Manhasset Press 2/08/23 edition is published weekly by Anton Media Group.

Half A World Away: 642nd Aviation Support Battalion Prepares To Serve

Long Island National Guard Soldiers recognized on Sunday, Jan. 22 prior to Middle East deployment

AMANDA OLSEN

aolsen@antonmediagroup.com

With a great deal of solemnity, ceremony and pomp, 150 soldiers from the New York Army National Guard 642nd Aviation Support Battalion, their families and loved ones celebrated one last time on January 22 before the unit was sent overseas. They will be supporting Task Force Spartan, the 10,000-Soldier Army presence in the Middle East.

The National Guard has a dual mission, both providing trained units to the states, territories and the District of Columbia, and keeping itself equipped to protect life and property and providing trained units to the nation that are equipped and ready to defend the United States and its interests all over the globe.

The 642nd Aviation Support Battalion deployed to Kuwait in 2013 and 2014 as part of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade, conducting support operations across the Middle East. In 2005, the battalion, then known as the 642nd Divisional Aviation Support Battalion, deployed to Tikrit, Iraq as part of the 42nd Combat Aviation Brigade and the 42nd Infantry Division. During that deployment, the battalion conducted 180 combat logistics patrols covering nearly 60,000 miles, while repelling multiple attacks by insurgent forces. The unit also recovered three downed aircraft. During the deployment two purple hearts were awarded and six vehicles were lost to enemy

fire, but no soldiers were killed.

The company deployed to Afghanistan, where the heavy lift and high-altitude capabilities of the CH-47 helicopter, the largest in the Army’s inventory, were vital. The unit served in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008, again in 2012 and 2013, and in 2018.

Here in New York, soldiers of the battalion responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, and supported operations in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Soldiers from

the company participated in state responses to Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and the “Snowvember” Storm in 2014. This fall the unit deployed an aircraft and crew to Florida to assist in the response to Hurricane Ian. This time, The 642nd will conduct two weeks of training at Fort Indiantown Gap, a training base near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and then deploy to Fort Hood, Texas, for about two more months of training before deploying to Kuwait. The 642nd Aviation has elements located

in Rochester and Dunkirk in western New York, and in Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma on Long Island. The battalion is part of the New York Army National Guard’s 42nd Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade. The Nassau County Police Emerald Society Pipes and Drums honored the departing soldiers with a number of songs. Both the Adjutant General for the State of New York Major General Ray Shields and see DEPLOYMENT on page 4

A departing soldier.

(Photo by New York Guard Cpt Mark Getman)

Family members watch the deployment ceremony. (Photo by Cory Olsen)

Sergeant Pysadee and his daughter enjoying the refreshments. (Photo by Cory Olsen)

New York Army National Guard Brigadier General Jack A. James gave speeches encouraging the soldiers to rely on each other, to stand for what is right, and to strive for greatness. Some soldiers were nervous and some were eager. All expressed their desire to serve. Parents hugged their children and couples stood together.

One of those couples was Stephanie and Army Specialist Alfred Staab. The Staabs found out that Al was being deployed about a month before their wedding last spring. They spent the next few months buying a house, exploring the outdoors, and spending time with family and friends. Stephanie Staab, the psychologist at Manhasset Secondary School, was also the Family Readiness Group Leader for this unit.

“Al had asked me to if I wanted to be the Family Readiness Group Leader. When he first described it to me, he said ‘if anything were to happen to one of the soldiers you would consult with families, you would help them go through that process.’ And being a school psychologist, I said, ‘Sure, I will 100% take on that responsibility.’ But then I learned more, and it kind of has a bigger role than I was expecting.” Staab said.

This role turned out to be the perfect distraction from the impending deployment. As the FRG leader, Staab is the liaison between the families and the commander. “If the families need anything from their soldiers, and for some reason, they can’t get in contact with them, I can get in touch with the commander. He’ll get in touch with the soldier and then it’ll go back down the chain. If the soldiers need anything, like let’s say they need more socks or you know, a bunch of them need, you know, some type of supplies or something. The commander would let me know and then I would kind of coordinate with all the families.”

Part of her duties in this role was organizing the deployment ceremony, but she also organizes monthly meetings. Some meetings are a check-in where Staab lets the families know about resources and updates, and some are planning sessions for events like the Christmas party and the deployment ceremony. They also work with other organizations like the Blue Star Moms to combine efforts and send the soldiers care packages. This is one facet of her strategy to cope with this separation: staying busy.

She also has a strong support network, something she intends to lean into as time goes by. “My parents live in Bethpage. They live 20 minutes from me (in Huntington) and my sister lives a couple blocks from me. Al’s parents live in Bayville. So that’s like 20 minutes away. I have a ton of friends, work friends, friends from high school. There were four of us wives that were talking the whole time and our husbands are close. So right after (the men left) we started a group chat and we’ve been talking every day. We joke around about things and it’s a nice support system. We’re all going through it together.”

As an expert in mental health, her advice for others in a similar situation is to be physically active, “whether that be like

yoga, going for daily walks going to the gym like getting out and doing some type of physical activity is very beneficial. Number one, not just for your mental health, but for your body and your overall health. I always encourage people to get out and do some type of physical activity.“

Another thing she recommends for people who are separated from their loved ones is communication. It’s incredibly easy to reach out with today’s technology, but Staab said making these connections routine and intentional provides a kind

of security that wards off anxiety. “We’ve established a routine, we always say good morning to each other. We always make sure we say good night, he always calls me before bed, and then he’ll update me at some point during the day. We can’t constantly be checking our phone and waiting for a text message because that just builds up anxiety. So I think establishing what times can we talk and when to expect a call to expect a text message (helps).”

Taking the time to write things down can also help people process feelings in a

healthy way. “Because sometimes it is hard to tell people, even your family, who aren’t going through it. Of course you want to tell them what’s going on, but they can’t really relate. So if you don’t have military wives or something like that, who understand it, just getting your thoughts down on paper. It’s a really therapeutic way of dealing with your emotions.“

Currently, 1,800 New York Army National Guard Soldiers are deployed overseas. —With additional reporting by the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs

The Nassau County Police Emerald Society Pipes and Drums

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

New York Army National Guard 642nd Aviation Support Battalion.

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

New York Army National Guard SGT Kenneth Miller embraces his wife.

(Photo by New York Guard Cpt Mark Getman)

Army Specialist Alfred Staab and his wife Stephanie pose with their families at the Deployment Ceremony on Jan. 22

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

The color guard.

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

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Good Will Continues In Port

You may think that the season for giving has ended, but in fact it continues through various charities within Port Washington. One is the Personal Care and Paper Pantry that is held on the first Thursday of every month at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior (LCOS), 12 Franklin Ave., near the train station. On that day, the recipients gather in a neat line and wait patiently for their turn to get some wishes granted.

The guests who attend have been pre-approved from sources including The Port Washington School District, The Parent Resource Center, Our Lady of Fatima Church, and St. Peter’s Church. The list consists of individuals and families who could benefit from receiving items that are not covered under SNAP, the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Inside the church’s gym/parish hall, the volunteers bustle around preparing for their guests. Under the direction of LCOS members Linda Murphy and Noreen DeSalvo, volunteers are assigned to the welcome tables or to the packing room. Sometimes they set a table with surplus free items and books that children might enjoy.

After a guest is welcomed, the first stop is at one of the three sign-in tables. There, a volunteer checks the identification of the guest and confirms that his/her name is on the roster of eligible recipients. While there, the guest receives a list of all items that are available. In addition to toilet tissue and paper towels that are given to all recipients, each guest is permitted to choose eight items from the list.

Once the list is completed, the guest moves on to the “fulfillment” table. There, one of the volunteers takes the list and fills a bag- or two- with the items that have been requested. After receiving the bag and

confirming that the items are correct, the guest leaves feeling a bit lighter even as he/ she carries the load of necessities that have been provided.

This event is only once a month, but it is the culmination of ongoing work throughout the year. The Pantry is continually being restocked by donations from the LCOS congregation as well as others. Large quantities of toilet tissue, paper towels, and diapers in a variety of sizes must be acquired. In addition, personal necessities such as soap, shampoo, shaving needs, and feminine products are in demand. Other popular items include dish detergent and laundry detergent. From this assortment, the guests are able to fulfill many of their needs.

The Personal Care and Paper Pantry was started in February 2014. That first year, five families were served. Today, there are well over one hundred who visit the first Thursday of each month, along approximately thirty older community members who receive delivery of items at their apartments.

A key slogan at The Lutheran Church of Our Savior is “God’s Work; Our Hands.” If you would like to add your own hands to this work, there are many ways to participate. Monetary and physical donations to the Paper and Personal Care Pantry are appreciated, whether it’s as small as a bar of soap or as large as a case of paper towels.

If you’d like to learn more about this outreach that benefits so many in our town, please contact Linda Murphy at Murphyfamily45@yahoo.com. You may also connect to LCOS at lutheranchurchportwashington.com or phone 516-7670603. You don’t need to wait another year to give of yourself; like the Personal Care and Paper Pantry, giving can be all year long.

—Submitted by Janice Crawford

Table prepared with free items for children and others.

Organizers Linda Murphy and Noreen DiSalvo. (Contributed photos)

The McCooey Olivieri Team Founding Agents of Long Island Members of the Luxury Division

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Manhasset, NY – Situated on a half-acre of manicured property overlooking a nature preserve. This home features approximately 4,000 sq. ft. of living space that has been completely updated and expanded with custom millwork throughout. The 1st oor features a family room with custom built-ins, wet bar, co ered ceiling and sliders leading to a private backyard. There is an additional den perfect for entertaining, bedroom, full bath, and laundry. The 2nd oor o ers a formal living room with gas replace, formal dining room and a fabulous kitchen with granite counter tops. The 3rd oor has a primary suite with replace, built-in closets and balcony with beautiful water views of Manhasset Bay. There are 3 additional bedrooms and updated hall bath. MLS# 3453157. $3,199,999.

Dr. Jeremy Koppel Appointed To Alzheimer’s Foundation Of America Advisory Board

The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) announced the appointment of Jeremy Koppel, M.D. to its Medical, Scientific & Memory Screening Advisory Board. Dr. Koppel is a longtime physician specializing in geriatric psychiatry and CoDirector at the Litwin-Zucker Center for the Study of Alzheimer’s Disease at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health, in Manhasset.

AFA’s Medical, Scientific and Memory Screening Advisory Board is comprised of leading experts in the care, research and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. AFA relies on advisory board members for expert insight and opinions on scientific issues surrounding Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, as well assistance with the development of AFA policies, programs and advocacy efforts related to research and care.

“Dr. Jeremy Koppel is a leading and distinguished researcher and physician who has devoted to his professional career to making a difference for families affected by Alzheimer’s disease,” said Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., AFA’s President and CEO. “His three decades of experience in research and patient care, together with his passion for helping others, will make him a valuable

addition to AFA’s Medical, Scientific and Memory Screening Advisory Board. We are proud to welcome him to our team.”

Dr. Koppel said, “I am honored by the opportunity to serve on the Medical, Scientific and Memory Screening Advisory Board of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. I look forward to working together with esteemed leaders in the field who are currently serving on the board with the aim of amplifying new research and improving the lives of patients and families suffering with Alzheimer’s disease.”

Dr. Koppel’s clinical research is focused on providing a new framework for the

exploration of novel treatments for psychosis in Alzheimer’s disease. He and his team explore the underlying causes of some of the more disturbing behaviors associated with Alzheimer’s disease, including agitation, hallucinations and aggression, as a means for identifying ways to treat them. Their main area of research has been searching for the reasons why a normal brain becomes a brain with Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Koppel is also an Associate Professor in the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health, Assistant Professor at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, and a geriatric psychiatrist at the Zucker Hillside Hospital.

Dr. Koppel has published numerous research papers and earned awards for his research, including the New York Institute of Chemists Award, the American Association

for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) Fellowship Award, the Herbert and Rosalie Greenberg Award for Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry, the Herbert and Rosalie Greenberg Award for Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry, Castle Connolly Top Doctor, and Northwell Health System Teacher of the Year. He was also named in New York Magazine 2019 “Best Doctors” issue for geriatric psychiatry.

The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America offers numerous programs and services to families affected by Alzheimer’s disease, including a Helpline staffed entirely by licensed social workers which is available seven days a week by phone (866-232-8484), text message (646-586-5283), and web chat (www.alzfdn.org). Additional information about the services is available by calling AFA at 866-232-8484 or visiting www.alzfdn.org.

—Submitted by Alzheimer’s Foundation of America

Jeremy Koppel, M.D. (Photo by Northwell Health)

Classic Elegance in Munsey Park

MANHASSET, NY – Intelligent design...Seamless layout...The highest quality materials and craftsmanship...Experience Manhasset living at its finest in this completely re-designed, expanded and custom-renovated Colonial in the heart of Munsey Park, just one block from the elementary school. No detail was overlooked in this beautiful luxury property of over 5,000 sq. ft. on 3 levels of living space, offering 5 spacious bedrooms, including a primary suite with walk-in closet & office, 4.5 baths, radiant heat, gourmet EIK, banquet-sized dining room, sizeable den, butler's pantry and mud room. The fully finished basement includes a gym, media room, 2nd family room, full bath, wet bar and more. Enjoy custom built-ins throughout, a massive attic, and ample storage. Proudly host guests on this large property, featuring a private backyard retreat with outdoor kitchen, huge bluestone patio, good-sized flat yard, and thoughtful all-season gardens. Recent remodeling also included a 3/8" Vermont slate roof, Anderson windows, extensive landscaping, generator, plumbing, HVAC, air filtration system and more. A must see property. $3,495,000.

Lisa Ferraro

Real

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Gold Circle of Excellence

Manhasset Office

364 Plandome Road 516.627.4440, c.516.639.1867

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Cathleen Dodge Real Estate Salesperson

Sterling Circle of Accomplishment

Manhasset

Office

364 Plandome Road 516.627.4440, c.516.672.4388

cathleendodge@danielgale.com

cathleendodge.danielgale.com

Stunning waterfront views of Manhasset Bay, breathtaking perennial gardens & incredible sunsets.

PREMIERE PROPERTIES, POWERFUL PRESENCE.

CALENDAR

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN YOUR COMMUNITY

To place an item in this space, send information two weeks before the event to editors@antonmediagroup.com.

THURSDAY, FEB. 9

Book Discussion

Join in person at the Manhasset Library or online to discuss The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana with author Laura Stack, who will be joining virtually. Learn more about Johnny Stack’s story, the research, and Laura’s vision to dramatically decrease adolescent marijuana use, mental illness, and suicide, to allow our youth to live productive, happy lives. Pick up your copy of the book at the circulation desk at the Manhasset Public Library. To dial in using your phone, call 1 (872) 240-3212, and use access Code: 663-315-285.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 15

Book Ends Cafe

Join Librarian Cheryl at 10 a.m. for a stimulating in-person discussion of The Magnificent Lives of Margorie Post by Allison Pataki. From crawling through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar’s treasures to outrunning the Nazis in London, from serving the homeless of the Great Depression to entertaining Roosevelts, Kennedys, and Hollywood’s biggest stars, Marjorie Merriweather Post lived an epic life few could imagine. Bestselling and acclaimed author Allison Pataki has crafted an intimate portrait of a larger-than-life woman, a powerful story of one woman embracing her own power while shaping history in the process. This book discussion will take place IN PERSON. Registration is required. Masks are encouraged. Food and beverages not permitted in Library meeting rooms. Space is Limited, Registration required.

TUESDAY, FEB. 28

Redistricting Hearings

The 2023 Public Hearing tour of the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission will take place in 12 locations throughout the state. Virtual and in-person testimony is available for all hearings.

The hearing for Nassau County will take place at Nassau Community College (SUNY) in the College Center Building, Rm 252/253, located at 1 Education Drive in Garden City.

MONDAY, MAR. 6

American Red Cross Lifeguard Certification Course

North Hempstead Town Board has announced a 4-week lifeguard certification course that will be held at Michael J. Tully Park beginning March 6. Classes will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. with a special deep-water skills test at Eisenhower

Park on Saturday, March 18 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Individuals ages 15 and older can sign up for the American Red Cross Blended Lifeguard Training Course. Those who register must pass the pre-test requirements to participate in the class. Admission will be on a first come, first serve basis. After passing the pre-test, participants must pay a $325 fee to cover the course, book, and class materials. The pre-test will be held on Monday, February 13 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Upon the conclusion of the course, participants will have the opportunity to register and take the Nassau County Lifeguard Certification Test. For more information on lifeguard positions, pre-test requirements, or the course, please call (516)739-3055.

TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, MAR. 7 AND 8

America’s Boating Course

There are several upcoming safe boating courses and seminars presented by the United States Power Squadrons. America’s Boating Course is being offered via zoom and in person March 7. Contact Michael Richter at (516)526-8177 or mikerichter22@gmail.com for the zoom session. This course begins at 7:00 p.m. Contact George Winsper at (516)6985399 or gwins12345@aol.com for the Glen Head session at the North Shore Middle School on Glen Cove Ave in Glen Head. The class begins at 7:30 P.M. These sessions are $60.

TUESDAY MAR. 14

Town Board Meeting

This year’s Town Board meetings will be held on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. The meetings are also broadcast live on the Town’s website beginning at its regularly scheduled time at 7 p.m. Residents who are interested in viewing the meetings can visit: www.northhempsteadny.gov/townboardlive. For the latest updates including information on meeting locations, please visit: www.northhempsteadny.gov.

ONGOING

Project Independence: Bridge Class

Come learn to play Bridge at this beginner-friendly class. Every Wednesday from 12 to 2 p.m. at the North Hempstead “Yes We Can” Community Center at 141 West Garden Street, Westbury. Call 311 or (516)869-6311 to register or for more information.

