Merrick Life 75th Anniversary by Richner Communications, Inc

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January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD 2

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MERRICK HERALD — January 23, 2014

By way of introduction... BY LINDA LAURSEN TOSCANO AND PAUL LAURSEN Former publisher and editor of Merrick Life

First and foremost, we wish to thank Cliff and Stuart Richner, publishers of the Merrick Herald Life since August, for the opportunity to help produce this 75th anniversary salute to the community’s Merrick Life. In it, we interview Angela Anton, widow of Karl Anton, who founded Merrick Life in 1938 at the request of the community; Meg Morgan Norris, whose father Bob Morgan sold the newspaper to our parents in 1958; and our father, Johannes Laursen, publisher of Merrick Life for more than 30 years. Our mother, the late Faith Laursen, championed many local causes, such as the raising of the railroad tracks, the founding of the historical society and keeping Merrick beautiful. We include a PAUL LAURSEN history of the Faith Laursen Meroke PreAND LINDA TOSCANO serve, named in her honor by former County Executive Thomas Gulotta. Judge Jerome Medowar, an historical society founder, writes about the changes he has seen in Merrick over the years and its storied past. We have also included memories of the past from Gertrude Bellafante, Jay Pitti, Russ Nieli, Bob Klieger, Richard Kessel, Captain Lawrence Worters and others. Former Merrick Life staffers also reminisce about some of their favorite times. Saul Lerner, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District director of health, physical

Artist’s rendering of past offices of Merrick Life by Anna Knoblock.

education and athletics, shares high points in local sports history. A burning issue in some of the very first issues of Merrick Life was the lack of a teen center, and Merrick Herald Life Editor Scott Brinton assesses the situation today. The youth of Merrick are our future, and so we have included excerpts from essays by our former interns and from entries in the Keep Merrick Beautiful contest.

Future historians may also consult the bound volumes or CDs of this newspaper, located at the Herald offices or online on the Herald website, wwwliherald.com, and in the local libraries. Richner Communications, Inc., parent company of Herald Community Newspapers, acquired L&M Publications, including Merrick Life, last July.

Merrick Life 75th Anniversary ON THE COVER: At left, the very first issue of Merrick Life. At right, sad times after 9/11, a raucous school board meeting in the 1960’s, the Mientus family in 1948 and Kennedy student Margie Kirschner in 1969.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Merrick in 1988 were, from left, Faith, John, Johannes and Paul Laursen, New York State Sen. Norman J. Levy, Grace Anton, Linda Toscano and Karl Anton, founder of Merrick Life.

Karl Anton, Merrick Life’s teenage founder By PAUL LAURSEN

Interviewed in her office at Anton Community Newspapers in Mineola last month, Angela Anton said her late husband, Karl, “told me he started Merrick Life in 1938. He went around town on his bicycle [selling ads]. He was very involved in the production of Merrick Life. He did practically everything. He saw a need for a local community newspaper. His [late] wife Grace was a teacher and helped him with Merrick Life. People needed a newspaper to tell them what was going on in their community.

“When I married Karl, I moved to Merrick and I needed to learn” about it, she continued. Coming from Old Brookville on the North Shore, “I needed Merrick Life to guide me through the community. Local newspapers give you births, deaths, stores, street fairs and interesting people in your community. I always relied on Merrick Life to give me all the news you can’t get from Newsday: where to shop, what to do, local street fairs, what’s being built and news about the school boards. Merrick Life always did such a great job covering the school boards and also the crime reports. Everybody reads that.

“Karl loved the newspaper business so much; he was so hands-on,” she recalled. “He picked the inks to print the paper. He found a great ink: Van Son Holland Ink. He loved it so much he got into the ink business and sold the newspaper. When he retired from the ink business in 1984, he bought eight community newspapers, expanding them to what is now Anton Community Newspapers,” with 18 local weekly papers. The chain recently added the Long Island Weekly, she noted. “I have been the publisher since Karl died in 2000. He taught me everything he knew. He was funny. He made me laugh so much!”

PUBLISHERS CLIFFORD RICHNER STUART RICHNER VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES RHONDA GLICKMAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR JOHN C. O’CONNELL SECTION EDITORS SCOTT BRINTON PAUL LAURSEN LINDA TOSCANO PRODUCTION MANAGER KAREN MENGEL EDITORIAL DESIGNER ALYSON GOODMAN PHOTO EDITOR CHRISTINA DALY ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES AUDREY COHEN ROB CUMMINGS ELAINE SPIRO MERRICK LIFE 75TH ANNIVERSARY Herald Community Newspapers Copyright © 2014 Richner Communications, Inc. Published by Richner Communications, Inc. 2 Endo Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530 (516) 569-4000 www.liherald.com

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January 23, 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MERRICK HERALD

By PAUL LAURSEN

“My brother was named George after George Little,” which accounted for the “L” in L&M Publications, said Meg Morgan Norris, the youngest daughter of Bob and Mary Morgan, who sold Merrick Life to Faith and Johannes Laursen in 1958. L&M was the corporate name of Merrick Life, standing for Little and Morgan. Meg is the publisher of Litmor Publications, with five community newspapers based in Hicksville. She was interviewed in her office there last month after treating all her employees to takeout food from Panera Bread, since they had to work on a Friday before the holidays, a day they normally have off. “My dad had a daily paper in ’53-’58,” the Central Island Daily News, she said. “My Uncle Jim, James Morgan, was involved in that too.” Litmor was founded in 1974 with the purchase of The Garden City News, still the flagship of the newspaper group, and three other papers. Bob Morgan worked as publisher until he died in 1994, after building up the group from four papers to eight, including the purchase of the Great Neck News in 1987. His wife, Mary, was a public school English as a Second Language teacher in Manhattan until she had the first of her six children. “I was the youngest. When I started school she went back to school” as a teacher, Meg said. Meg later became editor of the Williston Park Times and the New Hyde Park Courier, which were sold to Steve Blank in 2010. “My dad bought them in the late ’60s. They lived in Forest Hills.” The Garden City News was purchased in bankruptcy court in 1974 for $10,000. “My mother paid for half of it

with an inheritance, and investors paid the other half,” Meg said. “They moved to Garden City in 1975. Garden City is the most successful of the papers.” The other four Litmor newspapers are the Mid-Island Times in Hicksville, the Bethpage Newsgram, Syosset Advance and Jericho News Journal. All of Meg’s siblings worked for the newspapers at some point while in school. “It was a good source of summer jobs. My oldest brother, Bob Jr., set type on an old linotype machine. I covered [employees while they were on vacation] during my vacations from Garden City High School. When I was 15, I took a classified ad [order] but left out the address. The woman [who placed the ad] was screaming at me. I still can’t look at a classified ad without checking for an address. I started reporting right after college. My dad hired my then-fiancé Ed Norris” to sell advertising. “My husband and I are the sole owners now,” Meg said. “My parents both died in 1994.” Her father died on Feb. 19 of a heart attack. Her mother died near Thanksgiving after a stroke. “My dad kept a lot of how to run the business in his head, which made the transition all the more fun,” she said with a smile. Litmor has a cooperative agreement to share advertising sales and editorial content with Steve Blank’s Blank Slate Media. “We sold him the Williston Times, the New Hyde Park Courier and Great Neck News,” Meg said. “He just opened new papers, the Roslyn Times and Manhasset Times. There is always going to be a market for news. Someday we’ll all switch to a digital format when a successful model is perfected. People still want their local newspapers.”

MERRICK HERALD — January 23, 2014

The ‘L’ and the ‘M’ in L&M Publications

Paul Laursen/Merrick Life Meg Morgan Norris is daughter of Bob Morgan, who sold Merrick Life to Faith and Johannes Laursen in 1958.

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Merrick Ofﬁce 2300 Merrick Road

January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

A father-daughter interview:

Former Life publishers sit down for a chat Linda Toscano, the most recent publisher of Merrick Life, sat down in December with her father, Johannes Laursen, who served for 30 years as publisher of Merrick Life. Laursen purchased Merrick Life in 1958 with his wife, Faith.

Linda: Why did you buy Merrick Life? Johannes: We looked at papers in southern Virginia and North Carolina, where your mother’s family was. But we each made separate trips to Merrick to look over the town, and we both liked it. And it was near New York City, where we had lived for many years and had friends like the Steins at the Riverdale Press.

Linda: What about your motto, “The glue that helps hold the community together and the spur that helps keep it moving forward”? Johannes: Faith coined that and it expressed what we hoped to do. She had worked on both weekly and daily newspapers in the South and as a Red Cross writer in India-Burma during World War II, and I had worked for a daily newspaper in Denmark and for the Danish Information Office in New York. We wanted to run our own newspaper together.

Linda: Who was on the early staff? Johannes: Frank Nausbaum was already there selling ads. Bill Meyer was a printer who addressed our newspapers for us and delivered them to the post office and newsstands. Florence Spencer became our office manager soon after. Over the years, Grace Anton, Dorcas Carlos and Harriet Luce were some of the editors we worked with. Nancy Lambeth organized our pre-press shop, and Marilyn Loheide, later production manager, helped her. The Loheides did a lot of the construction on the office, at first under Mrs. Lambeth’s supervision. Frank Gencorelli was the architect.

Linda: Who were some of your friends in the community? Johannes: Grace and Karl Anton, who had founded Merrick Life 20 years before we bought it from Bob Morgan; our landlord Louis Wolfe at the old Christy-Wolfe building, at 31 Merrick Ave.; Herb Krohn, the lawyer; Moses Hornstein, the builder; Gus Weller, the banker; and later Jerry Medowar from the Chamber of Commerce and Kiwanis.

Linda: What are some of the campaigns and causes the newspaper helped with?

Faith Laursen, left, with her husband, Johannes, right, met Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and his wife, Happy, in 1970, at the New York Press Association convention in Syracuse. Johannes served as the NYPA president that year.

Johannes: [Your mother was given a railroad tie] when they finally raised the railroad tracks after several tragedies. She helped lobby for the preserve that bears her name to be declared forever wild and helped found the Keep Merrick Beautiful Committee. She drafted Adele Prosono to organize a Bicentennial celebration in 1976, and we were among the founding members of the Historical Society of the Merricks.

Linda: When did you join the New York Press Association?

Linda: When did you join the Audit Bureau of Circulation?

Johannes: Visiting Governor Rockefeller’s home with fellow publishers. When I introduced him at the spring NYPA convention. I pointed out that, unlike many other public servants, he was not a lawyer but an economist educated at Dartmouth, and that was a good thing. I’m told he appreciated that.

Johannes: Pretty soon after we bought the paper. We wanted our advertisers to know what our circulation was. And, at that time, we were quoted in The National Publisher saying, “We feel sure that if many other suburban newspapers would make clear the solid basis of their circulation, based on paid readership (which makes their paper an ‘invited guest’ in the home), they would be better able to meet the competition of circulars and ‘shoppers.’”

Johannes: Also soon after. And I got some fellow publishers on Long Island to join, like Andy Lang, Ira Cahn and Art Milton.

Linda: What was the highlight of your year as NYPA president?

