________ Franklin square/elmont _______
CoMMuNITy uPDATE Infections as of March 29
8,260
Infections as of March 22 8,021
$1.00
HERALD
Petition seeks Trader Joe’s
The meaning of Easter
Civic president recognized
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Vol. 23 No. 14
APRIl 1 - 7, 2021
More changes at Belmont? NYRA officials consider renovations of venerable park the track is not winterized and not energy-efficient, and the grandstand is so large that it New York Racing Association casts a shadow over the track, officials are considering new making it freeze during the winrenovations to the racetrack at ter. Belmont Park, as “This could be work continues on a g reat winter the state’s revitalizaf a c i l i t y, ” s a i d tion efforts. Solages, a DemoAssociation repcrat from Elmont, resentatives have adding that every discussed potential president and changes with local CEO of NYRA elected officials over since she took the past few months, office in 2012 has including making ToDD KAMINsKy proposed changes the 45-acre infield to make Belmont State senator into a more attracthe primary t ive c o m m u n i t y horseracing facilipark, winterizing the track and ty in southern New York and to reducing the size of the grand- eliminate racing at Aqueduct, stand. which, Solages said, could The track has not been reno- become a full-time casino. vated since 1968, according to “It makes sense,” said State Patrick McKenna, NYRA’s com- Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat munications director, who said who represents part of Elmont, “the time has come to modern- noting that the proposed renovaize” the facility, which is “an tions to the infield would make iconic property cherished by Belmont a “destination that peogenerations of sports fans and ple want to go to.” But, Kaminhome to some of the greatest sky said, NYRA officials are only moments in sports history.” starting to discuss the potential Unfortunately, State Assem- renovations — and before anyblywoman Michaelle Solages thing could happen, they would noted, the racing season at Bel- have to present their ideas to the mont Park is limited to the spring, summer and fall because Continued on page 4
By MElIssA KoENIg mkoenig@liherald.com
I
f this is a baseball game, we’re just in the first inning here.
Courtesy Anna Scarpa
gIusEPPE sCARPA, 10, right, presented his grandfather with a portrait he made of him for his birthday in January. Giuseppe is now selling his portraits, hoping to earn enough money to buy professional markers.
Like father, like son
10-year-old follows in his dad’s artistic footsteps By MElIssA KoENIg mkoenig@liherald.com
When Frank Scarpa was just 5, he started sketching everything he saw, and eventually he became such a good artist that he could look at a building just once and draw it perfectly. Now, his son, Giuseppe, is following in his footsteps, selling his lifelike portraits to his fellow Franklin Square residents. “He reminds me a lot of
myself growing up,” Frank said of his 10-year-old son, who is in fifth grade at the Willow Road School. Frank immigrated to the United States from Sicily with his family in 1980 when he was 6, and grew up in Maspeth, Queens. After graduating from the New York Institute of Technology, he painting scenes on more than 200 storefronts throughout Queens, according to a July 1996 article in a Queens com-
munity newspaper. But his biggest accomplishment at the time, the article said, was a 100-foot mural he created at the Metropolitan Oval field, which depicts people from all over the world playing together. Since then, Frank has painted a more personal mural — of his neighborhood in Palermo — over the staircase of his Franklin Square home, and in 2003 he founded Continued on page 3