_________ Oceanside/island park ________
Chamber picks Person of the Year
Three arrested on weapons charges
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Vol. 58 No. 3
JANUARY 12 - 18, 2023
1200742
HERALD $1.00
No dogs allowed at L.B. dog park Locals are dismayed as facility is closed for first time since Sandy By KARINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
Daniel Tommasino/Herald
Sanctifying the waters of Masone Beach Priest George Kazoulis, of the Panaghia of Island Park Greek Orthodox Church, blessed Masone Beach for the 2023 Epiphany. Story, more photos, Page 5.
For 18 years, Steve Kritzberg has brought his dogs to the park dedicated just for them at Nickerson Beach. He’s part of an early morning social group, and then comes back to socialize with afternoon and weekend pet owners as well. There, Kritzberg meets up with other dog lovers to shoot the breeze, all while their fourlegged best friends have the times of their lives running around free. A tired dog is a happy dog, K r i t z b e r g s ay s. B u t t h a t changed on a recent trip, when
he found a fence and closed gate — the first time he can remember the park being closed, except for when the remnants of Hurricane Sandy hit Long Beach. Kritzberg waved down a police officer he found patrolling nearby, hoping for some answers while his dog waited patiently in the car. Instead, he got a warning to stay away. “As soon as I entered the gate, he turned on his light, did a U-turn, and came at me,” Kritzberg said. The officer was visibly upset, telling him the park is closed. And if Kritzberg stuck around any longer, he’d get a Continued on page 17
In I.P., talk turns to Equinor’s ‘community benefits’ package By KARINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
Green energy is coming to Island Park, but residents are waiting to see what they, the village and the schools will see in the way of a “community benefits” package from Equinor, the multibillion-dollar energy company partnering with BP on an offshore wind farm off the South Shore. Members of the Island Park Civic Association’s new Island Park/Equinor Windmill Committee were joined by Board of Education President Jack Vobius and Mayor Michael McGinty at a civic association meeting at
the public library on Jan. 5. The committee, created to educate the public on Equinor’s massive Empire Wind project, set to be completed in 2025, is working to arrive at a consensus in the village about what people would like to see in a benefits package. In pamphlets distributed at Equinor’s meeting in Island Park last November, an Equinor slideshow photo stated that $52 million would be available for a community benefits package, to be allocated to Long Beach and Island Park, which would be most closely impacted by the project. Committee members said that they believe this total is low, con-
sidering that the Town of East Hampton has been promised $29 million for 15 offshore wind turbines that Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource partners are in the process of building. Empire Wind, in contrast, will involve 174 turbines spread across 80,000 acres of Long Island coast, as well as a substation on land. “This is, to me, is a once-in-alifetime opportunity,” committee member Richard Schurin said. “They’re making huge investments — I mean, huge, billiondollar investments in this project — and they need us. They have to come to this village and come to this town. … And they’re
changing the nature of this community, with their substation and everything else. And, you know, we’re entitled to be compensated, as far as I’m concerned.” Vobius said that the school board is offering any assistant it can provide. “Our main interest is keeping the taxes low,” he said. “We lost a lot of money dur-
ing the LIPA agreement, so we’re trying to bridge that gap, at least as much as possible. “At the end of the day,” Vobius c o n t i nu e d , “ wh at eve r t h e amount of money is, if it goes toward alleviating property taxes instead of building a park, it’s going to the taxpayers … we’re just going to try and keep Continued on page 16