Great Neck 2022_05_06

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Friday, May 6, 2022

Vol. 97, No. 18

GUIDE TO MOTHER’S DAY

HAKIMI: ‘INDOCTRINATION’ IN SCHOOLS

NASSAU REACTS TO ABORTION REPORT

PAGES 28-29

PAGE 2

PAGE 6

South High in list’s 25 best N.Y. schools

THE FINER STRINGS

Only one throughout North Shore to crack top 200 in United States

BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y Eight public high schools in the North Shore have been named among the nation’s 1,000 best, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual list released Tuesday.

Atop the list is Great Neck South High School, which ranked 195th and 22nd in New York. They are the only local public school to make the list’s top 200.

This year’s ranking moved Great Neck South ahead of Manhasset High School, which this year was No. 24 in New York and No. 215 nationally.

Great Neck South and Manhasset were followed on the North Shore by Herricks High School at No. 327 overall and No. 38 in New York, North Shore High School at No. 406 overall and No. 48 in New York, Roslyn High School at No. 415 overall and No. 50 in New York, The Wheatley School at No. 474 overall and No. 53 in New York, Great Neck North High School at No. 503 and No. 58 in New York and Paul D. Schreiber High School at No. 733 overall and No. 77 in the state.

All eight schools have remained from last year, with state rankings changing slightly. The only two schools to jump higher in national rankings from

2021 were The Wheatley School and North Shore High School, which gained 136 and 24 spots respectively.

District officials congratulated their respective communities and staff for their achievements.“Our schools are consistently ranked among the best in the nation, and this honor is a direct result of the accomplishments of our students, the quality of our educational programs, and the commitment of our dedicated educators who help every student achieve their personal best,” said Great Neck Superintendent Teresa Prendergast. “I thank our Board of Education and our entire school community for supporting our programs and our students.”

“I congratulate the entire Herricks school community on this outstanding designation,” said Herricks Superintendent of Schools Fino Celano in a statement. “This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students, staff, parents and greater community!”

“We are ranked among a very impressive cohort of high schools locally and nationally,” said North Shore High School Principal Eric Contreras. “This distinction is a credit to the hard work of everyone in our North Shore community.

Continued on Page 49

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GREAT NECK SCHOOL DISTRICT

The Tri-M Music Honor Society inducted new members into their chapter last week.

733-41 Middle Neck Rd. plan decision tabled again apartment complex at 733-41 Middle Neck Road in Great Neck were For the third consecutive meet- tabled.

The project, developed by Geshing of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agnecy, approval reso- er Center LLC, had been on previous lutions for a four-story mixed-use agendas with resolutions to approve

BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z

their plans and tentative tax breaks, but were not on the agenda for Thursday night’s meeting.

Richard Kessel, agency chairman, said it is a “very complicated Continued on Page 50

Th e I s l a n d360.co m Come visit for the latest in breaking news.

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The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

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Curriculum concerns A.G. files complaint led me to run: Hakimi against attorneys Says some parents fear ‘socio-political indoctrination’

Says Manhassset lawyers misappropriated funds

BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z

A pair of Manhasset attorneys misappropriated more than $1.3 million from a charitable trust they administered on behalf of a deceased client, according to a complaint filed by the office of state Attorney General Letitia James last Tuesday.

The civil complaint alleges that Paul Marchese and Robin Maynard, of Marchese & Maynard LLP, represented Helen Gottlieb during the final years of her life before her death in 2008.

Prior to her death, Marchese aided Gottlieb in establishing The Harold and Helen Gottlieb Foundation, along with the charitable trust worth around $2 million, according to the complaint.

Following her death, Marchese, became the successor of Gottleib’s trust and had access to all of her assets, the complaint said.

Marchese allegedly directed the trust to pay the law firm nearly $600,000 before he and Maynard, acting as sole directors of the foundation, PHOTO BY JANELLE CLAUSEN paid themselves salaries of more than $750,000, according to the complaint.

James said Marchese was able to Emil Hakimi, a candidate for the Great Neck Board of Education, said parental concerns surrounding conconceal the transfers from the trust

troversial curriculum was what inspired him to run in this election.

BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z Great Neck Board of Education candidate Emil Hakimi said parental concerns surrounding the school district’s curriculum inspired him to run for a seat on the school board.

Hakimi, in a letter to Blank Slate Media, said he heard from parents “about the introduction of socio-political indoctrination into our children’s curriculum and instruction.”

Hakimi, who is running against incumbent Donna Peirez for the school board, said he hopes to bridge the gap between the board and parents if elected, and properly address these concerns.

“The dismissive attitude with which our concerns have been met has led to a strong feeling of distrust between a large segment of parents and the school board,” Hakimi said.

“I hope that my election will help re-

build this vital bridge.”

Hakimi said a slideshow allegedly part of an 11th-grade English class at North High School, which was circulated on social media, were one of the instances that motivated him to run.

A handful of parents, students and teachers addressed the slides, which featured teachings of “white fragility” and racism, at a school board meeting.

The slides were included in an article on the website of Parents Defending Education, a conservative national organization that works to ensure schools do not promote “harmful agendas,” according to its site.

The group said the slides presented in Great Neck were “steeped in the tenets of critical race theory,” and some residents who spoke at the meeting seemed to agree.

Under a slide discussing racism in America, a quote reads, “White people

benefit from this system, intentionally or unintentionally, which makes us all (technically) racist, myself included.”

The slide also mentions that the word “racist” was used “as an adjective to describe certain language, beliefs, and policies as opposed to racist as a noun to label a person.”

Another slide headlined “white fragility” claims “white people harbor significant fragility when discussing race” and said some manifestations include “defensiveness or anger, emotional withdrawal, guilt and tears.”

Another slide called on students to explore “sensitive topics openly and honestly, view antiracism as a process to work toward and call out their own and others’ racist tendencies.”

The teacher who was said to have presented the slides and the class being taught were not named.

to the firm because he allegedly did not register the trust with the Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, as is required by law.

The suit, according to James, seeks a court order to force Marchese and Maynard to repay the funds they allegedly transferred from the trust and foundation, along with other penalties and interests.

“Acting in their own interests, these lawyers allegedly failed to grant their client’s dying wish and hurt a charitable cause in the process,” James said in a release. “New Yorkers must have trust in the individuals tasked with overseeing their affairs when they are no longer able to do so themselves. My office will continue to uphold the laws designed to protect the interests of our charitable organizations and hold accountable those who attempt to shirk their duties in order to line their pockets.”

Timothy Gilles, a spokesperson for the firm, said in a statement to Blank Slate Media that the salaries and legal fees “have been entirely typical and appropriate for the extensive work and broad range of services provided by the firm and its partners” Continued on Page 49

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil complaint against a pair of Manhasset attorneys for allegedly misappropriating funds from a trust Continued on Page 49 and foundation.

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Antisemism on rise in Nassau: report Anti-Defamation Leagues says attacks rose 23% on Long Island in 2021 as part of a national trend

BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z Antisemitic attacks throughout Long Island increased 23% last year, with 32 incidents reported throughout Nassau County, according to statistics provided by the Anti-Defamation League.

The local increase in antisemitic incidents reflects a larger statewide trend. A total of 416 antisemitic incidents were reported throughout New York in 2021, a 24% increase from 2020, according to the ADL. Scott Richman, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey, said the rise in antisemitic instances should be a cause of concern for everyone, not just those within the Jewish community.

“The fact that these incidents included an unprecedented number of vicious assaults – frequently targeting visibly Jewish individuals on the streets of New York, including young children, is incredibly disturbing,” Richman said in a statement. “The message that this data is sending us is clear: antisemitism, like other forms of hate, is not going away, and we must proactively work together to protect our community by combating antisemitic statements and behavior before they lead to even more violence.”

Statistics showed New York’s rise

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNA KAPLAN’S OFFICE

State Sen. Anna Kaplan received a piece of hate mail with antisemitic references and profane language last year. in antisemitic incidents last year accounted for 15% of such incidents throughout the entire country in 2021. New York’s statistics were comprised of 183 harassment incidents, 182 vandalism incidents and 161 in-

cidents involving swastikas.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, told MSNBC that the data is “very damning” and that the record number of incidents tracked by the organization last year

was “shocking.”

“We’re in this moment where offenses across the board are on the rise,” Greenblatt said. “We saw 167% increase in antisemitic assaults in 2021…Make no mistake that neither

[political] party has a monopoly on morality.”

Greenblatt, whose wife is an Iranian refugee with deep roots to her home country, previously said some Americans could face the fate of his wife and his grandfather, a Jew from Germany, and be forced to leave the nation if these acts of hatred are not properly combated during an interview with Blank Slate Media.

Greenblatt said he does not believe it to be far-fetched that future family members may have the same fate of his wife and grandfather if antisemitic trends continue to rise.

“I don’t think it’s unthinkable for me as a Jew to imagine that one day my grandchildren might not be born here,” he said. “This country, the only one that I’ve ever known and loved, could one day change so dramatically that it forces me and my family to flee.”

The ADL, Greenblatt said, has been tracking antisemitic trends and instances for roughly 60 years, with antisemitic attitudes being held now by 8 to 10% of the American population. Despite the fact that millions of people still have those mindsets, he said, the statistics provide some encouragement though more work needs to be done.

Continued on Page 49

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Town Dems block DeSena’s reforms Local law would have removed board’s ability to override building department’s decisions

BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y The four Democrats on North Hempstead’s Town Board blocked Supervisor Jennifer DeSena’s first Building Department reforms since taking office during last Thursday night’s meeting.

The local law amending the town code would have required the town Building Department commissioner to make a decision on expedited permits within seven days and remove the Town Board’s ability to override the department’s decisions.

“Essentially with the current provision, getting a permit becomes a matter of who you know and how politically connected you are — not how valid your application is,” DeSena said before the discussion. “No other town has a provision like this and this current arrangement leaves the door wide open for potential corruption, favoritism and the development of a pay-to-play atmosphere to ensure the approval of an expedited application.”

The public hearing was the first item on the agenda and took over two hours to come to a vote in what was just under a four-hour meeting with much back-and-forth between council members and the public.

The current local law was added to Town Code on May 29, 2007,

PHOTO BY BRANDON DUFFY

North Hempstead Town Board members going through Thursday night’s agenda. the same year five Building Department officials were charged after a 16-month investigation by then Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice for receiving favors and payments in exchange for granting permits without inspections.

All five were later convicted, including former Building Commis-

sioner David Wasserman, who was sentenced to one year in jail in 2008 after pleading guilty to grand larceny and falsifying business records.

After DeSena’s statement, Democratic Councilmembers Mariann Dalimonte, Veronica Lurvey and Peter Zuckerman each issued statements saying that DeSena’s proposal does

not help the Building Department and called for the formation of a task force, among other things.

A registered Democrat, DeSena was elected as a Republican in November.

About 33,000 building applications have been reviewed by the Building Department over the last five

years, Dalimonte said. Of that total, the councilwoman said if this law had been in place, 56 would have been overturned, or 0.17 percent.

In March, DeSena said that over the past five years, 390 expedited permit requests out of roughly 1,000 were disapproved by the Building DeContinued on Page 50

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Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

Dems bash Supreme Court draft opinion Kaplan, candidates for 3rd Congressional, gov express support for threatened abortion rights

BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z State and county Democrats reacted with anger Tuesday to a leaked draft report of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would overturn abortion protections provided by Roe v. Wade and other high court rulings.

The draft opinion, released by Politico on Monday night, and written by Justice Samuel Alito, said Roe v Wade “was egregiously wrong from the start.”

“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” Alito continued.

The draft was written after a consensus was reached on a Mississippi case by Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas and three of former President Donald Trump’s nominees to the court, Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch.

State Sen. Anna Kaplan (D-North Hills) said the draft ruling showed the importance of New York legislators approving the Reproductive Health Act in 2019 despite the objections of opponents who “that we didn’t need to bother” and that “Roe v. Wade was the law of the land.”

“The other side went so far as to accuse us of political theater,” Kaplan said in a statement. “But we took action because a woman’s right to choose is sacred and must be protected from those who would take our rights from us to further their own agenda. And today as we look out on the horizon of a post-Roe era, state laws are the last protection from a far-right Supreme Court, and extremist politicians who are hell-bent on sending us back

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

State and county Democrats slammed draft ruling by U.S. Supreme Court on abortion case. into the dark ages.”

Democratic candidates for the state’s 3rd Congressional district, Melanie D’Arrigo, Robert Zimmerman, Josh Lafazan, Jon Kaiman and Alessandra Biaggi each expressed their desire to codify Roe v. Wade, if elected. D’Arrigo said this leaked draft is a result of radical Republicans hijacking the courts.

“Make no mistake: if this draft opinion becomes the law of the land, there will be a reckon-

ing at the polls,” D’Arrigo said. “This is a five-alarm fire and it’s undisputed proof that we need to elect better Democrats, not just more Democrats.”

Biaggi echoed D’Arrigo’s sentiments, saying it is on the Democrats in office to use their power and ensure abortion rights remain protected.

“If Dems don’t do something to stop the backslide in abortion rights while controlling the House, the Senate, and the presidency, then we can’t blame a generation of voters when they stop

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voting for us,” Biaggi tweeted on Tuesday. “It’ll be 100% on us, not them.”

“Tonight we are outraged,” Lafazan said.

“Tomorrow, we fight to codify Roe at the federal level and in Congress I will not rest until we get it done.”

“As the Supreme Court is currently considering whether to overturn Roe v. Wade, it is imperative that those in Congress protect reproductive freedom for women across America,” Kaiman said.

“I am disgusted that the majority conservative Supreme Court would move us back to a time of dangerous and illegal abortions,” Zimmerman said. “This is a shocking and reprehensible decision that will harm millions of vulnerable women and families across the country.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul noted Tuesday that New York previously legalized abortion, saying “I refuse to go backwards.” She said that message to those who do not side with Roe v. Wade is “you don’t want to mess with the State of New York.”

“This is something that we have fought against for my entire life,” Hochul said. “In fact, this is a battle my mother’s generation, it’s a battle from my generation, my daughter’s generation, and it seems like even my three-day old grandchild Sophia’s generation will have to be fighting this same fight. Something that we had thought we had put to bed a long time ago.”

Joy D. Calloway, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York said in a statement that “Abortion bans are the perpetuation of racism, sexism and economic injustice in a country that has a long history of stripping people of their own personal autonomy.”

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Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

To the Jewish Community of New York

Compassionate care for Sinai Chapels families is now available at Riverside-Nassau North Chapels.

Dear Friends,

Court ruling clouds congressional lines

BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z New York’s Court of Appeals rejected maps with newly drawn congressional lines that were said by Republicans to favor Democratic candidates last week clouding races across the state less than two months before primary elections are scheduled to be held.

Judges on the appeals court said the congressional lines were gerrymandered and, therefore, in violation of a 2014 constitutional amendment to deter such redistricting so that one party is favored.

Earlier this year, Patrick McAllister, a state Supreme Court judge, rejected the maps saying they were “unconstitutionally drawn with political bias.”

Some of the changes in the previously-approved Congressional maps included the state’s 3rd District stretching into parts of the Bronx and Westchester counties.

