggestions for 2020’s Tweens and Teens Summer Reading Club Prizes! Tweens and teens can submit suggestions outside the Tweens and Teens Room and can also email their suggestions to Young Adult Library Laura Giunta at laurag@gardencitypl.org. From the suggestions, the Teen Advisory Board will select 12 nominees for prizes, which tweens and teens can then vote on beginning in WinterSpring 2020. The nominees with the top votes will be 2020’s Summer Reading Club Prizes.

Winter-Spring 2020 YA Programs

The Young Adult Department is gearing up for 2020! Information about tweens and teens Winter-Spring 2020 YA programs will be available by the end of December. Check online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org ) or look out for our flyers in the Young Adult Department at the Library to learn about 2020 events and programs

for Grades 6-12.

Children’s LEGO Club –Tween and Teen Volunteers Needed!

Earn volunteer hours by helping out with the Children’s Department’s LEGO Club. The LEGO Club is an hour program for children in Grades K-5 and meets monthly. Registration is required and begins Tuesday, January 7 online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl. org). Volunteers must be in Grades 6-12 and will be asked to help with set-up and clean-up before and after the program. Please note that there is limited availability to volunteer. This program has been funded by the Friends of the Garden City Public Library.

Volunteers can sign-up for the following Tuesdays, 3:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.:

• Tuesday, January 14

• Tuesday, February 11

• Tuesday, March 10

• Tuesday, April 7

ACT/SAT/PSAT Practice Exam with C2 Education

Join us on Saturday, January 11 at 10 a.m. at the Library for a practice exam with C2 Education. This program is for current high school students. Registrants can choose either the ACT, SAT, or PSAT to take. Register beginning Tuesday, December 31 at 10 a.m. online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl. org). In order to receive your results, you must contact C2 Education at carle. place@c2educate.com or at 516-217-6696. From there, you can arrange to meet with them to receive your results.

ACT/SAT Seminar with Steve Rossner of SAT/ACT Sense

The Library will be hosting an ACT/ SAT Seminar with Steve Rossner of SAT/ACT Sense on Monday, January 13 at 7 p.m. This seminar will provide an overview of the differences between the two tests while helping parents assess which test their child is better suited for and is for current high school students and their parents/legal guardians. Register beginning Tuesday, December 31 at 10 a.m. online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org ). This program has been funded by the Friends of the

your immunity

Winter Nutrition Workshop

Garden City Public Library

Thursday, January 9, at 2 p.m.

Healthy eating during the winter months can be challenging, even after the holidays are over. Incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet is as important as ever to give your immune system the boost you need.

Join the Cornell Cooperative Extension on Thursday, January 9 at 2 p.m. for this one hour workshop to learn healthy

Garden City Public Library.

ACT/SAT Practice Exam with Curvebreakers

The Library will be hosting the final practice exam of the 2019-2020 school year on Saturday, January 25 at 10 a.m. with Curvebreakers. This program is for current high school students. Registrants can choose either the ACT or SAT to take. Register beginning Tuesday, January 7 at 10 a.m. online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl. org ). Results will be emailed to participants. This program has been funded by the Friends of the Garden City Public Library. The next practice exam will be held in summer 2020.

Teen Crafternoon: Valentine’s Day Mason Jar Craft

Join us on Saturday, January 25 at 3 p.m. for a Teen Crafternoon! We’ll be decorating a mason jar for Valentine’s Day during this craft program. This program is for tweens and teen in Grades 6-12. Register beginning Tuesday, January 7 at 10 a.m. online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org). This program has been funded by the Friends of the Garden City Public Library.

Tween Night: Tween Game Night

The Children’s and Young Adult Departments will be hosting the first Tween Night of 2020 on Monday, January 27, 7 p.m.–8 p.m. The theme of the Tween Night will be Game Night. Snacks will be served and we will be playing board games as well as Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers on the Wii U and Nintendo Switch. Registration is required and begins Tuesday, January 14 at 10 a.m. online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org). This program is for tweens in Grades 4-7. This program has been funded by the Friends of the Garden City Public Library and is joint program with the Young Adult and Children’s Departments.

Tweens and Teens

Noon Year’s Eve Party

Join us for food, snacks, and activi -

ties as we countdown to noon on New Year’s Eve at the Library during our Tweens and Teens Noon Year’s Eve Party! This program is for tweens and teens in Grades 6-12 only and will be held on Tuesday, December 31, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Registration begins December 17 at 10 a.m. online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org ). This program has been funded by the Friends of the Garden City Public Library.

Mentors for First LEGO League

Sixth Grade Robotics Team

If you are a high school student (Grades 9-12) in Fall 2019 with FLL Robotics experience interested in earning volunteer hours by mentoring the team, please contact Young Adult Librarian Laura Giunta via email at laurag@gardencitypl.org or via phone at 516-742-8405 x242 for questions.

VolunTeens

If you are looking to volunteer at the Library, volunteer hours are posted each month in the Tweens and Teens Department; tweens and teens in Grades 6-12 can register for volunteer hours on the last day of the month for the upcoming month online via Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org). Please note there is limited availability for volunteers and space can fill up quickly.

Volunteer Teen Reviewers Needed

Would you like to be a reviewer for the Library? Need community service hours? Then become a Volunteer Teen Reviewer! This program is for tweens and teens in Grades 6-12. Reviews will be used to update the Tweens and Teens Library Review Page (https://www.gardencitypl. org/category/teen-reviews/). Reviews can be submitted via our online submission form, which can be found here: https://www.gardencitypl.org/submita-teen-review/. Reviews are subject to approval by the Young Adult Librarian. Please make sure to follow the guidelines for reviews in order for the review to count toward community service.

eating tips to keep your immune system strong all season long. You will sample two different “energy bite snacks” and receive the recipes to make your own at home. Online registration on Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org) for Garden City Library cardholders begins at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, December 17. This program is sponsored by The Friends of the Garden City Public Library.

News From the Children’s Room

Happy New Year 2020

The Staff of the Children’s Room of the Garden City Public Library would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy, healthy 2020 and to thank you for your patronage and support of the Library during this past year! It’s the end of a decade 2019 and time to look forward to 2020! Amazing how time flies! It seems like just yesterday we were looking at the end of the 1900s and now we are 20 years into this new century. Now is the time to make resolutions and prepare for a new beginning.

The Children’s Room has put together an exciting season of programs starting in February. Our schedule is finalized and is listed below. There are also flyers available in the Children’s Room. Don’t forget program registration will begin online on Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org) on Tuesday, January 7, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.

Winter Spring Programs

*Winter/Spring 2020–Registration for Storytimes and Book Discussions begins on Tuesday, January 7 at 10:00 a.m. Non-residents can register beginning January 21 at 10:00 a.m. Required online registration with a Library Card for Storytimes and Special Programs is on Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org) at 10:00 a.m. on the date stated. Book discussion registration is in the Children’s Room only. Registration on Eventkeeper is on an Individual basis. Please do not add any additional names in the comment box because they will not be added into the actual number of registrants.

*Priority will be given to Garden City Public Library cardholders. Nonresidents will be accommodated on a space available basis.

**MOMMY AND ME WITH PLAY HOORAY!

Now 4 separate opportunities to participate. EACH SESSION HAS A SEPARATE REGISTRATION DATE. This is a 45-minute program (10:30-11:15) for children ages 6-29 months (Born Sept. 2017-Aug. 2019) and an adult caregiver.

March 5 (Reg. begins Feb. 4), March 12 (Reg. begins Feb. 11), March 19 (Reg. begins Feb. 18), March 26 (Reg. begins Feb. 25).

BOOKS AND BABIES:

For ages 6 months-29 months. All sessions are 30 minutes (10:00–10:30 a.m.) and require a separate registration for each date.

April 20 (Reg. begins March 17), April 27 (Reg. begins March 24) May 4 (Reg. begins March 31).

*Please note: Storytime schedules are subject to change.

Storytimes

Register once for all 4 sessions. Except where noted, programs are 30 minutes.

TODDLERS

For children ages 2½–3½ (Born Aug.

2016–Aug. 2017) and an adult caregiver.

Choose one session:

Mondays at 11:30 a.m. (Feb. 3, 10, 24, March 2)

Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. (Feb. 4, 11, 25, March 3)

LITTLE LISTENERS

For children ages 3–5, without adult. (Born Feb. 2015–Feb. 2017)

(Caregivers must remain in the Children’s Department during program).

Choose one session:

Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. (Feb. 4, 11, 25, March 3)

Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. (Feb. 5, 12, 26, March 11)

KINDERGARTEN/FIRST GRADE: LET’S IMAGINE.

A monthly program (stories, crafts, and more) for children currently enrolled in kindergarten or first grade. Programs are one hour, from 4 p.m.–5 p.m. Register once for all sessions. Program dates are Wed. Jan. 15, Feb. 12, March 25, April 22.

Book Discussions

Registration is in the Children’s Room only, starting Tuesday Jan. 7, at 10:00 a.m. All programs are one hour. A beverage and snack will be provided. Please advise a Children’s Librarian of any food allergies at registration!

CHAPTER CHAT

Tuesday, March 31, 4 p.m.–5 p.m.

A book discussion for children in second grade. Come and discuss “The Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones” (A Cam Jansen book) by David Adler.

BOOK ENDS

Tuesday, April 28, 4 p.m.–5 p.m

A book discussion for children in Grades 3-5. . Come and discuss “Dewey Fairchild, Parent Problem Solver” by Lorri Horn.

***NEW PROGRAM- A CHAPTER OR TWO AT A TIME

A Librarian will read aloud a short chapter book, a chapter or 2 at a time. Participants can read along or just listen. (Book title to remain a mystery so no one reads ahead). Program will incorporate some writing and art. For children in third grade. This is a 3-session program, meeting from 4 p.m.–5 p.m. on Wednesdays April 29, May 6, May 13.

Winter/Spring Special Programs

**MONTHLY LEGO CLUB.

Jan. 14, Feb. 11, March 10, April 7, 4 p.m.–5 p.m.

For children in Grades K-5 only. Children accommodated on a space available basis.

BOOK BUDDIES.

Feb. 6, 13, 27, March 5, 12, 4 p.m.–5 p.m.

Have your child team up with a YA volunteer for help with homework or reading. No registration required.

ROBO EXPO WITH GC FRIENDS OF STEM.

Feb. 24, 7 p.m.–8 p.m.

Stop by to see local robotics teams display their robots and research.

**CREATE YOUR OWN STUFFED ANIMAL.

Feb. 29, 11 a.m.–12 p.m.

For children ages 2½–5 (no kindergarten) and an adult, from Online registration begins Feb. 11.

**ART WITH SAMANTHA: March 7

Join Samantha Raiten for some fun art programs. Children ages 2½ -5 (no kindergarten) and an adult at 10 a.m.; for children in Grades K-2 at 11 a.m.; and for children in Grades 3-5 at 12 p.m. Online registration begins Tuesday, Feb. 25.

**STEM BUILDING PROJECT WITH SCIENCE TEACHER CHRIS BUCHMAN March 16

This fun program is for children in Grades 2 and 3 only, and runs from 4:305:30. Required Online registration begins Tuesday, March 3.

**PRESCHOOL SPRING EGG HUNT April 7, 10 a.m.–10:45 a.m.

For children ages 2½–5 (no kindergarten) and an adult caregiver. Online registration begins Tuesday, March 31. Children should bring their own baskets to collect eggs. Eggs must be returned at the end of the program.

**BABY START WITH A TIME FOR KIDS. May 5, 10 a.m.

For children from birth-17 mos. and an adult caregiver. Online registration begins Tuesday, April 28.

**PRESCHOOL READINESS WITH A TIME FOR KIDS.

May 5

For children ages 18-29 mos., and an adult caregiver. Online registration begins Tuesday April 28.

**INTRO TO ROBOTICS

May 5, 12, 19, 3:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m.

For Grades 4 and 5. Online registration begins April 28. One registration for all 3 sessions.

THURSDAY NIGHTS WITH MISS AMELIE

7 p.m.–7:45 p.m. (except where noted)

No registration required, except where noted.

Children accommodated on a firstcome, first-served basis.

Jan. 23

Stop by the Children’s Department and make a Winter Craft (Grades K-2)

Feb. 13

Join Miss Amelie and make a Valentine’s Day card (Grades K-5)

March 19

Trivia Night. Online registration required beginning March 10 (Grades 3-5).

April 30

Family Storytime (ages 3-6, and an adult) 7–7:30 p.m.

TWEEN PROGRAMS (GRADES 4-7)

See separate flyer for additional details.

Tween Mondays, 7–8 p.m.

Jan. 27- *Game Night

Feb. 10- *(Open Mic Night) March 2- *Cookie Decorating April 27- *Book Discussion- Raina Telgemeier’s “Smile” May 18-*Kahoot Trivia

Saturday April 4

Quidditch, 11 a.m. (No Rain Date)

Children’s Department Program Rules and Guidelines

• There are no storytimes when students do not have classes due to holidays, Parent-Teacher Conferences, etc.

• There must be at least 3 Registered children present for a storytime/book discussion to be conducted.

• Only age/grade appropriate children can be registered for and be admitted into a Children’s Program.

• Storytime schedules are subject to change based on staffing.

• We reserve the right to cancel a program if registration is 5 or less.

Weather-Related Policies: Storytimes and programs will be cancelled under the following conditions:

• When schools are closed for the day due to inclement weather.

• When schools have a delayed opening, morning storytimes and programs are cancelled. Please call about afternoon and evening programs.

• When schools have early dismissal, afternoon and evening storytimes and programs are cancelled. Please call about morning programs.

• Cancelled programs and storytimes may not always be rescheduled.

• Please check the Library’s Website and Children’s Facebook Page for updates. Late Arrival Policies:

• Please be prompt. If you are late for any Children’s Program, you risk losing your space for the day to a wait-listed patron who is present.

• If you are late for a pre-registered special program, you risk losing your space to a person/family on the waitlist. We give latecomers a 10-minute grace period before we give their slot to someone on the waitlist who is present. Librarian in Charge of the Program will make final decision.

• We are not always able to expand attendance to accommodate latecomers, once the slot has been filled.

**Funding for these programs has been provided by The Friends of the Garden City Public Library. Please check the Library website www.gardencitypl. org for upcoming events and registration dates.

The young Princess Elizabeth: The girl who would be Queen

With Marilyn Carminio Garden City Public Library

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 at 2 p.m.

Every little girl longs to be a princess, but what is life really like for a young girl growing up first as Elizabeth of York and then as Princess Elizabeth, heir to the throne? Marilyn Carminio will discuss her childhood, her relationship with her sister Margaret, the effects of the abdication of her uncle, her

teenage years during a time of war and her coming of age as a married woman on Tuesday, January 14 at 2 p.m. at the Garden City Public Library. Learn what it is really like to live in a palace? How do parents raise an unspoiled princess? This richly detailed portrait is a peek into the heart of the young girl who would become Her Majesty the Queen. This program is open to all. No registration is required.

14th Annual Cozy Up with a Good Book Adult Reading Club

Adult Winter Reading Club at the Garden City Public Library It’s that time again! It’s hard to believe that it is the fourteenth year of “Cozy Up with a Good Book” Adult Winter Reading Club at the Garden City Public Library. You are invited to join the Fourteenth Annual Adult Winter Reading Club to be held from Tuesday, December 17 to Saturday, March 15, 2020. There are no meetings. You choose the books you want to read or listen to. You will fill out a review card for each book. You will then be entered into a final drawing at the “Cozy Up with a Good Book” Celebration Brunch (by

invitation only) to be held in the spring. Each participant must do a minimum of three reviews to be invited to the celebration brunch. The last day for reviews to be handed in is Saturday, March 15, 2020. The more review cards you fill out, the more chances you have to win! Registration begins on Tuesday, December 17th at 9:30 a.m. and ends Saturday, January 25th 2020 and must be done in person. You must be an adult Garden City Library cardholder to join. So come in and register at the Reference Desk. And remember --- cozy up with a good book this winter!

Eddie & Jean Costello’s Trash or Treasure Antiques Roadshow

Garden City Public Library

Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 2 p.m.

Online Registration Begins Tuesday, January 7 at 10 a.m.

Do you have something that is old, unusual and perhaps even bizarre? Come find out on Sunday, January 26 at 2 p.m. at the Garden City Public Library. Learn how to identify today’s hottest antiques and collectibles. Eddie Costello will be guest appraiser and host. The first 40 people who register will have the opportunity to bring an item they would like to have appraised (no coins, currency, or stamps) and Eddie will provide an appraisal and rationale for the valuation. Eddie is a veteran appraiser with over 40 years of

experience. His crowd-pleasing appraisal events and entertaining demeanor always make for an informative and entertaining show.

