New Hyde Park 2022_10_21

GOLD COAST FILM FESTIVAL

4TH DISTRICT CANDIDATES CLASH

Mineola, GOP on board sue over redistricting

Party-line vote in June reshaped N. Hempstead’s districts for next decade

BY BRANDON DUFFY

Paul Pereira, the mayor of Mineola, and North Hempstead Republicans David Adhami and Dennis Walsh have filed a federal complaint against the Town of North Hempstead to invalidate the newly confirmed redistricting maps as unconstitutional.

“The redistricting engaged in by the Democratic-controlled Town of North Hempstead constituted a complete railroading of the process in the favor of one side that prevented the meaningful participation by Republicans or any other parties,” the suit, filed Oct. 14 in the Eastern District Court of New York, said.

The Village of Mineola, Pereira, Adhami, Walsh and resident James McHugh, a New Hyde Park resident appointed to the town’s nonpartisan redistricting commission by Adhami that was critical of the redistricting process, are named as plaintiffs. They are represented by Timothy Hill of Messina Perillo & Hill LLP.

In a June party-line vote, the North Hempstead Town Board approved a redistricting proposal that will reshape the town’s six councilmanic districts for the next 10 years during a heated nearly five-hour meeting.

The vote came after the four North Hempstead Democrats rejected a re-

quest by Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, who was elected as a Republican, to table the proposal.

“Looking at the four maps it’s easy to make a compelling argument that it was an attempt to preserve political power for the next decade through gerrymandering,” DeSena said during the June meeting.

The new maps will officially take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

The revised map includes splitting the Village of Mineola into two districts, the creation of an Asian plurality district and switching the numbers of District 4, now represented by Town Councilperson Veronica Lurvey, a Democrat, with District 5, now represented by Town Councilman David Adhami, a Republican.

The complaint said the constitutional guarantee of voter equity, the “one person, one vote” concept was violated as a result of redistricting.

By swapping Adhami and Lurvey’s districts, Adhami would run for re-election in two years after being elected on 2021 and Lurvey would serve until 2026 after last being elected in 2020, the complaint said.

“This has been accomplished by the completely unnecessary decision to switch district numbers to effectively extend the term of office of one repre-

Continued on Page 38

KAPLAN, MARTINS SPAR AT DEBATE

Covert Ave. street fair returns after two years

BY BRANDON DUFFY

Saturday saw the return of family and fun to Covert Avenue for the 26th Annual Covert Avenue Street Fair two years after a devastating

fire tore through the heart of town.

Attendees were treated to a wide array of music, food and games among other amenities after a twoyear hiatus put the local block party on hold.

The street fair, hosted by the Covert Avenue Chamber of Commerce, was the first to be held in two years after the 2020 fire.

Back then Floral Park police re-

on Page 39

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

Sewanhaka High School hosted the Calhoun High School Colts during their Oct. 8 homecoming game. See story on page 45.

Gillen, D’Esposito clash on gun safety

Red flag laws, repealing cashless bail among solutions

Dem Gillen outraises GOP’s D’Esposito Reports $580K in total receipts

BY STEVEN KEEHNER

Democrat Laura Gillen outraised Republican Anthony D’Esposito in the third quarter, reporting $580,435.11 collected just weeks before the 4th Congressional District election Nov. 8.

The two candidates raised nearly $900,000 combined from July 1 to Sept. 30, according to quarterly data from the Federal Election Commis sion. Contributions, spending and cash on hand are tracked in the fnan cial disclosures for this period, which were turned in by Oct. 15.

Democratic incumbent Kathleen Rice announced Feb. 15 that she would not seek re-election in 2022. For the frst time since 2014 someone new will represent the district.

Gillen, a former Hempstead town supervisor, easily defeated four other Democrats in the August primary elec tions. Her opponent, D’Esposito, is a Hempstead town councilman, retired NYPD detective and former Island Park Fire Department chief who ran unopposed.

D’Esposito raised $300,650.88 in the third quarter, which was about half of Gillen’s total. However, he be gan the fund-raising period with over three times as much cash on hand,

$545,416.22, compared to Gillen’s $165,875.39.

Individual contributions were the primary source of funding for both candidates throughout this win dow. In this category, Gillen raised $358,973.95 against D’Esposito’s $221,559.43.

The two candidates’ other major sources of funding came from politi cal committees, such as PACs. Gillen’s PAC contributions ($156,160.71) tri pled D’Esposito’s ($50,140).

D’Esposito reported $246,468.87 in cash on hand to Gillen’s $406,738.72 by the end of the third quarter. Com pared to Gillen’s $406,738,72 in op erating expenditures, D’Esposito spent $588,092,78.

The 4th Congressional District currently includes the communities of Baldwin, Bellmore, East Rockaway, East Meadow, the Five Towns, Lyn brook, Floral Park, Franklin Square, Garden City, Garden City Park, Hemp stead, Atlantic Beach, Long Beach, Malverne, Freeport, Merrick, Mineola, Carle Place, New Hyde Park, Oceans ide, Rockville Centre, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Wantagh, West Hemp stead, Westbury and parts of Valley Stream.

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

Former Town of Hempstead Su pervisor Laura Gillen and current Town of Hempstead Councilmember Anthony D’Esposito, candidates for the state’s 4th Congressional District, argued on gun control laws and what should be done to combat rising crime rates during a Newsday interview on Thursday.

D’Esposito, a Republican and re tired NYPD detective, said ensuring that individuals with illegal frearms are arrested and establishing task forces on the federal level are the best ways to combat gun violence.

Word of cashless bail not retain

ing ofenders, he said, quickly passes through the streets to others who feel they can get away with certain crimi nal activities.

“I think the focus needs to be on those who are carrying illegal frearms and not creating laws to limit the peo ple who are carrying them legally,” D’Esposito said.

Gillen, a Democrat, said public safety is a paramount concern of her and other mothers throughout the dis trict and state. She said that universal background checks and supporting other legislations to get frearms of the streets are some of the best ways to protect children and other individu als.

“I will support universal red fag laws to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and I will support a full ban on all military-style assault weapons which have no business be ing on our streets,” Gillen said.

Repealing the state’s bail reform laws, D’Esposito said, is something he will advocate for in Congress if elected. He touted endorsements and support from various law enforcement organizations and said he would fght for whatever can aid law enforcement ofcials to conduct their jobs to the best of their ability.

“What the Democrats and people that Laura Gillen have supported over Continued on Page 38

TO REACH US

New York’s 4th Congressional District (shaded in black). In the third quarter, Democrat Laura Gillen outraised Republican Anthony D’Esposito.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

PHOTO OF GILLEN BY ROBERT PELAEZ, PHOTO OF D’ESPOSITO COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD Democrat Laura Gillen (left) and Anthony D’Esposito (right) are running in the state;’s 4th Congressional District election.

GOP’s Ra seeks changes in bail laws

State assemblyman running for 7th term in 19th district against Democrat Sanjeev Jindal

BY BRANDON DUFFY

State Assemblyman Ed Ra (RFranklin Square), running for his seventh term in the 19th Assembly District, said there should be greater nuance when it comes to giving judges more discretion in the bail reform discussion.

Ra, 40, is vying to keep his seat against Democratic challenger Sanjeev Jindal, of Williston Park.

The 19th Assembly District stretches into all three Nassau County townships. It includes Franklin Square, Garden City South, Garden City Park, New Hyde Park, Westbury, Carle Place, Mineola, Williston Park, Old Westbury, Brookville, Old Brookville, Upper Brookville and Glen Head.

“I think the idea of bail reform and its impact has almost become a catch-all for a much broader set of policies and in the way people look at it,” Ra said in an interview with Blank Slate Media.

Ra described recent policies that were enacted by the state Legislature he said have contributed to an increase in crime.

New York implemented bail reform laws in January 2020, with modifications passed in April of that same

year. State officials said the modified laws eliminated pretrial detention and optional cash bail in an estimated 90 percent of cases.

In March, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the “Less is More” Act to improve justice and safety in city jails while ensuring the Department of Corrections puts resources toward people successfully completing community supervision.

In 2018, state legislation was passed that raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18 years, removing New York as one of only two states that automatically prosecuted 16 and 17-year-olds as adults.

“I do think the totality of what has recently come from the state level from a policy standpoint has contributed to an increase in crime,” Ra said.

Nassau County is on pace to record more than 7,000 major crimes this year, roughly a 34% increase over the 5,230 major crimes reported throughout the county in 2021, according to statistics from the Nassau County Police Department.

“I think we can do better on a policy level on cutting back on crime,” Ra said.

Ra added that he thinks it makes sense to make the criminal justice system fairer not everyone accused

PAID FOR BY RORY’S COMMITTEE

of committing a crime should be held in jail where they can potentially lose their job and housing.

“I think with each of these policies that I mentioned, we’ve taken it to the extreme, that it becomes a one-sizefits-all and it takes away a lot of the nuance that has to be there to address each individual case.”

The assemblyman believes true judicial discretion in handling cases can help solve crime issues, a topic he said has been much more at the forefront this year compared to previous elections.

In August, new concealed carry laws were passed in New York state that included firearm training, an inperson interview and a social media review for individuals seeking to obtain a concealed carry pistol permit.

Ra said he did not support the legislationbecause “it did not go along with what we were instructed to do in that Supreme Court decision.”

InNew York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed a state law requiring applicants for unrestricted conceal-carry licenses to demonstrate a special need for selfdefense, saying it violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

Rory is a father of three, a Columbia Law School graduate and a former New York State Assemblymember and New York City Councilmember. As a Councilmember, he helped oversee the Queens Public Library’s $181 million budget and operations.

Our families choose to live here because of community resources like a strong school and library system. Their excellence depends on good leadership in both systems, and our children’s success depends on their strong collaboration.

“I want to ensure that our library works for everyone.”

— Rory Lancman

Rory Lancman believes in strong libraries.

Our community’s greatness comes from our schools and libraries.

This election is our chance to unite for our library.

We can work together and vote to make our library a place of learning and enrichment for all of us.

VOTE IN PERSON OCT. 31 10 AM-10 PM VOTE BY PROXY BALLOT SEPT. 12–OCT. 28 Learn more at GreatNeckLibrary.org/library-election

Continued

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ASSEMBLYMAN’S OFFICE

State Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square) is running for reelection in the 19th Assembly District.

UBS main gate named ‘Acrisure Great Hall’

BY BRANDON DUFFY

Nearly one year after it first opened up, the UBS Arena has renamed the main entrance to the venue “The Acrisure Great Hall.”

Acrisure, a financial technology and insurance company based in Grand Rapids, Mich., was also named as a partner of both the arena n Elmont and the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders.

“We are honored to partner with UBS Arena and the New York Islanders, allowing our brand to become synonymous with one of the country’s premier music venues and one of the best atmospheres in the NHL,” said Greg Williams, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Acrisure. “The fans who enter UBS Arena through The Acrisure Great Hall will gain awareness of the extraordinary advantage Acrisure brings to our clients.”

At every UBS Arena event, nearly 19,000 visitors will pass through the area, according to the announcement.

Earlier this year, Acrisure purchased the naming rights to the stadium of the National Football League’s Pittsburgh Stadium, which had been known as Heinz Field since 2001.

“We are pleased to welcome Acrisure to UBS Arena. Having a partnership of this magnitude with an organization like Acrisure speaks volumes to what we’ve built here in Belmont Park and are continuing to grow moving forward,” said UBS Arena President Kim Stone. “The Acrisure Great Hall is the first place where we welcome our fans and where they get to experience the grandeur of the venue.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF DENNIS DASILVA/UBS ARENA

The Acrisure Great Hall at the UBS Arena.

Last November, UBS Arena at Belmont Park became the franchise’s third home. Since its inception in 1972, Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale had hosted the Islanders, which also played at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn briefly in the 2015-2016 season. Maximum capacity for UBS games has been 17,250, while concerts, which have featured Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar and the Eagles, can seat up to 19,000.

“We are proud to partner with a premier brand like Acrisure,” said Islanders Co-Owner John Ledecky. “The Acrisure Great Hall is the gateway for our loyal and passionate fans to enter UBS Arena on their way to cheering on the team they love.”

Ra leads Jindal in fundraising period

New York’s 19th Assembly District.

BY BRANDON DUFFY

State Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square), the incumbent Republican, outraised Sanjeev Jindal, his Democrat challenger, in the latest fund-raising period less than a month before the Nov. 8 election in District 19.

Between July 21 and Oct. 3, Ra raised $26,900 while Jindal raised $22,801 in the same time

frame, according to the New York State Board of Elections. Contributors’ names, the amounts and the types of contributors were among the information that was made available.

Since 2010 Ra, a Mineola native, has served as the representative for District 19, which includes parts of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay.

Sushi

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE MAPS

Four men charged with attempted burglary in N. NHP Floral Park speaking with LIRR over Tunnel St. gate

BY BRANDON DUFFY

Four Queens men have been charged with attempted burglary and conspiracy following a string of robberies in North New Hyde Park on Monday, Oct. 10.

Police observed suspect Daniel Jimenez-Carrillo, 30, knock on the front door of a South Street residence before circling the property multiple times when no one answered, police said.

Suspects Gleason Hernandez-Gomez, 33, and Justin Mora-Soto, 20, were also observed entering a South Drive residence backyard before breaking the glass of a sliding door and prying it open, police said.

Hernandez-Gomez and

Mora-Soto then ran away on foot from the property after hearing a female victim screaming before getting in a 2020 black Hyundai driven by suspect Brayan Ortiz-Ramos, 20, police said.

BY BRANDON DUFFY

Village of Floral Park officials have spoken with the LIRR multiple times a week asking them to complete the work needed for it to be accurately said that the 3rd Track project is complete, Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald said Tuesday.

ECLIPSE SCREENS SHADES CO INC

Police were able to stop the Hyundai on Hillside Avenue in North New Hyde Park while Jimenez-Carillo was apprehended on Denton Avenue while on foot.

All four men were charged with second-degree attempted robbery and fourth-degree conspiracy.

“We continue to have dialogue a couple of times a week with the issues of Tunnel Street and looking forward to hearing back from them shortly along with a list of other things to be ironed out before the 3rd Track could really be called complete,” Fitzgerald said the village board meeting.

email: dlotti_eclipsemfg@yahoo. com;eclipsescreensandshades@yahoo.com fax:

Members of the burglary pattern team and bureau of special operations were conducting an extensive investigation into recent burglaries prior to the incidents, police said.

Trustee Jennifer Stewart said the village is campaigning for keeping the pedestrian gate at Tunnel Street, a narrow entryway adjacent to the Hempstead Line that connects the north and south side of the village for pedestrians.

In their 2017 environmental impact statement, the LIRR said “a new universal crossover would be installed on the Hempstead Branch just east of Tunnel Street, to improve operations and avoid conflicts with the new third track connection at Floral Park Station.”

Stewart said the LIRR is adamant about keeping the gate for vehicles.

“Please continue to log your concerns, comments and questions at mta.org,”

The Floral Park Board of Trustees give their reports during the Oct. 18 meeting.

Stewart said. “Please let the LIRR know your concerns regarding the gate and any other concerns you have about safety.”

On Oct. 3, Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference at the Westbury Train Station announcing the LIRR Third Track project’s completion.

Fitzgerald and Stewart at the time said

there is still work that needed to be done on the Main Line Expansion project.

“The village realizes that there are final phases that remain to be completed on the Main Line and a number of issues that affect the residents of Floral Park that still need to be resolved,” Fitzgerald said following Hochul’s announcement.

PHOTO BY BRANDON DUFFY

Kaplan, Martins clash at league forum

Incumbent calls opponent’s party affiliation ‘extremist,’ bashing L.I. candidates Zeldin, Santos

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

State Sen. Anna Kaplan (D-North Hills) called her Republican opponent, Jack Martins, an “extremist” because of his party affiliation during a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters Port WashingtonManhasset branch on Thursday.

Kaplan said those who run on the same line as Gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) and Congressional 3rd District candidate George Santos should be classified as an extremist.

Martins, who is running on the Republican and Conservative lines, said the classification of calling someone an extremist is a personal attack on an individual.

“How are you supposed to have a conversation with somebody when they’re throwing rocks that way,” Martins said.

Kaplan bashed “extremist Republican” officials for not prioritizing public safety by not advocating for common-sense gun safety laws and allowing crime to continue to rise throughout Long Island.

The incumbent also said she fully supports funding the police and touted the federal dollars she has provided for local police departments throughout the district since she was

elected in 2019.

“We have given judges more discretion to keep our communities safe,” Kaplan said. “All along extremist Republicans, all they want to do is roll back our sensible, safe fun laws to bring back more dangerous crimes

in our communities.”

Martins said he supported the repeal of the state’s cashless bail reform laws in response to the rise in crimes. He said that judges are still not given enough discretion in various cases and it has made communi-

PHOTO BY ROBERT PELAEZ

criminals behind bars once and for all.”

A rise in crime and high taxes, Martins said, are some of the biggest factors for individuals leaving New York. He also attributed the trend to a lack of parental discretion and more statewide mandates.

“The way that our parents have an absolute right to make decisions for their children has to be protected, whether at home or at school,” Martins said. “We have to get back to the fundamentals.”

Kaplan said the coronavirus pandemic has put a strain on the entire nation and spoke on her work to put an average of $1,400 into the taxpayers’ hands as a result of a rebate this year. She said she will continue to fight for local merchants and the middle class if re-elected.

“I’ve been a big advocate for families and businesses here in New York and I will continue to be that advocate moving forward,” Kaplan said.

ties he has lived in less safe than ever before.

“We need to support law enforcement and repeal cashless bail,” Martins said. “We need to give judges the authority that they have, the discretion that they need to put dangerous

Prioritizing the mental health and well-being of children throughout the district, Kaplan said, is imperative. Additional funding was added to the state’s budget so that schools can hire more social workers and provide children with the attention they deserve, she said.

State Sen. Anna Kaplan (left) and Jack Martins (right) participated in a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters Port Washington-Manhasset on Thursday.

Continued

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Errors discovered in school tax bills

More than 800 Nassau residents receive incorrect statements with increases as high as 62%

BY STEVEN KEEHNER

Officials say 842 Nassau County residents received higher school tax bills than intended because of the misapplication of the Taxpayer Protection Program’s five-year phase-in.

Established in 2021, it provides property owners with exemptions on increases in their property’s value over a five-year period. Single-family homeowners were expected to receive a 40% exemption.

However, the exemption was accidentally withdrawn. This resulted in errors that, in at least one case, saw one homeowner’s firsthalf school tax bill increase by 62%. Nassau County Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams and other officials addressed the situation at a press conference Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, what we discovered, and not by the leadership of the administration but from our constituents, from people in the community, is that people have lost their exemptions,” said Abrahams. “The unfortunate thing is that neither the county executive nor anyone in assessment [ever] said anything to anyone.”

Property owners contacted their legislators after receiving their firsthalf school tax bills, claiming they

owed more than they had expected.

Scott Diamond, a Levittown resident who caught the error, had an increase of nearly 17% in his school tax bill when he should have had a 40% exemption.

tax bills than expected due to major hu-

“I went on the county website on Oct. 3. Like many owners, I was looking to see exactly what my school tax bill was going to be, and I was surprised that it went up more than 1%,” he said. “I’m a senior, I’m on a

fixed income and this represented a $1,800 swing in my tax bill.”

In another example, the Bellmore home of former Assessment Review Commission Commissioner Jeff Gold increased from $16,694 to

$27,047 — a 62% spike.

Diamond and Gold happened to be the founder and moderator of the Facebook community group, “Nassau Grieve Your Tax Assessment.” Their assessment expertise sped up the detection of this issue.

The affected families have received updated bills from the county Department of Assessment. A spokesperson for County Executive Bruce Blakeman said the employee who caused the error was disciplined.

School districts will still receive their entire tax levy. The county is required to pay any gap produced by correcting erroneous tax bills.

