________ Franklin square/elmont _______
HERALD $1.00
Holiday contest returns to F.S.
Mobile program supports scouts
Franklin Square lights up
Page 4
Page 9
Page 16
VOL. 23 NO. 51
DECEMBER 16 - 22, 2021
‘Santa’s Wonderland’ offers gifts By ROBERT TRAVERSO rtraverso@liherald.com
Melissa Koenig/Herald file photo
DAYANA MUNOZ, 11, met Santa and his elves last year.
Over 400 Elmont children were set to receive Christmas gifts at Santa’s Wonderland, an annual event organized by Elmont resident Elizabeth Forbes, which was scheduled for Wednesday, after the Herald went to press, at the Clara H. Carlson School. “We want to bring families together during Christmastime,” Forbes said last week. Children were looking for-
ward to being greeted by Santa and his elves and helpers at this year’s fourth annual event. At previous Santa’s Wonderlands, tables were filled with a variety of gifts, from books and board games to scarves, hats and gloves. Each child typically goes home with three or four gifts. Three hundred children took part in 2019, and 95 received gifts last year, when the coronavirus pandemic necessitated a drive-through event at the Elmont fireCONTINUED ON PAGE 11
‘We’re getting lip service instead of action’ Residents frustrated as repairs of Elmont water tower are pushed back to 2022 By ROBERT TRAVERSO rtraverso@liherald.com
After protests in 2020 and the setting of a fall 2021 deadline, the removal of a Nassau County Police Department antenna mounted on the Elmont water tower, necessary to beginning long-planned renovations to the structure, has been pushed back to next summer. Dwayne Palmer, a key figure in the local movement pushing for renovations to the tower, has
lived in Elmont since 1996. He described the tower’s north side, which he stressed is easily visible from the Southern State Parkway, as “completely disgusting,” adding that it “looks like it’s dilapidated.” Palmer cited Elmont residents’ decreasing home values, despite high taxes and water bills, as reasons why the tower should be repaired. Last fall, Palmer and Elmont Strong, a local activist group, began calling for repairs to be
made to the structure. Palmer began communicating with the Water Authority of Western Nassau County, which manages the tower, early this year. He said he was told that the police department antenna would be removed by this spring, and that renovations would begin by August or September. When he noticed in October that no work had been done, Palmer contacted the water authority, which informed him that the NCPD had requested an
additional nine to 12 months to remove the antenna. T he WAWNC had initially notified the NCPD in February that it needed to remove the antenna for renovations to begin, Palmer said.
“The Nassau County Police Department is turning a deaf ear to Elmont residents,” Palmer said. “They don’t particularly care about Elmont residents because they feel they don’t have CONTINUED ON PAGE 3