Currently, the district, held by U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), who is now running for the Democratic nomination for governor, includes Manhasset, Roslyn, Port Washington, Great Neck and Floral Park, among other areas, and stretches from Whitestone, Queens, to Kings Park in Suffolk County.

The proposed redistricting would add several

areas in Westchester County and the Bronx.

Melanie D’Arrigo, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the district, previously criticized the layout of the new district in a statement and claimed the proposed lines are an example of “extreme” gerrymandering.

D’Arrigo, last week, called for the primary date to be rescheduled while the state continues to determine what constituency candidates will serve if elected.

“If we are truly committed to running a free and fair election, we can’t stop overturning the unconstitutional gerrymander,” D’Arrigo said in a statement. “In order to center the needs of our voters, the primary date must be extended to account for the logistics of a new Congressional map.”

Robert Zimmerman, a fellow Democrat running against D’Arrigo in the 3rd district election, said whatever redistricting occurs will not deter him from fighting for his constituents and addressing issues such as climate change.

“Regardless of yesterday’s court ruling and how the district lines will be redrawn, I am in this fight because the issues facing our communities and the nation remain of paramount importance,” Zimmerman said last week.

Continued on Page 58

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The state’s Court of Appeals rejected redrawn congressional maps last week.

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Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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D’Arrigo champions progressive causes Port activist seeking CD3 Democratic nomination says she want to bring back party of FDR

BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y Port Washington progressive activist Melanie D’Arrigo says this upcoming election is a chance to focus on prioritizing money and reinvesting it into communities as she bids for the 3rd Congressional District.

D’Arrigo, who said she represents the “Democratic wing of the Democratic Party working hard to bring this party back to its FDR roots,” held a virtual town hall with Blank Slate Media in late April speaking on a number of issues, both nationally as locally.

D’Arrigo is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 3rd district seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove).

“Every policy I fight for is centered on uplifting working and middle-class families,” D’Arrigo said. “My policy positions are solution-oriented and they tackle the problem. I have a philosophy which is to do the most good and everything I support is in that vein.”

Regarding bail reform, D’Arrigo said she supports the reforms made by the state Legislature and considers them important civil rights legislation. On the overall issue of public safety, the Port Washington resident believes that investing in the community such as green spaces, education and healthcare for example would tackle the root cause of crime.

“We’ve defunded a lot from education, our schools and our police budgets keep growing,” D’Arrigo said. “I think there is a movement where most folks are saying if we’re going to have one budget with only a certain amount of money, we need to prioritize where we’re putting it.”

D’Arrigo first ran for Congress in 2020, competing against incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) and Great Neck attorney Michael Weinstock in the Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District. While Suozzi won the primary and ultimately the general election, D’Arrigo received 25.7 percent of the primary vote.

A native of Lindenhurst, D’Arrigo graduated from Barnard College and earned a master of science degree from the School of Health Professions at Long Island University, and later worked as an allied health professional for health care companies Optum and Cigna.

For the first quarter of 2022, D’Arrigo raised $71,417.66 while disbursing $90,334.05. By March 31, she had $97,259.59 cash on hand and had raised $297,296.85 during her campaign according to Federal Election Commission filings.

State and Nassau Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs has been critical of prominent progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her overall policies, but D’Arrigo said she believes despite pre-

“I am hoping to breathe a fresh breath into the party and run on democratic values,” D’Arrigo said. “That’s what this campaign is about we’re running on issues that will improve material conditions for families in real-time.”

D’Arrigo supports Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, campaign finance reform, immigration reform, student loan forgiveness and free public education, among others. So far, she has been endorsed by the National Organization for Women PAC, Brand New Congress, Her Bold Move, Empire State Indivisible, Moms in Office and Progressive Women of NY, among others.

“These programs are very much PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CANDIDATE in the vein of the FDR spirit and would absolutely be a huge boon to the middle Melanie D’Arrigo of Port Washclass and we can actually build an econoington, a Democratic candidate my from the worker on up instead of the for the 3rd congressional district. top-down, which is what has happened for decades now,” D’Arrigo said. vious comments and the recent red wave D’Arrigo applauded President Joe in November throughout Long Island Biden for his cautious approach to the there are ways to establish progressive Russian invasion of Ukraine while avoidsupport. ing the country’s involvement in another She said in Southold, a Suffolk war. She said she is in favor of peace and County town, candidates were “open sending humanitarian aid as well as supand unapologetically progressive” while plies but she wants the United States to speaking about climate change and the do everything it can to de-escalate the Green New Deal, for example. She says situation rather than exacerbate it. it’s an example that at the municipal level “If we escalate to a certain point, we Long Islanders are open for a different might as well start the war ourselves and perspective.

I think that’s what we’re trying to balance

here,” D’Arrigo said. “It’s not an easy decision nor should anyone take it lightly, I think we have to be as supportive as we can.”

D’Arrigo’s rivals for the Democratic primary on June 28 include former North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman, Nassau County Legislator Joshua Lafazan, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, Oyster Bay’s Reema Rasool and longtime Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman.

While she lacks experience in political office, D’Arrigo said she’s represented her community for many years and has worked with elected officials on garnering support for many pieces of legislation.

“I co-founded an LGBTQ nonprofit in the Town of North Hempstead and we organized the very first Pride celebration in the town’s history. We have now created a more inclusive environment for many of our families and our town is better for it,” D’Arrigo said. “I have fought for healthcare, I have fought for immigrant rights and in our town and throughout our district, I have fought for climate action. And I think the notion that I haven’t worked in government because I haven’t served is a false one because frankly, as an organizer, you work with multiple levels of government to try to advocate and pass policy.”

D’Arrigo’s virtual town hall with Blank Slate Media can be seen on our YouTube channel.

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The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

11

12 The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

GN

Dems block DeSena’s ethics board picks Cite issues with staggered terms, selection procedures in not replacing 6 members with expired terms The seven current Ethics Board members are currently operating on expired terms and can be removed at any time through a majority vote from the board.

BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y For the second time, Democrats on North Hempstead’s Town Board blocked seven nominations by Supervisor Jennifer DeSena to the town’s Board of Ethics Thursday night.

DeSena’s recommendations included Westbury/New Cassel NAACP President Robin Bolling; Derek Chan, president of Greater Hudson Financial; The Islamic Center of Long Island Chair Isma Chaudry; Chabad of Mineola Rabbi Anchelle Perl; Robert Reilly, former assistant dean at Fordham University’s School of Law; Melissa Slobin, speech language pathologist for Manhasset Public Schools; and Francisco Vazquez, senior counsel to Norton Rose Fullbright.

Town Board Councilman Robert Troiano said there were steps going on behind the scenes at town hall that needed to be sorted out before the members can officially be appointed.

The seven-member Board of Ethics is responsible for implementing the provisions of the Town’s Code of Ethics, according to the town’s websites.

Its responsibilities include approving and reviewing financial statements, rendering advisory opinions to town employees on the Code of Ethics and enforcing the code while determining penalties, among other things.

“There’s been discussion in town hall about the terms that each of the appointees would be slotted into. It’s my understanding that staff is still working on that,” Troiano said. “So I consider the presentation of the resolutions as being premature until that is worked out with staff. And so I need to abstain.”

“Resolution” is the technical term

IT’S EQUALLY IMPORTANT THAT THESE MEMBERS SERVE IN GUARANTEED TERMS INDEPENDENT AND AUTONOMOUS OF THE OUTSIDE INFLUENCE OF TOWN BOARD.

Jennifer DeSena SUPERVISOR

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUPERVISOR’S OFFICE

Current members for North Hempstead’s Board of Ethics are operating on unexpired terms, said Supervisor Jennifer DeSena. for what appears on the agenda.

There were 60 resolutions that required action from the Town Board (accepting bids, town business, etc.).

Seven of those “resolutions” involved the appointments to the Town Board of Ethics.

Fellow Democrats Peter Zuckerman, Veronica Luvey and Mariann Dalimonte, who make up the fourperson majority on the seven-person Town Board, followed Troiano by abstaining from each of the seven recommendations.

DeSena, a registered Democrat

who was elected running on the Republican line, was joined by GOP Town Councilmembers David Adhami and Dennis Walsh in voting for the seven appointments.

As they had in February, each Democrat said the abstentions had nothing to do with the merits of the individuals and that they were just waiting until town hall resolves some outstanding issues.

“It’s clear that there’s no independent thought being put into the votes,” DeSena said during one of the resolutions.

In February, former Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss and LIU Associate Professor Qiping Zhang were nominated by DeSena, but they have been switched out for Bolling and Slobin.

The other five remain the same.

Only Chaudry is a holdover from the administration of Judi Bosworth, who decided not to run in 2021. Each appointee will serve a four-year term.

DeSena stressed the importance of appointing new board members to four-year terms that would put them outside of possible influence from Town Board members.

“Having a truly independent Board of Ethics who are capable of exercising meaningful oversight is crucial to prevent conflicts of interest and misdeeds,” DeSena said. “It’s equally important that these members serve in guaranteed terms independent and autonomous of the outside influence of town board.”

In February, Town Board Democrats abstained from voting while saying the selections were not representative of the town’s geographical diversity and that they did not receive resumes on DeSena’s picks shortly before that month’s meeting.

DeSena said she has taken into consideration the suggestions from fellow board members and believes this group represents the town geographically, religiously, ethnically and gender-wise.

Resolutions for the Board of Ethics appointments can be made at the May 19 meeting.

Teacher indicted for fake vax card submission

BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y A Sewanhaka High School math teacher was indicted last Wednesday for allegedly submitting a fake COVID-19 vaccination card to the school, Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.

Tricia Manno, 47, from Lindenhurst was charged with trying to avoid the district’s mandatory testing rules.

“This defendant allegedly attempted to circumvent the school district’s mandatory testing requirement by submitting a vaccine card with obvious forgeries,” Donnelly said in a statement. “Manno doubled-down on the fraud by allegedly illegally obtaining a replacement card at the Northport VA Medical Center where she claimed to have been vaccinated, showing staff a digital fake as her

proof. Submitting fraudulent documents is a crime, and in this case, one that put the health and safety of students and staff at risk.”

According to the district’s website, Manno teaches mathematics.

Superintendent James Grossanne said she has been and will continue to fully cooperating with the DA’s office but cannot comment on personnel matters “due to privacy restraints.”

On Sept. 21 of last year, Donnelly said, Manno submitted a digital vaccination card to avoid the district’s testing rules, according to an investigation. Once colleagues found it possibly being fraudulent, Manno was asked to submit the original card, not digital, to the district but said it has been lost while also being vaccinated from the Northport VA Medical Center.

Using her fake digital card, the DA

said, Manno was able to get another copy, which she submitted to officials on Oct. 5, although there are currently no records that the hospital gave her a vaccination in the first place.

Manno was arraigned Wednesday on charges of second-and thirddegree criminal possession of a forged instrument, two counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. She has pleaded not guilty.

Michael Davidman, senior assistant district attorney of the Public Corruption Bureau is prosecuting the case.

Manno is being represented by Scott Limmer who declined to comment other than confirming his client’s not-guilty plea.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Tricia Manno was indicted April 27 for allegedly submitting a fake vaccine card to the high school.

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14 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

Opinion Editorial Cartoon

OUR VIEWS

Town Dems stand in way of progress

I

n the lead-up to the national 2010 mid-term elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Then White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded, saying “it’s a deeply disappointing message that, regardless of the outcome of this election, political gridlock and political gamesmanship is what the American people have to look forward to over the next two years.”

But that is just what the Republicans did and from a political point of view, it worked. The Republicans picked up 63 seats, taking control of the House for the first time since the 2006 elections.

It appears that Town of North Hempstead Democrats have now taken a page from O’Connell’s playbook following votes last week against three proposals made

by Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, a Democrat who was elected running as a Republican.

Two of the proposals were legislation addressing the town’s long-troubled Building Department.

One would remove her authority and the power of council members to override the Building Department’s decisions on socalled “expedited” permits.

The second proposal would be to require the Building Department commissioner to make a decision on “expedited” permits within seven days.

DeSena’s proposals wouldn’t actually improve the performance of a Building Department that is greatly in need of repair. There are no allegations that supervisors or town board members have abused their authority in the past.

And the seven-day deadline on “expedited” permits deemed especially important doesn’t address the many other permits sought by businesses and residents.

But DeSena’s proposals would at least be a baby step forward in addressing the long delays often experienced by businesses and residents in obtaining building permits and approvals, The answer fromthe four Democrats on the town council was to essentially do nothing.

In a recent press release of nearly 1,000 words that served as a response to

DeSena’s State of the Town address, the Democrats said not one word about the Building Department.

This is odd since former Town Clerk Wayne Wink, the Democrat’s candidate for town supervisor, joined DeSena during the November campaign in saying the Building Department was the No. 1 issue. Wink offered a detailed list of changes he would seek if elected.

This may have worked against Wink since his plan may have served as an implicit criticism of the Democratic town board and former Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, a popular Democrat who decided not to seek a sixth term. It may have also reminded voters that the Democraticcontrolled town board had failed to fix the Building Department while in control for many years.

We would like to think that the town Democrats are not looking ahead to the next election by depriving DeSena of any legislative victories — no matter how small — and avoiding anything that might offend Bosworth’s supporters. But it is very difficult to think otherwise.

After DeSena explained her proposal to the board last week, Democrat council members Mariann Dalimonte, Veronica Lurvey and Peter Zuckerman each made statements saying DeSena’s proposal would not help the Building Department and suggested the formation of a task force, among other things.

Dalimonte said the proposed task force would be composed of residents with expertise in residential and commercial construction and make recommendations to the board, which was backed by Lurvey and Zuckerman.

This is, to say it nicely, ludicrous. And an insult to voters’ intelligence.

The failings of the town Building Department have been front and center in every race for town seats for years.

Every person who has run for office has already heard the complaints about and solutions to the department’s woes, including the detailed, well-thought-out plan presented by Wink during his unsuccessful campaign.

The town cannot afford to wait another two years to fix chronic problems with the Building Department especially as local businesses try to recover from the im-

BLANK SLATE MEDIA LLC 22 Planting Field Road, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577 Phone: 516-307-1045 E-mail: hblank@theisland360.com EDITOR AND PUBLISHER Steven Blank OFFICE MANAGER Holly Blank

pact of COVID-19 over the past two years.

Nor should homeowners have to endure the needless delays of the Building Department.

The third DeSena proposal rejected by Democrats was her picks to fill six seats on the town’s seven-member Board of Ethics for a second time.

DeSena in February had put forth the appointment of The Islamic Center of Long Island Chair Isma Chaudhry; Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss; Robert Reilly, former assistant dean at Fordham University’s School of Law; LIU associate professor Qiping Zhang; Chabad of Mineola Rabbi Anchelle Perl; Derek Chan, president of Greater Hudson Financial; and Francisco Vazquez, senior counsel to Norton Rose Fullbright.

“It’s very important we have an independent Board of Ethics with appointed terms so they can render opinions and not worry that it could cause them to be dismissed,” DeSena said.

