HOLIDAY MAGIC
________________ LONG BEACH _______________
Dining Gi f t and
guide
Ideas to INSPIRE
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Holiday Magic Dining and Gift Guide
Inside
Vol. 33 No. 48
17th annual Turkey Trot takes off
Seabreeze loses alcohol license
Page 3
Page 5
NoVEMBER 24 - 30, 2022
E
$1.00
A vertical milestone on the Superblock By JAMES BERNSTEiN jbernstein@liherald.com
Bob Arkow/Herald
NASSAu CouNTy ExECuTiVE Bruce Blakeman wrote his name on a steel beam that was hoisted to the top of one of the three residential buildings under construction on the Superblock.
The City of Long Beach and the Garden City-based developer of the Superblock held a topping-out ceremony Tuesday morning to mark the completion of a significant phase of the construction of luxury residential units that have been the source of controversy on the barrier island for 40 years. An American flag was placed atop the skeleton of one of the three luxury residential buildings on the site known as the Superblock. Much of the past four decades have featured lawsuits, negotiations and meetings Continued on page 7
Equinor: energy costs to rise with wind, but only slightly By BRENDAN CARPENTER bcarpenter@liherald.com
Equinor, the Norway-based energy company set to build wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Beach, is hoping to drum up public support for its project by visiting local organizations and explaining its plans. On Monday night, Equinor officials appeared before the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce at its monthly meeting, and company representatives said they would make two other local appearances in the coming weeks. Whether or not they succeeded in convincing people that
wind turbines represent the future of energy generation, company officials delivered some news that many who attended the meeting, at the Bay Vista Assisted Living Community, did not like: Energy bills are likely to increase. In response to a question from the audience, Josh Verleun, Equinor’s director of permitting, said, “Each household’s energy bills should increase slightly. It should be about 95 cents monthly, and approximately $12 a year.” Equinor’s approved $3 billion project, Empire Wind, will have two parts, Empire Wind 1, which will supply power to the Brook-
E
ach household’s energy bills should increase slightly.
JoSH VERlEuN
Director of permitting, Equinor lyn area, and Empire Wind 2, which will supply power to the Long Beach area and connect to the E.F. Barrett Power Station in Island Park. Empire Wind 1 and 2 — stations housing the wires that transfer energy from the wind turbines to land — will be
built 15 to 30 miles offshore, and 147 turbines, each 886 feet high, will be three to five miles farther out. “It will also include up to 216 nautical miles of inter-array cable, which is the cable between the turbines offshore,” Susan Lienau, Equinor’s community engagement manager for Long Island, explained. “Then there
will be up to 66 nautical miles of submarine export cables, which are the cables that bring the power back onto land.” Lienau said that one of the biggest questions she is asked is, “What is the view from the beach?” Container ships, she said, would frequently pass in front of the turbines, making Continued on page 4