Online registration begins Tuesday, January 7 at 10 a.m. for Garden City Library cardholders. You may register in person or register by calling the Reference Department at 516-742-8405 ext. 239. To be guaranteed an appraisal, you must sign-up for this program ahead of time. On the day of the program walkins are welcome; however, walk-ins will receive an appraisal after those who have signed up, if time permits. NonGarden City Library cardholders may call to register on Wednesday, January 22 if space is available.

Library’s Sixth Grade Robotics Team Practice Tournament

The Library’s FIRST LEGO League Sixth Grade Robotics Team, the Burnt Panini Pressed Pancakes, used a practice table between matches at the FIRST LEGO League Practice Tournament. The tournament was held Saturday, December 14 at Ronkonkoma Middle School.

Children’s Librarian Barbara Grace and Young Adult Librarian Laura Giunta, who are the coaches for the Library’s FIRST LEGO League Sixth Grade Robotics Team, stand with the Library’s team, the Burnt Panini Pressed Pancakes, during the FIRST LEGO League Practice Tournament.

Attention students!

Graduated from school? Have an outstanding GPA? Made the honor roll or Dean’s List? Scored an internship or study abroad opportunity? We invite you to send details of any of these things and more, along with your name and contact info, to editor@gcnews.com for a chance to be seen in our paper!

Teens and tweens celebrate at Library’s Holiday Parties

Tweens and teens made reindeer themed-ornaments during the Library’s annual Teen Holiday Party and Cookie Swap on Saturday, December 14.

Tweens had fun decorating holiday ornaments during the Tween Holiday Party, which was held Monday, December 9 at the Library. This was a joint program with the Young Adult and Children’s Department for Grades 4-7, as part of their monthly Tween Night programs.

Cluttered?

Living a healthy life with chronic conditions

Garden City Public Library Wednesdays, January 8 –February 12, 2020 at 9:30 a.m.

A Community Outreach Educator from NYU Winthrop Hospital will conduct a 6-week 2½-hour workshop Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions on Wednesday mornings at 9:30 beginning on January 8 through February 12. This program is designed to help with self- management of heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke, arthritis and osteoporosis, diabetes, depres-

sion, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and other physical and mental health conditions. Topics include understanding and managing symptoms, exercising for flexibility strength and endurance, healthy eating and weight management, and communicating with family, friends and health care professionals. Online registration on Eventkeeper (www.gardencitypl.org) for Garden City library cardholders began at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, December 17, 2019.

Blood drive on Jan. 7 at Garden City Public Library

Tuesday, January 7, 2020 2:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Long Island Blood Services will hold a blood drive at the Garden City Public Library on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, 2:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m. in the large meeting room on the lower level of the Library. Area hospitals are in need of local residents’ help. Each donation can help to save up to three lives.

Eligible donors must be between 16 and 75 years of age, with a minimum

weight of 110 lbs., and no tattoos within the past 12 months. Sixteen year olds must have parental permission and donors age 76 and over must present a doctor’s note. All donors must have valid ID with signature or photo. Donors are encouraged to eat well (low fat) and drink fluids. For medical questions concerning blood donations, call 1-800-688-0900. Call the Library at 7428405 x210 to schedule an appointment. Walk-ins are welcome.

Be sure to check the back part of The Garden City News each week for the latest in GC sports.

Place an ad in our Classifieds for reasonable rates and prompt results. Call the GC office today at 294-8900 for more info.

The Lutheran Church hosts “A Night In Bethlehem!”

BY REGINA MORAN

This past weekend, The Lutheran Church was transformed into the Town of Bethlehem for their annual Holiday Event. Church staff, parishioners and volunteers treated those in attendance to a magical night. Attendees were able to see a glimpse of what life was like for Mary and

Joseph as they arrived in Bethlehem long ago. A spice tent, scribes, Roman guards, a tax collector and a manger complete with animals greeted everyone as Mary told the story of their journey to Bethlehem. This huge and amazing undertaking was absolutely beautiful and gave meaning to the term “The Reason for the Season.”

Sampling some delicacies.

Making a spice sachet using lavender, rosemary and rose petals.

Children enjoyed receiving a “passport stamp” at each spot.

Meeting the Roman guard who kept a watchful eye on everyone. Maddie O’Brien making a furry friend at the manger.

Listening to Mary and Joseph tell the story of their journey to Bethlehem.

Rotary celebrates the holidays at annual luncheon party

On December 9, the Societe Suite at the Garden City Hotel was filled with members and guests of the MineolaGarden City Rotary Club who gathered to celebrate the Holiday Season with their annual Holiday Luncheon party.

The afternoon was filled with all the festivities of the season. Attendees enjoyed good cheer, fellowship and great networking, along with an array of great raffle prizes.

A special feature this year was the performance by Garden City High School’s 22-piece Instrumental Jazz Band Ensemble, whose repertoire included a medley of holiday tunes along with other special renditions.

In addition, the Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary’s highest honor, was presented to longtime members Dr. Joseph Frey and Althea Robinson for their work with Rotary over many years.

Photos by Club Vice President Diane Marmann

Anita Frey and Joseph Frey, who received his third Paul Harris Fellow Award

The Suciete was filled with members and guests who enjoyed a great Garden City Hotel Lunch along with the festivities of the season.

Past District Governor and Past Club President Thomas Gelsdorf presents to Dr. Joseph Frey his third Paul Harris Fellow Award, Rotary’s highest honor.

Ray Sikorski, Holiday Luncheon MC, familiarized guests with the many services of Rotary, the world’s largest service organization.

Two past Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club presidents, Maureen Clancy and Jim Brady.

Rotarian Althea Robinson receives her third Paul Harris Fellow Award from Club President Joseph Packard and Past President and event MC Raymond Sikorski.

Rotarian Ray Sikorski with family and friends.

Dean Michael Sniffen, Cathedral of Incarnation (seated), who delivered the meaningful invocation, is pictured with Past Club President Gary Fishberg.

Past Club presidents Ray Sikorski and Maura Clancy.

Past District Governor and Past Rotary President Thomas Gelsdorf with current President Joseph Packard.

The Garden City High School’s renowned 22-pieice Jazz Band Ensemble, under the direction of Daniel DellaMonica, entertained with the sounds of the season and beyond.

Past Club President Joanne Meyer-Jendras (right) and Althea Robinson line up the array of generously donated raffle prizes.

Rotary Club Secretary Peter Gall and Past President Bob Schoelle, both Paul Harris Fellows, check guests in to the luncheon.

Senior citizens enjoy dinner and a show at GCHS

The Garden City Teachers’ Association recently provided dinner for local senior citizens attending

Garden City High School’s opening performance of “High School Musical on Stage!”

citizens attending

Garden City teachers served dinner to senior citizens prior to the opening performance of Garden City High School’s production of “High School Musical on Stage!” The Garden City Teachers’ Association provided the dinner.

The cast and crew delivered three amazing performances of the show, led by cast members Lara Abruzzo, George Arianas, Ryan Murphy, Erin O’Connor, Paul Stein. Both meal and musical were met with plenty of

praise by the special guests. Thanks to the senior citizens, the students and the GCTA for putting this wonderful afternoon together!

Basketball practice is filled with song in Garden City High School’s production of “High School Musical on Stage!”

Cast members of Garden City High School’s production of “High School

really

About to hit a milestone?

Share your life accomplishments with your neighbors! Put your engagement, wedding, or baby announcement in the paper, (and it's free of charge for subscribers!) Email editor@gcnews.com

Photos courtesy of the Garden City School District

Musical on Stage!” show they can

carry a tune during their opening performance.

Local senior

Garden City High School’s opening performance of “High School Musical on Stage!” enjoyed dinner prior to the show, provided by the Garden City Teachers’ Association.

Paid Summer Internship Position Available

The New York Press Association Foundation is sponsoring a paid summer internship at this newspaper for a qualified journalism

Any student currently enrolled in a recognized journalism program is eligible to compete for an internship with a net $2,600 stipend provided by NYPA. Applicants must attend college during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Hurry! Application deadline is March 1, 2020

Christmas spirit in the air at Garden City Community Church

The Christmas spirit was in the air at the Garden City Community Church Nursery School on Friday, December 13. Some shepherds, kings, angels and elves entertained their family and friends with some festive songs. All of the children and their families enjoyed some goodies back in their classrooms after the program.

The Community Church Nursery

School has been committed to quality early childhood education since 1953. It is located in the Garden City Community Church at 245 Stewart Ave, corner of Whitehall Blvd. Call the school office at (516)746-1756, visit www.GCCCNurserySchool.com, or see the Community Church Nursery School on Facebook for more information or to schedule a tour.

See what's happening at your library!

From classes to lectures and concerts to movie screenings, there's never a dull day at your local library! Check this paper each week for fun and informative all-ages activities, all for free or cheap!

Singing This Little Light of Mine

Some pretty angels

Some shepherds preparing to perform

Singing Away in a Manger

Village lease to add parking at Stewart athletic fields

along with Trustee Mark Hyer, said another aspect of the parking area and Vanderbilt Motor Parkway restoration should address signage on Raymond Court.

“We need to make sure that when we put the parking spaces back there that we recognize if people living on Raymond Court have more traffic going in and out of the area that we take steps to stop the ways they were overwhelmed with people illegally parking on Raymond Court itself. New parking spaces and appropriate signage installed should alleviate that problem,” Delany said.

Mayor Theresa Trouvé noted for DPW Superintendent DiFrancisco that both signage to locate the parking for Stewart Field and interpretive historical signage along the Long Island Motor Parkway would be part of the project in spring and she herself will work with others on the historical signage The Village of Garden City plans to erect informational sign boards to commemorate the history of the Motor Parkway, the first road in America designed for automobile use and built in 1908 during the Queens/Long Island (William K.) Vanderbilt Cup Races.

“I have a big interest in seeing this through to completion with how our historical signage shapes out. It is really exciting to have something commemorative like that happen ad we want to do as good a job with that as we possibly can,” the mayor commented.

Trustee Hyer then recognized and thanked two gentlemen sitting in the audience at the Board meeting, longtime residents (former village historian) Cyril Smith as well as current Village Historian William Bellmer, for their efforts to document and collect information on the original Long

Island Motor Parkway. In May 2019 Bellmer presented on the Garden City section of the Motor Parkway and “the Role of Garden City” in the parkway’s operation until 1939 to an audience at the Bethpage Library, with an evening organized by the Long Island Motor Parkway Preservation Society (reported in The Garden City News on May 23, 2019). An inaugural meeting of founders of the Vanderbilt Cup Races took place at the Garden City Hotel in 1906 as consideration of building the Parkway came under scrutiny.

Football Field Crunch?

During the work session Trustee Louis Minuto asked if the village’s Recreation and Parks department could work on planning a new footprint for the football field at Stewart Field as he sees it “squeezed in behind the baseball diamonds” now. Minuto says from the football field’s 20-yard lines players would run off into the base paths of the baseball diamond infield.

“Definitely I have watched some kids playing turn their ankles on that section. Now that we would allocate more space in the rear of Stewart Field the football field should shift about 20 yards back. That may not seem significant but there exists a weird playing condition right now as football teams would be shifting onto baseball infields that have a significant rise from the ground. If a football player is hauling down running on the field and they reach that infield it’s an injury waiting to happen,” Minuto explained. The clearest example of what Minuto described was often visible at the NFL’s Oakland Raiders home games played atop the Oakland A’s infield at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum in California, and Sunday December 15 marked the very last time the NFL would play there.

Paul Blake, chair of the Rec.

Commission and superintendent of Recreation and Parks, says unfortunately the configurations of Stewart Field do not allow staff to move the football field up north another 20 yards.

“If we go north 20 yards we’d then be on the infield of the north baseball diamond. We’re just really tight there for space. By the way the football field featured a total of six games there this past fall and we are hopeful to move every game to Community Park there next fall,” he said.

Trustees debated why each football game was not scheduled for Community Park to free up Stewart Field and avoid the cramped playing surfaces. Blake informed them that the village Recreation did not control all schedule-making because the league operates “with a multi-town schedule” but Rec. did make the league aware it’s preferable they schedule all official games in Garden City at Community Park in fall 2020. The fall does coincide with scheduling for boys’ and girls’ soccer as that can create some logjams for games.

“The Nassau County league schedules all the games and we are hopeful games will be planned for Community Park and we would hope to not use Stewart Field for games next fall,” he said.

New Turf Field?

Trustees also discussed the potential of the village building another 100-yardplus, multipurpose and multi-sport synthetic turf playing field in addition to the one opened a few years ago at Community Park. The discussion took shape as one work session led into the next on December 12, with a separate topic dedicated to potential capital projects that could be part of the Village of Garden City’s 2020-’21 budget.

Paul Blake specified the potential of a new, multipurpose turf field as

being one investment the village and Rec. Department must take a good look at, whether now or in the next four or five years. Blake advised the Board that the Recreation Department has had to schedule games and teams on the multipurpose field tightly, however no requests from youth sports leagues in the village have been turned down to date and Rec. “has been able to accommodate all the village’s youth groups and make our schedule run like clockwork.” At times Rec. had to turn away some potential outside renters of the new field.

“Obviously with our 100-yard-plus turf field at Community Park we are seeing increased usage because more people and groups want to schedule to be on the multipurpose field. Whether we do one at Stewart Field or perhaps putting one at Community Park going across two outfields is something we need to take a look at. We first need to speak with our youth sports groups in Garden City to see what their own enrollment projections are and demographics are going forward. But there’s no question that it is possible we could see this second multipurpose field come forward as a capital project for the village in the next couple of years,” Blake explained.

Trustee Minuto said each time he has been to the multipurpose field at Community Park it is packed, and he is eager to see the data and projections on usage to help Rec. plans evolve.

Trustee Daughney noted to his fellow Board members, “it all depends on what we do with St. Paul’s.” He briefly mentioned the relationship of what is ultimately planned for the St. Paul’s campus as a key to this decision-making and future allocations of space and funding.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF MORR DASHING MERCH LLC.

Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York SSNY on 10/24/2019. Office located in Nassau. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC 233E Wheeler Ave Garden City NY, 11530. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

GC 1011

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REFEREE’S NOTICE OF SALE IN FORECLOSURE Supreme Court County of Nassau

J.P. MORGAN MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-S3, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE, Plaintiff - againstPETER C. BEH, et al Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered on October 8, 2019. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Calendar Control Part (CCP) Courtroom of the Supreme Court, 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, Nassau County, New York 11501 on the 7th day of January, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Incorporated Village of Garden City, Town of Hempstead, County of Nassau and State of New York.

Premises known as 135 Nassau Boulevard, Garden City, (Village of Garden City (Town of Hempstead)) NY 11530. (SBL#: 33.-33-84)

Approximate amount of lien $1,732,461.51 plus interest and costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed judgment and terms of sale. Index No. 15-8038.

Lisa Goodwin, Esq., Referee. Davidson Fink LLP

Attorney(s) for Plaintiff

28 East Main Street, Suite 1700 Rochester, NY 14614-1990 Tel. 585/760-8218

For sale information, please visit Auction.com at www. Auction.com or call (800) 2802832

Dated: November 7, 2019 GC 1012 4X 12/06,13,20,27

NOTICE OF SALE

Supreme Court

Nassau County

MTGLQ INVESTORS, LP, Plaintiff against WILLIAM HERLIHY A/K/A WILLIAM A. HERLIHY, et al

Defendants

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered March 7, 2019, I will sell at public auction to the highest bidder at CCP (Calendar Control Part Courtroom), in the Nassau Supreme Court, 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, N.Y. 11501 on January 7, 2020 at 11:30 AM. Premises known as 4 Harrison Street, Garden City, New York 11530. Sec 33 Block 314 Lot 23, 24, 25 & 52. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Incorporated Village of Garden City, in the Town of Hempstead, County of Nassau and State of New York. Approximate Amount of Judgment is $686,113.24 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No 15-010755. Cash will not be accepted at the sale.

Bennett Wernick, Esq., Referee Knuckles, Komosinski & Manfro, LLP, 565 Taxter Road, Suite 590, Elmsford, NY 10523

Attorney (s) for Plaintiff (s).

