Uniondale Herald 11-02-2023

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UNIONDALE _____________

HERALD BEACON

Do you know where to vote? Page 8

Time to fall back Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday

Remember to set your clocks back, and change your smoke and CO detector batteries

Playoffs end abruptly Page 6 $1.00 FREE

NOVEMBER 2 - 8, 2023

Leaks closing classrooms are not story’s end By REINE BETHANY rbethany@liherald.com

Courtesy Ed Shin

Kevin Rivera, formerly of Uniondale, saved seven members of a family from a house fire in Syosset last year. His 1-year-old son, Kayden, grabbed his father’s Good Samaritan award at the American Red Cross ceremony on Oct. 26, while award presenter Barry Litwin, chief executive of Global Industrial, looked on. Jose Dominguez, chief executvie of the American Red Cross of Long Island, presented Rivera with a citation sent by U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito.

Red Cross gives Rivera its Good Samaritan Award By REINE BETHANY rbethany@liherald.com

The Uniondale community can take pride in Kevin Rivera. Standing under replicas of a Blue Angels plane and the lunar module at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Oct. 26, the former Uniondale resident was presented with a Good Samaritan Award for rescuing seven members of a Syosset family from their burning house on Sept. 10, 2022. The elegantly dressed crowd at the American Red Cross Long Island Heroes Celebration stood to give the 23-year-old a prolonged ovation. Rivera was living near relatives in Union-

dale and delivering parcels for Amazon 14 months ago. On the afternoon of the fire, he was dropping off his last package of the day at a home on Bluebird Drive in Syosset. Black smoke rising from a house across the street caught his eye. He called 911, and then walked onto the lawn and shouted. No one came to the door. “The fire happened by the window,” Rivera recounted. “The door was in the middle. I knocked on the door and this elderly man opened it. I was pointing to the fire, but he didn’t understand.” As smoke began to blacken the house’s exterior, Rivera assumed that the man didn’t speak English, and anxiously looked past him into COntInUED On pAGE 19

The nightmare of temporarily sealing off the entire sixthgrade wing at Lawrence Road Middle School actually started with the fulfillment of a dream. With bond funding approved by Uniondale taxpayers, the district was adding nine new classrooms as a second story to the existing ones in that wing. But after the Triton Construction Company removed the roofing over the existing classrooms in preparation for adding the second level, a downpour in August sent rainwater dripping through the ceilings. Daily classes were not affected because school had not yet begun. Remediation by Triton fixed the leaks — until the deluge of Sept. 29 and 30. On that Friday and Saturday, so much rain fell so fast that Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency that included Long Island. “It’s been a challenge that we could not have foreseen,” Monique Darrisaw-Akil, Uniondale superintendent of schools, said. The real story, though, isn’t the nightmare, but rather the

teamwork that has enabled the school to cope without loss to student learning. It hasn’t been easy. “We came back on the Monday,” Oct. 2, Joyce Solarte, who teaches seventh-grade Spanish, recalled. “There was water in the sixth-grade wing. The doors were opened to let in air.” Solarte and her students had tolerated noise and occasional smells related to the construction. But the stench after that rainstorm was different. “Some people noticed health issues, with the smells going around,” Solarte said. “There were headaches. I haven’t heard about health problems lately, though.” The health issues associated with the leaks were confirmed by Principal Dexter Hodge, who said that some of the staff and students re por ted eye and throat irritation as well as headaches. To mitigate the problem, Hodge explained, “The construction company got industrial dehumidifiers to address the smells and the moisture conditions. They also brought portable industrial air scrubbers, which are essentially huge air purifiers.” COntInUED On pAGE 16


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