_______ Malverne/West HeMpstead ______
HERALD Fall festival and car show
Hearing advice from Dr. Cardano
Narrow defeat for West Hempstead
Page 3
Page 6
Page 8
Vol. 29 No. 43
oCToBER 20 - 26, 2022
$1.00
Farm is crowded for family fair Hundreds gather for harvest season fun at Crossroads at Grossmann’s By KYlE CHIN kchin@liherald.com
Joe Abate/Herald
AugusT lEVY HAD his face painted like a cat at Crossroads Farm’s Fall Family Fun Festival.
Crossroads Farm at Grossmann’s welcomed the harvest season with an all-day Fall Family Fun Festival on Oct. 9. The farm was crowded with children and their parents, who took part in a wide variety of games and activities, including pumpkin picking, arts and crafts, face painting, a petting zoo, and sampling fresh food and s’mores as well as enjoying live music. The farm’s event coordinator, Annie Sunshine, said she was elated by the success of the
event. “I think the turnout was really good this year,” she said. “And it was affordable, only $10 for a family. The band is great. The food trucks are great.” A major focus of the fair was the pop-up petting zoo, brought in by Medford-based Long Island Pony Parties. Goats, chickens, rabbits and a pony named Poppy were on site for children to feed and pet. Long Island Pony Parties was first contacted by the Rosa Lee Young Childhood Center in Rockville Centre, which was honored during the fair. Continued on page 2
Hempstead Lake State Park hosts fishing festival for fall By KYlE CHIN kchin@liherald.com
People were free to cast their lines throughout Hempstead Lake State Park last Saturday, at the park’s annual Fall Family Freshwater Fishing Festival. Food trucks, vendors, and information booths lined the path to McDonald Pond at the southern end of the park. The state Department of Environmental Conservation had freshly stocked the park’s two bodies of water with about 1,000 rainbow and brook trout raised at the Connetquot Hatchery in Oakdale. Heidi O’Riordan, who works with the department’s freshwater
fisheries unit, organized the day’s fishing programs. “There’s turtles, there’s frogs, there’s sunfish in there,” she said of the park’s waters. “But we stock the trout for put and take fishery,” she added, referring to the introduction of a species for sport fishing. “The trout get raised for people who buy a fishing license, so we expect them to take them.” The park also declared a free fishing day for the event, meaning that visitors did not need a fishing license to take part. “We have several throughout the year,” O’Riordan said. “We do this to give people the opportunity, before they commit to buying their license, to see if fishing is
right for them.” She added that anyone interested in a fishing license can probably purchase one at their local Walmart, sporting goods store or bait shop. The DEC’S fisheries unit and the I Fish NY program supplied rods and bait. I Fish NY was started in the 1990s. “It was meant to be mostly for urban youth who don’t really get a chance to go out and go fishing,” explained Walter Burack, the program’s regional director. The program has expanded over the years, and now offers free lessons for students in grades 6 to 12 throughout the school year. “We’ve gone into schools in the wintertime, and taken entire
sixth-grade classes and came in over the course of two days,” Burack said. “We give a talk to the entire class about fishing, and about our resources, and about stewardship, and about regulations, and about what we do.” I Fish NY also partners with Scout troops, helping scouts looking to earn fishing-related merit badges.
A number of fishing clubs and organizations from across Long Island assisted with the day’s programs. The Wantagh Knights of Columbus Fishing Club, and instructor Paul McCain, from River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin, were among those who pitched in. In addition to providing equipContinued on page 4