2267-002271

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NOTICE OF SALE Supreme Court Nassau County U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE, ON BEHALF OF THE HOLDERS OF THE CSFB MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2005CF1, V. COLLEEN TRETTIEN; ET AL. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated January 19, 2017, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Nassau, wherein U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE, ON BEHALF OF THE HOLDERS OF THE CSFB MORTGAGE PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2005-CF1 is the Plaintiff and COLLEEN TRETTIEN; ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the CALENDAR CONTROL PART (CCP), FIRST FLOOR, COURTROOM OF THE SUPREME COURT, 100 SUPREME COURT DRIVE, MINEOLA, NY 11501, on January 28, 2020 at 11:30AM, premises known as 162 MEADOW ST, GARDEN CITY, NY 11530: Section 34, Block 546, Lot 32 & 39:

ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF GARDEN CITY, TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, COUNTY OF NASSAU AND STATE OF NEW YORK Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 0000801/2015.

Marilyn Salzman, Esq.Referee.

RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

GC 1017

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“Noon” Year’s Eve Celebration at LICM

Long Island Children’s Museum will be roaring into 2020 with its annual “noon” year’s eve celebration, “Countdown to 12!” The annual family-friendly event allows visitors to take part in all the traditional elements of the holiday on a schedule designed for children… and exhausted parents. Activities start at noon on Tuesday, December 31 and feature themed crafts, face painting, a DJ-led dance party … and two ball drops to kick off and conclude the year ending party.

“LICM will be putting a twist on the theme of ‘roaring’ 20s,”explains Aimee Terzulli, LICM Director of Education and Visitor Experience. “At our family-focused new year’s celebration, we’re weaving the king of the jungle, the lion, into our activities so kids can truly ‘roar’ into 2020.”

Mid-day is substituted for midnight, but all the other New Year’s Eve party elements are on view at “Countdown to 12! – music, dancing and fun activities. During the afternoon children will design “Mane” Event new year hats, Hear Me Roar noisemakers, Tick Tock! Lion Clocks and Lions Rule necklaces, chomp into some “I Ain’t Lion” cookies and spring into

the Ferocious Feline face painting station. DJ Mike will be on hand to help visitors show off their fierce dance moves. All Countdown activities are included with Museum admission on Tuesday, December 31. TIP: Skip the lines; purchase general admission tickets online at www.licm.org LICM created “Countdown to 12!” in 2005 to provide families with the opportunity to celebrate this special occasion together. Family-focused New Year’s celebrations were lacking in the area, but families looking to celebrate certainly were not. More than 25,000 visitors have rung in the new year at the Long Island Children’s Museum since “Countdown to 12!” was launched.

All activities will be held at the Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Avenue, Garden City, NY. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Museum admission: $14 for adults and children over 1 year old, $13 seniors, FREE to museum members and children under 1 year old. Additional fees for theater and special programs may apply. For additional information, contact 516-2245800.

The Welcoming Club of Garden City

The Garden City Welcoming Club recently celebrated one of its Ladies’ Nights at Capo Ristorante on Covert Ave. The food was amazing and so were the gingerbread houses! Thank You to Capo Ristorante and all involved that helped make it a magical night.

Happy Holidays from the Welcoming Club of Garden City!!

Save the Date for our FIRST EVER COUPLES TRIVIA NIGHT!! A new and exciting couples event filled with great food, open bar and trivia competition. Mark your calendars, this is an event you won’t want to miss!

Tickets go ON SALE 12/27!!

Save the Date:

email GCCraftClub@gmail.com.

January 8, 2020 is Movie Night. The movie is TBD. Tickets go on sale December 11, 2019!

Upcoming Events

1/8/20: Movie Night

2/7/20: Trivia Night

4/25/20: Amazing Race

** Bowling Club** meets every Wednesday at 9:30am at Herrill Lanes

Join A Group

Book Club

Enjoy a good book amongst good friends. Our book club meets on a monthly basis to discuss the page turner of choice. For upcoming book club events, please email WelcomingClubBookClub@gmail.com.

Craft Club

The craft club is a great way to meet with friends and practice your crafting skills. This club meets every few months and creates a seasonal project. If you are interested in joining, please

Supper Club

Bring your significant others out for this one! This is a great way to make new friends as a couple. You will be paired up with 3-4 other couples to set up a rotation of dinner events. Host your new friends at a pot luck dinner or head out to try our local restaurants. Please email GCSupper@ gmail.com for more information.

Bowling Club

Join us!! No experience necessary! We are looking for new faces to join our Wednesday morning league. Occasional pacers are also welcome. Anyone interested, please contact Ellen Diller (Diller05@aol.com) Carol Santangelo (santa060@yahoo.com) or Elizabeth Colantonio (mcdea@aol.com).

Bunko

Bunko is a simple dice game usually played in a group of 12. It is a great way to meet people and make new friends. The game is easy to learn and play. If you are interested, please contact WelcomingClubBunco@gmail.com.

Toddler Activities

A great way for you and your little ones to make new friends. Activities include stroller walks each Tuesday around our beautiful neighborhood and a visit to the park. Stroller walks are on winter hiatus and will start up

It was such a fun night with friends.

again in April 2020. Playgroups for parents and kids can also be arranged for your littles ones! Please email GCToddlerActivities@gmail.com for more information.

Golf

Golf lessons at Cherry Valley Club are always a big hit! Golf pro Ed Kelly helps us GCWC ladies improve our golf game. If you are interested in reserving your spot for the spring 2020 session, email WelcomingClubGolf@gmail.com.

Tennis

Tennis lessons and group play at

the Garden City Bubble! Please contact WelcomingClubTennis@gmail.com to reserve a spot for the fall 2020. Want to join the fun and make a difference? We invite you to join the club! For just $37 a year, you will have access to lots of great events and many fun members-only clubs and events. Complete the easy online membership form today at www. thegardencitywelcomingclub.org in the “Join” section of the website. While you are there, browse the site for lots of great information about the club.

Gingerbread House champion

Rotary’s Support of Gift of Life and RotaCare Continues

As many folks are aware, the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club has continued to support two of its major services throughout many years. Gift of Life, Inc., provides free cardiac surgery for children whose lives are threatened without cardiac surgery. RotaCare, initiated by the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club in 1992, provides free health care for those without insurance and in most need.

“Kids for Kids” 5-K Walk Run Benefits Gift of Life, Inc.

This past September 22, 2019, Gift of Life, Inc. held its “Kids for Kids” 5-K walk Run at Morgan Park, Glen Cove, NY. Members of the Mineola Garden City Rotary Club were among supporters of the 5-K Gift of Life benefit. Gift of life was initiated 44 years ago by Robbie Donno, member of the Manhasset Rotary Club. Since then, more than 35,000 life-saving operations have taken place around the world with local Rotary clubs sponsoring surgeries that that have taken place here at St. Francis Hospital in Flower Hill. The program is organized and sponsored by Gift of Life International. Throughout the years, the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club has sponsored several young patients who have come to the USA for surgery.

RotaCare Receives Grant from NC Bar Association’s WE CARE Fund

RotaCare is the recent recipient of a $2,500 grant from the Nassau County Bar Association’s WE CARE Fund, the charitable arm of the NC Bar Association. This contribution will allow RotaCare to provide critical health services to its neighbors in need. RotaCare has expressed its sincere gratitude for this support, especially at this time of the year.

Let your voice be heard!

Is there an issue in your community you want to discuss? Want to respond to something you saw in our paper? Write a letter to our editor and bring it to everyone’s attention! Send your letter to editor@gcnews.com and we’ll publish it for you!

Nassau County Bar Association’s WE CARE Fund Co-Chairs Christopher T. McGrath, Esq., Michael H. Masri, Esq., Grant Coordinator Blanch Puglisi and NCBA President Richard D. Collins, Esq.

Peter Marshall, Gift of Life Program supporter and a past president and longtime member of the Mineola Garden City Rotary Club, with Amy Aiosa, Co-Grand Marshall of the “Kids for Kids” 5-K Walk Run.

GC Country Club hosts

Ladies’ Christmas Luncheon

The ladies of the Women’s Club of the Garden City Country Club celebrated an early Christmas when they hosted their annual Ladies’ Christmas Luncheon on Thursday, December 5th. While being serenaded with Christmas carols on the piano, close to 200 women enjoyed the beautifully decorated club and did their Christmas shopping with numerous vendors selling stylish clothing, pocketbooks and jewelry.

Fifty-six raffle prizes were up for grabs including sport tickets, restaurant gift certificates, spa treatments, fitness classes as well as grand prizes including a fur trimmed cashmere shawl and a five course, gourmet . A portion of the proceeds of the event will be donated to the De La Salle School in Freeport and the Bobby Menges “I’m Not Done Yet” Foundation.

Photos by John Ellis Kordes.

Pat Elustondo, Jean Eschmann (Luncheon Chairperson)

Darcy O’Neill, Angel DiPietro, Lynne Noonan

Sitting: Sue Meringolo, Audrey Alleva, Pat Horl, Nikki Pizzamenti

Standing: Kathy Hughes, Loretta Caroleo, Donna Ceriano, Jenine Hucke

Meghan Eschmann, Beth Foley, Jean Eschmann, Maureen Preziosi

Pat Russo, Denise Quinn

Eileen Buser, Meghan Eschmann, Michaela Simone

American Legion & Auxiliary Holiday Celebration

Pauline Rudkin, Joan Nedelka, Frank and Lorraine Tauches, Jacqueline Eltringham and Betty Erdos.

The William Bradford Turner Post and the American Legion Auxiliary enjoyed a wonderful holiday dinner, which was organized by Auxiliary Unit President Joan Nedelka. This was an opportunity to socialize and review the 2019 accomplishments of both the Auxiliary and the Post. Unit

President Joan Nedelka also stated that she was thankful for her opportunity to serve as president, but would be handing over the gavel to the new president, Jacqueline Eltringham, who has served many years as the very popular and successful poppy chairwoman. Everyone thanked Joan

The Garden City PTA sends warm holiday wishes to everyone in our community!

Reminder: Schools re-open on Thursday, January 2.

PTA at the BOE

Tuesday, 1/7 - Board of Education Work Session and Student Achievement Report in GCHS Library at 8:15 p.m.

GCTA’s GC for a Cure

Get a running start on your New Year’s resolution!

Friday, 1/3 - GCTA’s GC for a Cure Registration Opens: www.gcforacure.com

GC Parent University Registration

This important community event offers free professional workshops for parents of pre-K to 12th grade students in Garden City School District.

Monday, 1/6 - Parent University Registration Opens: www.gardencitypu. com

Friday, 1/24 - Deadline for Registration

for her loyal service to the Auxiliary and wished Jacqueline success in her new role as unit president.

Commander Frank Tauches thanked everyone for attending the dinner and for the large donation of toys which were collected that night. Commander Tauches delivered these toys to the Marine base in Garden City. Everyone enjoyed a good meal, a good time with friends and being a part of the large donation of toys to the Toys for Tots program!

Garden City PTA News

Thursday, 1/30 - GC Parent University at GCHS. Session I begins at 7:00 p.m. and Session II begins at 8:05 p.m.

Upcoming PTA Meetings

Monday, 1/13 - Joint Elementary PTA Meeting at Stratford at 7:15 p.m.

Tuesday, 1/14 - SEPTA General Membership Meeting & Empowering Parents Workshop, Part 3 at High School Library at 7:00 p.m.

Attention High School Parents

Friday, 1/3 - High School Jr & Sr Assemblies: Alumni Return Day (Students Only)

Monday, 1/6 - Mandatory Skit Night Meeting for 12th Grade Parents in GCHS Auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

Monday-Friday, 1/6-1/10 - Scoliosis Screening for GCHS Students at GCHS

Wednesday, 1/8 - High School World Language Honor Society Induction in GCHS Auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, 1/9 - High School Winter Concert (Bands) in GCHS Auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

Friday, 1/10 - February ACT Registration Deadline (Not Offered at GCHS)

Saturday, 1/11 - NMEA All-County Festival Concert Division I West at Tilles Center at 2:30 p.m.

Membership

Help us reach our goal of 100% membership! Visit gardencitypta.org and click on “Join the PTA”.

Let’s Connect @GardenCityPTA

Websites: www.gardencitypta.org www.gcsepta.org

To Get Real Time InformationTurn on Notifications

Facebook: Facebook.com/GardenCityPTA

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Join the conversation and invite your friends.

Who We Are

Since 1945, the Garden City Parent Teacher Association has been dedicated to serving children and families in our community. Today’s Garden City PTA is a network of parents, teachers, administrators and community members devoted to the educational, social and emotional success of children. Our commitment to creating a collaborative environment where families and the school community can work together has and will continue to foster positive change in our schools and within our community. Together, we are a powerful voice for all our children, a relevant resource for our families and a strong advocate for public education.

Philadelphia Offers Treasure Trove of History, Heritage, Culture

BY KAREN RUBIN TRAVEL FEATURES SYNDICATE GOINGPLACESFARANDNEAR.COM

Philadelphia is a jewel box of unique and spectacular, even life-enhancing attractions, a treasure trove of history, heritage, culture that glitters particularly during the holidays. The holiday splendor is eye-catching and warms the heart, but any visitor still has to make time to experience first-hand at least some of these iconic places. I manage to bookend my holiday merrymaking with a mix of art (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Magic Gardens) with history (Independence Hall) with heritage (National Museum of American Jewish History) with science and enlightenment (Philly is the hometown of one of our most enlightened inventors, Ben Franklin, and so I end this visit with the Franklin Institute.

Barnes Collection

We spare no time once we drop our luggage at The Roost East Market, park the car in the garage, but grab an Uber to race over to The Barnes Foundation. The Barnes Collection is one of the world’s greatest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist paintings, with especially rich holdings in

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Philadelphia Offers Treasure Trove of History, Heritage, Culture

Continued from page D1

Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. Assembled by Dr. Albert C. Barnes between 1912 and 1951, the collection also includes important examples of African art, Native American pottery and jewelry, Pennsylvania German furniture, American avant-garde painting, and wrought-iron metalwork. In fact, we are told, Dr. Barnes has the greatest collection of Renoir anywhere – 181 of them acquired by Dr. Barnes between 1921 and 1942 that you actually see (as opposed to museums that keep most of their collections in storage). Plus 69 by Paul Cézanne; 59 by Henri Matisse; 46 by Pablo Picasso; 21 by Chaim Soutine; 18 by Henri Rousseau and the list goes on and on, as you walk from gallery to gallery to gallery.

The building complex is new, but the gallery rooms re-create the rooms and how Dr. Barnes displayed his art, intentionally juxtaposing masterworks by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso next to ordinary household objects – a door hinge, a spatula, a yarn spinner; a French medieval sculpture displayed with a Navajo textile; African folk art with Modigliani and Cubists. Dr. Barnes called these dense groupings of objects from different cultures, time periods and media his “ensembles.” He meticulously crafted the ensembles to draw out visu al similarities – even the source of inspiration. He meant them as teaching tools, essential to the educational program Dr. Barnes developed in the 1920s.

“He believed you could as likely learn

about how to do surgery wandering through a hospital as art wandering through a gallery – you have to be taught how to see, what to look for,” a docent explains. “He wanted people to appreciate how culture influences art.”

She adds, “He wasn’t an artist himself.”

In fact, she relates, 10 years ago, Central

High School (Dr. Barnes grew up in a working class family in Philadelphia), came across his school books. “He got A’s in everything but art.”

At the Barnes, you experience these masterworks in the most intimate manner, as if visiting a home (albeit a mansion). We are exceptionally lucky to visit when the museum is not at all crowded (actually we are there until closing) – I even get to have some of the art completely to myself. It is very comfortable to view – many of the rooms (and they seem to go on forever, one after another) are small and there is seating in each one, with guides to the artwork at hand. But you should try to take a docent tour. At one point, the docent pulls up a photo of Henry Matisse, sitting on the very bench and gazing at his own painting in that very room.

In every room, you are astonished to see art that is amazingly familiar –because they are so famous: Georges Seurat’s “Models” (the basis for “Sunday in the Park with George”); Vincent van Gogh’s “The Postman”; Paul Cezanne’s “The Card Players”; Edouard Manet “Laundry”; Pablo Picasso “Acrobat and Young Harlequin”, and a plethora of Renoirs – so many, you get a sugar high. Every gallery takes your breath away, and for that moment, the art, the masterpiece, is yours.

And then there are the surprises –the art and artists you “meet” for the

first time. I fall in love with a Van Gogh country scene I have never seen before. There is a wonderful painting of Dr. Albert Barnes (1872-1951) by Giorgio de Chirico (1926), which makes you wonder more about who he was to have assembled such an astonishing collection. Dr. Barnes was born and raised in working-class Philadelphia, earned a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and went on to study chemistry in Germany. After starting his own business and making a fortune in pharmaceuticals, he began collecting art.

