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HERALD out on the green for game of golf
Farewell from your E.M. editor
Harvesting fresh farm food
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Vol. 23 No. 33
$1.00 $1.00
AUGUST 10 - 16, 2023
Hundreds pay respects to former East Meadow superintendent By DANIEl oFFNER doffner@liherald.com
Daniel Offner/Herald
Following a funeral Mass at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre last week, the late Robert Dillon — the superintendent of Nassau BOCES, and the former superintendent of the East Meadow school district — was laid to rest at the Queen of Peace Cemetery in Old Westbury.
Hundreds gathered at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre last week to pay their respects to Robert Dillon. The late Nassau BOCES superintendent died July 28, of complications of spinal surgery. He was 72. Dillon — who lived in both Walden, in Orange County, and Plainview — was appointed to lead the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services in 2015. During his time with BOCES, Dillon advocated and expanded access to career and technical programs, revitalized the Long Island High School for the Arts, and helped create a mental health consortium, serving all 56 county school districts, parts of Suffolk County, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre. “After his first full year at BOCES, his passion and dedCONtiNuED ON PAgE 2
At county’s libraries, an educational race wraps up By MARK NolAN & MAlloRY WIlSoN of the East Meadow Herald
Residents from all over Nassau County hit the ground running when the Nassau Library System announced the return of its Library Tour. Some participated to defend their title from the previous tour, while others decided to see what all the hype was about. The contest isn’t as well known as the World Cup or the Super Bowl, but is only marginally less competitive. The tour continues through Saturday, and already 119 people have completed the goal of visiting
every library in the county. More than 46,000 people have participated, and those numbers are expected to climb significantly as library officials continue to tally the results. The “Illiterate Iguanas,” three childhood friends who are recent college graduates, were the first to finish. The Katz family was a close second, and Jessica Katz said her family was disappointed with being unable to successfully defend their 2019 Library Tour title — the event, a daunting logistical challenge, hasn’t been held since then — although they were the first North Bellmore Public Library
patrons to finish the tour. East Meadow and Salisbury residents also joined in on the fun. Payal Mehta and her son, Nirvan, 11, were making sure they could say they completed the tour. “I thought it being a tour w a s re a l ly c o o l , bu t a l s o thought it would be a great way to explore Long Island and parts of Long Island that we’ve never been, too,” Mehta said. “I thought it would be fun, and maybe we’re a little competitive, too.” Robin Laurie, her husband and her two young children finished the entire tour as well. “I’m a teacher, so it was a
great activity that was free to do with my kids while we were off for the summer,” Laurie wrote to the Herald. “It was a lot of fun seeing all the different libraries. Some have very impressive children’s rooms.” While the competitive spirit of the tour made it fun, the idea behind it is to encourage people to discover a library they’ve
never been to, and shop in local communities. The event showcases the benefits and interesting features of each library. North Bellmore created a cutout bus to celebrate the tour; visitors write their names on a paper leaf to hang on a giant paper tree in the Roosevelt Public Library; and Mineola has CONtiNuED ON PAgE 5