Democratic Town Council Member Robert Troiano said in Februarythe selections were not representative of the town’s geographical diversity since they did not include someone from his district. Other Democrats said they did not receive the resumes on DeSena’s picks until shortly before the meeting in explaining their decision to abstain.

To provide the geographic diversity Troiano requested, DeSena withdrew the nominations of Strauss, a former New York City police officer who worked the pile after 9/11 and currently heads security at Northwell Health, and LIU Associate Professor Qiping Zhang.

In their place, she selected Westbury/ New Cassel NAACP President Robin Bolling and Melissa Slobin, speech-language pathologist for Manhasset PublicSchools That was still not enough for the Democrats.

This time they said they were not satisfied with DeSena’s selection process and complained that by nominating six picks at once the board needed to address how terms would be staggered.

The Yiddish word for this is chutzpah, which translates to gall with an extra twist.

The reason there are six openings on the Ethics Board is that when Democrats held a 6-1 advantage, the Town Board did not fill the six openings when they occurred.

The participation in this discussion by Troiano, who had previously served on the Town Board and as a deputy to Bosworth, further raised the question of whether town Democrats actually want a town Ethics Board.

In 2018, the town admitted that when serving as a town staffer Troiano failed to list federal tax liens on at least one financial disclosure statement.

Blank Slate Media had earlier reported that in the 2014 financial statement Troiano failed to list $81,533 in federal income tax liens and a $749,264 lien on a house he owned facing foreclosure.

Then town spokesperson Carol Trottere said the issues raised regarding Troiano’s undisclosed tax liens suggested that the town’s process needed to be tightened.

This would include requiring that “senior appointees submit financial disclosures before starting their employment with the

REPORTERS Robert Pelaez, Brandon Duffy COLUMNIST Karen Rubin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Stacy Shaughnessy, Melissa Spitalnick, Wendy Kates, Linda Robinson, Steven Schoenfarber ART DIRECTOR Jewell Davis

town,” she said.

Only a year earlier, the town announced it had strengthened its ethics codes following disclosures showing that Gerard Terry, the former head of the North Hempstead Democratic Committee who held two jobs in the town, had racked up nearly $1 million in unpaid state and federal taxes between 2000 and 2017.

Terry later pleaded guilty to tax fraud and served time in prison.

Troiano had been tapped by then Nassau County Executive Laura Curran to serve as the county’s acting commissioner for traffic and parking violations at the time questions about his town disclosures were raised.

He stepped down when his tax issues came to light, although Troiano maintained he left for other reasons.

Presumably, the town Ethics Board would play a role should issues similar to that of Troiano and Terry arise with current town employees and council members.

Troiano voted against the Ethics Board picks. And fellow Democrats Peter Zuckerman, Veronica Luvey and Mariann Dalimonte used the Democrats’ latest tool in rejecting DeSena recommendations by abstaining on each of the seven recommendations.

We would think Troiano and his fellow Town Board Democrats would not want to appear to be getting in the way of a town Ethics Board.

We would also think that Town Board Democrats would not get in the way of Building Department reforms.

But so far we would be wrong.

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15

ON THE RIGHT

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s disastrous budget

I

n January, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a bloated $217 billion state budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year that the comptroller’s office indicated contained various budget gimmicks, including “billions of dollars allocated to broadly defined purposes with little or no specificity.”

Hochul’s budget is to be balanced using billions in Federal COVID relief dollars that will not be replenished.

Hence, her reckless spending will create serious fiscal problems in the postelection years and will put the state on the road to financial insolvency.

While Hochul’s original proposal took care of most special interest groups (i.e., teacher unions), it wasn’t enough for Democratic legislators who have an insatiable appetite for political swag.

As a result, the New York Post bellowed, “Albany returned to the bad old stinky ways of passing a budget.”

The budget was negotiated in secret with the infamous “three people in the room”—the governor, Assembly speaker and Senate majority leader.

Due to political bickering, the budget was not passed on time. It was

eventually approved in the middle of the night a week after the new fiscal year began on April 1.

And the final product, laden with political fat and questionable nonbudget items, pushes spending to a record-breaking $220 billion; 18 percent higher than in 2020. (The Empire Center for Public Policy reports the state will be spending $6,987 per second.)

Hochul surrendered to the far left on most items to secure money for the biggest financial boondoggle in recent history: the Buffalo Bills stadium deal.

Some $600 million of state funds have been allocated to subsidize the building of a new stadium in Erie County, which is coincidentally where Gov. Hochul resides.

This is an irresponsible expense to buy off voters in Western New York and will be the poster child for corporate welfare for years to come.

Contrary to claims, it is not an investment that enhances the local economy.

An analysis published by the Cato Institute reported “the presence of pro sport teams in 37 metropolitan areas

GEORGE J. MARLIN On The Right in our sample had no measurably positive impact on the overall growth of real per capita income in those areas.”

Baltimore’s Camden Yards, for example, has generated about $3 million a year in economic benefits but cost Maryland state taxpayers $14 million annually in debt service payments.

The fact that sports facilities have proved to be a poor investment explains why wealthy team owners are

not willing to fork over their own money to build them.

“Publicly funded stadiums are, at best, an inefficient investment of taxpayers’ dollars for the meager benefits produced,” said the National Taxpayers Union in a 2007 study. “At worst, [they’re] massive payments to rich team owners and players at the expense of ordinary taxpayers.”

On another front, Hochul caved in to the health care union and will spend $7.7 billion for pay raises to the home-health industry.

Also, the budget extends to 2029 the $500 million annual subsidy to film production studios.

And the Empire Center reports state public employee unions received an incredible election year gift: “There is a partial rollback of successful, decade-old public employee pension reforms that saved taxpayers about a billion dollars a year…. [T]he budget reduces vesting periods from 10 years to five and cuts contribution rates in some cases.”

As for Hochul’s bail law changes, they are merely marginal—good for political commercials but not for the

public.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was very disappointed that judges were granted only a little more discretion when setting bail. “I think we have a lot more to do,” he said.

New York City’s PBA president, Pat Lynch, complained the revisions are “political window dressing that won’t do much to change the reality on the streets.”

The Detective Endowment Association leader declared: “No mandatory for gun possession, which the DEA supports, means more shootings.

Judges must be allowed to consider prior convictions and recidivism.”

Hochul’s Democratic primary opponent, Congressman Tom Suozzi, summed up the election year giveaway budget thusly: “Instead of using this opportunity to lower taxes, reduce crime and make New York more affordable, Kathy Hochul showed her inexperience by botching the budget process and saddling New Yorkers with billions more in spending, including the biggest tax giveaway in NFL history to build a new Bills stadium.”

Aptly put.

A LOOK ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

My husband, the would-be spy S ome days it seems that the men of my acquaintance fall into one of three categories: either they are fans of spy stories or of Mafia stories. (What’s the third category, you ask? Fans of both.)

I wonder if the appeal is one of getting things done — illegal things, bad things — in secret, whether as part of an underworld or with an actual secret identity. That way nobody’s mom or girlfriend could come along and say, “Those 12 labors took you long enough, Hercules,” or “so, you guys stabbed Caesar 23 times?

You got something against even numbers?” or even “I send you out with a gun, and you bring back cannoli?

What is wrong with you?”

Whatever the reason, my husband is a spy-stories guy. I learned this early in our dating days, when he started me on John Le Carré’s “Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy” series. (That was the BBC’s classic version with Alec Guinness.) This wasn’t just being thrown in at the deep end of the pool, it was more like parachuting into the inky blackness of a quarry swimming hole — at night.

Not only did I fail to understand it, but even after I read the book, I still didn’t really understand what was going on. It wasn’t until we then watched the series again that I began to say, “Oh! I get it now!”

For comic relief, there was the brilliant “Get Smart.” Really, that was a spy show crossed with Mel Brooks’ and Buck Henry’s best borscht-belt humor.

To be completely accurate, my husband and I discovered this separately, since we were each just kids when the series started in 1965. But once we met, we bonded with shared fondness for the show’s zany gadgets such as “The Cone of Silence” — which never once functioned properly, but only made the spies shout their secrets louder than ever — and its even zanier plots.

But far and away my husband’s favorite show was “The Prisoner.” The entire series, only 17 episodes long, had already become a cult classic. It starred Patrick McGoohan as a retired spy — or rather one who tries to retire, but wakes up to find himself a prisoner in a place known only as The Village.

The character is nameless throughout and told only that he is “Number 6” — a designation he rejects with one of the series’ most iconic lines: “I am not a number! I am a free man!”

The village he wakes up in does not seem to have a name either — and with no maps (and certainly no iPhone GPS) he cannot even be sure whether he is in a friendly country or

JUDY EPSTEIN A Look on the Lighter Side enemy territory. He seems quite immune to its beauty, with buildings of every sort of architecture dotted about a verdant landscape.

All his attempts to escape are gently but persistently foiled and all

of his questions receive the same response: “Questions are a burden to others; answers are a prison for oneself.”

My husband and I were still just dating when he informed me that viewing this series was mandatory.

We even had to leave one party early to get back to the TV in my apartment to watch the next-to-last episode.

Then we turned the TV off and complained to each other how frustrating it was that we wouldn’t see the ending until the following week.

“If only they would broadcast the last two episodes back to back tonight, then we wouldn’t have to wait,” I said.

We looked at each other, suddenly struck by the same horrible thought: “You don’t suppose that’s exactly what they’re doing?”

“In that case,” my beloved said, “then just sitting here and complain-

ing, with the TV off…”

We said it together: “We’d be BIG FOOLS!” We turned the TV back on and discovered that…yes and yes.

But luckily we caught the ending.

And I don’t think I would have understood it any better if I’d seen it intact.

It was a famously enigmatic show.

My husband loved it so much that when it came time to plan a honeymoon, I called a travel agent and said, “I want to find that village in Wales where they filmed ‘The Prisoner,’ and see if there’s a way to stay there.” I knew its real-world name: Portmeirion, just like the line of pottery decorated with botanical designs.

Even with that information, in those pre-internet days, our travel agent told us she only succeeded at finding the place because her daughter was a private eye!

We had a much better time there than resident Number 6 ever did.

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16 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

THE BACK ROAD

A child’s right to play is being threatened

H

ave you heard about “freerange parenting”?

I hadn’t.

It refers to laws that grant children independence for certain activities such as walking to school or hanging out in a playground, based on their maturity level.

Fair enough.

Although some folks think it helps to build confidence, self-reliance and character, others see it as neglect.

Which is it?

Every state has different laws for leaving kids unattended. Some have a minimum age for leaving a child home alone. In Delaware it is 12 and in Georgia is it 8, for example.

Who knew?

The Utah State free-range parenting bill, the first in the country, permits children to “walk, run, or bike to and from school, travel to commercial or recreational facilities, play outside and remain at home unattended.”

Typically, these laws have discretion built in for parents.

According to New York state law there is no set age at which you can leave a child alone. The parent is responsible for deciding whether or not the child is mature and responsible enough to understand the circumstances and take care of her or himself.

Sounds like my childhood in the 1950s.

Kids need safe places to go and worthwhile things to do to develop a sense of belonging, competency and hope. Parents need to be protected from unwarranted investigations for neglect if their 8- or 9-year-old children are seen playing in a park.

Play is essential to a child’s development.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt advised that the most important thing we can do to prepare the next generation is let them out to play. It is through play that kids cultivate imagi-

ANDREW MALEKOFF The Back Road nation and creativity, build physical fitness and learn the “rules of the game.”

Developing a playful attitude also goes a long way in benefiting emotional well-being as they mature into adulthood.

Haidt advises, in his April 9 piece

for The Atlantic, “stop starving children of the experiences they most need to become good citizens: free play in mixed-age groups of children with minimal adult supervision.”

Yes! “With such laws [like free-range parenting] in place,” Haidt suggests, “schools, educators, and public-health authorities should then encourage parents to let their kids walk to school and play in groups outside, just as more kids used to do.”

Like many of us used to do.

Of course, parents must proceed with common sense caution and legal due diligence. New York state law specifies that “a child of 12 might be fine alone for two hours in an afternoon. Yet, the same child may be incapable of responsibly caring for a 5-year-old for that same period of time.”

Sound judgment is key.

In his 1938 book on the study of

play in culture, Dutch historian Johan Huizinga identified the essence of human beings with playfulness. He described play as a “free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’ but at the same time absorbing the player intensely.”

There is nothing better than getting lost in a good day’s play.

In his treatise on Little League baseball and youth culture, sociology professor Gary Alan Fine gave voice to the infusion of joy in one’s work, adopting a playful attitude toward it, and transcending the formal rules of an activity without breaking them.

For a child, the pathway to industrious work begins with unfettered play.

To the extent that Little League baseball is task-oriented, it is a form of work. To the extent that it is flexible, free and involves choice, it is play.

It is, in fact, both.

Continued on Page 43

VIEW POINT

Vote May 17 for strong G.N. school budget

G

reat Neck Schools Superintendant Dr. Teresa Prendergast’s report at the March 30 School Board meeting included a long list of student achievements, including a North High School science research student whose work is being published in a professional journal, students who will be performing at Carnegie Hall, South High’s robotics team qualifying to compete in the world championships, and a very full list of the shows and concerts put on in every building.

Indeed, this year’s USA Today “Best High Schools” edition ranking of nearly 18,000 public high schools had both Great Neck South High (195) and Great Neck North (503) among the 14 Nassau County high schools in the top 1,000 and the district has been ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 3 in the nation.

These things don’t just happen.

They happen because of the opportunities that our district affords students, who can discover and nurture their own talents and interests. (See “Statement of Educational Philosophy” in the budget book.)

None of this happens without the school budget, which is as much a statement of values as the fuel to achieve the mission.

Great Neck has consistently supported public education and voted to adopt its budget. But that support can no longer be taken for granted. The antitax movement has been a constant, but has morphed into a growing anti-public education/anti-government movement.

Education, along with public health (and climate change) has become a victim of politically motivated culture wars.

So what’s in the budget and how does that translate into your tax bill?

The general fund appropriation for 2022-23 is $261,432,690, up 3.66 percent from $252,194,682 (but down from the first draft because of

an increase in state aid going toward the universal pre-K expense). Of this, $222,658,679 is to be raised by real property tax, 2.57 percent more than the current year and within the allowed state tax cap (they could have raised property taxes as much as a 3.36 percent and stay within the cap). State aid comes in at $10,822,541.

These figures pertain to the total budget and the community tax levy as a whole. But homeowners find their own school taxes change more. This is for a number of reasons, but a key one is that for probably 20 years Nassau County, the assessing authority, has had four separate tax categories and has been shifting more of the tax burden from commercial and multi-family properties onto single-family residences. Business Superintendent John Powell pointed out that the share of the property tax pie that comes from single-family residential owners has risen from 63 percent in 2010-11 to 71 percent in 2021-22.

This means that even if the school district did not raise property taxes at all, homeowners would still see an increase.

Now, unlike the income tax, the property tax to fund schools is based on an actual to the dollar amount of operating expenses, and your home’s assessed value represents your share of that total pie. The assessed value of your home – your share of the pie — may have increased. And when taxpayers grieve their rates and win reductions, their share of the pie gets reduced but the difference has to be made up by the rest of taxpayers to cover the total budget pie.