“Dr. Barnes believed that art had the power to improve minds and transform lives,” the notes read. “In 1922, he established the Barnes Foundation as a school for learning how to see and appreciate art. He had a gallery built in Merion, a suburb of Philadelphia, to house his growing collection. He held classes in the gallery so that students could learn directly from the artworks.”

In 2012, the collection was moved to Philadelphia, to a building designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architecture. The collection gallery replicates the original gallery building in Merion.

The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130, 215-278-7000, www.barnesfoundation.org.

Choosing a uniquely different New Year’s resolution!

BY CLAIRE LYNCH

New Year’s Eve is upon us and it’s the perfect time for getting together with friends and relatives and making some new memories.

In talking with several friends of mine about their New Year’s Eve memories, my friend, Joey, recalled a prank he pulled years ago when he was a kid.

Joey says, “My best New Year’s Eve was that of 1999. I was nine years old at the time and I worked together with my dad to pull off what I considered the greatest prank in history. A few minutes before midnight I synced up a wrist watch with the countdown on TV. My dad pointed me in the direction of the breaker which was in our garage and showed me the lever to pull which would cut all power to the house.

“Now I don’t know if you remember the hype but the year 2000 was supposed to destroy all of our computers and technology sending us back to the Stone Age.

“So as the moment grew closer, I watched the seconds tick by on my wrist watch. It soon became apparent that I wouldn’t need it since I heard all of my relatives inside counting down 10, 9 , 8 … 2, 1! I pulled the lever at the perfect time and everything went dark. The first thing I heard was my aunt shouting, ‘Oh, my God, it hit! Y2K hit!!’

“I was only going to leave the power off for 10 seconds or so but the lever was stuck and I couldn’t get it back up for about two minutes, during which the whole time I heard my family freaking out. Then eventually they all

looked outside and started to wonder why our neighbors still had power. Thinking back I really wish we would have recorded this, I probably could have won some big bucks for having the funniest video!”

Last year on New Year’s Eve my family and I were invited to a New Year’s Eve party at my brother, Peter’s, house and several other relatives also attended the party. The younger kids were allowed to stay up until 10 p.m. so they grabbed their party hats and blowers and were definitely in the New Year’s Eve spirit.

In chatting with my nephew, Luke, who was eight then, I asked him what New Year’s Eve was all about. Smiling, he said that it was one big party, that’s why all of the relatives were over.

I tried defining it, tried summarizing it which is hard and tried explaining why the adults always end up singing “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s Eve and what the words mean which was even harder to do.

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne? …”

It’s an 18th-century Scottish ballad and basically the speaker is asking whether old friends should be forgotten, as a way of stating that obviously one should not forget one’s old friends. It seems a bit old fashioned but I told Luke that it has been a popular song to sing on New Year’s Eve. It’s tradition after all.

I told Luke a few of my New Year’s resolutions - to eat in a healthier way, to

lose some weight and to listen to other people better - and I asked him what he wanted to commit to do.

After he asked what the word “resolution” meant I explained that it means to “decide firmly on a course of action.” Luke got that then he said that he wanted to think about his options for a few minutes so he went off to get a soda.

I figured that he would get sidetracked after getting his soda but then again Luke does take things seriously. A half hour later he came up to me and said that he has a good idea. “For your New Year’s resolution?” I asked.

Nodding, he said that his New Year’s resolution was to be more patient which I thought was pretty nice because it showed me that he had really given it some thought. We got off the serious subject of making New Year’s resolutions and had fun partying with everyone else.

In terms of resolutions for the New Year, I was speaking with my cousin, Elaina, and her husband, Matt, and they said that they want to rent an RV and take their young kids camping out West next summer.

They added that the kids are old enough now, at eight, 10 and 12, to appreciate a trip like that. They want their first stop to be Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to see the faces of the four presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln - etched in stone.

Jerry, Jr., was so excited about seeing that monument and checking out the interactive exhibits inside the museum that he was counting the days

Who Ushers In the New Year First - And Last?

If you want to be among the first to welcome the New Year, your best bet is to head to Kiritimati, or Christmas Island. Located in the Indian Ocean, Kiritimati is the world’s largest coral atoll and is the first inhabited landmass west of the International Date Line.

The first major city to celebrate the New Year is Auckland, New Zealand. Because New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere, it is summertime and their celebrations include outdoor concerts and, as with most other major cities, a stunning fireworks display.

And if you happen to be wondering about who is the last to ring in the New Year worldwide, those who live in Honolulu, Hawaii, in Adak, Alaska, in Papeete, Tahiti, and in Pago Pago, Samoa are the last.

In 1904 a New Year’s Eve party was held in New York’s Times Square to commemorate the opening of the New York Times headquarters. Today nearly 1 million people converge on the city’s center to watch the infamous New Year’s Eve Ball drop down Times Square’s 77-foot flag pole.

It starts its decent at 1 minute until midnight and, when it has dropped, two tons of confetti are released on the crowd below. The confetti includes messages from people around the work that talk about their hopes, their dreams and their goals that have been left on the New Year’s Eve Wishing Wall at the Times Square Information Center. If you aren’t able to join the revelers, leave a message online and you can watch your message swirl around with all those in Times Square on New Year’s Eve!

until they were going to leave for their trip. Matt had been to Mount Rushmore as a child but Elaina and her three children have never seen it.

They want to continue on to the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, to Sedona, Arizona, and to Santa Fe, New Mexico. They want to see the red rocks and canyons of Sedona, check out the hiking trails and swim in Oak Creek, and go kayaking down the Verde River. In Santa Fe, they want to hit all of the tourist attractions plus go camping.

Usually they vacation much closer to home so making this New Year’s resolution to do something different is something they are really looking forward to.

My friend, Scott, said that his New Year’s resolution is for him and his wife to get on a plane and visit their daughter and her family in the Seattle area.

“It’s been too long since we’ve gotten together at their place so I am going to make it happen,” Scott said. “Usually they fly to Long Island to see the relatives but for a change I want to see them in their own home.”

My friend, Cathie, always says that it’s a happy New Year if she can take in an animal that needs a loving home. She doesn’t care if it’s a cat or a dog. Cathie tries to place animals in their forever homes whenever she can and over the course of 30 years or so she has really made a difference.

She knows that there are many more out there but Cathie has an extroverted personality and in that nice way of hers she has persuaded many prospective pet parents to take in the “new additions” to their families.

Then Cathie teaches them how to take care of their new pets if they need any advice or tips. She follows up in the weeks and months ahead to be sure that everyone is happy.

As was the case with many of the people I spoke with about their New Year’s resolutions, I have decided that I want to be more adventurous. I want to travel more, meet new people and increasingly open my heart and my mind to new experiences.

I want to rescue a cat and a dog and show them what a safe and stable home is. I want to play fetch with the dog, and yes, with the cat, too! I want to give them special names, names that are memorable and suiting their personalities.

Like my brother, Gregory, I want to spend more time walking and hiking in 2020. I am someone who reads and writes a lot so I enjoy every chance I have to go outdoors and be surrounded by nature.

When walking I don’t need a pedom-

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Working Women, Stay-At-Home Moms And Social Security

BY TOM MARGENAU

Sometimes I will write what I think is the most harmless and innocuous column about a Social Security issue -- and then all hell breaks loose! It happened again recently. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column in which I explained that a workingwoman will generally be paid her own Social Security benefit first. Only after that will they will look to her husband’s record to see if she can get any additional benefits. Well, that triggered a whole host of emails, some of them quite angry. Here is an example.

Q: I can’t believe how Social Security discriminates against women like me who were forced to work in order to maintain a certain standard of living. It’s a travesty that these lazy women who never worked a day in their lives and who got to stay home and let their husbands take care of them get essentially the same benefits that I do. I know a lady from our church who never worked a day in her life, and she gets Social Security from her husband -- and I get squat! What’s wrong with this picture?

A: Wow! There is some anger there -- on a whole lot of levels. I’m not even going to touch your sentiments about stay-at-home wives and mothers. I’ll let someone more versed in women’s issues deal with that. But I will discuss your concerns about Social Security. And I think the best way I can do that is to once again share this story about my mom and the lady who lived next door to us.

I grew up in a small town where you could find rich folks in big houses living very near to poor folks occupying much more modest dwellings. And that was true of our neighborhood. My dad was a janitor struggling to make ends meet. My mother had to work to help pay the rent and keep enough groceries on the table to feed me and my three siblings.

Just behind our house and across the alley was a big home owned by the vice president of a local bank. His wife, even though she had a degree in journalism, never worked outside the home once the first of an eventual brood of six children came along.

My brothers and sister and I got along famously with the children of the banker and his wife. We were always playing games, shooting baskets or just hanging out. On the other hand, our parents rarely spoke. I guess the economic and educational gulf between them was just too great to foster any kind of meaningful relationship.

And that gulf only widened later in life between my mom and the neighbor lady after both of their husbands died. Sadly, most of the friction and resentment came from my mom’s side of the alley. And much of it had to do with Social Security.

Because my mom had worked most of her life, she received her own Social Security retirement benefit. The widows rate she was due on my dad’s Social Security account was only slightly higher than her own, so she did get a small bump in her monthly checks from my dad’s side of the Social Security ledger.

Across the alley, the neighbor lady received no benefits on her own Social Security account, but she did get a rather substantial widows benefit from her deceased banker husband. It was more than my mother received from her combined accounts.

And this peeved my mother to no end. Sadly, she lived the rest of her life bearing deep resentment -- partly to her neighbor and partly to the Social Security system that allowed what she perceived to be this injustice to happen. I can still hear her griping: “THAT WOMAN never worked a day in her life. And there she is in that big house, getting more money each month from the government than me, a woman who worked hard all her life just trying to make ends meet!”

After I started working for the Social Security Administration, my mom carried on with her rants about the supposedly broken system and asked me “to do something about it.”

Of course, there was absolutely nothing that a brand new SSA employee could do about this situation. Besides, the laws that govern the payment of Social Security benefits are written by Congress, not by bureaucrats. Still, I tried to mollify my mom by discussing the rationale behind the rules with her. I explained that Social Security was not set up to work like regular pension programs. It always was (and still is today) a social insurance program intended to accomplish larger goals for society.

I used to ask my mom: “If you think things are unfair, what do you think we should do about it? Should we take widows benefits away from our neighbor because you don’t think she deserves them?” My mother might get a nasty little gleam in her eye with that thought. But she always eventually admitted that the neighbor was due her widows benefits.

My mom would counter with this: “I think I should get my own full Social Security benefit AND my own full widows benefit. After all, I worked and paid for my Social Security, and Dad worked and paid for his Social Security!” On the surface, it seems like a valid point. In fact, I’ve heard thousands of workingwomen make the same argument to me over the years.

But here is the flip side of that coin: If working women can get their own retirement benefits and full spousal benefits, shouldn’t working men be offered the same? In other words, every single

working person in this country would get his or her own Social Security benefit, and at the same time, everyone would also get a spousal benefit from his or her husband or wife.

Let’s be realistic. The system was never set up to do that. And it never could do that. Where in the world would the money come from to essentially pay double benefits to everyone in the country?

The truth is Social Security spousal and survivor benefits have always

been classified as “dependents” benefits. They are meant to be paid to a lower-earning (or nonearning) spouse who was financially dependent on the higher-income spouse. They were never meant to be paid to everyone as some kind of add-on marital bonus to their own Social Security account.

If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at thomas.margenau@comcast.net COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM

GOING PLACES, NEAR & FAR....

Philadelphia Offers Treasure Trove of History, Heritage, Culture

Continued from page D2

From here, we go to a family gathering at the mega-popular Zahav Restaurant (the Uber driver can’t believe we are getting in there since lines are usually around the block), an award-winning restaurant which elevates Israeli cuisine to gourmet status. The small plates menu is designed for diners to sample the variety of cultural influences on Israeli cuisine, from Eastern Europe to North Africa, from Persia to the Mediterranean. “Creamy, nutty hummuses, sizzling skewers of meat grilled over hardwood charcoal, and laffa breadar,  the soul of Zahav, baked to order in a wood-fired Taboon.” (237 Saint James Place, 215-625-8800, zahavrestaurant.com).

I spend the next day immersing myself in the sights and sounds of Philadelphia’s holiday activities (see: Holiday Happenings Give Visitors to Philadelphia Even More to Enjoy)

Independence Hall

I’m out of The Roost East Market apartment hotel at 8:30 am for a delightful 15 minute walk down Market Street to the Independence Hall Visitor Center to get a timed ticket for a tour of Independence Hall. They start distributing tickets at 8:30 am and I get a ticket for the first tour, 9:20 am (the ticket is free; you can pay $1 for advance reservations online, www.nps.gov/inde/ planyourvisit/independencehalltickets. htm). That gives me enough time to watch a short film in the Visitor Center and visit the “Great Essentials” exhibit of original printed copies of the three founding documents signed here at Independence Hall: the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and Constitution. Another interesting artifact: the Syng inkstand, believed to

be the silver inkstand in which the 56 Founding Fathers dipped their quills to “mutually pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor” in the cause of independence.

We gather in a room and learn that we have come from throughout the United States and the world.

“Government as we recognize it, was invented inside Independence Hall,” the Ranger tells us.

The building, in Georgian style architecture which manifested symmetry and order, is on the original site; the foundation was laid in 1732, the year George Washington was born.

The founders, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, would have called the building the Pennsylvania State House. All three branches of colonial government were housed here.

“Delegates representing 13 diverse colonies, speaking with a variety of accents, met here, who would have been more familiar with London than Philadelphia. What united them was how disturbed they were how the King and Parliament was treating the colonists. It was the end of the French & Indian War (The Seven Years War), which gave the British victory and control over most of North America, but the Crown imposed new taxes to pay for the war.

We are ushered into a room that would have served as Pennsylvania’s highest court.

“The Magna Carta spelled out the rights of British citizens – no man above law; trial by jury of peers; attorneys would be gathered at one table and colonists could gather and watch the trial. Colonists inherited numerous rights.” But grievances grew – taxation without representation – and the colonists saw their rights being whittled away by the British crown.

We enter the very room where the Continental Congress brought together delegates from 13 free and independent states. “We don’t know for sure but we think they were probably seated by geographic area.” As they gathered to consider their grievances with the crown, shots were fired at Lexington and at Concord, “the shots heard ‘round the world.” The War for Independence officially began.

July 8 1776, the bell in the steeple announced the first reading of Independence. (You can see the Liberty Bell with its famous crack now housed in its own pavilion.)

The visit, coming at such an auspicious time in American history, is like going back to ground zero of the founding:

At the start, colonists were deeply divided. The delegates met for a year before Thomas Jefferson penned the words, “All men are created equal endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

“That was one of the most profound and inspiring statements in human history. That government derives just power from the consent of the governed,” he said.

The War for Independence lasted eight years - France and Spain aided; the Dutch provided financial support. But the War for Independence also was a civil war that divided communities and even families. Ben Franklin’s own son, Sir William, was the Royal Governor of New Jersey, and remained a loyalist. He left America for England. (You can also visit the marvelous Ben Franklin Museum, housed below where his house would have been.)

The powerful words, “All men created equal” presented a paradox, even to the Founding Fathers, many of whom were slave owners from states where the economy derived from slavery. Despite Abigail Adams’ exhortation to husband John Adams to “Remember the ladies,” women’s rights were not even a consideration. “The Declaration is a document of promise,” the Ranger reflects. “Lincoln mentioned the Declaration of Independence in his Gettysburg Address; suffragettes Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Frederick Douglass & Martin Luther King Jr. all drew on the Declaration. We are exhausted from becoming independent, but work had just begun.”

The Articles of Confederation which set up the United States’ first government “was more like treaty of 13 independent countries, with 13 armies, 13 currencies. In less than four months, it was replaced with a central government under the Constitution.”

We see the chair used by George Washington, which has carved into it a rising sun. James Madison and

After visiting the exhibition at the National Museum of American Jewish History devoted to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, take a selfie with “Notorious RBG” herself © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Philadelphia Offers Treasure Trove of History, Heritage, Culture

C ontinued from page D5

Alexander Hamilton argued and debated over making of three co-equal branches of government; they compromised over representation of large and small states; compromised over the power and function of the presidency.

“George Washington called it the ‘miracle in Philadelphia.’ But they knew they could not predict the future. So the Constitution was designed to change, with provision to amend it.”

