________ Franklin square/elmont _______
HERALD Vol. 25 No. 43
Elmont activists to hold rally
Shop community yard sale
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oCToBER 19 - 25, 2023
$1.00
Library fall festival has fun for all
Billy Harrison/ Herald
The rain didn’t stop community members from having a day of fun at the Elmont Memorial Library last Saturday. Neighbors all ages, from adults, to teens and younger children, gathered to take part in crafts and other fun activities on Oct. 14. People were welcome to get their faces painted, participate in raffles and more during the festivities. Some children even tried their luck with a bottle ring toss. “It’s a really nice event for our community,” Library Director Jean Simpson said. The musical group New York Exceptions performed for a crowd at the library. Free cotton candy and popcorn were served to fall festival attendees while supplies lasted. Twenty-five different vendors from Elmont registered to take part in the event to advertise services and get to know the community a bit
The Elmont Memorial Library hosted its annual fall festival on Oct. 14 for community members.
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County takes Foster Meadow Lane co-op managers to court By NIColE WAGNER nwagner@liherald.com
More than two-dozen senior citizens still cannot return to their Elmont homes some three weeks after a flash flood forced them to evacuate. And now Nassau County has filed a lawsuit against the co-op managers at 1888 Foster Meadow Lane to force the building back into compliance with fire codes. Er nestine Mair, who has been staying with her daughter in a one-bedroom apartment since the flood, desperately wants to return. “I’m 86 years old, and I live nowhere,” Mair said. “I live nowhere.”
The county filed a lawsuit on Oct. 4 just weeks after officials condemned the 18-yearold building over fire code violations. Targeted in the complaint are Woods and Ruf f Management, the proper ty manager brought on in 2020, as well Bedford Construction Group, which constructed the complex in the first place. Also named in the suit is 1888 Foster Meadow Lane Redevelopment Corp. — the co-operative collectively representing the seniors who own units there. The suit also intends to identify alternative housing for the residents until they can return home. Since emergency shelter ser-
vices ended, the county said it has provided room and board at the Long Island Marriott Hotel in Uniondale at a cost of more than $200,000. The suit claimed that the defendants are liable to repay the county for these services, which Nassau insists it was “not legally obligated” to provide. According to county officials, “no other federal, state or local entity was willing or able to assist (the) residents.” The county did not immediately respond to the Herald’s requests for comment. The Foster Meadow Lane residents say they were shuttled to the Nassau County Supreme Court building earli-
er this month under the pretense that County Executive Bruce Blakeman would hold a news conference about conditions in their building. They said they were not told a suit would be filed, nor that the co-op would be listed as one of the defendants in that suit. “Who sues the people who are victims?” Gerald Karikari, chief executive of Woods and
Ruff Management, told reporters afterward. “What idea is that?” The facility routinely floods and has been evacuated in the past, according to the residents. Before last month, seniors there were displaced for two months after the remnants of Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, according to 87-year-old resident Pearlene Wilkinson. COnTinuEd On pagE 5