The state has imposed limits on a local school district’s ability to increase property taxes by legislating a tax cap – a complicated formula that roughly limits the increase in the amount that can be raised from property tax revenue to 2 percent or the CPI, whichever is less (one year the district was limited to 0.17

KAREN RUBIN View Point percent) but does not reflect increased enrollment. If the cap is breached, a super majority vote is required to pass the budget. Our district has never breached the cap, even before it was a legislated mandate.

Many districts have been forced to cannibalize their programs to the point they only can offer what is absolutely mandated. But to preserve its programs, this district (as many others) has relied more on capital projects (the debt service is not counted toward the cap) and go into its fund balance and reserves.

This year that amount is $8,514,076, up from $3,164,205, and another $5 million from reserves.

Tax-exemptions allowed by the county’s Industrial Development Agency also impact the budget – in essence, what these commercial enterprises don’t pay in property tax (Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOTs) has to be made up – you guessed it – by homeowners.

So in 2010, there were three IDA exemptions totaling $54,418,300 in “equalized value” – 0.31 percent of IDA property value exempted. But in 2022, there were 15 such exemptions, totaling

$172,954,108 and 0.95 percent of value exempted.

And when you look at all exemptions – seniors, veterans – there were 13,080 in 2010 amounting to $2,769,100,900 in equalized value, for a total of 15.6 percent of all value exempted. By 2022, the number of exemptions has grown to 18,172, and the total value ballooned to $6.923,288,131, 37.7 percent of all value exempted. Exemptions for one means higher tax burden for others.

This amount is increasing with more multi-family projects going up – totaling some 500 units – which will add to school enrollment, but also the amount of tax revenue lost to PILOTs. Meanwhile, while school districts are funded as much as 50 percent from state aid (New York City, Roosevelt), only 4.1 percent of Great Neck’s 20222023 budget is projected to be funded from state aid ($10,822,541). Federal and other sources will cover 5 percent, and appropriated fund balance and reserves will account for 5.6 percent. This leaves 85.19 percent, $223,756,176, to be raised from property tax (though the amount has been more than 90 percent in the past) – a larger share of the budget pie than most school districts.

Why does the school budget continue to increase?

In the first place, in contrast to many other school districts, Great Neck’s K-12 student enrollment continues to rise and is projected to reach 6,546 next term. To preserve the low-class size standards that have proved such a strong factor in our students’ success, additional teachers and services need to be added. Also, because the district is placing greater focus on students’ mental and emotional health, the district is adding guidance counselors – two being added for elementary schools and four for secondary schools.

Moreover, the budget supports far more than the 6,546 K-12 students (plus 236 pre-K, also a growing number) enrolled in the district’s schools, but some 2,000 students who attend parochial, private and special education situations, for which the district funds transportation ($6 million), health services, nurses, textbooks, library materials, software, CARES Act, psychologists, special education teachers, speech therapist, equipment repairs and instructional supplies – totaling $7,503,532.

In addition, there are items paid from the operating budget that are repaid through revenue, or which support the broader community – like Adult Education, GED, summer recreation and enrichment programs.

For this reason (for those who think we spend too lavishly per pupil), taking the total operating budget and dividing by the 6,546 enrolled K-12 students is not the way to determine the per-pupil expenditure. The more accurate perpupil amount is $18,000 for elementary students, $25,000 for secondary students (on par with comparable districts), while the expenditure for special education students, which is determined by their IEP, can be as much as $90,000.

Also, a significant portion of the budget are mandated expenses from the state. For example, the mandated contribution to the Group Health Plan is up $2.3 million from last year to $31,788,196, the contribution to the Teachers Retirement System is up $1 million to $11,967,295.

(See details about the budget at https://www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/ Page/15211) Vote Tuesday, May 17, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to support our best investment in our community, our future, our society – our schools (see www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/voting or call 516-4414020).

Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

17

OUR TOWN

Obesity and the right approach to food

T

he modern age is best characterized by the word speed. We jump in our cars and rush from home to work and from work to home. In fact, life has become so fast that we barely have time to taste our food. Henry Adams was the first to describe how technology has sped up human existence to the point of breathlessness. He wrote his classic essay “A Law of Acceleration” way back in 1904 and it’s been getting worse ever since.

The advent of the computer led to the electronic revolution and by the 1980s the post-modern theorist Jean Baudrillard accurately pronounced that things have come at us so fast and so perfectly that modern discourse died along with history itself. He was right about all of this.

The world is now a speeding comet giving us lives that are hyped up, frenzied and overloaded with no time to stop, think or listen. And all this speed has consequences, one of which is that people spend their evershrinking down time by sitting in front of the television wolfing down food without a moment to stop and enjoy what we are eating.This combination of inactivity and eating too quickly has led to an obesity epidemic in America and the emergence of the specialty of bariatric surgery.

I am assigned the task of evaluating many patients during the preop-

erative phase of this surgery to rule out any serious mental illness and last night I was invited to give a talk to some of the post-operative patients as part of an after-care group run by a physicians assistant.

An interesting question came up during my talk when the subject turned to relearning how to eat as a part of the post-operative process. The dietician in the group recommended that patients pause two minutes between bites and to use a timer to do so. I was asked how to reframe the eating experience given this drastic change in eating styles. I really did not know what to say, but one of the participants provided a truly brilliant answer to this.

He talked about how he has learned to savor each bite and that food can be experienced as a soothing moment. In addition, he said that as one waits for the next bite one can anticipate it with glee. This reminded me of the French attitude towards sex, which is that the anticipation of the act of sex is essentially where all the pleasure resides.

This brief conversation is exactly what cognitive reframing is all about.

One needs to come up with true wisdom which can convert a frustrating situation into an edifying experience. I recalled when I was in graduate school and gave up cigarettes. I reinterpreted the agitation and withdrawal I felt as

And with timer in place and as you wait, you might also reframe the wait as anticipation rather than frustration.

And if you’re really smart, you might want to find the old Carly Simon tune “Anticipation,” which goes like this, “Anticipation, Anticipation, It’s keepin’ me waitin’ So I’ll try to see into your eyes, And stay right here for these are the good old days These are the good old days.”

DR. TOM FERRARO Our Town being more “clear-headed and energized,” which helped me to write my dissertation.

When the patient in the after group described eating as a “soothing experience,” of course he was correct.

Christopher Bollas, one of the world’s pre-eminent psychoanalysts describes this as the transformational object.

He suggests that adults seek out these transformational moments in order to relive the infancy experience when the mother would take care of their hunger, wetness or distress by feeding, drying etc.

And all this takes us back to food and how to eat more slowly and with relish and pleasure. To reframe the affair one needs to say “I am enjoying this food” as you chew and swallow.

It is not easy to find the stop button in the moment or to pause, especially

in the postmodern world of speed and the great rush to find happiness somewhere in the untouchable future. But this is a good habit to try to establish.

You can start with by slowing down your eating habits and making an effort to enjoy each bite you take.

And if that works, you can try to generalize that habit to every other moment in your life, which is what monks and poets and mystics engage in as a way of life. And if you doubt that, just read Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” which was his famous answer all those folks who lead lives of quiet desperation.

There is a secret method to eating slowly and with savor.

E A R T H M AT T E R S

Biospherism: Systemic change to way we live

T

he biosphere is the part of earth where life is present. It equals but a humble fraction of earth’s mass (0.00008%) but is quite naturally of vital concern to us living beings. Interactions between living and non-living matter are defined as ecosystems. Over 3.7 billion years in formation, the biosphere (also called ecosphere) includes all ecosystems on earth.

Studies of ecosystems are typically reserved for specialists and geeky citizen scientists, while the general public may be more interested in the economy and sports events.

This weekend a study warning of mass extinctions at sea, if emissions aren’t cut, was bumped back to page A17 in the Saturday issue of New York Times.

News of ocean acidification and ecosystem collapse typically don’t make headlines. The dominant culture shrugs its shoulders at the news of certain reptiles going extinct. Pandas get a bit more sympathy, presumably because they’re cute to us fellow mammals, but we don’t seem to think we depend on the web of life anymore.

Recovering a sense of reality, I recently spent a weekend with ecologists at the Northeast Natural History Conference where I felt the stirrings of an ecological civilization. Dr. Douglas Zook, the Director of the Global Ecology Education

Initiative at UMass/Boston emphasized in his plenary presentation ‘A Pathway to Essential Biospherism’ that we must weave our way back into the web of life if we aim to survive as a species.

As a species we’ve only been on the stage of life for less than a manicure, Prof. Zook theatrically exclaimed during his plenary lecture at NENHC, stretching out his hand and showing the little bit of time we humans have walked the earth by pointing to the callus at the tip of his middle finger while giving his arm from shoulder to fingertips as the timeline for the evolution of life on earth.

What a mess we’ve made of things in this very short time!

The Anthropocene, the geologic era in which humans have irreversibly altered the environment and atmospheric content, may indeed be short-lived. We have come close to exhausting our vital resources, including the ongoing degradation of our life-sustaining photosynthetic ecosystems. Professor Zook proposes biospherism as a viable systemic change.

Ecologists understand that the biosphere has built-in regulatory feedback loops and self-regulates towards sustainability. The biosphere is a closed system that recycles everything and organisms that don’t reciprocate and harmonize with others in the chain of connections simply aren’t viable.

HILDUR PALSDOTTIR Earth Matters Capitalism insists on infinite growth while relying on finite resources and is a dead end on the evolutionary tree. The colonial mindset, particularly well suited for capitalism, is the main driver of climate disruption.

We must recognize that our current political ideologies and systems of governance driving depletion and pollution aren’t a good fit for our continued survival among other beings in the biosphere.

The climate crisis isn’t a problem to be solved, it’s better viewed as a human predicament and our story is in need of a life-sustaining paradigm shift. In order to adapt to and mitigate the changes in

climate, we must first change our thinking. The dominant culture has been trapped in a cognitive error fed by false ideologies for a couple of hundred years now with catastrophic consequences.

The self-obsessed and false narratives constructed by white, cis-gendered males who scripted our thinking with phrases such as “We (humans) are the lords and possessors of nature” and “I think, therefore I am” or “The world is made for man…” have caused tremendous damage and devastation.

Friends of nature were burned at the stake in the dark middle ages, and The Doctrine of Discovery led to unimaginable cruelty in the conquest of land from natives.

Indigenous cultures have lived for thousands of years intimately with land and non-human beings, they instinctively have an ecological mindset. They are a good fit for the biosphere. An estimated 370-500 million individuals or less than 5% of our world’s population count as indigenous peoples and they steward more than 80% of what’s left of our world’s biodiversity.

We on the other hand have distanced ourselves from our ecosystems in the way we live. We’re sheltered from weather in temperature-controlled housing, we forage for food in the supermarket and rely on electricity, not daylight.

We may think we’ve extracted ourselves from the biosphere with the help of technology, but in truth we are dependent on each breath and we can’t make oxygen with machines. Our normalized extractive behaviors are jeopardizing millions of species’ continued survival in this century alone, including our own.

Take as much as you want and more, give nothing back and waste the rest. This throw-away mindset hasn’t led us to happiness, as evident with WHO stating depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide.

Biospherism in stark contrast to capitalism is inherently reciprocal, inclusive, equitable and sustainable. Ecological civilization becomes possible when we adopt a regenerative mindset and start giving back to nature, not just extract resources from earth.

At the NENHC I met Richard Stafursky, the originator of the “Species’ Forest Model,” who instead of selling his property for profit, gave 80 acres back to nature in Massachusetts on the sole condition that there be no trails built for humans through the woodlands.

To ensure our own viability we must start repairing the fabric of life and return large portions of land and sea to nature, so that the living world can recover and regenerate and perhaps it will sustain us in return.

Continued on Page 51

18 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

READERS WRITE

Joanna At 12 she’s become obsessed with the Holocaust, with the thought of children her age who in the soft evening did not go to bed tucked in with pleasant dreams and fluffy play animals at their feet.

She knows about the children bathed in seething gas and turned to ash and cinders.

Her dreaming eye sees Anne Frank: stuffed into tight attics, hiding under tables, herded into cattle cars, separated from her family, reduced to skin and bones, ravaged by typhus, freezing to death, her small body unceremoniously dumped into a mass grave, and an indelible yellow star stitched through her heart.

“Joanna” seeks to relate the impact of the Holocaust through the generations, the repercussions and consequences of which are evolving to this day. Each April we honor those who have been killed and what has been lost, but we mustn’t stop there.

Children are humanity’s legacy, through them the future must shine bright.

The void that the Holocaust and genocide opens up in the world must be filled or there is no aftermath and all is lost.

In 2014 “Joanna” appeared in “PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators,” edited by Dr. Karen Shawn and Dr. Charles Ades Fishman. “PRISM” is published with the generous help of its contributors and through the courtesy of leading educational organizations and institutions.

I read Joanna during the 2015 Holocaust Commemoration in NYC at the U.S. Court of International Trade, the only poem to be read.

The moving portrait of Anne Frank is by Dr. Francine Mayran, an artist, psychiatrist, and Expert at the Council of Europe on the Holocaust and genocide, whom I am honored to call my friend.

Stephen Cipot Garden City Park

Re-elect Peirez to G.N. ed board

W

e arrived in Great Neck in 1974 so we have resided in Great Neck for 48 years.

The primary reason we chose to live in Great Neck was its outstanding reputation for providing excellent schools from elementary school through high school. It really didn’t matter whether we chose a house in the north or south the schools were all outstanding.

Donna Peirez has contributed to this outstanding reputation as a teacher at Lakeville for 28 years, a PTA leader and as a knowledgable, experienced member of the school board. Her children attended Great Neck schools as my children did.

As parents, we experienced the program for gifted children for one child and the special needs educational assistance program for our hearing-impaired child.

The enlightened educational foundation

my children received was outstanding as they each went on to higher education one having achieved a master’s degree and the other a doctorate.

We shared with our children what they were being taught. Most importantly they learned how to study and prepare for the challenges of learning. The teachers encouraged our children to explore and consider a multitude of ideas and at the same time to think about finding their path in an ever-changing and challenging world.

Donna Peirez understands the need to provide our children with an honest overview and perspective of the world that we live in now with literature, the arts, history, geography, science, sociology and mathematics.

She knows how to develop and allocate funds for a school budget to maintain Great Neck’s reputation for quality educa-

tion. Donna knows how to effectively communicate with the administration.

These are challenging times and we need knowledgeable, experienced and thoughtful board members to function on behalf of all the residents of the Great Neck community children, adolescents and adults.

Donna Peirez is a superb candidate an exceptional asset in our community who must be re-elected to serve on the school board to sustain the outstanding reputation and quality of the Great Neck school district on Long Island and in New York State.

We strongly support Donna Peirez and encourage everyone to come out and vote on May 17 for Donna Peirez.

Alan Altman Great Neck

Why I should be a school trustee

D

ear fellow community members, It is my privilege to put myself, Kate Bannon, forward for the position of trustee on the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District Board of Education. I am both a community member and a veteran teacher with expertise in traditional in-person education and virtual learning.