Project Independence: Bingo And BP

A fun hour of bingo with a bonus of blood pressure screenings and health counseling. At the Roslyn Community Center auditorium, 53 Orchard Street, Roslyn Heights. Call 311 or (516)869-6311 to register or for more information.

$23,000 a year in savings* from lighting upgrades means more of this for Long Island.

When the nonprofit Canine Companions requested a free energy assessment, we discovered that installing LED fixtures and other energy efficiency measures could save them nearly $2,000 a month. And with available PSEG Long Island rebates, the installation was affordable. Today, those changes have meant more funds for the mission of providing service dogs to Long Islanders with disabilities. And that means a better Long Island for us all.

Taking On The Mission To Heal Our Vets

Local organization is so much more than a rescue

AMANDA OLSEN

aolsen@antonmediagroup.com

In an unassuming storefront in a Nesconset strip mall, lives are being changed. Paws of War, a non-profit with a roster of programs aimed at helping both veterans and companion animals, is approaching its ten year anniversary. Since 2014, Paws of War has brought over 300 dogs and cats rescued by troops serving overseas to safety in the U.S. They have also provided hundreds of Veterans with service and support dogs rescued from kill shelters. Their slogan is “Helping both ends of the leash; Help a vet, save a pet.” And they are living it out everyday; all of their services are free to veterans and first responders.

When a veteran or first responder goes through a traumatic experience, it can be hard for those who love them to know how to help. These experiences can cause people to withdraw or bottle up their feelings. It is critically important to be supported by people with similar first-hand experiences, because only they can directly relate to what the individual is going through. Paws of War is different from a traditional rescue because many of the people there are also veterans. This creates a trusting community of people who know both the challenges of military service and how much caring for a pet can ease the transition back to civilian life.

Kelli Porti, an army veteran herself, is the Veteran and Community Outreach Liaison. She oversees operations, coordinating volunteers and helping to evaluate and place the pets. “Our main pillars are our War Torn Pups and Cats program, which is where we rescue on behalf of service members who are on deployment overseas. We bring the rescues here and then we reunite them. We also rescue out of state and locally, often being brought on to cases that are extremely rewarding, hoarding circumstances and also with puppy mills. Then we also have our training program in our onsite training facility. We provide the training here to either be a companion animal or service animal. They all start at basic obedience.”

Other programs in their cadre include therapy pets, which often go to camps and nursing homes; a mobile vet clinic called “Vets to Vets” that provides free pet wellness to veterans and first responders; Helping Heroes, which assists with home repairs and maintenance; and an outreach that helps vets care for their pets when they are un-housed or in the hospital.

Porti stated that it is the commonality of veterans helping veterans that make their organization special. “We’re not your everyday animal rescue. Because our veterans are our family, and our first responders are our family. So, you know, we have people who have moved and they come back and visit us; they keep

in touch. We’re always a part of each other because veterans feel comfortable being around other veterans and first responders feel the same way.”

Companion animals can help alleviate stress, lower blood pressure, and keep people more physically active. An American Heart Association survey found that the most common ways pets help their owners destress is through snuggles, followed by making their owners laugh and helping them feel less lonely. For people with PTSD, having a pet gives them a reason to get out and do more.

Porti confirms that interacting with Paws of War is often the catalyst for helping traumatized veterans and first responders heal. “Veterans and first responders…dealing with PTSD, they don’t really want to leave their house. It’s very difficult for them. But now that they have this training, and they’ve been coming to class, and they’ve been socializing, (all) because they’re taking care of this animal that they love now unconditionally, that unconditionally loves them. Now they’re feeling more comfortable coming to class, then they start saying hey, I’d like to try out and help out, you know, Paws of War going to this event, so it starts extending them to get out more and just to do things that normally they wouldn’t do.”

Besides rescuing animals overseas and domestically, Paws of War is also helping animals where they are. One example is pets left behind by Ukrainian refugees. Because of the War Torn program, there was already a network in place to get necessities to the border of Poland and Ukraine and then into the areas where they were needed most.

Mike Kilano, a Marine combat veteran, volunteers at Paws of War regularly. He cites the organization with helping him heal after his service. When he left the VA hospital he had gained 75 pounds and felt adrift. It seemed like there wasn’t much worth doing with himself and he became depressed. But when he found Paws of War, his sense of purpose returned. He became more grounded and was able to go out and do things for the organization. Slowly, he gained confidence and became more comfortable.

“I want to tell people, there is light at the end,” he said, smiling and stroking one of the rescues. “There is hope.”

Pumpkin, a beagle/miniature pincher mix, goes home Feb. 4.

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

Eric Lau of Merrick, a marine veteran and New York City reman, trains his Paws of War alum Hazel, the yorkie mix.

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

Blaze, a 2 year old Male standard Poodle, poses with Kelli Porti of Paws of War.

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

Gustav, a dog rescued overseas by a deployed service member, with Mike Kilano, a Paws of War volunteer

(Photo by Cory Olsen)

Callie, a golden retriever mix, waits for instruction from retired fire chief John Morrissey of Plainview. (Photo by Cory Olsen)

Bobby Q’s Jus Like Mama’s Is Food To Feed Your Soul

shot up to the top of the most requested menu items,” Ford said.

CHRISTY HINKO

chinko@antonmediagroup.com

Not to be confused with another similarly named establishment out east, Bobby Q’s of Freeport has recently opened its second location in September. The first and still existing restaurant on Main Street in Freeport survived through COVID and has sort of taken on a more on-the-go feel since it opened in 2017. The newest location, Bobby Q’s Jus Like Mama’s on Sunrise Highway is surely to become a dining destination once the word catches on far and wide.

Crime fighter by day, soul food chef by night, owner Bobby Ford’s expansion to the larger sit-down location is making his dreams a reality of bringing more dining services to the patrons who are tried and true fans of his six-generation Southern comfort food and seafood dishes.

“My mom taught us all about cooking; I am one of nine,” Ford said. “It is in our DNA; I am the one who took up the torch.”

Ford’s mother was originally from South Carolina before moving to Harlem with her family and then eventually to Brooklyn where Ford was born and raised.

Appetizers

The roasted sweet peppers, Bobby Q’s “pepper poppers” are filled with vegetarian stuffing and are a great place to start.

Salad/Soup/SIDES

Salad? There’s no salad in soul food. Just kidding. In Southern cooking, you do get plenty of vegetables through your side dishes like fried okra, mashed potatoes, whole ear corn and candied yams. Ford has spent a lot of time perfecting his dishes so that people who are vegan can even enjoy his collard greens and black eyed peas that are so surprisingly vegan. Many items on the menu are vegan to accommodate a diverse dining crowd.

I would be remiss if I did not sing the praise of Ford’s nine-cheese mac & cheese. This stuff is dynamite. It is the one thing that even after you are full, you could still find room to finish the bowl.

Entree

“Fried chicken and barbecue chicken have always been popular, but somewhere along the line fried fish and turkey wings

There is really something for everyone on the menu, from vegetarian options to the classic poultry, fish, seafood, steak, pork, sandwiches, platter options and sampler plates.

Something special about Bobby Q’s jerk chicken and pork is that it’s truly enjoyable jerk.

“It’s not spicy; it has a sweet component to it to mellow it out,” Ford said. “A lot of people really don’t like the spiciness, but they love the jerk flavor.”

Jus Like Mama’s is also offering a special Valentine’s Day price-fixed menu for $69.99 per person. Reservations are required for the special dinner.

Dessert

What Southern soul food meal would be complete without a peach cobbler to top it off? This thing is like heaven with its savory seasoned warm peaches in a caramel sauce atop a cake dumpling. It is only available occasionally. Of course, there are other dessert options that are equally as tasty like carrot cake, red velvet cake and banana puddin’.

Kids

While not specifically listed on the menu Bobby Q’s will prepare some of the commonly ordered meals for kids including pasta, sliders, chicken fingers or nuggets.

Atmosphere

The building used to be a furniture store but has been thoughtfully transformed into a sleek and appealing venue. The exposed ceiling gives Jus Like Mama’s a cool warehouse vibe. Although I visited in the winter, the patio is going to be highly sought after seating once

the temperatures start to warm up. The restaurant is handicapped accessible.

Parking

There is ample street parking surrounding the restaurant and a small, fenced-in parking lot immediately behind the restaurant off Centre Street.

Hours

Bobby Q’s Jus Like Mama’s is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 10 p.m. (closed on Mondays and Tuesdays). Bobby Q’s on Main Street is open Tuesday through Saturday, with an abbreviated menu.

Location

If traveling by LIRR, take the Babylon line (green) to Baldwin station. Bobby Q’s Jus Like Mama’s is located two blocks east of the train station at 365 W. Sunrise Highway in Freeport.

Reservations

Reservations are highly encouraged, especially during the winter months when seating is limited to solely indoors.

Bobby Q’s offers dine-in, catering, private parties and takeout. There is a separate menu for takeout. Delivery options are available through DoorDash and UberEats. Visit www.bbqeastofharlem.com or call 516-460-8056 for menus and more information.

Peach cobbler

Jerk chicken and pork

Pepper poppers

Photos by Christy Hinko

LI-based Research Study Confirms Libraries’ Key Role In Community Health

Mental health needs a top concern expressed by library patrons

Anew study co-authored by a team led by senior author Dr. Lisa Benz Scott, Professor and Executive Director of the Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University, was published this month in the Library and Information Science Research journal. The team reported that on Long Island, where the study was conducted, that mental health was one of the top needs identified by library personnel when asked for their perception of concerns presented by library patrons. The study was conducted by faculty and student researchers at Stony Brook University, Program in Public Health and Adelphi University, Master in Public Health Program with support from the Long Island Health Collaborative, the Suffolk Cooperative Library System and the Nassau Library System.

The Long Island study was an extension of a similar one conducted by the University of Pennsylvania among the urban Philadelphia library system. On Long Island, 97 in-person staff interviews were conducted at 32 public libraries between December 2017 and January 2020. Researchers sought to understand how

library personnel in a socioeconomically diverse suburban setting address the health and social needs of patrons and to identify strategies for promoting more effective public library-public health partnerships.

Other top needs identified were exercise, diet/nutrition, technology literacy, housing, and employment.

The research confirmed the increasing public health role public libraries play in their communities.

In lower-resourced communities, study participants noted that patrons routinely seek more basic social service needs (employment assistance, food scarcity, free screenings). In higher-resourced communities, participants found patrons sought more

A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INVESTMENT FOR LONG ISLAND

Sands, the world leader in developing integrated resorts, is proposing a multi-billion-dollar investment at the current site of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. This groundbreaking, world-class hospitality and entertainment project will be transformational for the Long Island economy, creating thousands of quality union jobs and generating millions of dollars in tax revenue.

A HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY FOR LONG ISLAND BUSINESSES

Sands is committed to developing long-term partnerships with local businesses. For Long Island-based manufacturers, distributors, wholesale suppliers and other companies servicing the hospitality and entertainment industries, the Sands project will be an unprecedented opportunity to grow your business and be part of what will surely become an iconic centerpiece of the Long Island landscape.

enrichment-like services (cooking classes, art programs). Prior research has found that public library visits are highest among the working poor and those who are middle income. These patrons seek services beyond access to books and are looking for assistance in what is known as the “social determinants of health.”

Social determinants are those factors outside of clinical care that influence an individual’s health. They account for nearly 80 percent of health outcomes and are now widely accepted as contributing to health inequities. These factors include education, poverty, access to transportation, safe and affordable housing, health insurance

coverage, and access to nutritious and affordable foods, among others.

“Our public libraries are trusted resources in communities,” said Janine Logan, director of the Long Island Health Collaborative.

“This is why we are seeing more health and social service programming occurring in our libraries and often the programming is a result of collaboration between the library, local hospitals, local universities, and community-based organizations. Some libraries even employ social workers either full-time or per diem.”

The researchers recommend more evidence-based training workshops to help library personnel address patrons’ needs, more widely available collaborative programs, and pairing of library personnel with professionals who hold specific expertise to promote access to and utilization of health and social services. These and other innovative solutions require the support of local governments, policy makers, healthcare systems, health sciences and medical libraries, assert the researchers.

—Submitted by Long Island Health Collaborative

Bank Of America Donates To Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank

Island Harvest Food Bank and Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank received a $50,000 donation from Bank of America to help address food insecurity on Long Island. This donation represents the second phase of the employee booster campaign launched earlier this year, which provided $75,000 to Island Harvest and Long Island Cares.

The donation is part of a unique program to encourage bank employees to receive an annual flu shot and/or coronavirus vaccine or booster, while also investing in the community.

Impact by the numbers:

• An estimated 230,000 people on Long Island face food insecurity. With help from the bank’s donation, Island Harvest and Long Island Cares will be able to provide 52,500 meals to individuals and families across Long Island.

• Since the onset of the pandemic, Bank of America has provided $575,000 to Island

Harvest and Long Island Cares to support local hunger-relief efforts.

• Bank of America has committed nearly $19 million to local hunger relief organizations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico through its two employee booster campaigns.

“The economic fallout from the coronavirus has significantly increased demand

for services from Island Harvest and Long Island Cares,” said Marc Perez, President, Bank of America Long Island. “Despite the difficulties of recent years, these organizations have remained steadfast in their work to address food insecurity. Likewise, Bank of America continues to be deeply committed to supporting hunger relief efforts on Long Island.” —Submitted by Island Harvest

Long Island Native Plant Initative Seeking Board Members

Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) is looking for new board members to help shape their direction so LINPI can continue to further their mission to protect native plant populations through the commercial production of ecotypic (genetically native) plants and seed for landscaping and restorations.

Board members work together to help keep LINPI growing through quarterly board meetings, committees, and volunteer

efforts. Help us make decisions, foster ideas, create, and execute new projects.

No plant expertise is required. Skillsets especially useful include accounting, fundraising, education and outreach, grant writing, business/non-profit management and legal, as well as native plant

propagation, restoration and management. Active board members can expect to contribute 10 hours or more per month of their time through a combination of committee, project, and volunteer work and meetings (like the quarterly board meetings).

If interested, please reach out to greg@ linpi.org.

—submitted by Long Island Native Plant Initative

Congressional Gold Medal To Be Awarded To Benjamin Ferencz, The Last Living Nuremberg Prosecutor

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (DNY), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) announced recently that their bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Benjamin Ferencz was included in the FY2023 omnibus funding package. Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, will receive the award in recognition of his work prosecuting Nazi war criminals, most notably the Einsatzgruppen, and his service in World War II. The bill previously passed the House in May and was introduced by Representatives Lois Frankel (D-FL) and Joe Wilson (R-SC).

“I am honored to have secured the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to Benjamin Ferencz, a champion for human rights and the last living Nuremberg prosecutor,” said Senator Gillibrand. “As chief U.S. prosecutor during the Nuremberg trials, Mr. Ferencz held Nazi war criminals accountable for their crimes against humanity, and spent the many decades since

then fighting for human rights, justice and peace. Mr. Ferencz’s life exemplifies what it means to dedicate oneself to compassion, empathy and righteousness. Few people have been more deserving of this tremendous honor.”

“I am honored to recognize Benjamin Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, with the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the greatest honors an American can receive,” said Senator Schumer. “Mr. Ferencz, a Jewish immigrant who went on to serve our country in the Army, and honorably serve as a chief prosecutor for the U.S. in the Nuremberg trials, bravely held notorious Nazi war criminals to account. This award rightfully recognizes Mr. Ferencz for his fervor for justice and lifelong devotion to human rights and peace.”

“By awarding Ben Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, with the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress is sending an important message: that hate, bigotry, and antisemitism can never be tolerated. This message couldn’t come at

a more important time with antisemitism and Holocaust denial on the rise,” said Rep. Frankel. “Mr. Ferencz is a hero of the Jewish community who has dedicated decades of his life to combatting antisemitism, prosecuting those who act on their hatred, and keeping the lessons of the Holocaust alive. It is a privilege to recognize his remarkable lifelong commitment to justice, peace, and human dignity with the Congressional Gold Medal— Congress’s highest expression of honor.”

Ben Ferencz immigrated to the United States from Hungary when he was ten months old and his family settled in New York City. Ferencz grew up in New York City and attended The City College of New York and Harvard Law School.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ferencz joined an anti-aircraft artillery battalion preparing for the invasion of France. Ferencz was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1945 with the rank of Sergeant of Infantry. Soon after being discharged, he was recruited to work on the

Nuremberg trials.

Ferencz, along with roughly 50 other researchers, examined Nazi offices and archives in Berlin, finding staggering evidence of genocide by the Nazis. Ferencz, in his first-ever case and aged 27, served as Chief Prosecutor for the United States in the Einsatzgruppen Case, in which commanders of SS mobile death squads faced charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Twenty-two defendants were charged, prosecuted, and convicted of murdering over a million people. Fourteen were sentenced to death.

The Congressional Gold Medal is Congress’ highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions. The first Congressional Gold Medal was given to George Washington in 1776 and has been awarded just 184 times to our nation’s heroes, activists, scientists, and other important figures in our society.

—Submitted by the office of Kirsten Gillibrand

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Santos recuses himself in Congress, vows to “focus on serving” NY-03

JANET BURNS

jburns@antonmediagroup.com

There was a lot of competition this past week vis-à-vis news items that would qualify for our “Santos Watch” series, but likely the biggest splash for Representative George Santos (NY-03) surrounds one of the main jobs of a U.S. rep: serving on committees.

Less than two weeks after he was reportedly tapped to serve on the Small Business Committee and Science, Space and Technology Committee, Santos announced that he was recusing himself from the two House committees, creating national headlines.

In a January 31 statement emailed to press (under a letterhead reading “George Santos,” as opposed to the “George DevolderSantos” header he used earlier that month), Santos said: “With the ongoing attention

surrounding both my personal and campaign financial investigations, I have submitted a request to Speaker McCarthy that I be temporarily recused from my committee assignments until I am cleared.”