Plan your visit, get itinerary suggestions at Independence National Historic Park, 215-965-2305, www.nps.gov/inde/ planyourvisit/index.htm

The tour takes about a half-hour, and I am trying to pack a lot into one day. I decide to forgo a tour of Congress Hall and the Libertay Bell to race over to the National Museum of American Jewish History because I spot a banner showcasing the special exhibit, “Notorious RBG” which is only on view through Jan. 12. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of my heroes.

Notorious RBG at NMAJH

“Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” at the National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) is the first-ever museum retrospective of the Supreme Court Justice-turned-pop-culture-icon. The special exhibition traces a career that traveled from trailblazer to pop-culture icon, exploring the roots of her precedent-setting role on the nation’s highest court, as well as her varied roles as a student, life partner, mother, change-making lawyer, judge, and women’s rights pioneer.

Even though I had seen the excellent “Notorious RBG” documentary and the superb “On the Basis of Sex” film (written by her nephew) which formed the

basis of the exhibit (photos, home movies), there was still so much to learn, and the artifacts, and explanations.

The second woman—and the first Jewish woman—to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg acquired the “Notorious RBG” moniker after a series of fiery, record-breaking dissents she gave from the Supreme Court bench in 2013 around the Voting Rights Act. Then-NYU law student Shana Knizhnik was inspired to create the Notorious RBG tumblr, referencing rap star Notorious B.I.G. (In homage to Notorious B.I.G., the exhibition section titles are inspired by his lyrics.)

Based on the  New York Times bestselling book of the same name by Knizhnik and Irin Carmon, the visually rich and entertaining exhibition explores RBG’s legacy through archival photographs and documents, historical artifacts, contemporary art, media stations, and gallery interactives. It presents not only the Justice’s writings, opinions, and interviews, but also the whimsical yet powerful world of Notorious RBG memes, fan art, and parody – from a cartoon action figure named Wrath Hover Ginsbot to renderings of the Justice’s likeness on t-shirts, nail decals, and even as tattoos. (Clearly, Justice Ginsburg has always had a sense of humor, which was at the essence of her long-time relationship with her husband, Marty).

NMAJH’s location on Independence Mall provides an ideal backdrop for exploring Justice Ginsburg’s story and the circumstances that brought her to the Court. It places the Justice’s story at the very location where the United States was founded and the US Constitution established the Supreme Court. In fact, just diagonally across from NMAJH is the National Constitution

GOING PLACES, NEAR & FAR.... GOING PLACES, NEAR & FAR....

Center, (constitutioncenter.org).

Established in 1976, the National Museum of American Jewish History is the only museum in the nation dedicated exclusively to exploring and interpreting the American Jewish experience, going back 360 years.

NMAJH, a Smithsonian Affiliate, was originally founded by the members of historic Congregation Mikveh Israel, which was established in 1740 and known as the “Synagogue of the American Revolution”.

NMAJH , 101 South Independence Mall East at the corner of Fifth and Market Streets, www.NMAJH.org 215.923.3811.

Next: More Philadelphia Treasures: Magic Gardens, Franklin Institute

A  Visit Philly Overnight Hotel Package  includes overnight free parking and perks, and is bookable

at Greater Philadelphia’s official visitor website,  visitphilly.com, 800-537-7676 where you can explore things to do, upcoming events, themed itineraries and hotel packages.

© 2019 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com,  www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karenrubin & travelwritersmagazine.com/ TravelFeaturesSyndicate/ Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar. wordpress.com & moralcompasstravel. info. Send comments or questions to FamTravLtr@aol.com. Tweet @ TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook. com/NewsPhotoFeatures

Visitors to The Barnes Collection see the “ensembles” that Dr. Barnes created to inspire the viewer to look at art differently © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Choosing a uniquely different New Year’s resolution!

C ontinued from page D3

eter or any way to measure my steps. I just want to walk and walk and inhale the beauty of the world around me. I want to enjoy the four seasons and when there is an especially perfect day weather wise, I want to appreciate it for what it is and not take it for granted. With my nieces and nephews, I want to use this time in my life to encourage and support them. I want to tell them to work hard in school, to be themselves and to reach for the brass ring as far as their hopes, aspirations and goals are concerned.

I have 17 nieces and nephews, each one with different personalities and different talents and it is my goal to always

recognize their interests. One niece of mine who is nine years old enjoys performing on stage in her school plays. She can be quite the ham but she likes performing so much that I can possibly see a future actress there.

Another niece enjoys reading and telling stories, and she has got some imagination. She’s very creative when she makes up her stories. One nephew of mine is a big surfer in the summertime. He likes catching the perfect waves and riding them for as long as he can.

Sometimes when we sit around telling family stories and comparing notes I see a certain resemblance in them. In my nephews I see the habits of my father and grandfathers. In my nieces

I occasionally see certain characteristics of my mother and grandmothers - a smile, a tilt of the head, a smirk or a certain sense of humor that comes out when I least expect it.

Another New Year’s resolution that I have for 2020 is to tell the stories of my parents and grandparents, to tell my great big extended family things they may not know about their relatives. I want to pass down information and anecdotes for the younger kids, for the younger generation to know.

After I tell them these family stories I want to write down as much as I can. I will be as concise as possible but I will do my best to make their personalities come out. My ancestors certainly had their quirks and their flairs. As far as I

am concerned, making my family history come alive is key.

For 2020 I wish you happiness, health and prosperity! Happy New Year, everyone!

REAL ESTATE WATCH

Are you looking to upgrade or downsize?

BY PHILIP A. RAICES

Just as a side note, the letter that was mailed in to me back in early November by a subscriber, was accidentally shredded and I would appreciate it if you could resend it in to me at my office address located at the end of my column.

Are you in a situation whereby you are not sure whether or not to upgrade and purchase a larger home in a better location for your growing family or then again, staying and enlarging your current domicile and add as many of your “wish list” “bells and whistles” as you always wanted?

You obviously must weigh the pros and cons in considering this very important decision. Have you been searching for a new home and due to the historically low housing inventory, choices being slim and limited in what you are looking for in a “dream home”? Is the S.A.L.T. tax another issue in your decision making, because you want or would like to pay as close to the ten thousand dollar maximum deduction as possible or is this not a factor?

Are you looking for a move-in, mint and diamond condition new home or will you consider a fixer-upper that has more space than you currently have and/or a more desirable location? Which will be easier to do, to keep looking and hope that something will pop up during the winter months when there is much less competition from other anxious and hungry purchasers searching for a similar property?

These maybe challenges, but they can be minimized and solved if only you

have a carefully laid out plan; as I always say, “if you fail to plan, then you may plan to fail.”

You need to look at the expense of moving as opposed to staying in your current home, figuring out your budget to renovate and upgrade your current home. Will you want to or can you stay in your home in one area and be comfortable enough, while you start and finish the renovation in the other section; and then stay in the finished area while you do the other half?

pay off in the long run. If you have younger children you probably will be staying in the home for at least twenty years or more, since people move after their children finish college, unless student debt keeps them in place.

Moving would seem the easiest way to go, only if “all the stars lined up in a row” and the timing (luck) was perfect and you could find that elusive home that meets almost all your requirements.

But the sixty four thousand dollar question is when will that happen? I always advise my clientele to figure out what’s most crucial on their “needs list” and realize and go through what they are willing to trade-off, that maybe can be added at a later time once they move in. Sometimes it’s also, “champagne tastes and beer pockets.”

One must have the available money as well as first and foremost, the letter from your lender that you are qualified to purchase and at what price point. Maybe you can calculate how you might stretch your budget just a bit to secure the home you really need and want, anticipating the additional expense will

Those that secure higher paying jobs would have the opportunity to move out sooner and either rent (which I absolutely don’t recommend), but figure out every angle to ascertain what you would need to do to have your children become a homeowners). Some banks are allowing the rollover of student debt into a fixed mortgage for thirty years! However, I would be very sure of your career position and path before considering that move.

Downsizing comes about when the expense and responsibilities are way to great to consider staying any longer, especially if your home is larger than is necessary at the present time.

Cutting costs is always a good idea; but for those who are healthy and can afford to stay in place and don’t mind the chores and upkeep; then staying put in familiar surroundings is a positive reinforcement and sometimes keeps you in a healthier physical and mental state of mind. We are creatures of comfort and familiarity and don’t necessarily like change. It all depends on so many variables and it comes down also to, “whatever floats your boat.” Today, many are living much longer, have part time jobs or are still

running their businesses and continue to reside on Long Island, which also is contributing to the lack of housing inventory. Although more individuals and families are exiting New York than are relocating here; those that can afford to stay, I believe, have a lifestyle that is quite complete, beneficial and of excellent value, with the world class Jones Beach and others, outstanding parks, entertainment, shopping, restaurants, wineries, and of course, the Big Apple NYC!

Philip A. Raices is the owner/Broker of Turn Key Real Estate at 3 Grace Ave Suite 180 in Great Neck. He has earned designations as a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (G.R.I.) and also as a Certified International Property Specialist (C.I.P.S.). He will provide you with “free” regular updates of sold and new homes in your town via the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island (MLSLI)or go to WWW.Li-REalEstate. Com as well as a “free” value analysis of what your home might sell for in today’s market without any “strings” attached. He can also provide a copy of “Unlocking the Secrets of Real Estate’s New Market Reality or Our Seller’s or Buyer’s Guides for “Things to Consider when Selling or Purchasing your Home. Just email or snail mail(regular mail) him with your request with your name, email and cell number and he will send it out ASAP. For a consultation, he can be reached by Cell: (516) 647-4289 or by email: Phil@TurnKeyRealEstate. Com to answer any of your questions or concerns.

Wordsmiths Wanted

The “Writer’s Corner” column in our Discovery section is open to submissions from writers of articles on local topics, as well as opinions, reviews, personal experiences, humor, worthy places to visit on Long Island, and even fiction. E-mail submissions: editor@gcnews.com

• Attach article and any photos (1MB), along with your name and contact info.

• Articles must be between 1,500 - 3,000 words. • The writer will receive a stipend of $25.⁰⁰ for each accepted article.

EMPLOYMENT

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SITUATION WANTED

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Experienced woman seeking Full Time Live In Position. Willing to do light housekeeping, running errands. Licensed drive w/ own car. References available. Call Joy 516-902-1867

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MARKETPLACE

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Antiques-FurnitureJewelry-SilverMirrors-Lamps-ArtworkChinaCrystal-Collectibles

Tuesday-Friday 10-4 Saturday 12-4 (10% Sr. Discount Tues) All proceeds benefit The Garden City Historical Society Email: store@atstewartexchange.org

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INVITED ESTATE SALES BY TRACY JORDAN

Looking to sell items from your home?

Consider doing an Online Auction!

Online Auctions reach more interested buyers than tag sales and can often sell for more than what you would make at an estate or tag sale.

Invited Estate Sales by Tracy Jordan can do both! You can sell your items online reaching potential buyers locally or globally as well as hosting a private sale from your home! Let us guide you on what items to put in auction including furniture, housewares, decorative items, jewelry, collectibles, coins, artwork and anything else you may no longer want or need. Our services can help you to maximize your selling experience whether you are selling 1 item or 500 items. We are a one stop service for all your needs when you are moving or selling a property! Selling, donating, discarding and cleaning out services can be done to meet your time frame with minimal stress.

Estate and Tag Sales Online Auctions Cleanout and Moving Services Home Staging Services Appraisals

Contact for more info: info@invitedsales.com or Call: 516-279-6378 to schedule a consultation or receive more information. www.invitedsales.com

MARKETPLACE

WANTED TO BUY

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RARE RECORD COLLECTIONS WANTED: Autographs, memorabilia, obscure artists. All sizes / categories. House-calls, drop-offs. All About Records 396 Rockaway Ave #E Valley Stream Charles 516-945-7705 groupssound@aol.com

ANIMAL LOVER doesn’t want to leave your precious pooch or fantastic feline alone all day. I’m reliable, dependable and will walk and feed your pet while you work or travel. Please call Cheryl at 516-971-3242

CLASSIFIEDS Call 294.8900

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901 Stewart Ave, Ste 230 Garden City, NY 11530 516-222-1122 www.dangelolawassociates.com

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What’s

Dear Carrie: I’d like to set up an educational fund for my new grandchild. I understand the tax benefits of a 529 account but am also interested in gifting appreciated stock. What are your thoughts? -- A Reader

Dear Reader: Congratulations on your new grandchild! I also applaud your generosity. What a fortunate child to have such a supportive family.

You’re also wise to weigh your options. A gift of appreciated stock can be a great way to fund education. On the other hand, as you mention, a 529 account has several advantages, but it only accepts cash, not stock or other assets.

As is so often the case, the devil is in the details. Regardless of whether it’s you or your grandchild who ultimately sells the appreciated stock, that person may be hit with a tax bill that can include federal capital gains tax and, potentially, net investment income tax and state taxes.

New rules under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 mean that gifting appreciated stock to a minor is far less attractive than in the past. In a nutshell, assets owned or sold under a child or grandchild’s name can be hit with tax rates faster and higher than assets sold by a parent or grandparent.

As a Grandparent, You Have a Few Ways to Gift the Stock

1. You can gift the stock in kind and have it sold under the grandchild’s name. This used to be a common strategy under old tax rules. As we’ll discuss below, it’s not as effective as it used to be.

2. You can sell the stock and gift the after-tax proceeds to your grandchild. This can make sense if you would pay lower taxes on the sale than your grandchild would. New tax rules can result in a child or grandchild’s tax liability being higher than that of a grandparent.

3. You can make a gift of the stock to your grandchild at your death. This takes advantage of a step up in basis, which means paying no taxes on any appreciation on the stock. In this way, you can make a larger gift, but the downside is you won’t be around to see it.

A big part of your decision, therefore, will be based on the difference in the total tax burden for you versus your grandchild in selling the stock. In addition, you’ll want to weigh the pros and cons of placing college funds in a custodial account versus a 529. Let’s take a closer look.

A Few Tax Basics for the Grandparent

When people sell stock in a taxable account, they may have to

BY CARRIE SCHWAB-POMERANTZ

pay capital gains taxes on any appreciation from the sale. Whoever owns the stock is also subject to income taxes from dividends paid out when holding the investment.

The capital gains tax rate is based on how long the stock has been held. Appreciation on stock held for one year or less is taxed at ordinary income tax rates where the highest federal tax rate is 37% (2019).

Long-term capital gains (LTCG), on the other hand, are taxed on the appreciation of stocks that had been held for more than one year and sold. Federal LTCG rates vary from zero to 20% based on income.

(When you gift property, your grandchild assumes your holding period. So, your grandchild doesn’t need to wait another 12 months to sell the stock to be eligible for LTCG rates.)

Note that single individuals with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) more than $200,000 and married filers with a MAGI over $250,000 will also owe an additional net investment income tax (NIIT) -- sometimes called the Medicare surtax -- of 3.8% on top of LTCGs.

What You Need to Know About the New “Kiddie Tax” Laws Kiddie taxes are special tax rules on investment and other earned income of minors. A main goal of gifting appreciated stock to someone like a grandchild or child is to shift the taxable appreciation of that asset from a presumably higher tax rate (yours) to a lower tax rate (your grandchild’s). In the past, this strategy worked great. You could pay less in taxes to Uncle Sam, and your child would get a bigger gift -- a win-win.

All of that changed, however, with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. Under this legislation, a minor child’s investment income over a certain limit ($2,200 for 2019) is taxed at the trust tax rates rather than the child’s or parent’s tax rate. LTCG rates increase to the highest rate (20%) for a child/grandchild after just $12,950. The 3.8% NIIT is added on top of this for a total of 23.8%.

Just for the sake of comparison, in order for you to hit this 23.8% LTCG tax rate, you would need to make over $434,550 as a single filer or over $488,850 as a married couple filing jointly. So it’s quite possible that the 23.8% rate could apply to your grandchild selling the stock while a lower 15% LTCG rate could apply to you. Or your LTCG rate could be 20%, and your grandchild’s LTCG rate could be 15%.

In Any Case, the Main Take-

away Is That the New Kiddie Tax Threshold Makes Gifting Appreciated Stock to Your Grandchild Less Attractive Than in the Past Understandably, the new rules have caused some consternation for a number of families, and there have been several legislative proposals to roll back or modify the kiddie tax rules. We’ll have to wait and see what ultimately happens, but for now the 2017 legislation holds.

Don’t forget about state taxes and other potential liabilities. The strategy of gifting rapidly appreciating property removes the future appreciation of this property from your estate and allows you to make the gift when tax values are relatively low.

