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Friday, March 10, 2017
Vol. 77, No. 10
Residents draw positive messages over graffiti
Hundreds of people come out for candlelight vigil BY GARY SIMEONE It was a frigid cold night last Thursday but that did not stop hundreds of people from coming out to the Plainview Mid-Island JCC to a candlelight vigil to denounce anti-Semitism. The vigil was held in response to a recent bomb threat against the Long Island Jewish center last Monday. Politicians such as State Senator Todd Kaminsky and Oyster Bay Town Supervisor, Joseph Saladino attended the event as well as members of the interfaith clergy and community members. Rabbi Jonathan Hecht, of the Plainview JCC, helped to organize the event and was the first to speak at the vigil in front of the crowd of onlookers who stood in support holding candles and signs that read, peace, love and united against hate, unity in our community. “There is no place for hate here in our community,” said Rabbi See page 4
Parents and kids write messages of love and peace over racist graffiti at park BY GARY SIMEONE It has been a common theme in the news lately, messages of hate being written in parks, buildings and highway overpasses across Long Island. On Sunday, February 26th, a group of Plainview residents gathered together at Haypath Park in Old Bethpage to do something about it. Led by Plainview resident, Rebecca Davis, a group of local moms and their children gathered in the park armed with handfuls of multicolored chalk to draw over racist graffiti that had been uncovered there the night before. “There was a picture posted on Saturday of the offensive graffiti on the Plainview Moms Facebook page,” said Davis. “I commented and suggested that we should all show up at the park the next day and write
messages of acceptance and tolerance in chalk where the hateful messages were.” She put up posts on the Plainview Moms page and texted some friends to try to get as many people involved as she could. Many of the moms on the page agreed to her proposal, showing up early in the morning the following day with kids and dads in toe to draw pictures of hearts, the sunshine and words such as tolerance, peace, love and coexist. “We wanted to show that as a community we could fight against the hate, using its most formidable enemy, love,” said Davis. She said that about 50 families showed up and wrote messages of tolerance and love on the ground. One of those people was Jen Biren, an Old Bethpage resi-
dent who came down to the park with her daughter, Allison. The ten year old drew a picture of an earth with all people holding hands for unity and also drew hearts on the ground over the racist graffiti. “When I heard that this happened I immediately wanted to support the community and went with my 10 year old daughter to Haypath to change the look of the situation,” said Biren. “Instead of people looking at hatred they were able to look at statements of tolerance and unity.” She said by doing what she did she hopes to teach her three kids about how a community needs to unite together against intolerance. “We need to continue to listen to our children and talk to See page 4
New assisted living facility coming to Jericho The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency (NCIDA) has approved an economic development compact for HSRE-EB Jericho LLC, which intends to build a Bristal Assisted Living facility in Jericho at a cost of $125 million. The Bristal plans to hire approximately 90 full-time-equivalent employees within three years of the facility’s completion. Construction will result in the creation of about 150 full-time-equivalent construction jobs during an 18-month period. According to Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, “This project will help to meet the growing needs of a segment of the population who are no longer able to live alone while enhancing their quality of life.” HSRE-EB, a partnership of Garden City-based Engel Burman Group and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC, plans to construct a 336,000 square-foot, 280-unit facility on vacant land at 300-310 Jericho Turnpike in Jericho. One hundred forty units will be traditional assisted-living apartments and the remainder will be specially designed for residents suffering from the onset of dementia and other memory loss conditions. County Executive Mangano said the project will have a positive tax benefit for Nassau County and other taxing jurisdictions of $22 million and is expected to have a total economic impact of $337 million on Nassau County. In addition, Engel Burman is gifting 8.5 acres of undeveloped land at the 10-acre site to the Town of Oyster Bay to be preserved forever.
Syosset HS theatre group to present “Hair” PAGE 5 Jericho Middle School Reflections Contest PAGE 9