Abrahams and his fellow caucus members wrote to Acting Nassau County Assessor Matt Cronin Oct. 11 to demand an immediate investigation into the incident.

“It is our belief that an independent investigation is necessary,” said Abrahams, “so that the county can determine exactly what went wrong and implement all necessary corrective actions and best practices in the interest of preventing such a shocking error from occurring again.”

Officials urge residents to review their school tax invoices carefully. One should get in touch with their local legislator’s office if they see any inconsistencies.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF THE NASSAU COUNTY LEGISLATURE MINORITY CAUCUS

Sillitti, Jha tout mutual respect in debate

Assembly candidates acknowledge need for civilized discourse despite ideological differences

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

Incumbent state Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti (D-Port Washington) and Republican candidate Vibhuti Jha touted the respect they have for each other despite their opposing views on how the Supreme Court voted on women’s reproductive rights.

The two running to represent the state Assembly’s 16th District spoke on the importance of having civilized discourse with individuals from opposing party lines during a forum moderated by the League of Women Voters Port WashingtonManhasset.

“It is very important to have a civilized conversation and not call each other extreme or violent,” Jha said. “So I’m a lucky man.”

Sillitti said that there is a “mutual respect” between her and Jha, noting that both individuals have “very different views” on a handful of issues.

Sillitti described herself as “unapologetically pro-choice” and would vote in favor of the state’s Equality Amendment, which guarantees a constitutional right to reproductive healthcare for every New Yorker.

“This came about particularly with Roe v. Wade being overturned, 50 years of precedent, 50 years of protecting a woman’s right to choose was ended abruptly,” she said. “New York fought back with measures to protect a woman, protect doctors from retaliation, from criminality, but also the Equality Amendment.”

Jha said he believed the Supreme Court made the correct decision by allowing each state to de-

termine what they should do in regard to abortion, touting the need for freedom and choice for each locality.

“I think the Supreme Court took a wise deci-

sion,” he said. “It may have angered a group of people, but this is a wonderful country with states having the right to choose what they want to do. It is as much unfair for Texas to impose its con-

ditionalities on New York as it is for New York to impose its conditionalities on Wisconsin or Tennessee.”

Jha said parents cannot afford to have their children be faced with unnecessary stress and must get involved to find more ways to prioritize the mental health and well-being of their kids and others throughout the state.

“This is not a two-minute question or a twominute answer, but I want to say children need mental support,” Jha said. “Putting them under undue pressure on their sexuality, on what they’re taught it must stop.”

Sillitti said she is a supporter of several pieces of legislation that place more mental health professionals in schools throughout the state. The stress children endured throughout the coronavirus pandemic, she said, has underscored the need for more action.

“These kids before COVID were already on the edge,” Sillitti said. “They were barely getting the services that they needed to get by and then COVID came. We sent them home and we put them in a room and they couldn’t get the services that they needed.”

Jha said he has noticed political polarization increase throughout the nation since Sept. 11, 2001 and said he does not “belong to any extreme.”

PHOTO BY KAREN RUBIN/NEWS-PHOTOS-FEATURES.COM

“There is a need for law and order, discipline, but that’s when things happen,” Jha said. “Life needs discipline and then things happen. Today, we are looking at extremism in the country because we are restricting freedom of speech.”

Continued on Page 43

Democratic state Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti (right) and Republican challenger Vibhuti Jha (left) are running to represent the state’s 16th Assembly District.

DeSena’s ethics board picks denied

BY BRANDON DUFFY

One of North Hempstead Supervisor Jenni fer DeSena’s picks for the town’s Board of Ethics has withdrawn her name after multiple months of being voted down by Democrats on the Town Board.

Melissa Slobin, a speech-language patholo gist for Manhasset Public Schools, withdrew her name from consideration for the Town’s sevenmember Ethics Board.

“If it can’t be agreed that she would be ap pointed to the Board of Ethics, then she would rather not have her name on the agenda,” De Sena said during the Oct. 13 meeting.

Two additional picks from DeSena, Derek Chan and Francisco Vazquez, were both voted down by Democrats in a 4-3 party-line vote.

Democrats also voted against appointing the law frm of Leventhal, Mullaney & Blinkof as special counsel for the Ethics Board.

Councilman Robert Troiano, a Democrat, said during the vote for Chan that the supervi sor had not consulted with other members of the council for her Ethics Board picks, which has been on the agenda multiple times.

“The supervisor said she’s done everything she can do to get new Ethics Board members ap pointed,” Troiano said. “Everything except for the one thing that the town code requires, which is that you consult with the town council.”

DeSena said no one has objected to the picks.

“The names and resumes of these nominees have been available for months and I’ve had no

objections to them,” DeSena said. “I think this is a game that we’re playing and I don’t think we should be playing games with important things like an independent ethics board.”

Joseph Sciame, a current member of the board that is serving on an unexpired term, was voted in unanimously for a two-month term un til the end of this year.

The seven-member Board of Ethics is re

Town reserves well over excess: Scalero

BY BRANDON DUFFY

North Hempstead Deputy Supervisor Joe Scalero said at the time of the 2023 tentative budget’s preparation that the general fund re serves were overfunded to a level of over 30% and the Town Outside Village fund reserve was in excess of 40% of the fund budget during his budget presentation Thursday.

The North Hempstead Town Board held its frst budget workshop on the morning of Oct. 13. The workshop primarily consisted of Scalero providing major highlights on the 2023 tenta tive budget while answering questions from all members of the board.

In 2011, the town board enacted a fund bal ance reserve policy for the town’s general fund, requiring the town to maintain a fund balance reserve that is at least 10% of the town’s total general fund budget for the year.

“We’re well in excess,” Scalero said. “You may get to a certain point where you’re basically overtaxing residents with the intention of put ting money aside in excess of what you need.”

On Oct. 11, Supervisor Jennifer DeSena called for an 11% tax cut to be included in the $158.4 tentative budget for 2023 she had previ ously proposed.

DeSena said the town’s current reserves are at least $26 million, well in excess of the mini mum set by the town board in 2011.

Scalero clarifed that some bond rating agencies recommend larger reserves in case a municipality defaults on its bonds.

“We are in excess of what both are required

of us by our own policy, and what’s recom mended by bond rating agencies,” Scalero continued.”We can spend some of that money by reappropriating it into the budget, reducing our tax burden on the residents and still have very healthy fund reserve balances.”

Scalero said if the tax cuts amendments are kept in the adopted budget in November, the general fund reserve excess would drop to 23.5% and the Outside Village Fund would still be in excess of 41.3%.

DeSena previously said the proposed amendment would lead to approximately a $33 decrease per household for the general fund and keep the tax levy fat for the Town Outside Vil

sponsible for implementing the provisions of the Town’s Code of Ethics, according to the Town’s websites.

Upon DeSena taking ofce, the Board of Ethics at the time was completely made up of members who were in holdover status and could be removed at any time.

Its responsibilities include approving and reviewing fnancial statements, rendering advi

sory opinions to Town employees on the Code of Ethics and enforcing the code while determining penalties, among other things.

Unabbreviated terms for the board are four years.

As of now, the Town’s Board of Ethics is made up of Chair Joseph Sciame, Robin Bolling, Isma Chaudry, Rabbi Anchelle Perl, Rabbi Robert Widom, Justice Richard Kestenbaum and Betty Leong.

Of those seven, only Bolling, Chaudry, Perl and Sciame are serving defned terms. The re maining three are serving unexpired terms and can be removed at any time.

The Ethics Board is supposed to be nonpar tisan, while the seven-member Town Board is made up of four Democrats and three Repub licans.

There was discussion on the potential con fict of interest between the town attorney’s ofce representing both the Town Board and Board of Ethics, but Town Attorney John Chiara clarifed there is no natural confict of interest and that his ofce represents other town boards and commissioners, which can be investigated by the ethics board.

Chiara added that if there is a confict of interest in a particular situation, he is ethically obligated to recommend an outside counsel.

Troiano added that there has been no con fict of interest presented thus far and the Ethics Board has not asked for outside counsel.

The next meeting regular meeting for the North Hempstead Town Board will be on Nov. 17.

20 years for North Shore home burglar

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

A Queens man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in a pattern burglary ring that targeted North Shore homes in 2018, Nas sau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly an nounced Wednesday.

Andres Zapata, 24, was part of a trio that stole more than $1 million in cash and cur rency from homes in Manhasset, Old Westbury, Jericho and Woodbury, ofcials said. Zapata and Brayan Castano, 34, burglarized or attempted to burglarize nine homes in gated communi ties throughout the North Shore between May 2018-September 2018.

Oscar Vera, the third member of the group named by the DA, faces the same charges but has not been convicted.

Items they stole included designer hand bags, jewelry, U.S. and foreign currency, natural ization records and birth certifcates, according to ofcials. Prosecutor Stefanie Palma, Monday, said the stolen items were not recovered, ac cording to Newsday.

The trio targeted gated communities with one entrance into and out of the community and had a lookout stationed at the gate to alert the others if police responded to burglary reports, ofcials said. The nine incidents occurred on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights and the trio entered through the homes by breaking rear windows or doors, ofcials said.

The frst two burglaries took place on May 12, 2018, police said, with a Laurel Lane home in Old Westbury burglarized at 8:37 p.m., fol

lowed by a Kensington Circle home in Manhas set at 9:19 p.m. On May 18, 2018, at 8:28 p.m. another Laurel Lane home was burglarized, ac cording to police.

A Stone Hill Drive home in Manhasset was burglarized on June 1, 2018, at 8:30 p.m., fol lowed by a Woodbury home on June 23, 2018, at 8:31 p.m. and another Stone Hill Drive home in Manhasset on Aug. 10, 2018, at 9 p.m., police said.

Zapata was convicted of seven counts of burglary in the second degree, attempted bur glary in the second degree and possession of burglar tools.

“Andres Zapata and his co-defendants bra zenly burglarized homes on the North Shore, smashing rear windows and doors to gain access and making of with cash, jewelry, and other lux ury items,” Donnelly said in a statement. “This sophisticated burglary operation was ended when Nassau County Police Department ofcers caught these individuals in the act and arrested them. Today’s sentence holds Zapata account able for his unsettling crime spree.”

Castano was sentenced to 30 years in prison in June. He was also convicted of seven counts of burglary in the second degree, attempted burglary in the second degree and possession of burglar tools in October 2021, ofcials said.

Castano’s attorney, Jefrey Groder, said the crimes were committed when no individuals were home to ensure no one was hurt, accord ing to Newsday. Ofcials did not specify when Castano’s and Zapata’s sentencings would com mence. Eforts to reach ofcials for further com ment on the matter were unavailing.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUPERVISOR’S OFFICE

Town of North Hempstead Deputy Supver visor Joseph Scalero.

PHOTO BY BRANDON DUFFY

The North Hempstead Town Board during the Oct. 13 meeting.

Harris named state Kiwanis governor

BY BRANDON DUFFY

Mineola community leader Joel Harris was recently named Kiwanis International’s New York State governor.

Kiwanis International is a global community of clubs fo cused on improving the lives of children with over 555,000 members, according to its web site.

Harris joined Kiwanis as Mineola’s County Seat in 2009 after a friend introduced him to the organization. Immediately he became the photographer and social media liaison before moving up to the public rela tions and branding coordinator for the New York district.

Harris and his wife Helene have been active in all of the club’s fund-raisers and service projects. The two are both Key Club Advisors with Kiwanis.

“Membership is at the fore front of my goals,” Harris said.

“We must grow our organiza tion to help keep us strong.” He is committed to maintain ing New York as a “lighthouse” district.

Harris retired from the f nancial industry in 2013 after being an accountant for a ma

jor fnancial institution, specif cally as an auditor for pension plans and administrator for its 401(k) plans.

Previous stops included working with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as the operations administrator and with the Town of North Hemp stead as a photographer. Harris was an aide to the supervisor.

Harris spent 2021-2022 as the governor-elect before tak ing over for James Mancuso, of East Meadow, as governor.

Harris is also treasurer for the Nassau County Council of Chambers of Commerce, which promotes economic se curity and enhanced economic growth for the Nassau business community.

In his native Mineola, Har ris is a past president of the Mineola Chamber of Com merce, a position he held from 2018 to 2022. He was named Mineola’s businessman of the year in 2017.

Catalytic converter theft prevention bill signed

BY STEVEN KEEHNER

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced new initiatives to strengthen interagency enforcement in hightheft areas and legislation to combat catalytic converter heists Monday amid a rash of these lar cenies in Nassau County.

Nearly 1,300 catalytic converters have been stolen in Nassau County since the beginning of the year, compared to 131 last year, according to police.

The new legislation imposes restrictions on the purchase, sale and possession of catalytic con verters by vehicle dismantlers and scrap proces sors. It requires all qualifed dealerships to carry etching kits to ofer to anyone purchasing a new vehicle.

“Public safety is my top priority and we’re taking an aggressive, targeted approach to de ter criminals from stealing catalytic converters,” Hochul said in a statement. “Catalytic converter thefts have skyrocketed across our state and na tion and these comprehensive actions double down on our eforts to keep New Yorkers and their property safe, protecting our communities and cracking down on crime.”

The legislation changes the Vehicle and Traf fc Law to include catalytic converters as a ma jor component vehicle part, requiring vehicle dismantlers to keep records on them. Businesses must also report the number of catalytic convert ers received every 60 days. Failure to do so upon request is now a Class A misdemeanor punishable by fnes of up to twice the amount made in taking in allegedly stolen converter components.

New vehicle dealers and other approved deal ers will also be obliged to carry catalytic converter

etching kits to imprint a unique serial number on the components so that they can be traced back if stolen.

Hochul said that $20 million is available to as sist local police departments and sherif’s ofces. This money will be invested into new technologies to solve, reduce and prevent crime.

“We need to give our law enforcement the tools and resources they need and while I’ve been proud to deliver more funding to our police to help them keep our community safe, we can still do more to address the theft of catalytic convert ers in our community,” state Sen. Anna Kaplan, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in an earlier statement.

Before dangerous engine emissions are re leased into the atmosphere, catalytic converters convert them into safe gases. A stolen converter can cost a dealer $2,000 to $3,000 to replace it and to repair damage to a vehicle’s undercarriage, fuel line and electric lines caused by the theft.

While reselling catalytic converters is illegal, Det. Sgt. Jefrey Raymond, commanding ofcer of the Nassau County Police Department’s Burglary Pattern Crime Squad, said the precious metals found in catalytic converters — rhodium, plati num and palladium — can be lucrative.

Rhodium is valued at more than $12,000 per ounce, palladium is worth more than $2,000 per ounce and platinum is worth almost $900 per ounce as of July, according to Kitco.com, one of the world’s top precious metal retailers. The re port said the price of those precious metals has risen since the turn of the century.

Nearly 1,300 catalytic converters have been stolen in Nassau County since the beginning of the year, compared to 131 last year, according to police.

HALLOWEEN FAMILY PACKAGES

Available Monday, October 24 – Monday, October 31 For lunch and dinner. Take-out only.

1) 2 18” regular pizzas

Choice of dozen wings OR Spinach Dip 2 Liter Bottle of Soda $55 plus tax

2 ) 2 18” regular pizzas Penne ala Vodka

Choice of dozen wings OR Spinach Dip 2 LiterBottle of Soda $70 plus tax

3) 2 18” regular pizzas

Order of Meatballs

Penne ala Vodka

Choice of dozen wings OR Spinach Dip

2L Liter Bottle of Soda $80 plus tax

Additional items may be purchased at regular menu price. Toppings available for aditional cost. May not be combined with any other coupon, discount, offer, or Groupon. Prices do not include tax or gratuity. Available for take-out only. No substitutions.

11:30AM 9PM • FRI SAT: 11:30AM 10PM

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOEL HARRIS

Kiwanis New York District Governor Joel Harris.

F.P. Knights at homecomingHerricks Players do ‘Bye Bye Birdie’

Herricks Players is returning after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pan demic to present Bye Bye Birdie on Oct. 28, 29, 30 and Nov. 4, 5 and 6. This is the 46th year of Herricks Play ers producing musicals and comedies and the players have performed 68 shows since its inception in 1976. Bye

Bye Birdie is Directed by Gary Pipa, Musical Director Susan Weber, Cho reographers Barbara Tromba-Murphy and Samantha Cardinal. Producers are Lisa Simon-Weitz and Kelly Pipa.

Showtime on Fridays and Saturdays is 8:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. for Sundays at 999 Herricks Rd. in New Hyde Park.

Floral Park Memorial High School students, staf and community cel ebrated school spirit and pride at this year’s homecoming, held on Oct. 8.

The day’s events began with a parade throughout the neighborhood that featured the marching band, cheerleaders, Florettes, school clubs and homecoming court. This year’s homecoming royalty were Jalen Ar thur, Tulah Chatterton, Ella Iannitti, Emerson Lucatorto, Tara O’Hare and Jaden Smith.

Following the parade, the Knights hit the feld to play against the Lyn brook High School Owls. With exu berant cheers from the crowd, the Knights won the game with a score of 31-21. Visitors also enjoyed halftime performances from the varsity cheer leaders, Florettes and marching band.

Floral Park Memorial High School hosted its homecoming celebration on Oct. 8.

NHP Memorial valedictorian

New Hyde Park Memorial High School has named Priya Persaud and Taseen Tanzil as the valedictorian and salutato rian, respectively, of the Class of 2023.

Persaud’s accomplishments are made apparent through her multiple honors and awards, including her selection as a Na tional Merit Scholarship Program semifnalist and a Brown Uni versity Book Award recipient. She is also a member of the Mu Alpha Theta National Mathematics Honor Society, Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society, the Literary Luminaries National English Honor Society and the National Spanish Hon or Society. During the summer of 2022, Persaud participated in a cancer research internship under the direction of a Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program principal investigator at

Herricks Players is returning after a three-year hiatus due to CO VID-19 with Bye Bye Birdie.

Celebrating Italian culture, heritage

Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America Cellini Lodge #2206 of New Hyde Park celebrated Ital ian Culture and Heritage during Co lumbus Day Weekend. In addition to participating in parades in New Hyde

Park, Huntington and New York City, a wreath was laid at the Explorers Monument at Marcus Christ Hall.

The Monument, erected in 1992 by The Cellini Lodge, is dedicated to the achievements by Italian Explorers.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Additionally, through the school’s science research program, she conducted research at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in the Trans lational Neurophysiology Lab of the Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine led by Dr. Stavros Zanos. Along with her research, Persaud is extremely active in her school’s extracurriculars. She leads the varsity tennis team as captain, the G.E.A.R. Book Club as president and the Science National Honor Society as presi dent. Persaud also dedicates her time as secretary of the Science Olympiads, treasurer of the Class of 2023 Student Board and treasurer of the Spanish Club.

Tanzil is regarded as a driven and ambitious student. He is a member of the National Junior Honor Society, National Technical Honor Society, National Science Honor Society, Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society, Literary Luminar ies National English Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta Na tional Math Honor Society. His recognition as an AP Scholar with Distinction is a further testament to his academic prowess. Since sophomore year, Tanzil has been enrolled in the district’s distinguished pre-engineering program. With a passion for STEM and robotics, Tanzil dedicates his spare time to pursuing his passions.

As a member of the Robotics Club, he has assisted his team in building, designing and coding a robot to compete against other schools. Along with his team, he earned a frst place Con nect Award at the 2021-22 Long Island Championship of the FIRST Robotics Competition. Outside of school, Tanzil is the Youth Squad Social Sergeant at the Glen Oaks Volunteer Am bulance Corps. He also has spent time as a tutor for the high school regents exams, a mentor at the school’s summer enrich ment camp, a volunteer at the Hillside Islamic Center and a volunteer at Hillside Pediatrics P.C.

Dot Day in NHP-GCP makes it mark

New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free School District students cele brated Dot Day during their library lessons on Oct. 3.

International Dot Day, held on or around Sept. 15, is inspired by the book “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. Dot Day encourages students to “make their mark” and to celebrate creativity and self-expres sion.