Photo by Lucas Laursen

Johannes Laursen today.

to run in all member newspapers was proposed, and having written a book about Danish government, it appealed to me and I volunteered. Several of those I interviewed were lawyers, and in 1968 the New York Bar Association gave me an award based on the series. In one column on health and Medicaid, I quoted then state Sen. Norman Lent in favor of compulsory health insurance. Another floated a proposal by then Sen. Edward Speno for electric taxis to reduce pollution in Manhattan. The state lottery was established in those years to fund education. For Nassau Insight, I interviewed County Executive Eugene Nickerson, among others. It was fun.

Linda: Your mantra was, “What is best for the readers?” Johannes: Yes, well, to me it seemed pretty obvious that should be the overriding consideration.

Linda: You wrote columns about New York state and Nassau County government. How did that come about?

Linda: So, are you glad that you bought Merrick Life?

Johannes: At the press association, the idea of a column

Johannes: Absolutely!

Together again In July 2013, Richner Communications, Inc., publisher of the Merrick Herald, acquired the Merrick Life. After, the paper became the Merrick Herald Life. At left, former Merrick Life staffers, many of whom went to work at the Herald, held a reunion at the Savoy in Merrick in December. From left were Olimpia Santaniello, Paul Roberts, Lois Roos, Margaret Biegelman, Elaine Spiro, Jermaine Chase, Erin Donohue, Eileen Dever, Pat McKay and Stacey Simmons.

Paul Laursen/Merrick Life

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Congratulations To Linda and Paul!

MERRICK HERALD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; January 23, 2014

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Merrick Life A Happy 75th Anniversary

January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

Preserve named for ‘force of nature’ By LINDA LAURSEN TOSCANO

The 25-acre Faith Laursen Meroke Preserve, on the Bellmore-Merrick border, is a forest much like most of Long Island used to be. The Meroke Indians camped by its five streams, and Colonists used its tall cedars for ship masts. Legend says during the Revolutionary War British soldiers hid there from marauding Colonials. (Most of the Bellmore-Merrick area farmers were British sympathizers.) Part of what is now the preserve was once owned by the New York City Brooklyn waterworks, with the water pumped along Sunrise Highway to the west. Part of it was owned by the county, part of it was acquired from developers, and most recently, part of it was donated by KeySpan in 1999 and declared “forever wild” in 2001, as the other 24 acres of the county preserve had been in 1991. In 1973, residents successfully fought a plan to build a sewer line through the preserve. The preserve was renamed for my mother, Faith Laursen, the former publisher of Bellmore and Merrick Life, in 1993, shortly after her death. Then County Executive Tom Gulotta, of North Merrick, knew it was one of her favorite causes. She had helped push to declare it “forever wild,” because as a former Girl Scout, she felt it was important for young people to have a place to learn about nature. Otherwise, why would they care about preserving it? As in other cases where she had helped form a civic action group, raising the railroad tracks or organizing a bicentennial celebration, she was, as fellow New York Press Association board member Cliff Richner, now the publisher of the Merrick Herald Life, put it, a “force of nature.” For many years, our family had a Mother’s Day tradition of picking up litter in the preserve. One of my daughters, Carolina, wrote a letter published in Merrick Life in which she complained that the woods named for her grandmother was becoming a dump. New York State Sen. Norman Levy later obtained a grant, which the county used to enact many of the changes proposed by Friends of the Preserve, including fencing, a bridge over the biggest stream, lighting, dredging, benches, trash receptacles and signage. Residents Susan Johnson, Barbara and Bill Wood, and Glen Halleran on the Bellmore side and Jo Gencorelli and Frank Stibritz on the Merrick side worked hard on this project, with help from Herb Mills and Carol Ryder from the county. Over the years, the Merrick Garden Club, Scouts and homeowners groups organized many cleanups. In 1994, Michael Zoccoli and his troop marked trails, erected a trail map sign and installed benches. Longtime residents recall splashing in the streams,

Linda Toscano/Merrick Life

Paul Laursen, second from left, son of Faith Laursen, joined Barbara and Bill Wood, members of the Friends of the Faith Laursen Preserve, outside the 25-acre nature reserve.

which had sandy bottoms and no broken glass once upon a time. But the neighbors are also the ones who are affected most when young people enter the preserve, not to enjoy its peace and beauty, but to build bonfires and drink. As one neighbor told the parent called by police to come pick up her son, “You need to know where your kids are.” Superstorm Sandy caused major flooding in the preserve when waters from the stream and Farmer’s Boulevard joined, making it easy for the winds to topple dozens of majestic trees. It was sad to see the woods decimated, but we hope the preserve will renew itself in the future.

The Faith Laursen Preserve’s oaks and maples are barren at this time of year, but come the spring, they will provide a lush canopy for nature lovers. A creek runs through the preserve’s dense vegetation.

Photos by Scott Brinton/Herald Life

The Faith Laursen Preserve has been the site of many Eagle Scout projects over the years.

MERRICK HERALD — January 23, 2014 Courtesy Don Davidson

An aerial view of Merrick in 1935.

Looking back: Memories of Merrick By JERRY MEDOWAR

I have lived in Merrick for 65 years, having moved here from Island Park in 1949. Merrick has changed enormously in that time. Stately mansions were replaced by shopping centers, strip malls and office buildings. The Hewlett peninsula, south of Merrick Road, once only went down as far as Holland Way, the Merrick Avenue peninsula ran down to the Bay, and the Beach Drive peninsula only went down as far as Irene Street. Before that, there were watery marshes to the south. Look at it today. Thousands of beautiful, modern homes were built in those marshes. How was that possible? Men like Harry Firester discovered a way to turn mud into gold! He learned how to dredge mud out of the bottom of the bay and pour it on to the watery marshes, thus turning wetlands into building lots, many of them with waterfronts. In the 1960s, Merrick Life began publishing a column called, “Looking Back: Memories of Merrick.” It was a weekly pictorial history of Merrick. That column got me interested in Merrick’s history. There was no way I could remember the hundreds of pictures contained in those columns. Fortunately, Linda Toscano and Paul Laursen, the publisher and editor of Merrick Life, respectively, provided the Historical Society of the Merricks with many of the columns. I used them to refresh my memory of what I enjoyed so much in the 1960s. Some of the pictures published were antiques. Others were taken in the 1960s, before the historical structures were taken down. Many of the pictures displayed structures built in the early 1700s that no longer exist. In their place today are shopping centers. This brings to mind a sad story. It was told to me by an older retired fire chief named Stanley Molinari, who recounted a tale about what happened in the 1930s when he was a young fireman. There had been a series of restaurants at the corner of Central Parkway and Merrick Road, where the Pastrami King is now. In the 1930s, there was the home of the Rock Smith family that was built about 1630. It was in poor condition. As Stanley told it, a movie company was making a movie in which a house burned down. They asked the fire chief if there was an old house in Merrick that they could burn down for the movie. They were direct-

The Birch General Store, which provided local folks with the staples they needed at the turn of the century, was moved across Sunrise Highway in 1910. This photo was published in Merrick Life in 1965.

ed to the Rock Smith house. An historical treasure was put to the torch! At least we still have a picture of the Rock Smith house before it was burned down. Looking through the Merrick Life columns brought back many wonderful memories. Most readers are familiar with the Chatterton School, at Smith Street and Merrick Avenue, which was built in 1923. It was preceded by a building constructed in 1902 on Smith Street, to the west of Merrick Avenue. It is the white structure of the Baptist Church School, Grace Christian Academy. This was the first official Common School District No. 25, which is now called Merrick Union Free School District No. 25. There is a wonderful picture of the 1909 class. What warms my heart about this picture is a youngster who grew up to be a man in his 80s and a fellow Kiwanian. He was my mentor and the owner of a grocery/delicatessen on Merrick Road,

near the long-forgotten Gables Theater. He was Pat Brinsley. One of the most historical of the pictures in the Merrick Life collection, which was published on July 14, 1960, is of the little yellow building on Smith Street, near the Baptist Church school. Today it is an office, but in the early 1900s, it was a blacksmith shop run by David Greaves. When the Model T came around, he turned it into a gas station, which had no electric pumps. Gasoline would come in drums, and the serviceman would hand pump the gasoline into a pail and then pour it into the Model T. When I first came to Merrick, I was told by my new neighbors that if I wanted some terrific ice cream, I should go to Sam Sirica’s on Merrick Avenue. Not only did he run the ice cream parlor, but also he was the barber next door. Merrick Life published the picture on March 17, 1966. There are a couple of pictures of J.W. Birch’s General

Joseph Wallace Birch, owner of the Birch General Store, with his grandson.

Store. They were published in July 1965. Mr. Birch’s original store was on the south side of Sunrise Highway, but along came New York City, which wanted a right-of-way to pump Merrick’s underground water to New York City because of its high quality. J.W. Birch was forced to move his business to the north side of Sunrise Highway, past the railroad tracks. One picture is of the building being moved, and the second is the rebuilt building with Charlie Offerman’s 5-cent jitney in front of the store. Charlie was the only taxi in Merrick. Birch called his store a general store, but it was much more than that. It was a post office and meeting place for townspeople and elected leaders. They sat around a potbelly stove to tell stories and solve the community’s problems. I hope the Historical Society of the Merricks will one day republish the “Looking Back: Memories of Merrick” columns.

January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

Ace Nieli, a true Merrick patriot By PAUL LAURSEN

Former Merrick resident Russ Nieli said his grandfather Mike opened a hardware store and general store on Merrick Avenue in 1924, M. Nieli, later renamed M. Nieli and Son, for Russ’s dad, Anthony “Ace” Nieli. The shop was adjacent to and south of the site of the old Merrick Life and Christy Wolfe building, at 31 Merrick Ave., which was replaced by the current professional building. After World War II, Ace Nieli got a liquor license and opened Ace’s Liquors, which is still in business across the street from the more recent Merrick Life building, farther north on Merrick Avenue. Mike and his wife, Rosalie, ran the hardware store. When Ace was 8 years old, he worked in the shop as a stock boy and made deliveries using his wagon. When the family first moved to Merrick from Brooklyn in 1924, they lived in the Merrick Hotel, later the Northeast Metal window factory behind the train station, for a year while their home was being built –– a house that still stands behind the site of the hardware store. “That store got them through the Great Depression and put food on the table,” Russ said. “My father’s older sister Grace worked as a cashier in the hardware store.” Mike’s sister Anna and her husband, Dan Sirica, opened a barbershop in 1924, when Merrick was a semi-rural town with many potato farms. Russ’s grandparents both spoke Italian and English. His father and grandfather were active in the Merrick Fire Department. Ace Nieli served in the Army Air Corps and took part in the American invasion of Italy during the Nazi occupation in World War II. His wife, Vivian, served in the Marines, then called the Lady Marines, and was stationed in California, where she gave inoculation shots to soldiers being sent to the Pacific Theater of Operations. She worked in a medical dispensary. “My father was a very good athlete. They called him ‘Ace’ when he played football and basketball at South Side High School in Rockville Centre, before Mepham High School was built,” Russ said. Ace attended the Smith Street School in Merrick, now the Chatterton School, Russ said. Father and son had the same teacher there, Leah Hoffman, who wrote a history of the Merricks. “She was my art teacher. She really liked my dad,” he said. Ace was a member of the Merrick Chamber of Commerce and was made grand marshal of the Memorial Day Parade one year. “He was very well known and well liked,”

Ace Nieli, right, and his wife, Vivian, with then Nassau County Executive Fran Purcell in 1970, when Ace was the Merrick Chamber of Commerce’s Man of the Year.

