Franklin Square/Elmont
to all our readers of the Christian faith
HERALD infections as of Dec. 21
3,752
CoMMuniTy uPDaTe
infections as of Dec. 14 3,568
$1.00
Cub scouts make holiday donation
nor’easter hits the area
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DeCeMBeR 24- 30, 2020
Vol. 22 no. 52
Teens seek cops’ empathy Elmont Memorial students discuss policing in new video work more harmoniously with community members, and to implement those plans by April As Nassau County’s 185 new 2021 to receive state funding. police cadets learn the ropes of Since then, Nassau County offitheir new jobs during a seven- cials have held several town hall month-long training program, meetings focused on policing, they will watch a video produced and have reached out to various by Elmont Memorial High stakeholders to discuss the issue. School students in “If we are ever which they talk going to change as about their experia society and find ences with police common ground, officers and offer we must listen to suggestions for understand and improving relations respect each othbetween the Nassau er’s opinions,” County Police Ryder said in a Department and statement, calling communities of the NCPD “one of color. the finest in the The Men of country, the best Elmont, a mentoring KeVin DougheRTy trained and very program that was Principal, EMHS engaged in our founded by Princicommunity.” pal Kevin Dougherty “However,” he said, “we can and Raymond Ramos, a school always look to do better. We owe security guard, in 2016, was that to our community and we tasked with creating the video by owe that to our officers.” county Police Commissioner To do so, the students said in Patrick Ryder as part of the their video, police should be county’s effort to expand com- more present at events, and treat munity policing, as ordered by Black people more f airly. Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Following “They’re saying, ‘We, too, are the police-involved killing of human, and we, too, deserve George Floyd in Minneapolis in respect,” Principal Kevin DoughMay, Cuomo directed all police departments to develop plans to Continued on page 18
By Melissa Koenig mkoenig@liherald.com
Melissa Koenig/Herald
The big man comes to town Santa Claus stopped to say “Merry Christmas” to Lucas Harhakis, second from right, on his way through Franklin Square on Dec. 19, when members of the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department escorted him through town. They were with Capt. Anthony Gregorio, far left, and firefighter Gus Harahkis.
A ‘compassionate giant’
Former Elmont school board member dies at 87 By Melissa Koenig mkoenig@liherald.com
The Rev. Kenneth Williams, a once-constant presence at the Dutch Broadway School and a calming voice on the Elmont Board of Education, died of a stroke on Dec. 16, at age 87. Williams was born to Caribbean immigrants in Harlem in 1933, and grew up with five
siblings, three sisters and two brothers. He attended Morris High School in the Bronx, and studied at Monroe Business School and the City College School of Business Administration, before becoming a “doit-all” employee for American Airlines, he told Newsday in a 2003 article on the Elmont school board election. In the 1980s he helped his brother, Ezra, then a pastor at
Bethel Gospel Assembly in Harlem, find a new building for his cong re gation. The church’s membership was growing exponentially at the time, Louis A. DeCaro recounted in his book, “A Shepherd in Harlem: The Life and Times of Ezra Williams,” which Ezra tried to accommodate by adding more seating options, but any mention of Continued on page 5
T
hey’re saying, ‘We, too, are human, and we, too, deserve respect.’