District librarians Natalie Hartmann, Sharon Layburn and Barbara Nelson col

laborated on the Dot Day activities. Sta tions were set up throughout the libraries for students to explore and interact with, including drawing on a schoolwide Dot Day mural, reading Peter H. Reynolds books, creating 3D art with Quiver, learn ing about the importance of dots in the real-world such as braille and morse code, and designing pixel art with StickTogether.

Dot Day activities began in library lessons across the district on Sept. 28 and lasted for two weeks.

New Hyde Park Road School

kindergartners participated in the Dot Day activities on Oct. 3.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HERRICKS PLAYERS

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

New Hyde Park Memorial High School’s Class of 2023 valedictorian Priya Persaud (left) and Taseen Tanzil (right).

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEW HYDE PARK-GARDEN CITY PARK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Opinion

OUR VIEWS Editorial Cartoon

Responding to crime in New York

Does New York have a crime problem? And, if so, what’s the cause?

Those two questions are playing a central role in the November elections across New York as well as the rest of the country.

Unfortunately, the answer to questions about crime are complex, but the rhetoric in these campaigns is often simple, incomplete and purposely designed to inspire fear among voters.

This is not to say crime isn’t a problem. We don’t have to tell that to anyone who has been a victim of a crime.

Or to those whose decisions about where to go and when have been influenced by concerns about the current level of crime – whether to ride the New York City subways, lock your doors at home, attend a Broadway show or return to work in-person.

In this way, crime and the perception of crime play a large part in everyone’s life.

So let’s start with some facts.

On a historical basis, crime is very low in New York and across the country.

Crime in 2020 nationwide was 60% lower than in 1980. New York and New Jersey led the way with a 69% drop in violent crime. New York was sixth during that period with a 72% decline in property crime.

This was consistent with crime over the past three decades when Northeastern states have had the lowest crime rates, while states in the South and West have had the most crime.

But crime rates changed dramatically across the United States in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.

The murder rate rose by nearly 30% and assaults increased by more than 10% from their lows. Both were part of an increase in gun violence. More than 75% of murders in 2020 were committed with a firearm – the highest level in recent history.

Murders rose in cities nationwide and jurisdictions of all types.

“Relative to 2019, the number of murders jumped by more than 30 percent in the largest cities and by 20 percent in places designated by the FBI as ‘suburban’ — cities with fewer than

50,000 inhabitants that are within a Metropolitan Statistical Area,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.”

Murders rose by comparable levels in rural areas, too. They also rose roughly equally in cities run by Republicans and cities run by Democrats and in red states and blue.

New York City, which had been experiencing historic lows in violent crime before the pandemic, had among the highest increases in murder among cities, rising 46.7% in 2020 and 3.6% in 2021.

But the rate of crime is still relatively low — even if it doesn’t feel that way.

There have been 321 murders in New York City so far in 2022. By comparison, the murder rate was six times higher in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1990, New York City set a record with 2,245 murders.

Nassau County is on track for a 34% increase in crime in 2022 led by property crimes.

How do we know this? A Freedom of Information Law request by Blank Slate Media. Nassau last posted monthly crime statistics in March.

So why the increase in crime New York?

Republicans across New York now led by Congressman Lee Zeldin, who is running for governor, have repeatedly blamed the rise in crime in the state on bail reform laws enacted in 2020 and twice amended since then.

The reforms, poorly rolled out, eliminated cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent crimes in the state, which had resulted in tens of thousands of people, overwhelmingly black and brown, being imprisoned because they were poor.

Zeldin and some others have called for scrapping the bail law reforms.

This has been a politically potent argument, helping elect Republicans in all four countywide positions in Nassau in 2021.

Quick fixes to serious complex problems are attractive.

But what they say about bail reform is not true, Bail reform has played no more than a small part in the rise in crime in New York, according to an analysis by the state Division of Criminal Justice Ser-

BLANK SLATE MEDIA LLC

22 Planting Field Road, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577 Phone: 516-307-1045

E-mail: hblank@theisland360.com

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Steven Blank

OFFICE MANAGER Holly Blank

vices and various media.

If the Republicans have any proof otherwise, we are still waiting to hear it.

New York Republicans should also explain why crime increased in the other 49 states, which did not enact bail reform laws in 2020.

The problem almost exclusively blaming bail reform for the increase in crime is that we can’t offer changes that would reduce crime if you we can’t identify the problem.

Most Democrats have focused their message on gun-safety legislation, including red-flag laws and legislation backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, in response to the decision by the six Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices to overturn New York State’s century-old law strictly limiting carrying guns outside the home.

U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby recently halted key provisions of the law, saying licensing requirements — like a rule requiring applicants to turn over information about their social media accounts — went too far. A hearing is expected shortly.

Zeldin lauded the Supreme Court’s ruling at the time, saying that the previous framework was an attack on the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

He even went beyond the Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court by saying the right to carry guns is absolute or as he said “shall not be in-

REPORTERS

fringed.”

This seems like an odd stance for someone running on reducing crime in New York.

The United States accounts for half of the world’s civilian-owned firearms. But we are nowhere the safest.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has said the rise in crime can be attributed to many factors, including a lack of opportunity for the poor and lax gun regulations in neighboring states that allow for their trafficking in New York.

But most Democrats have not addressed these other causes as well as the impact of the pandemic.

This includes the elephant in the room – a crisis in mental health in tandem with opioid and alcohol addiction.

The record-setting murder rate of 1990 was tied to the crack epidemic. Why has there been so little discussion about the impact of drugs and alcohol following a pandemic that saw a dramatic rise in addiction?

And does anyone not believe that mental health breakdowns have played a major part in mass shootings and individual acts of violence?

People faced challenges in meeting basic needs, especially during the first year of the pandemic. Many endured trauma caused by sickness and death. Families faced disintegration as parents

Robert Pelaez, Brandon Duffy, Steven Keehner

COLUMNIST Karen Rubin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Stacy Shaughnessy, Melissa Spitalnick, Wendy Kates, Barbara Kaplan, Amanda Cipriano ART DIRECTOR Yvonne Farley

or caregivers caught or succumbed to the disease.

What about students who fell behind during the pandemic – or just stopped going to school?

The response has been inadequate then and now. As has been the response to poverty – a factor in crime both before and after the pandemic.

Republicans have also cited calls to defund the police by a small minority of Democrats following the murder of George Floyd and a series of shootings of unarmed black men.

But, again, reality gets in the way as national Democrats have never called for defunding the police and actually voted to increase aid to police forces.

New York City recently added police to high-crime areas – a common-sense technique followed in the past by Nassau County that is welcomed.

More police are needed to combat the rise in crime. As are reforms that help eliminate bad apples from police forces who do not uphold the law and undermine the trust with local communities needed to make us safer.

In the meantime, voters should beware of candidates who base their campaigns on grainy photographs of crime in direct mail postcards and television ads aimed at appealing to voters’ fears.

They are not offering solutions and don’t deserve your vote.

PRODUCTION MANAGER Rosemarie Palacios EDITORIAL DESIGNER Lorens Morris

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Deborah Flynn PUBLISHERS OF Williston Times • Great Neck News Herald Courier • Roslyn Times Manhasset Times • Port Washington Times

ON THE RIGHT

Time to end one-party rule in Albany

One-party control in the state capitol has been disastrous for New York’s 19 million citizens.

Here’s why.

First, state spending is out of control.

Thanks to the Democrats’ reckless election-year binge, the bloated $220-billion budget is 18% higher than it was in 2020. Huge budgetary deficits are projected for years to come and “rainy day” funds, which are far from adequate, will be quickly wiped out.

This imminent crisis means New Yorkers, who already pay the highest state and local taxes in the nation, will be burdened with even more taxes to fund Albany’s excesses.

As for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s role in Albany’s fiscal mismanagement, she not only continued Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tax-and-spend policies, but she also gave away the store to lefty legislators to procure $600 million in state funds to build a new Buffalo Bills football stadium in her hometown.

To finance her election campaign, Hochul has used every trick in the Cuomo pay-to-play guidebook to raise a record-breaking $45 million.

Several of the state contracts handed out to contributors are scandalous.

For example, the New York Post has reported the Hochul administration must reimburse the federal government over $80 million in Medicaid payments “because of lack of recordkeeping to justify billing for transport services for patients during the calendar years 2018 and 2019.”

The owner of Medical Answering Services, the company that failed to properly supervise the transportation, has donated “more than $300,000 combined into the campaign coffers of Hochul, of former Gov. Cuomo and the Hochul-controlled state Democratic Party.”

Apparently, there has been little gubernatorial oversight of the $400 million in contracts awarded to Medical Answering Services since 2011.

Worse yet, Hochul gave a $650 million no bid Covid home test contract to Digital Gadgets Incorporated whose owners and family members have written checks to the Hochul campaign treasury totaling $330,000.

And, get this: the company charged the state $13 per test while other vendors were selling similar

GEORGE J. MARLIN On The Right

products to other states for $5 to $8 a test!

When questioned by the press on this matter, Hochul said with a straight face she had no idea the vendor was a contributor. She made this claim despite the fact the owner hosted a fund-raiser that she attended one month before the contract was awarded.

I suppose Hochul also did not know the vendor’s son is on her campaign payroll.

Next, Albany Democrats are under the thumb of the state’s most powerful special interest group, the teachers’ union. Year after year, they bow to union demands that more money be allocated to failing schools.

The state will spend over $34 billion on school aid this fiscal year. That translates into $34,272 per student vs. the national average of $13,494.

Does Albany demand accountability to justify this huge expenditure? No.

A report, released earlier this month by the Citizens Budget Commission, concluded “while the state continues its significant, multi-year increase in education aid the state still lacks an adequate process to monitor performance, identify and spread best practices, and hold school districts accountable for accelerating student achievement, reversing pandemic related loss and narrowing disparities.”

Considering unaccountable teachers, not students, come first in Albany, I’m not at all surprised that math and reading test scores are plummeting throughout New York.

And let’s not forget the Democrats’ dismal crime prevention record.

Back in 2017, Democrats, ignor-

A LOOK ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

ing warnings from bar associations, approved a state law that increased to 18 the age a person can be deemed criminally responsible. The results according to a NYPD study: teen shooters and their victims have gone up 300% in the last five years. That reform the Post noted “has produced precisely the nightmare it aimed to prevent.”

Then there is cashless bail that permits criminals who are a present danger to the public back onto the streets. Albany Democrats have refused to repeal or to fix it.

They have failed to act on these crime-related issues despite this outcry from Albany’s Democratic District Attorney David Soares: “No meaningful legislative action has been taken to address bail reform and ‘Raise the Age,’ which have demonstrably impacted violent crime on our most vulnerable neighborhoods.”

“At what number,” Soares asked, “will the body count be enough to prompt action?”

If you are outraged by the Democrats’ egregious fiscal, education, and criminal justice policies, then get out in November and vote to end one-party rule in Albany.

Washing the trash in the 21st Century

“What do you think you’re doing?” my husband wanted to know. The note of outrage in his voice was quite unusual for him.

“I’m cleaning up after dinner, of course,” I replied calmly. “It happens from time to time. Why? Did you want to help?”

“I meant, what did you just do with that plastic container?”

“I threw it out, of course.” Again: “Why?”

“Because you didn’t check for its number first. How do you know that it doesn’t need to be recycled?”

I was tempted to admit that I don’t really care, but that would probably mark me as an international criminal. So I simply said, “I’ve got some problems with that.”

Let me count the ways. First of all, before you can recycle anything, the powers that be want it to be clean. Squeaky clean. So you have to wash it — by hand! I don’t even do that for my wedding china.

At least if you drop most of those containers in the sink while you’re

cleaning them, they’re not likely to chip or break — and who cares if they do. But they’re so frustrating to have to clean. And some of them are downright impossible, like the brand of little yogurts I like, with a very narrow neck — must I really wrestle a sponge into that? But did you know, yogurt can actually spoil? And don’t get me started on peanut butter jars.

Besides — this is my second objection — it’s really a toss-up which to do first: clean the thing? Or look for its number?

It all somehow reminds me of long-ago days from high school, dress shopping with my mother. She always went first for the price tag while I looked first for the size. “It doesn’t matter what size it is,” she’d lecture me, “if the price isn’t right.”

“Well, if it isn’t the right size,” I’d lecture right back, “it doesn’t matter what it costs.”

Of course, sometimes — the few times I found something really flattering — we’d come to a compromise.

Which is not something you can

JUDY EPSTEIN A Look on the Lighter Side

do with recycling. “It’s a case of the chicken or the egg,” I ended up summarizing for my husband.

“More like a case of the egg carton or the rotisserie chicken container,” he replied, “both of which we should probably wash.”

Here’s what I really resent: hav-

POLICY

ing to wash all that stuff, just to end up tossing most of it into the trash. Because every year our municipality re-negotiates a contract which seems very arbitrary about which numbers they will condescend to take. Right now they’re only taking ones and two, but it seems like only yesterday, it was limited to fives and sixes.

I can’t turn and change my whole washing-up ritual on a dime! For heaven’s sake, it took me years to stop putting my recycling can out on the wrong day.

I would even be fine with washing everything, if they would just make those numbers bigger and easier to find. Is it intentional cruelty, making them smaller and smaller as we age?

My time is valuable. So is my eyesight. I really don’t want to squander it, squinting at plastic containers through soap bubbles, only to find that what I thought was a “one” turns out to be a dead bug.

In fact, industry should really make those numbers readable — for machines. They can use bar codes or

those unwieldy QR codes (they’ve got to be good for something). Or Braille, even. And sort it all out at some central facility. Waste the machines’ time instead of mine.

Or even — here’s a thought — give us little garbage cans for everything labeled “1” through “6,” along with a necessary “Miscellaneous.” I would be (more) willing to wash everything if I could then wheel it all straight to the curb, and let the town send it wherever it’s going. That way they can change what goes where as often as they like — every week if it suits them — without having to retrain all of us.

Of course, then I hear somebody on the radio bemoaning the fact that even if we all recycled perfectly, it would do nothing to bend the curve of Climate Change bearing down on us all.

Which is probably true. But if I no longer have to squint to see those damned numbers — that all by itself will be an improvement in the quality of my life. Doomed though it may be.

Blank Slate Media, 22 Planting Field Road, Roslyn Heights,

Eyes wide shut in an uncertain economy

Some of my fondest memories are of time spent in movie theaters. As a child, double-features with friends was a Saturday afternoon staple. In my teenage years, there was nothing like going to an evening premiere of a much-anticipated film. When I became a father, I took my kids to the movies most Saturday mornings, usually followed by a fast food lunch.

There was a time when if you mentioned the name of a movie I could tell you when I saw it, in which theater, with whom, and what the experience was like for me – how it made me feel. That was before VHS, DVD, Blockbuster and streaming services like Netflix, when going to the movies always felt like a special event.

Now everything I watch just seems to blend together.

As I got older I’m not sure what drew me to independent film. Maybe it was intellectual curiosity or a changing taste in the arts. Or, I was just get-

ting tired of special-effect-action films.

One unforgettable film that I did see on a streaming service was Wendy and Lucy. In this somewhat obscure 2008 film, we meet a young woman who is hanging by a thread.

Wendy is doing her best, with little support, to survive day to day and maintain her dignity. Along the way she loses her dog Lucy, the only stable and loving relationship in her life. Ultimately, she is faced with making a heartbreaking decision that their mutual welfare depends upon.

As Wendy’s car, which also serves as her bed, breaks down and her resources dwindle, she collects bottles and cans and shoplifts dog food.

She encounters a group of homeless people making a fire, a self-righteous store clerk, a smug auto mechanic, a sympathetic security guard, and a psychotic drifter, among others. We see each of them from the unique perspective of a young woman alone and on the verge of economic collapse

ANDREW MALEKOFF

The Back Road

and homeless destitution.

Wendy offers a lens through which we can see such a transformation evolve. Many homeless people were something and somewhere else first. Wendy is such a person.

Although this low-budget, spare

film is a dramatic and moving work of fiction, it reminds me that we cannot afford to overlook the impact — the anxieties and fears — that an uncertain economy has on some of today’s teenagers. Parents need to be open and direct with their children.

According to Allen Cardoza, founder of West Shield Adolescent Services in Newport Beach, Calif., there are four significant ways parents can help teens survive and thrive during an economic downturn:

1. Speak immediately and honestly about the family financial and employment situation. Provide reassurance that the economic situation is not their fault. You cannot predict when it will end, only that as a family you will get through it.

2. Be firm about spending changes that will need to be made. Allow reductions across the board. Prioritize what is needed most by whom.

3. Assist your teenager with income-producing ideas such as a dog

walking service, grocery delivery, mowing lawns, snow shoveling, etc. Allow your teenagers to contribute a percentage to the household budget and keep a portion for their own “extras.”

4. Budget a fun family activity at regular intervals to keep everyone connected and motivated.

Wendy and Lucy is a film that provides a window into an extreme situation in which a young woman barely out of her teens demonstrates resilience in her quest to overcome the significant hazards she faces. Teenagers today, despite what might be projected as apathy, have strong feelings about what is happening in our world and in their family. We need to keep them informed without imposing guilt or blame.

Wendy and Lucy plead with us to do what we must all do with children and teens we care about during difficult times — not to close our eyes or turn our backs on them.

VIEW POINT

Elect Democrats straight down the line

It should come as no surprise that I am endorsing the full slate of Democrats in this critical, upcoming election. It’s not about being tribal, it’s about examining the record, the character, the values and the stated policies of Gov. Kathy Hochul, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, Congressional candidate Robert Zimmerman, state Sen. Anna Kaplan, Assemblymember Gina Sillitti, and the rest of the slate, and feeling confident that they understand the mission of government (to improve the lives of people).

Do this little mind exercise with me: All the progress, all the things we most cherish have happened because of programs and policies put into effect by Democrats. Just look at the transformation, the revitalization of infrastructure – new bridges, rebuilt airports, revitalized parks and open space, environmental protection, revitalized downtowns, new industries devoted to making the transition of our economy and society to clean, renewable energy and independence from Big Oil and brutal dictators; access to health care, public education, parental leave, child care, livable wage.

Democrats at all levels of government have identified actual problems facing Americans (those so-called “kitchen table issues”) and devised solutions, instead of bloviating and fear mongering (Crime! Inflation! Books!). If only they could get them through Republican obstruction.

Indeed, despite Republican obstruction, this has been the most consequential Congress since FDR and LBJ (who also had Democratic majorities). Even Nixon’s landmark

Environmental Protection Act and Eisenhower’s National Interstate Highways Act were passed because Democrats controlled Congress.

Let’s review just a few of these landmark achievements: The American Rescue Act, which kept millions of families afloat during the worst of the COVID pandemic; Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the biggest investment ($1 trillion) in infrastructure and jobs in history; The Inflation Reduction Act with the biggest investment in climate action, lowering drug costs for Medicare, and requiring the biggest corporations to pay their fair share of taxes; the CHIPS Act, investing in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing; Made in America mandate contributing to the greatest growth in manufacturing jobs since the end of World War II; and the first significant gun violence legislation in 30 years.

Under Biden, the budget deficit has been cut a record $1 trillion (Trump saw a $2 trillion increase with his 2017 tax scam), the most jobs created in a president’s first two years in history (10 million), the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.

We see a government that is responsive to needs. When supply chain disruptions, unleashed pent-up demand, and Putin’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine ignited inflation, Biden released unprecedented amounts of supply from the nation’s oil reserves and promoted more refining, but Republicans actually blocked Democrats from passing legislation to stop Big Oil and meat-packers from price gouging (the companies, big donors to Republican candidates, are making record profits on the backs of work-

KAREN RUBIN View Point

ing families).

Within weeks, of taking control, Biden and the Democrats had an efficient, equitable system of getting COVID vaccines to everyone who wanted it (a glimpse at what universal health care would and should look like), competently addressing a public health emergency and saving at least one million lives, while keeping the economy the strongest in the world. Now, Biden and the Democrats – including at the state level – are responding to the reality of millions who will suffer, perhaps for the rest of their lives, with long COVID.