Russ said. He ran two stores, the hardware store and the liquor store, and later sold the hardware store. “He had a greater

sense of loyalty to Merrick than to New York or the U.S.,” Russ said. When Ace Nieli died in May 1976, at age 57, many peo-

ple came to his funeral at N.F. Walker, his son said. Russ’s aunt Grace died last year at age 98. “She worked at both stores as a cashier,” Russ said.

Remembering Merrick Life’s early days By PAUL LAURSEN

Nearly 90-year Merrick resident Gertrude Bellafante recalled recently that her “first impression of Merrick Life” was that the newspaper noted that the population of the Merricks was about 3,500, compared to around 10 times that today. “Each year Merrick Life printed the population of Merrick up to 40,000,” she said. In addition to Merrick Life, the family read the Daily News and the Saturday Evening Post magazine. “My brother [the late Vincent] and I would race down the stairs to read the funny sheets [comics] on Sunday morning,” she said. “I loved the covers of the Saturday Evening Post because Norman Rockwell’s” nostalgic paintings graced the front of the magazine. “They were filming a movie on Merrick Road when I was 10 years old in 1932,’’ she recalled. “Before the [Second World] War, famous people lived here. Frank Munn was a broadcaster during the ‘Golden Age of Radio,’” she said. “Across the street was composer William Wirges, who wrote [the commercial jingle] ‘Chiquita Banana.’ He worked at NBC. Joe Murphy said Wirges was an organist at Radio City Music Hall. Wirges was a volunteer air raid warden during World War II, and made sure local lights were dimmed and that people didn’t smoke outside,” she said, so they wouldn’t be seen by any enemy aircraft crews. “Roone Arledge of ‘Wide World of Sports’ on ABC grew up on Hewlett Avenue south of Merrick Road,” Bellafante continued. “Actor Ed Begley, [the father of movie star Ed Begley Jr.], lived in the Gables, I think on Lincoln Boulevard. He was a member of Curé of Ars Church, and I would see him every Sunday. Harry

Reser, a famous banjo player, lived on Hewlett Avenue in a house that is the same color as it was during World War II.” After the war, some Merrick streets were named for local fallen service members. “Orr Street was named after a dead soldier. Chernucha Street was named after Harry Chernucha, who graduated from Mepham with me in ’41. He died on the U.S.S. Arizona at Pearl Harbor, along with Larry Soloway. The local chapter of the Jewish War Veterans is named after [Soloway],” she noted. Bellafante worked for Ranger Aircraft in Farmingdale during World War II. “They built aircraft engines. When the war ended, [the factory] closed,” she said. “I worked in the general manager’s office. The general manager had phone conversations with Washington. It was the first time I saw a [tape recorder]. I was checked by the FBI. My job was to keep a record of how many engines were built. I had to make charts and graphics for each department. I never even saw the factory floor. Test pilots were testing the planes to test the engines, which were extremely noisy, right outside my window.” Bellafante lost some hearing. “During World War II, it was patriotic for young women to join the Red Cross. Most of the young men were off at war,” after being drafted, she said. “I took a steam engine [train] from Farmingdale to Mineola to be a Red Cross nurse’s assistant at Mineola Hospital, now Winthrop [University] Hospital.” Her family kept a victory garden in the basement of their Hewlett Avenue home, where she has lived since she was 2. They grew mushrooms there. World War II was “a time of rationing” of such items as sugar and butter, she noted. When she was looking for work in New York City, employers hadn’t heard of Merrick, she recalled. “They thought it was upstate.”

Paul Laursen/Merrick Life

Gertrude Bellafante, Merrick Life’s Woman of the Year in 1986, was among the original readers of the paper, back in the 1930s. She is shown here with a portrait of her daughter, Ginia Bellafante, who is now a staff writer at The New York Times.

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MERRICK HERALD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; January 23, 2014

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A beautiful community to grow up in

January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

Jay Pitti’s longtime gardening career is rooted in a desire to recapture for everyone the halcyon days when Merrick was a beautiful country village. His childhood was mostly spent outdoors, he said. In those days, he could stand on Elliot Street, at the corner of Bayview, and see the Jones Beach water tower. The whole of south Merrick was not yet developed. During summers, he swam at the beach at the end of Whaleneck. A canal came right up to his home, where he had a boat he used for clamming. From a blueberry patch down Merrick Avenue, probably planted by Colonial settlers, he brought home berries for his mom to make pies. Near Cammann’s Pond, there were blackberries to pick. In the fall, he harvested asparagus from a spot near Lindenmere Drive and Merrick Avenue.

He played ball with the other kids at the old Merrick Elementary School, now Chatterton. But he also spent many hours at the old Merrick Library (now the Library Wing), where Evelyn MacFarland helped him select books that would help him develop a lifelong love of reading. He would later teach at Chatterton Elementary School, after coming home from the service and earning two college degrees. To supplement his teaching salary, he added a garden shop to his father’s food store. Eventually that shop evolved into Merrick House and Gardens, known to generations. Now it is a booming landscaping business, expanded well beyond Merrick. Jay’s many friends in Merrick and beyond helped him lobby for creation of the

Norman Levy Park and Preserve atop the former Merrick landfill, where he used to go to deliver garden waste. Among them was the late Faith Laursen, former publisher of Merrick Life. They had known each other since Jay was a young man, helping serve sandwiches in his father’s store. They would swap stories about serving in the Far East, Jay in Japan and Korea and Faith in India and Burma. Jay was also friends with Karl Anton, founder of Merrick Life, whose mission was “reporting on life in Merrick,” a role that continued under the Laursen family’s ownership, as Merrick evolved from a sleepy country hamlet to a modern suburb while retaining that village atmosphere where “everybody knew everybody.”

Some ads from

Bob Klieger, Merrick’s Merchant of the Year in 1985, bought Savall Pharmacy on Merrick Avenue 35 years ago from his uncle Harold Mindell, who started the business in 1947 and lived not far from the store. He thinks Merrick is a great town, a “real town,” and “anybody who lives here likes it.” Merrick residents are also smart enough to support two independent pharmacies, realizing they will pay the same

long ago

wherever they go, but receive more caring and prompt service from local firms, which don’t make patrons wait around in hopes they will buy something, Bob said. Bob noted that Dave Levine started Garfield Pharmacy around the same time he bought his uncle’s business, and they are both on the best of terms. “Our main competitor is the insurance companies that keep cutting reimbursements. It would be hard to open a new store these days,”

he said. Running a pharmacy is a tough business, and Bob has to work days and nights, but does it because he loves it and cares about his customers, who are also his neighbors and friends. Some are even third-generation customers, and that “makes me feel old,” he joked. Employees are also multi-generation, such as Linda Patan and her mother, Anne Wilhelm, most of whom live in town and care deeply

about their “patients.” Bob lives in a house built in 1947, the same year that the pharmacy was founded. And he and his wife, Lauren, a native Merokean, have raised two daughters here, Kim and Jennifer, who graduated from Kennedy and Mepham high schools. Bob, who earned his pharmacy degree from the LIU Brooklyn College of Pharmacy, is active in the Long Island Pharmacists Association.

MERRICK HERALD — January 23, 2014

‘Merrick is a great town’

A Merrick institution since 1955 By BARBARA GOODMAN and JODIE MARANO

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a wonderfully special place in our town, hidden in a community of homes, a treasure of spaces for children to be children as long as they can be, a sacred place that makes you feel like you have wandered into a forest instead of a preschool. Something out of the ordinary happens here for children. It takes your breath away, like youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve finally found a special place designed for children to learn as they should. It is a connection that stays with you, and a place you return to again and again as your child grows and your family moves on. Children are free to learn and grow here, swing and run through the loft, stomp on the bridge, and take in all the unending learning experiences designed to spark their imaginations, natural learning and hands-on discoveries. At Merrick Community Nursery School, we believe in offering just the right amount of structure with enormous opportunities to spark brain development, get messy and make choices. There is clay, and easels, and multi-sensory stimulation everywhere every day. There are unlimited amounts of paper to rip or write on or cut at the writing center. It is simply good for kids here. If you stand back and watch, you can just imagine how a child feels in this space. Children call our school unforgettable for years to come. What they learn here, they take with them. The Merrick Community Nursery School is a two-room schoolhouse surrounded by a half-acre of trees and natural wood playgrounds. It has been in

Merrick since 1955 and was founded by my parents, who wished to create an environment that would invite all children and families to learn, discover and grow together in the best way children deserve to learn. Our creative, experienced teachers have advanced degrees in early-childhood education, and actively organize and guide kids through science, literature, math, reading and writing. We at MCNS are always mindful of developmentally ageappropriate programing. Traditional and nontraditional materials are used to let children â&#x20AC;&#x153;seeâ&#x20AC;? with all of their senses the wide range of possibilities available to them, and to feel the potential for success in their hands. We believe in creativity, offering plenty of choices for discovery and active play. We are here for families and have been a Merrick icon for more than 58 years. The parents at our school have a chance to be part of the Merrick Community legacy, and leave a path for future generations to come, as well as become lifelong friends. The tradition of outstanding early-childhood programming is exemplified here in our own town, from our history to the future generations too. We are so proud of the thousands of Merrick children who have passed through our doors, and continue to come back year after year to remember this sacred space. We never forget our MCNS family here. We are truly a proud Merrick legacy, an unforgettable little school in the woods.

Photos courtesy Merrick Community Nursery School

Above, the Merrick Community Nursery Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class of 1972-73, and below, Pow Wow 2013.

Barbara Goodman is the longtime director of MCNS, and Jodie Marano is a teacher.

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It’s time that we revive Teen House

January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

By SCOTT BRINTON

Calhoun and Kennedy high schools went head to head, circa 1969.

