________________ LONG BEACH _______________
CommUNITy UPDATE Infections as of June 23
4,045
Infections as of June 16 4,041
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Pull Out $1.00
Vol. 32 No. 26
long Beach fully reopens
First annual Bike-a-Thon
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JUNE 24 - 30, 2021
Democrats select Bendo, Posterli, Lester By JAmEs BErNsTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
Christina Daly/Herald
DEmoCrATIC PrImAry wINNErs, from left, Roy Lester, Tina Posterli and John Bendo.
Long Beach Democrats on Tuesday chose incumbent City Council President John Bendo and his running mate, Tina Posterli, to run for council seats in the November general election. The two ran with the support of the Nassau County Democratic Party. Roy Lester, who campaigned independently, was also elected to run for a third council seat, ending a messy primary conducted primarily on social media and characterized by candidates hurling charges of
incompetence and corruption at one another. A third candidate backed by the Nassau County Democrats, Paulette Waithe, was edged out of the race. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Long Beach by a margin of about 3 to 1, so the winners of the primary appear likely to win in November. But Republicans have won seats on the City Council in the past. James Moriarty, the local Republican leader, noted Tuesday that the part had representation on the council from 2003 to 2014 and Continued on page 4
Feds to begin review of wind farm off Long Beach By JAmEs BErNsTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
A $3 billion proposal to build what would be New York state’s largest offshore wind farm is taking shape, with plans to run an underground cable through Long Beach to a substation near the E.F. Barrett Power Station in Island Park. A precise location for the cable has not yet been determined. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will soon begin an environmental review of the construction and operation of what would be called Empire Wind, off Long Island’s South Shore. The review is
expected to take two years, and the project would need state approval as well. Work on Empire Wind would begin no sooner than 2023. Long Beach would not be involved in the approval process, but would help determine the location of the underground cable. The wind turbines would be about 15 miles offshore. The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association is strongly opposed to the project, claiming that fish, and fishermen, will be adversely affected. Equinor, a company based in Norway, has been awarded contracts by New York state, the first in 2019, to supply 816 mega-
T
his is the change we need.
ADrIENNE EsPosITo
Citizens Campaign for the Environment watts of power to the state grid, connecting in Brooklyn. A second contract, for 1,260 megawatts, was awarded in January, for Long Island’s South Shore. Two offshore substations would collect the power, which would be routed by cables to one or more of several potential sites in Brooklyn. The Long Beach
cable would also be connected to an Equinor substation, and to the LIPA grid by way of a substation in the Island Park area. “We will continue to closely engage with federal officials, state regulators and a wide range of interested stakeholders as we work together in completing one of the largest offshore wind projects in the United
States,” Siri Espedal Kindem, president of Equinor Wind U.S., said in a statement. An Equinor spokesman, David Marks, estimated that the project would cost about $3 billion, and said it would be the largest wind farm in New York state. It would produce more than 2,000 megawatts of power, Continued on page 5