Think of the “pre-existing conditions” issue when you hear Republicans again calling to repeal Obamacare for the 70th time.

Let’s see which side has the better response to addressing the pain of inflation. Republicans want to slash jobs and wages, cut Medicare and Social Security, while voting AGAINST increasing veterans’ health benefits and erasing some student debt which

they regard as inflationary. Democrats want to reduce out-of-pocket expenses hurting families by cutting costs of prescription drugs, health care, energy.

Reproductive rights, though, are permanent and have a life-and-death impact on every person and every family. Lee Zelden, an anti-abortion extremist who seeks to topple Hochul as governor, is running ads saying that New York women awakened with the same reproductive rights the morning after Dobbs. But the reason New York protects women’s reproductive freedom is because Democrats have had control, codifying Roe into state law even before the SCOTUS6 religious extremists overturned Roe. Immediately after, Hochul and Democrats passed new laws protecting access to abortion, making New York a sanctuary for women fleeing states where abortion is banned, and protecting doctors and health workers from prosecution for their care.

Gun safety? While Republicans have done everything possible to expand access to guns. Biden and the Democratic-led Congress passed the first significant gun-safety legislation in 30 years. New York Democrats, reacting to the radical rightwing SCOTUS6, passed protections to keep guns out of public transit, schools, religious places, went after ghost guns and formed a coalition of states to cut off the Iron Pipeline – all of which Republicans would dismantle, and are already challenging the new New York gun law in court. (Per capita murder rates are 40 percent higher in states won by Trump than in those won by Joe Biden.)

Crime is increasing everywhere

(up 34% in Nassau County under Republican Bruce Blakeman), largely because of gun violence, record numbers of hate crimes and political violence sparked since Trump, but Democrats are trying to do something about it: Biden’s Safer America Plan includes $20 billion for community policing; state Sen. Anna Kaplan is seeking $500 million in grants to law enforcement organizations to upgrade technological infrastructure.

You cherish the environment? Clean water? Clean air? Democrats see the existential urgency in transitioning to clean, renewable energy, in mitigating against climate change (two words: Superstorm Sandy), and creating a sustainable growth economy. All the progress that has been made on climate – instead of shelling out $100 billion a year cleaning up climate disasters — has come when and because Democrats make policy and control the purse strings.

Health care? Democrats are solely responsible for easing access to health care – the Affordable Care Act at least provided a foundation for universal health care which is blocked at every turn by Republicans. Democrats recognize the need for public health that addresses global pandemics (rather than Republicans’ ostrich-like reaction). Democrats see health care as a right; Republicans see it as a privilege, luck of the draw.

These are the “kitchen-table issues” that affect our daily living, our ability to build a better future.

Republicans pander and peddle fear in order to win power; Democrats devise solutions and deliver to improve the lives of the people they serve.

Ken Kesey, The Merry Pranksters and 1960s

The best way to learn things is to read. Granted, reading takes time and it can be a strain on one’s eyes, but it is surely the best way to learn. And when I say read, I mean reading good literature. If you want to learn about America, all you must do is read its greatest authors. I recently bought Tom Wolfe’s book “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” which is a wonderful example of immersion journalism, when a writer embeds himself in a certain culture for an extended period and writes about his experiences.

This book was about the six months he spent with Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters. Kesey was the guy who wrote the Oscar-winning film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” but Kesey did a lot more than author novels. He was front and center in the consciousness expanding, acid-laced, free love cultural explosion that took place in the 1960s.

This movement inevitably started in California, the land of sunshine, surfers, Hollywood, Berkeley and Stanford University. That cauldron of fun and frolic also gave birth to the Doors and The Grateful Dead, and as Jerry Garcia says, “You really had to be there to understand it.” True enough.

As I worked my way through Tom Wolfe’s chronicle of the birth of the hippie movement, it began to dawn on me just how unusual that period was. So

many things happened over the 10-year period from 1960 to 1970 that it’s worth looking back and analyzing it. The 1960s is when the Baby Boomers were coming of age, and it was preceded by the staid and steadfast 1950s with Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and Donna Reed.

Apparently, Old Blue Eyes was not enough, so make way for LSD, cocaine, pot, Timothy Leary, The Doors, The Mamas & the Papas, Haight Ashbury, The Esalen Institute, flower power, Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix, love beads, The Beatles, and Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests. Acid Tests were little more than insane and very noisy quasi rock concerts with strobe lights, movies shown on the wall as The Grateful Dead played and everyone in the place was stoned on LSD. You passed the Acid Test if you did not go insane.

I don’t mean to be sarcastic about all this because after all who can be critical of efforts to expand one’s mind? But the mistake made by the hippie movement and LSD is that it’s like equating the effort of reading an entire 952-page novel with the ingestion of a pill. A pill is quick and easy and even fun, but the benefits vis a vis mind expansion is short-lived at best and damaging at worst.

Social, quasi-religious revolutions take place about every 100 years or so and probably are crucial to cultural growth. Back in the 1850s, as science gained ascendance, German philoso-

DR. TOM FERRARO Our Town

pher Friedrich Nietzsche announced that “God is dead” and this began the age of secularism. If God died, then who or what gives meaning to life? The search for meaning in a secular world led to the transcendental movement in America with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman being the central figures.

Transcendentalism embraced the goodness of nature and humankind and was a reaction to industrialism, capitalism, imperialism and the “death of God” with “Walden” by Thoreau and “Leaves of Grass” by Whitman being the most well-known representations of this movement.

It is difficult to determine how these

cultural movements impact and remain embedded in the culture as it proceeds forward. It is notable that the famous Day-Glo painted school bus that was used to take The Merry Pranksters across America was named “Furthur,” illustrating Ken Kesey’s desire to move America further into the future. And like all mystics and mavericks, Ken Kesey, was hated, jailed, jeered, battered and bruised as a reward for his efforts. Or as my old buddy Bob Lipsyte of The New York Times would say: “No good deed will go unpunished.”

Shortly after the cultural revolutions of the 1960s, we were greeted by Yuppies, catch phrases like “Greed is good,” “Show me the money” as the nation reembraced money, status seeking and consumerism. Ironically, all this feverish questing for goods and services, money and status, fame and fortune doesn’t seem to fill the world with much happiness or meaning.

So do not fear, there is yet another cultural revolution that will be coming down the pike in 30 years or so. This is inevitable because the thought of an endless future of interacting with computers and phone prompts, working from home, not knowing your neighbors, worrying about school shootings or random assaults, getting addicted to Tik-Tok, Snapchat and Instagram is nauseating.

This year or next year there will be a

child born who grows up in all this maddening, vacuous chaos and by the time he or she is 30, the year will be about 2050 and this child will start a movement or even a revolution, big enough to give some hope and peace and joy and meaning to us all. Until then, just hunker down, find an enjoyable book to read and ride out the storm.

Long live Ken Kesey and the memory of The Merry Pranksters. They may have gone down the wrong path with LSD, but at least they tried to make improvements in a world without a god.

Climate change reflected in autumn leaves

Fall is my favorite season for several reasons, kicking leaves being one of them. But warnings that this summer’s drought would cut the season for leaf peeping short here on Long Island and result in a subdued color palette inspired my plans to venture out of state and up north to enjoy the vibrant display of colors characteristic of Northeastern autumn.

Unfortunately, stressed trees are underperforming as a symptom of climate change with this year’s color display attenuated not just on Long Island, but also in the eastern part of Massachusetts and Connecticut, southeastern New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I heard the canopy is already browning in Rhode Island.

The factors at play for fall color display include more than just moisture and sunlight. The absence of fall frost mutes the crisp brilliance of crimson red. While many had predicted that global warming would lead to a longer growing season yielding more time for photosynthesis, climate scientists were surprised to discover earlier leaf senescence in a warming climate. While the fall foliage peak is pushed back in some places, leaf-peeping season is shortened.

The spread of non-native canopy further mutes the formerly brilliant fall foliage that’s inspired poets and painters throughout centuries.

In my quest for wonderment I drove

north to New Hampshire this mid-October to embrace with all my senses the most magnificent shades of green, yellow, orange and red. While surrounded by health and vibrancy, my climate concerns blended with timeless natural beauty. Amid biodiverse native woodlands I relaxed my worries temporarily into a bed of ancient ferns decorating the forest floor. Insidious English ivy nowhere in sight.

Healthy ecosystems are expressed in rich biodiversity. Gazing at the forested mountain range and native wild lands up north, you can easily access your natural place and humility. It’s therapeutic to spend time in nature. Inspired by Northeastern woodlands Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.”

While hiking through New Hampshire woodlands, I made a point of pausing by healthy beech trees, well aware that the nematode that causes Beech Leaf Disease poses a significant threat to the future of our Northeastern forest.

Long Island woodlands are further compromised by several other recent invasive pests such as the Emerald Ash Borer attacking Ash trees and spotted lantern-

Earth Matters

fly that doesn’t discriminate.

Last century it’s estimated that every fourth tree in our forest was an American Chestnut. Already functionally extinct for decades, the iconic American chestnut population was wiped out by a fungal disease carried over by Chinese chestnut trees introduced into North America from East Asia. Almost 4 billion American chestnut trees were killed in the first half of the 20th century. I couldn’t help but wonder if similarly, our beeches will fade into memory of a distant past.

Before journeying up north, I inspected all flat surfaces for spotted lanternfly eggs, and had to trust that

disinfecting my boots with vinegar was sufficient to prevent the spread of the invasive pests that plague Long Island woods. Our neck of the woods has been irreversibly shaped by colonial settlement and overdevelopment. Very little is left of old-growth forest here in Nassau. Returning home from New Hampshire to New York by car, it’s ominous how together with growing population density the non-native, invasive tree canopy creeps in and largely replaces our native tree canopy.

First introduced by European settlers as an ornamental for landscaping in 1756, fast-growing Norway maples now dominate the canopy here and have replaced most of our native sugar and red maples. Their thick canopy mercilessly prevents native seedlings from finding sunlight.

In addition to crowding out natives, many naturalists suspect Norway maples flush the ground with toxins, thereby preventing other species from

taking roots. If you’re not leaf shape literate, you can easily distinguish Norway maples from other maples, as they exude a milky sap from the leaf stem. While introduced in good faith, most states now classify Norway maple as an invasive plant species.

It’s hard to predict the future of our native vegetation here. But it is certain that doing the best we can today to manage the spread of invasives and plant natives will make an enormous difference for our future ecosystem’s health and function. And as Emerson wrote, our nature is beautiful. Let’s embody this beauty in action with native ecosystem restoration.

With autumn’s golden and crimson glory fading into shades of brown, it’s timely to support our local, native trees in whichever way you can. Please do feel invited to connect with the trees not just for the sheer aesthetics, but also the vital ecosystem functions they perform, including their generous offerings of breathable air. Joanna Mounce Stancil of U.S. Forest Service writes that “one large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people,” while cleaning the air of carbon.

We have an enormous capacity to support positive change; we can help regenerate disturbed woodlands and nurse them back into thriving ecosystems and with that remind future generations about their beautiful nature.

HILDUR PALSDOTTIR

Finding the best college ‘fit’ – Part I

This is the time of year when many families and their high school students visit colleges near and far. Some visits may be to local campuses thought to be within reach academically and financially while others may be distant in terms of admissions competition and expense. Whichever the choice, or both, it is imperative for family members and prospective college students to plan carefully. After deciding on where to visit, call for interview appointments, ask to sit in on a class and talk to a faculty member and current students, visit a residence hall, and check out the dining hall. These are some of the characteristics of a good “fit” between the student and the campus.

In this, Part I, I describe the strategy for campus visits and the federal College Scorecard as a tool for helping families and prospective students navigate the college admissions process and find the best “fit” between the student and a campus.

Many colleges offer virtual information sessions and interactive tours. These and admissions open houses provide opportunities to hear from campus leaders as well as students and decide on where to visit.

In preparing for campus visits, stu-

dents and families should consider the characteristics of institutions to visit. How far from home is acceptable? Will the student be most comfortable in a large city, a suburban setting, or a rural area? Will the student live on campus, in the town, or at home?

How large a campus is acceptable? Some universities have 50,000 or more students and some colleges have fewer than 2,500. How does the large university create smaller communities on campus? The academic program should be challenging enough without the added challenge of potential anonymity at a large institution. The best fit is one that is challenging for academic and personal growth but also is focused on student success.

Is the admissions selectivity of the college or university such that the student would be an average applicant, an above average applicant or would the campus represent a “stretch” because of the competition?

In other words, families and students should engage in research using publicly available sources such as college guides and the federal College Scorecard to decide on a list of 10 or 12 colleges to examine in detail. Visit a nearby campus to practice your college visit strategies. The high school

ROBERT A. SCOTT, Ph.D. My Turn

counselor should be helpful with information about past students who have entered a particular college and have a library of guidebooks and college catalogs.

The College Scorecard

The College Scorecard can be a useful tool for examining general data about colleges and comparing colleges to each other, but it cannot convey the complexity of an institution. A publication such as the “Fiske Guide to Colleges” gives a better picture of a campus. The data in the Scorecard include the

following elements.

*Size: Large, small, and medium; they each have benefits.

*Graduation rates: Graduation rates below 60% can suggest a poor fit between those admitted and the campus environment.

*Salary after completing a degree: The actual salary depends upon the degree earned and the job itself. This is not the best indicator of “fit” between the student and the college.

*Average annual cost for tuition and fees, room and board, books, and supplies, minus the average amount for grants and scholarships for federal aid recipients. When comparing colleges, whether public or private, calculate the net price. It is often the case that a private college will charge a lower net price than a public institution with a lower published tuition rate.

*Fields of study available: A student might have a first choice but should be aware that he or she will learn about new fields in the first year or two.

*Financial aid, median student debt, percentage with federal loans, percentage of borrowers in default on loans. These are important indicators of financial “fit.”

*Characteristics of the student

body, including the number of undergraduates, the percentage enrolled full-time, the percentage of students receiving Pell grants (a surrogate for the socio-economic status of students), racial and ethnic diversity: Does the student want homogeneity or a rich diversity that can foster personal growth?

*Acceptance rate of applicants: This can be an indication of how selective the admissions competition is.

*SAT and ACT ranges of accepted students: These are additional measure of admissions competition. Are they required? How do such scores compare in importance to the curriculum pursued in high school, the grades earned, and teacher recommendations?

These are important indicators to examine; they can help narrow the field of campuses to visit in seeking the best “fit” between a student and a college.

This is the conclusion of Part I of Finding the Best College Fit. Part II will appear next week.

Robert A. Scott, President Emeritus, Adelphi University; Author, How University Boards Work, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018, Eric Hoffer Awardee, 2019

READERS WRITE

Re-elect Anna Kaplan to the state Senate

Iwould like to endorse Anna Kaplan for another term, her third, as our New York State senator. Based on my personal knowledge of her honesty, energy, ready availability and delight in delivering for her constituents, I know

she will continue to be a force of nature representing us in Albany.

Dedicated to good governance for all her constituents, she has been instrumental in making our neighborhoods safer from ghost guns and gun violence,

supporting Long Island small business, and she has brought in record millions to fund our highly respected public schools.

She is a staunch presence against hate crimes and is a firm believer that women’s health care decisions should be

shared between a woman and her doctor without government intervention.

Please get out and vote for Anna Kaplan (D) during in-person early voting starting Oct. 29 or on Nov. 8. Help Anna continue to do what she has been elected

to do, which is to serve us, her constituents, with integrity, skill, intelligence and compassion.

Lisa Donatelli Port Washington

How to expand Port Washington LIRR service

LIRR President Catherine Renaldi was not totally candid at a recent press conference held at the Port Washington LIRR Station. She announced restoration of six Port Washington branch rush hour express trains to Penn Station when service begins to Grand Central Madison in December.

(“Express service to remain on LIRR Port line” — Oct. 7). My old friends at the LIRR did not tell the whole story when they said service on the Port Washington branch could be expanded if they could add train storage capacity at the existing Port Washington Yard.

There are other alternatives which would support increased service, especially for those who are reverse peak commuters.

What happened to the planning study previous LIRR President Phil Eng promised from several years ago to look

into either electrification of existing diesel branches or in the case of the Port Washington branch, double tracking between Great Neck and Port Washington? Is LIRR Acting President Catherine Renaldi even aware of this study and commitment from her predecessor? The same for local elected officials such as state Sen. Ann Kaplan and state Assembly member Gina Sillitti, who were also in attendance at the press conference.

Adding passing sidings or double tracking is the only solution for improved bi-directional service between Port Washington and Great Neck. This is actually more important than expansion of the Port Washington LIRR Yard. Even with expansion of the Port Washington Yard, at some point you run out of trains to run westbound in the AM peak.

It would also not solve the problem of bidirectional service gaps for reverse

peak services between Great Neck and Port Washington to and from both Penn Station and Grand Central Madison. Double tracking between Great Neck and Port Washington would go a long way in support of the MTA’s promised 40% increase in reverse rush hour service as well.

At another recent event celebrating the completion of the $2.6 billion Main Line Third Track project, (“Main Line Third Track Completed On Time and Under Budget” — Oct. 7), Gov. Kathy Hochul, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and LIRR President Renaldi proudly announced that the project has come in at $100 million under budget. Port Jefferson, Huntington, Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay and to a limited extent Babylon, Patchogue and Speonk commuters via the Central Branch (east of Hicksville to Babylon bypassing the Babylon branch)

will see increased service as a result.

Last year’s completion for double tracking the Ronkonkoma branch will provide service off peak every 30 minutes vs. the previous hourly schedule. Port Washington branch customers do not obtain the same benefits as those commuters on these other branches. Isn’t it time for Port Washington riders to see additional tracks just as those on the other branches?

If $100 million in savings for construction of the Main Line Third Track are real and not just on paper, why not use them to pay for improvements such as double tracking or adding passing sidings east of Great Neck on to Port Washington? Why not build a second Manhasset viaduct over East Shore Road and double track up to just west of the Manhasset Station? How about continuing double tracking or adding passing

sidings starting at the Manhasset Station and continue east to the Port Washington station?

As a longtime Great Neck resident and rider going back to the 1970s, I can tell you firsthand that this has been ignored for decades.

Larry Penner Great Neck

(Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions of dollars in grants which provided funding for capital projects and programs to the MTA, LIRR, New Jersey Transit and over 30 transit agencies within New York State)

Longtime journalists, friends tackle ageism

BY STEVEN KEEHNER

Age only matters if you let it, as Mark Twain once observed. Barbara Paskoff, 77, of Roslyn and Carol Pack, 71, of Westbury, have made it their mission to prove this in what they have dubbed their second lives.

“Book of Lists” is the fourth entry in the duo’s “Over-Sixty: Shades of Gray” series. In their newest project, the two combine humor and vital information in easy-to-consume lists.

“As you get older, time starts to fly really fast. All of a sudden, you realize that you don’t have time for all of this,” joked Pack. “You just want to cut to the chase. If I pick up articles now to read, I just want to see it in bullet points. I don’t want to have to read everything that goes around to support it. Just give me a list of what to do.”

In particular, the two tackle life’s challenges and joys through the lens of growing older. These result in practical tips about appearance, relationships, entertainment and more.

“Trying to end a relationship with your partner, friend or anyone in your life that is causing you more angst than joy is never easy,” the two write. “You might say to yourself, ‘Well, just like a pimple on my ass, I’ll get used to it’ just to avoid the discomfort of breaking up. But why should you?”

But as fast as the couple injects humor into their work, they also take on serious subjects like eating disorders, loneliness and death. Paskoff said they seek to reassure readers they are not alone in the trials that come with aging.

“Look at the comedians who grew up in a very

depressed, dysfunctional household,” she said. “They make jokes. It’s their form of survival. It’s easy to get something serious across when you just add an ingredient of humor because it’s going to be accepted more freely and easily.”