While the current (2019) federal top marginal tax rate on LTCGs is 23.8%, taxpayers also have to pay state and local income taxes on their capital gains income. The state tax rate can vary from zero percent in states such as Florida and Nevada that don’t levy an individual income tax to as high as 13.3% in California. So where you and your grandchild live may be another variable to consider.

Also, ask your tax and financial advisor about other taxes that could come into the picture including gift taxes, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) or increased taxation on Social Security benefits. Another consideration is that your gift could impact your Medicare premiums, since they are based on your income from the prior year.

With a Custodial Account, Your Gift Might Not Be Used for Education

If you decide to gift your grandchild the stock (as opposed to cash), you’ll likely place it in a custodial account. Using a Uniform Gift to Minors Account (UGMA) or Uniform Trust to Minors Account (UTMA) gives you control over the assets but only until the age of majority (usually 18 to 21, depending on the state).

At that point, though, you have to understand that your grandchild has full rights to spend the money any way he or she wishes. In other words, your grandchild might decide to use the money for a car, not college, and you have to be comfortable with that possibility.

Is a 529 Plan a Good Option?

Now let’s look at a 529 plan. I’ve written about 529 plans extensively in the past, and I believe they provide a great tax-advantaged way to fund an education. In fact, they are the most popular education savings plan for savvy families for good reason. But as I mentioned above, 529 plans can

only accept cash.

Still, the proceeds of the stock sale could ultimately be used to fund a 529. A grandparent- or parent-owned 529 has lots of pros including the following:

-- Provides for more control over the gift to ensure that it’s is used for education.

-- Can be more advantageous if applying for need-based financial aid in the future.

-- May be eligible for a state tax deduction.

-- Offers tax-free growth on qualified distributions.

That said, remember that 529 accounts are specifically designed for education costs. If you want your grandchild to be able to use the funds for something else, a 529 account may not be the best choice. Withdrawals from a 529 that are considered nonqualified are subject to ordinary income taxes and a 10% penalty.

Your Gift Can Combine the Best of Both Approaches

Rather than an either/or decision, you could open both a 529 plan and a custodial account, possibly funding different accounts in different years. In the future, a UGMA/UTMA could be used to cover expenses for your grandchild not covered by the 529 (like clothes, a car, summer camp or flights home from school).

Gifting As Part of an Inheritance Could Allow for a Bigger Gift

Taking a completely different tact, you should understand that a gift of the appreciated stock at your death results in a step up in the cost basis, potentially greatly reducing the tax liability. This can

be an option, especially for older grandparents closer to the end of their retirement who might be able to make a larger gift of the appreciated stock as part of their estate.

Next Steps

As you can see, finding the best way to fund a grandchild’s education can be complicated business. There are lots of moving parts, so it’s important to consider all your options before making a decision. Most of us will do well to work out the specifics with a tax advisor and financial planner. These experts can help you refine strategies such as the timing of the gift and tactically combining a 529 plan with a custodial account. Who knows -- you may be able to give more to your grandchild than you think!

Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, Certified Financial Planner, is president of the Charles Schwab Foundation and author of “The Charles Schwab Guide to Finances After Fifty.” Read more at http:// schwab.com/book. You can email Carrie at askcarrie@schwab.com. The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax, legal or investment planning advice. To find out more about Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators. com.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CHARLES SCHWAB & CO. INC. (MEMBER SIPC) DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS. COM (#1119-9DLK)

John P. Fucigna

John Patrick Fucigna of Garden City and Quogue, entered into eternal rest surrounded by family on December 22, 2019. John is survived by his dedicated and loving wife Jane Francis (Fagan) of 61 years

along with his five children and their spouses, John Thomas and Leslie (Graves) of Darien, CT, Dr. Robert and Dr. Carol (Clark) of Stamford, CT, Brian and Theresa (Vaughan) of East Moriches, NY, Michael and Jacqueline (Weihs) of Fairfield, CT and Jane Ellen and Brian Logler of Garden City, NY. John is also survived by his sister, Maryann (Staudenmaier) and her husband Bill of Boca Raton, FL as well as his Sisters In-Law Carol Fucigna of Norwalk, CT and Sr. Kathleen Fagan, RSHM of New York City. John was predeceased by both his parents Joseph and Mary Fucigna, as well as his brothers Joseph and Thomas. John and Jane also have 14 loving grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews that will miss him terribly.

John was born on November 21, 1931 in Flushing, NY and enjoyed working with his father in the family tile business in Great Neck, NY throughout his high school and college years. He graduated from Villanova University in 1954 from the NROTC program with a BS in Economics before being commis -

sioned as a LTJG in the US Navy in the summer of 1954. John served proudly and with distinction aboard Destroyers USS Steinaker and USS Camp in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean where he developed his love for travel. He so enjoyed his time in the Navy that he would for many years tell of the travels and stories and share pictures of his adventures. John would leave the Navy after his service and utilize the GI Bill to attend Columbia University where he would receive an MS in Business in 1958, before joining Chase Manhattan Bank.

It was during his Navy years that he met his betrothed Jane through a mutual friend and they married on June 28, 1958 in Westhampton Beach, NY where the mass was con-celebrated by his future brother in-laws, Msgr. John and Msgr. Emmet Fagan.

John and Jane started a family in Midwood, Brooklyn and eventually moved to Garden City where they raised their 5 children.

John left Chase Manhattan Bank and went to work in the Treasurer’s office of Martin Marietta in New York City where he would eventually

rise to the position of Asst. Treasurer before leaving for Bowater, Inc. in Old Greenwich, CT in 1976. He made the drive daily to Connecticut, without complaint, for over 20 years from his family home in Garden City, NY until his retirement from Bowater in 1993 where he retired as Executive Vice President, Finance.

John enjoyed playing tennis, skiing, running and biking as well as traveling the world with Jane. In his later years, he loved being at the beach at The Surf Club in Quogue, NY where he would sit for endless hours watching his children and grandchildren play in the surf.

Calling hours were held at Fairchild Sons Funeral Home, 1201 Franklin Avenue, Garden City, NY Thursday, December 26th. Mass of Christian Burial will be at St. Joseph’s RC Church, 130 Fifth Street, Garden City, NY on Friday, December 27, 2019 at 10am. A private interment ceremony will be held on Saturday, December 28, 2019 at Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary Cemetery, Southampton, NY.

John Fucigna

Garden City DAR celebrates 90th anniversary

Colonel Aaron Ogden Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Carla Hall D’Ambra Regent, held a very festive meeting on December 14, celebrating both the current holiday season and the Garden City Chapter’s 90th anniversary. December 30 will mark 90 years since a group of Garden City women obtained their charter in 1929, establishing a chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR).

A marvelous slide show presentation was produced by Chapter 1st Vice Regent Abagael Fagan, depicting old photos and newspaper articles highlighting how the women of Colonel Aaron Ogden Chapter have devoted their energies to community service over the decades. In an amazing coincidence, one of the 1929 photos of the Chapter’s charter members was taken in front of a Garden City home currently owned, 90 years later, by Past Chapter Regent Margaret Tillotson and her husband Roger.

As part of the 90th anniversary celebration, Colonel Aaron Ogden Chapter collected items for The Safe Center LI and MOMMA’S HOUSE, two wonderful organiza -

tions serving women and children in crisis on Long Island. The project, led and managed by Deborah McCauley and Heather Zawislak, resulted in over 100 items of brand new women’s clothing and over 50 necessity items being donated to The Safe Center for women who are rebuilding their lives after escaping sexual assault and domestic violence. Colonel Aaron Ogden Chapter also collected over 220 items of birthday party supplies and 50 toys for the mothers and children in transition at MOMMA’S HOUSE. The gift of a birthday party provides hope and joy in the unsettled lives of children who are homeless, escaping violence, or whose families are in transition. The members of Colonel Aaron Ogden thought it fitting on their 90th birthday to give the gift of birthday parties to brighten the lives of the women and children in our community.

In 90 years of service, the ladies of the Colonel Aaron Ogden Chapter, Garden City, NSDAR, have done much in historical preservation, patriotism and education, so cheers to 90 more years of making a positive difference for our citizens, community and our nation.

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With current events, announcements, restaurant reviews, puzzles, and much more, there’s always something for everybody to enjoy!

The members and prospective members of the Colonel Aaron Ogden Chapter, ready to tackle another 90 years of service

Regent Carla Hall D’Ambra shows off the Chapter’s 90th birthday cake

Elaine Voss is all smiles--she takes home the holiday prize

Garden City MS students build birdhouses, bat boxes

BY OLIVIA ALLSBROOK, GEORGE CURTH AND ASHLEY WANG

Sixth-grade students in Trish Roberts’ homebase class at Garden City Middle School are busy planning a big community service project for the Garden City Bird Sanctuary! The bird sanctuary, a nine-acre community nature preserve located on Tanners Pond Road, is a beautiful park with a wide variety of bird species.

Ashley Wang, a student in the class, inspired her classmates to build new birdhouses and bat boxes for the bird sanctuary, a place she loves visiting. She contacted Garden City Middle School science teacher John Cronin, who is also president of the Garden City Bird Sanctuary, who was very supportive and excited about the project. In his presentation to the class, he explained that the birdhouses will attract more species of birds and the bat boxes will control the insect level during the spring. When Cronin mentioned that many of the current birdhouses in the sanctuary were built over 20 years ago by Garden City Middle School’s technology and woodworking teacher Fred Caputo, the students enlisted his support!

Caputo was also very excited about the project and happy to help students with this environmental stewardship. In an interview with students Olivia Allsbrook and Ashley Wang, Caputo explained how he has always enjoyed working with his hands and finds wood an easy material to work with. He will help the students, who will be coming in before school, build

their own birdhouses and bat boxes.

As a culminating activity, the students will visit the Garden City Bird Sanctuary in late March with Cronin and Roberts Fun Facts About Bats and Bat Boxes:

• Bats are nocturnal creatures

Teacher Trish Roberts collaborates with her homebase students as they write/edit their article about their community service bird sanctuary project.

that pollinate plants.

• Bats cut down on unwanted flies, mosquitoes and other pesky bugs.

• A single-chamber bat house is capable of housing 50 bats.

• Bat houses provide female bats a safe, warm place to raise their young.

Visit the Garden City Bird Sanctuary’s website at www.gcbirdsanctuary.com and stay tuned for more news, information and photos in future articles in the spring!

Sixth-grade students design creative posters to advertise their community service project.

Photos courtesy of Luca Avellino c/o the Garden City School District

Teachers Fred Caputo (left) and John Cronin (right) kick off Trish Roberts’ homebase community service project.

PTA PARP: Reading takes GC students around the world!

In November, all Garden City primary and elementary students participated in the PTA-sponsored PARP (“Pick a Reading Partner”) program. This year’s theme, “Reading Takes You Places,” inspired young readers to experience new destinations and cultures through the power of reading. Students tracked their total minutes read at home each week, and the minutes were converted to miles to show each class how far they traveled through reading. Districtwide, Garden City students traveled 435,201 miles, circling the globe 17½ times! All classes will be rewarded extra recess minutes for their amaz -

ing efforts!

In celebration of PARP, students also participated in exciting events like Elementary Movie Day at Bow Tie Cinemas, where the feature presentation was the Disney film “Queen of Katwe,” and Pajama Literacy Night at the Garden City Middle School, where our primary students played fun literacy games in their pajamas and enjoyed bedtime stories read by some of their favorite teachers.

The schools also welcomed Korean-American author and illustrator Chris Soentpiet, who gave a fascinating presentation to all stu -

dents grades K-5 about how his upbringing and frequent travel influenced the children’s books that he writes and illustrates. Each class also enjoyed visits from our High School foreign language students, who read the book “This Is Me,” by Jaimie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell; participated in Family Culture Day and Treasure Day at school; and participated in the “selfie challenge” and raffle at the Garden City Public Library.

To conclude the PARP program,

our students and their families donated 47 boxes of books to the local organization Book Fairies, which collects reading materials for people in need. The PARP co-chairs, Erin Debrich and Colleen Ciullo, wish to thank Dr. Ted Cannone, Mrs. Audrey Bellovin, Ms. Keri Hand, the PTA Executive Committee, and all of the dedicated teachers and parents who served on the PARP committee and contributed to its immense success. Congratulations to all students and their families for truly going the distance through reading!

A read aloud at Pajama Literacy Night for kindergarteners, first-graders and their parents.

Carson and Phil Foote enjoying Pajama Literacy Night

NYU Winthrop launches pet therapy program

NYU Winthrop Hospital launched a highly anticipated pet therapy program, called “WAGS” for Winthrop’s Animals Give Support, and it kicked off with visits from Schnoodles, a Schnauzer poodle, and Oliver, a miniature Goldendoodle. The two adorable dogs made rounds among patients and in public areas, delighting young and old alike and easing stress among hospital-goers. Faces lit up with smiles, and “Aws” were especially audible in the hospital’s main waiting area where Schnoodles and Oliver proved popular among visiting families, as well as among passing staff who couldn’t resist quick meet-and-greets with the pets. Soon, pet therapy will be offered to patients upon request, and while the program is expected to operate twice weekly at first, the hope is that it will grow to include daily dog visits.

“At NYU Winthrop Hospital, we take a holistic view of our patient care, not just addressing the physical health of our patients but their mental and spiritual needs as well,” said Jean Zebroski, Director of Volunteer Services at NYU Winthrop Hospital. “Petting or hugging an adorable dog can be such a stress reliever, and so many of our patients have pets as well, so these visits are warm reminders of their best friends waiting for them at home.”

Studies have also shown that pet therapy visits can help patients’ health. Fibromyalgia patients, for example, showed significant improvements in pain and mood from pet therapy, and pediatric cancer patients were better motivated to participate in treatment protocols.

The WAGS dogs are certified pet therapy dogs in conjunction with the non-profit Pet Partners, a national leader in pet therapy programs, and Bideawee, a leading no-kill pet rescue organization serving Long Island and the metropolitan area. Preparation for the NYU Winthrop WAGS program included: training and testing for the human end of the leash (the handler); practical testing for the dog including gauging a dog’s reaction to situations such as wheelchairs rolling toward them or busy waiting areas; and careful safeguards for infection prevention in the hospital setting, “wash-in, wash-out and wash in-between,” i.e. handlers and pets are wiped down with antibacterial wipes before, between and after patients. Barrier sheets are used if a patient wants a small dog placed upon their bed. NYU Winthrop hospital Pet Therapy volunteers also accompany each handler and pet during hospital rounds, like volunteer Joe Peluso, who also serves as a dog walker at the North Shore Animal League’s adoption center.

When 11-year-old Schnoodles was anxious to get going and be petted on her hospital rounds, said Angela Flesché, who owns and handles Schnoodles, “She just wants hands-on, hands-on... and she’s comfortable with kids pulling her ears or tail.” And with that, Schnoodles was off to find human new friends.

Members of the Pet Therapy Team at NYU Winthrop.

Patients are introduced to Schnoodles and her handler, Angela Flesche.

2019: The stories that mattered in Garden City this year

ence at her inauguration that she feels fulfilled by volunteering on the Board of Trustees. “You can rest assured that I hold fast today to the goals I presented to the community when I was first appointed to this Board (in 2014) to keep our tax burden in check as the Village has received high praise from Moody’s Investor Services and we strive to maintain the character and quality of life in our beautiful village.”

Recently Mayor Trouvé resuscitated the Civic Beautification Committee which had worked with the village’s Recreation and Parks department and village arborist (Michael Didyk, who retired in 2018) for several years. The “CBC” is now comprised of Patricia Rimmels Siler, former 39-year executive director of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce Althea Robinson from the village’s East POA and representing the Estates’ POA, Kathleen Auro. Before moving to Florida former village historian Suzie Alvey served as CBC representative from the West POA.

Related “civic-minded” efforts Mayor Theresa Trouvé has explained to the News and in front of the Board and CPOA audiences include upgrades to village locations serving as public green spaces, better landscaping and practices for parks and gardens, and actively engaging residents and volunteers in local history initiatives and events. The restoration and beautification performed by Department of Public Works staff on the bust of Garden City’s founding father, Alexander Turney Stewart, at the LIRR station on 7th Street and the monument at the Garden City Fire Department headquarters (adjacent to Village Hall at 351 Stewart Avenue) dedicated to GCFD members who have passed away are two prime examples of preserving and celebrating the village’s unique legacy.

