Rockville Centre
Independence Day flag Pull-out inside Vol. 31 No. 27
Auxiliary bishop ordained in RVC
Students honored for service
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JUlY 2 - 8, 2020
Seniors say farewell to South Side High By JIll NoSSA jnossa@liherald.com
Jill Nossa/Herald
StUDeNtS lINeD Up, socially distanced, and waited to be called to receive their diplomas.
Families sat in their cars in the parking lot of the Nassau Coliseum, their radios tuned to the speeches, and watched seniors receive their diplomas on a large outdoor screen. It wasn’t the graduation ceremony the 290 seniors from South Side High School had planned on, but the socially distant event was still charged with excitement, bringing the class of 2020 together for a final time on June 26. Lara Solano, president of
the Student Government, led the Pledge of Allegiance and introduced the senior members of the Chamber Singers, who had recorded “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Students lined up in groups of 40, wearing masks and keeping their distance from one another, before walking to the podium to receive their diplomas. “In these trying times, our sense of community has only strengthened,” Valedictorian Miguel Hulyalkar said. “While high school’s over, we will still have to overcome hardships to Continued on page 20
Sportset owner, officials call for safe reopening of gyms By JIll NoSSA jnossa@liherald.com
As New York state continues its phased reopening, fitness centers keep getting pushed off the list of facilities that can restart operations. Several local gym owners, including Dennison Silvio, of Rockville Centre’s Sportset, along with town officials, have said they are ready to reopen safely and hope to do so as soon as possible. “Gyms are essential,” Silvio said. “Fitness helps people relieve their stress, [and] it combats high blood pressure, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and obesity.”
Originally slated to be included with “personal care” facilities in the Phase 3 reopening, which began on June 24 in Nassau County, gyms were then moved to Phase 4, which begins July 8. Last week, however, Gov. Andrew Cuomo took fitness centers off the list, saying that the state was conducting further studies on how Covid-19-causing droplets spread, and whether they can do so through ventilation systems in crowded spaces. On Monday, Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin and other town officials highlighted the importance of fitness centers and the measures some facility owners have taken to ensure
their safe use. Clavin was joined by C o u n c i l m a n A n t h o n y D’Esposito, Town Clerk Kate Murray, Rockville Centre Mayor Francis X. Murray and owners of local gyms at a news conference outside Sportset to call for a collaboration of state and local health officials, government leaders and business owners to open the facilities safely in the near future. “Fitness and sports clubs are suffering right now because they cannot open up,” Clavin said. “And they have a plan. They have spent thousands of dollars on initiatives to open and keep residents safe, and do it in a way that will ensure we don’t have a sec-
ond wave.” He said he was asking Cuomo to work with counties and townships to allow these businesses to reopen. “Every day these places are closed,” Clavin said, “is a day closer to being a permanent closure.” He noted that businesses and public facilities, including town beaches and pools, have started to open in recent weeks because a plan was in place to follow sanitation and social distancing guidelines. Facilities such as Sportset and G2 Training in Syosset, Clavin said, have also been planning for reopening since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and these facili-
ties are important because they help keep people healthy. “It’s time that the state give us a helping hand here — team up with the Nassau County Board of Health and get inspections done,” he said. “There is a means to get where we need to be.” Silvio said his facility has taken safety “very seriously” since the beginning of the pandemic. “Over the past few months,” he said, “we looked at what other gyms around the country are doing, we reviewed the guidelines published by other states, we listened to the Continued on page 21