Sports participation increases over the years

Richard Kessel was Merrick Life intern

By PAUL LAURSEN

Athletic participation in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District has been booming, Athletic Director Saul Lerner and Kennedy Athletic Director Craig Papach reported recently. Lerner said participation has risen significantly in the 18 years that he has been the athletic director. Sports scholarships have increased in those 18 years, participation is more inclusive, and teams are bigger, especially at the middle school level, he said in an interview last month in his Brookside School office. District teams are competitive in almost every sport, he added. “More kids play,” and many students have played youth sports in outside leagues, club and travel teams, said Papach, joining in the conversation. “Because of youth leagues, kids come in with a wealth of experience, prepared for the next level, which is us,” Lerner said. He added that in middle school, most teams have gone from cutting players to becoming non-cut teams. Junior-varsity teams were added, and girls’ golf and boys’ golf became school teams. Girls’ lacrosse and varsity hockey teams were added, as well. Average football teams are larger than ever before, he added. When he came to Bellmore-Merrick, football teams ranged from 50 to 60 players in 1996. Now they average 60 to 100. High school track teams average 80 members and had about 40 members 18 years ago. Papach noted that the Kennedy boys’ volleyball team won the Long Island championship two years in a row, and won the top spot in the state in 2012. Lerner said, “Baseball at all three [high] schools is outstanding. and boys’ and girls’ soccer at all three schools is played at the highest levels in Nassau County.” Papach said wrestling is one of the district’s top sports. “Last year Mepham had the New York state champion, and Kennedy had the All-New York State wrestler.” The district offers “a very full program for boys and girls, with tremendous opportunities for boys and girls. Equal opportunity is not an issue in high school sports,” Lerner said. “Girls and boys’ sports have both gotten bigger,” Papach added. Lerner said much of the growth is owing to the youth leagues. “Many more college athletes are coming out of Bellmore-Merrick,” Lerner reported. “Eighteen years ago, it was rare. Now it’s a regular occurrence.” Papach said there are “more opportunities to play college sports, with an increase in students who get scholarships for athletics.” Lerner said “Three percent of high school athletes go on to play college sports.”

In thumbing through the original editions of Merrick Life last summer, I was struck by the sixth issue, published on Oct. 27, 1938. The front illustration alerting the community of an upcoming bazaar was a handdrawn picture of couples dancing. Beside it was the headline, “Merrick Life backs revival of youth club: List of sponsors being sought.” The story, which was more of an editorial than an article, pushed for reinstatement of a youth center at the Merrick Grammar School, where children could go at night to congregate –– in today’s parlance, to hang out. At some point, someone had done away with a previous community center, and Merrick Life was pushing to get it back. During the 1960s, Merrick Life highlighted the Friday night Teen House dances, sponsored by the then Youth Council of the Merricks and Bellmores at Calhoun High School. The caption for one black-and-white photograph read, “All high school students of the Merricks and Bellmores welcome at 50 cents each. Interested adults to help as chaperones are welcome and needed.” At some point, the Teen House ended. That was a sad day for the Bellmore-Merrick community. Teens need a place to just be teens. Without one, the woods beside the parkways await, where too many of our young people set bonfires and drink and do drugs. If there were a Teen House today, we might at least keep a percentage of our youth from the call of the woods. I would imagine that, at the height of the ’60s, with parents consumed by worry over the growing youth drug culture, the Teen House was a welcome addition to the community.

Reporting on stories of teen substance abuse over the years at the Merrick Herald, I was inspired in 2004 to join the Bellmore-Merrick Community Wellness Council’s Alcohol Awareness Committee, which Gail Volk, who was then the council’s executive director, formed after reading a Herald series on youth alcohol abuse. Substance abuse was one of those stories that both the Merrick Herald and Merrick Life took seriously and felt an obligation to report on. Gail appointed me chairman of a post-prom party subcommittee, which quickly grew to a dozen members, mostly mothers of high school freshmen, sophomores and juniors who worried about what might happen to their kids on prom might. I often had to explain to people why I joined the committee, as my own children weren’t yet in elementary school. It took three years of planning and lobbying to get the post-prom party off the ground, but in June 2007, Bellmore-Merrick’s first substance-free “Midnight Madness” was held at Sportime in Lynbrook. Fran Licausi, the Wellness Council’s current executive director; Emilio Manzo, its president; and Calhoun PTA leader Phyllis Guttilla have kept the partying going since then. Last year the council teamed up with the Rock Underground, a Bellmore music school, to hold a battle of the bands at the Brookside School in North Merrick that raised more than $5,000 for the 2013 postprom party, which was held at Zachary’s in East Meadow. Local businesses and donors provided the rest. We shouldn’t focus solely on prom night, though. Every Friday night, kids get themselves in trouble because they find themselves with nowhere special to go and nothing special to do. Perhaps we might consider reviving the Teen House.

Wrestling has long been a tradition at Mepham High School.

Papach said “the level of coaching has improved.” He has been a football coach for 23 years at Kennedy, and head coach for seven years. He was a college lacrosse player at the State University of New York at Cortland. Before he came to Bellmore-Merrick, Lerner was an assistant principal in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Before that, he was a dean in East New York. He was a professional basketball player in Israel from 1977-80. Eric Dunetz/Herald Life

With sports participation at an all-time high in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District today, the girls’ swim team, the Lady Sharks, has become a powerhouse, finishing second at counties in 2013 and placing several swimmers at states. Right, Georgeanne Zimmerman helped the Sharks, a district-wide team, score big this past year.

Richard Kessel remembers, “as if it were yesterday,” bounding up the steps to the old Merrick Life office in the Christy-Wolfe building with sports columns that he wrote as “the Spy” (a nickname coined by Calhoun basketball coach Glen Thurber). Editor Faith Laursen would critique his stories while he waited. “She taught me a lot,” he said, adding, “She said I was a good writer but a bad typist. “I used to type my stories at the kitchen table while my poor mother was trying to fix dinner,” he said. Rich had been an avid reader of The New York Times since sixth grade, when he was in Jay Pitti’s class at Lakeside School. But it was eventually politics, not journalism, that became his passion. When his mother died of cancer in 1972, he felt deeply that the government did not do enough cancer research. He earned a graduate degree at Columbia University in government and then began helping in local campaigns, eventually running against his neighbor, a local icon, New RICHARD KESSEL York State Sen. Norman Levy. He later joined the local consumer movement and met gubernatorial candidate Hugh Carey, who gave him his first fulltime governmental job helping with the transition to the Consumer Protection Board, which he would head for 11 years. He later became a Long Island Power Authority trustee and then chairman. He has also served on the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the board overseeing the county’s finances, and as head of the New York Power Authority. In all, during his public service, he worked for six governors. At present, he does energy consulting but may want to do “one more gig” in public service at some point. Meanwhile, he is enjoying raising his 5-year-old son, Eli, in the same town where he had such a happy childhood, and where he hopes to live out the rest of his life.

MERRICK HERALD — January 23, 2014

Merrick Life photo

Teen House, held at Calhoun High School, was a popular destination for Bellmore-Merrick teenagers during the 1960s.

Keeping Merrick beautiful through the generations BY CHARLES ROSENBLUM

Twenty-seven years ago, I was asked to join the Keep A-Merrick-A Beautiful Committee. At that time, I knew little about this organization, except that there was a rotation of co-chairmen (the politically correct term “chairperson” was not in use back in 1987), and I was nominated to be the successor to one of the co-chairmen, Hal Horowitz. The Hon. Steven Scharoff and the Hon. Jerome Medowar preceded Hal as co-chairmen, and they collectively lobbied for me to take the position. Little did I know that I would join the dynamic duo of Faith Laursen and Ragna Murbach as one-third of a trio that ran the KMB Committee. For me, that was the start of a three-decade commitment to our local students and our community. My understanding is that Faith and Ragna started the Keep A-Merrick-A Beautiful Committee back in the 1960s. As the publisher of the Merrick Life, Faith was committed to enhancing our community, and Ragna, as an active member of the Merrick Garden Club, agreed to work together on this ambitious project. One of the committee’s annual projects was to organize and financially support an essay contest in the Merrick and North Merrick school districts. Over the years, the contest expanded to Merrick Avenue Middle School, the Progressive School and the Sacred Heart School, which recently closed. It

Courtesy Glenn Gebhard

North Merrick Avenue

also grew to include the kindergarten and younger grades with the addition of a poster contest. The committee has always relied on the assistance of the district superintendents. During my tenure, I proudly worked with Dr. June Irvin and Dr. Estelle Kamler in the North Merrick Elementary School District and Dr. Ronald Smith and Dr. Ranier Melucci in the Merrick Elementary School District. I am currently collaborating with David Feller in North Merrick and Dr. Dominick Palma in Merrick, who have given unwavering support to our organization. Each year we recognize at least one student in each grade at each school for their outstanding entries into our contest. The award ceremony is hosted in alternate years in Merrick and North

C E L E B R AT I N G 75 Y E A RS O F L I F E I N T H E M E R R I C K S

Merrick. Our outstanding children’s librarians from the Merrick and North Merrick public libraries select and purchase books for each award recipient. We are so fortunate to have Ilene Leibowitz from North Merrick and Bonnie Markel from Merrick for so many years assisting us. The budget for the purchase of these books has generously come from many of our local merchants, banks and organizations. Without the vision of Faith Laursen, the commitment of the Merrick Life and all those people who have contributed to the KMB committee for all these years, we would never have experienced the wonderful half-century run of this great organization. Thank you Faith and thank you to the Merrick Life for making this dream come true.

To Merrick with love

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A Special Congratulations To

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Now, I would have to say it was being a part of Merrick, and being entrusted with so many people’s hearts. My very first memories having to do with Merrick Life Herman Glick gave me a heart-shaped metal box conare of driving through North Carolina with my mother sing- taining a T-shirt from a reunion of vets from the World War ing the lullaby, “Bye baby bunting, Daddy’s gone a hunting, II China-Burma-India front. Little kids at the Merrick Fair to find a little newspaper...” rushed up to hug me disguised as Pooh Bear. (Everybody My parents didn’t find their dream in North Carolina, loves you when you are Pooh.) Adele where my mother was born, but on Prosono gave me cassettes of her Long Island, in Merrick. The first songs for children. The Merrick Garoffice I remember is the one upstairs den Club presented us with handat 31 Merrick Ave. in the old Christymade Christmas wreathes to decorate Wolfe building. Santa Claus visited that our office door for years. front porch for many years, sitting in a But more even than all these gifts, rocking chair and attended by the Girl there were the treasured family phoScouts and Laura Pinto in her red tos entrusted to us and the stories coat. I’m told by Dick Harrington that shared. The causes that started with came about because my mother was one visit to the newspaper office or shocked to find out the chamber was one phone call, the confidence that a not planning on having a Santa one warm reception from our readers year and asked, “What can we do?” brought and then the miracle of sucI remember marching in my first LINDA LAURSEN TOSCANO cess, of actually making a difference. ragamuffin parade and being quite That is a miracle that happened over unhappy we had no chance of winning and over. because our parents were among the judges. On the other Whether I was driving around the Merricks with a carhand, I got to write about Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s whistleload of judges looking at all the beautiful holiday decorastop visit to Merrick. And I was dressed up as “Miss Mertions, or kayaking at the Norman Levy preserve, or watchrick” in an historical parade. ing my child joyfully raise arms dripping in mulberry juice As high school interns, Kerry Carlos and I did “man on at the Faith Laursen Meroke Preserve, named for her the street” interviews, including one with Russ Nieli on the occasion of man’s first moon landing. And for many sum- grandmother, whether I was taking notes at Atlanta’s Cenmers my brothers and I helped out at the papers while we ters for Disease Control’s meeting about environmental were growing up and in college and grad school, just as my causes of breast cancer, or picking up awards for journalism at the press association for which we all had worked so children would in later years. Before I came back to help run the papers in the mid- hard, I felt we were making a difference, making joy. Thank you to my family and the Merrick Life staff for 1980s, I always said my most fun experience as a journalist was riding down a mountain on an alpine slide with a making it all possible, and to the Richner family and their bunch of scientists after visiting a peregrine falcon roost. team for carrying on. By LINDA LAURSEN TOSCANO

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OPENHOUSE 1/26 and 2/8 from 11-3

Merrick Life 75th Anniversary Issue

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Congratulations Merrick Life On Your 75th Anniversary

Bonnie Goldstein

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January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

MERRICK HERALD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; January 23, 2014

Congratulations

Hempstead Town Supervisor 516-489-6000

Kate Murray 669907

From

Linda Laursen Toscano & Paul Laursen on the 75th Anniversary of Merrick Life

Congratulations & Thanks to Linda & Paul for 75 Great Years

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We are humbled by the trust they have g y placed in us as inheritors of thiss legacy uide uide ui dded ed by by and pledge to continue to be guided their high standards of service too rreaders, eade ea dders rs advertisers and the larger Merrick community.