In an unusual circumstance Mayor Brian Daughney, whose term as mayor was from April 2017 to April 2019, has remained active in service as a continuing trustee from the village’s Estates POA. As a trustee this year, Daughney has worked on several municipal projects including bicycle racks at LIRR stations, addressing Public Works’ road paving schedules, and working on the recently-approved lease agreement with Nassau County for property abutting Stewart Field in the village’s East and along the historic Long Island (Vanderbilt) Motor Parkway, which the village recently announced plans to commemorate with signage as it clears overgrowth and spruces up the designated walkway and new parking area. Also from the Board of Trustees, Robert Bolebruch became the village’s deputy mayor in 2019 in his seventh consecutive year as trustee representing the West. He continues service as

the Board’s commissioner of Finance as well.

The following are some of the stories that dominated the news in 2019

Contaminated Water Supply, Remediation Top Priority

According to Mayor ’s published on December 12 and 13 in the News, a public hearing will be held on January 9, 2020 regarding a proposed Local Law to amend Article II (Water Conservation) of the Village Code, “so as to enable the Superintendent of Public Works to declare a water emergency and further restrict water usage in Garden City.”

“The Garden City Water Department will not want to provide water that doesn’t meet all Federal, State and Local standards. New York State is planning to implement new standards for 1,4 Dioxane in 2020. The Village’s existing water treatment systems don’t remove 1,4 Dioxane from the water. The Village is investing in new filtration systems but doesn’t anticipate having enough time to implement them before the new regulations take effect. This law gives the Superintendent of Public Works the authority to enact severe water restrictions, such as banning all lawn watering, in order to meet demand by reducing usage without exceeding the new standards,” the December 13 column stated.

In July the New York State Department of Health proposed an enforceable standard for water supplies -- 1.0 parts per billion for 1,4-Dioxane and 10 parts per trillion for PFAS. The State is expected to formalize such standards in January with a minimal phasein time period. The federal government, through the Environmental Protection Agency, hasn’t set enforceable standards for 1,4-Dioxane.

At its October 3 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a $6.5 million bond resolution specifically for Village Wells 13 and 14, allocated from the Village of Garden City capital budget account. The single highest cost among the recent allocations was for the purchase of $1,212,600 for an Ultraviolet Advanced Oxidation Equipment from Canadian vendor Trojan Technologies in Ontario, as this is the only system approved for use by the New York State Department of Health for the removal of 1,4 dioxane. The trustees declared an emergency “related to the health and safety of residents and water quality on the basis of emerging contaminant presence in the water supply to purchase oxidant storage tanks for Well Nos. 15 and 16 without competitive bidding. These tanks are required for use with the Trojanuflex Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) Systems for the removal of 1,4 Dioxane,” the village stated.

During the October 3 Board meeting concerns over the costs -- immediate and long-term -- associated with remedies

for the water supply were addressed by Trustee Louis Minuto, who was born and raised here, as he considered “the eventuality of this being reflected on residents’ water bills.”

“Unfortunately it might be a reality — this contamination is a Long Island problem that needs to be addressed. We have to deal with it and we have gone to great lengths to explain the situation as best as we can. The Mayor’s Column each week in The Garden City News is tracking all of the progress with addressing the water. It is definitely not the case where residents ‘could be snuck up on’ with receiving a really hefty water bill and no communication about it. The Board is not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes or the community’s eyes. There exists a completely transparent process that we go through with village expenses. We as residents are all literally in this together — we all drink the same water,” Trustee Minuto explained.

NYU-Winthrop Ambulance Service

On January 7, 2019 a two-year agreement with NYU Winthrop Hospital to provide 24 hour-a-day/seven-days’ a week ambulance service in Garden City took effect. Two new ambulances fitted with brand new equipment each have one EMT and one paramedic aboard serving the village, including during marquee, high-attendance events like the annual Turkey Trot and Friday Night Promenades in summer.

According to a June 2019 press release by the village, “The switch to a private service provider was one of the items on the Board’s priority list adopted in 2017. The ambulances are stationed at the St. Paul’s campus. The Garden City Police Department has radio connectivity with the ambulances. In addition, two microphones/speakers were installed for efficient dispatching between Police Headquarters and each ambulance unit.”

In addition NYU-Winthrop University Hospital Director of External Affairs

Justin Burke has attended a handful of Village Board of Trustees meetings throughout 2019 to provide updates and statistics and answer any questions.

Historic St. Paul’s enters “Temporary Protection/Stabilization” Phase

In early 2020, issues that have lingered for nearly 27 years at the St. Paul’s main building from holes and broken glass on windows, failed roofing systems and pigeon guano should be addressed by contractors under the guidance of construction managers from firm CNY Group. Three dates in 2019 delivered many answers to pressing questions about potential construction and development of St. Paul’s to turn the building into a usable, refreshed or re-imagined return on village investments. First the four Garden City prop-

erty owners’ associations held a joint meeting on March 13 where attendees heard from Evan Eleff, COO of the village’s programming consultants Sports Facility Advisory group (SFA). There, Trustee Louis Minuto explained that the idea of the joint POA meeting was not for residents to throw in all their ideas “ready and fired up” but for SFA to meet with community members and village sports organizations, get feedback and collect data.

On March 13 and again in front of the trustees at meetings, Brian Pinnola, former president of the Garden City Historical Society, stated the preservation perspective as St. Paul’s is not only a historic piece of local history but with its standing on the National Register of Historic Places under the U.S. Department of the Interior, it represents a structure important to the fabric of the entire country. He advised that any project undertaken aim to maintain the National Register distinction as that is a critically important factor for Garden City.

On Thursday September 12 a work session dedicated to St. Paul’s covered the current conditions, both inside and outside the St Paul’s building and its potential stabilization costs -- totaling $984,000 in Phase 1 for the “Immediate Action Plan.” Cardoso of BBB called the first stage of stabilization “cocooning the building” which can include some shoring of patches and spot abatement. The nearly one million sum was approved and allocated by the Board.

The Mayor’s Column the following week noted the hired consultants and some of their areas of expertise: “in attendance were Carlos J. Cardoso, AIA, partner, director of construction administration at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, LLP, who gave a short introduction and introduced the following consultants who each gave a short presentation and answered Trustees’ questions: Courtney Riley, LEED, AP BD+C, director of land development for VHB; Stephen Szycher, P.E., LEED AP, senior principal with Thornton Tomasetti; Charles Van Winckle, senior associate, Thornton Tomasetti; Michelle Dionisio, associate, Thornton Tomasetti; and Walter P. Beal, project executive with CNY Group,” the September 19, 2019 column stated.

According to Thornton Tomasetti, the majority of the 1883 St. Paul’s main building’s brick and stone facade is structurally “in good condition” despite a number of interior areas identified as “localized problem areas” including joists and corners, or walls and supports beneath unsealed windows, which allowed in water and the elements to cause added structural deterioration.

“Thornton Tomasetti provided the Building Envelope and Structural

2019: The stories that mattered in Garden City this year

The

Assessment Report, which, in part, states “breaches in the building envelope, leading to years of environmental exposure, have allowed water damage to compromise the building structure by causing deterioration of load bearing elements. This event has already resulted in some localized failure of the structure. Ongoing neglect to repair the building envelope will eventually lead to complete failures and compounding structural issues such as collapses, at which point repairs will be much more costly and complicated. TT is recommending addressing envelope failures and compromises immediately to make the building water-tight,” the village noted.

Finally on November 5 an outline of the coming year’s stabilization work was provided to trustees by Beal of CNY, during another Board work session on St. Paul’s. The coming weeks will prove pivotal -- Beal stated that the Village of Garden City would receive final contract documents and issue the contracts for stabilization of St. Paul’s in a 10-business day timeframe, between Thursday January 9, 2020 (the date of the first trustees’ meeting in January) to Wednesday, January 22, 2020. The Board meeting January 9 was accepted as the first opportunity for the Board to vote on and officially hire contractors for stabilization work. A “stabilization” and “Immediate Action” project start date of late January remains the target. Beal said within his idea of timing, stabilization work on the building would begin on or around January 23. With work to be done outdoors, mostly on lifts, he assured the trustees that average snowfall would not hinder progress on stabilization items (although a snowstorm and blizzard conditions would halt work). He stated that by April, barring any heavy setbacks, the stabilization phase should be complete on St. Paul’s.

Nursery School’s pleas for Another Year at Cottages Unmet

After a public outcry by many residents to keep Cathedral Nursery School operating at St. Paul’s cottages, its central location in Garden City, the school ultimately announced its decision to cease operations once the current school year is completed on June 30. No registration of children could occur in fall 2019 without procuring a space for the 2020-’21 year, and no new location could be resolved in time to keep Cathedral Nursery School in Garden City or in areas with immediate proximity, including one proposal for it to move minutes away, to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Paul at 110 Cathedral Avenue in Hempstead.

The trustees’ meetings in May, June

and August featured emotional rounds of public comments as parents and families advocated for Cathedral Nursery School to receive one more year on its two year (July 2018 through June 30, 2020) license agreement for the use of the cottages at St. Paul’s, located on the project site and behind the historic main building.

As reported on August 16, 2018 in The Garden City News, the school signed on to terms of “one additional year (until June 30, 2020), and terminating such license agreement effective such date, subject to written agreement by the School confirming the June 30, 2020 termination date of the license, its lack of entitlement to any presence at the site after such date, and the School’s agreement in writing not to seek any further extensions or any new or similar license for the current site or any other Villageowned facilities.” The Board of Trustees approved this at their July 25, 2018 meeting.

Nursery school administrator Cathy Sammon explained in a July interview, “our (Cathedral Nursery’s) first license agreement with the village was in June of 2003, and for three years, but that was before the parkland designation for St. Paul’s. After that, because of the designation they always gave us a one-year extension on the license agreement.”

As reported in the News on June 28, 2019, Garden City Deputy Mayor Robert Bolebruch said he’s seen so many parents’ and community members’ offer a take on the Cathedral Nursery School, the St. Paul’s plans and the trustees’ attitudes on Facebook and online, but he said “I read a lot of the comments and I think people are asking questions because they don’t understand the facts — they don’t understand how we got to this point.” He says the nursery school was the one who approached the village May 1, 2003, and the result was the 16 years since then “with the village working it out setting them up in the cottages.”

Bolebruch told the audience the nursery school was in position to make their own business decision, whether to find a new location for its program and settings or “to site here and develop the cottages, the place we have here, assuming that the issue of usage of the land at St. Paul’s wasn’t going to change.” The Board, he contends, is putting the best interests of children and the community forward with its planning and the lease ending in 2020 as the scope of work commences and evolves at the St. Paul’s campus, adjacent to the cottages.

“We all know for 26 years nothing has happened with St. Paul’s, and now that is going to change. Over 15 years this village gave the nursery school renewal every single year. As you see on this meeting’s agenda, this Board, finally in the last couple of years, has decided that we need to address what is happening

at St. Paul’s. The reality of it is that if any of you came to our presentations (July 2018) at the Casino, architects and engineers said the very first thing we’ll need to do is protect what you have; stabilize. One thing we are doing is erecting fences around St. Paul’s going back to the cottages. In addition to that we will bring in construction crews that will be looking to stabilize the St. Paul’s building — we knew this was coming up a year ahead of time,” he said.

555 Stewart Avenue apartments

PILOT, coming up for Site Plan Review

After the Village Board of Trustees approved a zoning change to permit residential multi-family development and use of the 555 Stewart Avenue project in 2018, the village witnessed immediate progress on the property’s planning when Southern Land Company acquired the parcel and proceeded with an application to the Nassau County IDA (Industrial Development Agency) for relief on its portion of Garden City school district taxes as agreed to during Board of Trustees’ hearings in 2018, “the village would be made whole” on municipal taxes for the property going forward.

At Village Hall on Monday, May 13 the County IDA held a public hearing for a 20-year school district tax PILOT program (payment in lieu of taxes) for a proposed new apartment complex at 555 Stewart Avenue, which as proposed to the Board would include 150 apartments: 135 rental units at market rate and 15 affordable housing units, a 10% ratio in compliance with the Federal Court judgement with the MHANY/ ACORN litigation a few years ago mandated so for Garden City.

An update on 555 Stewart Avenue came forward during an Eastern Property Owners’ Association meeting in November, and a shake-up in the proposal to build one large structure on the vacant lot between Raymond Court and Roosevelt Field mall was

apparent. According to Village Trustee John Delany indicated a new site plan is coming to the Building Department and Garden City’s boards and committees for review.

“The biggest change which I find to be very helpful is the division of the types of apartment units. As it was originally proposed (at several 2018 Board of Trustees’ hearings to enact a zoning change to allow residential use of the property) the property would have 20 one-bedroom units, 115 two-bedroom units and 15 three-bedroom units. Now they are proposing to build, still with 150 units but in two separate buildings: 67 one-bedroom units, 74 two-bedroom units and 9 three-bedroom units. The fair housing component to be included remains at the same 10% of the total units, remaining in compliance,” Trustee Delany said.

New Library Trustee

More than a half-year after announcing her retirement from the Garden City Public Library’s Board of Trustees in late 2018, former Vice Chair of the GCPL Board, its trustee from the West Gloria Weinrich introduced Germaine Greco as her successor on the GCPL Board at the Western Property Owners’ Association meeting at Homestead School on June 4.

For 15 years Weinrich served on the library board and she continued on until July, anticipating her ‘retirement’ from the key volunteer position. The new vice chair of the Library Board is its longtime Trustee Peter D’Antonio, who chairs GCPL’s Budget Committee. A few special tributes and presentations honoring Weinrich took place both at the library and at a September 30 dinner at Calogero’s, attended by the entire Library Board, Garden City School Board Vice President Tom Pinou and Village Deputy Mayor Robert Bolebruch as each volunteer fondly recalled their interactions and conversations with her.

an ad in our Classifieds for reasonable rates and prompt results. Call our main office 294-8900 to request information & rates. Visit our website to place classified Ads, to receive more information & our latest rates, www.gcnews.com

Paskewitz’s heroics continue as Trojans beat GNS

Down 54-52 and the GC Trojans (5-0) on the verge of losing their first game of season, senior Gavin Paskewitz (14 pts, 3 rebs) received a pass at top of key with 5 secs left in regulation and drove down the lane for game tying basket and lead to a 61-54 OT victory. Paskewitz has earned the nickname “Mr. Clutch” with his late-game free throws against Manhasset and North Shore, and now the last-second bucket to send game in OT. It was another great team win as everyone seems to make a big play when it’s needed. Luke Long (21 pts) had a huge 3 point -

er in OT to seal the win. Junior guard Mike DeLuca (3 pts, 5 rebs) played a phenomenal all around game and played great defense on GNS best scorer. Tommy Franz (9 pts) hit three 3 point shots, Brian Wood (5 pts), Aidan Long (4 pts), Jack Downey (3 pts) and Joey Wood (2 pts) rounded out the team scoring.

The GC Trojans Varsity Basketball team is 5-0 and are moving on to play @ Lynbrook 12/27 at 1 p.m.

Grab some friends and come support this undefeated squad.

Trojans’ pride in America

Mike DeLuca calling out plays as he sizes up defender.

Tommy Franz drilling one of his three pointers

Brian Wood soars for a deuce.

Advice, support & fun at Long Island Children's Museum

Healthy Choices in 2020 – LICM launches its Healthy Kids in the Kitchen series, enabling children to learn how tasty healthy food choices are and the importance of getting active.

Long Island Children’s Museum rolls into 2020 with programs to support children and their grown-ups. LICM, in partnership with Cohen Children’s Medical Center and Kohl’s Cares, launches Healthy Kids in the Kitchen this week, allowing little chefs to make healthy dishes and get active as they stretch, jump and learn new exercise moves. Parents and caregivers can share a cup of coffee and conversation this week as they discuss children’s sleep challenges. The week wraps up with the Museum’s annual “Surrounded by STEM” weekend, allowing visitors to take part in hands-on activities and demonstrations, while meeting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) professionals .

Polar Bear Pals

Tuesday, January 7 through Friday, January 10 from 2:30 to 4 p.m.

Winter is here! Create a friendly polar bear pal to keep you company this winter season!

All ages. Free with museum admission

stART (story + ART)

Thursday, January 7 from 11:30 a.m. – noon

Join us each week as we read childhood classics and introduce new favorites; followed by a take-home, book-inspired craft. This week we’re reading reading “Snowball” by Nina Crews. After the story create a picture of snowy winter trees to take home!

Ages: 3-5. Fee: $4 with museum admission ($3 LICM members).

Kid Chat

Wednesday, January 8 from 10:15-11:15 a.m.