“This was a decision that I take very seriously. The business of the 118th Congress must continue without media fanfare. It is important that I primarily focus on serving the constituents of New York’s Third Congressional District and providing federal level representation without distraction.”

The same day, Reps. Nick LaLota (NY-01) and Anthony D’Esposito (NY-04) released the following joint statement:

“This is a classic case of

someone quitting right before they were going to get fired. While we, and the overwhelming percentage of Long Islanders we represent, are relieved to see that Santos will not be undeservedly sitting on committees, he should still do the right thing and resign. That is what is in the best interest of his constituents and House Republicans.”

Other Recent Highlights:

• The Federal Election Commission (FEC), already pointed in Santos’ direction by numerous parties, has been making inquiries about the source of Santos’ campaign and/ or personal funds, as well as the fact that the man he listed as his treasurer on paperwork denies holding that job.

• According to the Washington Post, the U.S. Attorney General has asked the FEC to step aside for the sake of its own investigation(s).

• On January 31, the FEC made public the resignation letter it received from Santos’ previous

COLUMNS

treasurer, longtime GOP operator Nancy Marks.

• Ritchie Torres (NY-15), among others, has called for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate Santos’ muddied, perhaps even swampy financial situation.

• On February 1, members of more than half a dozen local activists groups protested outside Santos’ district office calling for his resignation. “You will not get away with this Mr. Santos,” said William Bailey, senior director at New York Communities for Change, as WABC reported.

• Nassau County Republicans continue to distance themselves publicly from Santos. An article by Joe Anuta for the website Politico reported that local GOP are hoping that relative-newcomer District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly will go the distance re: legal repercussions. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman commented at a January press conference, as noted in Politico: “He needs help ... This is not a normal person.”

Temporary LIRR Shuttle Service To Grand Central Madison Is Putting Lipstick On A Pig

The original Federal Transit Administration Capital Investment New Starts Full Funding Grant Agreement to MTA was approved in 2006. It included a project cost of $6.3 billion, federal share capped at $2.6 billion with the start of passenger service including a promise to run 24 hourly trains rush hour (most of which were supposed to provide a one seat ride) in 2011. The temporary shuttle service is a temporary band aid fix coming nowhere close to meeting this commitment.

Shuttle operations between 6:15 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends comes nowhere close to existing LIRR frequency and service hours in and out of Penn Station.

With shuttle trains operating only every 30 minutes during rush hour, imagine the potential overcrowding on shuttle trains between Jamaica and GCM. There is no local service for Kew Gardens and

PENNER STATION

Forest Hills riders during rush hour.

Riders on the Port Washington branch will have to transfer at Woodside for access to the shuttle train rush hour and off peak.

The project cost has grown to $11.6 billion today. This does not include debt service payments of $1 billion for borrowing costs buried under the MTA operating budget. There are also $4

billion worth of LIRR readiness projects to support the start of service They take place east of the Woodside Harold Interlockings and are carried off line from the official project budget. Without these projects, the LIRR lacks the expanded operational capabilities to support both promised 24 rush hour train service to GCM along with a 40% increase in reverse peak rush hour service.

Penn Station is a 24/7 facility with overnight service to and from between 1 AM and 5 AM. Grand Central Terminal is closed overnight from 2 AM to 5:15 AM. Unlike the LIRR, Metro North provides no service in or out during that time period. Why does MTA hold the LIRR and Metro North to different standards when it comes to utilizing these two facilities? Ms. Catherine Renaldi is the first MTA official to serve as President of both Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads. The LIRR

Karl V. Anton, Jr., Publisher, Anton Community Newspapers, 1984-2000

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should provide equal levels of 24/7 service to both Penn Station and GCM customers.

When it comes to East Side Access, the LIRR 1960’s motto “Line of the Dashing Dan” should be changed to “Line of the Slow Moving Sloth.”

Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously served as a former Director for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office of Operations and Program Management. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for NJ Transit, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, NYC Transit bus, subway and Staten Island Railway, Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads, MTA Bus, NYCDOT Staten Island Ferry along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ.

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Larry Penner

Rep. George Santos’ Twitter profile image.

Batten down the hatches. Nassau County is running out of phone number combinations that begin with the area code 516.

Since the 1950s, Nassau and Suffolk County businesses and residences were assigned a phone number with the area code 516. In 1999, you would have thought the world was ending when it was announced that Suffolk County numbers would be switched to 631. But the sun came up the next day, and thus the great “Area Code Rivalry” was born, with Nassau County residents celebrating and taunting the obviously second-class “631-ers.” As an added insult, Suffolk got a second area code, 934, in 2016.

Honestly, I’m not sure the area code means much anymore.

It used to be that you could recognize an incoming call just based on the area code, but the fear of Y2K changed all that in 1999. Manhattan’s exclusivity of

Move Over 516 and Make Way for 363

exchange (the first three digits after the area code) also identified their location. Exchanges 798, 799, and 541 were permanently assigned to Massapequa and Massapequa Park.

LONG ISLAND LIVING

212 and the outer borough’s 718 soon required a scorecard, as 347, 332, 917, and 929 have since been added. Why bother with an area code if it doesn’t correctly identify the geographic area?

Most people who still have landlines (that’s the strange-looking device connected to the kitchen wall with a curly wire that once was used for talking and listening) know that in addition to the area code, their

Of course, the increase in cell phone usage has made area codes and number exchanges moot. A cell phone can be used anywhere a wireless signal is available around the globe. Phone numbers are no longer unique. They might seem like randomly assigned numbers (my seven digits do), but in reality, they are not.

The North American Numbering Plan Administrator sees to that. What qualifies a person to be the NANPA remains to be seen, but someone has to make sure numbers assigned across the country, including area codes, are distinct. Of course, most people have been adding a “1” to the beginning of all the numbers they

dial (adding a 10th digit to the process) for the last few months, but now it is required in Nassau County as 363 comes into play.

I stopped paying attention to area codes some time ago, mainly when spammers use your local area code and exchanges, so you think it’s a call from your friend. That may work on the elderly, who are the only ones who know what those numbers really mean. Nobody born after 2000 would know what you were talking about if you asked them for their “area code.”

In my childhood, remembering phone numbers and your address was vital to your survival. I still know the parent’s numbers for my friends Bruce and George. My mother has had the same number since we moved to Massapequa in 1967. If I lost my cell phone today and could not retrieve my address book, I could only call my mother and either Bruce’s or

George’s mother. Unfortunately, both of their mothers are long gone.

It looks like 363 will be a nothing burger in Nassau County, especially for residential phones. Most people I know are ditching their landlines and relying only on their cell phones. I can’t remember the last time I actually answered my landline when the person on the other end wasn’t a robot or a recorded message. But I like my landline number. We’ve had it since buying our house in 1987. It’s part of our identity. Even my 90-year-old mother now calls me on the cell phone instead of what used to be called the “house” phone.

When we eventually move out of state (like the rest of the population our age), we’ll take our cell phone numbers with us, and it will officially be the end of our landline number.

Until then, this is 516-799-xxxx, saying good night, America!

Headline: Teach Your Teens The Dangers Of Driving Impaired

Getting a driver’s license is a rite of passage that teenagers have been celebrating since the early days of automobiles. Driving makes teens feel more independent than ever before, and it can also provide a break for parents, who spend a great deal of their time carting their kids back and forth from practices and other activities.

But the celebration of this newfound freedom necessitates a crucial conversation and the drawing of a line in the sand: Let them know that driving while using alcohol, marijuana or any other substances is forbidden, and start having these conversations when they are young.

With marijuana use now legal for people 21 years of age and older, your kids may be of the mindset that it’s not a big deal. That’s far from the truth. It’s illegal to drive while under the influence of alcohol and weed or other drugs. According to the NY State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, driving under the influence of marijuana subjects you to the same penalties as driving under the influence of alcohol.

And there’s good reason: Marijuana impacts areas of the brain that control perception, balance, coordination, memory

PARENTING PLUS

Dr. Nellie Taylor-Walthrust

and judgment. It can slow reaction times, decrease attention and make it difficult to follow the road and stay in your lane.

We know you don’t want your kids to use marijuana or alcohol, period. But the reality is that many of them do. Having the conversation about safety and driving will not make them any more likely to experiment – in fact, it might have the opposite effect.

Here are some sobering statistics:

• 23% of teens admit they have driven under the influence of alcohol, prescription drugs or marijuana.

• Teen drivers 16-19 have a fatal crash rate almost three times as high as drivers ages 20 and older.

• The percent of crash deaths involving cannabis more than doubled from 9% in 2000 to 21.5% in 2018.

• 24% of teens reported that within the previous month, they had been a passenger in a car with a driver who had been drinking alcohol or using drugs. As a parent, what can you do to minimize the risks?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests creating a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement that clearly sets expectations and limits. Sit with your teen and write down the hazards of driving while impaired and the consequences

for breaking the rules. Put it on your refrigerator and update it as your teen gains experience and more driving privileges. (Visit cdc. gov for a sample agreement.)

If your teen plans to go to a party, make sure you talk to the parents where the festivities are being held. Ask if there will be supervision and if alcohol is being served—and if your teens are under 21, the answer should be a resounding no.

Despite taking all precautions, your teens may find themselves in a situation where they are being pressured to drink or use drugs. Tell them that you will be willing and able to get them at any time during the night—and that if they or their friends have

been drinking or using drugs, they should contact you for a ride.

As parents, we must do all we can to educate our kids about the dangers of driving while impaired, but we also need to face the reality that even “good” kids can start heading down a dangerous path. Keep the lines of communication open, and if you suspect there may be a problem, consider contacting a professional who is trained in alcohol and substance use.

Bottom line: Let your teen know that driving requires their full attention, so marijuana, alcohol or any kind of substances are not allowed – and that means no texting, too!

Dr. Nellie Taylor-Walthrust is the Director of at North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center’s Leeds Place, which operates an Adolescent Outpatient Chemical Dependency Treatment Program. Substance use services include counseling youths who are alcohol and drug abusers, children who live in families with a parent who is suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction and youths who have co-occurring chemical dependency and mental health problems. Prevention services are offered to local school districts. Call (516) 626-1971 to learn more.

& LIFESTYLE Spark Of Creativity

Expressing life with epilepsy through art

JENNIFER CORR

According to the Epilepsy Foundation, epilepsy is defined as a brain condition that causes reoccurring, unprovoked seizures. It’s a condition that is often misunderstood in media and falls under the radar, even though it’s the fourth most common neurological condition in the world.

On Jan. 20, the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University in Hempstead hosted the art gallery, “Spark of Creativity,” to showcase artwork, spoken word and written word from artists with epilepsy or loved ones of a person with epilepsy. It was a night of starting conversations and building bridges of understanding for the many experiences people have with epilepsy.

The show was organized by two doctor candidates at the Zucker School of Medicine, Patrick Tierney and Justin Esposito.

“It started with Patrick and I being interested in neurology as a special interest for us,” Esposito said. “We wanted a unique event that would explore unique experiences from people with neurological conditions. After speaking with [Dr. Simona] Proteasa, we settled on epilepsy as the best example of that, as a neurological illness where people can have pretty much any symptom. The seizure can take so many different forms. It’s an individual experience and also something that’s widely misunderstood too.”

seizure, and the IV drip being the first thing you see.

“In the project I have black and white photographs signifying seizures and the life with epilepsy,” Hopper said.

jcorr@antonmediagroup.com her

The photos, shot on 35 mm film, were part of a project called Seize, a project that includes a mix of black and white and color photos to depict that while living with epilepsy can be gloomy, there are also plenty of moments with happiness and joy.

In general, Hopper has found photography as a way to heal and get a break from the many struggles epilepsy brings to his life. He’s also worked with epilepsy patients afraid of flash photography, providing them with flash-free, professional family photographs.

Also among the artists featured in the gallery was an author, Marc Palmieri, who wrote the book She Danced with Lightning, and his daughter Nora Palmieri, who created art inspired by her sister Anna Palmieri’s experience with epilepsy.

“She was diagnosed at five-months-old, she got brain surgery in 2018,” Marc Palmieri said of his daughter, Anna Palmieri. “She had thousands of seizures before the surgery, but she is now seizure free. I wrote the book, it’s a memoir, about living with a child with this kind of deadly condition. But it’s also about what she taught me; courage and desire to live a full life even when facing what was a very dangerous and dire spiral of her condition when she was 12-years-old.”

A cover of the book, as well as Nora Palmieri’s artwork, was presented at the gallery.

Daniel Hopper, who has had epilepsy for 18 years, was among the artists featured in the show. His project, Journey with Epilepsy & Photography, included three photos and a bucket full of empty prescription pill bottles. The first photo in the series showed a blurry IV drip. Hopper said it was meant to convey what it’s like waking up from a

Poet and artist Alyssa D’Amico had her artwork showcased. She had the chance to read several poems she’s written recounting her experience with epilepsy, from childhood, to teenage-hood and adulthood. She discussed friendships, crushes, and the confusion she grew up feeling with epilepsy. Her poetry reminded the audience that even when facing such a frightening condition, people with epilepsy still go through the everyday experiences.

Daniel Hopper’s project, My Journey with Epilepsy & Photography.

(Photography by Daniel Hopper, picture taken by Jennifer Corr)

Casino

HOMES

Recently Sold

This hi-ranch in the heart of the Massapequa School District at 73 Locust St. sold on Jan. 27 for $529,999. Its zoning does not require flood insurance. The rooms are spacious and the home has hardwood floors (under carpeting on the main floor). This home is ready for some refreshing and TLC. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The huge lower level provides access outside to enjoy entertaining and gardening in the fully fenced property. The yard has a five-zone in-ground sprinkler system. There is also a private driveway and a one-car attached garage. This home is located with convenience to shopping, schools, transportation and the serenity of Tackapausha Park.

HOME & DESIGN Winter Is Here Finally

Stay warm while saving money

Winter is finally here, and PSEG Long Island wants to help customers stay safe and warm and save money and energy. As the mercury starts to drop, the utility offers simple, energy-saving tips:

• Lower your thermostat by just one degree to potentially reduce your heating bill. Lowering it two degrees during the day and five to 10 degrees at night will save even more.

• Use a programmable thermostat to manage your home’s heating and cooling needs. Energy Star estimates that properly used programmable thermostats can save the average American household about $180 a year. PSEG offers rebates on smart thermostats.

and LEDs use up to 90 percent less energy and last up to 25 times longer.

• Install timers and motion detectors to automatically manage indoor and outdoor lighting and help ensure lights are not on when they’re not needed.

• Seal windows and doorframes with weather stripping or caulk, and remove or cover window air conditioners to help to prevent drafts.

• Ceiling fans can be used to save energy in winter. Setting a fan to rotate clockwise on low pulls cool air toward the ceiling, pushing warm air down into a room.

This fantastic and spacious Colonial home at 156 Grand Blvd. in Massapequa Park sold on Jan. 31 for $849,000. It has a beautifully remodeled kitchen with quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, a center island with an under-counter microwave, side server, beverage bar and sliding doors to the backyard. This home has a formal dining room, a living room with gorgeous hardwood floors and a powder room. The lovely first floor master bedroom suite has deep closets and a generous full bathroom. The additional four bedrooms are nice-sized, one even has cathedral ceilings. The home has three bathrooms, a massive attic, central air conditioning, a central vacuum system and 200-amp service. The basement is huge and has an outside entrance. The detached two-car garage has a walk-up loft.

• Install a high-efficiency air source heat pump (ASHP) to lower energy usage, save money and provide greater comfort in cold and hot months. Rebates are available from PSEG’s Home Comfort Program for ducted ASHP units, ducted geothermal heat pumps and ductless mini split systems. PSEG’s Home Comfort PLUS program offers enhanced rebates for customers who meet certain income qualifications.

• Replace inefficient incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs since, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, lighting accounts for about 15 percent of the electricity used in the home,

• Reduce “phantom power” by using energy efficient power strips or unplugging electronic devices when they’re not in use. Items plugged into outlets use electricity even when they’re turned off.

• Close fireplace dampers when not in use. Stop warm air from escaping through chimneys.

• Move furniture and drapes away from heat sources. Remove furniture or items that block vents. Open any register or baseboard dampers.

• Open your curtains and blinds that face the sun on sunny days to warm your home, and close them at night to keep the warm air inside.

Visit www.psegliny.com/ savemoney for more tips.

—PSEG Long Island

Homes shown here represent closed sales, sold by a variety of agencies and are selected for their interest to readers by the Anton Media Group editor. Except where noted, data and photos are provided courtesy of Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, Inc. and Zillow.

REPLACE. RENEW. RESTORE.

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Resolve to invest in your health. Visit a DUXIANA® store near you to discover the difference The DUX Bed can make in your

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Heartbroken Nature Lovers Find Themselves In Battle After County Clear-Cuts Popular Park Woodlands

Desiree Benn was horrified watching the nature park get chopped down. She quickly called the state authorities who stopped the cutting, but by then, over an acre had been wiped out, including over 100 trees. “It was a massacre”, said Ms. Benn. After asking questions and attending meetings, she quickly found out her input was not welcomed by decision makers. So, she founded Coindre Hall Park Community, in her quest to protect the sensitive waterfront area as a public nature preserve.

In the scenic harbor town of Huntington, New York, yacht clubs, private property, and members-only beach clubs dominate the shoreline. The last sliver of public access to the waterfront and undeveloped woodlands is

historic Coindre Hall Park. The advisory board overseeing huge changes to the park is laden with town insiders and the yacht-club-crowd, who are determined to bulldoze anything in the way of a taxpayer funded, mega-restoration project. With neither an authorized plan, nor anyone on the board having essential environmental credentials, they’ve already begun major work.

