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HERALD $1.00
Suozzi might run for governor
Students honor vets in assembly
Help support the railroad museum
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VOL. 123 NO. 46
NOVEMBER 12 - 18, 2021
Baymen beat Rocks for county V-ball title BY MIKE SMOLLINS msmollins@liherald.com
Anthony Hughes/Herald
Though East Rockaway dominated Oyster Bay twice in the regular season, the Baymen vanquished the Rocks when it counted to earn the Nassau Class C girls’ volleyball championship on Monday at LIU-Post. Oyster Bay ultimately prevailed over defending champion East Rockaway, 16-25, 25-23, 25-21, 16-25, 25-17, to win the title for the second time in three seasons. The victory flipped the script from the previous two meetings between the teams, in which the Rocks dominated six straight sets.
OYSTER BAY DEFEATED East Rockaway in five sets to capture the Nassau Class C girls’ volleyball title on Monday at LIU-Post.
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Can clams and oysters make a comeback in Oyster Bay? BY LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
People engaged in shellfishing in Oyster Bay Harbor, commercially or otherwise, respect the opinions of Friends of the Bay, which advocates for the bay’s protection. But the nonprofit environmental organization has traditionally chosen not to take sides between commercial shellfishing company Frank M. Flower & Sons, which uses mechanical dredging, and independent shellfishers from the North Oyster Bay Baymen’s Association, who believe that dredging damages the bay. The science is mixed on the practice,
FOB members say, so they’d like to stay out of it. Instead, the organization is focusing on the big picture — and perhaps not a moment too soon. After several meetings with Town of Oyster Bay officials, FOB has written an open letter to the community, and shared it with the Herald (see box, Page 11), outlining strategies to keep the bay, which is suffering from a declining shellfish population, viable. “When we tell people there are almost no oysters left in Oyster Bay, and that the oysters at the Oyster Festival two years ago had to be imported from Con-
I
f you take too much, sooner or later it won’t be there anymore. BILLY PAINTER
President, NOBBA necticut by the Rotary Club, people looked stunned,” Bill Bleyer, FOB’s president, said. “So we said we have to stop talking to ourselves and tell the public what’s going on.” Billy Painter, president of NOBBA, said he believes the situation in Oyster Bay Harbor is
dire. He said he knows of only two baymen who currently work there. The rest fish in the Long Island Sound in Glen Cove. In the letter, FOB recommends that the town create a bay management plan with an advisory committee that would include “representatives from user groups, environmental organizations and experts in bay
management and water-based industries.” In an email to the Herald, town representatives wrote that its Department of Environmental Resources has created a Water Resources Guidance Document, which is similar to a bay management plan. Discussed with environmentalists, includCONTINUED ON PAGE 3