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VoL. 32 no. 1
First responders get their shots L.B. emergency workers set to receive second Covid vaccines emergency services were among those who were vaccinated. These first responders have Hours before the ball dropped come in contact with many peoon New Year’s Eve, Scott ple in Long Beach who had fullKemins, Long Beach’s fire com- blown cases of the virus. There missioner, drove to Mount Sinai are currently more than 2,000 South Nassau Hospital in cases in the city, the most since Oceanside, walked into a lobby the pandemic began in March. area, rolled up his This week, Mount sleeve and was given Sinai South Nassau the Moderna Covidh a d 9 9 C ov i d - 1 9 19 vaccine. patients. Last spring Soon a f t e r, it had as many as Kemins’s arm was 400. sore, he developed “The process [at what he described as MSSN] was flawflu-like symptoms less,” Kemins said. and he went to bed. sCott Kemins He reported for his “ I m i s s e d N e w Fire commissioner shot at 8 a.m. on Dec. Year’s Eve,” he said. 31, and was on his But he is happy way back to Long that he now has at least 95 per- Beach by 8:30. cent protection against the coroDavid Woolfe, who has been navirus. In the days that fol- an emergency-services worker in lowed, 45 of Long Beach’s emer- Long Beach for about a decade, gency-services personnel were also got the Moderna vaccine on also vaccinated at MSSN. New Year’s Eve at MSSN. He felt Kemins and the others will get nothing more than some soretheir second inoculation soon. ness in his arm for a few hours, Some will get the Moderna vac- and is due for a second dose in cine, and others the Pfizer-BioN- two weeks. Tech version. Woolfe said he did not feel sigKemins said that some of his nificantly protected after just colleagues have had mild Covid one shot, but predicted he would symptoms, but all have recov- after the second one. “This is like ered. Ambulance drivers and firefighters who are trained in Continued on page 3
By James Bernstein jbernstein@liherald.com
t
Christina Daly/Herald
Hometown heroes Orazio Taddeo, of Oceanside, left, and Salvatore Mastracchio, of Long Beach, were awarded Hometown Hero and Distinguished Service awards by Town of Hempstead officials for saving the life of a man who fell into frigid waters while duck hunting recently. Story, Page 5.
Sanitation workers go full-time
First eight of 33-man crew get pay raises, benefits By James Bernstein jbernstein@liherald.com
Week after week, Long Beach’s sanitation workers, some of the most invisible of the city’s employees, make the malodorous contents of often backbreakingly heavy garbage cans disappear at curbside, in belowfreezing temperatures or stifling summer heat. Yet for years, most of the department’s workers have been
classified as part-time, and paid that way. They have worked without medical benefits, paid vacation or sick days. At a City Council meeting two weeks ago, council President John Bendo said that the way the city had treated its sanitation workers “was a bit disgraceful.” They were working “excessive hours,” he said, and some were making less than minimum wage. The council voted to upgrade
eight of those employees to fulltime status, raising their pay to as much as $19 an hour, from about $12 an hour for some, and providing them with medical benefits and paid holidays. Eventually, when more city funds are available, all of the department’s 33 employees will be elevated to full-time status. The average salary for city sanitation workers is about Continued on page 3
he process was flawless.