__________________ Merrick _________________
CoMMuNItY uPDAtE Infections as of April 26
8,091
Infections as of April 18 7,997
$1.00 $1.00
HERALD
Calhoun harriers capture title
Cub Scouts cross the bridge
St. Baldrick’s will return
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Vol. 24 No. 18
APRIl 29 - MAY 5, 2021
Residents rally against hike in water rates said David Denenberg, co-director of LICAWS. “The average [NYAW] private water customer On Monday, roughly 25 New will see our bills go up almost York American Water customers $400 a year — that’s more than rallied at the Theodore Roosevelt public water customers pay a Executive and Legislative Build- year.” ing in Mineola to decry a fast“We believe that water is a approaching rate human right — it hike and push the should not be a forState Assembly to profit resource,” pass le gislation Margaret Maher, a that would permit Merrick resident a municipal takeand a volunteer for over of the compaFood and Water ny. Wa t c h . “ Wa t e r The rate hike is should be affordset to take effect able and clean for May 1, and will everyone.” increase custom“Now we need a ers’ bills up to 30 MARGAREt MAHER corresponding bill percent. It will Merrick resident to be passed in the a f f e c t N YAW ’ s Assembly and to more than 124,000 offset the 26 percustomers in Nassau County. cent increase,” said Agatha The rally was a joining of Nadel, director of the advocacy public water advocacy groups group North Shore Concerned from across the county, includ- Citizens. “I urge everyone here ing the Merrick-based Long and everyone that’s affected to Island Clean Air, Water and Soil. call your Assembly members. They gathered after the State Tell him or her to get the job Senate last week passed legisla- done, and to get the job done tion to create a new Nassau now.” C o u n t y Wa t e r Au t h o r i t y, Denenberg held a sign disdemanding that the Assembly playing the rates paid by homepass corresponding legislation. owners on the same block, but “All we’re asking for is clean, reliable and affordable water,” Continued on page 15
By ANDREW GARCIA agarcia@liherald.com
W
ater should be affordable and clean for everyone.
Brian Ballweg/Herald
CHAMPIoN ColtS! Calhoun captured its first-ever Nassau County boys’ volleyball championship Tuesday evening with a three-set sweep of Bethpage at Brookside School. Story, additional photo, Page 4.
Students react to Chauvin verdict By ANDREW GARCIA agarcia@liherald.com
It has been nearly a year since thousands of protesters demanded justice on the streets of Merrick after the killing of George Floyd, a Minneapolis resident and a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer. It seemed like lightning in a bottle — a pandemic mixed with growing social activism — but a criminal conviction of the officer was far
from guaranteed. The officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, well past the moment that Floyd had stopped breathing. After a weeks-long, publicly aired trial, Chauvin was found guilty on three charges — second-degree unintentional murder, thirddegree murder and seconddegree manslaughter — on April 20. Chauvin will be sentenced in
seven weeks. Following the protests that shook the community, Merrick’s and Bellmore’s younger residents — who were largely sequestered because of the pandemic — wanted to have their voices heard. Sanford H. Calhoun High School seniors Eden Gould-Anderson and Joan Mesy started the Racial Equity Club to amplify their perspectives as Continued on page 2