Throughout my career, I’ve gone from volunteering to educate adults in a basic literacy program to leading the English department in a multilingual International Baccalaureate independent school, to teaching all elementary school levels working with at-risk youth in New York City public schools, to here, as a proud Mustang mom!

While there are few careers more

meaningful than teaching, it is time to make an impact on a larger scale here at home.

Education is the most powerful form of activism. There is no greater liberation than that which comes from learning. As such, there is no greater service than equipping others with the tools they need to change the world.

One of the most significant compliments of my career came from a student who told me, “You don’t teach us what to think. You teach us how to think.”

Fostering advocacy among the school community is a priority and we must consider the current state of education both locally and globally to forge ahead with compassion and purpose.

The beauty of my vision is that it de-

rives its support through deep dedication to youth without reaching deep into our pockets. We matter. Let’s make every child and their families know that they are important, cared about and respected within our community.

My heart, mind and soul are invested in the betterment of education for all and I firmly believe that with empathy, anything is possible. I look forward to serving our community by building an environment where we feel safe, a sense of belonging, and excitement in the pursuit of knowledge in the position of Trustee on the NHP-GCP School District Board of Education.

Kate Bannon New Hyde Park

Re-elect Peirez to G.N. board

W

e have known Donna Peirez for over 40 years as an educator, temple member and as a friend. Donna is a people person, warm, considerate and loyal. She is a woman of the highest integrity and intellect. Donna loves people, but most importantly she loves all children of all ages.

Her No. 1 aim has been the welfare and education of all children in the Great Neck School District.

Having attended a number of Board of Education meetings, we have seen that she puts the same energy into her policy research as she did for the preparations for her classes as a teacher.

We want to see Donna Peirez continue to serve on the Great Neck Board of Education. On May 17 please do Great Neck and the community a favor and vote for Donna Peirez.

Gilda and Mark Wolf Great Neck

Trumputin personality cult in Nassau

T

Visit us at www.theisland360.com

he current tawdry scrum of liars and hypocrites who make up the neo-fascist Trumputin personality cult posing as the Republican Party is a perverse lot. U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton seemed to relish, even enjoy, retelling the pedophile perversions they pretended to decry during their sound bite assault on our new Supreme Court Justice.

These Trumputin neo-fascists love their

racist “CRT” dog whistle with which they distract their gullible marks while they pick their pockets.

Locally we have the Nassau Republicans, typified by the persistent corruption of former County Executive Ed Mangano and the late GOP Party boss Joseph Margiotta. In this tradition of crony corruption and dog whistle politics, we have Bruce Blakeman repaying an otherwise unqualified campaign contributor

with the chairmanship of the NUMC and his crony corruption continues.

When will would-be “Republican” voters understand that “CRT” and “wokeness” are not the source of what grieves them, but a distraction designed to confuse and abuse them?

Eric Cashdan Sands Point Letters Continued on Page 42

Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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20 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

Koblenz, Dromm endorse Zimmerman East Hills mayor, LGBTQ+ leader join long list of officials backing G.N. businessman in CD3

BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CANDIDATE

Great Neck’s Robert Zimmerman announced his Congressional run for New York’s Third Congressional District.

The campaign for longtime Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman announced endorsements by the Village of East Hills Mayor Michael Koblenz and Daniel Dromm, former New York City Council finance chair as he bids for his party’s nomination in the 3rd Congressional District.

Koblenz, who has served in his role for more than two decades, said Zimmerman can deliver for both the village and district.

“I know Robert Zimmerman well and I have seen him in action. He has demonstrated the experience and insight to effectively deliver for the residents of the Village of East Hills and Nassau County,” Koblenz said in a statement. “From his years on Capitol Hill, to his career in business, and his decades of advocacy as a Democratic National Committeeman, I know Robert will give us the leadership we need during this critical time for Long Island and our nation. That is why I proudly endorse him for Congress.”

Dromm, an LGBTQ+ leader according to the campaign, said Zimmerman will advocate for the community’s issues.

“Robert Zimmerman will make history as the first LGBTQ+ member of Congress from Queens and Long Island,” Dromm said. “It matters because our community’s

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hard fought victories are being assaulted and threatened by state governments across the nation. We need one of our own fighting on the front lines for the LGBTQ+ community. I know that Robert will lead that fight in Congress and that is why I proudly endorse him.”

Zimmerman, 67, is co-president of ZE Creative Communications on Bond Street in Great Neck, a public relations firm he began 33 years ago with Ron Edelson.

He is seeking the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Tom Suozzi (DGlen Cove), who is running for governor.

Since his announcement this year, Zimmerman’s campaign has raised over $900,000.

If elected, Zimmerman would become the first self-ackowledged gay member of Congress from Long Island and Queens.

Other endorsements for Zimmerman’s campaign include former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, state Assemblyman Charles Lavine and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Others running for the Democratic nomination in the district include former North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman, Nassau County Legislator Joshua Lafazan, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, Oyster Bay’s Reema Rasool and Melanie D’Arrigo of Port Washington.

George Santos is seeking the Republican nomination.

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The team that’s always there for you is now right here for you.

© 2022 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved.

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22 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

6 things for first-time homebuyers to know PHILLIP HORNBERGER, ESQ. Buying your first home can be daunting.

It involves several moving parts, each requiring careful attention to ensure that you’re getting what you want. Additionally, COVID-19 has drastically impacted the real estate market across Long Island. With limited inventory, high prices, and increasing rates, it’s more important than ever to make sure you have a plan.

Here are the 6 things every first-time homebuyer should know before purchasing a property.

DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET Before you start looking, do the math. Know exactly how much you can afford to spend and how much of a loan you’ll need. Meet with a lender or mortgage broker and get pre-approved. Sellers will often require this document when reviewing offers.

The lender will look at your income, assets, debt, etc. to determine the amount of loan you qualify for. Note however that a pre-approval is not a mortgage commitment, and isn’t binding upon the lender. There still are several stages before they will determine if you’ll receive a loan.

Also determine what type of mortgage you’ll be taking out: conventional loan, FHA loan, VA loan, SONYMA loan, etc. Discuss this with your lender, as each program has different pros and cons, as well as different conditions for qualifying.

If you’re expecting financial assistance from family or other sources, make sure to notify your loan officer. Failure to disclose might result in being disqualified for the mortgage and wasted attorney and closing fees.

ESTIMATE CLOSING COSTS Determine in advance what the closing costs will be. These are separate from the purchase price and increase your total spending.

Aside from your down payment (which is part of your home cost), closing costs usually include title charges (recording fees, mortgage tax, insurance premiums, title searches, etc.), bank fees (loan processing fees, escrow for taxes, bank attorney fees, etc.), survey fees, and attorney fees. These can add up.

Many New York Title Abstract company websites have cost calculators that can help with estimating closing costs.

INSPECT THE PROPERTY Before going to contract, get a professional inspection or engineer’s report on the condition of the property.

A professional inspection will help reveal any problems or damages in the home that may not be apparent. It will allow you to determine any additional costs, if the purchase price needs to be adjusted, if the seller needs to complete repairs prior to closing (this should be in the contract), or if you’re even still interested in the property.

Continued on Page 58

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The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

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24 The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

GN

Herricks’ Stefani Murciano does it all Junior softball star, future D-I athlete batting .727 with four home runs so far this year

BY M I C H A E L L E W I S Herricks High School softball coach Warren Webster doesn’t understand it.

Stefani Murciano doesn’t understand it either.

After seeing Murciano mash and crush the ball on the softball field for five years now, why are opposing teams still giving her decent pitches to hit?

After all, the bubbly junior who wants to grow up to be a heart surgeon cuts the heart out of her opponents time after time at the plate.

“In the division we’re in, they don’t seem to pitch around her; they try to pitch through her,” Webster said with a chuckle. “So far it hasn’t worked out so well.”

Murciano is equally puzzled, but she’s not complaining. The future Division I athlete said that sometimes she does have to swing at 3-0 pitches “just because I want to hit and I like to be aggressive. I just love, love to hit. I have a craving to hit the ball.”

That craving has resulted in a sensational career as a Highlander for Murciano, one that has a lot more to go.

I WAS THAT KID ON THE SIDELINES PLAYING CATCH WITH ANYONE WHO WOULD PLAY CATCH WITH ME, AND BEING SO INTO HIS GAMES. I LOVED HOW COMPETITIVE IT WAS, AND WANTED TO PLAY ANYTIME I COULD.

Stefani Murciano Hard to see how Murciano could do better at the high school level: In 2021 Murciano hit for an eyepopping .818 batting average, with six home runs and 40 RBI’s for the

PHOTO PROVIDED BY HERRICKS SCHOOL DISTRICT

Herricks junior center fielder Stefani Murciano, a varsity starter since 7th grade, has smacked six home runs already this season, after batting .818 in 2021.

Highlanders, leading Herricks to the second round of the playoffs.

So far in 2022 she’s slugging the ball even harder, with four home runs and 20 RBI, and a .727 batting average through games of April 29.

“I’m not trying to hit home runs, you just swing hard and the ball has been flying for me this year,” Murciano said. “We have a lot of talent on our team Growing up in a baseball-loving family, Murciano used to tag along to

big brother Jake’s games and got the bug.

“I was that kid on the sidelines playing catch with anyone who would play catch with me, and being so into his games,” Murciano said. “I loved how competitive it was, and wanted to play anytime I could.”

Murciano said she started playing travel softball in 4th grade, and by 7th grade she was ready for the Herricks varsity.

“You could tell even then that she

had a very high softball IQ, and her strength even then was far ahead of girls her age,” Webster said.

Murciano eventually played for the Team Long Island AAU squad starting in 7th grade, and last year was recruited to play on the prestigious New Jersey Intensity B.O.D. National Team, where she goes to practice on weekends and this summer will be criss-crossing America playing tournaments.

“It’s a lot of traveling but the level

of competition is amazing,” Murciano said. “Playing with so many great players, you get better.”

Webster said he appreciates her approach as much as her talent.

“It’s a pleasure to coach her, and always has been,” Webster said. “I think she’ll have most of the records at our school before she’s done.”

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The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

25

WHEN THEY GO LOW

THE GREAT NECK TEACHERS ASSOCIATION GOES HIGH In the pandemic, GNTA donated $30,000 to St. Al’s Interfaith Food Pantry and the Rotary Club of Great Neck to fight food insecurity in the community.

GNTA recently sponsored a Toiletry Drive in all buildings across the district to collect essentials such as soap, toilet paper, and toothbrushes, and with the help of St. Al’s Church, they were distributed to 100 families in Great Neck.

In the pandemic, GNTA held a community book drop at South Middle School where we collected thousands of new and used books for children and young adults throughout Great Neck.

We sponsored a BINGO Zoom for GNTA members that raised money for Great Neck students to attend our summer programs.

GNTA partnered with Great Neck’s United Parent Teacher Council to provide all students with hand sanitizer and face masks as they returned to schools for the first time after the Covid-19 lockdown.

26 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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Choosing the right Mother’s Day flowers Mother’s Day is an annual holiday that honors motherhood and provides an opportunity for men, women and children to show their mothers how much they appreciate them.

The tradition of Mother’s Day in the United States dates back more than a century to 1908, when West Virginia native Anna Jarvis held a memorial service to honor her mother, who had passed away three years earlier, and all mothers in Grafton, West Virginia. Mother’s Day would ultimately become a national holiday in the United States in 1914, thanks in large part to Jarvis’ campaigning. As Jarvis, who never married and never had children of her own, grew old, she criticized Mother’s Day as overly commercial, even trying to have it removed from the calendar. Those efforts failed, and Mother’s Day remains popular now, more than 100 years after the idea for it was conceived.

While Mother’s Day traditions have changed since Jarvis first proposed the holiday, many people feel it’s customary to give mothers gifts on Mother’s Day, when moms take the day off from chores and relax with their families.

Flowers make for popular Mother’s Day gifts, and wellwishers who want to give the special women in their lives flowers this year can consider a host of varieties.

Carnations Carnations are popular Mother’s Day flowers, perhaps because they are available in a number of colors.

That means it’s highly likely sons, daughters, husbands

to all our

Wonderful Moms!

and others gifting moms this Mother’s Day can find some carnations in Mom’s favorite color. Ask your florist about what each carnation color symbolizes, as each has its own unique meaning. Pink carnations, for example, are believed to symbolize a mother’s love.

Roses Few mothers can resist roses, making them one of the more popular flowers come Mother’s Day. Roses are symbolic of love and make the perfect floral gift for mothers who like traditional flowers. If you want to spice things up, order a bouquet made up of roses of various colors.

Daffodils Yellow is synonymous with spring, and daffodils can highlight the season in which Mother’s Day takes place while also providing a cheerful look that’s perfect for Mother’s Day floral bouquets. Daffodils can be given on their own or added to mixed bouquets. Daffodils also last quite a while when cared for correctly, giving moms more than just a few days to enjoy their bouquets.

Freesia Like daffodils, freesia are long-lasting, meaning mothers will still be enjoying them long after Mother’s Day has come and gone. The inviting fragrance of freesia makes bouquets of these flowers popular choices for Mother’s Day gifts. Freesia also come in many colors, proving Mother’s Day gift givers a greater chance of finding flowers their mothers will love.

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Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

Tips for dining out on Mother’s Day Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and this special holiday serves to honor all those women who devote so much time and effort to their families. While gifts and other trinkets are certainly part of the celebration, a vast majority of children opt to treat Mom to a night out on the town come Mother’s Day. Not only does this give mom a night off from cooking, but also it presents an opportunity to get dressed up and spend time together as a family.

A vast number of families travel to their favorite restaurants for Mother’s Day meals. Mother’s Day is one of the busiest holidays of the year for restaurants. The National Retail Federation says 54.8 percent of Americans treat their mothers to a special meal out on Mother’s Day. Billions of dollars are generated by people eating out with their mothers.

With large crowds to be expected, diners can follow a few tips when treating Mom to a meal. * Book early ... very early. To guarantee a reservation at any restaurant, namely your favorite restaurant, you will need to make a reservation well in advance of Mother’s Day. It’s never too early to put your name on the reservation list. Don’t forget Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 8, 2022. * Expect to wait. Even with a reservation, you’re bound to spend some time waiting at the restaurant. Other families may be lingering at their tables, as no one wants to rush Mom out of the door.

Plan accordingly for a potentially long wait time.

This means having a snack before you leave. Don’t arrive famished, as no one wants the dining party to be hungry and cranky, which is not a good way to celebrate Mom. Have plenty of snacks and drinks on hand for young children, as well as activities to

keep them entertained. * Consider dining out a day before or after. Restaurants are generally packed on Mother’s Day, and as a result kitchen and wait staffs might be overtaxed. What’s more, diners might be relegated to a special or abbreviated menu. If you want a more relaxed setting and the ability to order whatever you desire, it may be a better idea to celebrate Mother’s Day in advance. Then have Mom enjoy a relaxing day at home on her special day. * Take-out is an option. Families can treat Mom to a dinner out, without really having to go out.