Overdevelopment and commercialization of our shorelines are issues many communities are dealing with, and we need help...Please help save our nature park, and we’ll be there when your park is next.

community, whose views differ from non-boat owners. Many park users want to know the benefit of constructing a pier and bringing boats into this pristine area.

The board is largely made up of members of the boating

Many question the wisdom of spending millions of tax-payer dollars to restore a condemned boathouse in a flood zone. Many are vehemently opposed to a road and parking spaces in the lower park area. Rather than engage in meaningful dialogue, the board refuses to acknowledge key questions,

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Mr. Goldstein:

and just pushes through an agenda in the face of mounting objections from the public. Hundreds have joined the grassroots group through Facebook and Nextdoor; thousands have signed petitions. Group members have been speaking up at board meetings and legislative sessions. It still may not be enough to move the needle against such an entrenched political machine. “Overdevelopment and commercialization of our shorelines are issues many communities are dealing with, and we need help”, Ms. Benn explains. “Calling all nature lovers! Please help save our nature park, and we’ll be there when your park is next”.

—Submitted by Coindre Hall Park Community

PROPOSED LAS VEGAS SANDS CORP. RESORT IN UNIONDALE

To: Robert G. Goldstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Las Vegas Sands Corp.

I write regarding Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s proposal to develop a resort at the current site of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.

As the elected representative of the Coliseum site and a fiduciary entrusted with protecting the overall best interests of Nassau taxpayers, I am always willing to take a closer look at opportunities to create jobs, expand our tax base and establish new revenue streams to aid in the delivery of essential County services.

To ensure that the intended outcomes of your proposal are aligned with the fulfillment of those responsibilities and desires, it is essential for a decision-maker like myself to have access to the most comprehensive information possible so that I can reach a well-informed decision. A thorough analysis of the economic development and job creation outcomes in host communities for previous Sands-developed resorts will be central to my review.

For the purposes of completing that analysis, I respectfully request for Sands to provide my office with data specifically outlining the number and nature

of employment opportunities that were created in similarly positioned host communities; the salaries and benefits associated with each; professional development and advancement opportunities that were offered to recruits; the average duration of employment in each of these specific job titles; and the number of union employment opportunities that were created through these endeavors. Please also identify local hiring plans that were implemented; the extent to which these goals were achieved; and steps that were taken by your organization to achieve those targets.

Specific to the casino element of the proposed resort in Uniondale, N.Y., please furnish an enumeration of the job opportunities that will be created in the related service industries, including but not limited to the casino itself and associated restaurants, spas, entertainment venues, retail establishments and experiential destinations. As part of your response, please provide a detailed list of job titles, descriptions and projected salaries and benefits that are envisioned. Moreover, I am interested to learn more about the recruitment and training opportunities you are planning

to offer and your strategies for maximizing the creation of union employment opportunities through this endeavor.

Please also advise my office of how you plan to incorporate minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBE), disadvantaged business

enterprises (DBE); and entities spearheaded by veterans, disabled individuals and service-disabled veterans into the operations of your proposed resort. Please furthermore advise of previous scenarios in which a host community established baseline hiring requirements for such entities; the percentage that was achieved by Las Vegas Sands, Corp.; and the strategies you used to achieve these outcomes.

In the interest of mitigating concerns about potential negative economic impacts, please provide all data, analysis and studies conducted by Las Vegas Sands Corp. related to your experiences with existing small businesses in previous host communities and strategies that were utilized to address any concerns that were identified.

In the coming weeks, I will be in touch with additional questions. In the meantime, I look forward to your response and the opportunity to further review the merits of your proposal.

Sincerely,

Siela A. Bynoe Nassau County Legislature, Second Legislative District

Legislator Siela A. Bynoe. (Via Facebook)

—Desiree Benn, Coindre Hall Park Community

A HEART AS EXCEPTIONAL AS YOURS DESERVES THE NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED CARE AT ST. FRANCIS HEART CENTER

AND NOW, IT'S CLOSER THAN EVER

Our unmatched care is now available in more locations, so your heart is always in the right place.

St. Francis Heart Center is now available at more Catholic Health practices and hospitals across Long Island, including Good Samaritan University Hospital, Mercy Hospital, St. Catherine of Siena Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital. This means you have easier access to the most advanced treatments for cardiac diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, no matter where you live on the island.

For a location near you, visit chsli.org/heart

Drinking Tea, Coffee Lowers Risk Of Death

Drinking two or more cups of coffee a day may double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease among people with severe high blood pressure (160/100 mm Hg or higher) but not people with high blood pressure not considered severe, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

The study found that one cup of coffee and daily green tea consumption did not increase the risk of death related to cardiovascular disease at any blood pressure measurement, though both drinks contain caffeine. According to the FDA, an eightounce cup of green or black tea has 30 to 50 milligrams of caffeine, and an eightounce cup of coffee has closer to 80 to 100 milligrams.

Previous research found that drinking one cup of coffee a day may help heart attack survivors by lowering their risk of death after a heart attack and may prevent heart attacks or strokes in healthy individuals. Separate studies have suggested drinking coffee regularly may reduce the risk of developing chronic illnesses, such as Type 2 diabetes and some cancers; may help to control appetite; may help to lower the risk of depression or

boost alertness, though it is not clear if this effect is from the caffeine or something else in coffee. On the harmful side, too much coffee may raise blood pressure and lead to anxiety, heart palpitations and difficulty sleeping.

“Our study aimed to determine whether the known protective effect of coffee also applies to individuals with different degrees of hypertension; and also examined the effects of green tea in the same population,” explained the study’s senior author Hiroyasu Iso, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., director of the Institute for Global Health Policy Research, Bureau of International Health Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo, and professor emeritus at Osaka University. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to find an association between drinking 2 or more cups of coffee daily and cardiovascular disease mortality among people with severe hypertension.”

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, occurs when the force of blood pushing against the walls of blood vessels is consistently too high, making the heart work harder to pump blood. It is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). The current blood pressure guidelines from the American Heart Association and

classifies hypertension as a blood

pressure reading of 130/80

mm Hg or higher.

”These findings may support the assertion that people with severe high blood pressure should avoid drinking excessive coffee,” said Iso. “Because people with severe hypertension are more susceptible to the effects of caffeine, caffeine’s harmful effects may outweigh its protective effects and may increase the risk of death.”

RECIPE

The study found that people with more frequent coffee consumption were more likely to be younger, current smokers, current drinkers, eat fewer vegetables, and have higher total cholesterol levels and lower systolic blood pressure (top number) regardless of the blood pressure category.

The benefits of green tea may be explained by the presence of polyphenols, which are micronutrients with healthy antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties found in plants. The researchers noted that polyphenols may be part of the reason only coffee consumption was associated with an increased risk of death in people with severe high blood pressure despite both green tea and coffee containing caffeine.

The research has several limitations: coffee and tea consumption were self-reported; blood pressure was measured at a single point, which did not account for changes over time; and the observational nature of the study could not draw a direct cause-and-effect connection between coffee consumption and cardiovascular disease risk among people with severe high blood pressure.

Further study is needed, researchers said, to learn more about the effects of coffee and green tea consumption in people with high blood pressure and to confirm the effects of coffee and green tea consumption in other countries.

—American Heart Association

Heart Healthy: Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup

A bowl of chicken noodle soup always equals comfort. The vegetables add nutrition and an aromatic flavor. This soup can be prepared at a moment’s notice and turns mealtime into a warm and satisfying experience.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 medium carrots (thinly sliced)

2 medium ribs of celery, leaves discarded, thinly sliced

1 small onion (diced)

4 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, all visible fat discarded, cut into bite-size pieces.

3 cups water

3 tablespoons fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, minced.

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (crumbled)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper ((coarsely ground preferred))

6 ounces dried no-yolk noodles

Directions

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker on sauté. Cook the carrots, celery, and onion for three minutes, or until the carrots and celery are tender and the onion is soft, stirring frequently. Stir in the broth, chicken, water, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper. Secure the lid. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then quickly release any remaining pressure. Remove the pressure cooker lid. Set the pressure cooker to sauté. Heat until the soup comes to a simmer. Stir in the noodles. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the noodles are tender, stirring frequently. Serves six, two-cups serving size.

—American Heart Association

American Heart Association

Tips To Help You Detect Skin Cancer Early

You may be thinking of ways to take better care of yourself in the new year. The Skin Cancer Foundation suggests making a commitment to get to know your skin better—learning about the warning signs of skin cancer and what to do if you see something suspicious could save your life.

“Skin cancer is the world’s most common cancer, but it is often overlooked or dismissed,” said Deborah S. Sarnoff, MD, president of The Skin Cancer Foundation. “It is one of the most curable forms of cancer if diagnosed and treated early. But if allowed to grow, certain types of skin cancer can become disfiguring and even deadly.”

Increase your chances of spotting a skin cancer before it becomes dangerous:

1Learn the warning signs of skin cancer.

A good rule of thumb is to look out for anything new, changing or unusual on your skin. This could be a mole or birthmark that increases in size, thickness, changes color or texture or is bigger than a pencil eraser. A skin cancer can also appear as a growth that increases in size and appears pearly, transparent, tan, brown, black or multicolored. Other warning signs include a spot or sore that continues to itch, hurt, crust, scab or bleed, especially if it does not heal within three weeks.

2Perform a monthly self-exam. By dedicating some time every few weeks to take a thorough look at your skin, you’re giving yourself the best chance of noticing anything suspicious early on. Try picking one date to perform your self-exam every month or setting up a reminder on your phone to ensure you stay on track. Taking photos of any spots that are new or changing can help you keep track of potential problems.

3Schedule a professional exam. See a dermatologist for a professional skin exam at least once a year. Dermatologists are specially trained to recognize the signs

of skin cancer and can look at any spots you may have noted in your self-exams. If you have a higher risk of developing skin cancer (you have a history of melanoma, for example), your dermatologist may suggest more frequent examinations.

“Remember, skin cancer is the cancer you can see,” Sarnoff said. “Unlike cancers that develop inside the body, skin cancers form on the outside and are usually visible. If you see anything suspicious on your skin, make an appointment with a dermatologist right away.”

—The Skin Cancer Foundation

Damien S. Treated for colon cancer

Live Music Brought To Stony Brook Cancer Center

Music at the MART, kindly funded by Michael Ardolino/Realty Connect USA, is presented by the Staller Center’s Educational Outreach Program in partnership with the Stony Brook University Department of Music and the Stony Brook Cancer Center. The collaboration between the various departments at Stony Brook is a combined effort to provide patients with cancer a relaxing environment while offering the therapeutic benefits of live music. The Cancer Center’s outpatient services are on levels 5 and 6 in the Medical and Research Translation (MART) building, where these outstanding musicians provide music for patients before they go to an appointment or receive infusion therapy every Wednesday from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

The Staller Center’s Educational Outreach Program collaborates with Stony Brook University’s Music Department by hiring these skilled musicians to perform at interactive workshops for kids aged three to eight called the Instrument Petting Zoo (IPZ) in libraries, nonprofits, and other venues. The IPZ concept is modified with music at the MART for adults.

“The Stony Brook Music Department is thrilled to begin this collaboration between its music students and the Cancer Center,” said violinist Stephanie Bonk. “’Music at the Mart’ allows music students to perform in the Stony Brook community, and the chance to connect with patients, and hopefully offer a little comfort during these times.”

Christina Faber, director of cancer center support services at the Stony Brook Cancer Center and Paul Newland, director educational programming from the Staller Center made a connection after the opening night French film, Peaceful at the 2022 Stony Brook Film Festival. They discussed a shared vision and how they might incorporate music into the Cancer Center.

Michael Ardolino, a community leader in the Three Village area who supports several campus initiatives, was interested in this idea and offered to help launch it.

“The Music at the MART program is an amazing way to support the arts while impacting the lives of patients receiving care and, maybe, even bring a smile to the faces of the Stony Brook Cancer Center staff. I’m thrilled to support the pilot program and to help get it started,” said Ardolino.

—Staller Center for the Arts

Gladys Ayala Becomes NYU School Dean

Gladys M. Ayala, MD, who has served as vice dean and professor of medicine at NYU Long Island School of Medicine, has become the school’s new dean and chief academic officer.

“At NYU Long Island School of Medicine, we have a unique opportunity to train the next generation of primary care physicians with excellence in clinical skills, along with the skills to address healthcare disparities; and we do it in three years,” Ayala said. “In this exciting new chapter, I will continue to work collaboratively with the faculty and educational leaders to advance medical education through innovation that will shape the physicians of tomorrow and enhance the care delivered to patients.”

diverse workforce, deepening community engagement to promote health equity, and expanding population health and health systems research on campus.

Gladys M. Ayala, MD

Ayala’s career in medical education spans more than 25 years, and she has initiated numerous programs for medical students to enhance their medical school experience. She has taught medical students in New York State about the principles of primary care, history, and clinical skills since 1994 and is passionate about the impact that primary care doctors who are trained in cultural competency can have on the health and wellness of communities denied health equity.

Ayala’s appointment follows the retirement of the school’s founding dean, Steven P. Shelov, MD. She has led MD curriculum development and implementation and oversaw the areas of MD admissions and the Office of Students and Diversity at NYU Long Island School of Medicine since 2018. As vice dean, she also led the school’s latest strategic planning process that will focus on four main goals: advancing medical education, developing a

Before coming to NYU Long Island School of Medicine, Ayala was the vice chancellor for university student affairs and interim vice dean at New York Medical College’s School of Medicine in Valhalla, New York. A native New Yorker, she received her doctorate in medicine from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1986 and her master’s in public health from Columbia University in 2007.

Ayala lives in Westbury.

—NYU Long Island School of Medicine

Michael Ardolino, Christina Faber, Maria Aubry and Paul Newland

Stuart Rabinowitz Elected To Alzheimer’s Foundation Board

The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) announced the appointment of Stuart Rabinowitz, Esq. to its board of directors. Rabinowitz, the former longtime President of Hofstra University and a Woodbury resident, brings an extensive background in education, business, and law to his new role.

“Stuart Rabinowitz is an innovative, passionate leader with extensive experience and a strong desire to help others,” said Bert E. Brodsky, AFA’s founder and board chairman. “We are proud to welcome him to our team and look forward to working with him to further enhance AFA’s programs, services, and reach to better serve the more than six million American families affected by Alzheimer’s disease.”

Rabinowitz is senior counsel to Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP in Mineola. Prior to that, he spent nearly 50 years working in educational and leadership roles at Hofstra University, starting as a law professor at Hofstra Law School in 1972 and rising to dean of the law school in 1989. In 2001, he became the eighth president of the university.

“I am honored to be elected to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America’s Board of Directors and look forward to furthering the mission of improving patient care, providing valuable patient family resources, and fostering public awareness,” Rabinowitz said.

As president, Rabinowitz led Hofstra to significantly expand its offerings and create several new schools, including the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, the Hofstra-Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies, the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs and the School of Health Professions and Human Services. He also founded the National Center for Suburban Studies, the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Cybersecurity Innovation and Research Center. In addition, he brought Hofstra to the national stage as host of three different presidential debates (2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential elections), the only university

ever to do so.

Prior to his work at Hofstra, Rabinowitz worked at Rosenman & Colin LLP for a number of years and as an associate law professor at his alma mater, Columbia Law School.

Additionally, Rabinowitz served in numerous other leadership positions, including as a Long Island Association board member and co-vice chair of the Long

Island Regional Economic Development Council. He is currently a member of the New York State Commission of Continuing Legal Education.

He has received many awards for his service, among them the Martin Luther King Living the Dream Award, EOC; Distinguished Service in the Cause of Justice, Legal Aid Society; UJA Federation Leadership Award; the Bar Association of Nassau County Proclamation for Outstanding Service to the legal profession and the community; and the Conference of Jewish Organizations of Nassau County’s Community Service Award.

AFA is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to provide support, services and education to individuals, families and caregivers affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias nationwide, and fund research for better treatment and a cure. Individuals who have questions about Alzheimer’s disease or need support services can contact AFA at 866-232-8484 or through its website, www.alzfdn.org.

—Alzheimer’s Foundation of America

Stuart Rabinowitz

What’s our greatest asset at The Bristal Assisted Living communities? It’s the lifetime of interests and experiences you bring to it. After all, that’s what makes you special. A caring team that spends the time getting to know you so you can continue nurturing, sharing and exploring those interests? Well, that’s what makes us special, too.

See for yourself. Explore all of our locations in the tri-state area. thebristal.com

Girl Scout Cookie Season Continues With Cookie Booth Sales Throughout Nassau County

Girl Scouts of Nassau County announced today that Girl Scout Cookies® will be available at individual Girl Scout Cookie booths throughout Nassau County starting January 28, 2023. Each booth will be creatively designed, built and decorated by Girl Scouts and acts as pop-up Girl Scout Cookie stores in prominent locations to help Girl Scouts hone their entrepreneurial skills. To find a cookie booth that is closest to you, visit www.girlscoutcookies. org. Booth sales will continue until March 8, 2023.

“Our Girl Scouts are excited to use their creativity and people skills to connect with customers at cookie sales booths they set up and run themselves. Running a booth sale gives our cookie entrepreneurs the experience and practice of running a small business—setting goals, making decisions, managing money, solving problems, and engaging with their customers,” said Randell Bynum, the chief

executive officer of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County. “Every time a cookie-loving customer purchases Girl Scout Cookies, they are supporting Girl Scouts who make the world a better place, one box of cookies at a time.”

The Girl Scout Cookie Program® returned in communities throughout Nassau County on December 14, 2022. In addition to making the delicious and iconic Girl Scout Cookies available to all, the over 100-year tradition gives Girl Scouts a hands-on lesson in entrepreneurship and business development. The program is part of the Girl Scouts’ ongoing efforts to empower, inspire and prepare the next generation of leaders. With the return of the Girl Scout Cookie Program, Girl Scouts of Nassau County is also bringing back Operation Cookie and Hometown Heroes as its 2023 annual Gift of Caring program. Through a partnership with DHL, customers

could purchase boxes of cookies which are then sent to active-duty members of the United States Military serving overseas, as well as at the local Marine Base in Garden City, the Coast Guard station at Jones Beach, and other New York military institutions.

This year’s cookie line-up includes all the classic favorites—Thin Mints®, Samoas®, Tagalongs®, Do-si-dos®, Trefoils®, Lemon-Ups®, Girl Scout S’mores®, and Toffee-tastic®

—in addition to the return of last year’s debut cookie Adventurefuls® and this year’s newest cookie, the Raspberry Rally, which will be available for purchase online only starting February 27, 2023, while supplies last, for direct ship only.

Girl Scout Cookies can only be purchased from a registered Girl Scout. Customers who would like to support their local Girl Scouts can purchase cookies in person or online via Digital Cookie, or from one of the many

Girl Scout Cookie booth sales happening now around Nassau County. To find Girl Scouts selling cookies near you, visit www.girlscoutcookies.org.

Girl Scouts bring their dreams to lifeand work together tobuild a better world.Through programs in Nassau County, across Long Island and from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities canbe unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up theirbootsfor a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alumni, Girl Scouts leads the way as they find their voices and make changes that affectthe issues most important to them.

—Submitted by Girl Scouts of Nassau County

A Prophetic Voice: Buchanan Lays Down His Pen

JOSEPH SCOTCHIE

jscotchie@antonmediagroup.com

There are plenty of mossbacks out there who miss the age of print. Who can forget The New York Daily News of the 1970s or The New York Post of the 1980s and ‘90s?

For The Daily News, Dick Young was the voice of the paper. It didn’t matter that he wrote a sports column. The contentious Young, a native of Washington Heights, set the tone for the entire paper, then the voice of the long vanquished outer borough ethnics: Irish, Italians, Orthodox Jews, Greeks and Poles, an angry electorate who provided the shock troops that delivered

for Richard Nixon, James Buckley, Ronald Reagan, Alfonse D’Amato, Rudy Giuliani, and George Pataki back when New York was still a two-party state.

During the Seventies, a young Pat Buchanan’s syndicated column was carried by The Daily News. Later, it moved to a more hospitable home at Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post. Now the man, at age 84, has retired his long-running column.

After Buchanan’s failed 2000 presidential run, The Post, as I recall, no longer carried his column. What a run he had. During those decades, no pundit could make a newspaper jump like Patrick J. Buchanan. He dominated The Post the same way that Young held sway over The Daily News Buchanan’s work was--and is---both learned and provocative, itself a difficult standard to achieve and maintain. Buchanan’s style was short and to the point, words written as hard as the one-two combination punches

LEGAL NOTICES

Keyspan Gas East Corporation d/b/a National Grid

PURPOSE: THE FILING OF NEW TARIFF AMMENDMENTS TO P.S.C. NO. 1 GAS TO COMPLY WITH THE COMMISSION’S ORDERS DATED JANUARY 19, 2023, IN P.S.C. CASES 4-M-0565 AND 20-M-0266.

TEXT: Notice is hereby given that Keyspan Gas East Corporation d/b/a National Grid has led new tari amendments with the Public Service Commission to comply with the Commission’s Order is dated January 19, 2023, to become e ective February 1, 2023.

Keyspan Gas East Corporation d/b/a National Grid (“KEDLI”) led tari revisions in response to a New York State Public Service Commission (“PSC”) Order Authorizing Phase 2 Arrears Reduction Program. Phase 2 of the Arrears Reduction Program provides automatic relief through direct bill credits to residential non-Energy A ordability Program (“EAP”) and small-commercial customers who have eligible arrears and who did not receive relief under the Phase 1 program, by issuing a one-time bill credit to reduce or eliminate accrued arrears through May 1, 2022. The PSC Order also establishes the Arrears Management Program (“AMP”) Phase 2 Surcharge to recover costs of these bill credits e ective February 1, 2023.

Notice is hereby given that starting on February 1, 2023, the AMP Phase 2 Surcharge will commence on customer bills and will be included in the Delivery Revenue Adjustment line. The AMP surcharge is located on the KEDLI website. For Residential customers: https://www.nationalgridus.com/Long-Island-NY-Home/Bills-Meters-and-Rates/ ?regionkey=nylongisland&customertype=home and Business customers https://www.nationalgridus.com/Long-Island-NY-Business/Bills-Meters-and-Rates /?regionkey=nylongisland&customertype=business

Copies of the proposed revisions are available for public inspection and can be obtained on the Company’s website at https://www.nationalgridus.com

he used to throw at the punching bag in the basement of his boyhood home in Washington, DC.

Buchanan was an English major at Georgetown University. He was a history buff. This gave his arguments a sound historical and literary foundation. Most pundits throw out arguments and incentives. Buchanan was plenty controversial, but the man had a thorough knowledge of Western history and literature. Just read his 14 serious-as-a-heart attack books.

Buchanan’s career was divided into two parts: The Goldwater-Reaganite Cold War warrior of the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, followed by the lonely America First champion of the early 1990s and beyond.

The latter represented the road not taken. When Buchanan used his immense media platform to articulate a policy of trade protectionism, immigration restrictions, and anti-interventionism, Fred Barnes crowed: “You guys aren’t a wing of the Republican Party, you’re not even a feather!”

So Buchanan, urged on by his younger sister, Bay, ran for president in 1992. His 37 percent vote in the New Hampshire primary spelled the doom of George H.W. Bush’s

presidency and inspired Ross Perot to enter that year’s race.

Four years later, Buchanan won the New Hampshire primary, igniting a left/ right media onslaught unseen in American history. GOP voters stuck with Bob Dole, the safe choice, someone with no prospects of unseating Bill Clinton.

There was never a chance of a Buchanan presidency. It matters. If Buchanan had been elected in 1996, America would be a far different place today: Borders sealed, manufacturing jobs right here in the U.S. of A., marriage strictly between a man and a woman, historical monuments protected, a nation enjoying peace and prosperity.

Above all, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 would never have taken place. A Buchanan presidency would not have U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, a fact that apparently set Osama bin Laden into a terrorist mode. Further, the terrorists who committed the crimes never would have been allowed into the United States in the first place. This is no consolation for those who continue to suffer. It is, I maintain, undeniable.

Patrick J. Buchanan, right, with Richard Nixon

[Pat] Buchanan’s style was short and to the point, words written as hard as the one-two combination punches he used to throw at the punching bag in the basement of his boyhood home in Washington, DC.

Art League Of Long Island Hosts LI Artists Exhibition, Open House

The Art League of Long Island’s 61st Long Island Artists Exhibition features 2-D and 3-D works created by artists from Suffolk, Nassau, Brooklyn, and Queens. The exhibit will be on view in the Art League’s spacious Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery March 4 through April 7, 2023. The opening reception takes place Saturday, March 11 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm.

The Art League of Long Island’s Open House will take place on Saturday, March 18 from 11 am to 2pm. The Open House offers visitors an opportunity to learn more about its year-round art classes and summer programs and see what happens in the Art League’s specialized art studios. Art League instructors will perform live art demonstrations in painting, drawing, ceramics, jewelry making, and printmaking, catering to students of all ages. Some of these demos will be interactive, allowing individuals and families to create fun art projects. Meet Summer Art Adventure Program Director Marianne Murphy and teaching assistants as kids work on fun hands-on activities. The Art League is a not-for-profit art center offering more than 300 visual arts classes annually in a variety of mediums to adults, teens, and kids ages five and up. Classes, workshops, and open studios are offered to beginner, intermediate, and advanced students year-round, in the mornings, afternoons, evenings, and weekends. Students can register at any time throughout the year.

Summer Programs are available for kids ages 5 to 14 and for older teens working on their college portfolios. In addition to the myriad art classes, the Art League also hosts special events, lectures and exhibits throughout the year.

The Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery is open free of charge Tuesdays & Thursdays 10am-8pm, Fridays & Saturdays 10am-3pm. The Art League is located at 107 East Deer Park Road, in Dix Hills. Artwork on display in the gallery may be available for purchase. For more information visit www.artleagueli.org.

—Submitted by Art League of Long Island

Malverne Chamber Of Commerce

Call For Artists

Sixth annual Art Walk open to all Long Islanders

The Malverne Chamber of Commernce is seeking artists and photographers to participate in their annual art walk. Accepted art work will be displayed in Malverne shops and services for two weeks. Works must be approved by the art counsel. No overtly political work or nudes will be accepted. Photo-based works, paintings, sculpture, unconventional and multimedia are welcome.

Email mcasini@VisualFuelDesign.com to enter. Include a JPEG or PDF of each piece for consideration. Be sure to label with your name, phone number, title of entry and medium of entry. If submitting via mail, send entries to Maria Casini at Visual Fuel Design, 16 Kevin Court, Malverne, NY 11565. Include clear, well-lit photos or printouts of each piece, the title, medium and personal information, including phone number and email. Work must not

exceed 20 inches by 30 inches.

All accepted entries must be original to the entrant. No more than six entries per artist will be reviewed for consideration. Two might be selected. Accepted art must be framed with a hanging wire on the back or ready to display. Art will be considered partially by how easily it can be displayed.

The deadline for submission is March 31. Artists will be notified their work has been accepted for display no later than April 11.

Fees for entries are $30 for the first two entries, $15 for full-time students. Additional entries are $5 each. The Malverne Chamber of Commerce retains a 20 percent commision from any artwork sold.

The Art Walk will run from the end of June into July, with a reception in June at the Malverne Library. Exact dates to be determined.

A collage of works from the Art League’s exhibition in 2021.

(Photo by the Art League of Long Island)

Attorney General James Recovers Over $422,000 For Hundreds Of Long Island Tenants Illegally Denied Security Deposits

New York Attorney General Letitia James recovered more than $422,000 for hundreds of tenants whose security deposits were illegally withheld by Fairfield Properties (Fairfield), one of the largest residential property owners on Long Island. The real estate company illegally withheld full or partial security deposits without providing tenants with a written itemized list of deductions, inspected apartments without the tenant present, and did not allow tenants to make repairs before vacating their apartment to avoid penalties. As a result of today’s agreement, Fairfield must return security deposits that it illegally withheld to approximately 900 former tenants, including interest, and pay $90,000 in penalties.

“New Yorkers shouldn’t have to worry that their landlord will illegally withhold money that belongs to them,” said Attorney General James. “Fairfield withheld thousands of dollars that belonged to hardworking people, and today, we are returning that money to tenants who were shortchanged. We will always go after landlords that violate the law and the rights of New Yorkers.”

Fairfield owns and operates 196 rental buildings with 13,620 rental units in Nassau, Suffolk, and Queens counties. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) received complaints from tenants that Fairfield was withholding their security deposits, and after an investigation, OAG found that the real estate company

routinely violated several housing and tenant protection laws.

New York law requires landlords to provide an itemized list of any deductions on security deposits within 14 days or else a security deposit must be returned in full. Fairfield withheld full security deposits or returned partial deposits without providing tenants a written itemized list of deductions. New York law also requires landlords to give tenants written notice of their right to be present when the apartment is inspected and must allow tenants the opportunity to clean or fix anything

that would be deducted from their security deposit. Fairfield routinely inspected apartments without the tenant present and did not give tenants the opportunity to make repairs or clean their apartment before vacating it.

As a result of today’s agreement, Fairfield will return $422,598.21 back to 899 former tenants who had some or all of their security deposits withheld. Fairfield will contact former tenants and send them their checks. The company will also pay $90,000 in penalties to the state and will be required to provide reports to OAG about its compliance with this agreement. The company has agreed to comply with all laws regarding security deposits and must send certificates affirming their compliance every year or whenever requested by OAG for three years. They will also train current staff on correct security deposit procedures and will provide annual trainings in the future.

“Enforcement by the New York Attorney General is the key to tenants’ rights actually being obeyed in the marketplace,” said Ian Wilder, Executive Director, Long Island Housing Services. “It is unfortunate that law enforcement is forced to step in to make sure that tenants are protected. As both a Fair Housing and HUD-certified Housing Counseling agency, we see that laws passed by the legislature to ensure that tenants are on equal footing with their landlords are often ignored. Tenants regularly find themselves without the

resources to ensure that their rights are obeyed. We appreciate that the New York Attorney General stepped forward to protect our fellow Long Islanders.”

This agreement is part of Attorney General James’ ongoing efforts to protect tenants and hold bad landlords accountable. In December, Attorney General James barred a Queens property manager from locking tenants out of their homes. In November, she stopped real estate company Compass from denying housing to low-income New Yorkers. In October, Attorney General James and the Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force announced a settlement with Greg Fournier and his real estate company, Greenbrook Holdings, for harassing tenants and engaging in unlawful practices in managing its buildings in Brooklyn. In September, Attorney General James secured $4 million from landlords after uncovering an illegal kickback scheme to deregulate apartments.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Rachael C. Anello of the Suffolk Regional Office, with the assistance of student intern Mishaal Bajwa, under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General in Charge Kimberly A. Kinirons. The Suffolk Regional Office is part of the Division of Regional Affairs, which is led by Deputy Attorney General Jill Faber and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy. —Submitted by the Office of the Attorney General

Legislation to Make Volunteer Firefighters, Ambulance Workers Eligible for Property Tax Exemptions After Two Years of Service

To ensure that Nassau County’s volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers receive the maximum property tax exemption allowable under a recently amended state law, Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Kevan M. Abrahams (D – Freeport) and his Minority Caucus colleagues have proudly introduced legislation that will make firefighter/ambulance workers eligible for property tax exemptions after completing two years of volunteer service.

The previous eligibility threshold was five years of service. On Friday, Jan. 20, the seven members of the Minority Caucus filed legislation that would opt Nassau County into a state law, enacted in December 2022, that allows volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers to apply for up to a 10-percent exemption on the assessed value of their property (exclusive of special assessments) after completing two years of service. Volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers must live in the community

served by their volunteer organization to qualify for this exemption.

Days after the Minority Caucus filed its legislative proposal, the Majority Caucus re-filed the proposal on Monday, Jan. 23 with all 19 legislators as sponsors, all but guaranteeing passage.

“The Minority Caucus is deeply appreciative of the commitment that our courageous volunteer firefighters

and ambulance workers demonstrate as they serve and protect the residents of Nassau County on a daily basis,” Minority Leader Abrahams said. “We are gratified that our proposal appears on track for unanimous approval, and we look forward to providing an incentive that will make Nassau County more affordable for our selfless volunteers and encourage more people to step up and answer the call of community service.”

—Submitted by the Nassau County Minority Caucus

Letitia James, Attorney General for the state of New York

(Photo by the Office of the Attorney General)

Omnibus Funding Package Includes Over $26M In Federal Funding For Long Island

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Long Island members of the House of Representatives, recently announced that they had secured over $26 million in funds for Long Island as part of the final omnibus funding package for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.

The senators secured a total of $26,244,395 for projects across Suffolk and Nassau County, including facility upgrades and educational programs at Stony Brook University and Long Island University, upgrades to key local infrastructure such as the Town of Southampton’s sewage system, and funding for social programs such as substance use prevention and homeless safety net services.

“From increasing access to public water to creating a STEM career center, upgrading a local park, and providing support services to vulnerable populations, these community projects are making a difference across Long Island,” said U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. “I’m proud to bring this substantial federal funding to our communities and I’ll keep fighting to help these vital organizations and institutions continue their great work across the island.”

Organizations receiving funds include:

• Town of Brookhaven Suffolk County Water Authority Calverton Connection Project ($5,000,000)

• The funds will go toward Suffolk County Water Authority’s proposed plan to extend 21,000 linear feet of water main along Mill Road in Manorville to areas in the vicinity of South River Road in Calverton, Town of Brookhaven.

This project would give 98 homes on private wells in a DEC Potential Environmental Justice Area access to public water. Many of these homes are within a Suffolk County Department of Health Services Survey area that has detected PFAS levels above the maximum contaminant level.

• Town of Southampton Riverside Sewer System Project ($5,000,000)

• Funds will go toward the construction of sanitary infrastructure and a centralized sanitary treatment facility that will service the entire hamlet of Riverside.

The total anticipated sanitary wastewater flow from the project area is 800,000 gallons per day, and the sewage treatment plant is to be phased in 400,000-gallon increments.

• City of Glen Cove / Installation of Packed Tower Aeration System at Duck Pond Road Well Station ($3,452,972)

• Funds will go toward a new, permanent Packed Tower Aeration System (PTAS) and backup generator to keep three critical water wells in service and to remove harmful contaminates from the City’s drinking water.

• Town of Brookhaven / Bellport-North Bellport Sewer Hook-ups ($3,260,000)

• Funds will go toward providing sewer hook-ups in conjunction with sewer connections/upgrades to be made by Suffolk County.

• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory ($2,000,000)

Funds will go toward the establishment of a Next Generation AI Center for Advanced Cancer Diagnostics, which will include modernized equipment with state-of-theart spatial transcriptomics technology to Interfaith Nutrition Network ($2,000,000) Funds will go toward the renovation of a newly acquired building that will allow

help study tumors in depth. expand its existing homeless safety net programs and create new ones. INN will be able to expand its Center for

Transformative Change to meet individually with guests to develop plans of action that are custom tailored to meet their specific social services needs; provide sleeping pods for temporary respite for guests during operating hours; expand its Clothing Boutique with adequate space to develop a new Dressed for Success work attire program; create new clinic space that will enable its partner organizations to provide medical, mental health, and substance abuse counseling services on site, thereby eliminating transportation challenges that are often difficult for guests to overcome; and offer a new training suite for use in workforce development programs that will help the guests move toward a more stable future.

