________________ OYSTER BAY _______________
HERALD $1.00
Q and A with Town Board candidates
Lindsay receives booster vaccine
Passport weekend coming soon
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VOL. 123 NO. 42
OCTOBER 15 - 21, 2021
Honoring a president with a bookstore BY LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
Courtesy Steve Israel
FORMER CONGRESSMAN STEVE Israel is opening Theodore’s Books in November.
Former Congressman Steve Israel is taking advantage of a positive outcome of the coronavirus pandemic to fulfill a dream he has had since he left office in 2017. He’s opening a bookstore. Even before Covid, bookstores had fallen on hard times because of the growth of big-box stores and the availability of online books, Israel said. But because of Covid, small independent bookstores are experiencing a resurgence. “People now want to get out of their homes and walk around, but they don’t want to go into a mall,” he explained. “They need something to pass the time, and there’s only so much bingewatching you can do on TV.” The former congressman’s new bookstore, Theodore’s Books, which Israel, 63, said is named after President Theodore Roosevelt, will open on or about Nov. 18 in Oyster Bay. Located CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
First Oyster Bay Day moves forward in the hamlet BY LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
The cancellation of the Oyster Festival in April was a disappointment to many. Another opportunity on a much smaller scale, Oyster Bay Day, will take place on Saturday in the hamlet, which was when the Oyster Festival was scheduled. The Oyster Bay-East Norwich Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Oyster Bay partnered to make Oyster Bay Day, a street fair, possible. Residents and visitors can explore the hamlet’s many offerings, which will include a kids’ zone, in a family-
friendly event from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Oyster Fest, as the larger event is known, is sponsored by the Rotary Club each year. The weekend-long event usually draws 150,000 to 250,000 people, most from outside Oyster Bay. It was canceled in 2020 and again this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. There was another reason, too. The organizer, Jim Fuccio, died of a Covid-related illness last December, and Mel Warren died in August of a stroke. He organized the craft portion of the festival, a big undertaking.
J
ust in the past few months, we’ve seen several new businesses open and are looking forward to another half dozen in the coming weeks. RAVIN CHETRAM
OBEN Chamber of Commerce, vice president And Walter Imperatore, who worked tirelessly on the event,
retired and moved to Florida. But Beverly Zemco, the festival’s co-president, said there was much discussion among Rotarians before they decided to cancel. “We had to make a decision this year in February, because the festival takes so much planning to organize,” Zemco said. “The [coronavirus] variant was
prevalent, and gaining speed then. We’re in a cocoon here in Oyster Bay, with not a lot of cases. We didn’t want to tip the apple cart.” The Rotary Club is also supporting Oyster Bay Day, Zemco said, adding that she hoped it would attract residents and benCONTINUED ON PAGE 11