________________ LONG BEACH _______________
HERALD
September 15, 2022
Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Popular dog at city meetings Page 3 Vol. 33 No. 38
Island Choice Awards • long Nomination Guide
Higher Education
Inside
Inside
Empowering a brighter future
SEPTEMBER 15 - 21, 2022
$1.00
Recalling 9/11, 21 years later About 100 attend ceremony at city fire department memorial By JAMES BERNSTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
Joe Abate/Herald
loNG BEACH VETERANS of Foreign Wars members presented the colors at the 21st anniversary remembrance of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Twenty-one years may have passed since Sept. 11, 2001, the day America was attacked by hijacked jetliners that slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, but Al Fuentes is among those who can never forget. “On this day each year, the night before, I start getting flashbacks,” Fuentes said last Sunday. “My body is quivering.”
Fuentes, a 26-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department, was among the last of the firefighters to be pulled alive from the wreckage of the towers that horrific day. He was serving as acting battalion chief of the FDNY’s Marine Division when the towers were hit. He was barely conscious when he was found — neckdeep in debris — by some of his men, who had heard his earlier radio calls. T h e M a r i n e D iv i s i o n Continued on page 17
Chief lifeguard turns in his whistle after 53 years By BRENDAN CARPENTER bcarpenter@liherald.com
Paul Gillespie has been looking at the sea for 53 years, either from his perch on a lifeguard stand or while supervising others who save lives at the ocean. He will continue gazing at the water in the future, no doubt, but not quite the same way. This summer has been his last as the city’s chief lifeguard. Gillespie, 72, an Irish immigrant, grew up in Baldwin and moved to Long Beach 37 years ago. He has seen, and led the city lifeguards through, a lot over those years, the last 15 as chief. His son, Paul Jr., is a lifeguard lieutenant with the central crew, which patrols the city’s central
beaches. “Times have been very tough here,” Gillespie said. “(Hurricane) Sandy was difficult, because it left us without facilities to run the beach,” he said. The 2012 storm destroyed the boardwalk, and many homes in Long Beach. “We put up and tent, and had to use it as a lifeguard headquarters.” In Gillespie’s 15 years as chief lifeguard, there were no drownings during beach season while lifeguards were on duty. His mantra, he said, is, “Everyone that comes to the beach goes home from the beach.” He takes great pride in that, but his favorite part of the job is mentoring young kids and lifeguards who work alongside him. He has worked the beach with hundreds of
young lifeguards, over 100 each year, many of whom return summer after summer. Many are Long Beach residents. The training regime is rigorous. Lifeguard hopefuls, and returning guards, must swim 200 yards in the Recreation Center pool in a maximum time of 2 minutes, 45 seconds, and finish a one-mile run on the boardwalk in no more that nine minutes. Candidates must be certified in CPR and first aid, and show that they know all the procedures and protocols of the beach as well. Gillespie has mentored young people not only on the beach, but also in the classroom — and on the wrestling mat. He spent 30 years teaching phys. ed. at West Elementary School, the middle school and
the high school. He has coached wrestling at Long Beach and Oceanside high schools, and currently coaches in Wantagh. He plans to continue coaching the Wantagh High wrestling team, which won the Nassau County championship in 2021. He was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005. Harvey Weisenberg, a Long Beach resident, a former state assemblyman and a longtime Atlantic Beach lifeguard, said that Gillespie is the “most dedicated coach I’ve ever met,” and that he has had a lasting influence on the children he has worked with. “He developed every child as an athlete while showing them the right way to live life,” Weisenberg Continued on page 4