Pack is a member of the Press Club of Long Island’s Hall of Fame and has published several works of fiction. Paskoff is a founding partner of

Carol Pack and Barbara Paskoff. “Book of Lists” is the fourth installment in the duo’s “Over-Sixty: Shades of Gray” series, and it will be released on Oct. 25.

Martins raises $20K more than Kaplan

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

Jack Martins, the Republican candidate for the state’s 7th Senate District, outraised incumbent state Sen. Anna Kaplan (D-North Hills) by more than $20,000 during the most recent filing period, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.

Martins raised a total of $162,467.90.72 compared to Kaplan’s $141,135, during the 32-day pre-general election filing period. Contributions, spending and cash on hand are tracked in the financial disclosures for this period.

Kaplan had a total of $442,495.75 cash on hand at the beginning of the filing period and ended with $263,235.71.

Martins started with $40,786.51 cash on hand and ended with $180,782.18.

Martins had nearly $300,000 more in expenses than Kaplan, with a total of $23,972.23. Kaplan had $320,395.04 worth of operating expenses during the filing period. More than $188,000 was paid to the Park-

side Group, a public relations and advertising firm in New York City.

The two candidates earned their respective share from political action committees, with Kaplan receiving $55,650 and

Martins receiving $22,000, according to the filings.

Kaplan was elected to serve the Town of North Hempstead’s 4th District as a councilwoman in 2011.

Continued on Page 43

Jack Martins out-raised state Sen. Anna Kaplan (D-North Hills) during the 7th Senate District’s 32-day pre-general filing.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BARBARA PASKOFF

Continued on

MAP COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE TASK FORCE ONDEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND REAPPORTIONMENT

Airpower Museum’s Halloween haunting

Who said Halloween is just for children?

Fright takes flight at American Airpower Scarepower Museum on Saturday, October 29, 2022.

Once again, our Museum resumes its tradition of offering a child-safe place for children to enjoy Halloween shenanigans.

Flap your bat wings to the museum and go trick or treating in our Haunted Hangar! Costumed staff will hand out treats as children go door to door in the safety of Hangar 3.

Mingle with ghosts, goblins, ghouls, skeletons, vampires and witches inside our spooky home, decorated and creatively

transformed into a horror house with dry ice fog, spider webs, flying bats and new frights at every turn. Yikes!

We dare you to tour our Haunted Bomber and then enter the museum’s Maze of Horrors! Have your picture taken next to the Ghost Fighter, then climb aboard our Tram of Terror for a ride around Hangar 3.

We’ll also have crafts, games with prizes, face painting and more. And listen up you scary parents, please dress up your children to compete in our Costume Contest for ages one through 16.

Adults are encour-

aged to dress up in horrific garb too, which will add to the festive atmosphere!

Prizes will be awarded for the best original and creative costumes, courtesy of Cockpit USA. Lots of Halloween music, like John Zacherley’s “Monster Mash,” for those old ghouls who like to dance!

Regular admission fee is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and veterans, $10 for kids 5 to 12; free admission for kids under 5 and active military. Your contributions support AAM’s mission to honor our veterans and U.S. aviation history, by preserving the aircraft and their legacy for future generations.

What: The American Airpower Museum’s Halloween Haunted Hangar Spooktacular

Where: The American Airpower Museum, Hangar 3, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale

When: Saturday, October 29, 2022 – 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Jews in the News monthly discussion

The Lake Success Jewish Center sponsors a monthly conversation with Rabbi Michael Klayman on the topic of Jews in the news.

The programs takes place on the first Monday morning of each month at the North Shore Towers Restaurant 27248 Grand Central Pkwy, Queens.

Upcoming dates are: Monday, Nov. 79:30-11:00 a.m. Monday, Dec. 59:30-11:00 a.m. Cost for breakfast is $10. For additional information, please call the Lake Success Jewish Center at (516)-466-0569 x1 OR email info@ lakesuccessjc.org

William Cullen Bryant celebration

Stroll by the water and over the grounds, listen to poetry, then view and purchase paintings, for a cause.

Join us first in the main house and later walk down to Bryant’s Gothic Revival Mill. This unique opportunity honors William Cullen Bryant’s legacy.

In the 1800s, William Cullen Bryant (born Nov. 3, 1794) America’s first poet, long-time newspaper editor, civic leader, and opponent of slavery, graciously opened his doors to family, friends, writers, artists, thinkers, and visionaries.

Nov. 6, 2022. The celebration begins at 3:00 pm, in the main house.

Meet the Friends of Cedarmere’s 2022 Poet in Residence, Christina M. Rau, Professor of English, Nassau Community College. She will read selected works and introduce three poets from her well-honed writing workshop held on-site.

Immediately following the poetry reading, between 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm, you are invited to walk down to the Mill and view the artworks created during the three-day “plein air” (painting outdoors) contest and meet the artists. 10 unframed images by 10 artists will be displayed.

Joan Harrison, professor emeritus of art, LIU Post, judged this competition. Prizes will be awarded. 70% of the profits contributed go towards the Working Waterwheel Restoration Project.

Rain or shine, the Friends of Cedarmere, appreciate your patronage: via cash, check or pay-pal. The beautiful art may be taken to your home Nov. 6 at 6:00 pm.

No charge to park, enter the grounds or attend the events. The Friends of Cedarmere is a volunteer, and nonprofit organization, dedicated to preserving the legacy of William Cullen Bryant and his beloved estate.

Location Information: 225 Bryant Avenue, Roslyn Harborhttps://www.friendsofcedarmere.orgPhone: leave message a reply in 2 days: (516) 544 3944.

Fortunoff Family Fun Night

Over the weekend, over 650 people gathered at Adventureland Amusement Park for the Louis W. Fortunoff Family Fun Night.

Hosted by Jennie Fortunoff and her children Lara and Jonathan Fortunoff, in memory of her late husband, Louis W. Fortunoff, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer at age 47 in 2012; the event raised an extraordinary $300,000 in support of the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Considering this event, the funds contributed and raised by the Fortunoff family in support of the Lustgarten Foundation’s mission to transform pancreatic cancer into a curable disease is more than $2 million dollars.

“I am proud to work with and serve on the Board of Directors of the Lustgarten Foundation in loving memory of Louis and on behalf of all patients and families affected by this terrible disease,” said Jennie Fortunoff. “The event marked this signifi-

cant 10th anniversary of his passing in the most meaningful way, with a fun night for kids and adults alike, while raising significant funds for pancreatic cancer research.”

After his diagnosis, through mutual friends, Louis and Jennie were connected with Dr. David Tuveson, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Tuveson provided advice, and Louis’ tissue was used to make the first organoid for pancreatic cancer after his passing.

In November 2020, with the support of the Lustgarten Foundation, CSHL opened a new 2,200-squarefoot organoid facility that is playing a significant role in the PASS-01 clinical

trial.

The lab is growing and testing organoids for trial participants and will share its work with outside researchers, enabling physicians to make faster, better-informed decisions about which drugs are likely to be most effective.

Just last month, a dedication ceremony in memory of Louis and his mother, Helene, was held at the CSHL organoid facility recognizing the Fortunoff family’s contributions to the program throughout the years.

“We believe community is power, and research is fundamental to transforming pancreatic cancer into a curable disease,” said Linda Tantawi, Lustgarten Foundation CEO, “Advancing cancer science relies on the support of families, like the Fortunoffs, who provide invaluable resources and funding to the Lustgarten Foundation programs. We are so grateful to Jennie and all the supporters who came out on Oct. 9.”

Temple Judea celebrates Sukkot

On a crisp sunny day in October, members and friends of Temple Judea met under a brilliant blue sky to celebrate the joyous holiday of Sukkot outdoors on the large Temple campus. A sumptuous barbeque was provided by the Brotherhood,headed by Stan Goldklang, and WRJ Sisterhood, led by Kathi Kafka, Lauren Chizner, and Melissa Antenberg. It was enjoyed by a large group consisting of two-year-old toddlers through all ages of students and adults. With the expert guidance of Rabbi Todd Chizner and Cantor Deborah Jacobson, participants heard the significance of this holiday and its symbols.

A “Sukkah”(plural:”Sukkot”), a temporary structure that lasts one week, was constructed for this holiday. The roof is typically cov-

ered with bamboo sticks or palm leaves, and partially open at the top to observe the sky above. It is also surrounded on three sides by slats of wood, reeds or other materials which render it partially open. The Sukkah symbolizes the impermanence of shelters on the Biblical path of the Israelites during their trek through the desert for forty years, and celebrates the way in which God protected them under difficult desert conditions.

“You shall dwell in sukkot seven days in order that future generations may know that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the Lord your God.” Leviticus 23:42.

The four symbols of the holiday are an etrog (a citron fruit), a palm branch, a myrtle branch and a willow branch. The

custom is to shake the three types of branches, the”lulav”, in all directions in the right hand while holding the etrog in the left hand, thereby acknowledging that God is all around and channeling divine energy into the world.

It is also a reminder to be thankful and to praise God for the fruit harvest.

In keeping with the Jewish tradition of providing for the needy, Temple Judea has partnered with the Sid Jacobson JCC to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to be distributed to a community needs bank.

The Social Action Committee, chaired by Rita Marcus and Alicia Munves, set up cartons outside of the Sukkah for the fresh fruits and vegetables donated by the members.

Philharmonic Orchestra presents Spooktacular

The Massapequa Philharmonic will be kicking off its 2022-2023 season under the direction of music director David Bernard with “SYMPHONIC SPOOKTACULAR”-a fall themed program of fantastic and “spooky” classical works.

“Through this special program of Halloween-Themed Symphonic Classical Music, our audience will be treated to a transporting experience into the mysterious, evocative and fun world of the Macabre” says maestro David Bernard. “Here, you will be taken on a wild ride as only symphonic music can.” says Bernard.

This program is a “Halloween Hit Parade” of works that will vividly evoke the day. The program begins with Saint-Saëns Dance Macabre, which starts with the clock striking 12 and features a xylophone portraying a dancing skeleton.

The major work on the program is “Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique,” which takes the audience on a wild ride through twists and turns, leading us to a

witches dance and a fantastic finale.

If there were a satellite radio channel with a name like Sirius Fright or XM Exhume, works such as “Danse Macabre” and “Symphonie Fantastique” would be featured prominently in their schedule.

The concert also features the celebrated prodigy violinist Kento Hong in his debut with the Massapequa Philharmonic performing Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3.

All audience members are

invited to a post-concert reception featuring food sponsored by Mercato Kitchen and Cocktails and IC Bakers. And bring your costumes, because at the reception, there will be a Halloween Contest where prizes will be awarded to adults and children.

Admission is a $20 suggested donation to the orchestra. This event will take place on Sunday, October 23 at 3:00 PM at Berner Auditorium, 50 Carman Mill Rd, Massapequa.

For additional information, please visit www.massphil.com

Free assistance for Medicare

FCA

BY BARRY KLITSBERG

Medicare is a federally run health insurance program for people who are 65 years of age or have collected Social Security Disability for 24 months. It is also available for individuals with permanent kidney failure or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

If you are not yet collecting Social Security, you have to apply for Medicare during the three-month period before your 65th birthday. You may apply for Medicare by calling the Social Security Administration at 1-800772-1213 or online at: https://www. ssa.gov/medicare/. If you are already collecting Social Security, you will receive your Medicare card automatically in the mail. Open enrollment starts Oct. 15. Our healthcare needs change over time, and a plan that worked for

us one year may not be the best choice going forward. Each year Medicare gives participants the opportunity to modify their healthcare plan during open enrollment season, which runs every year from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.

Navigating Medicare and choosing a plan that best meets your needs can be tricky, so it is important to carefully consider your foreseeable health care needs each year. FCA can help you with this process with free guidance (more on that later).

To avoid any unpleasant and potentially expensive surprises, make sure to study any materials that come to you from your existing plan. These documents will spell out in detail the updates for the coming plan year.

Some of these revisions may describe premium changes, updates

hassle in filing during annual open enrollment period

If you feel that these changes make your plan a less-than-optimal choice for the coming year, now is the time to reevaluate and compare available plans. This can be done through the Medicare website, www.medicare. gov. You can review your current plan and compare it with others that serve Nassau County to see if another plan works better for you.

Free Help Available Through FCA

can provide you with unbiased expertise on what Medicare plan can best meet your individual needs. HIICAP counselors can also help you switch plans, in many cases over the phone. In-person fca appointments are also available.

in prescription formularies (which may change the availability or price of your previously covered drugs), co-payment changes and changes to networks of providers. Make sure to check that your healthcare providers are still part of your plan each year.

If you don’t have ready access to a computer or otherwise need assistance, Family and Children’s Association can help guide you through the process with free help available by calling the Nassau County Health Insurance Information Counseling and Assistance Program at 516-485-3754.

One of our counselors will be happy to assist you. HIICAP is a free service that has trained counselors who

For Medicare beneficiaries who are in a Medicare Advantage Plan (HMO or PPO) and don’t change their plan by Dec. 7, they have an additional opportunity to switch Medicare Advantage plans between January 1 and March 31. FCA can help. Answers to your Medicare questions are just a phone call away.

Barry Klitsberg is an Assistant Health Insurance Information Counseling and Assistance Coordinator at FCA in Garden City and an Aging Services Program Specialist at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

PUBLISHER OF: THE WILLISTON TIMES | GREAT NECK NEWS | NEW HYDE PARK HERALD COURIER ROSLYN TIMES | MANHASSET TIMES | PORT WASHINGTON TIMES

GOLD COAST FILM FESTIVAL SEES INCREASED TURNOUT

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

The Gold Coast Arts Center’s 25th International Film Festival has seen an increased turnout from last year and high participation in other family activities and programs, festival Director Caroline Sorokoff said.

“We’ve had just a fantastic reception to the various films, comedy nights and special events we’ve been doing,” Sorokoff said in a phone interview. “We’ve been really happy with how things have gone so far.”

The festival kicked off Oct. 10, with three feature films screened at the Manhasset Cinemas: The Justice of Bunny King, i Mordecai and Hard Shell Soft Shell i Mordecai Director Marvin Samel participated

in a post-screening Q&A with the audience, which was met with a great reception, Sorokoff said.

This year the arts center, located on Middle Neck Road in Great Neck, also hosted the Long Island Comedy Festival Oct. 15, hosted by Paul Anthony and featured comedians John Ziegler and Art Schill. The festival’s “Art Explosion Family Day” Sunday had painting workshops, graffiti demonstrations, book signings, short films and more.

Wednesday evening’s screening of Karaoke, Sorokoff said, is something people should sign up to watch after the film has been well-received in other festivals throughout the county this year.

“We’re thrilled that we were able to snag it,” she said.

Sorokoff also spoke highly of Love, Charlie: The

Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter, a documentary focused on a Chicago-based chef who died from a stroke in 2013 at 54. She also lauded the French film, Adieu Monsieur Haffmann (Farewell Mr. Haffmann), a historical drama based on an award-winning play.

Presenting a wide array of content and programs, she said, has resulted in films being nearly sold out.

“People seem to be responding really well to the content we’re putting out there, which is great,” Sorokoff said.

The Great Neck and Port Washington Libraries, she said, have partnered with the arts center to host their short film events, which are offered free to the public. Instructions on how to register for the short

films and featured films are online at: goldcoastarts. org/film-arts-22/.

Sorokoff said this year’s attendance has increased from last year with masks and face coverings still being an option for those who feel comfortable wearing them. She expressed the center’s gratitude for this year’s attendees and encouraged others to support the arts and take part in the festival, which is going on until Oct. 25.

“We just wanted to say thank you from all of us at the arts center who work hard all year round to bring all sorts of arts opportunities to people of all ages,” Sorkoff said. “There’s not a lot of opportunities that people have to interact with other members of their community and the arts has always been something that has brought people together.”

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARTS CENTER

The Gold Coast Arts Center’s International Film Festival will continue until Oct. 25.

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AN ENGEL BURMAN COMMUNITY

Ode to a Mountain Pasture – The high peaks, W. Virginia

They moved up there during the lean years of the dust bowl and depression. A few families, one to a small meadow, no more than a little house or two scattered here and there as if dropped off like Dorothy by Oz’s wind.

Living on clear mountain air and poor soil, what little moisture carried in on the morning mist.

Just enough to nourish hardy vegetables and meager crops. On one side of a mountain the wind was so strong rocks and sticks tossed over the cliff blew back at you.

A hard living barely anchored to thin soil, jutting walls of stone under blue skies and buckets of milk-white clouds rolling in on a sea so calm— peaceful—fearful.

Trap some small game, hunt fox and deer. Clipped whispers clinging to silence. Living their whole lives like that.

Neat little houses. No running water. No electric. Water drawn by windlass from a well.

Bathing in a clear cool stream surrounded by forests, their thick leaves a mattress.

Precipitous peaks—each a monastery.

The gift of faith. Life simple as it gets—day to day. Simple joys. Grateful.

Now they were gone. No one tended any fields.

No kerosene lamps shone on the distant mountains at night. Each house must have been like a pagoda prayer lantern.

The few remaining wood frames were abandoned— dilapidated, looked out of place—nearly invisible.

It hit a raw 20 below on my last night. I woke earlier than usual to a subtle rustling outside my tent.

A red fox had come to talk and mull over the weather and embarrassing quality of my housekeeping practices. We eyed each other warily. Steam from our breath slipped away like whispers into the crisp air, and disappeared slowly with the rising fog. As I watched, patches blue as the sky cleared, you thought you could walk through them.

In the stillness I counted 70 deer slipping into the clearing, to paw through a dusting of snow and feed on the grass.

A silent procession. I eventually stopped counting.

I clearly remember their scent. Unlike other days they must have gotten used to my presence.

Maybe they wanted me there, looking on in admiration, just staring in silence.

All morning they gathered, entering and exiting through their own thick folds of green and shifting oyster-white curtains that moved with the changing mask of sunlight and mist.

I did not bother to pierce the envelope of quiet.

But I, the lone and quiet unobtrusive scouting party, was the harbinger of a new future. The company I worked for was to gouge a road and drill a deep gas well in the field—marring its muscle and beauty with dust and mud and pickups and heavy machinery scattered like acorns about the place.

After the drill rig and crews arrived, I gazed at the sun-drenched spot where I camped. It was the emptiest space I had ever seen. The meadow was gone; I tried to find it again but couldn’t.

I wondered that if I used my regrets as a guide, would I, in fact, find it and do it all over again?

Yes, for a selfish reason, just to have been there

Elmont train station doesn’t make sense

Ilive in Floral Park and recently had tickets to an Islanders game.

Upon looking at the train schedule I saw no train from Floral park so I had to take the train from New Hyde Park which was fine except that after the game to get back to New Hyde Park I would

have to go to Jamaica as there is no eastbound train to NHP but I could get a direct train to Floral Park.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Peter Casale Floral Park

Revisit the state open meetings law

Recently, at a board meeting, the Mayor of Valley Stream asked me to stop recording the board meeting. The mayor appears to be unaware of the Open Meetings Law.

The Committee on Open Government’s lawyer and various watchdog groups came to the same conclusion.

The Mayor violated the law.

What was his excuse? The signs posted in the village prohibit recording. This pathetic excuse stops citizens from exercising their right to record. His pathetic blunder was backed up by our taxpayer-funded village attorney.

The State needs to revisit the Open

Meetings Law and provide an enforcement mechanism for Villages with Mayors like Valley Stream who seek to silence and intimidate residents.

The state also needs to require mandated training for local municipalities. In addition, the state should require that a local government’s legal counsel undergo strict oversight training.

If changes aren’t made, Valley Stream will be the example, not the exception.

Amil Virani Valley Stream

and seen if only for an instant, and entered the old photograph hanging on the wall before the oblivion.

Back at the office I remembered the lease said Dolly Evans. She had died the year prior. She lived up there alone for years after her husband died, with the squirrels and deer and foxes. No one I knew could understand why, as if living like that were the worst that could happen.

