_________ Oceanside/island park ________
HERALD Nomination Guide Inside $1.00
Vol. 56 No. 31
Marine Study Area a treasure
o’side woman is honored
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JUlY 29 - AUGUST 4, 2021
Oceanside performers take on 1920s By ToM CArrozzA tcarrozza@liherald.com
Tom Carrozza/Herald
The CAST ANd crew of “Back to the 20’s!” after their preview performance at the Long Beach farmers’ market on July 24.
Over a year after Broadway was shut down, in some cases mid-show, Oceanside residents have brought the theater back to local residents. Written by Oceanside resident Bruce Bider, “Back to the 20’s!” mixes talent from the stages of Broadway and the big and small screens with local youth. “Back to the 20’s!” is an original work from Bider, a music director and producer, as a celebration of the Roaring ’20s with historical perspective nar-
rated by film historian Philip Harwood. The project was ready to debut at Molloy College’s Madison Theater in early 2020, but the pandemic put those plans on hold. Bider, the co-founder and president of South Shore Theatricals, got to work on the project when fellow Oceanside resident, friend and colleague Lisa Engellis, of Artists in Partnership, suggested that the two organizations merge for a production. Having sat on his original composition for over a year, Bider said he had just the Continued on page 13
Hemsley calls for fellow Sani commissioners to resign By ToM CArrozzA tcarrozza@liherald.com
Oceanside’s Sanitation District No. 7 is struggling to move on from a string of controversies, as embattled Commissioner Ryan Hemsley called for the resignations of Commissioners John Mannone and Joe Samoles, alleging that the two had verbal altercations with employees. At a July 7 special meeting, Hemsley made a motion to investigate Mannone and Samoles, but was rejected by a vote of two to one, with commissioners Patrick Doherty and Austin Graff opposing. Hemsley declined to comment.
Hemsley defeated Dawn Veit in the September election by a count of 1,036 to 141, securing the final two years of outgoing commissioner Matthew Horowitz’s term. Horowitz stepped down from the position in January 2020, citing conflicts with his job. Hemsley had assumed Horowitz’s duties between January and the September 15 election. Hemsley was accused of posting racist, homophobic and antiSemitic Facebook posts that drew the ire of local officials State Sen. Todd Kaminsky and Assemblywoman Judy Griffin. Members of the sanitation dis-
W
e should defend everyone’s right to express their viewpoints.
JohN MANNoNe
Commissioner, Sanitation District No. 7 trict called for Hemsley to resign, though he has remained in office. Hemsley claimed last October that the posts in question were doctored to hurt him after the contentious election. The district brought Valley
Stream-based Chandler Law Firm to conduct a probe recently, but Hemsley refused to respond to the firm’s attempts to contact him after the sanitation district’s insurance company declined to cover his legal fees. A representative of the firm, La Wanda Williams-Israel, recommended that a code of conduct be created to avoid similar situations in the
future. Hemsley’s calls for Mannone’s and Samoles’s resignations came just over a month after members of the sanitation district expressed their desire to move on from the affair in the aftermath of the unsuccessful probe into Hemsley’s Facebook posts. With neither side backing Continued on page 14