______________ VALLEY STREAM _____________
your HEALTH body / mind / fitness
and JULY 27, 2023
HERALD
with a focus on:
living
Vol. 34 No. 31
District 13 board reshuffles
Dunn goes to World Cup
Page 11
Page 12
JUlY 27 - AUGUST 2, 2023
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V.S. composer to pay tribute to Viennese ‘force of nature’ By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
Tim Baker/Herald
Opera composer Leonard Lehrman, center, rehearses with his wife, Helene Williams, and Daniel Hyman for their Martha Schlamme remembrance concert at the Pagan-Fletcher Restoration in Valley Stream.
On a recent Friday in his house on Court Street, opera composer Leonard Lehrman sat combing through albums recorded by Martha Schlamme, speaking fondly of his late “dear friend” who was a “force of nature” in the performance world. To celebrate the centennial of the birth of the husky-voiced Viennese soprano, who rose to become an international singing sensation, known for her interpretations of the works of the German-American composer Kurt Weill, Lehrman has been touring the country with a remembrance concert series. Titled “Songs of Love and Social Consciousness,” the series strings together selected songs COntinueD On Page 19
Improvements to make Dutch Broadway safer continue By REI WolFSoHN Intern
Nassau County’s public works, finance and rules committees look to make a $550,000 investment in a traffic study to make Dutch Broadway, a road that runs between Elmont and Valley Stream, safer for pedestrians, motorists and cyclists. A $150,000 bond and the rest of the capital expense must still be approved by the full Legislature on Aug. 7, but the investment has support. “Improving the safety of Dutch Broadway for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists is an essential priority for my constit-
uents,” 3rd District Legislator Carrié Solages said, “and I am very gratified that we are able to deliver improvements that will protect residents and elevate our quality of life.” Activist and organizer Mimi Pierre-Johnson said she believes the traffic study should go a bit differently than previous ones. “When they’re doing traffic studies, they need to talk to people like myself and those of us who are on the ground,” PierreJohnson said. “We are the ones using traffic lights and the street. We understand what’s happening in our community. It’s always after the fact that we found out about the traffic study.
That’s the thing that I would like to see changed about traffic studies. Let’s talk to the community, have a town hall. Our tax dollars would be better spent, because when things happen, we have a say in it.” Safety improvements will include new traffic signals, improved crosswalks, more visible signage, additional digital speed indicators and improved sidewalks on Dutch Broadway. There will also be better lighting on the roads leading to Dutch Broadway. According to Solages, sidewalk fences to keep pedestrians safe may also be included in the project. He added that it took
seven years to get the new traffic signal at Dutchgate Senior Living Facility installed last year. He said the wheels of the Legislature may move slowly but they eventually get there. He also said that since improvements were made to the Dutch Broadway area in 2020, there have been fewer traffic accidents. Pierre-Johnson has been
involved in the fight for better traffic conditions on the roadway since 2008, when she wrote a letter to then-Legislator John Ciotti. “We’ve done all that we can do,” Pierre-Johnson said. “I think now that the next step is to get drivers (to act differently), whether it be enforcement, or for COntinueD On Page 19