Her little house painted blue, yellow, and green still shone gaily in sunlight.

How the mountains conceal a hidden sanctity.

Maybe I was not there to break the mold. Just to see. To remember and not forget. There are no roads.

I brought the things that have nothing to do with beauty. I revisited recently, a half a century later.

It was all gone, all of it, pitched like stones over a cliff

Now peaks have windmills on them. But you can’t stripmine the high peaks because the coal seams eroded away.

Sometimes memories bear only coffins or poor seeds.

I awaken to a crazy thought, do they yet continue on dreaming of refreshing green pastures covered with moss, surrounded by rolling waves of forest and mist— living the dream on scraps of soil and bare rock under the cold embrace of beauty and stars?

The older I get I have learned to reconcile the fact things quickly lift and disappear, along with their days and nights.

I remember what I used to think…now it brings remorse.

It’s a roundabout way of embracing time.

I have seen your sanctuary and await your return.

Stephen Cipot Garden City Park

Martins, W. Shore Rd. project

You’d be hard-pressed to throw a stone in Port Washington without hitting a “Stop 145” sign on the lawn of a resident who is concerned about the development of the Port Washington waterfront on Hempstead Harbor.

This being an election year, I thought that it would be interesting to see if the developer for the proposed 145 Shore Road project, the Southern Land Company, had given any campaign contributions to candidates up for election this year.

A quick search of the state Board of Elections public website reveals that this year the Southern Land Company, LLC has given only one contribution to any politician in New York State, and that politician is Jack Martins, a Republican running for state senator.

On Sept. 21 of this year, Jack Martins accepted a

$5,800 contribution from Southern Land Company LLC. Moreover, as a community member, it appears to me that this contribution is above the legal limit of what an LLC can give to a candidate for the state Senate.

At a time when decisions on this project are being made that will dramatically impact the Port Washington community, one can’t help but wonder why Southern Land chose to invest in one political candidate.

With the intense controversy surrounding the development located at 145 Shore Road, I think it is important for Port residents to learn that Jack Martins has taken a considerable sum of money from the project’s developer.

Bill Keller Port Washington

Elect Lancman to G.N. Library

Rory Lancman is the right person to fill the currently vacant seat up for election on the Great Neck Library’s Board of Trustees, and I encourage my neighbors to vote for him this Oct 31.

We are all very proud of our library. It serves kids, parents, and seniors in a myriad of ways. We can take out a rich selection of books, read them on our Kindles, or listen to their audio version. There are book clubs, lectures, and movies. The Levels teen program gives kids an opportunity to express themselves creatively, and the STEM Lab teaches them technologies that make their futures even brighter. Our library and our schools are our crown jewels.

The library’s $10 million budget requires capable oversight and planning, and the programming the library offers needs to consider the needs of all our resi-

dents. The ability to read what we want, without censorship, must be preserved.

This means we need trustees with experience and common sense, and an ability to listen to all the different voices and concerns that make up our community.

Rory Lancman’s prior service in the state Legislature, the New York City Council, and with two governors, plus his years as a practicing lawyer, are testaments to his ability to serve us with distinction as a library board trustee.

Please vote on Oct. 31 for Rory Lancman on the library’s Board of Trustees.

Billy Warner Mayor Village of Great Neck Estates

Kremer and Blank Slate Media back Kaplan

Amazing — the Blank publications are on a mission to save Anna Kaplan — and the other promulgators of the “catch-and-release” no-bail laws.

In the latest installment, if you listen to Arthur Kremer, then all our law enforcement lead-

ers are liars. As a sidebar, I’d note that George Marlin criticizes on policy not party.

Plenty of Republicans have been dressed down by him — not just Democrats. Kremer, on the other hand, is demonstrably a partisan liberal Democrat, period (I need not even mention

superfluous Karen Rubin). But I digress.

With all the mayhem, looting, “smash-andgrab, rapes, criminally insane run amok, subway shavings, et al — who are YOU going to believe — Kremer, Karen Rubin, Anna Kaplan, Great Neck News editorials (and their place-

ment of 5 Kaplan pieces in just one edition! and the Dems and their socialist partners — or your lying eyes?

Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld Great Neck

Preserve censorship-free environment at G.N. Library

Growing up here, the Great Neck Library was always a cornerstone of our community. It was where I’d browse the stacks as a tween/teen, looking for books to inspire me as a budding writer and lover of the written word. My grandparents lived in the community when I was a teen and they’d spend half their time at the library, going to lectures, classes, meeting up with friends. When I was a teen, Levels at the library was my sanc-

tuary. I met my future husband there! Now, my kids are taking advantage of all the library has to offer as well and it makes my heart happy.

There’s a pivotal board election coming up in the next few weeks. Across this country there is a movement that is attacking intellectual freedom by silencing conversations about the LGBTQ community and about race, and this movement is targeting institutions (like schools and libraries) whose job is to defend these freedoms.

Unfortunately, this movement seems to be gaining a foothold in Great Neck.

I believe we need to elect candidates who understand the important role that our library plays in our lives, who are staunchly supportive of the librarians and staff members who make the library great, and who unequivocally support a censorship-free, inclusive environment for all. That’s why I’m supporting Mimi Hu and Rory Lancman for the board, and Kim Schader

for the nominating committee. They have shown that they support the values of our strong, vibrant, diverse community and know that a library stands for freedom of speech and ideas.

Please come out to vote. Applications for absentee ballots are due Oct. 18 and in person voting is Oct. 31.

Wendy Wisner Great Neck

Vote Hu, Lancman and Schraeder in G.N. Library race

Trick or Treat

Don your Halloween costume and cast your vote for our library trustees and nominating board member. Re-elect Mimi Hu and elect Rory Lancman for as trustees. Elect Kim Schrader for the Nominating Committee.

Mimi Hu has worked diligently over the past four years to continue library services and programs through COVID. Mimi has also put a great deal of effort into keeping the expenses of the library within budget. She fully supports the renovation of the Parkville Branch and will do

whatever is necessary to bring it to completion as soon as possible. .

She is a strong advocate of programs within the library that reflect the diversity of our community. She believes strongly in allocating the task of selecting age-appropriate books and materials to our trained professional library staff Don’t be tricked by false accusations and give our community a treat by re-electing Mimi Hu, who will not censor books in our library .

Rory Lancman is new to our community but not new in government service. He is a former

state Assemblyman and New York City Council member. As a council member he helped oversee the Queen’s Public Library’s $181 million budget. He brings a wealth of experience to the job.

Rory believes strongly in helping our library be a place of unity and learning. He promises transparency and a library that will work for all residents. He is smart, calm and will be a unifying force within the board. He is another treat for our community. Elect Rory Lancman for library trustee

Kim Schraeder is an intelligent, thoughtful

and positive person. She will make a fine addition to The Nominating Committee.

Charlotte Sear Great Neck

Vote in person Oct. 31, 10 a.m. at Main Library Vote proxy ballot until Oct. 28. Completed ballots must be received by the main post office on Welwyn Road before 5 p.m.. or deposited in a locked box at the Main Library Branch on this date only.

QAnon, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers

One thing that must be said about QAnon, The Proud Boys and The Oath Keepers: they are all organizations whose members must believe that they are truly patriotic.

Chances are that many of their fathers or grandfathers fought against the Nazis in World War II. How many of their family members died trying to protect the American way? How about some history, one based upon Facts!

Let’s talk statistics. The death toll for all Americans fighting the Nazis during World War II exceeded 400,000.

Over 23 million of our Russian and Polish allies died at the hands of the Nazis plus over 6

million Jews. During that period of time, Nazi Germany was an autocratic government led by their maniacal leader, Adolph Hitler.

You might ask, what is an autocratic government? It is one controlled by an individual who has absolute power, taking no account of other people’s wishes or opinions, one who is truly domineering. And you must know that Hitler, this deranged leader, is one person Donald Trump admires and wishes he could have the same power.

If Trump gets away with trying to overthrow the government, overcoming his legal obstacles and is elected President in 2024, it will be because he used all of his supporters as pawns by having them do all of his dirty work.

He convinced them to storm the Capitol, attack and injure 140 police officers and break into the building, urging the crowd to target and “Kill Mike Pence.”

Trump wants to be the dictator, the commanding general and that is funny since no one in his entire family ever fought in war. Trump even managed to evade being drafted during the war in Viet Nam.

To be a Patriot means to fight for your country; not to fight against it. History also shows that Republicans and Democrats always have had differences, but never to the point where one side, the Republicans, hate the Democrats, to the point where they want to kill them. It goes even fur-

ther.

Trump has caused fellow Americans to hate each other which could lead to brother killing brother. Is this what you supporters of Trump want; to turn America into a country like Nazi Germany?

If this is the intention of what QAnon, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers want to do, here’s what any good patriotic American should do: Speak up and tell them to get the hell out of our country. Democracy! Let’s keep it. It’s the ultimate American way.

Alvin Goldberg Great Neck

Why I am voting for George Santos for Congress

The choice this election for Congress could not be easier. George Santos presents a platform that cherishes true American beliefs.

On the other hand, Robert Zimmerman subscribes to the far left woke agenda. Does the Third District want a representative who will march in lock step with the socialist agenda of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi? Does the Third District need a representative who will vote with the socialist, antisemitic and anti-American Squad? We need a person who

will stand up for the ideals that made the United States the greatest country the world has ever seen.

Santos stands for putting criminals in jail and supporting the police instead of Zimmerman, who is in favor of giving criminals a perpetual get out of jail card and defunding the police. He is in favor of law and order and prefers to support victims and not criminals. Santos stands for teaching American History and the importance of 1776, while Zimmerman believes in teaching Critical Race Theory and

the 1619 Project. He stands for removing wokeism for our society while Zimmerman is a proponent of both it and cancel culture. Santos believes in letting parents have their say in what is taught in schools to our children while Zimmerman bows down to the “all knowing,” omnipotent,” “omniscient” teachers union.

Their differences in important issues is also drastic. Santos believes in equal opportunity while Zimmerman believes in “equity” or equality of out-

come with discrimination of some segments of society and the redistribution of assets. Santos wants the Black Lives Matters and Antifa perpetrators of the 574 riots of 2020 held accountable for the billions of dollars of destruction and the hundreds of lives lost

(Misinformation: There is no evidence people charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot are being held incommunicado in solitary; the official death toll is five officers killed.)

Business&RealEstate

Protecting yourself and your home

There are so many financial and health challenges to concern ourselves with today, it’s no wonder that more buyers are stressed and getting shut out of the market due to the doubling of rates and still very low inventory and lack of choices this year.

So many of our younger generation are depressed due to the lack of socialization caused by the pandemic and the historic once-in-a-lifetime shutdown of the world’s economy in 2020. But the pandemic appears to be somewhat in the rearview mirror, or is it? We shall see what happens during our fall and winter months when we spend greater amounts of time indoors and as additional hybrids raise their ugly heads.

One way we can create a safer environment and minimize the effect the virus has on us is if we all would consider wearing a mask indoors among large groups of people. Also, consider taking the next booster vaccine, especially if you have health conditions and are immunocompromised; and don’t forget your flu shot if you are over 50. There will always

be a tiny percentage of people who will be susceptible to the potential side effects of the booster and even still get the virus afterward, too. But generally speaking, the benefit will be that you hopefully will not need hospitalization and even worse won’t die.

Also, our insidious and rampant inflation is still greatly affecting our economy here and around the globe. The Fed is doing what it has always done in the past, to solve the inflation dilemma by raising interest rates to slow everyone’s borrowing and buying, thereby attempting to check rising prices. So far that has not really worked effectively as we are still experiencing a higher 8.3% inflation.

Another important item that you should be aware of and don’t always address is the safety and security of your home. There is a multitude of systems that can control your interior and exterior lighting, video cameras, thermostats for heating and AC, notify you of any plumbing leaks that might occur while you are away and detect fire, heat, smoke, and carbon

PHILIP A. RAICES Real Estate Watch

monoxide. You can also opt to have a radio dispatch directly to your local police and fire department in the event of a burglary or fire.

While you are away, the simplicity and convenience of everything can be monitored via your cell phone, too. This could save you from catastrophic and major damage to your home by

immediately being aware of problems before they escalate. You may be able to cut back on other non-essential expenditures and seek out estimates to install an affordable system that will keep you and your home safer and more comfortable.

There are some companies, like ADT, that will install an upgraded modern system for free and reimburse you the $100 setup fee as long as you sign up for their monthly home monitoring service. Contact me for this special and the number to call. Others like Google Nest and SimpliSafe are other options on a Doit-yourself platform. Once installed, notify your insurance company and there is a great opportunity for them to provide an additional discount of up to 20% on your homeowner’s insurance policy. It will not necessarily add a huge amount to the overall value of your home, but your safety, minimizing potential problems, comfort, and peace of mind will be maximized.

Tip of the week: As cooler air has descended upon us, have you turned

on or serviced your boiler or forced air system? Make sure you change your oil filter or your air filter on your hot air gas system.

Continue to Donate to the Ukrainian Crisis and save a life or two:https://usaforiom.org/iomsukraine-response/ OR The International Organization for Migration a 501(c) 3 Corporation:OR:http://donate.iom.int

Philip A. Raices is the owner/Broker of Turn Key Real Estate at 3 Grace Ave Suite 180 in Great Neck. He has 40 years of experience in the Real Estate industry and has earned designations as a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (G.R.I.) and also as a Certified International Property Specialist (C.I.P.S) as well as the new “Green Industry” Certification for eco-friendly construction and upgrades. For a “FREE” 15-minute consultation, value analysis of your home, or to answer any of your questions or concerns he can be reached by cell: (516) 647-4289 or by email: Phil@TurnKeyRealEstate.Com or via https://WWW.Li-RealEstate.Com

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The “Internet of Things” and Smart Clothing

You’ve probably heard of the Internet of things, but thought, “what does it mean to me?” To answer that exciting question, let’s first understand the term itself:

The Internet of things (IoT) is the interconnection, via the internet, of computing devices into everyday objects giving them the ability to send and receive data.

We already monitor our home security via smart camera devices and troubleshoot appliance repairs by connecting directly to technical support. But there are even cooler IoT applications in the works!

“Soon, the Internet of Things will meet Gucci in the form of smart clothing. For example, swimwear can include UV sensors to prevent overexposure to harmful radiation. Smart footwear may improve your running technique or monitor the mobility of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Manufacturers might embed haptic feedback into textiles to correct your posture or improve your yoga pose. And don’t forget the accessories, such as the Ray-Ban Stories smart sunglasses (that provide a window to social media when the user is otherwise offline).”

- William Diggin, Accenture

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Jovia, L.I. Nets forms strategic partnership

In a continuing effort to support the youth of Long Island communities, Jovia Financial Credit Union, one of Long Island’s largest and leading credit unions, has entered into a strategic partnership with the Long Island Nets, NBA G League ffiliate of the Brooklyn Nets.

Jovia and the LI Nets recently hosted a school supply drive at Milton Olive Elementary School in Wyandanch and California Ave. Elementary School in Uniondale to provide underserved students on Long Island with new backpacks and other essential school supplies.

Jovia Credit Union had set up donation boxes at their branches in Commack, Franklin Square, Hempstead, Huntington Station, Levittown, Valley Stream and Westbury, where they accepted school supply donations.

As part of the partnership, the LI Nets and Jovia Credit Union will also team up to host financial literacy seminars for middle school students on Long Island this school year.

Additionally, Jovia will become the supporting sponsor of the LI Nets’ awardwinning Team Up For Unity program that is dedicated to eliminating racism in high school sports on Long Island and educating youth and school faculty on how to recognize and address these situations.

Jovia will also support the LI Nets’

Education Day Game on March 7, 2023 and throughout this season will work with the team to incorporate STEM education and learning into the fan experience during LI Nets home games at Nassau Coliseum.

“Jovia recognizes the importance of bringing sports and education together and is committed to developing the strengths of our youth,” said Chaka Adams, vice president of marketing and community relations, Jovia Financial Credit Union. “The Long Island Nets are an organization that brings a commitment to financial literacy in the love for sports and education. Together, we will look to enrich the lives of children across Long Island and strive to make a difference by providing them with a series of financial educational programs and prepare them for their future.”

“We are honored to team up with Jovia Financial Credit Union to bring impactful programming to students and schools on Long Island,” said Alton Byrd, senior vice president of growth properties at BSE Global, parent company of the Long Island Nets. “This partnership is a perfect example of how we can give back to our growing community by elevating the importance of education in order to empower the next generation of leaders in our own backyard.”

Why I am voting for George Santos

Zimmerman prefers to persecute anyone in the vicinity of the Jan. 6 Capital riot and has never answered why so many Americans are being held incommunicado in solitary confinement without being charged with any crime and without access to any legal support or visitation of their families. Zimmerman had the unbelievable audacity to send out a mailing piece talking about the five police officers “killed.” He is doing nothing more than parroting the phony statements of the fake news news outlets. The truth is that there was one person killed, Ashli Bobbitt, an unarmed Air Force veteran shot point blank in the face. Amazingly the policeman who shot her wasn’t charged with any crime.(See Editor’s Note below)

Their differences in national policy Issues are quite large. Santos believes in secure borders while Zimmerman is in favor of open borders with over 2,000,000 individuals crossing this year so far. Crime is out of control all across the country and drug overdoses are at an all time high with over 100,000 deaths so far in 2022. Santos is for energy independence while Zimmerman is all in on the “green new deal”. He believes that windmills and solar are the way to go even if the technology is not there yet. Instead of drilling in the United States let’s import oil from Iran, Russia and Venezuela. Gas prices at the pump today are over 70% higher than under President Trump. Home electric, gas and oil are also up dramatically.

Santos is for fiscal responsibility while Zimmerman like President Biden wants to keep adding on more and more debt. The result is the highest inflation in over 40 years and a current recession. Bidenflation today is over 8% which is almost six times that under Trump. The middle class is suffering more every day under this incompetent administration. Interest rates have jumped to their highest levels in 15 years, with mortgage rates double what they were under President Trump. A whole generation of home buyers is seeing their dream being taken away. The stock market indices have now gone into bear market territory.

If you want to stop the radical far left socialist agenda of the Biden-Harris administration and the corrupt team of Schumer-Pelosi running Congress, then it is incumbent to vote for Santos.

Jack Lipsky Great Neck

Editor’s Note: Blank Slate Media provides a community forum for readers to express their views on the Letters and Opinion pages. In the Readers Write segment, there are occasional submissions that distort the truth and we believe it is up to us to flag these contributions as Misinformation while still allowing them to run. We want our readers to see the full range of positions Nassau residents take on issues both small and large.

Gillen, D’Esposito clash on gun-safety legislation

the past years instituting cashless bail has created and caused havoc amongst our streets,” he said. “We may say that this is a New York City issue. It’s not a New York City issue. It is an American issue.”

Gillen also said she has spoken out against the cashless bail laws and that she is also in favor of funding the police and aiding them in their pursuit of combatting rising crime rates. She referred back to gun safety and mental health legislation as ways she would help fight crime in office if elected.

“We can’t talk about crime without talking about guns and without talking about mental health,” Gillen said. “I support the Mental Health Matters Act, which is a really important bill that was put forward in the House and voted against by almost every single Republican.”

While D’Esposito, who is also running on the Conservative line, said he would not support a nationwide ban on abortions, Gillen said his party affiliation is “against all abortions.” The issue is a personal one for Gillen, she said, after

she was heckled by “anti-choice activists” when she decided to get an abortion to prevent further harm to her body.

Both candidates also said they would support marriage equality, saying people should be able to marry whomever they love and want to spend their life with. The two also agreed that President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election in 2020.

D’Esposito did blame the president for increased living costs including gas and groceries, saying inflation is not happening on just a state level. Biden’s leadership, or lack thereof, he said, has made America appear as a “weak nation” to other world partners.

“We need to focus on energy independence and making sure that we can produce as much as we can here in the United States of America,” he said. “We need to focus less on bringing goods and services in from other countries, especially China, and we need to work in a bipartisan fashion to make those changes.”