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CONGRATULATIONS MERRICK LIFE 75 YEARS!

We thank Paul and Linda for their help in creating this wonderful anniversary issue, and wish them well in all their future endeavors.

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With our admiration and respect,

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With purchase of two or more dinner entrees Up to an $8.95 value. One per table. Not to be combined.

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Over 64 Homes Closed/ Under Contract 2013

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Over $28 Million Dollars Sales Volume 2013

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Congratulations to Louise Pitlakes â&#x20AC;&#x153;Power Teamâ&#x20AC;? on a record Breaking 2013 #1 Sales Team Serving Our Local Community and From One â&#x20AC;&#x153;Power Teamâ&#x20AC;? to another... Congratulations Merrick Life on 75 Years Serving Our Local Community.

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January 23, 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MERRICK HERALD

ÂŠ 2012 Douglas Elliman Real Estate. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. While, this information is believed to be correct, it is represented subject to errors, omissions, changes or withdrawal without notice. All property information, including, but not limited to square footage, room count, number of bedrooms and the school district in property listings are deemed reliable, but should be veriďŹ ed by your own attorney, architect or zoning expert. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Courtesy Merrick Chorale

The Merrick Chorale in a formal portrait.

The Merrick Chorale offers its sincere thanks The Merrick Chorale appreciates all that the Merrick Life has done for our group over the past 32 years in publicizing its concerts and other activities. The chorale was formed in 1981 and performed its first concert in 1982, which was the “Verdi Requiem” with the Merrick Symphony. The group continues to perform both popular and classical music under the baton of Richard Gilley at many Long Island venues. It has performed back-

up for Paul Anka, Andy Williams and Kenny Rogers at the Westbury Music Fair, as well as appeared at local libraries, churches and schools. The Chorale would like to express a sincere thank you to Linda and Paul for all their assistance these many years.

Although I was born in Cambridge, Mass., I spent the first 18 years of my youth in Wakefield, another town in that state. Between 1942 and 1957, I spent two decades at sea in the U.S. Navy. During World War II, I served in all theaters of operation, and after graduation from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, on merchant ships on various trade routes, including 13 complete trips around the world. I had always considered Wakefield to be my hometown, and my family and I revisited it at least once every five years, up to the 50th anniversary of my graduation from high school. Since then, our visits have been sporadic. From 1950 to 1972, I lived in Brooklyn. At first I had a bachelor’s apartment on Ocean Avenue, held even when I was at sea. After “swallowing the anchor” (quitting the sea), marrying, and my wife presenting me with two wonderful children, we decided to leave the city for Long Island’s suburbs. On Aug. 23, 1972, we left McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn and moved to Smith Street in Merrick, and we embraced our new community, an unincorporated hamlet. In the ensuring years, we have happily made it “our adopted hometown.” We have come to love it as an ideal place in which to live. We like the four seasons. And what of our neighbors? My neighbors to the north and west and the two across the

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FRANCES GUERCIO President, Merrick Chorale

Merrick, our adopted hometown By CAPT. LAWRENCE WORTERS

Keep up with the next 75 years, subscribe today!

street have lived here since before our arrival and are considered dear friends, if not extended family members. The five of us, owners and families, are proud to call ourselves Merokeans, and we love and appreciate our adopted hometown. Through the years, we have made a number of superb friends, in addition to our neighbors. They have made massive contributions to our lives. These friendships have been a factor in adapting ourselves into the fabric of the community and, on occasion, giving back to the community. Between all the countries I visited during my seafaring days, and the several trips that my wife, Vera, and I have made to Europe, I have the critical eye needed to appreciate all that Merrick has to offer. This includes two fantastic libraries, four up-to-date firehouses, and a county police department that alerts burglars to keep away from our community. I still consider my wife a dyed-in-the-wool Brooklynite. Notwithstanding, with her having a kitchen-window view of Newbridge Pond (sometimes called Smith Pond), with all the aquatic life present in this small body of water to study and admire, she has succumbed to admiring her home here. And she likes the fresh vegetables we get from our gardens and the beautiful flowers growing in the beds around the house. Yes, we expect to remain here, in the Eden of Long Island, until such time as we must “walk over the horizon.”

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MERRICK HERALD — January 23, 2014

We’ve been your best source everything Merrick for 75 years

Congratulations Merrick Life 75 Years!

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Congratulations Merrick Life on your 75th Anniversary Merrick Kiwanis...The Club With A Heart Merrick Kiwanians Helping To Make Merrick A Better Place! Merrick Kiwanis Volunteers are your local residents and merchants just like you. We assist in the the food drives and back to school drives. The items are collected and brought directly to 30 plus homes in Merrick that are in need. You see us standing at the supermarket entrances. Yup..thats us!! We provide Toys for Tots...clothing..and over $5000.00 worth of scholarship awards to Merrick high school students. We also sponsor Merrick Olympics addressing Health and Wellness for our Merrick youngsters.... And we do so much more!!! All efforts go directly to those in need right here in MERRICK. For more info in joining or just helping for an hour or two, We also sponsor... Contact dmills@printingemporium.com or ellensellsre@aol.com

If you give A LITTLE... we can give A LOT. 678120

January 23, 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MERRICK HERALD

t u a l r a g t n i o o n s C

Linda Laursen Toscano & Paul Laursen on the 75th Anniversary of Merrick Life

Linda & Paul and the Toscano Tamily

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Congratulations to Linda Laursen Toscano & Paul Laursen on Merrick Lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 75-Year Anniversary

Gloria Datlow Lic. Assoc. Real Estate Broker

Cell: 516.946.3151

Thanks For The Memories! 669945

2300 Merrick Road 516.623.4500 ÂŠ 2012 Douglas Elliman Real Estate. All material presented herein is intended for information purposes only. While, this information is believed to be correct, it is represented subject to errors, omissions, changes or withdrawal without notice. All property information, including, but not limited to square footage, room count, number of bedrooms and the school district in property listings are deemed reliable, but should be veriďŹ ed by your own attorney, architect or zoning expert. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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( 0DLO GGHQHQEHUJ#QDVVDXFRXQW\Q\ JRY

Elyse Whiton

MERRICK HERALD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; January 23, 2014

Congratulations

January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

Where are they now?

Merrick Life’s First Babies Back in 2006, Merrick Life’s First Babies of the year were...twins! Nicholas and Connor, both now 8 and second-graders at Camp Avenue in North Merrick, were born to Jennifer and Jim Russo. Since both parents had grown up in Merrick, the experience was extra special for them. They still keep a copy of the issue on which the twins appeared on the front cover. When this week’s issue appears, the twins plan to bring it into school for “Show and Tell.” Both are now enjoying the Merrick lifestyle that their parents loved and wanted to provide for them. They are members of Cub Scout Pack 206, play tennis and soccer with the Merrick Police Activities League and are taking skating lessons with the aim of playing ice hockey. Their dad, Jim, is a New York City firefighter with Squad 1 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He was away on Sept. 11, 2001, but was involved in the recovery. Their mom, Jennifer, is a paralegal working for a matrimonial firm. The young couple bought their home in 2004, shortly after they were married, with the help of Realtor Marian

Nicholas and Connor Russo, with their parents, Jennifer and Jim.

Fraker Gutin, because they wanted to be back in Merrick where the schools are good and have their children could experience the same type of childhood they enjoyed. For Marian, it was a thrill to be able to find a

home for a third generation of a family, since it is not unusual for a second generation to come back to her for help, but to have a third one is extra special, she said.

Mothers of the Year 1961- Mrs. Harry K. Barr 1962- Mrs. Frank McGovern 1963- Gertrude Reardon 1964- Doris Lichtenberg 1965- Mrs. John Connell 1966- Romana Viola 1967- tied Mary Carroll and Terry McLaughlin 1968- Betty Nola 1969- Ruth Geiszler 1970- Margaret Mehr 1971- Pat Deeley 1972- Ida H. Cooper 1973- Sandy Rosen 1974- Rosemary Moore 1975- Mrs. Gary Gerdes 1976- Leda Ginsberg 1977- Doris Carbone 1978- Sherry Eisendorf 1979- Kay Ray 1980- Elizabeth Carnella 1981- Edna Finn 1982- Barbara Rubin 1983- Ann Fernan 1984- Theresa Forcina 1985- Rosary Gloss 1986- Gloria Magnoli 1987- Luba Mayo

1988- Patricia Paretta 1989- Dorothy Pascuma 1990- Nancy Miklos 1991- Janice Mizrahi 1992- Ramona Buff 1993- Elizabeth Mantis 1994- Shirley Bartow 1995- Alicia Barrella 1996- Susan Bracher 1997- Loretta Dunn 1998- Debra Fisher 1999- Barbara Wyman 2000- Alice Cammiso 2001- Marie Neubauer 2002- Loryn Halperin 2003- Jeanette Schneider 2004- Susan Carroll 2005- Eileen Buckley 2006- Suzanne Hopkins 2007- Patricia Piccirillo 2008- Sue Frank 2009- Grace Stamera 2010- Lisa Elnick 2011- Susan Storms 2012- Ellen Sheldon 2013- Kate Loftin

First Babies of the Year 1961-Jo Ann Carroll 1962-Mary Maraglio 1963- Joseph Swanson 1964- Mary Ann Weaver 1965- Ricky Gimpel 1966-Kristine Beni 1967- Danny Bauer 1968- Danielle Ferrante 1969- Edward Rupp Jr. 1970- Laurie Ansalone 1971- William Thomas Kluge 1972- Jennifer Woodard 1973- James Wicks 1974- Jessica Glickman 1975- Allison Barbara Yosel 1976- Timothy Gavin 1977- Todd Michael McGlone 1978- Colleene Anne Bird 1979- Jamie Kirsch 1980- Alison Elyse King 1981- Douglas James Scibelli 1982- Rebecca Mollie Gordon 1983- Gregory John Kalberer 1984- twins Christina and Philip Medici 1985- Lauren Anne Baglivi 1986- Brandon Scott Newman 1987- Ryan Hunter

