_________________ WANTAGH ________________
COMMUNITY UPDATE Infections as of May 23
2,513
Infections as of May 17 2,497
$1.00
HERALD
Residents learn about fire safety
American Legion to host parade
Motorcyclist hurt in Wantagh
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VOL. 69 NO. 22
MAY 27 - JUNE 2, 2021
Wantagh to revote on school budget By JENNIFER CORR jcorr@liherald.com
Courtesy Wantagh School District
A school collection — no allergens allowed Wantagh Elementary School counselor Lauren Mulry was joined by members of the Student Council who collected allergy-friendly foods during National Food Allergy Awareness Week. Students requested shelf-stable donations, which were free of one or more of the top food allergens, including gluten, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish shellfish and sesame.
After the Wantagh Union Free School District failed to garner a supermajority of 60 percent of voters for its roughly $83.5 million 2021-22 budget, which would have pierced the district’s taxlevy cap with a 3.82 percent increase, the Board of Education held a planning session last Friday to discuss how the district could move forward. With two main options on the table — moving straight to a contingency budget or putting the proposed budget up for a revote — the Board of Education chose the latter. The board approved a June 15
revote, with a budget hearing scheduled for June 3. “The resolution did not adopt a specific budget or a tax levy,” board President Adam Fisher said. “The Board of Education and administration will continue to work on a revised budget and corresponding tax levy to adopt for a revote while we continue to listen to community feedback and review survey submissions.” The district’s administration and the school board, Superintendent John McNamara said, have carefully considered community input. The district posted a survey for stakeholders after the budget vote failed on May 18. Almost 700 people responded to it, CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
A radio collection that takes listeners back in time By BRIAN STIEGLITZ bstieglitz@liherald.com
Michael Katz’s collection of more than 200 vintage radios offers listeners more than just a chance to hear Top 40 hits. The 69-year-old Seaford resident has been accumulating radios from different historical movements across the globe. Katz is displaying part of his collection, which includes 135 wood radios and 90 others, at an exhibit at the Wantagh Public Library until Saturday. He recently gave the Herald a tour of the exhibit, which focuses on shortwave portable radios from the 1950s to the 1980s.
“Before the wall came down, you couldn’t get these,” Katz said, referring to the Berlin Wall and gesturing to a row of Russian Army radios from the early 1980s, which he calls the “forbidden fruit.” He bought the radios on eBay, but if he had displayed them in the U.S. before 1989 — the year the wall fell — he could have been branded a spy and possibly arrested, he said. “They couldn’t sell these to us — we were the enemy,” Katz said. “So I think they reverseengineered their radios and sold them to Europeans for a cheaper price.” He gestured to another set of
wood radios adorned with lavi s h p a t t e r n s. “ T h e s e a r e French,” he said. “They were r e a l l y i n t o h av i n g f a n cy designs on their radios.” Katz grew up in Brooklyn, and had an American Zenith table radio. “I hated it,” he said with a laugh. The first radio he bought on his own was a 1969 RCA table set, “and that’s when I discovered classic rock,” he added. He listened to the Beach Boys and the Beatles on his radio, and said he grew fascinated with “playing around with complicated controls.” He lived in Manhattan at the time, where he was studying
accounting at Baruch College, and bought a car only so he could drive up and down the East Coast to go to hobby and radio conventions and buy more radios. Katz, now a CPA with a private practice, moved to Seaford 30 years ago to raise a family with his wife, Elizabeth. They have two daughters, Sheryl, 28,
and Melissa, 23. “I have so many big radios all over my house, and my wife always says she wishes I collected thimbles,” he laughed. “When you have a hobby, you tend to go a little nuts. When I go to a show to display them, I stock my car so full I could barely see out the back winCONTINUED ON PAGE 12