Gillen attributed the recent inflation to some external factors, such as the war in Ukraine and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting

WE CAN’T TALK ABOUT CRIME WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT GUNS AND WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH. I SUPPORT THE MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS ACT, WHICH IS A REALLY IMPORTANT BILL THAT WAS PUT FORWARD IN THE HOUSE AND VOTED AGAINST BY ALMOST EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN.

Laura Gillen FORMER TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD SUPERVISOR

Countries adjusting prices along with, possibly, poor administrative policies.

Ways to combat it include repealing the State and Local Tax cap, which D’Esposito is also a supporter of, and extending the county’s gas tax holiday.

“We can take aim at price gouging and I will always stand against any lobby or any company that’s going to price gouge in a way that will hurt the residents of the Fourth Congressional District,” Gillen said.

Gillen touted her commitment to getting assault weapons off the streets and to supporting a woman’s right to choose while D’Esposito asked the public to determine whether or not they were better off today than when Biden took office.

The two are running to replace U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), who announced earlier this year she will not be running for reelection.

The 4th Congressional District, under newly-approved maps, includes the communities of Baldwin, Bellmore, East Rockaway, East Meadow, the Five Towns, Lynbrook, Floral Park, Franklin Square, Garden City, Garden City Park, Hempstead, Atlantic Beach, Long Beach, Malverne, Freeport, Merrick, Mineola, Carle Place, New Hyde Park, Oceanside, Rockville Centre, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Wantagh, West Hempstead, Westbury and parts of Valley Stream.

Ra says he wants to give judges more discretion Mineola, GOP on board sue over redistricting

“It remained very much in the eyes of the person evaluating the application, which they told us we couldn’t do,” Ra said. “There were good ideas in there, I have no problem with requiring training and certain locations being offlimits for carrying but some of that went too far.”

Ra was also critical of Hochul in the lead-up to the legislation because of how little time the public and legislators had to take a look at the concealed-carry billand evaluate issues.

On the Reproductive Health Act, Ra said he did not support it and that it did far more than codify Roe v. Wade.

In New York, an abortion can be given up to and including 24 weeks of pregnancy. After 24 weeks, an abortion can still be performed if the pregnancy or health of the mother is at risk.

“It moved the 20 weeks to 24 weeks in New York state and eliminated a whole host of protections,” Ra said. “It made wide-ranging exceptions in terms of the health of the mother without any definition of it and that has by the courts in the past been interpreted very broadly.”

Ra went on to say the act eliminated any mention of the unborn in the New York state penal law, specifying that before the Reproductive Health Act if someone were to attack a pregnant woman and cause the death of an unborn child, they can be charged with homicide of that unborn child.

“I think that having a better definition of the

health of the mother would be a positive thing,” Ra said. “I’m not saying we should come out with a list but I think having some parameters for it might be helpful to individuals.”

Since 2010 Ra, a Mineola native, has served as the representative for District 19.

In the Assembly, Ra is the ranking minority member of the Ways and Means Committee. Before being elected, Ra served as deputy town attorney for the Town of Hempstead and as a legal aide in the Office of the New York State attorney general.

The assemblyman says that during his time in office he has been very active in communities hearing his constituent’s concerns.

“My priorities will continue to be working on affordability, continuing to work on transparency and ethics in state government and certainly dealing with crime,” Ra said. “There has been a whole host of issues that I think have swung the pendulum too far in one direction. I think we can work to make a fairer criminal justice system without jeopardizing public safety. I’ve had the tremendous privilege of moving up through the ranks in the Legislature, serving now as the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee and developing relationships across the Island in both houses and I think I’m the best person to continue to represent this district in January”

Blank Slate Media’s interview with Ed Ra can be found on YouTube.

sentative while curtailing the term of another — all as a naked partisan power grab that seeks to reverse the will of the people and reverse the effect of an election that already took place,” the complaint said.

Town spokesperson Gordon Tepper said they have not yet received the complaint and that all six council members have four-year terms that are not being extended or shortened

based on the new maps.

During public comment in June when the maps were voted on, McHugh said the decision to number districts one to six was made to stagger election terms between Districts 2, 4 and 6 and Districts, 1 3 and 5

He said in 2003 everyone on the Town Board ran for the first election of the first set of districts and has remained since.

PHOTO BY BRANDON DUFFY

Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira speaks against the town’s redistricting proposals in June.

Continued

Continued

Continued from Page 3

Covert Ave. street fair returns after 2 years

sponded to reports of a building fire at the Park Place Bar and Grill at 41 Covert Ave.

When they arrived at the scene, officers saw fire and smoke pouring from the building in a blaze that spread to at least 11 other adjacent storefronts, according to a news release from the Nassau Police Department.

Firefighters from the Floral Park Fire Department along with the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department, Great Neck Vigilant Fire Company, the New Hyde Park Fire Department and almost 20 others were represented at the scene throughout the day.

Nassau County Assistant Chief Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro said at the time it took firefighters more than four hours to control the fire.

Six businesses sustained major damage or were destroyed, while four others were damaged by smoke, Uttaro said. A private residence also had smoke damage, officials said.

Neighboring stores to Park Place affected by the fire included Villager’s Perk, Shin’s Tae Kwon Do, Luna Eyelash, Capo Ristorante, Covert Nail & Spa, Covert Barber Shop, Original V.I. Pizza, Covert Optical and K. Hunter Boutique.

Last weekend at the corner of Covert and Cisney Avenue, a tasty tailgate was set up with an assortment of

TICKETING

cuisines including Mama’s Cuban Kitchen, Extreme Empanadas, The Cone Depot with different food varieties served in waffle cones, B Bistro serving Vietnamese cuisine, Smoke ‘n Wheelz with barbeque, Frankie’s Famous Zeppoles, Zef’s Pizza Firetruck and Knot of This World Pretzels, among others.

Pellegrini’s was also serving sausage and peppers and burgers outside their storefront to an always long line of hungry patrons.

Next to the tailgate there was music from the band In the Mix performing the Barry White Experience featuring Ejyp Johnson, a demonstration from the Floral Park Memorial High School kickline and solo artists from Breakout Performances singing different covers from Disney, Broadway and the Rat Pack.

At the other end of the fair near the intersection of Covert and Tulip Avenue, children could not get enough of the six bouncy castles or rock climbing wall.

Children were treated to an inflatable obstacle course race and the new addition of Toxic Meltdown, which requires players to stand on a small platform as they duck and jump over the rotating foam arms.

For everything in between, there were over 80 community groups and vendors offering items ranging from exotic beef jerky to vintage T-shirts.

the island 360

TICKETING

Ra leads Jindal in fundraising period

the island 360

For expenditures, Ra had more with $23,489.79 compared to Jindal’s $24,395.55 for the period.

TICKETING

In the Assembly, Ra is the ranking minority member of the Ways and Means Committee. Before being elected, Ra served as deputy town attorney for the Town of Hempstead and as a legal aide in the Office of the New York State attorney general.

the island 360

Jindal also received a loan earlier in the year for the race of $5,001.

Jindal, of Williston Park, is a businessman and founded the nonprofit organization South Asians For Empowerment.

EVENTS ARE BACK!

Comparing the total raised divided by the number of contributors, the average Ra donor donated $448 whereas the average Jindal donation was $991.

Only Ra had fund-raising from both political action committees and political committees. Ra raised $6,550 from 11 different PACs and $250 from one political committee.

At the beginning of the period, Ra had an opening balance of $28,286.44 and secured $26,900 in contributions while spending $23,489.79, leaving him with $31,687.65 at the end of the period.

Jindal opened the period with $14,356.66 and secured $22,801 in fund-raising while spending $17,763.11, leaving him with $24,395.55 at the end of the period.

EVENTS ARE BACK!

Submit Your Events TODAY with our simple add event form then let us create you a ticketed page automatically from the event submission workfow. #Exciting

The 19th Assembly District includes parts of Franklin Square, West Hempstead, Garden City, New Hyde Park, Mineola, Williston Park, Westbury, Old Westbury and part of Oyster Bay, among others.

Promote all your events via our network of 5000+ events calendars, listing sites, email and print services.

Submit Your Events TODAY with our simple add event form then let us create you a ticketed page automatically from the event submission workfow. #Exciting

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AT

PHOTO BY BRANDON DUFFY

Children play on Toxic Meltdown during Saturday’s Covert Avenue Street Fair.

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HELP WANTED

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INVITED ESTATE SALES BY TRACY

JORDAN is doing VIRTUAL TAG SALES and ONLINE AUCTIONS now! Sell the contents of an entire house or sell just a few things! You can host your own sale on invitedsales.com and Facebook and Instagram or we can do it for you. We can photograph, advertise and handle the winning pickups for you within a week!

can get your house ready on time! We are a one stop service for all your needs when you are moving or selling a property! Selling, donating, discarding and cleaning out services can be done to meet your time frame with minimal stress. Contact info@invitedsales.com for more information or call 516-279-6378 to schedule a consultation or receive more information. Visit us at www.invitedsales. com for a listing of our upcoming Virtual Tag Sales and Weekly Auctions!

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TAG SALE

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Kaplan calls Martins’ party affiliation ‘extremist’

“Dealing with mental health is something that’s very important to all of us, especially our children,” Kaplan said. “We want to make sure that we do everything in our power to give them the tools and the re sources for them not only to succeed but to thrive.”

Martins acknowledged the hard ships the coronavirus pandemic had on all individuals, but referred back to giving parents discretion over what is best for their children.

Finding consistency with policies so that New York is prepared for any thing like the pandemic to happen again, is imperative to combat men tal health issues.

“We can’t allow our schools and our institutions to take the place of our families,” Martins said. “Let’s keep families and parents involved.”

Martins called his 2011 vote

against marriage equality in New York “a mistake,” saying that he was in favor of civil unions. He described marriage equality as a “fundamental human right” on Thursday.

“When two people love each other and want to come together as a family unit, they have the ability to do that,” he said.

Kaplan expressed her strong support for same-sex marriages and criticized Martins for “doubling down” on his prior vote. The Dobbs decision, she said, could have ripple efects that impact marriage equality throughout the nation.

“At a time like this, we can’t trust an anti-choice and anti-marriage equality representative anywhere close to Albany,” Kaplan said. “We need a proven leader like me that will fght for your rights.”

Kaplan said she supports a ban on outside income for elected of

cials and that she has pending legis lation on the matter she will try to move forward on next year. Constitu ents deserve an elected ofcial that is fully dedicated to delivering the best results for their districts.

“In order to do this job well, you have to be out with your constituents on weekends on weeknights, or dur ing the day,” she said. “This is not only a full-time job, it takes much longer and I believe we owe it to our residents to do the best job possible.”

Martins, a local attorney, said he would continue to work at his prac tice if elected, and that his other pro fession did not previously interfere with representing the 7th Senate Dis trict. If the state were to implement a ban on outside employment, Martins said, he would have to decide what makes sense for him and his family.

“I am very much aware of the conficts and pitfalls that come up,

frankly, for those who do have out side employment and those who don’t have outside employment,” Martins said. “So as of right now, I will continue to practice law.”

Martins previously served as Mineola’s mayor from 2003-2010. In 2008, he ran an unsuccessful con gressional campaign against former U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy before defeating incumbent 7th District Senator and Democrat Craig Johnson in 2010.

After another failed attempt to get into Congress in 2016, losing to U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), Martins shifted his focus to becoming Nassau County’s new county execu tive, following former County Execu tive Edward Mangano being indicted on federal corruption charges.

Martins ultimately lost that race to Democrat Laura Curran, who served as county executive before

being defeated by Republican Bruce Blakeman this past fall.

Kaplan was elected to serve the Town of North Hempstead’s 4th Dis trict as a councilwoman in 2011. In 2016, she sought election to the House of Representatives but lost to Suozzi in the Democratic primary.

She has served in the Senate since 2019 when she defeated Re publican incumbent Elaine Philips. Kaplan also won re-election in 2020 against former Port Washington Po lice Commissioner Dave Franklin.

The district includes Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Williston Park, Min eola, Garden City Park, North Hills, Albertson, Old Westbury, East Hills, Roslyn, Roslyn Harbor, Roslyn Es tates, Albertson, Searingtown, Lake Success, Manhasset, Munsey Park, Plandome, Plandome Heights, Pland ome Manor, and the Great Neck and Port Washington peninsulas.

Longtime journalists, friends tackle ageism

Envision Productions Inc., and has produced and written medical and public afairs programs for PBS and other cable networks.

The two met in 1988 at the cable news station of the New York Insti tute of Technology: Long Island News Tonight. Paskof joined the gradu ate school broadcast program and

worked with Pack until 1991 when she got her master’s degree in com munication arts.

“Barbara was a returning student going back for a master’s degree,” Pack said about their friendship. “So we were closer in age and we just had a lot in common. I think it’s amazing that we waited, I don’t know, 20 or 30 years to actually write a book to

gether.”

In 2019, there were 54.1 million Americans age 65 and up, according to the Administration for Community Living. The duo wants to increase awareness of this group, ageism and how it afects them.

“We happen to represent the very rich demographic for people who are over 60,” said Paskof. “It’s a shame

as far as ageism goes that they are not revered more here like they are in other countries.”

To Paskof and Pack, “Book of Lists” illustrates that age is only a number. The two authors handled the writing, publication, computer work and public relations for all of their books. They both described it as more than a second career, but as a second

chance at life.

“The bottom line here is you’re never too old to reinvent yourself,” said Paskof. “And the more you do it, the more active you stay, the bet ter it is for you because it keeps you engaged.”

“Book of Lists” comes out Oct. 25. One can fnd it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and SmashWords.

Sillitti, Jha tout mutual respect despite differences

Sillitti said she believes the right to vote is under attack from extrem ists, citing the insurrection on Jan. 6 as an example of many people who did not believe in a free and fair elec tion.

“I believe voting in New York should be easier, not harder,” she said.

“I believe that people should be able to go to the voting booth without fear of being attacked or vilifed or intimi dated. Misinformation is feeding the extremism.”

Sillitti has served as the repre sentative for District 16 since Jan. 1, 2021, after defeating Ragini Srivas tava in 2020. Her current term is up

on Jan. 1, 2023.

She is running on the Democrat ic Party and Working Families Party lines. Her previous positions in the Town of North Hempstead include deputy commissioner of the Depart ment of Community Services, deputy chief of staf and director of legislative afairs.

Jha is representing the Republican and Conservative parties. A specialist in business turnaround and a former banker, he hopes to fip District 16 next month.

According to the New York State Board of Elections, between July 19 and Oct. 3, Sillitti raised $40,986 while Jha raised $34,035. Contribu

tors’ names, the amounts and the types of contributors were among the information that was made available.

Assembly District 16 comprises Great Neck, Manhasset, Port Washing ton, Herricks, Mineola, Baxter Estates, parts of East Williston, Old Westbury, Roslyn Estates, Roslyn, Albertson, Wil liston Park and New Hyde Park.

Martins raises $20K more than Kaplan

In 2016, she sought election to the House of Representatives but lost to current Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) in the Democratic primary. Kaplan defeated former Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Phillips in 2018 to represent the 7th Senate District.

Martins, an Old Westbury resi dent who represented the 7th Dis trict from 2011 to 2016, announced his campaign in late March.

He also served as the Village of Mineola’s mayor from 2003-2010. In 2008, Martins ran an unsuccess ful congressional campaign against former U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCar

thy before defeating incumbent 7th District Senator and Democrat Craig Johnson in 2010.

After another failed attempt to get into Congress in 2016 when he lost to Suozzi, Martins shifted his focus to becoming Nassau County’s new county executive after former County Executive Edward Mangano

was indicted on federal corruption charges.

Martins ultimately lost that race to Democrat Laura Curran, who served as county executive be fore being defeated by Republican Bruce Blakeman this past fall.

The 7th Senate district includes Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Wil

liston Park, Mineola, Garden City Park, North Hills, Albertson, Old Westbury, East Hills, Roslyn, Ros lyn Harbor, Roslyn Estates, Albert son, Searingtown, Lake Success, Manhasset, Munsey Park, Pland ome, Plandome Heights, Plandome Manor, and the Great Neck and Port Washington peninsulas.

Town reserves over excess: Scalero

lage Fund.

In the town’s $89,098,154 general fund for the original budget, $40.5 million was allocated to the outside village fund, which covers services for residents who live outside incorporated villages, and $28.8 million for the 20 town-operated special districts, which set their own budget.

The Town Outside Village Fund Tax Levy was previously increased from $27,970,865 to $28,874,137 in the original budget, a 3.22% increase that would increase taxes on the household by $28.88 according to town officials.

The seven-member Town Board was scheduled to conduct one more public work session at town hall on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m.

The Town Board is permitted to make changes and amendments during this period, if necessary, and will have a public hearing on Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. when the tentative budget will become a preliminary budget.

A final special meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 3, when the board will vote to adopt the budget. North Hempstead’s Town Board has routinely adopted the town budget before Election Day., which this year is Nov. 8.

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Sewanhaka High homecoming

Sewanhaka High School stu dents, staf and community were all smiles as they gathered for the homecoming celebration on Oct. 8.

The festivities began with a parade throughout the neighbor hood, featuring decorated foats, the marching band, school clubs, cheerleaders and more. This year’s homecoming royalty, Sofa JeanFrancois and Steiger Devil, waved to the crowd from their parade car.

Sewanhaka High valedictorian

Sewanhaka High School has named Carl Montoya and Sean Andrade as the valedictorian and salutatorian, respec tively, of the Class of 2023.

Montoya’s academic success is made clear through his in ductions into the National English, National Technical, National World Language and National honor societies, as well as the National Society of High School Scholars. He received a perfect score from College Board on his AP research paper: “An Analy sis on Mobile Games: Efects of Microtransactions on Gamer Overspending.” Through his enrollment in the district’s preengineering program, Montoya participated in NASA’s TechRise Challenge. Along with his teammates, he created an instrumen tation package aimed to measure carbon dioxide, ozone, vola tile organic compounds and air particulates in the atmosphere with the goal of improving air quality technologies. He serves as president of both the Sewanhaka Green Club and Chess Club. Outside of school, he is senior patrol leader of Outpost 8 Royal Rangers and a member of his church’s Youth Council.

district’s jazz band. He, along with his peers on the Robotics Team, earned an Inspire Award during the FIRST Tech Chal lenge robotics competition. Additionally, he is a member of the Nassau County Interscholastic Mathematics League. Aside from his school responsibilities, Andrade is a church lector and tutors his peers in math and science.

Sewanhaka High School hosted its homecoming celebration on Oct. 8.

Following the parade, the In dians hosted Calhoun High School Colts. While the Indians played hard, they unfortunately lost with a score of 26-7. During halftime, the crowd enjoyed performances by the marching band, cheerleaders, Rock ettes and Twirlers.

As a member of the National Honor Society and the Na tional World Language Honor Society, as well as having High Honor Roll recognition, Andrade excels in his classes at Sewan haka. He has also achieved High Honors recognition from the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Andrade is enrolled in the district’s pre-engineering program and is active in extracur riculars, serving as a member of the Robotics Team, the Class of 2023 Board, the Superintendent’s Advisory Council and the

Sewanhaka High School valedictorian Carly Mon toya (left) and salutatorian Sean Andrade (right) of the Class of 2023.

L. Success-based doctors in trial to slow Alzheimers

Dr. David Podwall and Dr. Michael Han of Lake Success-based Neurologi cal Associates of Long Island, are par ticipating in a trial of a drug that could slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Neurological Associates of Long Is land is one of 90 sites across the world participating in the Alzheimer’s Evoke Study, a 24-month trial of a new drug called Semaglutide that could help pre vent the progression of cognition and functional loss in patients with early

Alzheimer’s disease.

The practice, which treats thou sands of Alzheimer’s patients from across Long Island, aims to have 30 par ticipants enrolled in the national study of about 800 patients by the time en rollment closes, said Dr. David Podwall, a physician at Neurological Associates.

