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LONG BEACH
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HERALD 202 2 HIGH SCH OOL SPORTS PREVIEW
Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach SEPTEMBER 8, 2022
FO OT BA LL PROSPECTS
’22 for the
SEASON
Page 3 VOL. 33 NO. 37
27 Schools
2022 FOOTBALL
High School Preview - Inside
SEPTEMBER 8 - 14, 2022
$1.00
LO OK
Dominick Novello
INS FOR IDE TH SCHSEASOE FUL EDU N L LE
Mepham High School’s
It’s that time again
1184923
Summer ends with a race
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School bells rang Tuesday for Long Beach’s 3,722 students, who returned to class for the first time in two years with no mask mandate in place. The day began with showers, but students attending the Lindell Elementary School hardly noticed.
D’Esposito, Gillen look to spirited race By JAMES BERNSTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
Joe Abate/Herald
In her Democratic primary race last month, Laura Gillen faced jabs from her opponent. She had lost her 2019 re-election bid for Hempstead town supervisor. Yet Gillen won the primary anyway. But her race this November against Anthony D’Esposito could be, as the late great Yogi Berra once said, deja vu all over again. D’Esposito — a Hempstead town councilman representing the Republican ticket in the race — also believes Gillen’s loss to
fellow GOPer Donald Clavin will give him an edge in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat, who is retiring after 10 years in the U.S. House. And, as before, Gillen has a ready answer. While she was town supervisor, she had support from Democrats and Republicans. And, Rice won her races by healthy margins over her Republican opponents. According to the Cook Partisan Voter Index, the district’s results were four percentage points more Democratic than the national average. The race is important nationally, as Democrats hope to hold Continued on page 5
Programs phased out, seniors speak up to council By JAMES BERNSTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
A group of senior citizens told the City Council Tuesday night that several of their important exercise, recreational and educational programs at the Long Beach Recreation Center had been eliminated, and asked that they be restored. Henrietta Staub, who acted as spokeswoman for the group of about 25 seniors, said that since the coronavirus pandemic, the number of exercise classes had been cut to two or three a week from seven or eight. Staub added that the seniors had access to two meeting rooms at the center, but now they can use only one. “These programs helped us reconnect” with one another, Staub said. “Now it’s all so limited.” She and other seniors said they believed that funding for their programs had been cut, but council members and city Treasurer Ina
T
hese programs helped us reconnect.
HENRIETTA STAuB
spokeswoman, senior citizens group Reznick explained that no cuts had been made, nor could any have been, since the city budget was completed in the spring, and it is too early to begin working on a spending plan for the next fiscal year. “This would not be a time for budget cuts,” Reznick said. “Discussions for next year didn’t even start yet.” But Staub said that the reduction in programs and reserved space had severely limited the number of seniors who can participate in activities at the center. City Manager Donna Gayden called immedi-
ately for a meeting with the group. “We will talk about the budget and programs for the seniors,” Gayden said. “We’re all very involved in these things.” She called talk about budget cuts “gossip,” however, and said, “We will get to the bottom of that, too.” James Hodge, a leader of the mostly Black North Park community, spoke on behalf of the seniors, saying that programs for older people at the Martin Luther King Center are also suffering. “I believe senior programs are urgent in a community with so many seniors,” Hodge said. According to data in Long Beach’s budget documents, about 7.7 percent of the city’s approximately 30,000 residents are between ages 60 and 64. About 6.8 percent of Nassau County residents are in that age range. Long Beach’s 2022 budget allocated $45,000 for “contracted services,” the same as in the 2021 budget. Long Beach lists senior funding Continued on page 11