Join in guided conversation where mothers and other caregivers can have open dialogue and socialize with one another as their child plays in the TotSpot area. Coffee and light refreshments are available. Space is limited to facilitate conversation flow. This month's topic: Please Go to Sleep!: Struggles and Strategies.

Music and Movement

Wednesday, January 8 from 11:30 a.m. – noon

This weekly workshop capitalizes on children’s innate curiosity about rhythm and sound. Enjoy creative movement exercises and interactive sing-alongs that get little bodies moving to the rhythm.

Ages: 5 and under. Fee: $4 with museum admission ($3 LICM member

Healthy Kids in the Kitchen

Friday, January 10 from 11:30– noon

Grown-up Socialization and Support – Parents and caregivers can start their day with some coffee and conversation about raising kids.

Up close with STEM – Kids get up close with science, technology, engineering and math themes during LICM Surrounded by STEM weekend as they are aided by working professionals in the field.

Little chefs use real cooking tools (with some help from adults) as we make healthy and yummy, kid-friendly snacks from start to finish. As they make their treat, kids gain experience measuring ingredients, following directions and building their vocabulary. Learn about healthy eating and fun ways to stay active with a new exercise activity every week! This week we’re making an allergy-friendly treat: TwoIngredient Banana Pancakes. This program made possible with the support of Cohen Children's Medical Center/ Kohl’s Cares.

Ages: 3 to 5. Material Fee: $5 with museum admission ($4 LICM members)

STEM Explorers: Surrounded by STEM

Saturday, January 11 and Sunday, January 12 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Put on your thinking cap and investigate the worlds of science, engineering, technology and math! Join the Green Teens in a weekend filled with hands-on activities and demonstrations by STEM professionals. STEM Explorers, powered by Green Teens.

This program is made possible with the support of National Grid.

Ages: 3 and up. Free with museum admission.

Splish Splash, Animal Baths

Saturday, January 11 at 3 p.m.

Join us in the Yellow Studio in the Feasts for Beasts gallery to learn what goes into the care of LICM’s animals. Join our Animal Program Educator to observe animal bath time.

All ages. Free with Museum admission.

Messy Afternoon

Saturday, January 4 and Sunday, January 5 from 3:30-5 p.m.

We’ll be up to our elbows in oobleck, clean mud and slime … and we hope you’ll join us for the type of artistic activities that everyone loves, but not one likes to clean-up after. Except us! Ages: 18 months – 4 years. Free with museum admission.

KaleidoZone Gallery- “Like Father, Like Daughter: A Cartooning Legacy”

Through January 20, 2020

A selection of cartoons from the archives of Long Island cartoonists Brumsic Brandon Jr. (1927-2014), the creator of “Luther,” and his daughter, Barbara Brandon-Croft (1958- ), the creator of “Where I’m Coming From,” are on display in the KaleidoZone gallery. Both groundbreaking syndicated comic strips reflected social themes that are still relevant today.

Free with museum admission. All activities are held at the Long Island Children’s Museum, 11 Davis Avenue, East Garden City, NY. For the safety of our visitors, Adults are not permitted in the Museum without children; Museum visitors under 18 years of age must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

Museum Hours: Tuesday-Sunday from 10 am.-5 p.m. and most school holidays. Museum admission: $14 for adults and children over 1 year old, $13 seniors, FREE to museum members and children under 1 year old. Additional fees for theater and special programs may apply. For additional information, contact 516-224-5800.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Email: Editor@GCNews.com

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healing-after-abortion/hope-healingevents/ , or call the Sisters of Life at 866-575-0075.

For couples having difficulty conceiving a child, the Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility, located at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center, 1000 Montauk Highway, West Islip, NY 11795, offers a highly regarded and successful infertility program that provides specialized obstetrical and gynecological care to women, while honoring both their dignity and the sanctity of human life. The Gianna Center’s skilled staff, headed by Dr. Paul Carpentier, MD, CFCMC, helps couples diagnose and treat underlying causes of infertility to help them conceive naturally. The Gianna Center can be reached at 631-376-3232.

We look forward to March 25, 2020 –the Feast of the Annunciation - when we will launch our 29th annual, nine-month Spiritual Adoption Prayer Novena. In the meantime, we leave your readers with the two prayers that we are now reciting daily and will continue to recite during the novena.

This prayer for unborn children was authored by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn child that I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion.

The second prayer is for all expectant mothers:

Precious blood of Jesus and Mary, inseparable in the Divine Pregnancy, nourishing the Sacred Heart of Jesus forming in her womb; connecting link between the divine and natural order; bless the pregnant women of the world, and help them to see the importance of their role in forming a new creation for God and an heir of heaven.

We wish you all a Happy and Holy Christmas.

St. Joseph’s Respect Life Ministry and Knights of Columbus St. Joseph-Bishop Baldwin Council #15809

Devil in the MTA’s details

To the Editor:

The devil is in the details concerning pronouncements by MTA Chairman Pat Foye about how great the recent contract with his employees really is. It is a repeat of past history. Once again, this contract will result in additional fare hikes beyond the next two previously scheduled over the coming four years. This will be necessary to pay for the real costs when the bills come due. As usual, Governor Cuomo and elected officials who depend upon transportation union endorsements, campaign contributions, phone banks and volunteers did not stand up against their benefactors and seriously support MTA management in winning any significant reforms during contract renewal negotiations. Unions once again out negotiated management as they have done for decades. Riders never had the stomach to put up with potential work slow downs, service disruptions, employee sick outs and possible strikes by unions, who have no intentions of giving up what they have. Promised future productivity reform and financial savings just as in the past will never take place. The status quo of periodic fare hikes, construction project cost overruns and billions more in MTA long term debt increases continues. This is what happens when you have a government monopoly in transportation services.

Larry Penner

(Larry Penner is a transportation historian, writer and advocate who previously worked 31 years for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads, MTA Bus, NYC Department of Transportation along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ).

GCAA Basketball Results Week 3

Girls

2nd and 3rd Grade Standings

Boys 4th Grade Standings

Team

Girls 4th thru 6th Grade Results

Date Score

12/21/2019 Warriors 22, Nuggets 14

12/21/2019 Rockets 34, Knicks 28

12/21/2019 Nets 27, Lakers 20 12/21/2019 Celtics 34, Mavericks 23

Girls 4th thru 6th Grade Standings

Team

Boys 2nd Grade Standings

Boys 5th Grade Results

Boys 5th Grade Standings

Boys 6th Grade Results

12/21/2019 Warriors 40, Nuggets 18 12/21/2019 Nets 33, Lakers 29 12/21/2019 Mavericks 37, Celtics 34 12/21/2019 Knicks38, Rockets 37

Boys 6th Grade Standings

Boys 3rd Grade Results

Date Score

12/21/2019 Warriors 31, Nuggets 9 12/21/2019 Nets 22, Lakers 14

12/21/2019 Mavericks 31, Celtics 10 12/21/2019 Knicks 26, Rockets 21

Team

Boys 3rd Grade Standings

Boys 7th and 8th Grade Results

Date Score

12/21/2019 Pacers 66, Rockets 62 12/21/2019 Knicks 65, Mavericks 62 12/21/2019 76ers 46, Celtics 32 12/21/2019 Lakers 58, Nets 54 12/21/2019 Nuggets 40, Warriors 38

Boys 7th and 8th Grade Standings

Boys 4th Grade Results

Date

12/21/2019 Rockets 26, Knicks 25 12/21/2019 Warriors 24, Nuggets 2 12/21/2019 Nets 25, Lakers 24 12/21/2019 Celtics 30, Mavericks 23

VILLAGE SPORTS

Pee-Wee Sports Sampler

(For Children ages 4 & 5 years old)

The Garden City Recreation Department will offer our poplar PeeWee Sports Sampler program this winter for children ages 4 & 5 who are Residents of the Inc. Village of Garden City. This six week program has been designed to provide an opportunity to try a wide variety of sports with basic instruction.

This program will take place in St. Paul’s Fieldhouse beginning the week of January 13 and each session will run for 55 minutes. Our Sampler will incorporate new skills and free play in a non-competitive atmosphere. A different sport will be offered each week. Classes will be held according to the following schedule:

Mondays 1:30 to 2:25 p.m.

Tuesdays 1:30 to 2:25 p.m.

Wednesdays 1:30 to 2:25 p.m.

The cost of this program is $100. To register for this program, please visit our office at 108 Rockaway Ave., or, if you have a password, you can register online at www.gcreconline. gardencityny.net.

Chi Kung Exercise and Meditation Class Forming

Please join Andrea Albergo for chi kung, which is considered a beautiful, peaceful path for body, mind and spirit. Andrea will show how to create a peaceful body by combining movement, breathing and meditation. This class is geared for seniors or the beginner adult. The 6-week session will begin Thursday, January 16 and will be held at 1 p.m. at Garden City’s Senior Center. The price for the session is $48. To register this class, please visit the Office of Recreation and Parks at 108 Rockaway Avenue, or, if you have a password you can register online at www.gcreconline.gardencityny.net.

Youth Yoga Classes

Connie McKnight, our certified yoga instructor, has designed youth yoga classes for ages 6–18. Each class in our

10-week session is 55 minutes long. All classes will begin on Tuesday, January 14 and will be held in St. Paul’s Center.

Any resident of the Inc. Village of Garden City in this age group is invited to join these relaxing classes. The cost of this 10 week session will be $105.

The course schedule is as follows:

Ages 6 – 8 Tuesdays at 4:00 p.m.

Ages 9 – 12 Tuesdays at 5:00 p.m.

Ages 13 – 15 Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m.

To register for any of these classes, please visit our office at 108 Rockaway Ave., or, if you have a password, you can register online at www.gcreconline. gardencityny.net.

“Crayola" Wild World Art Class for Grades K–5

Garden City Recreation and Parks is pleased to offer “Crayola” World of Design Art for grades K–5. The after school enrichment program incorporates different art techniques while your child uses their imagination for this session “Wild World”, studying animals from around the world.

Classes will be held on Mondays from 4 to 5 p.m. beginning January 13. Each class is one hour long and will be held in the St. Paul’s Center at 108 Rockaway Ave. The cost for this program will be $140, checks only, made payable to “Zoda, LLC”. Space is limited! To register for this program, please visit the Recreation and Parks Office at 108 Rockaway Ave.

Mad Science for Grades K to 5

Garden City Recreation and Parks is offering an afterschool program geared to children who are interested in science! Mad Science of Long Island is a company who provides a wonderful and fun learning experience while exploring different aspects of science.

Each week of this 6-week session will cover a different topic such as “Under Pressure”, “Chem-Mystery”, and “Super Structures”. Residents of the Village of Garden City entering grades K - 5 are invited to attend.

Classes will be held on Fridays from 4 to 5 p.m. beginning January 17. Each

class is one hour long and will be held in the St. Paul’s Center at 108 Rockaway Ave. The cost for this program will be $140, checks only, made payable to “Mad Science of Long Island”. Space is limited! To register for this program, please visit the Recreation and Parks Office at 108 Rockaway Ave.

Interviews for Summer Jobs at the GC Pool –2020 Season

If you are interested in working at the G.C. Pool this summer, please note the following:

You must be a high school senior or older or worked at the pool last season to interview for a summer position at the pool. Lifeguard, Pool Attendant and Office Staff are needed.

Appointments for interviews will be taken beginning Tuesday, December 3.

Please call the Recreation office at 516 465-4075 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to set up your interview.

Interviews will be conducted between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the following days:

Friday, December 27

Monday, December 30

Thursday, January 2 (from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.)

Saturday, January 4 (from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.)

As this is, for many new prospective employees, their first time interviewing for a job, please note the following:

• Come to the interview dressed appropriately.

• Items that will be discussed: Job availability, job description and duties, requirements of the job, past work experience. (Please note, babysitting, volunteer work, yardwork and household chores as well as coaching and offici-

ating are considered past work experience. Past work experience is not a requirement for the job.)

• Extracurricular and community activities such as: clubs, teams, scouts, school plays may be discussed during the interview.

• Pool Attendants must be willing to do maintenance and janitorial work as part of their work day.

“Bricks 4 Kidz” Lego After School Program Begins

Garden City Recreation and Parks will offer two afterschool Lego programs beginning the week of January 8. Each hour-long class is an engaging experience for your child with a new project each week. These 6-week programs will be held in St. Paul’s Center (108 Rockaway Avenue). The offerings are as follows:

Wednesdays at 4 p.m. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Each week students will build motorized models of things that go! Your child can follow our step by step model plans to create their vehicle and then can customize it to their own specifications. Thursdays at 4 p.m.

Construction Craze!

Put your hard hat on and head over to our construction site. Join us for a 6-week session where students will make motorized models of construction tools. Kids will love playing with their creations!

The fee for either of these programs is $135, checks only made payable to Bricks 4 Kidz. To register, please visit the Recreation and Parks Office at 108 Rockaway Avenue.

Santa paid a surprise visit to K–1st graders participating in the GCAA Hoop clinic this past Saturday. After playing a few campers to an epic 1-1 tie, Santa took pictures with the kids and handed out holiday treats. Happy Holidays from GCAA Hoops!

Garden City Boys Soccer celebrates Awards Night

Following an exciting and success-filled season, many of the members of this year’s Garden City Trojans Boys soccer team gathered one last time for the Nassau County Soccer Coaches Association Awards Dinner. The boys enjoyed a fun evening with Coach Cutter and their families. Awards earned included:

All State, All Region – Joe Griffin, Senior

All County - Owen Heaney, Senior; Ethan Senatore, Senior; Joe Griffin, Senior; Billy Castoro, Senior

All County Honorable Mention – Joseph Bernieri, Senior; Tommy

Aneser, Senior; Nick Prime, Junior; Andy Schneider, Junior

All Conference – Joe McNiff, Senior; Will Wieland, Senior; Bobby Seel, Junior

Nassau County Conference A2 Offensive Player of the Year – Owen Heaney

Nassau County Final Most Valuable Player – Ethan Senatore Nassau County Conference A2 Coach of the Year – Paul Cutter Newsday’s All-Long Island Team – Joe Griffin (A), Owen Heaney (B) Paul LeSueur Memorial Scholarship Award – Owen Heaney

Top row, left to right: Coach Paul Cutter, Tommy Aneser, Ethan Senatore, Joe Griffin, Billy Castoro, Owen Heaney, Assistant Coach Reid Sclafani

Front row: Bobby Seel, Nick Prime, Andy Schneider Missing from photo: Joe Bernieri, Joe McNiff, Will Wieland

4-bedroom, 2.5-bath. SD #18. MLS# 3176428. $725,000.

Garden City, NY 4-bedroom, 2.5-bath. SD #18. MLS# 3177190. $799,000.

Garden City, NY 5-bedroom, 3.55-bath. SD #18.

Out of Town Listings

Rene Blair

Ann Collins Chelsea Costello Patricia Costello

Claudia Galvin Manager

Annmarie Bommarito Jessica Brantuk Laura Carroll Christine Cudahy Assistant Manager

Patricia Dickson Arthur Anderson

Alexandra Parisi

Linda Mulrooney

Susan MacDonald Athena Menoudakos Kathy Lucchesi

Eileen O’Hara

Brigid Marmorowski

Mary Lo Galbo

Matthew Minardi

Diane Piscopo Marilyn Frey

Garden

Floral Park, NY

5-bedroom, 3-bath.

SD #22. MLS# 3143759. $739,500.

Malverne, NY

5-bedroom, 3-bath. SD #12. MLS# 3138117.

Wyndham

Resale Office

Patricia Costello, Patricia Dickson, Alfred Kohart, Mary Krener and Linda Mulrooney

Floral Park, NY 4-bedroom, 3-bath. SD #16. MLS# 3176989. $749,000.

Valley Stream, NY

4-bedroom, 2.5-bath. SD #14. MLS# 3174201. $799,000.

Floral Park, NY. 3-bedroom, 2-bath. SD# 26. MLS# 3153138. $829,000.

Condos, Co-Ops & Rentals

NY 4-bedroom, 3-bath. SD #18. MLS# 3180067. $849,000.

2.5-bath. SD #18. MLS# 3180158. $5,900.

Oyster Bay,

Lauren Grima

Robert J. Krener

Lisa Heaney Fortune Heaney

Daureen Hausser

Susan Gillin

Alfred Kohart Mary Krener

Kathleen Higdon Meredith Krug

Kathleen Roberts Cecile Raoult

Julia Mastromauro Rosado

Jennifer Sullivan Scott Wallace Maureen Walsh Lagarde Joseph Scianablo Cheryl Trimboli

Lynn Puccio Brian Pryke

Peter Kerantzas

Jennifer Petersen