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RVC chamber holds reopening
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VOL. 31 NO. 34
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Foundation hosts virtual fundraiser
AUGUST 20 - 26, 2020
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Children enjoy summer camp 516.678.0Page 88616 88A NOrth VillAgE AV E. rOckVillE cENtrE
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Bowling is back in RVC After five-month pandemic shutdown, Maple Lanes reopens By BRIANA BONFIGLIO bbonfiglio@liherald.com
Briana Bonfiglio/Herald
LIZ BONNEY AND her 11-year-old son, Matt, returned to the newly reopened Maple Lanes on Monday for an afternoon of bowling.
Monday was a day for celebration at Maple Lanes in Rockville Centre. After a fivemonth shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, the bowling alley reopened. Although procedures in the lanes are much different than in March, bowlers said they were happy to be back. Asked if they were excited about returning, members of the Senior Birds league responded with an emphatic “Yes!” “Going through bowling
withdrawal is hard,” said George Fields, one of the members. Teresa McCarthy, a co-owner of Maple Lanes, said the business received calls from regular customers every day, asking when it would reopen. “It’s been a very long haul,” she said. McCarthy owns Maple Family Centers, which includes the bowling alley, with her father, John LaSpina, and brother, Joe LaSpina. She noted that it was challenging being closed for so long without knowing when CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Village reaches settlement for air pollution violations By JILL NOSSA jnossa@liherald.com
The air in Rockville Centre is on track to becoming cleaner. Last week, the village agreed to pay a $110,000 fine for emitting pollutants from its power plant, settling a lawsuit alleging that the plant violated emissions requirements under the federal Clean Air Act. The settlement was announced Aug. 13 by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency. According to the complaint, filed that day by the two agencies in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, the DOJ
and the EPA found that emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide from the 33-megawatt municipal power plant exceeded federal standards. One megawatt lights roughly a thousand homes. The village has been aware of the pollution for several years, and has taken steps to clean it up. In addition to paying a penalty, the village, which operates eight generators, was required to retire three of the plant’s highemission diesel engines — which it did in 2018 — and reclassify several engines to limit their use to reduce emissions and bring the plant into compliance with federal law. The settlement also
requires the village to increase its capacity to import electricity, install a continuous emissionsmonitoring system on all nonemergency engines and perform engine tuneups periodically. “The settlement enforces specific and appropriate emission limits that are critical to mitigating human exposure to particulate matter,” Seth D. DuCharme, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, said, “which is potentially har mful to our health.” Comment from the village was deferred to an outside attorney, Eli Eilbott of Duncan, Weinberg, Genzer and Pembroke, a Washington, D.C., law firm.
Because the matter was not yet before the court, Eilbott said, the DOJ filed both the formal complaint and the settlement agreement, or consent judgment, simultaneously. A 30-day publiccomment period will follow, he said, after which the DOJ will file a motion to request the court’s review and approval of the consent judgment. The vil-
lage expected it to be approved, Eilbott added. “The village is pleased with the final terms and conditions of the settlement, under which the village does not admit any of the allegations set forth in the complaint,” Eilbott said in a statement, “and the village agrees to implement various measures to CONTINUED ON PAGE 3