“Participating in clinical trials al lows patients to be proactive in the management of their own problem, but it also allows them to help the larger community because there is a desper

ate need for new medications,” Podwall said.

The study has been underway for about a year and a half is open to people who are at least 55 years old, and have been diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment. This is a double-blinded study and par ticipants are given Semaglutide to take their existing medications while the others are given a placebo.

Alzheimer’s is a rapidly growing public health concern causing a sig

nifcant global socioeconomic impact. Worldwide, around 50 million people are currently living with dementia with a projected increase to approximately 152 million people by the year 2050.

There is a lack of efective treatment for a disease that afects more than fve million people in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer’s Association, a national research and advocacy nonproft.

If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Semaglutide could of fer a new, more efective way of treating

the disease, Podwall said. Semaglutide is a once-daily selective glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA).

One distinct advantage this trial has over other Alzheimer’s trials is this is not an infusion, but a once-a-day oral medi cation, Dr. Han mentioned. Addition ally, this class of medication is already FDA-approved for other conditions.

Anyone interested in participating in the Evoke Clinical trial can call Neu rological Associates at 516-466-4700, ext. 140, to see if they qualify.

Upcoming events at the Hillside Library

Your Home’s Insulation – All Purpose Room and Virtual

Saturday, October 22, 11:30 a.m. –1 p.m. Get ready for the cold weather! Learn about diferent types of insulation and proper installation techniques; how vapor barriers work; strategic attic insu lation and ventilation and more! Bring your questions! A teacher, licensed home inspector, and business owner with over twenty years in the commercial construc tion industry, Brian Schnee educates ho meowners to keep repair costs down. His classes ofer students the know-how and confdence to make certain repairs on their own, and ensure they can hire the right professional when one is needed.

Armchair Historians Book club –Conference Room and Virtual Wednesday, October 26 at 6:30 p.m. The book being discussed is: Who Killed Jane Stanford?: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University by Richard White

“A brilliant historian turns detective to unravel a Gilded Age crime and coverup that recasts the origin story of one of the world’s preeminent universities.

Using an Android Mobile Device –All Purpose Room, 2nd Floor, Wednes day, October 26 at 6:30 p.m. Learn basic information about mobile devices with more specifc information about using an

Android phone.

Smarter Social Security – All Pur pose Room, 2nd Floor, Thursday, Octo ber 27 at 6:30 p.m. Smarter Social Se curity: Strategies to Optimize Spousal & Survivor Benefts. This class will provide a broad overview of the Social Security retirement program while examining in detail spousal benefts and ways to op timize them. *Daniel G. Mazzola, CFA, CPA is an investment advisor specializing in individuals transitioning to retirement.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: Sleep Better and Wake Refreshed – Vir tual, Thursday, October 27 at 6:30 p.m. Through this program, Northwell Health Dr. Penny Stern explains and answers our questions on “how to get a good night’s sleep”. Attendees will explore the world of sleep — our beliefs, our habits, and the roots of sleep disorders — and learn how to overcome the nightly strug gle to achieve a good night’s sleep. *This program is brought to you courtesy of Nassau Libraries Health Share.

In-Person: Efective Communication Strategies Friday, October 28 at 12 noon. Communication is more than just talking and listening – it’s also about sending and receiving messages through attitude, tone of voice, facial expressions and body language. This program provides practi cal information and resources to help

dementia care partners learn to decode verbal and behavioral messages from people living with dementia. Presented by the Alzheimer’s Association, Long Is land Chapter. This program is brought to you courtesy of Nassau Libraries Health Share.

Ghost Ships with the Whaling Mu seum – Virtual Friday, October 28 at 7 p.m. Explore the stories behind history’s spookiest ghost ships, or abandoned ves sels found at sea with mysterious crews that seemingly vanished. Find out about the Flying Dutchman and the Mary Ce leste, including tales of ghosts aboard real-life whaleships that exist today, like the Charles W. Morgan!

Intro to Microsoft Word – All Pur pose Room, 2nd Floor, Saturday, October 29 at 11 a.m. Learn how to create, for mat, and save a document in Microsoft Word.

Long Island’s Most Haunted Man sions – All Purpose Room, 2nd Floor Sat urday, October 29 at 12:30 p.m. Spend a delightfully spooky afternoon with well-known Long Island author and his torian Monica Randall! Be intrigued by amazing stories of Long Island’s intrigu ing manor houses and their labyrinths of secret passages, hidden chambers, deserted tunnels and mysterious events. From romance to murder to ghosts.

CHILDREN and YOUNG ADULT EVENTS

Play Hooray (Outside- Parking Lot) Friday, October 21 at 10:30 am. Ages: 18 months & Up (with parent/caregiver). Stories, music, and movement activities with Mollie the Mouse.

Stemtastic Magical Potions – All-Pur pose Room, Monday, October 24 at 5:30 p.m. Ages: 7 years- 11 years. Potions! Call ing all Wizards! Participants will design a magic wand, and then use some creative chemistry to create a color-changing po tion, a fzzy elixir and a bubbling brew!

Kahoot Trivia Trick or Treat – Vir tual, Monday, October 24 at 7 a.m. All Ages — Family Fun! Join us for a night or Treat-or-Treat Kahoot Trivia! A prize will be awarded to the night’s trivia contest winner.

Time for Kids: Pumpkin! – All-Pur pose Room, Tuesday, October 25 at 4:30 p.m. Ages: 3 years- 7 years (with parent/ caregiver). Come join A Time for Kids, Inc. as we explore Pumpkins in this family fun preschool program. Activities include music, movement, fne & gross motor development and storytelling! There will also be a Pumpkin craft!

Spooky Stories to Tickle & Tingle Your Spine! – Children’s Room, Wednes day, October 26 at 5:30 p.m. Ages: 5 years- 10 years (with parent/caregiver).

Multi-talented storyteller and puppeteer, Lu Ann Adams returns and will share a collection of not-too-scary world folk that celebrates tricksters & those who outwit them! Lots of audience participation.

Virtual Tea Tasting: Flavors of Fall, Wednesday, October 26 at 7 p.m. Ages: Teen – Adult. Join our librarian Ms. Am badjes in discovering the favors of fall through tea! Pick up your teas from the library the week of the program, and taste as you watch and learn in our vir tual session. *Please only register & pick up tea if you plan on attending the virtual event. Teas are only for those who wish to attend on October 26th. Thank you.

Halloween Paint Workshop – AllPurpose Room, Thursday, October 27 at 5 p.m. Grades: 1-3. Participants will make a cute Halloween painting on canvas a double Halloween painting workshop loading brush technique! Material Fee: $3

Holiday Ceramics – All-Purpose Room, Friday, October 28 at 4 p.m. Grades: 1-4. Paint a Halloween ceramic fgure to celebrate the upcoming holiday! Material Fee: $3

Ceramics (Grades 5 — 12) – All-Pur pose Room, Friday, October 28 at 5:30 p.m. Grades 5 – 12. Paint a Halloween ceramic fgure to celebrate the upcoming holiday! $3 Materials Fee

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

Sports

G.N. South tennis freshman Lee surprises

BY MICHAEL J. LEWIS

Madison Lee was good enough to play on the Great Neck South girls varsity tennis team last year, as an 8th grader.

But after spending a few days with the varsity, she decided she wasn’t quite ready, and wanted to stay on her middle school team.

Turns out to have been a great decision, because she sure has shown she’s ready now. The freshman has dominated the competition at No.1 singles this fall, going 11-2 in singles and helping the Rebels reach the playoffs.

Lee, a 14-year-old, has lost only to Garden City’s Nina Wiese twice in helping lead Great Neck South.

“I went into the season a little nervous, worrying a little about my results,” Lee said. “But the whole team is super supportive, and my other teammates are really good, and it’s made it a lot easier to play. It’s been going way better than I had planned.”

“She’s the best player we’ve had in my six years as coach here, and we’ve had some good players,” said Great Neck South coach Andrew Tuomey. “I knew from last year that she was really good, and then this year when she came out I wasn’t sure how she would handle playing against seniors. But she’s handled herself really well and the team has accepted her totally.”

This past weekend at the Nassau County championships, Lee and her partner, senior Kira Diaz, made a fantastic run to the finals in doubles, finally losing only to the defending state champions from Schreiber High School, Dasha Perfiliev and Ellie Ross, 6-2, 6-3 Sunday.

Lee said she first began playing tennis when she was 8, not taking the sport too seriously at first but gradually finding she loved the competition and the exercise.

She’s been training at Sportime Roslyn under coach Jay Harris for the past four years, and Lee has been competing in USTA tour-

naments (she’s currently ranked No. 47 in the 14 and under USTA Eastern rankings).

“I started playing tournaments right before COVID, and we really didn’t know anything about how they worked,” she said with a laugh. “And then when things started again after Covid, I started to get the hang of it and traveling more and doing a little better.”

Tuomey said Lee’s greatest strength as a player is her ability to re-set points when she’s in a defensive position, staying alive until she can control the point again.

“She’s great at lobs and has a really high tennis IQ,” Tuomey said. “She’s a cerebral, smart kid, and she’s got great footwork, and she’s really smooth. She glides around the court and manages to work herself back into the point no matter the situation.”

For Lee, a big part of her maturity this year, she said, is learning to let wins and losses go as soon as the match is over.

“I used to stress about match results, and really get upset about

losing,” she said. ” But I’ve learned that once the match is done, there’s nothing you can do, let’s move on to the next match and try to get better.”As well as Lee has played this year and adjusted, there’s one thing she still struggles with.

“I just normally don’t like when lots of people watch me play,” she said, “but I’m getting used to it. “And being a part of a team with so many people cheering for you really helps.”

Lee and her doubles partner, senior Kira Diaz, competed in the Nassau County championships on Oct. 15-16.

With so much high school tennis in front of her, Lee said she dreams of playing college tennis one day, and maybe even turning pro, like her idol, Canadian star Leylah Fernandez.

“I’m hoping to keep playing high school tennis and tournaments and keep improving, and then we’ll see what happens,” Lee said. “Right now I’m having a lot of fun just playing and competing.”

Mineola’s Sargeant closes in on record

BY MICHAEL J. LEWIS

The alarm in his bedroom goes off, and Jack Sargeant is already thinking about what will happen 10 hours from now.

He gets dressed, eats breakfast, walks thru the doors of Mineola High School around 7:25 a.m. and is already looking at the time, wondering if it will just move already, and get him closer to what he’s been looking forward to doing since the night before: play “the beautiful game” of soccer.

Friends, classes, lunch yeah, all that’s fine and good, but it’s all just a distraction until the bells ring and he can get in uniform for the Mustangs, ready to conquer all before him.

“I can’t even describe it, really, what game day feels like,” Sargeant said. “You’re in school, you’re seeing friends and other kids who don’t even know soccer but they’re excited to come watch, and it gets you pumped up. I have a hard time, honestly, thinking about anything else on game days.”

While that’s probably not music to the ears of Sargeant’s teachers, his mentality has served the Mustangs exceedingly well the last three years as

he’s excelled as a varsity starter.

Sargeant delivered 10 goals and assisted on six others in 2021, and this season he’s been an unstoppable force. Through games of Oct. 6, the senior midfielder has poured in 14 goals and five assists, among the leaders in all of Nassau County.

With a few games left in the regular season, Sargeant had a good chance to break the Mineola High School record of 19 goals by a player in a season.

“This year Jack knows the team goes as he goes, and he’s accepted that role and really flourished,” said Mineola head coach Al Cavalluzzo. “His vision, how he anticipates is just phenomenal. He’s always two or three steps ahead of everyone he’s playing with, and playing against.”

That vision is part instinctual, but also the result of thousands of hours of practice with kids Sargeant has grown up with.

Take teammate Sebastian Knight,

a Mustangs junior. Sargeant said that he and Knight have played together so much that just by watching Knight when he gets the ball, he knows what to do.

“I know he’s looking to go forward and set me up and get an assist, so when he get the ball, he goes straight toward the goal,” Sargeant explained. “I look to when he’s picking his head up when he’s dribbling. As soon as he picks his head up, I make that run and prepare for the ball because that’s the moment he’s going to send it to me.”

Sargeant’s goals this season have come from everywhere, he said. He’s converted penalty kicks, he’s scored from inside the box, on some long shots and some rebounds inches from the goalie.

“He’s just very good at making something happen in small spaces,” Cavalluzzo said. “You give him a small space, he’s going to cut through and score. He knows how to maximize what the defense is giving him, and he’s great at making his teammates better.”

Soccer has been Sargeant’s passion since he was born, he said with a laugh. his father Russell instilled the love of the game in him, and by

age 5 Jack said he was being told by coaches that he has a bright future in the game.

As he grew and played club soccer (he now plays for East Meadow Soccer Club) his skills improved as he studied the game. Sargeant and his Dad are huge Liverpool fans, even going to England to watch some of their favorite team’s Premier League games.

His playmaking ability is what excites Sargeant the most (“I love seeing my teammates faces after they score a goal, so I love passing the most,” he said), but trying to bring Mineola a county or state title is what his goal truly is. That, and becoming an FBI agent when he gets older.

Division I colleges have been recruiting him, but no decision is imminent.

“Getting the (scoring record) would be nice, but I’m more interested in getting us a county championship that’s much more important,” he said, after the Mustangs had clinched a playoff berth. “I think we have the team that can do it, and I’m excited to try to live up to all the great teams we’ve had here in the past.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF MINEOLA HIGH SCHOOL

PHOTO COURTESY OF MADISON LEE

Great Neck South freshman tennis player Madison Lee.

Great Neck School District happenings

NYSPHSAA School of Excellence

South High School has been honored by the New York State Public High School Athletic Asso ciation (NYSPHSAA)as a recipient of the 2021–22 School of Excellence award. South High is one of 148 schools across the State to receive this honor, which requires that 75% of a school’s varsity teams qualify for the Scholar-Athlete team award.

During the 2021–22 school year, a total of 26 South High teams achieved NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete recognition for maintaining an aver age team GPA of 90.00 or above. Don Herr, South High athletic director, was presented with the School of Ex cellence plaque during a NYSPHSAA meeting in September.

Additional student selected for All-State Yonathan Eilon, a senior at South High School, originally selected as a New York State School Music As sociation (NYSSMA) All-State Mu sic Conference Alternate, has been placed into the All-State Mixed Cho rus as a bass vocalist.

Yonathan will join Great Neck’s previously announced musicians se lected for All-State: Kanheng (Mar tin) Lin, Nancy Schoen, and Joy Song from South High; and Samuel Fried mann, Julia Huang, Owen Roubeni, Shuyuan (Julie) Sun, and Maverick Williams from North High.

Calendar notices for November 2022 Friday, Nov. 4

South High School Music Night, 7:30 p.m., 341 Lakeville Rd. Info: 441-4873

Wednesday, Nov. 16

Board of Education Public Ac tion Meeting, 7:30 p.m., E.M. Baker School, 69 Baker Hill Rd. Info: 4414001 or www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/ meetings

Thursday, Nov. 17

North High School presents Les Misérables: School Edition, 7:30 p.m., 35 Polo Rd. Info: 441-4751 or www. greatneck.k12.ny.us/Page/15417

Friday, Nov. 18

North High School presents Les Misérables: School Edition, 7:30 p.m., 35 Polo Rd. Info: 4414751 or www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/ Page/15417South High School pres ents Oklahoma!, 7:30 p.m., 341 Lakeville Rd. Info: 441-4873 or www. gntheatresouth.com

Saturday, Nov. 19

North High School presents Les Misérables: School Edition, 8 p.m., 35 Polo Rd. Info: 441-4751 or www.great neck.k12.ny.us/Page/15417South High School presents Oklahoma!, 7:30 p.m., 341 Lakeville Rd. Info: 441-4873 or www.gntheatresouth. com

Tuesday, Nov. 22

North Middle School presents One Acts, 7 p.m., 77 Polo Rd. Ticket info: 441-4500

Elmont students honored by program

Elmont Memorial High School students Chigozirim Ifebi and Preston Pressoir each received a certifcate from the College Board’s National Af rican American Recognition Program. The program is an academic honor

for academically exceptional African American students who have scored in the top 10 percent of the state on the PSAT or earned a score of 3 or higher on two or more AP exams by their junior year.

Friedmann at Great Neck Library

Join author Eric Friedmann on Thursday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Great Neck Library community room, 159 Bayview Ave., Great Neck, as he journeys through the movies during the nine-year period of 1983 to 1991.

While he and the rest of the world embraced blockbuster motion pictures like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Top Gun, Die Hard, Batman, and Terminator 2, it was also alterna tive flms like A Passage to India, Blue Velvet, Platoon, Do the Right Thing, and Cinema Paradiso that captured his attention and continued to impact his youth, while shaping a deeper and more meaningful insight into the possibilities of cinema.

Eric’s personal story about the movies is told with great memory and afection, for those who still remember a time when movies continued to change, grow, and evolve into deep-rooted memories for all of us who loved sitting in front of the big screen and waiting for the magic to unfold.

Eric Friedmann is the author of It’s Strictly Personal and It’s Still Strictly Personal, both of which will be available for purchase and signing at this event. Check out his inter view from Aug. 16 on 4VS’ The Author Corner: https://4vs. org/4VS-WatchNowPage3-TheAuthorCorner-38.php

For more information, please contact Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatneck library.org.

Guitar duo at the G.N. Library

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with guitarists Lisa Spraragen and Josué Pérez, as they perform a captivating program of classical guitar, Latin American favorites, original com positions, and famenco.

From a delicate Aire, romantic Bolero, fes tive Cumbia, and Danza puertorriqueña to the toe-tapping Zambra famenca, come experi ence the panorama of possibilities of the Span ish Guitar.

This concert is for all ages at Great Neck Library 159 Bayview Avenue, Great Neck. On Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. at the Library Community Room. For more information, please contact Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.

F.P-Bellerose honors ed board

During the board of education meet ing on Oct. 11, the Floral Park-Bellerose Union Free School District dedicated time to honor its board members and principals in honor of Board Recognition Month and National Principals Month.

As October is also Fire Prevention Month, the meeting began with a pre sentation from Floral Park Village Fire Department Chief James Dodson. He of fered tips on fre safety and discussed the fre department’s role within the district.

Then, Interim Superintendent Lisa Ruiz acknowledged Board Recognition Month and thanked the board for their service.

“Our fve trustees are extraordinary people who voluntarily tackle the enor mous job of governing school districts and do so in a manner that illustrates what it means to support success for all students, which is the New York State School Board’s theme for this year,” Ruiz said. “Even though we make a special ef fort to show our appreciation in October, their contribution is a year-round com mitment.”

ings. Prior to the meeting, the Student Councils interviewed the board mem bers to learn more about what they do and what their goals are. Each student shared a fact that they learned during the interviews. The interviews, which were recorded, were then played on video for all in attendance. Additionally, Floral Park Village Deputy Mayor Dr. Lynn Pom

bonyo and Village Board Trustee Frank Chiara presented the board with a Proc lamation for their service to the students and community.

Assistant Superintendent for Curric ulum and Instruction Dr. Tara Davidson then presented Principal DeKams and Principal Fazio with gifts of appreciation for National Principals Month.

Elmont Memorial High School students Chigozirim Ifebi (left) and Preston Pressoir (right) received a certificate from the College Board’s National African American Recognition Program.

John Lewis Childs School Principal Susan Fazio and Floral Park-Bellerose School Principal John DeKams thanked the board and introduced fve Student Council representatives from both build

The Floral Park-Bellerose Union Free School District Board of Education is pictured with student council members, student council advisor Julia Lafferty, principal Susan Fazio, principal John DeKams, Assistant Superintendent for Business Linda Macias and interim Superintendent Lisa Ruiz. Board Trustee Laura Trentacoste was not in attendance at the meeting.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

PHOTO BY MAAIKE BERNSTROM

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FLORAL PARK-BELLEROSE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT