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Friday, October 21, 2016
Vol. 76, No. 41
Town gets grant for ‘Zombie Homes’
HICKSVILLE HS MUSICIANS ASTOUND
BY GARY SIMEONE
Members of Hicksville High School’s Modern Music Masters (Tri-M Chapter 503) — under the leadership of Tri-M advisor Amy Noll — will be performing at the school’s annual fall recital on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. The event, which will be held in the Kristoff Theatre, will showcase the talents of students who are members of the Tri-M Music Honor Society. The recital is free of charge, open to the public, and will feature a wide variety of musical styles and genres.Tri-M students who will be performing are: David Adames, Molly Baer, Devershish Basnet, Gianna Camacho, Catherine Chen, Bridgette Diasparra, Cecilia Funk, Esther Kim, Momina Miyan, Cara Noetzel, Timothy Odulaja, Nil Rajput, Austin Reed, Kyle Singh and Srishti Tyagi.
Boxers fighting for charity in Plainview A new crop of boxers who are fighting for a good cause will see who their opponent will be at the Carlyle At The Palace next Tuesday for the Long Island Fight for Charity (LIFFC,) main event. The 13th annual boxing for charity main event will take place on November 21st at the Hilton Long Island in Melville at 6 p.m. “Every year we have a new group boxers, businessmen and women from the boroughs and Long Island, who participate in this fundraising event to raise money for three separate charities,” said LIFFC Co-Founder, Jaime Austin. “Each boxer who enters commits
to raising funds for certain organizations on Long Island.” Money raised from the actual boxing main event which on November 21st will go to the Long Island Community Chest Organization, the Genesis Outreach Autism Center and Family Residences and Essential Enterprises (FREE.) The Long Island Community Chest Organization helps people who are experiencing a short term life altering event and a short term financial crisis. Austin said that each boxer who participates in the event takes their training seriously and works with a pro boxing coach to get into fight-
ing shape. “Each boxer trains four to six months leading up to the main event in November,” said Austin. “They get stronger and generally lose ten pounds while getting in better shape and in better health.” The boxer matchup event will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m and will include a cocktail hour and reception. Tickets at the door will be $20 and all cocktails will be $10. Tickets will be $135 for the general public at the main event in Melville on November 21st and $250 for VIP.
The Town of Oyster Bay was part of sixteen communities across the Island that was awarded a state grant for the monitoring of so called ‘zombie houses.’ The State granted a total of $3.3 million for the abandoned and vacated properties which have not been foreclosed on by the banks. The zombie homes started to spread on Long Island after a tide of foreclosures stemming from the financial recession in 2007-2009. In a statement from New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, he said that awards of $350,000 will go to the Towns of Brookhaven, Huntington and Smithtown and that the Towns of Oyster Bay and Islip would each receive a grant of a little over $349,000. Other grants ranged from $152,000 for the Village of Freeport, $100,000 for the Village of Valley stream and $90,000 for the City of Glen Cove. “The grants will help municipalities enforce housing codes, monitor vacant homes and make sure local lenders abide by local and state laws requiring them to maintain properties,” said the Attorney General. He added that zombie homes, “invite crime, threaten public safety and drive down the value of surrounding homes. The grants give communities the tools to eradicate them and to help families stay in their homes and not abandon them in the first place.” The grants are part of a statewide $13 million program funded from a $3.2 billion settlement that financial giant, Morgan Stanley struck with state and federal agencies earlier this year. The settlement stemmed from problems with mortgage-backed bonds and Attorney General Schneiderman helped to negotiate the accord. Town Councilman Chris Coschignano, who is the liaison to the Planning and Development Department, said that the Town is pleased to receive the maximum funds available to a municipality under this grant. “The funds will be used to address housing vacancy and blight by bolstering our Town’s capacity for housing code enforcement, for tracking and monitoring vacant properties, for legal enforcement, and to support the efforts of the Town to prevent future zombie homes by connecting homeowners to foreclosure prevention program,” said Coschignano.
Kindergarteners learn programming PAGE 20 Studying the mind body connection PAGE 17