Long Beach
HERALD
CoMMuNitY uPDatE infections as of Dec. 7
1,253
infections as of Nov. 30 1,201
Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Rabbi holiday messages
Nonprofit faces state aid cuts
Council settles lawsuits
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DECEMBER 10 - 16, 2020
Vol. 31 No. 50
Town settles Dover lawsuit
lighting the tree, despite the rain Cliff Skudin, far right, donated a Christmas tree to the city and Devin Murray, a local high school student and participant in Surf for All, lighted it. Skudin said he wanted to get the biggest and baddest tree to finish 2020.
Also awards company 15-year operating contract in Lido Beach Tuesday, and agreed to the settlement and extension. Dover’s contract will begin The Hempstead Town Board on April 15 next year, and run voted on Tuesday to settle a 2019 through April 14, 2036. The comlawsuit brought by p a ny, u n d e r t h e Dover Gour met direction of CEO Corp., and to award Issac “Butch” Yamathe company a l i , h a s o p e r at e d 1 5 - ye a r c o n t r a c t facilities at Malibu extension to operate since 2009. Accorda restaurant, coning to the terms of cession stand, day the contract, Dover camp and beach will pay the town an club at Malibu annual $560,000 Beach Park in Lido licensing fee to Beach. operate them, comThe vote was 5-0, DoNalD pared with roughly w i t h S u p e r v i s o r ChEswoRth $534,000 a year D o n C l av i n a n d under the previous Attorney Town Councilman contract. Anthony D’Esposito The new agreeabstaining. The board is majori- ment states that Dover will ty Republican, with Council- repay $1.2 million in license fees woman Dorothy Goosby the owed to the town by April 2022, lone Democrat on it. She had and Dover will receive a credit her own attorney present on Continued on page 3
By DaRwiN YaNEs dyanes@liherald.com
i
think it’s in the best interest of the taxpayers in the town.
Christina Daly/Herald
Wanted: police commissioner
With P.D. in flux, Ragona resigns as interim head By JaMEs BERNstEiN jbernstein@liheralds.com
Long Beach’s interim police commissioner, Phil Ragona, who had been with the city’s Police Department for 35 years when he retired, but came out of retirement five months ago to serve as commissioner in an acting capacity in hopes of getting the top post full time, announced his resignation last Friday. Ragona, 57, sent a farewell let-
ter to the approximately 60 uniformed officers in the department, a copy of which was obtained by the Herald. Ragona declined to comment. The letter indicated that Long Beach would most likely hire Ronald Walsh, 50, the Nassau County Police Department’s chief of staff. City officials did not say whether Walsh would be hired. City Council President John Bendo applauded Ragon’s ser-
vice. “We are very appreciative of Phil for his willingness to step up and serve as Interim Commissioner these past several months, and for the 35 years of service to the city prior to that,” Bendo said in a statement. Ragona, a well-known figure in Long Beach who, according to city observers, enjoyed the support of the majority of police officers, and Walsh, a highly Continued on page 3
Our COvid-19 traCker With the Covid-19 test positivity rate rising across the country, the Herald is adding a weekly coronavirus tracker to the upper-left corner of our front page to help you gauge what’s happening in your area from week to week. the number is an aggregate of the communities that this newspaper covers. data is obtained from the nassau County Covid-19 dashboard, which provides the total number of cases reported in an area since the start of the pandemic, and is updated regularly.