Many restaurants offer takeout service, so you will not be limited to pizza or Chinese. Even chain restaurants have curbside service, so if Mom is in the mood for a burger or something more elaborate, she’ll have that option. * Expect an included gratuity. Restaurants often include a gratuity in the bill when servicing larger parties, such as those that might be celebrating Mother’s Day. The standard gratuity rate is 18 percent, but you may want to go above and beyond if you feel the service is exemplary. * Hire a sitter for young kids. Although Mother’s Day is a chance for the entire family to spend time together, the main goal is to ensure Mom’s comfort and happiness. If very young children are in tow, she may not be able to relax and enjoy her meal. Infants will need to be fed, and toddlers may be easily distracted. Have a sitter watch little ones when adults are dining out, and then Mom can enjoy time with the kids when she returns home for more celebrating.

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30 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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BLANK SLATE MEDIA May 6, 2022

YOUR GUIDE TO THE ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND DINING

AZTEC TWO-STEP 2.0 TO PLAY SOUSA BANDSHELL Aztec Two-Step 2.0 Performs at the Sousa Bandshell at Sunset ParkSaturday, May 7 at 3:00 pm (Rain Date Sunday, May 8 at 3 p) The Port Washington Public Library welcomes the enduring folk/rock group Aztec Two-Step, currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of the act’s debut album, as part of their SoundSwap series. With four-

plus decades as staples of progressive FM radio, major record deals, non-stop touring, and even an appearance on David Letterman, Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman have impressed audiences with intelligent songwriting, dazzling lead guitar, and soaring harmonies.

Since Neal’s retirement, Rex and his wife Dodie Pettit, an accomplished musician and

an original member of the cast of The Phantom of the Opera, are now the heart and soul of Aztec Two-Step 2.0. Together, they continue to expand and explore the band’s legacy with fan favorites, forgotten gems, and new original compositions.

This arrangement of Aztec Two-Step has

appeared in concert with such notable artists as The Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen, Talking Heads, Bon Jovi, Heart, and many others.

This free event is sponsored by the Friends of theLibrary.

Come join us at Sunset Park for what promises to be a delightful afternoon of music with Aztec Two-Step!

32 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

Arsenal of Democracy Aircraft at Jones Beach In observance of Memorial Day Weekend, American Airpower Museum continues their historic participation in the Jones Beach Air Show, flying their fabled “Arsenal of Democracy” warbirds over Jones Beach on Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29!

AAM’s fleet of iconic and meticulously restored military aircraft will include a B-25 Mitchell Bomber, Douglas C-47 Skytrain troop transport, Grumman TBM Avenger Torpedo Bomber, P-51D Mustang Fighter, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk Fighter, and two AT-6 Texan trainers. Two FA-18 Super Hornet Growlers will once again be in attendance, subject to other military commitments.

If you can’t make it to Jones Beach for the Air Show, get a glimpse of these awe-in-

spiring aircraft as they take off towards Jones Beach and later, as they return to Hangar 3 at Republic Airport on Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29, or watch them practice in preparation for the show on Friday, May 27.

You can park for free in AAM’s lot and along New Highway. Bring the family, hang out all day and watch the pilots start their engines, taxi out and take off to join the Jones Beach Air Show action. Don’t miss this opportunity to get up close and personal with these propeller-driven bombers and fighters of yesteryear! Flight experiences also available each day on one of AAM’s AT-6 Texans and Waco Biplane!

According to AAM President Jeff Clyman, the goal for this three-day extravaganza is

two-fold. “To honor the men and women of the ‘Greatest Generation’ who built, maintained and piloted the iconic warbirds of yesteryear, in a bold defense of freedom during World War II, as well as active-duty military, reservists and national guard who continue this mission to our present day.”

The Air Show features a U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II, “The Warthog,” flying over Jones Beach. AAM has its very own A-10 “Warthog,” our nation’s premier close air support attack aircraft and it’s on display outside Hangar 3, with staff ready to answer your questions about its special features and armaments!

Cockpit USA, the official supplier to the USAF of the A-2 leather jacket and sponsor of the American Airpower Museum, will host a group of Cockpit USA Pilot Brand Ambassadors wearing their Cockpit USA jackets throughout the Memorial Day weekend: Annie Vogel (@pilotannie), Tory Crosby (@torpilot), Mark Brown @worldofmark and Bruno (@flywithbruno). In addition, California Tom Cruise, the celebrated Tom Cruise impersonator, will spend Sunday, May 29th at the museum to meet and greet fans for photo ops two days after the long-awaited TOP GUN Maverick movie launch. Every paying museum guest (18 and over) throughout the weekend will be entered to win the NEW Cockpit USA Movie Hero Top Gun CWU, replica of the jacket Tom Cruise wears in the movie.

The American Airpower Museum opens at 10:00 a.m. each day of the Memorial Day Weekend. There is no additional charge to see the aircraft on practice days or on show

days.

Arrive early and stay all day. Museum admission for adults is $20, seniors and veterans $15 and children 5-12 $10. Tickets and pre-registration are not required, and admission is on a first come first serve basis. Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on all three days.

Don’t miss this one! Three days of action to thrill aviation fans of all ages!

Contact: Robert F. Salant, Public Affairs, (516) 328-3959, (718) 791-4758, rsalant123@outlook.com Photo Captions: (1) B-25 Mitchell Bomber; (2) Douglas C-47 Skytrain; (3) Grumman TBM Avenger; (4) Curtiss P-40 Warhawk Fighter; (5) P-51 Mustang Fighter; (6) At-6 Texan trainers; (7) FA-18 Super Hornet Growlers.

The American Airpower Museum is an aviation museum located on the landmarked former site of Republic Aviation at Republic Airport, Farmingdale, NY. The Museum maintains a collection of aviation artifacts and an array of aircraft spanning the many years of the aircraft factory’s history. The Museum is a 501 (c) (3) Nonprofit Educational Foundation Chartered by the New York State Board of Regents.

The American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport is Long Island’s only flying military aviation museum.

The American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport“Where aviation history takes flight”™Hangar 3, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale, NY 11735 — (631) 293-6398info@ americanairpowermuseum.org — www.americanairpowermuseum.org

Wishing you all a day full of happy memories.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Maureen Polyé Licensed Real Estate Salesperson O 516.582.5646 | M 646.239.0769 maureen.polye@elliman.com

elliman.com © 2022 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

110 WALT WHITMAN ROAD, HUNTINGTON STATION, NY 11746. 631.549.7401.

Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

33

Airpower Museum D-Day Art exhibition, book signing flight experience May 15 with Gordon, Hooper The American Airpower Museum continues its popular C-47 D-Day Living History Flight Experience with another one set for May 14, 2022 (rain date May 15).

Guests fly on an original WWII Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft “Second Chance,” and are joined by AAM’s Living Historians for a breathtakingly realistic and unforgettable recreation of what U.S. Paratroopers experienced on D-Day. There are three flights set for May 14, 2022, between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Seats are allocated first come first served and they’re going fast, so act now to book your C-47 flight by calling (516) 531-3950 or (631) 454-2039 (during business hours) or visit the Museum’s gift shop Wednesday to Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Hangar 3, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale, NY 11735.

AAM’s Living History Flight Experience is a one-of-a-kind immersive educational program, where Living Historians join you in an original WWII C-47 to give a sense of what 101st and 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers felt on their incredible 1,200-plane D-Day assault.

Your mission commander is Robert Scarabino, Long Island’s noted WWII Living Historian, who has led AAM’s C-47 D-Day flights since 2003.

The mission includes: a briefing in the ready room; a chance to wear authentic military field jackets, helmets and gear; the actual sights, smells and sounds as the C-47’s twin engines fire up and you’re off into the blue; see, hear and feel the crew operating their C-47 as Scarabino orders his “paratroopers” to ready for battle. Finally, you attach your parachute hook to the overhead static line for a simulated jump!

This is a family-friendly program for all ages and a wonderful way to educate young Americans about WWII and our Greatest Generation veterans. Support AAM’s mission to honor vet-

erans and military aviation history by helping maintain and preserve these iconic aircraft, along with the Museum’s incredible static exhibits.

Cost of each C-47 flight is $350. A flight experience entitles you to bring an additional person who can visit AAM’s exhibits all day free of charge. You may also wish to visit AAM on May 14th just to watch the flights and tour our Museum. In that case, admission for adults is $20, seniors and veterans $15 and children 5-12 $10. No tickets or pre-registration is needed for regular admission.

“Second Chance,” an original WWII C-47, was transferred to the Royal Air Force in 1945 and flew in the Berlin Airlift (1948 — 1949) with the RAF, serving until 1950. The aircraft next served in the Belgian Air Force for two years.

In 1952 she went to the French Air Force, serving two years in Viet Nam, as well as in India, Algeria, Morocco and the Congo. In 1967 she was sold to Israel and flew in the Israeli Defense Force 32 years. American Airpower Museum acquired the aircraft in 2000. “Second Chance” regularly conducts AAM’s C-47 D-Day Living History Flights.

She also performs at regional air shows in classic WWII D-Day markings with the original “D8” code. One of the last C-47s still in stock military configuration, this aircraft has just over 17,000 hours in the air, one of the world’s lowest flight times ever!

The American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport is Long Island’s only flying military aviation museum.

The American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport“Where aviation history takes flight”™Hangar 3, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale, NY 11735 — (631) 293-6398info@ americanairpowermuseum.org — www.americanairpowermuseum.org

Meet two local artists who’ve been featured in numerous exhibitions and news articles on their endearing collaboration highlighting the parallels between their artistic approaches to their art forms.

Photo-liminalist Holly Gordon and Painter Ward Hooper found that they share an uncanny artistic sensibility in their body of work, prompting a series of exhibitions to be shown throughout Long Island, the first of which was shown at the Art League in August 2015.

They are back at the Art League with an artists’ discussion and book signing of their book that shares the title of this exhibition, “Parallel Perspectives: The Brush/Lens Collaboration”, which takes place on Saturday, May 14 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Their artwork is on display in the Art League’s Strolling Gallery May 5 through May 27. An artists discussion and book signing will be held May 14, 3:00 p.m. – 5 p.m.

The book itself provides the backstory on the artwork on display in the Strolling Gallery as noted on Holly’s website: “This contemporary love story between painter and photographer is synergized by creativity, connects with the past, inspires the present and transforms photography into the future.

After decades of creating independently, social media brought Holly Gordon and Ward Hooper together. They immediately saw parallels in their creative processes and execution;

but it was the discovery that they were inadvertently inspired by the same landscapes as Arthur Dove and Helen Torr, two early 20th century artists, that turns this dynamic collaborative pairing into a time traveler tale that is all true.”

Learn more about the artists at www.parallelperspectivesbook.com.

The Strolling Gallery is open to the public, free of charge, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 8 pm and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 3 pm.

The Art League of Long Island, located at 107 East Deer Park Road in Dix Hills, is a notfor-profit visual arts organization serving Long Islanders since 1955. For event updates or to learn more about the Art League visit www. artleagueli.org

Sheep Shearing Festival at Queens Farm Museum

Time for a haircut! Watch as our flock of sheep get their much-needed spring trims. Join us for NYC’s only sheep shearing festival on Saturday, May 14 from 11:00 am–4:00 pm Farmer-led tours and sheep shearing demonstrations connect visitors to life on the farm.

See where your vegetables come from with farmer-led tours of the 47-acre historic site. Learn about the cycle of fiber processing with artisan wool spinning, natural dyeing, and weaving dem-

os by fiber artists. Live music by bluegrass band Mama Juke, historic farmhouse tours, kids crafts and a free scavenger hunt add to the fun!

Learn home composting techniques and Adopt-a-Worm at the Con Edison Ecology Booth.

Local brews, tasty food vendors, and hayrides will keep you coming baaa-ck for more.

Online Tickets Only. Advance tickets recommended. Advance Tickets: $12; $8 (ages 4–11) Get Tickets: https://bit.ly/33JJ77y

Schedule of comedy mystery dinner shows The Killing Kompany, New York’s leading comedy murder mystery dinner theater company, returns with new live performances in New York and New Jersey: Thursday May 19 at 7:30 pm, MURDER AT THE BACHELORETTE PARTY, a comedy murder mystery dinner show at PALMER’S AMERICAN GRILLE, 123 Fulton St, Farmingdale ($65 pp) (516) 420-0609 Friday June 3 at 8:00 pm, MURDER AT THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY, a comedy murder mystery dinner show at G’s Club, 157 Hempstead Ave, West Hempstead 11552 ($65 pp) (516) 318-2992 (To purchase tickets, go to TicketLeap ) Saturday June 4 at 8:00 pm, THE WEDDING REHEARSAL MURDER, a comedy murder mystery dinner show at La Buena Vida, 714 Montauk Hwy, Moriches, ($65 pp) (631) 909-1985 Thursday June 9 at 7:30 pm, MARRIED TO MURDER. a comedy murder mystery dinner show at CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL, 730 Smithtown Bypass, Smithtown 11787 ($75 pp) (631) 2651304

Thursday July 14 at 7:30 pm, A SUMMER CAMP MURDER, a comedy murder mystery dinner show at PALMER’S AMERICAN GRILLE, 123 Fulton St, Farmingdale, NY ($65 pp) (516) 420-0609 Thursday August 11 at 7:30 pm, MURDER AT THE FAMILY REUNION, a comedy murder mystery dinner show at PALMER’S AMERICAN GRILLE, 123 Fulton St, Farmingdale, NY ($65 pp) (516) 420-0609 Seating is limited and all ticket sales are final. The price includes a dinner and of course the show. After you purchase your tickets, if you would like a person from your party to be made a “guest suspect”, contact The Killing Kompany® at killing@killingkompany.com THE KILLING KOMPANY® — Mystery Dinner Theatre ShowsEmail: killingkompany@killingkompany.comWeb: www.killingkompany.com. Phone 212 772-2590 or 1 888 SHOOT-EM. Fax 212 2026495

34 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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36 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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Broadway to come to Main Street on May 7 Broadway on Main Street returns with an all-new concert event created exclusively for the Landmark on Main Street on Saturday, May 7 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $38 — $53 and are available on Landmark’s website, www.landmarkonmainstreet.org, and through their box office, 516-7676444.

Produced and hosted by Port Washington’s own Stephen DeAngelis, five of Broadway’s finest performers will recreate their most memorable musical moments, display their versatility, share backstage behind-the-scenes anecdotes and participate in an enlightening and entertaining question and answer session with our audience.

Scheduled performers are Todd Buonopane (Chicago (Amos Hart); Grease (Roger); Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Jean-Michel); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Darlesia Cearcy (Once on This Island (Erzulie);

Ragtime (Sarah); The Color Purple (Nettie); The Book of Mormon; Shuffle Along, or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Follows; The Goodbye Girl), Alysha Delorieux (Hamilton; Once on This Island; Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; Sister Act), Justin Matthew Sargent (Rock of Ages; Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; Bonnie and Clyde), and Teal Wicks (Wicked (Elphaba); The Cher Show (Cher “Lady”); Jekyll & Hyde (Emma Carew); Finding Neverland (Mary Barrie)).