1988- Paul Johnsen 1989- Tara Lauren Kemper 1990- Alexander James Santa 1991- Stephen Brenker 1992- Thomasina Greco 1993- Nicole Elizabeth Carangelo 1994- Melanie Holmes 1995- Cody Taylor 1996- Noah Rodgers 1997- John Raymond Strack 1998- Christopher Sean Shea 1999- Rebecca Marie Unz 2000- Daniel Albert Gorman 2001- Brittany Ann and Kyle Robert Munson 2002- Olivia Vinson 2003- Olivia Faith Limeri 2004- Elizabeth Rose Anolfo 2005- Lucas Cohen 2006- Nicholas and Connor Russo 2007- Serena Penge Moses 2008- Ruby Charlotte Cilibrasi 2009- Brady Dumelle 2010- Chloe Simone Dujardin 2011- Kasey Ann Devlin 2012- Matteo Philip Hamerman 2013- Giuliana Rose Ferraro

Merrick Men and Women of the Year 2013- Randy Shotland and Adrienne Garfinkel 2012- First Responders 2011- Al Lage and Meme Wanderman 2010- Lenny Heide and Erin Donohue 2009- Lawrence Garfinkel and Phyllis Guttilla 2008- Charles Rosenblum and Sister Pat Turley 2007- Marty Dillon and Rita Gilley 2006- Walter Mintz and Susan Dillon 2005- Bernard Stein and Ilene Dixel 2004- Jerry Silverman and Marion Turk 2003- Brian Fontanella and Julie Marchesella 2002- Joe Kralovich and Lois Roos 2001- Robert T. Riordan and Florence Astarita 2000- Richard Lawrence and Susan Helsinger 1999- Jay Helsinger and Joy Levy 1998- Dr. Fred Jones and Helen Dickinson 1997- David McDonough and Janice Spelling 1996- Paul Laursen and Frances Guercio 1995- Alan Lapp and Carmela Lage 1994- Thomas Portela and Marie Trimborn 1993- Jay Pitti and Sandra Feuerstein 1992- Douglas G. Mills and Anne Burke 1991- Gerald Freedman and Gail Collins 1990- Linda Laursen Toscano and Vincent Guercio 1989- Robert Trimborn and Karen Horowitz 1988- Richard Gilley and Pat Amoroso 1987- Dr. Robert Rivere and Sister Edward Joseph

1986- Hal Horowitz and Gertrude Bellafante 1985- S. Robert Kroll and Elizabeth Morsch 1984- Sal Pinciotto and Ronnie Lawrence 1983- Leon Summit and Bobbie Rivere 1982- Ray Zajac and Irene Gordon 1981- Steven R. Scharoff and Marian Fraker 1980- Richard I. Ornauer and Mildred Donnelly 1979- Louis Kruh and Alexandria Trias 1978- Norman J. Levy and Betty Schlein 1977- Douglas Albrecht and Patricia Deeley 1976- Abe Kay and Dr. June Irvin 1975- Herbert Krohn and Joyce McRae 1974- Moses Hornstein and Adele Prosono 1973- Jerry Medowar and Marion Albrecht 1972- Fred Meyer and Maxine Scott 1971- Johannes Laursen and Grace Anton 1970- Ace Nieli and Laura Pelton 1969- Mort Sanders and Joy Newman 1968- Sam Scheiner and Katherine Reif 1967- Leo Weinstein and Anne Geiger 1966- Edward J. Speno and Ragna Murbach 1965- Ralph G. Caso and Faith Brewer Laursen 1964- Harold C. Weiner and Mrs. Henry Friemann 1963- Al Barthel and Lillian Herman 1962- Clarence Geiger and Evelyn McFarland 1961- Don Weller and Mrs. Harry Rothkopf 1960- Larry B. Marks and Mrs. Charles Diamond

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MERRICK HERALD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; January 23, 2014

Congratulations on your many years reporting about life in Merrick Life.

Jay Pitti 319 Merrick Avenue â&#x20AC;˘ Merrick â&#x20AC;˘ N.Y. 11566

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(516) 378-5128

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4, 6 or 8 week program in our Â˝ acre, tree-lined school yard. Early Childhood teachers work with our campers, and have lots of fun in our 18â&#x20AC;? in-ground wading pool â&#x20AC;&#x201C; perfect for water play and summer fun.

DISCOVERY FOR FOURâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S Where imagination and learning meet to prepare your child for kindergarten! 5 afternoons a week/ limited 3 afternoons â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1pm to 3:30pm

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69 Willis Avenue â&#x20AC;˘ Merrick (516) 868-1071

Congratulations Merrick Life 75 Years

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Educating children since 1955â&#x20AC;?

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Congratulations to Merrick Herald Life for 75 years of serving our community!

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merrickcommunitynurseryschool@yahoo.com or on our web @ www.merrickcommunitynurseryschool.org

Merrick Life was ‘more than a home’

January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD

For Marilyn Loheide, the old Merrick Life building, at 1840 Merrick Ave., was “more than a home,” because she and family members worked there for more than 40 years, and in her case, eight hours a day while she was production manager. Marilyn’s husband, Herman, and son Karl helped redesign the offices as they expanded. “You could tell the changes by the changes in color of the floor tiles,” she noted. With son-in-law Robert Gorish, they helped maintain the offices for decades, and Karl also took care of the computer network. Daughters Linda and Diane helped with archives and proofing. Grandson Robert did writing, editing and newspaper design. Marilyn, herself, started out part-time, working evenings as a typist for her friend Nancy Lambeth, who set up the pre-press department for Merrick Life. Soon she was working days on ads, pasting them up by hand. “It was fun, like doing a jigsaw puzzle,” she said. She saw changes from an IBM typewriter and headline wheel where each letter was done at a time, to Compugraphic machines and waxers, when she would “spec” each ad’s type sizes on yellow legal pads, and finally pagination on Mac computers of issues emailed to the printer and posted online. “It was fun, even though it was stressful, as everyone who works on a newspaper will tell you,” she said. “Back when we were still pasting up the papers by hand, and Johannes Laursen was in charge, on Valentine’s Day he would always bring in a box of chocolates for us all to share. Then, when St. John’s Lutheran Church across the street had their strawberry festival, he would treat us all to lunch and the dessert they had that day. You have to know that we all appreciated that and enjoyed it immensely. He always said that he loved strawberries and that would give him an excuse, and he shared the treats with us. “One year, Faith Laursen smuggled in two wheels of Danish Harvarti cheese and brought one of them in for the staff to enjoy,” she continued. “That was the first time I ever had that kind of cheese, and it was so good that I eat it to this day. One time Paul Laursen made us all open-faced sandwiches for lunch. He called them Danish sandwiches. I don’t remember anymore what type of filling was on them, but we all enjoyed them so much.” Among longtime staffers she remembers fondly were Ad Manager Frank Nausbaum, who “was amazing” at choosing type sizes, and Bea Erickson, whose painting she still trea-

Marilyn Loheide, at right, assembling an edition of Merrick Life in the 1960s. To her left was Nancy Lambeth.

sures. “One night when I was typing the classified ads that (office manager) Florence Spencer had sent down,” she reminisced, “ I found that in typing one ad, she had her fingers on all the wrong keys. So, I set them that way; it was a challenge because there were no real words. When she came down to proof the ads the next day and found that,

Remembering Sept. 11 and its aftermath By EILEEN DEVER

Merrick Life went from “paste-up” to digital while I worked there. “Meandering Around Merrick,” filled with tidbits of what was happening and important in town, was featured on the editorial page, and coffee breaks were the spur that kept us moving! I remember great copy that filled the pages – special awards, annual issues and “life letters” from concerned readers. One of the most poignant stories that the paper covered for many issues was the World Trade Center disaster. The newspaper, serving Bellmore, Freeport, Merrick, Seaford and Wantagh, published stories about the local victims, the heroism, the families and the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. On that clear, sunny day, the Twin Towers, engulfed in smoke, were barely visible from the top of the Norman Levy Preserve. Pat McKay, graphic artist at Merrick Life, rushed with a camera in hand to photograph the doomed towers, which were standing when she arrived at the preserve early that morning. The photo was the front cover of the Sept. 13, 2001, issue. A Sept. 11 commemorative issue in 2010 recalled the event, the victims and the heroes, as all of us will forever.

she had a good Florence laugh, and then she got the ad from upstairs and we set it the correct way.” Other memories include, “ The very sad time when (production manager) Joan Boehm’s daughter was killed in a plane crash over Long Island Sound ... the anniversary of the paper held in the Merrick Library when we all received

The work was rarely easy By JACK RICE

Front pages from Merrick Life.

certificates ( I still have mine) ... when Ben and Jerry started their ice cream business and brought samples for us to try.” She also remembers a long debate she once had with Editor Leon Summit over a comma, in which he finally conceded she was right. “We had arguments, but we all kind of stayed friends,” she concluded.

I recall it all so clearly after 25 years: I had taken a leave of absence from my teaching career in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District after 19 years of teaching English. I had bid adieu to all at Mepham High and set my sights on a new career. I knew only one thing—I wanted to earn my living by writing. An executive at Doubleday Publishing gave me some good advice. She told me to get published, to record evidence of my writing abilities. I immediately thought of the weekly paper I had grown up with in Wantagh, the Wantagh-Seaford Citizen. Astonishingly, the first call I made led to an interview and a position. My interview took place at Merrick Life, since the Citizen was a sister publication. I was to become, eventually, the assistant editor of both the Wantagh paper and Bellmore Life.

Although I chose to return to teaching the next year, I was to spend thousands of hours over the next 19 years working for Merrick Life. It was quite logical, since I had numerous vacations as an educator. It enabled workers at the newspapers to plan their vacations around mine. As a family man, it provided extra funds needed at home, particularly when my stepson was an undergraduate at Niagara University in the 1990s. Oh, those hidden college expenses! And the assignments I received: Bellmore Life’s 50th anniversary, labor disputes, 100th birthdays, first babies of the year, battles to keep wetlands preserved, school closings --- all the happenings that compose a community newspaper. The work was rarely easy, but I look back with pleasure and satisfaction. And I thank Linda Toscano, publisher, and Paul Laursen, editor-in-chief, for taking a chance on a newcomer to the field. It was an important and memorable part of my life!

Congratulations to

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TO LINDA AND PAUL ON YOUR 75TH ANNIVERSARY

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The last one out of the door By ETTA ROSENBERG

I couldn’t know when I walked through the door of Merrick Life for the first time in June 1999 that I’d be one of the last people to walk out 14 years later, on Aug. 12, 2013. A lot can happen in 14 years; lives can change many times. And mine did. I made lifelong friends with some of the employees. They stood by me and supported me through every event. Some were happy, some were sad. On only my second day at work, I was invited to have lunch with the other ladies. They were a fine bunch. They had all been working there for decades.! I’d never worked anyplace before with such longtime employees. They were both funny and gossipy when describing their roles at the newspaper.