• SUNY Old Westbury ($1,870,000)

• The funds will go toward the creation of an inclusive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career preparatory center at SUNY Old Westbury. OW-STEM aims to engage students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEMrelated fields to set them on a trajectory toward successful STEM-oriented careers. The Center will feature:

• Cutting-edge, inquiry-based STEM pedagogy featuring work with complex data sets from active research efforts.

• A fully integrated learning community structure to provide a holistic and comprehensive educational experience.

• A central focus on green jobs and the green

curriculum.

justice-involved women and girls.

• Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, Inc. ($500,000

• Funding will go toward programming supporting LGBT middle and high schoolaged youth in substance use prevention, mental health, and anti-bullying.

• The Aaron & Marion Gural JCC Inc. (GJCC) / Resilient Impactful Sustaining Empowerment Project ($300,000)

• The funding will go toward significantly expanding GJCC’s mental health and supportive services for three vulnerable populations who have experienced serious trauma in their life: Holocaust survivors (and their families), Ukrainian and Russian immigrant seniors, and victims of domestic violence residing in and around the Five Towns of Long Island, NY. The program will provide wraparound trauma-counseling to 300 unduplicated individuals, as well as outreach and educational services to another 5,000 individuals.

Freeport Union Free School District ($173,923)

student activities.

industry

a Quantum Internet Center on Long Island

Freeport High School will use the funds for the creation of a college and career center that will promote a college-going mentality as well as offer a place where information and resources are readily available to students and their parents.

• The Town of North Hempstead will use these funds to upgrade the 6.07-acre Bunky Reid Park, adjacent to and part of the Yes We Can Community Center, which is one of the few outdoor park, recreation and wellness spaces for New Cassel and the Village of Westbury. North Hempstead will renew and improve this outdoor community park with a new skate park, community gardens and pollinator areas, and improvements to the deteriorating swimming pool.

• The Woman’s Opportunity Rehabilitation Center Justice Services ($638,000)

• Funding will go toward continuing to provide relocation services for domestic violence survivors as well as educational/ vocational and mentoring services for

The Freeport High School College and Career Center will focus on designing, implementing, and managing services, programs and systems that foster college and career readiness. The Center will offer information about career paths and college including college majors, essays, and applications; financial aid; resume writing; college entrance exams and much more. It would house a variety of books, brochures and computer programs with specialized guidance materials, test registration forms and other relevant information and resources.

• Long Island University ($149,500)

• Long Island University in Nassau County will use the funding in collaboration with the Society of Presidential Descendants to digitize and archive the personal collections of past presidents, including correspondence, journals, and other historical records. These records will be publicly available and will spur students, scholars, and the general public to engage with important figures in American history.

—With contributions from the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

partnership to facilitate internships for students.

Comptroller: Flaws In Reassessment

said. “The fact is, the data and our assessment system had errors.”

FRANK RIZZO

Bad data, Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips suggested, may have contributed to the county’s reassessment problems.

Phillips related what her audit of the county’s Department of Assessment (DOA) had found as she spoke at the Manhasset Chamber of Commerce installation luncheon on Jan. 18.

Her office had been asked by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to take a look at the DOA’s reassessment undertaken at the direction of then-Executive Laura Curran, who lost to Blakeman in the 2021 election. Curran had argued that values for the approximately 386,000 residences and 37,000 businesses in the county were unrealistic due to the actions of her predecessor Edward Mangano, who froze the assessment rolls. Her administration introduced tentative assessment rolls on Jan. 2, 2019 and the reassessment was controversial, with many residents finding their home values for taxation purposes rising dramatically while others saw a reduction. Critics charged that the new rolls were filled with errors and rewarded those who filed tax certioraris (grieving the assessed value).

Phillips stated that Mangano had hired a pair of expert valuation firms, Standard

Valuation Services (SVS) and Michael Haberman Associates, Inc. (MHA) to review the DOA’s “property information, assessment processes and the ability of its software system, ADAPT, to produce valuations.”

The experts put out their respective reports in December 2017 and January 2018, during the transition to Curran and her taking office. Both, according to the recent audit, “indicated significant weaknesses in the property information and characteristic data maintained by the [DOA].”

The new administration hired the same

two companies and asked them to come up with a reassessment by September 2018, despite their warnings about the imperfect data and lack of time to correct it. To ease the shock of the new valuation, Curran got the state legislature to allow her administration to phase-in the higher tax rates over a period of five years for residential properties.

“If analysis and quality control had been done before that reassessment got released, I am confident that the errors and the impact that it had on us as property owners would not have been as severe,” Phillips

Her auditors also found that DOA employees were entering data from the county clerk’s office, such as deeds and title transfers which contained valuable property information, by hand.

“The [data input] process was backed up by months, if not years,” she said.

She emphasized that the “goal [of the audit] is not to point fingers. The goal is to make sure that any administration—it may be the current or a future administrations— doesn’t make any mistakes that were made in the past.”

She pointed to a poster in which five similar properties with exact assessed values were listed and noted that those who had grieved multiple times had a much lower tax liability, in some cases by tens of thousands of dollars.

“They rewarded those homeowners that had grieved and they penalized homeowners that never grieved,” Phillips summed up.

“Taxpayers in Nassau County have the right to expect fair and equitable property valuations, conducted with transparency,” Phillips said in a statement. “Restoring trust in government is among my highest priorities, and integrity and fairness in assessed values are among our residents’ top concerns. This review of the 2020/21 Reassessment sheds light on a deeply flawed process and makes recommendations for the improvement of the county’s property assessment process going forward.”

Read a longer story at www.longislandweekly.com.

Green Comet May Be Visible Through February 9th

A recently discovered comet is now passing through the inner solar system and should be visible with a telescope and possibly even binoculars. The comet, dubbed C/2022 E3 (ZTF) – was first sighted in March last year, when it was already inside the orbit of Jupiter. It made its closest approach to the Sun on January 12 and then passed closest to Earth on February 2.

This is the first time this comet has made a pass by earth in 50,000 years, and it’s worth spotting. It has a bright green glow. Comets are notoriously unpredictable, but if this one continues its current trend in brightness, it’ll be easy to spot with binoculars, and it’s possible it could become visible to the unaided eye under dark skies.

Comets hang out just outside the solar system and are mostly made of frozen gas, dust and rock. Some exist in a wide disk beyond the orbit of Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. Other comets live in the Oort Cloud, the sphere-shaped, outer edge of the solar system that is about 50 times farther away from the Sun than the Kuiper Belt. The comet with the longest known orbit takes more than 250,000 years to make just one trip around the Sun.

Gravity from other celestial objects, like planets and stars, can pull comets out of these far reaches of the solar system. As the redirected comet passes closer to the sun, it heats up, causing a trail of debris to stream behind it. This is the tail of the comet. This reflects the light of the sun

and makes the comet appear like bright streak in the night sky.

NASA’s Stardust mission collected samples from Comet Wild 2 and brought them back to Earth. Scientists found those particles to be rich in hydrocarbons, which are chemicals considered the “building blocks” of life.

Rosetta, a mission of the European Space Agency that had several NASA instruments onboard, studied Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta dropped a lander on the nucleus, then orbited the comet for two years. Rosetta detected building blocks of life on this comet, too. And images showed Comet 67P to be a rugged object with lots of activity shaping its surface.

—With Contributions from Nasa

Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips points to a blow up from her department’s recent audit. It shows five exactly valued properties, and how homeowners who files tax grievances reduced their tax liability. (Photo by Frank Rizzo)

Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

JENNIFER CORR

It’s almost the day of love, Valentine’s Day! It’s time to grab a card, some flowers, chocolate or whatever your significant other, or friend, would like to feel loved. But Valentine’s Day, or the week of, also makes for a great time to spend with your favorite person.

Here are some date ideas within all different price ranges:

Valentine’s Day dinners and brunches: Glen Cove Mansion: Enjoy a four course dinner, complete with a cocktail hour, open bar and entertainment for $110 a person. Dinner goes from 6 to 10 p.m. on Feb. 14. Buy tickets at themansionatglencove.com/.

The Milleridge Inn: Join the Milleridge Inn in Jericho for a romantic brunch. Enjoy all you can eat prime rib, crab legs, shrimp and more. This event is on Sunday, Feb. 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Brunch is $65.95 for adults ($75.95 for bottomless mimosas) and $39.95 for children. Visit the milleridgeinn.com for tickets.

The Red Salt Room: Enjoy a Prix-fixe menu by legendary chef David Burke at the Red Salt Room at the Garden City Hotel on Feb. 14 from 5 to 9 p.m. for $135. To see the menu and learn how to get tickets, visit gardencityhotel.com/redsalt-room. There will also be a brunch on Feb. 12.

Oheka Castle Hotel & Estate: Have dinner in a castle with this prix-fixe menu at Oheka Castle in Huntington. Seating is from 4 to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, and is $175 a person. To see the menu and reserve a table, visit oheka.com/upcoming-events. htm. There will also be a brunch the prior weekend.

Valentine’s Day scares: Bayville Scream Park: Go for a very untraditional Valentine’s Day date and head over to Bayville Scream Park, otherwise called Bayville Adventure Park, on Feb. 10, 11 and 14 for three Valentine’s-Day themed haunted houses and three themed bars, as well as a three-course dinner. Deals range from $29.75 to $79.75. Visit bayvillescreampark.com for tickets and more information.

Cooking and art classes: What’s Cooking?: Book a private cooking class for $175 with What’s Cooking? in Oyster Bay. Learn how to make steam, shrimp, fish and vegetarian tacos as well as guacamole, vegetarian slaw and super festive toppings. Reserve on whatscookingny.com.

The Well Seasoned Chef: Learn how to make creamy organic tomato soup, pan seared steak with horseradish sauce, garlicky stir fried brussels sprouts, rosemary-Parmesan roasted potatoes and chocolate covered strawberries with homemade ice cream at The Well Seasoned Chef on Feb. 13. The class is $120 and it books fast, so reserve your spot at thewellseasonedchef.com.

ClayNation: Paint and sip in a tranquil, creative alternative to a bar scene at ClayNation in Glen Cove. There is a variety of art projects to choose from and you will never get bored. ClayNation provides everything needed to complete your art project, so feel free to bring your own snacks and drinks. There is an $8 studio fee, plus the cost of your project. This class is on Feb. 10 from 6 to 10 p.m. Sign up at claynationonline.com.

Pottery on Wheels: This studio in West Islip offers pottery wheel classes for adults. For an hour, adults, who are beginners at pottery, will have the opportunity to work on the pottery wheel or hand-building tables with close instruction. Participants

will choose two of their pieces to be fired, glazed and ready to be picked up about 3 to 4 weeks later. The class is $65. Sign up at potteryonwheelsny.com.

The Art Guild: Learn from artist Steven Vando at the Art Guild in Manhasset from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Feb. 16 and create “Experimental Florals in Loose and SemiAbstract Watercolors.” This class is $75 for non-members and $60 for members. Sign up at theartguild.org.

Pinot’s Palette: Get creative at Pinot’s Palette, a paint-and-sip studio, in East Meadow on any day, including Valentine’s Day. On Feb. 14, there will be classes “Love In The Horizon” and Blossoming Moonlight Love.” Sign up for these $46 classes at pinotspalette.com/eastmeadow.

Wine and beer tastings: Garvies Point Brewery & Restaurant: At this brewery in Glen Cove, enjoy one of Garvies Point Brewery’s flights right from the brewery with any appetizer for $20. For more information, visit garviespointbreweryandrestaurant.com.

Lithology Brewing Co.: At this brewery in Farmingdale, get your first flight for $13. For more information visit lithologybrewing.com.

W A Meadwerks: Taste various craft honey wines here in Lindenhurst. There are $12 flights, $3 samples and $8 glasses. Visit wameadwerks.com for more information.

Spa Day:

Glen Cove Mansion: The newly opened MYW Studios Mansion Spa is designed for your enjoyment and relaxation. Services including massages, facials, body scrubs and wraps, treatments, and even a salt cave. Day passes for guests start at $20 and for non-guests $45 and include fitness center, indoor pool, hot tub, sauna and steam room. To reserve, visit themansionatglencove.com.

East Wind Long Island: Spa packages at this hotel in Wading River start at $569 per couple. The starting package includes luxury overnight accommodations, $70 voucher towards dinner, champagne and chocolate strawberries and a hot stone massage or hydro-lifting facial per person at The Spa & Salon.

The Rockaway Hotel and Spa: Enjoy the Winter Pool House at The Rockaway Hotel and Spa in Queens. Included in the day pass, which starts at $30, there is access to the pool house, the sauna, lounge space and outdoor heated pool as well as towels and robes to use. There are other spa services at the hotel as well. Book online at therockawayhotel.com.

Winter Hikes (Free!): Garvies Point Preserve: Five miles of marked nature trails in Glen Cove.

Muttontown Preserve: Five hundred and fifty acres of fields, woodlands, ponds and estate grounds in East Norwich.

Cold Spring Harbor State Park: Forty acres of hilly terrain that offer scenic vistas of the Cold Spring Harbor.

Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve: The preserve’s highest point of 155-feet produces tremendous views of the Jones Beach Tower, the New York City skyline, and numerous coastal treasures. It’s located in Merrick.

Mill Pond Park: This long and narrow 54-acre preserve, located in Wantagh, includes a large pond that draws numerous native waterfowl, along with nature trails that wind through a wet woodland with red maple, coast pepperbush and skunk cabbage.

Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve: Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve, situated on a scenic peninsula extending into Long Island Sound in Huntington, offers miles of bridle paths, walking, jogging, hiking, biking, cross-country skiing and nature trails over acres of woodland, meadows, rock shoreline and salt marsh.

WORD FIND

This

HOROSCOPES By Holiday Mathis

HOROSCOPES

Holiday Mathis

INTERNATIONAL WORD FIND

INTERNATIONAL WORD FIND INTERNATIONAL WORD FIND HOROSCOPES By

By Holiday Mathis

ARIES (March 21-April 19). You’d love it if you didn’t need attention from others and were only doing what you do to ful ll your own curiosity and passion. Alas, attention is a basic human need. It’s woven into the fabric of humanity, and however ne or coarse the thread may be, there’s no shame in it. It’s part of the human connection.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). People decide how to interact based on the limited information they know of you at any given moment. Your self-knowledge is deeper but still incomplete. is is the value in long relationships with people who have experienced you in many scenarios. is week, you’ll bene t from seasoned insights.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Just when you think you’re working in isolation, or having an experience all your own, things shift. You’ll understand that you’re operating in a shared world, a co-creation. All that happens is a function of the group. Although there are more or less in uential people present, no individual is in control of the outcome.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). When the job places demands on your skill, grace and creativity, you feel happier for it. It’s when the job taps on your patience or acting ability that you feel the burden of work. It will still build and improve you, as long as you take it in small doses, lifting intentionally and methodically like a weightlifter in training.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). ere are those who are happy to see you explore, have adventures and learn what you’re good at. ey’ll celebrate you when you do well, and you won’t ever have to worry about them being jealous or trying to keep you in a certain role. is is what real love is. Soak it in.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). While learning involves duplication, it’s not all there is to it. You’re not a robot following a program; you’re an organism who learns through your senses and experience. You can’t learn in an environment that won’t let you take risks and make mistakes. Success will be a function of choosing your “classroom” well.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). What attention do you owe people in your life, your community and the world at large? How much can you give and still have plenty left for what matters to you? You’d rather tend to small, lovely things than let big, impersonal entities grab your focus. With intentionality, quiet and mindfulness, you’ll make it happen.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). While you can never pay certain people back for all they’ve done to make your life better, your respect makes a di erence. You’ll model this for those too immature to understand the reasons and ways our forebears sacri ced for our daily world to run smoothly. You pay homage in both playful and solemn ways.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You have a foggy fantasy about how a project will go and what it will entail. You’re about to nd out. Give yourself credit for having the rare courage to jump in and nd out what it’s really like. Even if the reality doesn’t quite live up to the dream, the vividness of experience is still the preference of the brave.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Clear-headed action is seldom associated with the storms of passion. In poetry, drama and song, too much romantic fervor often signi es doom. You’ll wonder if you’re too crazy about something or someone to make the right moves. Even the slightest detachment gives the bene t of healthy perspective.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Must it always be work before play? e animals are doing play rst, just as you did when you were small. It’s the natural way, and you never want to lose the ability of being excellent at the games that make existence sparkle. So you’ll practice and prioritize your fun -- an ordering of life you won’t be sorry for.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). ere will be exaggerations and overreactions to contend with this week and the equivalent of children crying for ice cream, infusing urgent emotion into nonessentials. You’ll acknowledge the emotions of others without taking them on as your responsibility and your days are made peaceful.

THIS WEEK’S BIRTHDAYS

ere was a time in your life when you thought peace was the opposite of an exciting life, but now you understand the fullness of experience that can happen from a foundation of deep peace. Feeling satis ed, connected and c alm allows you to go into the wilderness of life and creativity and have vividly felt adventures. You continue to resolve problems and settle into a serenity from which lovely relationships and projects will blossom. It will be among your top years.

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

alternative theme of the puzzle.

All that glitters

Solution: 22 Letters

WORD FIND

This is a theme puzzle with the subject stated below. Find the listed words in the grid. (They may run in any direction but always in a straight line. Some letters are used more than once.) Ring each word as you find it and when you have completed the puzzle, there will be 22 letters left over. They spell out the alternative theme of the puzzle.

All

Solution: 22

FROM KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, 300 W. 57th STREET, 41st FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019

Solution: Baubles bangles and beads

CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 708-7311 EXT. 236

CONTRACT BRIDGE — BY STEVE BECKER FOR RELEASE WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8, 2023

Date: 2/8/23

CONTRACT BRIDGE

737 3rd Street Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 310-337-7003 info@creators.com

By Steve Becker

Big swing on a small deal

South dealer. Both sides vulnerable.

Declarer then collected the rest of the tricks. He cashed the A-K of trump and the K-J of clubs, then crossed to dummy with a trump and discarded both his hearts on the A-Q of clubs to finish with 10 tricks and a score of 170 points.

At the second table, the defense functioned far more efficiently. Here East played the deuce of diamonds on the king to discourage West from continuing the suit, so West shifted to the jack of hearts at trick two.

East cashed the A-Q of hearts and reverted to diamonds by returning the nine. West won with the jack, cashed the ace and continued with the seven. When dummy ruffed with the nine, East overruffed with the queen.

Opening lead — king of diamonds.

Consider this deal from a teamof-four match. Only a partscore was involved, but even so, the hand is highly instructive.

At the first table, West led the diamond king, East signaling with the nine to indicate a doubleton. West continued with the ace and another diamond, which East ruffed. East could now have saved a trick by cashing the ace of hearts, but instead he returned a trump.

Then — as if declarer had not already suffered enough — East heartlessly returned a heart, promoting West’s jack of spades into another trump trick.

So, the declarer at this table went down two — 200 points — which was four tricks and 370 points worse than his counterpart had done at the first table. It was not that South had done anything wrong — he didn’t. It was simply that his opponents did everything right.

Tomorrow: A futile gesture.

is a theme puzzle with the subject stated below. Find the listed words in the grid. (They may run in any direction always in a straight line. Some letters are used more than once.) Ring each word as you find it and when you have pleted the puzzle, there will be 22 letters left over. They spell out the

Weekly Sudoku Puzzle

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square. Answer to last issue’s Crossword Puzzle

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

THE REAL DEAL BEHIND LIRR EAST SIDE ACCESS TO GRAND CENTRAL MADISON

There is more to how we got to the public boarding the first Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train to Grand Central Madison (GCM). Even with the opening 15 years late on March 25, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and Governor Kathy Hochul refuse to acknowledge that the $11.6 billion cost for construction of LIRR East Side Access to GCM is misleading. It does not include $1 billion in debt service payments for borrowing costs bringing the price tag to $12.6 billion. Debt service charges are buried under a separate agency operating budget. There is also $4 billion-plus for indirect costs known as LIRR readiness projects. They took place east of the Woodside Harold Interlockings, carried offline from the official project budget. These include the $2.6 billion Main Line Third Track, $450 million Jamaica Capacity Improvements, $387 million Ronkonkoma Double Track, $120 million Ronkonkoma Yard Expansion, $44 million Great Neck Pocket Track, $423 million for rail car fleet expansion and others that are necessary for successful full implementation of ESA. Without these projects, the LIRR would have lacked the expanded operational capabilities to support both promised 24 rush hour train service to GCM and a 40 percent increase in reverse peak service. Any honest transportation project cost accounting would include these expenditures. This would bring the actual cost of ESA to $16.6 billion.

One significant failure under the late LIRR President Charles Hoppe was a future fatal flaw in purchasing both dual-mode locomotives and double-decker passenger cars. Those responsible for the design, engineering, and bid specifications to support the procurement of dual mode locomotives and double-decker passenger cars should have taken into consideration height clearances for the 63rd Street tunnel between Manhattan and Queens. Construction on this tunnel began in 1969. This was designed to be used at a future date to provide the LIRR with a direct connection to Grand Central Terminal. As a result, the LIRR fleet of 23 diesel-electric and 23 duel-mode locomotives, along with 134 double-decker passenger cars, will not be able to utilize ESA for service to GCM. Diesel locomotives are also unable to be used for the removal of stalled electric trains stuck in the tunnel as well. The M3 MU electric cars may have operational difficulties accessing GCM. Due to multi-year delays in the completion for delivery of all new M9 MU electric cars, there are a limited number of spare electric cars. This may result in some previous 12car trains being reduced to 10-car trains for those traveling to GCM.

The tunnel boring machine created two storage tracks under Park Avenue south of 38th Street. Advancing beyond 38th Street could have provided a direct connection between GCM and Penn Station. The

estimated cost for this ranged between $1 to $1.5 billion. The MTA was unable or unwilling to find additional funding or come to a cost-sharing agreement with NJ Transit to pay for this work. A simple change order to the on-site tunnel boring machine contractor would have done the trick. It will cost far more today for the same work. You would need a new tunnel boring launch pad for the machine and a disposal system for excavated underground materials. Construction of this extension would benefit LIRR, NJ Transit, and Metro North Rail Road riders by providing additional operational options for all three agencies.

Promised travel time savings of up to 40 minutes daily for those with Manhattan midtown east side destinations doesn’t apply to many riders who would switch from Penn Station to GCM. This new LIRR facility is fifteen stories below ground. Riding escalators alone require up to two minutes each. More time is needed to exit to reach

street level versus Penn Station. Validation of time savings depends on how close your final destination is walking from GCM. With the initiation of full-time service to GCM, the LIRR will suspend virtually all direct one-seat ride thru services between Jamaica and Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn. Travel time for thousands of LIRR riders bound for downtown Brooklyn or downtown Manhattan via the LIRR Atlantic Branch will now have longer commutes.

Your Valentine’s Day gift from MTA & LIRR in 2023 may be a fare increase of up to 5.5 percent. Another gift from Governor Hochul later this year will be introducing a 24/7 city ticket. The result could be thousands of new riders boarding in Queens, resulting in overcrowding, significantly when trains are delayed, combined, or canceled due to periodic service disruptions. Finding a seat on eastbound evening rush hour trains may become more difficult.

—Larry Penner

Manhasset Board Of Education Presents Awards To Three Exceptional Individuals

The Manhasset Public Schools Board of Education held its meeting on Jan. 17 in the Manhasset/Great Neck EOC Center. It was a special evening as one Manhasset student, administrator and teacher were honored with awards for their commitment to excellence and for making profound contributions to the Manhasset school community.

The first award that was presented was the William A. Shine Award, created to acknowledge Dr. William Shine’s legacy. Dr. Shine was a former interim superintendent in the Manhasset Public Schools and made a positive impact in the district through his leadership. It was awarded to Rashaun Gardner, a senior at Manhasset Secondary School and Laurie Marshall-Lauria, district coordinator of World Languages, ENL and student activities. The board of education praised both recipients by reading positive remarks from teachers, colleagues and more about their many contributions to the Manhasset community.

Gardner was described as a true gentleman who is charismatic, empathetic, hard-working, kind, motivated, responsible and more. Academically, he challenges himself in the classroom and has made a difference in the school’s broadcast journalism program. Here, he plays a strong role as the creative and technical director of the Manhasset Broadcasting Company where he is responsible for the morning announcements. Gardner is also the editor-in-chief of the high school yearbook and is a member of the running crew in the school’s theatre program. Aside from his service in school, Gardner works at the EOC as a teacher’s assistant in the after-school program.

The board also presented the William A. Shine Award to Lauria for her outstanding contributions to the district. Lauria joined the district in 2010 where she was appointed as the district coordinator of world language. She later became the leader of the department for English language learners and the

coordinator of student activities. Lauria has held many leadership roles such as being on the executive board of the Foreign Language Association of Long Island and the New York State Association of World Language Administrators. She has also developed a variety of successful initiatives and programs to support Manhasset’s English language learners and their families.

The last award of the evening was the Maggie Grundman Award, which was presented to Adriana Marquez, English as a New Language teacher at Munsey Park Elementary School. “The Maggie Award” was named after a longtime Manhasset educator who was the “driving force” behind the Manhasset/Great Neck Adventures in Learning Program and served Manhasset youth through after school and summer programs. The board praised Marquez for her dedication to helping others. A two-time tenure teacher, she began her career in Manhasset as a Spanish teacher and then as an ENL teacher where she was pivotal in developing the district’s program for ENL. Marquez was described as an exceptionally effective ENL teacher and an advocate for Hispanic parents and children. The board commended her for her generosity and her humanitarian work such organizing a group of people during the pandemic to aid Spanish-speaking residents who had fallen ill with COVID-19 and had nowhere to turn for basic needs like food and clothing.

Each award recipient received a plaque from Board President Patricia Aitken and were congratulated by members of the board and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gaurav Passi. In addition, Gardner and Lauria were added to a plaque of William A. Shine Award recipients and Marquez was added to a plaque of Maggie Grundman Award recipients. These plaques are proudly hanging in the district office. The Manhasset Public Schools congratulates Gardner, Lauria and Marquez on their well-deserved awards.

—Submitted by Manhasset Public Schools

Manhasset Students Unite To Honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Munsey Park fifth-graders in Caryn

Levine’s class and kindergartners in Barbara Krugman’s class from the Manhasset Public Schools recently came together to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The kindergarten and fifth grade students are buddies throughout the school year and take part in different lessons and projects together.

Prior to the meetup, the classes learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and how to be a peacemaker. Kindergarten students read the book “Martin Luther King Jr. Day” on Epic Books and discussed what they could each do to help keep things peaceful. Students offered ideas such as donating clothes and toys, cleaning up their rooms and picking

up garbage. The fifth graders watched a Brainpop to highlight the accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr.

Following their lessons, the classes joined to participate in a collaborative peacemaker project. Each kindergarten student completed the sentence, “I can be a peacemaker…” and worked with their fifth grade buddy to decorate their paper with peace signs. The students used construction paper, glitter, glue, magazine cutouts and wallpaper to make their peace signs unique. The fifth-graders assisted by sounding out words and decorating. The project was a great way for the students to work together and celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.

—Submitted by Manhasset Public Schools

Fifth grader Winnie Concannon (left) and kindergartner Andrew Nazarian (right) worked together on their peace sign project.

(Photo by Manhasset Public Schools)

Fifth grader Charlotte Pereira (left) and kindergartner Aria Brahimi (right) decorated their peace sign.

(Photo by Manhasset Public Schools)

2023 William A. Shine Award recipients Rashaun Gardner (left) and Laurie Marshall-Lauria (right) (Photo by Manhasset Public Schools)

Munsey Park ENL teacher Adriana Marquez (middle) was presented with the Maggie Grundman Award at the Manhasset Public Schools’ Jan. 17 meeting. (Photo by Manhasset Public Schools)

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When Helen Diamant died in her Jesup, Georgia home of 18 years on June 4, 2016, it was less than 24 hours after the death of Muhammad Ali. While “Miss Diamant’s” obituary appeared in her local Jesup newspaper (the Press-Sentinel) Ali’s life and death were reported on thousands of front pages, and read by millions of people around the world. Ali’s fame had begun when, as a 22-year-old boxer named Cassius Clay, he defeated the 7-1 favorite, heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. I would argue that my tiny mother-in-law, in her own quiet way, had previously defeated an even more formidable foe than Liston ever was: namely Adolf Hitler! And here is the rest of that story:

When Helen Diamant herself was 22-year-old Chella Wildenberg in 1939 Poland, Hitler invaded her country at the beginning of World War II. By the time Cassius Clay was born in 1942, Helen (then,

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

the Polish “Chella”) had already been suffering at the hands of Hitler’s Nazis for several years. There came a day when she learned that all the workers in the labor camp where she was imprisoned would soon be sent to the infamous Treblinka concentration camp to be murdered in its gas chambers, but she somehow managed to escape. She was also able to rescue her younger brother from another work camp. After weeks of running, hiding, freezing and starving, he finally told her he wanted them to give themselves up---knowing they would be shot to death, but also that their fear, hunger and suffering would finally come to an end. He believed that their continuing survival was an impossibility, but Helen told him “No, I won’t do that. I HAVE TO SEE THE END OF HITLER, and I just know he’s going to have a bad end.” She later said that belief was part of what “kept me going.”

Noah Alexander Rubin Added To President’s List At Elon University

Noah Alexander Rubin has been named to the President’s List for the 2022 fall semester at Elon University. The President’s List is composed of students with no grade below an A-minus in a minimum of 12 semester hours.The parents are Mr. Adam J. Rubin and Ms. Laura M. Dilimetin of Manhasset, NY.

Elon University has built a national reputation as the premier student-centered environment for experiential learning, with an emphasis on strong personal relationships between students and their faculty

and staff mentors. Elon’s 6,337 undergraduate and 786 graduate students come from 49 states and 51 other countries. Elon’s rigorous curriculum is grounded in the arts and sciences and complemented by nationally accredited professional programs.

—Submitted by Laura Dilimetin

Unfortunately, she and her brother eventually got separated, and before the end of the war he, their older brother and sister, their parents, and two dozen other relatives all were killed. Except Helen, who had kept her promise to herself to “live to see the end of Hitler”.

When Hitler ignominiously killed himself at age 56 in 1945, Helen, who had eventually escaped to relative safety in---of all places---Germany, was working as a maid. She was then 28-years-old, only half of Hitler’s age, but she was to live on long past his 56 years on earth. She lived until the age of 99, having graced the earth for 43 years MORE than the 56 years Hitler defiled it. She lived into 2016, surviving past his 1945 death by 71 long and fruitful years. When Hitler killed himself inside his underground bunker, he died in defeat, surrounded mainly by people who feared him. When “Miss Helen” died inside her Jesup home in 2016, she died with dignity, surrounded by people who loved her.

Just the year after Hitler’s 1945 death, Helen and her husband Howard were blessed with the birth of their daughter Laura. They then had 3 sons, and Helen continues to live on today through Laura and two of her brothers : “Dr. Bob” Diamant and “Dr. Mike” Diamant, Wayne Memorial Hospital’s chief anesthesiologists these past two decades.

Helen Diamant has often been called a Holocaust “survivor”, but she has also been both a “striver” and a “thriver.” The dictionary entries for “striver” (“one who exerts much energy and effort, one who struggles

Veteran Eli Levine Celebrates 100th Birthday

On February 1, Eli Levine celebrated his 100th birthday at e American Air Power Museum in East Farmingdale with friends and family. More than 100 people attended the festivities. ere were numerous speakers including a volunteer docent from the museum who spoke about some of the aircraft. omas McLaughlin, Senior Advisor to NYS Senator Mario Mattera, presented Eli with a proclamation. In addition, Jewish War Veteran New York State Commander Gary Glick and Jewish

War Veterans Post 652 Commander Eric Spinner also spoke during the event.

Eli Edward Levine was born on January 31, 1923. He attended school in Brooklyn and graduated Boys High School in1941. He then attended City College, and at the same time, attended the School of Mechanical Optics.

Enlisting in the Army in 1943, he participated in campaigns in Northern France, England, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Battle of the

Bulge. He received the American Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the Certi cate of Merit. Eli was promoted to Tech Sergeant and was honorably discharged on January 7, 1946.

—Submitted by Ed Freeberg

Dari Rosalina(granddaughter),Debbie Siegfried(daughter) Marc Levine( grandson) and Sharon Stein (daughter) with Eli Levine (center) (Photo by Steven Friedman)

The Joy Fu Seniors’ Lunar New Year Celebration

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, Council Member Veronica Lurvey, and Town Clerk Ragini Srivastava recently attended the Joy Fu Seniors’ Lunar New Year Celebration on January 23 at Michael J. Tully Park in New Hyde Park.

The Joy Fu Club is a senior citizen social organization centered on Chinese heritage

that features activities for members including ping pong, Mah Jong, chess, arts & crafts, exercise, and cultural education. Sunday, Jan. 22 marked the beginning of the Lunar New Year ushering in the Year of the Rabbit.

—Submitted by the Town of North Hempstead

to succeed”) and “thriver” (“one who grows vigorously, makes steady progress, prospers and flourishes”) could both be illustrated with pictures of my mother-in-law.

As her cemetery headstone says:

Helen Wildenberg Diamant

Holocaust Survivor

Beloved Mother, Sister and Grandmommy

Born January 19, 1917 in Kozienice, Poland

Passed June 4, 2016 in Jesup, Georgia

SHE GAVE ALL TO HER CHILDREN

RICHARD SIEGELMAN

108 Morton Blvd. Plainview, NY 11803

516-822-5139

Helen Wildenberg Diamant (Contributed photo)

Town officials join members of the Joy Fu Seniors for their Lunar New Year celebration. (Contributed photos)

Chamber Celebrates Efforts, Charts Future

FRANK RIZZO

editors@antonmediagroup.com

The Manhasset Chamber of Commerce exemplifies the old cliche about there being strength in numbers.

There are numerous benefits the chamber brings to the Manhasset businesses and the greater community. Perhaps most consequential is its spearheading an initiative to install sewers in Manhasset’s main business district on Plandome Road. It worked in conjunction with the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District (GNWPCD) and other stakeholders to move the project forward. Members collected more than 1,800 signatures in favor of sewering and facilitated meetings involving the district and town and other elected officials. The chamber helped spur a feasibility study and also secured a $5 million state grant via Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti to finance the project.

Sewering would bring economic and environmental benefits to the area, which relies on costly septic systems to deal with waste. Restaurants, as an example, spend as much as thousands of dollars per month to clean out their cesspools. The project, according to the GNWPCD, will begin late this year or in 2024.

The chamber’s recent installation dinner, held at North Hills Country Club, provided another opportunity for the organization to flex its lobbying role.

Robbie Donno has been the chamber’s leading advocate for sewers. After accepting his Volunteer of the Year Award from last year’s winner, Antonietta Manzi, Donno spoke on the importance of the sewer project to the business district.

He noted that at the time of the 2020 study, the projected cost of putting a sewer line from Northern Boulevard to Webster Avenue (and adjoining streets) was nearly $17 million at the high end. The original plan called for the area’s annexation to the existing GNWPCD taxing district that would have imposed costs on every property within the sewered area. Under the revised plan, businesses will be given the option of connecting to the main sewer line. GNWPCD Supervisor Chris Murphy told the Manhasset Press that the small (4-inch) pipe will be installed with minimal disruption to the busy street. It would connect to the district’s existing line on Northern Boulevard.

