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HERALD $1.00
Scouts promote cancer awareness
Spooky charity race approaches
Pub crawl slated for this weekend
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Vol. 69 No. 42
october 14 - 20, 2021
Businesses react to series of robberies by Kate NalePiNSKi knalepinski@liherald.com
Kate Nalepinski/Herald
FolloWiNg tWo robberieS at the TD Bank at 1200 Wantagh Ave., Wantagh businesses are taking safety precautions.
Some stores and banks in Wantagh are on higher alert following a series of robberies in Nassau County last week, two of which took place in Wantagh. On Oct. 3, an unidentified man robbed the TD Bank at 200 Wantagh Ave in Wantagh. A Nassau County Police Department report stated that at approximately 11:44 a.m., the man approached a bank teller and passed her a note demanding cash. She complied, giving him an undisclosed amount of
money, and he left the bank and ran west to Jerusalem Avenue, according to the report. The NCPD’s Crime Scene Search Unit responded to the scene, but as of press time on Monday, there had been no arrests. Just two days later, a Wyandanch man was arrested after he robbed the same bank. A police report stated that Joseph Mann, 49, approached a teller, jumped over a counter and remove an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing. Mann, who was later arrested and charged with two counts of robbery and two counts of Continued on page 5
Planned memorial will honor Iraq, Afghanistan veterans by Mallory WilSoN mwilson@liherald.com
Veteran John Sottnik, commander of American Legion Post 1273 in Wantagh, said that all veterans have made sacrifices and should be recognized for their efforts. “Every war is an individual pursuit, none are the same and they all deserve their recognition for their sacrifices,” Sottnik, who served in the Iraq War in 2006, said. Many others who served in Afghanistan and Iraq will be honored with a new memorial that was announced at Eisenhower Park last week.
On Oct. 7, the 20th anniversary of the deployment of troops to Afghanistan, Nassau County officials broke ground on the memorial. It is expected to be unveiled sometime next year. The monument, in the park’s Veterans Memorial Park, will be the first of its kind on Long Island and one of the first in New York state dedicated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will join memorials honoring the branches of the armed forces and veterans who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The concept for the memorial is credited to Acting Nassau County Attorney John Chiara,
who served in Afghanistan and is still active in the Ar my Reserves. The memorial’s construction will be a joint project of Heroes Among Us, a Glen Cove-based nonprofit that supports veterans across the region, the United Veterans Organization of Nassau County and local Veterans of Foreign Wars posts. “It’s very important to honor those who served,” Seaford American Legion Post 1132 Commander Bill Hoehn said. “It helps the guys that are alive and it gives them inspiration. These people followed orders and went to war to protect our country, and they should absolutely be honored.”
The monument, designed by 23-year-old Franklin Square resident Maya Fernandez, will feature a battlefield cross flanked by two marble walls. The walls will display images of a kneeling male soldier, a kneeling female soldier and maps of Iraq and Afghanistan. “We are excited to have the assistance from our community
to properly respect and honor our veterans in building this monument, which we feel was overdue,” Virginia Cervasio, founder of Heroes Among Us, said in a statement. T h e mem ori al wi ll n ot include veterans’ names, but may display a ribbon to highlight service members who died Continued on page 16