Less than a year into my employ, my mother got very sick and died. The staff at L&M amazed me with their love and support through such a difficult time. A year later, I celebrated my wedding with many of those same lovely people at the party. Then came my children. I returned to work barely three weeks after the birth of my daughter, Abby. She sat in her carrier in my office, and I think every single person walked the hall with her at some point. She always loved spending time there and feeling included with the “aunts” and “grannies” who had adopted her. She had toys and books in one of the other offices, not mine. She spent most of her time with “Grannie Annie.” Several years later, I returned to work again

after the birth of my son. He also was “adopted” by the staff and was nicknamed “the mayor,” since he would go visit every office upon entering and leaving to see everyone. I even brought our new puppy to work with me, although not everyone was as thrilled seeing my newest “child.” When my father got sick and died, I was not surprised by the outpouring of love from L&M. They had proved themselves many times over as not only co-workers, but as family. Leaving L&M Publications was definitely a major life event for me. It equals moving out of my childhood home (which I also did while employed at L&M). Linda and Paul created an extremely comfortable, caring workplace for their employees. We are all lucky to have walked through the door.

Thirteen years at Merrick Life By PAT McKAY

Morgan and Pat McKay

My time at Merrick Life lasted 13 years. It was a dream of mine many years ago to get a job there. That’s why I feel it was destiny that I started working at Merrick Life. With a chance meeting between Linda Toscano and me at a LevyLakeside Elementary School meeting, the dream was unknowingly about to begin. Erin Donohue, who at the time worked the night shift at Merrick Life, was leaving on maternity leave, and they needed someone to fill in. I was attending Briarcliffe College at the time, with three kids, and took on the job of paginating the paper at night. After nine months, I also joined the daytime shift. The rest is history. I’ve met many people inside and outside of Merrick Life. I’ve made many new friends and acquaintances to last a lifetime. I have many memories, but this one stands out in my memory. One night, shortly after I started working at Merrick Life, I was at the office alone, working on paginating the paper. I kept smelling something burning, so I called Erin to come back to the office and validate that it wasn’t my imagination. She came running back, and we called the fire department. They showed up quickly and found one of the monitors ready to go on fire. Thank God we were there; it could’ve been a disaster. During my 13 years, there were many instances like that, such as the time we all had to run out when the old Addressograph machine caught fire. Again we had to call in the fire department. The earthquake that rumbled through the area caused a scare when we all felt our chairs move. Again we all left the building. There were few times when the electricity went off, and we had to go home because we couldn’t work. Sept. 11, 2001, was quite a vivid memory. I was able to get to the top of the Levy Preserve and photograph the towers before they collapsed. We used the photo for our front cover, with a story written by our then Assistant Editor Eileen Dever. There were many tributes we ran honoring the firemen who perished in that tragedy. After Erin Donohue resigned, I became Merrick Life’s assistant editor. I loved the reporting and being able to attend events to take photos. One of my favorite articles I wrote was when I interviewed Dr. George Caso. It was just about the time he had finished his first book. Since he was my family doctor my whole life, it was a great privilege to honor him with this story. We also did some beautiful special issues, such as our holiday papers, grad-

Paul Laursen/ Merrick Life

uation, back-to-school and spring specials. My favorite holiday issue was 2009. It was just beautiful. Everyone put something into it, and was a collection of memories, recipes and photos. The 2010 holiday issue was another favorite. The blizzard of 2011 left Merrick in quite a mess, with record snow above 18 inches. But it was the Merrick Life’s reporters and photographers’ dream. We reported on the trials and adventures of the community with stories and photos. As an enthusiastic photographer/graphic artist for Merrick Life, I put my life in danger as I was photographing the terrific windstorm we had in March 2010. As I approached Mill Pond in Bellmore, a water funnel developed on the pond and spun in front of me across Merrick Road. I still got out of the car to take photos. Just as I was finishing, something was telling me this is not safe. As I started leaving, a giant tree fell right where I had stood. It was all in a day’s work. Then there was Superstorm Sandy. We worked until the roads closed that day. We had to get the paper done, and we did. No matter what setbacks our staff had, we always got the paper out. Doug Finlay was an intense reporter, and I worked side by side him for many years. He would write his stories with such vigor, many times causing reactions from our readers. He loved his summer reporting on the Long Island International Film Festival. He would spend weeks preparing and then take the summer interns under his wing and teach them everything he could about the newspaper business. Our reporter and my colleague Laura Schofer put her whole heart and soul into her stories. She provided educated details to keep the community informed of local issues. She and Doug received many awards for their reporting.

The Merrick Life family By PAUL LAURSEN

Elaine Spiro, a longtime advertising account executive and saleswoman at Merrick Life, now brings her experience and skills to her clients and customers of Richner Communications’ Merrick Herald Life, Bellmore Herald Life and the East Meadow Herald. She also has clients elsewhere in the Richner Communications territory. Her favorite memories of Merrick Life are the people she worked with there, “the Merrick Life family.” She had and at the Herald still enjoys “the opportunity of spreading my wings being in sales, working with people in different occupations and businesses, from watching a prescription being filled, to pizza being made,” to being in a butcher shop or a fine boutique. She said her days were and are “filled with many different kinds of gratifying experiences.” She still enjoys being on the board of the Merrick Chamber of Commerce. “The excitement of getting a paper out every week was and is gratifying to me,” Elaine said. She also still happy having contacts with local schools and elected officials. She moved to North Merrick in 1965. She was married for 44 years to the late Sheldon, and has two married sons, David, who has four children in Portland, Ore., and Steven, who has two children in Chappaqua, in Westchester County. Both of her sons attended Old Mill Road Elementary School, the former Brookside Junior High School and Calhoun High School. David graduated from Calhoun in 1983 and Steven in 1985. She was active in all of the PTAs where her sons attended school. She met former Merrick Life advertising manager Lois Roos when her children started junior high school, now middle school. “It was an honor and a privilege working with Lois as a coworker at Merrick Life. Someone called us the dream team,” Elaine said. Working with former L&M Publications and Merrick Life Publisher Linda Toscano and former editor Paul Laursen “has been an honor and a privilege. Linda is compassionate and gives back to the community.” Laursen, former Bellmore Life Assistant Editor Douglas Finlay and former Administrative Assistant Jack Rice, a former Mepham High School and Grand Avenue Middle School English teacher, “were mentors to many of the young people in the community” who worked as summer interns or during the year in the Calhoun and Kennedy High School Senior Experience programs or the BOCES occupational education internship programs. Two former L&M interns went on to similar positions at Herald newspapers. Elaine said, “Merrick Life was the glue that held this community together,” referring to the newspaper’s motto, adding that the Merrick Herald Life carries on that tradition. She enjoys “working with the Merrick Herald Life and with the Richner Communications family. I enjoy working with so many papers and different forms of print advertising. It offers me the opportunity to sell in many communities.”

The best move I ever made

A reporter looks back on the big stories

By OLIMPIA SANTANIELLO By PAUL LAURSEN

Former Merrick Life reporter Laura Schofer, now with the Herald newspapers, remembers covering proposed Stop & Shop supermarket expansion plans and other issues, the failed North Merrick Public Library bond issue, cell tower controversies, legislative redistricting and the Southeast Nassau Water Authority, which is studying a possible public takeover of the local water system. Another topic was the proposed Meadowbrook corridor trail.

“We broke the story of medical mix-ups in Merrick involving incorrect medications,” she noted. Robert Harrison took photos of all the local 9/11 memorials for a tribute to the heroes of that day. Merrick Life ran a tribute to the veterans of World War II, and to people who worked in the aviation industry, she said. “There are many good memories of working at Merrick Life,” Laura said. “What was special about Merrick Life was a hometown feeling for the community and people. It was a true reflection of the people of Merrick.”

Scott Brinton/Herald Life

Laura Schofer was an award-winning reporter for Merrick Life for many years.

What I liked most about working at Merrick Life was the feeling of being with family. We had our good days and bad, we laughed and cried, but at the end, we were always looking out for one another. Living in Merrick is the best move I made, coming from Brooklyn over 16 years ago. It was a big change for us, but the people who I have met along the way have become more than friends. I am now working at the Merrick Herald Life doing classified sales since last August. I have met new friends there and am glad to have had the opportunity to experience a different company and how they run their business. Best of luck to Linda and Paul. God Bless.

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Merrick students in 1999 predicted 2025 in the annual essay contest sponsored by Keep Merrick Beautiful, Merrick and North Merrick Schools and Merrick Life. Birch sixth-grader Michael Roppelt wrote, “I walk to my monitor and see my fellow classmates. They have already logged on and were waiting for me. This technology wasn’t available 20 years ago, and I can’t figure out how the children walked to school when they just had to go onto the computer in the safety of their own house.” Birch fifth-grader David Ross Levine waxed poetic: “The grass will be green and the trees will be tall, even in the winter and fall.”

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Congratulations Merrick Life!!! Congratulations Linda Toscano and Paul Laursen on the 75th Anniversary of Merrick Life, Merrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gateway to the community. It was a pleasure to have been part of the Merrick Life family for 7 years.

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2770 Sunrise Highway | Bellmore, NY 11710

677561

January 23, 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MERRICK HERALD

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MERRICK HERALD â&#x20AC;&#x201D; January 23, 2014

We can help you ďŹ nd the home ďŹ nance option thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right for you. Our mortgage experts are ready to discuss your mortgage optionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including our wide range of loans, programs and savings opportunities. Talk to a Chase Mortgage Banker today! &SOFTU #POOZ .PSUHBHF #BOLFS 5 FSOFTU CPOOZ!DIBTF DPN IUUQ IPNFMPBO DIBTF DPN FSOFTU CPOOZ /.-4 *%

With 2 Locations in Merrick, We are here to assist you with any and all of your mortgage needs.

The First Dance

All home lending products are subject to credit and property approval. Rates, program terms and conditions are subject to change without notice. Not all products are available in all states or for all amounts. Other restrictions and limitations apply. ÂŠ2012 JPMorgan Chase & Co. 18238I-1012

670857

Congratulations to Merrick Life for 75 Years from Chase

The professionals at Arthur Murray Dance Center will help create your special â&#x20AC;&#x153;ďŹ rst danceâ&#x20AC;? for your wedding. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make your dance look natural and personalize it to your favorite song. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll make you and your ďŹ ancee shine on the dance ďŹ&#x201A;oor!

Call Now for our Introductory Offer for

(516) 223-9820 35

YEARS

Family Owned and Operated Since 1979

CONGRATULATIONS LINDA & PAUL LAURSEN ON 75 YEARS â&#x20AC;˘ 220V Service Upgrades â&#x20AC;˘ Home/Office Wiring â&#x20AC;˘ High Hat / Indoor-Outdoor Motion Lighting â&#x20AC;˘A ng) A/C Lines â&#x20AC;˘ Attic Fans (Energy Saving) â&#x20AC;˘ Lighting Design & Installations CUSTOM VOICE E L O WH â&#x20AC;˘ Multimedia/Communications & D A T A RGE COMMUNIC HOUSE SU RS â&#x20AC;˘ Swimming Pool Wiring ATION PROTECTO SYSTEMS S â&#x20AC;˘ Flat Screen Installations â&#x20AC;˘ Generator Installations With Automatic Transfer Panels

1619 Merrick Road, Merrick, NY 11566

Bayside Dance Studio 718-225-2339 36-35 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361

With Coupon. Not To Be Combined.