Donno mentioned “the community involvement and input” and the chamber’s hiring of an attorney to assure that things went smoothly.

“The cost difference between having a cesspool, the way it’s done now, and having

The boad members took the oath of office at the installation dinner. From the left: Andy Dimakopoulos, Vice President C.J. Coleman, Michael Dispirito, Nancy Morris, Frances Lisner, Lynn King, Kim Jones, past Co-President William Hannan, Co-President Antonietta Manzi, Co-President Matthew Donno, Robert Donno and T.J. Costello. Missing were Treasurer Bo Tian, legal counsel Jared Beschel, Secretary Dawn Tennenbaum, Diane Harragan, Steven Blank, Ryan Martin and Steven Panzik. (Manhasset Chamber of Commerce)

a sewer is astronomical,” he summed up, and urged attendees to support Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jen DeSena’s plan to use the town’s portion of the federal American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) to aid the sewer project. It would place $3.094 million in a dedicated fund to supplement the state funds. Councilwoman Veronica Lurvey had put up a competing list of projects benefiting from the town’s $10-plus million State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund program funds.

Donno argued that the additional funds are needed to put in place spurs off the main sewer line. The final individual connections would then be attached to the spurs, reducing potential costs for end users.

“Councilwoman Lurvey had her own plan that she put forward and unfortunately, there was no money assigned in her plan for the use of the ARPA money for the sewer district,” Donno observed. “So we are currently in negotiations with her to get her to change her mind and to vote for the supervisor’s plan, which would give [the sewer project] the boost that it needs. It’s important that you that take the time to write and email the members of the town board and ask them to support Supervisor DeSena’s proposal. This is going to change the face of our community. Make your voice heard. We’ve done a very good job in partnership with the Greater Council of Manhasset Civic Associations. They’ve been our partner in this. We’ve got to push this over the finish line and make this a reality and change the face of Plandome Road.”

(Lurvey, in response, said she had been told by the GNWPCD that the $5 million from the state would be sufficient and thus there was no need for additional funding.)

Donno introduced DeSena, who was attending for her second time as an elected official. For years before, she had joined the gathering as the executive director of the Manhasset Community Coalition Against Substance Abuse (CASA).

The supervisor also encouraged members to back her plan, assuring them that the sewers will not bring high-rise apartments to the busy street, as residents feared.

“This is something that we need for businesses. You in the chamber, you’ve have

done so much for businesses. You’ve been waiting for many years for this,” DeSena went on. “This is a great project. This should happen. Townships are using ARPA money for sewer projects all over the state. We submitted it to the federal government and it was approved. I thought this was a no-brainer.”

She added, “I would suggest this is a great use of ARPA funds. It is going towards protecting the environment and it’s pro business. And it’s time to get this long awaited project done. Thank you for all that you do and keep paying attention and let your representatives know what you want.”

“Just don’t call it Supervisor DeSena’s plan,” she joked to laughter.

At the ensuing Jan. 24 town board meeting, the trustees debated DeSena’s resolution. After more than an hour of discussion, and lots of input from Robbie Donno, the board voted 4-3 along party lines to delay the vote until the March 14 meeting. The Democratic majority members said they supported the sewer project, but expressed reservations about the $3 million additional cost. Trustees wanted answers they hope to glean at an early February meeting with the GNWPCD.

Chamber Moves

Co-President Matt Donno bid farewell to Bill Hannan, who shared leadership duties for two years. Hannan got a round of applause for his efforts. He will remain on the board. Antonietta Manzi, who has served as vice president, accepted the position of co-president with Donno, who praised her energy and creative ideas.

The installation lunch’s keynote speaker was Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips, former mayor of Flower Hill who also represented the area in the state Senate for one term.

Phillips briefly discussed the county’s budget and spoke at length about her department’s audit of the county’s Department of Assessment.

“It’s an honor to be here. This is a wonderful organization,” Phillips said. “You know, we always talk about that it’s easy to complain about things and it’s much harder to raise your hand and do something. So the chambers throughout Nassau County—and particularly this one—[are] making changes.” The comptroller thanked the government and school board representatives as well as the Manhasset-Port Washington Kiwanis club in attendance.

Chamber Achievements

According to Co-President Matt Donno, 2022 was a great year for the Manhasset Chamber of Commerce. Some of the highlights included:

• Earth Day Community Clean-up Day in April

• Successful series of Manhasset Al Fresco summer outdoor shopping/dining on Plandome Road

• Halloween on Plandome Trick or Treat

• Merry Manhasset Small Business Saturday

• The Chamber’s beautification sponsorships that enabled beautification of Plandome Road with floral hanging baskets and flowering planters throughout the spring and summer.

• In the fall, the chamber decorated the light poles with corn stalks and Halloween decorations. This winter, it decorated the light posts with real garland and Christmas lights.

Keynote speaker Elaine Phillips, center, poses with, from left, Chamber Co-Presidents Matt Donno and Antonietta Manzi, Plandome Manor Mayor Barbara Donno and outgoing Co-President Bill Hannan. (Manhasset Chamber of Commerce)

Robbie Donno accepts the chamber’s Volunteer of the Year award from last year’s winner, Antonietta Manzi.

(Photo by Frank Rizzo)

Town Of North Hempstead Recognizes Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, Council Members Robert Troiano, Jr., Peter Zuckerman, Dennis Walsh, Veronica Lurvey, and Mariann Dalimonte along with Town Clerk Ragini Srivastava welcomed Jennifer Rowland of The Safe Center LI to Town Hall on January 24. Town officials presented a proclamation of recognition officially declaring January as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. This month is dedicated to raising awareness about human trafficking and educating individuals on ways to identify and prevent it.

Council Member Lurvey introduced Rowland, citing some alarming statistics. “Tonight we’re pleased to welcome Jennifer Rowland from the Safe Center Long Island in recognition of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Since 2010, January has been dedicated to raising awareness about human trafficking and ways to identify and prevent it. Unfortunately, according to the US Department of Justice, Long Island is among the top 20 Human Trafficking jurisdictions in the country.”

In stark terms, Rowland defined human trafficking and affirmed that Long Island is

not exempt from this practice. “It is time to educate ourselves about human trafficking, and especially to learn how to recognize the signs here on Long Island. Human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, or training of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act or labor services through the use of force fraud and coercion. It is a multibillion

dollar underground industry. Traffickers prey upon victims regardless of age, race, religion, nationality, or gender identity. Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery. It exists in this country, including all the states, and it is present right here on Long Island.”

Rowland also spoke to the Safe Center’s mission for helping people escape

dangerous, oppressive situations. “Our human trafficking department clients include both male and female victims. Services are provided in multiple languages and include both individual and group therapy by licensed clinicians, crisis counseling, court advocacy, community referrals and case management. The Safe Center also works closely with other agencies and organizations across Long Island to develop a collaborative response for victims of trafficking.”

Nassau county was among the first counties to receive Safe Harbor funding. Safe Harbor programs establish a network of child welfare programs, public safety and medical professionals to help identify victims of child commercial sexual exploitation. “I am proud to say that Nassau County’s Department of Social Services has designated the safe center as their primary referral source for child trafficking across the county. Additionally, our education department conducts trainings and education sessions for professionals and community members on human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.”

—With contributions from Town of North Hempstead and the Safe Center

Supervisor DeSena and the Town of North Hempstead Councilmembers with Jennifer Rowland. (Photo by the Town of North Hempstead)

Bank Of America Names The Safe Center And Wyandanch Homes And Property Development Corporation 2022 Neighborhood Builders

Bank of America named The Safe Center and Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corp as 2022 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders, a program designed to help organizations expand and improve their services. As part of this national signature program, each organization receives a $200,000 grant plus comprehensive leadership training for the executive director and an emerging leader on topics ranging from increasing financial sustainability, human capital management and strategic storytelling. The Safe Center and Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corporation join a network of peer organizations across the U.S. and 34 others on Long Island. The program continues to be the nation’s largest investment into nonprofit leadership development.

“Long Island’s nonprofits are vital to filling gaps in basic needs and advancing equity on Long Island,” said Marc Perez, President, Bank of America Long Island.

“The Safe Center and Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corporation help some of the most vulnerable people in our

communities, including those experiencing abuse, violence, and homelessness, with comprehensive support. I look forward to seeing them build capacity and continue to thrive as Neighborhood Builders.”

The Safe Center supports survivors of domestic abuse, child abuse, and sexual violence with a wide range of services and resources including crisis intervention, advocacy and case management, mental health counseling, legal advocacy and representation, safe housing and education programs.

“The rise in intimate partner violence and other forms of abuse since the onset of the pandemic has dramatically increased the

ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA

need for our services on Long Island,” said Joshua Hanson, incoming Executive Director, The Safe Center. “While The Safe Center has risen to the challenge, there is always more work to be done. The support we receive as a Neighborhood Builder will help us continue to assist and empower survivors while we work with other institutions to break cycles of violence and prevent abuse before it starts.”

Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corporation provides affordable rental housing in its 27 houses for homeless, low-income families in Suffolk County, as well as supportive services to help program participants establish economic self-sufficiency. They will use their grant funding to establish a pilot program that addresses barriers to employment for low-income Long Islanders, such as career training, transportation, and access to childcare.

“Providing stable, affordable housing can be life-changing for our homeless neighbors, especially when combined with supportive services that help people along the path to self-sufficiency,” said Ayesha Alleyne, Executive Director, Wyandanch Homes and

Property Development Corporation. “As a Neighborhood Builder, we look forward to equipping more Long Islanders with tools for a lifetime of security.”

On Long Island, 36 nonprofits have been selected as Neighborhood Builders to date, with the bank investing over $7 million into these local organizations through the program since 2005. The invitation-only program is highly competitive, and organizations are selected by a committee comprised of community leaders and past Neighborhood Builders.

Through 2021 and across the U.S., Bank of America has invested over $280 million in 50 communities through Neighborhood Builders, partnering with more than 1,400 nonprofits and helping more than 2,800 nonprofit leaders strengthen their leadership skills. Neighborhood Builders is just one example of how Bank of America deploys capital in communities, builds cross-sector partnerships, and promotes socioeconomic progress as part of its approach to responsible growth.

—Submitted by Bank of America

Jack Mellert

1937 - 2022

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of John Robert “Jack” Mellert of Port Washington, NY. The only son of the late John Mellert and Maria Elena “Helen” Wass, Jack was born in Queens, NY on May 17, 1937. He was immersed in the Catholic community that would be his lifelong support from an early age. He graduated from his beloved Xavier High School in New York City in 1955 and the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1959. He worked in the Operations division of New York Telephone / AT&T for 35 years in New York City where he was known for his hard work and dedication.

Jack married his teenage sweetheart, Alberta Marie Kargl on April 28, 1962, at St. Joan of Arc Church in Jackson Heights, NY. They celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2021.

Jack helped raise his three sons with a sense of curiosity and instilled in them a passion for knowledge, fine food, and travel.

Jack was a great husband, father, friend, practical joker, and a very long storyteller. His ideal day would include cooking, gardening, woodworking, the New York Times crossword puzzle, and Sudoku, followed by downtime at Westhampton Beach with friends and family. In his spare time, he volunteered time at St. Peter’s of Alcantara Church (President of the School Board), as President for the local Community Chest, at Habitats for Humanity, and other organizations.

Jack is survived by his wife, Alberta, his sons John, Douglas and Stephen, their spouses and five adoring grandchildren. He will be deeply missed by all who know him. He died peacefully, at home in his favorite recliner from pancreatic cancer.

A memorial service to honor Jack’s life will be held in Port Washington, to be scheduled for April 2023. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Xavier High School in New York City. https://www.xavierhs.org/giving

May He Rest In Peace.

North Shore Animal League America has a wide variety of dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens to choose from.

Town Board Unanimously Approves 2023-2027 Capital Plan

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena and the Town Board unanimously approved the Town’s 2023-2027 five-year Capital Plan, which includes improvements to infrastructure, parks upgrades, and road repaving. The $126,887,733 plan will be funded with a combination of borrowing, grants, and existing cash.

“This five-year capital plan puts a particular emphasis on bringing forward momentum to a number of long-stalled projects throughout the Town” Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said. “I believe that the Town should be seeking to not just maintain, but significantly improve our parks and our infrastructure. Thank you to the Town Board for working collaboratively throughout this process, the result of which is a capital plan that will improve Town infrastructure for generations to come.”

“North Hempstead’s Capital Plan serves as a blueprint for major infrastructure work that the Town will be pursuing over the next five years,” said Council Member Lurvey. “Formulating the Capital Plan is a comprehensive process, and we are certainly fortunate to have such dedicated commissioners and staff working collaboratively with the Town Board as we strive to improve the quality of life for North Hempstead’s residents.”

Upcoming General Fund projects approved in the 2023-2027 Capital Plan will include:

• Significant upgrades to various parks throughout North Hempstead, including Caemmerer Park, Clark Botanic Gardens, Donald Street Park, Martin “Bunky” Reid Park, Mary Jane Davies Green, Plandome Pond Park, Michael J. Tully Park, Sunset Park, and North Hempstead Beach Park

• Various improvements to the “Yes We Can” Community Center

• Turf replacement at Herricks Ballfield Park

• Conversion of Natural Turf Fields to Artificial Turf Fields at I-Park

• Electric Vehicles and Green Infrastructure

• Major enhancements to Town facilities, including bathrooms, ADA modifications, and the rehabilitation of HVAC systems

• Phase 2 renovation of the Schumacher House at Clinton G. Martin Park

• Wetland restoration at Hempstead Harbor

Town Operated Special District projects approved in the 2023-2027 Capital Plan will include:

• LED lighting replacement program

• Sidewalk District improvements

• Sidewalk improvements along Union Turnpike & Westbury Avenue

• Upgrades to Port Washington Public

Parking District

• Renovation of the Roslyn Heights Park District Pool & Park

FEMA projects approved in the 2023-2027 Capital Plan will include:

• Bayview Avenue Shoreline Stabilization

• Rehabilitation of the Pier at North Hempstead Beach Park

• Robert Dayton Park Shoreline Restoration

• Repairs at Michael J. Tully Park AAC

• Reconstruction of the parking lot at Michael J. Tully Park

• In-Kind Replacement of the Town Dock

• Dredging at Town Dock, Leeds, and Mill Pond

• FEMA Parking Lot Projects at North Hempstead Beach Park

For a complete list of projects visit www. northhempsteadny.gov/capitalplan.

—Submitted by the Town of North Hempstead

Nassau County Police Reports An Unusual Increase In Fatal And Non-Fatal Overdoses

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Commissioner of Police Patrick Ryder report an unusual increase in both fatal and non-fatal overdoses from January 13th to January 18th, 2023. This could be attributed to counterfeit pills/ opioids laced with fentanyl.

If anyone is using non-prescribed drugs, they need to use extreme caution. Please be aware that some illegal homemade pills can be repressed/altered/counterfeited to appear like the original and may contain Fentanyl.

Residents are reminded to only take medication that is prescribed by a doctor and controlled by a licensed pharmacist. All medication should be kept out of the reach of children and should always be safeguarded.

If you are in possession of any controlled substance that is either expired or in need of disposal, the medication can be brought to any Nassau County Police Precinct 24/7 to be properly and safely disposed of.

Residents in need of treatment, information and referrals for addiction can contact the Nassau County 24/7 HELPline at (516) 277-TALK (8255).

Flanked by community leaders and recovery advocates on the front steps of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building, Nassau County Legislators Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D - Glen Cove), Arnold W. Drucker (D

- Plainview) and Debra Mulé (D - Freeport) unveiled legislation on Jun. 21 that would require the inclusion of fentanyl-detecting test strips in Narcan kits distributed by Nassau County agencies.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which experts at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have determined is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The consumption of fentanyl-laced drugs - often unbeknownst to the user - has resulted in a tragic increase in the number of overdose deaths amidst the ongoing opioid drug crisis in Nassau County and across America.

Including fentanyl testing strips with Narcan kits would serve as a low-cost way

of potentially identifying tainted drugs and preventing accidental overdoses. Individuals dissolve substances they wish to test in water and dip a strip into the solution. The strips require only minimal amounts of drug residue to work properly, and results are generally available within five minutes.Findings from the 2018 FORECAST study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determined the inexpensive strips are simple to use and have a high level of accuracy in detecting fentanyl in drug samples.

“As the battleground in the opioid drug crisis shifts, we must adapt our strategies to save more lives and give more residents

the best possible chance at achieving long-term recovery,” Legislator Drucker said. “By including fentanyl detection testing strips in the Narcan kits that County agencies distribute, we have an opportunity to quickly ramp up our ability to uncloak this silent, stealthy killer - one that would otherwise lurk in the shadows.”

In December 2021, Suffolk County passed similar legislation to require the inclusion of fentanyl testing strips in the Narcan strips they distribute. Here in Nassau, Keisha Graham-Wilson, of the Hicksville-based Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services, Inc., said the agency has been including Fentanyl testing strips in the Narcan test kits it distributes for the last several months. Kits come with directions stapled to the package; the proposed Nassau legislation similarly require instructions to be included with all testing kits that are distributed.

“These test strips are so important in terms of preventing overdoses,” GrahamWilson said. “Individuals don’t realize that fentanyl is in substances that they are using. We have individuals that have told us they are only using marijuana, but when we do toxicology, sometimes we have to tell them that the substance they are using is laced with fentanyl - and they are so shocked and surprised.”

—Submitted by the Nassau County Legislature, Minority Caucus. Edited for length.

(Photo by Randy Laybourne on Unsplash)

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