________________ LONG BEACH _______________
CommUNitY UPDate infections as of July 7
4, 050
infections as of June 30 4, 045
$1.00
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
l.B. lawyer joins claims court
Volleyball league is back
Protect small beach birds
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Vol. 32 No. 28
JUlY 8 - 14, 2021
Police chief, PBA head at odds again weapons charge. Later they received a call about an alcohol emergency, and Worries that thousands of found a man at Edwards Bouleyoung people would mob the vard and East Olive Street who beach last Sunday night were for had been shot multiple times in naught: No one showed up. the buttocks. He has recovered. But there were consequences Wells disputed Walsh’s claim in the wake of the large crowd that “the department was prethat turned out on pared and properly the night of June 20: staffed” three SunLong Beach Police days ago. Commissioner Ron “The assertion Walsh and Brian that the department Wells, president of was prepared and the Police Benevoproperly staffed for lent Association, the the event on [June union that repre20] would be laughsents city officers, able if the consewere eng aged in quences hadn’t been another dispute, this so disastrous,” Wells time over Walsh’s roN Walsh wrote in an email to response to a shoot- Police the Herald. ing and the gatherWe l l s ch a r g e d Commissioner ing of a crowd on that Walsh “has the boardwalk, an been so focused on event called a “Sunset Party” on his Facebook page” and other social media. matters that “he hasn’t even Late that night, a crowd esti- learned how to properly deploy mated by police at about 2,500 his resources.” gathered on the boardwalk at Walsh, who has been the New York Avenue, but dispersed police commissioner since Febpeacefully by 11 p.m., when the ruary, after serving 28 years with beach and boardwalk closes. the Nassau County Police While the crowd was leaving, Department, flatly denied the police said, they heard gunshots allegations. “It is unfortunate and raced to West Penn Street, that PBA Union President Brian where they arrested a man on a Continued on page 10
By James BerNsteiN jbernstein@liherald.com
W
Courtesy Sen. Kaminsky’s office
state seN. toDD Kaminsky, of Long Beach, took the lead in asking the state to require regular structural inspections of buildings in coastal areas after the collapse of a highrise in Florida.
L.B., state officials seek inspections of coastal buildings By James BerNsteiN jbernstein@liherald.com
Saying they were horrified by the collapse of a condominium building in Surfside, Fla., two weeks ago, and anxious to make sure it did not happen in Long Beach or other coastal areas of New York, city and state officials Tuesday urged the state to see that structural inspections are conducted annually. Currently, such inspections are not undertaken on
any regular basis on Long Beach’s 43 residential buildings, which include co-ops, condos and rentals, city officials said. State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, who lives in Long Beach, called a news conference at the boardwalk and Neptune Boulevard to announced that he, city officials and two other fellow Democratic state senators — Diane Savino, of Staten Island, and Roxanne Persaud, of Brooklyn — had written to the members of
New York state’s Code Development Unit, which is overseen by the Department of State. The letter read, in part, that the senators appreciated the unit’s efforts to improve safety, but added, “However, the terrible tragedy in MiamiDade County requires further efforts to ensure that a similar event does not occur here.” The senators said that while “there is no reason for Continued on page 4
e held all of our day tour officers to work the event.