Musical Director/Accompanist will once again be Eugene Gwozdz.The concert will include songs from Hamilton; Wicked; Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; The Lion King; Waitress; Once on This Island; The Cher Show; Aladdin; Sister Act and much more. Join us for what has proven to be a “can’t miss” event for theatre lovers of all ages.

For your latest community news visit us 24 hours a day 7 days a week at www.theisland360.com

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38 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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40 The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

Sport Psychology Dr. Tom Ferraro

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COMMUNITY NEWS

Water district wins award for grease receiving station The Great Neck Water Pollution Control District has announced that it has received an award from the American Council of Engineering Companies for its groundbreaking work in constructing its new Grease Receiving Station.

The station, the first of its kind in Nassau County, was completed last year and will benefit the Great Neck community environmentally as well as provide income to the GNWPCD annually for years to come.

“My fellow commissioners and I are exceptionally proud of the work done by Superintendent Christopher Murphy and the rest of our incredible team in making the Grease Receiving Station a reality,” said GNWPCD Chairwoman Patty Katz. “We are honored to receive this award from the ACEC, as it shows us that our groundbreaking work at the District is being recognized by some of the best minds in our industry.”

The Grease Receiving Station collects brown grease from local restaurants and com-

mercial kitchens. The fees paid to the District by grease haulers are estimated to generate over $100,000 annually.

The grease is used to enhance the production of biogas at the District’s facility increasing the amount of sustainable electricity and heat generated by the district’s onsite microturbines. It is the final piece of the improvements at the District which came as a result of a $12.2 million state grant awarded to the District in 2018.

The environmental benefits of the station are significant as well, as it provides restaurants and commercial kitchens with a safe and convenient way of disposing of grease that has the potential to harm the area’s water supply and ecosystem.

This is a win-win situation, cutting down the carbon footprint of haulers as well as having the option to transport to a local facility instead of transporting to waste facilities much farther away.

For the latest community news, visit us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at

www.theisland360.com

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The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

GN

41

COMMUNITY NEWS

Happening at the Great Neck School District Proposed 2022–23 school budget The Great Neck Board of Education has adopted the proposed 2022–23 school budget in the amount of $261,432,690. This amount is a 3.66% increase over last year’s budget. The proposed tax levy increase is 2.57%, which is significantly below the tax cap limit of 3.36%.

The proposed budget will: Continue all programs at the elementary and secondary levels;Maintain small elementary class sizes, in accordance with Board guidelines;Introduce two guidance counselor positions at the elementary level, as mandated by the State, to monitor academic progress and increase support for students’ social and emotional wellbeing;Add one guidance counselor at each of the secondary schools to provide additional support for students and parents in relation to academic, career, and social development;Expand the District’s intensive needs program at the high school level to support a growing number of intensive needs students moving up through the middle school program;Provide ongoing professional development training for faculty and staff.

“As a school district, we go above and beyond to ensure that every student receives the services, academic programs, and social and emotional support to achieve their personal best,” says Superintendent Dr. Teresa Prendergast. “I thank the Board of Education for adopting this fiscally sound budget, which truly represents the needs of every single student.”

Increase in State Aid Offsets Tax Levy Every February, the District publishes a preliminary budget that is continuously reviewed by administration and discussed during public budget presentations throughout March and April. On April 9, just days before the proposed 2022–23 school budget was finalized, the New York State legislature passed a state budget that provides more education funding for Great Neck than previously anticipated. This increase in state aid, along with a careful review of expenditures, allowed the District to lower the preliminary tax levy without compromising programs and services.

“This is a fiscally responsible budget for our top-rated schools,” says Board Vice President Donna Peirez. “We are making smart, student-centered investments where it matters most, such as maintaining small class sizes and adding additional guidance counselors to support our students.”

To balance the 2022–23 budget and offset the tax burden on residents, the District will appropriate over $14.6 in fund balance and reserves, which are unspent funds from prior years. This funding will help to cover contractual salary increases, hikes in health-insurance premiums, and other planned expenditures. The proposed budget also allocates nearly $1.5 million in additional state aid to offset the financial burden on taxpayers.

“We are ever-mindful of the difficult balancing act between maintaining Great Neck’s preeminent breadth of academic, programmatic, athletic, and artistic offerings for students of all ages and abilities; the safety and wellness of students and staff; as well as the felt impact of Nassau County property taxes on residents vested in Great Neck, particularly during this inflationary cycle,” explains Board President Rebecca Sassouni. “I believe this year’s proposed budget strikes this delicate balance.”

“Public school budgeting continues to be a challenge with unfunded mandates, record-breaking inflation, the remnants of a global pandemic, and a property tax assessment system that is being corrected over a number of years,” explains John Powell, assistant superintendent for business.

“This budget is an efficient spending plan that addresses these issues and also enhances an already excellent, highly ranked education program that meets the needs of all students.”

New York State’s Property Tax Cap Since the inception of the tax-cap legislation in 2012, Great Neck’s proposed tax rate increases have been at or below the State-mandated lax levy limit. The proposed tax levy increase of 2.57% is significantly below the 2022–23 tax levy limit of 3.36%.

Multiple factors affect the actual limit, including changes to the tax base, rate of inflation, payments in lieu of taxes, debt payments, capital project expenditures, transportation equipment purchases, and pension increases above a certain percentage.

Validation of Fiscal Practices Great Neck is among a select few school districts in New York State to earn an AAA rating from Moody’s Investors Service. This rating means that the District’s financial obligations are judged

by Moody’s to be of the highest quality and, therefore, subject to the lowest level of credit risk. In the annual, New York State-required external audit of the school district, the certified public accounting firm of Cullen & Danowski, LLP, reports favorably on Great Neck’s internal control system of checks and balances, and procedures that are supported by Board policies.

Substantial Services for Non-Public School Students The District, in accordance with State law, allocates more than $7.5 million to provide services to private and non-public school students, including bus transportation, textbooks, health services, special education services, school library materials, and computer software loan programs.

Third-Lowest Class I Property Tax Rates Great Neck’s 2021–22 school tax rate for single-family homes, or Class I properties, was the third-lowest of all the school districts in Nassau County.

Vote Information The annual school budget vote will take place on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. There are four polling locations for school district elections: E.M. Baker School, Lakeville School, Saddle Rock School, and South High School. Registered voters will only be permitted to cast a ballot at their assigned polling location.

Residents can check their assigned voting location using the Poll Place Finder on the District website at www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/voting. This information is also available by calling the District Clerk on school days between 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. at (516) 441-4020.

Great Neck appoints new assistant superintendent for business At the Board of Education meeting on April 26, Board trustees voted unanimously to appoint John J. O’Keefe as the district’s new Assistant Superintendent for Business following the retirement of John T. Powell this summer. Mr. Powell previously announced his retirement, effective July 1, following 16 years of dedicated service to the Great Neck Public Schools.

Mr. O’Keefe comes to Great Neck from the Sachem Central School District, where he currently serves as Deputy Superintendent. His current job responsibilities include all aspects of budgeting and business operations, as well as overseeing transportation, food services, facilities, and instructional technology.

“I am greatly looking forward to becoming a member of the administrative team in the Great Neck Public Schools. It is truly humbling, and I certainly appreciate the trust that has been placed in me,” says Mr. O’Keefe. “I am honored to be joining this outstanding educational community.”

Mr. O’Keefe started in Sachem as the Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations in July 2016, and he was promoted to Deputy Superintendent just two years later. Prior to Sachem, his experience in school business and finance in-

cluded two years as Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations in the West Hempstead Union Free School District, two years as School Business Administrator for the Sag Harbor Union Free School District, and three years as Director of Business Operations for the Cleary School for the Deaf. His career in public education follows 20 years of experience in operations management in the private sector.

Mr. O’Keefe earned an Executive Masters in Business Administration from St. Joseph’s College, a Masters in Educational Leadership from Long Island University-C.W. Post, and a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management from St. Joseph’s College. He holds Advanced Certificates in School District Leadership and School District Business Leadership from LIU-C.W. Post.

In 2013, he was the recipient of the School District Business Leader Award, presented by the New York State Association of School Business Officials.

Mr. O’Keefe was appointed by the Great Neck Board of Education following an extensive selection process, which included multiple rounds of interviews with a selection committee comprised of parents, faculty, staff, and administrators. “Our District prides itself on our intensive hiring practices, which ensure that only the most qualified candidates are selected to uphold our District’s tradition of excellence,” explains Dr. Teresa Prendergast, Superintendent of Schools.

“On behalf of the entire District, I’d like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude for Mr. Powell’s many years of dedicated service to our school community, during which time our District has maintained a strong financial position and earned the highest ratings from Moody’s Investors Service,” praised Dr. Prendergast. “I am confident that Mr. O’Keefe will carry on Great Neck’s long-standing reputation for sound business operations.”

Great Neck students excel on national French exam A total of 57 high school students from the Great Neck Public Schools have been recognized for their outstanding scores on the National French Exam (Le Grand Concours), Nassau County Level. This annual competition is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French.

Winners are awarded platinum, gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention based on their performance as compared to other students in the same grade and course level. Joanna Asvestas is the French teacher at North High, and Geraldine Finazzo is the French teacher at South High.

Level 2A North High award winners: Katherine Zhao, platinum; Daliah Segal, silver; Nassoma Alberto, bronze. Honorable mention: Talia Elyaho, Valerie Lan, Maya Salim, and Rafaella Sarraf.

South High award winners: William Tsang, silver; Jolene Chang, silver; Jinah Kwak, silver; Marisa Lim, bronze; Adreen Hossain, bronze.

Level 3A North High award winners: Kattie Huang, gold; Anna Beauchesne, silver; Ningfeng (Tony) Xiong, silver; Stephany Barbu, bronze. Honorable mention: Gabrielle Feder, Vian Hwang, Matthew Matalon, Brandon Tehrani, Brandon Torkian, and Xiongningfan (Benny) Wang.

South High award winners: Eleanor Gau, gold; Brian Liu, silver; Jared Korn, silver; Audrey Huang, bronze; Xinyi (Angela) Wu, bronze.

Honorable mention: Helen Tang, Kairi Weisbrot, Joanne Lee, and Rachel An. Level 4A North High award winners: Ava Assaraf, gold; Yo-Jia Hu (Anjelica Wu) Tang, bronze. Honorable mention: Michaela Damaghi, Brielle Nassi, Joshua Schoenman, and Alex Zhuang.

South High award winners: Amber Sun, gold; Amy Susnea, silver; Amanda Roth, bronze;

Sophia Liu, bronze; Samantha Zeltser, bronze; Kan Heng Lin, bronze; Joshua Rabbani, bronze; Brayden Chien, bronze. Honorable mention: Xinyi (Zoe) Zhang, Deena Weber, Thomas Lo, and Amanda Putter.

Level 5A North High award winners: Natasha Khazzam, gold; Rudy Beauchesne, silver; Julia Huang, silver.

Level 5AP South High award winners: David Feuer, platinum. Honorable mention: Emma Maliar, Alexander Voses, Ella Li, and Dana Siong Sin. Tri-M chapter welcomes new members North High School Chapter 2605 of the Tri-M Music Honor Society inducted 19 new members who demonstrate scholarship, musicianship, and leadership. Distinguished guests, administrators, music faculty, students, and parents gathered together on April 25 for the first in-person Tri-M induction ceremony since 2019.

The 2022 inductees to Tri-M Chapter 2605 are: Serena Askari, Stephany Barbu, Jack Brenner, Stanley Chan, Anna Goldman, Clara Goldman, Leila Hawa, Zachary Hyman, Justine Khadavi, Amitha Kumar, Hwi-On Lee, William Okin, Joshua Rafaeil, Tamas Smulovics, Daliah Segal, Shuyuan Julie Sun, Maverick Williams, Terra Wu, and Alex Zhuang.

Student officers of Chapter 2605 extended Honorary Lifetime Memberships to four individuals for their support and outstanding contributions to the school’s music programs: music booster parent Nancy Notar Francesco, music booster parent/North Middle teacher Patti Crisafulli, music booster parent Maria Margiloff, and Francine Greenberg of the Great Neck Music Conservatory.

The ceremony also included performances by violinist Tiantian Emily Wei; baritone Maverick Williams accompanied by teacher Dr. Pamela Levy on piano; and a duet by student teacher Raffi Froundjian on guitar with teacher Joseph Rutkowski on clarinet.

Distinguished guests, including Board President Rebecca Sassouni, Superintendent Dr. Teresa Prendergast, North High Principal Dr. Dan Holtzman, and North Middle Principal Dr. Gerald Cozine, congratulated the new inductees and thanked the music faculty for imparting a love of music to all their students.

At the conclusion of this year’s induction ceremony, Chapter 2605 faculty advisor/instrumental music teacher Joseph Rutkowski passed the advisorship on to Dr. Pamela Levy, fine and performing arts department chair/vocal music teacher, who will serve as the chapter advisor following Mr. Rutkowski’s retirement at the end of this school year.

North High School Chapter 2605 and North Middle Junior Chapter 5695 encourage participation in music programs and service to the Great Neck community through a variety of endeavors, including performances at local nursing homes, children’s hospitals, and seasonal events.

Chapter 2605 at North High boasts more than 25 years of outstanding service, including recognition as the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME) Chapter of the Year for the 2016–17 school year. The Chapter initiated several Skype sessions with students at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in 2017, as well as weekly chamber music performances for the school community via Zoom throughout the pandemic.

The Tri-M Music Honor Society, a program of NAfME, recognizes students for their efforts and accomplishments in music on the basis of musicianship, scholarship, character, leadership, and service to their school and community. The organization’s high standards serve to challenge students to greater efforts and achievements and to encourage the pursuit of excellence.

42 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

READERS WRITE

We should celebrate Earth Day all year long

A

llow me to add to “Earth Matters — Earth Day 2022 What you can do to help” (Jennifer Wilson-Pines — April 29).

Why not celebrate Earth Day April 22 all year long? Recycle newspapers, magazines, glass, plastics, old medicines, paints and cleaning materials. Leave your car at home.

For local trips in the neighborhood walk or ride a bike. For longer travels consider many public transportation alternatives already available.

Use MTA, NYC Transit subway, bus, Long Island Rail Road, Nassau Inter County Express (NICE) Bus and City of Long Beach Bus. They use less fuel and move far more people than cars. Employers offer transit checks to

help subsidize a portion of the costs.

Utilize your investments and reap the benefits. You’ll be supporting a cleaner environment and be less stressed.

Many employers allow employees to telecommute and work from home full or part time. Others use alternative work schedules, which enable staff to avoid rush hour gridlock. This saves travel time and can

improve mileage per gallon. Join a car or van pool to share costs of commuting.

Use a hand-powered lawn mower instead of a gasoline or electric one.

Rake your leaves instead of using gasoline-powered leaf blowers. The amount of pollution created by gasoline-powered lawn mowers or leaf blowers will surprise you.

A cleaner environment starts with everyone.

Larry Penner Great Neck (Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office).

Are there legal or ethical concerns for Peirez?

I

s there any conflict of interest by holding a position whereby an individual has some control over the salary and benefits of the retired teachers while the same individual is also a retired teacher?

Would there be any illegal and/or unethical aspect to such an arrangement?

