_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
CoMMuNIty uPDAtE Infections as of March 30
5,414
Infections as of March 23 5,351
$1.00
HERALD Also serving Bay Park
New BoCES center assistant principal
Former BoE member honored
A pastor’s Easter message
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Vol. 28 No. 14
APRIl 1 - 7, 2021
Apartments proposed for Feather Factory projects that come to our village,” Mayor Alan Beach said. “We look forward to the public A developer who is seeking to hearing.” build a 210-unit rental apartment Beach added that a date for complex at the site of the vacant the public hearing has not been Mangrove Feather factory has set and will be determined at a invited the community to take later date. The next board meetpart in two meet-and-greets to ing is set for April 5, but Beach learn more about said he was uncerthe project and tain if it would be offer input. take place then, David Orwasher, since it is a day the chief developbefore Orwasher’s ment officer for the second meeting Garden City-based with the communiB r e s l i n Re a l t y, ty. planned to meet The Mangrove with residents on Feather factory has Thursday from 7 to been dormant 9 p. m . a t t h e since 2008, and sevKnights of Columeral village adminbus, on 78 Hempi s t r at i o n s h ave stead Ave., in Lynsought to develop brook, after the but it took many DAVID oRwAShER it, Herald went to years to convince press. He planned Chief development the owner, Barry to host another officer, Breslin Realty Singer, to sell the meeting, also at the proper ty, which Knights, on April 6 residents and vilat the same time. The second lage officials have called an eyemeeting will also be available sore. Orwasher and Singer virtually, details for which will began negotiating a deal in be posted online at a later date November 2017, and finally bro(see link at the bottom of this kered one last month. Orwasher story). said he thought the site was a “We’re very excited and the board is open to all interesting Continued on page 3
By MIkE SMollINS msmollins@liherald.com
w
Courtesy Jessica Kern
JESSICA kERN IS the only female firefighter in the Lynbrook Fire Department, and said she is motivated to help others and has a solid relationship with her male counterparts.
Fighting fires and gender norms
LFD’s lone female firefighter aims to help others By JulIA SwERDIN lyneditor@liherald.com
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Jessica Kern, then 18, stood at the window of Tower Five of the World Trade Center, where she worked at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and witnessed the most horrendous terrorist attack in American history. Debris flew far and wide, people leapt from the towers’ top floors, and fires erupted into vicious infernos.
She screamed and cried, “Get out, get out!” But like so many people that day, she felt helpless and afraid. She said she would never forget the brave men and women who acted in those moments, the firefighters who ran toward the flames, their heroism saving hundreds of lives. Kern, now 38, continued to return to that day in her memory, and struggled to shed the incessant feeling in her gut —what the feeling was, though, she recalled, she
could not decipher. In 2015, she moved to Lynbrook and continued working in the city as a property manager. Each day as she stepped off the Long Island Rail Road platform, her eyes were drawn across the street, to the big red letters of the Lynbrook Engine Company No. 1 firehouse. The gnawing in her stomach grew by the day, and she finally came to terms with its meaning: She would become a Continued on page 4
e are seeking feedback. We’re trying to understand what folks would like to see.