516-794-7171 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 516-935-3551

)EWX 1IEHS[ %ZI Â&#x2C6; )EWX 1IEHS[ www.ibielectrical.com

433 Willis Avenue, Williston Park, NY 11596

VIOLATIONS CORRECTED

Commack Dance Studio 631-462-0808 6333 Jericho Turnpike, Commack, NY 11725 677000

EMERGENCY SERVICE

Williston Park Dance Studio 516-248-6430

Manhattan Dance Studio 212-593-1633 1845 Broadway, Between 60th & 61st St., Columbus Circle, 4th Fl. New York, NY 10023

www.arthurmurrayNYC.com

10 OFF FOR ANY SERVICE

Arthur Murray Ballroom Dance Studios in NYC & Long Island - 5 Convenient Locations Merrick Dance Studio 516-223-9820

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Adopt A Pet Today!

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North Shore Animal League America Has Over 300 Dogs, Cats, Puppies And Kittens Available!

Congratulations for a Job Well Done!

Congratulations Merrick Life on your 75th Anniversary!

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Susan Gruen Helsinger 1 < 6WDWH 6HQDWH Â´:RPHQ RI 'LVWLQFWLRQÂľ OPEN EVERY DAY: Sun â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thurs: 10am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 9pm Fri â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sat: 10am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10pm 25 Davis Avenue, Port Washington, NY

ASKELLIMAN.COM

623-4500

0HUULFN 2IĂ&#x20AC;FH Â&#x2021; 0HUULFN 5RDG AnimalLeague.org 516.883.7575

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ÂŠ 2014 Douglas Elliman Real Estate. All materials presented herein is intended for information purposes only. While, this information is believed to be correct, it is represented subject to errors, omissions, changes or withdrawal without notice. All property information, including, but not limited to square footage, room count, number of bedrooms and the school disctrict in property listings are deemed reliable, but should be veriďŹ ed by your own attorney, architect or zoning-expert. Equal Houseing Opportunity.

Patients will always see Dr. Elbaz to ensure consistency and build trust.

Dr. Rania Elbaz, DDS DS Board CertiďŹ ed Pediatric Dentist Columbia Dental School Graduate

The Personal Attention Your Child Needs and Deserves. Comprehensive Dental Care for Infants, Children, Adolescents and those with Special Needs.

â&#x20AC;˘ Evening and Saturday appointments available â&#x20AC;˘ 24-hour emergency coverage for our patients Our ofďŹ ce is a warm and kid-friendly â&#x20AC;˘ Sedation available when environment that our patients look needed forward to visiting!

1756A 17 75 Merrick Ave, Merrick â&#x20AC;˘ 516-547-1997 www.MerrickPediatricDentistry.com

Participating with most major insurance plans.

Conveniently Located less than a mile south of the Southern State Parkway

Congratulations Merrick Life 75 Years!

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Home of the Mutt-i-greeÂŽ

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January 23, 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MERRICK HERALD

NORTH SHORE ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES!

Diana Novelli

Shashi Sharma

Gloria Stanzione

Arlene Gregory

Tom Gallagher

Micheal Litzner

Marie (Geri) Christian

Ricky Botha

Wishing the Merrick Community A Happy New Year!! Congratulations to the 2014 Man & Woman of the Year and to Merrick Life celebrating 75 Years VISIT: WWW.C21AMHOMES.COM 141 MERRICK AVE • MERRICK • 516-302-8500

Joan Burbes

Joseph Calderaro

Marty Nyear

Randy Rydzewski

Carroll Anderson

Danielle Novelli

Debbie Calandrino

Ishwar Ramroop

Fran Bruscino

Pat Thompson

Chris Di Pierri

WE NEED HOMES BUYERS WAITING! If you or anyone you know is interested in a career in Real Estate call Arlene for a Conﬁdential Interview.

Jacquelina Fivera

Hind Hatoum

Jose Ortiz

Mohammad Hague

Francesca Sierra

Reza Amiryavari

Dolores Wingﬁeld

Stella Stamatiadi

Zahier Ahmed

Dan SanFilippo

Christine Levitsky

Kelly Caﬁso

MERRICK HERALD — January 23, 2014

Betty Lippai

Merrick Chamber Of Commerce

Congratulates

5HPHPEHU WR VKRS /RFDOO\ $1.99 Pressed Cleaners Merrick 1-800-GOT-JUNK? A & M Financial A-1 Baldwin Transmission & Engine Co. Ace’s Wine & Spirits Acqua Italian Restaurant Advance Irrigation Affordable Lawn Sprinklers All Dazzle Boutique All Island Transportation AltaStreet Online Marketing Solutions Ambassador Protection Services American Coin & Stamp Brokerage Andrew S. Nachamie, PC Anthony’s Ices Aqua New York Arthur Murray Dance Center Astoria Federal Savings Bagel Boss Bagel Plaza Bags N Things Bank of America Bashian & Papantoniou, PC Beauti Control Beautiful People Salon Belle’s Bellmore Merrick EMS Bethpage Federal Credit Union Brookside Auto Body BT Financial Services Bullseye Collectibles of Merrick, Inc. Burger 9 Point 5 C & L Tax and Accounting Services, LLP Capital One Bank Capital Resource Management, Inc. Cathy’s Touch Inc. Century 21 American Homes Chabad Center for Jewish Life Champions Tae Kwon Do Chase Bank Chateau Briand Children’s Nest Chocolate Promises Chris Tibaldi Drum Lessons Christine’s Chocolates Chwatsky Woman Too Cipriano Landscaping & Nursery Citibank CMC Design Architect, PC CMIT Solutions of South Nassau Coldwell Banker Homes Realty

Coleman Country Day Camp Companions Animal Hospital Coral House Corporate Business Solutions Crave Deli & Catering Cross Fit Strong Island CSM Engineering Dazzling Duds Debbie’s Boutique Delargent Design Architecture, PC Dessert City Café Diet Center Digital 17, LLC Dime Bank Direct Image Films Diversiﬁed Alternative Energy, Inc. Donna Carbone’s Dance Arts Douglas Elliman - Anita Bachrach Douglas Elliman - Margaret Biegelman Douglas Elliman - Susan G. Helsinger Douglas Elliman - Dorothy Herman Douglas Elliman - Louise Pitlake Douglas Elliman - Seth Pitlake Douglas Elliman - Barbara Shultis Douglas Elliman - Lisa DeTurris Drobbin Chiropractic Elisa’s Restaurant Elite Family Dental Care Emerald City West Energy Consulting & Sales Envoy Mortgage Esquire Tuxedos European Wax Center Fastrackids/JEI BellmoreMerrick Center Feldis Florists First National Bank of Long Island First National Bank of New York FJF Remodelers, Inc Flowers by Voegler Forcelli, Curto, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo, Cohn & Ferrana Freeport Collision Freeport Kayak Rentals Frida Concepcion Independent Sales Gadget Rx Gateway Inn Glitz & Glamma Goldschmidt, D.C. Goshinkan Dojo Got Wine and More Grace Christian Academy

Grace Variety Graydon Associates Green Wave Abstract Corp. GRK Market Holms Service Center Mobil Home Instead Senior Care Hucreative Services Inc. In Home Pet Services of Merrick Integral Ballet J & J Finishing Touches, LLC Jeffrey Alan Jewelers Jem Yoga Jerome A Scharoff PC Law Ofﬁce JFK Alumni Association Jim Cuccias & Sons General Contracting Joey’s of Mulberry St. Pizzeria Kavett Chiropractors Ken’s Faucet & Toilet Repair Khan Orthodontic Group Kiddsmiles Krohn, Rosenblum and Rosenblum La Pink La Strada of Merrick Land & Home Design, Inc. Left Coast Kitchen and Cocktails Local Media Solutions Long Guy Land Subs Lynn Karp/Marty Sorrentino Realtors Mary Elmore Realty Co. Menna’s Main Event Merokee Day School & Camp Merrick Chorale Merrick Community Nursery School Merrick Crystal Nails Merrick Dodge Chrysler Jeep of Wantagh Merrick Fire Department Merrick Flower Shoppe Merrick Foot Care Merrick Gables Café Merrick Herald Life Merrick House & Gardens Merrick Library Merrick Master Locksmiths Merrick Oral Surger Merrick Patch Merrick Pediatric Dentistry Merrick Physical Therapy Merrick Surgical Supplies & Home Care Inc. Merrick Sushi and Tea Merrick Theater and Center for the Arts

Merrick Woods Country Day School Mike & Marco’s Design & Planting, Inc. Milo’s Pizzeria Mirage Artistry Mitchell Barber Insurance Moolala Frozen Yogurt MP Family Health Muscle Maker Grill N.F. Walker, Inc.-Merrick Funeral Home Nassau County Craft Shows Nevica West Salon New York Islanders Hockey Club New York Life & Annuity Newsday Media Group Ni Nan Healing Art Center Nicholas James Bistro Nirenberg, Heyman & Associates Nor - Bel Service Center Inc North Merrick Public Library One 2 One Entertainment Optimum Growth Advisors, LLC Orlin & Cohen Orthopedic Associates Our Best Wishes Outback Steakhouse Platinum General Contracting Inc. Printing Emporium Professional Physical Therapy Orthopedic & Sports Puglisi Family Dentistry Pure Pilates qb Tax Services Queen of Hearts R.K. Enterprises, Inc. RE/MAX Hearthstone - Tina Canaris RE/MAX Hearthstone - Henry F. Weber, III Red Door Spas Red Mango Rising Stars Performing Arts Center Roma Pizza Roslyn Savings Bank RS Jones Restaurant Saf-T-Swim of Bellmore Sage Payment Solutions San Marzano Brick Oven Pizzeria Santorini Greek Restaurant Savoy Tavern Schwartz & Co., LLP Scott Russ Music Select-A-Home/ Island South Realty Corp. - Charlie Greco Select-A-Home/ Island South Realty

Corp. - Judy Pernice Selective Associates, Inc. Serengeti Design Studios Sew Who Cares Specialty Rarities Spine Care Club Sprint Starbucks - Peggy Zieran Starbucks - Rezza Brojerdi Starﬁsh Creations State Farm Insurance, Agent Scott Hermann Steve Seifer Wire Sculptures Stop & Shop Studio Envy Hair Design Sukoff Orthodontics Sunrise Chiropractic & Wellness Ofﬁce Sweet Tooth Events Swirlz World Synergy Fitness of Merrick T Mobile of Merrick Take Shape for Life Talk to the Paw TD Bank Teachers Federal Credit Union Temptations Boutique Inc The Annex Wellness & Fitness Center The Center for Ionic Detox The Ferrante Agency The Geller Dental Group The Merry Go Round The Pampered Chef The Studio The Vine Wine Bar The Visual Image Therapeutic Solutions Physical Therapy Tom New York Tomato & Basil Pizzeria Total Nutrition Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Uncle Benny Café Unik Wax United Realty US Home Remodeling Corp Valley Ornamental Iron Works Vanity Salon Vassallo Insurance Agency Verizon Wireless Xtreme Gym YourNewsMag Zuckerman’s Fine Jewelry

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January 23, 2014 — MERRICK HERALD