According to a supportive character reference letter by a former GNPS principal, Phyllis Feldman, in the April 8 issue of Great Neck News, Ms. Donna Peirez is both a retired teacher

and also a previous “Vice President” of GNPS’s Union, “Great Neck Teachers Association (GNTA).”

If Ms. Peirez gets re-elected should she be allowed to vote on issues affecting the salaries and benefits of the retired teachers or she should recuse herself when facing the issue?

What if she only recuses herself for only the issues affecting the salaries and benefits of the retired teachers but she would still be allowed to vote on expenses other than the salaries or benefits of the school retirees?

Would there be a conflict of interest? Obviously, if she votes against such expenditures, there would be more funds available that could be utilized for the salaries and benefits of the retirees.

The school’s decisions are influenced by different entities each protecting different interests.

In fact, union leaders and school trustees have adversely conflicting interests.

The function of the school board of trustees a/k/a “Board of Education”

(BOE) is to provide the best education for the students while taking into account the best financial interest of the taxpayers.

The members of BOE are supposed to make sure that the proper allocation of the budget is implemented by the optimal use of the available funds in order to materialize those goals.

The unions, however, protect the best financial interests of the employees, teachers and contractors.

Hence, in addition to a possible conflict of interest of Ms. Peirez to

be a trustee on the Board of Education, there is another questionable aspect with respect to her candidacy, i.e., her allegiance to the union as she has served as the vice president of the school union. Her allegiance and past connections to the union could cause bias in her decision making.

A unionist mindset is at odds with what is expected from a trustee mindset Michael Eisenstein Great Neck

President Joe Biden fails on all fronts

I

was extremely wary of what President Biden could accomplish during his four years in office. However, I was surprised at how quickly and how much he has done. It only took a little over a year for him to undo everything President Trump put in place.

The United States went from being energy independent to energy dependent, from being an energy exporter to energy importer. Tens of thousands of high-paying jobs disappeared on his first day of office with the signature of his pen when he cancelled the Keystone pipeline. President Biden then agreed to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will transport oil from Russia to Germany. We even import oil from Russia, helping to pay for Putin’s war against Ukraine, approximately 600,000 barrels of oil a day that transfers to Putin’s war machine over $66 million per day

or almost $2 trillion a month. Canada has offered to replace this oil, but Biden turned them down. Even now, Biden is on his knees begging Nicholas Maduro, the Dictator of Venezuela, or the mullahs of Iran for oil.

The United States went from having a secure southern border to an open porous one. Last month over 200,000 illegal immigrants tried to storm into the country. Of course, while so many Americans have to wear masks and are required to keep taking COVID shots, these illegal immigrants are not subject to these same draconian rules. They are not tested or required to have shots. In fact, they are flown in the dead of night to various cities, including Westchester County, where they are then put on buses and dropped off to parts unknown. Crime is at the highest levels in decades, il-

legal drugs pour in at ever increasing rates and drug overdoses are at an all time high.

Inflation is running out of control, increasing from 1.4 percent when Biden took office and last month hit 8.5 percent, the highest in 40 years.

However, these numbers do not tell the whole story. The price for food has exceeded 10 percent, and if you are Kosher then it is even higher. The price at the gas station has almost doubled since Biden took office. Across the country, individuals have started putting up small signs on gas pumps with his picture on it saying, “I did that.”

Electricity prices have also dramatically gone up, and I just received my budget bill from National Grid which is now 20 percent higher than before.

Bidenflation is spiraling out of control and will undoubtedly get worse.

Mortgage interest rates have almost doubled recently and seem certain to go even higher. It is only a matter of time until houses are priced out of the reach of so many individuals. GDP for the first quarter of 2022 was just announced as minus 1.4 percent. Welcome to the stagflation world of the Biden presidency.

The news on the international front is even worse. Russia has invaded Ukraine, killing thousands of innocent men, women and children. Whole towns have been wiped off the map.

Millions have fled the country. Communist China daily flies military jets over Taiwan threatening their air space and independence. The mullahs of Iran threaten Israel constantly with nuclear annihilation and all Biden wants to do is to sign a new treaty with them.

The debacle of our withdrawal

from Afghanistan in the middle of the night, which left over $80 billion of the most sophisticated weapons there, the loss of 13 brave American soldiers and for over 250 days has left countless Americans behind enemy lines.

North Korea’s dictator is continually launching new missiles and testing new weapon prototypes. As Secretary Robert Gates said, “President Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

President Obama also said, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to (expletive) things up.” Somewhere President Carter is smiling since he is no longer considered the worst President the United States has ever had!

Jack Lipsky Great Neck

Support Monterosso for Manhasset BOE trustee

O

ur schools are our community’s invaluable shared asset.

In these times of increasing divisiveness, our community has a proud legacy of fine schools to uphold, protect and nurture for the generations ahead. Every May, at budget and board election time, we ask ourselves: Who is best suited to shoulder this immense responsibility on our behalf for the next three years? What do we want for the future of our school community?

As one considers the school board candidates, it can be helpful to ask and consider: Why are they run-

ning and what are they running for?

Are they running because they truly care about the well-being of each and every of our 3,300 plus students or are they running for themselves?

Christine Monterosso’s demonstrated record, her ability to foster consensus, and her caring and inclusive leadership proves that she is running for trustee because she looks out for the entire Manhasset team: our students, their education and well-being, our school community and our taxpayers. Her vision has been and is a key catalyst for ongoing improvement school- wide.

Under her leadership, the district added a top-notch broadcast journalism studio and curriculum; kept the double-accelerated elementary math opportunity and created additional pathways for late bloomers; added engineering opportunities for students at multiple levels and kept the annual budgets within the allowable tax cap.

I have seen firsthand how Christine advocates for each and every student and pushes for constructive and innovative solutions to keep our schools the best they can be.

Christine cares. She goes to great

lengths to make herself available regularly to listen, understand and consider the needs of all her constituents. She weighs carefully the needs and wants of all: our students, parents, faculty, staff and taxpayers, and works collaboratively to find optimal solutions balancing and meeting the majority of needs. I have seen her approach evolve as she considers all perspectives. Christine’s passionate advocacy and her collaborative focus on growth, improvement and providing appropriate challenges and opportunities for all students make our schools a better place every day.

Traditionally, our school community’s collaboration, our active listening, our caring and our collective focus on what is best for students makes ours exceptionally special and a place many want to be a part of.

Christine actively protects our foundation, nurtures our values and demonstrates them daily in her leadership on our behalf. Join me in voting for Christine as a trustee on the Board of Education to protect and nurture all our school community holds dear.

Regina Green Rule Manhasset

Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

43

READERS WRITE

Re-Elect Culotta to F.P.-Bellerose Board of Education

O

n May 17, the Floral Park-Bellerose community will be going to the polls, and I ask for the privilege of serving you for another term and representing your voice on the Board of Education.

When I was first elected in 2019, I vowed to advocate for our students, fight for our families, and make decisions with an eye toward fiscal responsibility. With these priorities guiding me, I helped our district achieve tremendous success over the last three years.

As a trustee, I helped oversee the first expansions of Floral Park-Bellerose and John Lewis Childs Schools in decades—key projects that we delivered to our students and our community ontime and within budget. We implemented a full-time Universal Pre-K program, which helps ease the financial burden of childcare on our families.

We developed new science programs and discovery labs, and we made strategic investments in technology. We prioritized mental health and social and emotional learning throughout the constantly changing environment of the last

two years. We supported our students with psychologists, social workers, and guidance counselors, and we supported our teachers with critical training.

I worked with our board and our administration to bring more transparency to our operations and decision-making.

We transformed our website and uploaded more detailed information about our curriculum, our capital projects, and our budget. We revamped our social media pages, we shared regular newsletters and updates, and thanks to Zoom, we have been able to engage more of our community during public meetings.

During any other moment, these accomplishments might have felt like heavy lifts. But we reached these unprecedented achievements in the face of a raging pandemic, which our district took head on. For the last two years, I have been at the table, working to bring our community together, listening to concerns and ideas, and helping to develop comprehensive plans to keep our children safe.

As a result of these efforts, we were able to bring our students back into the

Michael Culotta classroom while minimizing the transmission of the virus. Today, we can see the smiles on the faces of our children, who have demonstrated to us the true meaning of resilience. They are inspirations to us all.

Although we have come a long way over the last two years, we are not completely out of the pandemic, and there

is still much work to be done to ensure that the future of our children remains bright.

We find ourselves in a moment of transition on many fronts. Our community has grown. Our original school buildings were constructed a century ago, and their infrastructure is aging.

New educational standards are on the horizon. The number of students who require special educational services has grown exponentially over the last ten years.

This environment offers the perfect moment for us to develop a new long-range strategic plan for the Floral Park-Bellerose School District. We have an opportunity to reimagine the educational experience for our students, establish new goals, and raise the bar in our schools.

As an attorney and senior executive, I have extensive experience bringing people together around complicated problems and issues, building consensus, and implementing meaningful and strategic changes. I have helped our district reach new heights in the face of tre-

mendous obstacles and adversity. I can get the job done.

My wife and I, like many others in the area, bought our home in Floral Park, planted our roots, and invested in our community because the school system is one of the best in New York State.

Our oldest child is thriving at Floral Park-Bellerose School, and our youngest child soon will be joining their ranks.

I have a vested interest in the success of our school district. When we succeed, our children grow, our home values remain high, and our community continues to be one of the most desirable places to live and learn in Long Island.

I would be honored to serve as your Trustee and continue the great work of our community during another term on the Floral-Park Bellerose Board of Education. I humbly ask for your vote on Election Day. Thank you for your support.

Michael Culotta Trustee Floral Park-Bellerose Board of Education

Peirez will keep Socio-political indoctrination’ in G.N. G.N schools great

J

ohn F. Kennedy said, “Happiness is the full use of one’s talents along lines of excellence.”

The above quote can be applied to Donna Peirez regarding her re-election to the Great Neck Board of Education. Donna has demonstrated her noteworthy talents, credentials and experience in the quest for excellence in her many roles as a parent, an active Great Neck citizen and in all of her elected positions. She is thoughtful and passionate about quality education, which has been her creed for each and every student. She has been a strong advocate for children, their educational growth, emphasizing the beauty of differences in learning and inspiring their educational appreciation.

Donna has dedicated her life to instilling a standard of excellence and leadership in many ways. Her leadership was recognized resulting in her election as PTA president at the Baker Hill School followed by her election as president of the Parent Teacher Organization and then her election as the chairperson for the United Parent Teacher Con-

Hi everyone, my name is Emil Hakimi, and I am running for a seat as a Trustee on the Great Neck Public School Board of Education. ference. She taught at the ComI was inspired to run in order to be a munity school and for 28 years at voice for parents who are extremely conthe Lakeville school. cerned about the introduction of socioIn 2016 she ran a successpolitical indoctrination into our children’s ful campaign vice president. Her curriculum and instruction. focus was to “give back” to the The dismissive attitude with which Great Neck community for what our concerns have been met has led to a she felt her children had so forstrong feeling of distrust between a large tunately received as students. As segment of parents and the school board. a result of Donna’s membership I hope that my election will help rebuild on the board, the Great Neck this vital bridge. school district was ranked No. 1 Since the School Board started priby Niche.com. oritizing politically motivated social proGiven Donna Peirez’s credengrams and curricula, the national standtials, as a caring parent, a former ings of the school district have declined teacher within the Great Neck drastically. school system and her experience as a board member there is no doubt that her re-election to the Great Neck school board will be valuable assets for everyone concerned.

Please join me on May 17 to re-elect Donna Peirez to the Continued from Page 16 Great Neck School Board of EduEach metaphor contributes to our uncation. Her re-election is essential derstanding that work and play for young to maintain the excellence and people are inseparable. respected reputation enjoyed by Let them play freely!

Great Neck’s school system. We We are living in uneasy times. Free-floatwill all reap the benefits by her ing anxiety has been intensified by the COservice.

VID-19 pandemic and a sense of uncertainty about the future. Free play has been hijacked Lois Schaffer by protective health measures imposed by Great Neck government. They are not universally accept-

According to US News and World Report, in 2017, Great Neck North High School was ranked #164 nationally, and now we have fallen to #503.

Given the amount of money being spent per student in Great Neck, this is extremely disappointing. We need to refocus on academic achievement and excellence, rather than on controversial agendas which do not align with the values of many in our community.

I would also like to discuss misinformation being spread about my stance on the budget. I am unequivocally supportive of the budget passing, and I encourage all my supporters to vote in favor of the budget as well.

I have four children currently in the district and would never jeopardize the quality of their education. These rumors

and personal attacks against me are unwarranted and are simply meant to minimize our concerns and deflect from the issues that matter. I hope this statement clarifies my position on the budget so that we can focus on having meaningful discussions about the topics which have many parents concerned.

We are all one community here, we all share the same instinct to want what’s best for our children. So please, let’s all be kind to each other. Regardless of the outcome of this election, we must all be united for this common cause.

I kindly ask that you vote yes on the budget, and elect me on May 17.

Emil Hakimi Candidate for Great Neck Board of Education

Honoring a child’s right to play ed and can be isolating and confusing.

Regardless, a child’s job is to explore and a parent’s job is to protect.

It is incumbent upon us, as adults who care about kids, to find the proper balance to allow each child the time to safely find their way, taking baby steps if necessary.

Not sure about letting go just yet?

You are not alone. It’s okay. There are lots of organized outside of school activities that are supervised by caring adults who un-

BLANK SLATE MEDIA WELCOMES YOUR SUBMISSIONS. PLEASE E-MAIL THEM TO NEWS@THEISLAND360.COM

derstand child development and peer group dynamics.

Laws can help to guide us, not decide for us.

Play is a child’s right. __________ If you wish to review the relevant freerange parenting laws in all 50 states, go here: https://letgrow.org/resources/state-policymaps/#N

44 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

COMMUNITY NEWS

Hadassah Nassau sets 16th Annual Walk-a-Thon Hadassah Nassau has scheduled its 16th Annual Walk-a-Thon 2022 for Stem Cell Research at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 15 at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Heights, announced Hadassah Nassau President Rachel Rosen.

Hadassah Past National President Ellen Hershkin will join several hundred Long Island Hadassah members and supporters for the two-part community fundraiser with an announced goal of $300,000 for stem cell research at Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) in Jerusalem.

Rosen announced that overall, Hadassah Nassau has raised nearly $1.5M towards stem cell research at HMO since 2006.

2022 Walk-a-Thon Grand Marshal is Jim Rottenberg, past national president, Hadassah Associates and 2022 Associates Walk Chair, who has been instrumental in raising over $150,000 over the past 11 years from friends and Hadassah Associates who have participated in the annual fundraising event.

Additionally, at 7:00 p.m. there will be a virtual Zoom celebration for all registrants with Broadway, film and television star Ben Rappaport as host, honoring Walk-A-Thon 2022 honorees Sandy Rosen, Lynne and Arnie Gordon and Susan Falkove.

The Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive, Rosyln Harbor, NY 11576. To register, to donate or for more information, go to www.tinyurl.com/HadassahStemCell2022 or call 516-766-2725. Registration fee is $36.

The May 15 walk daytime activities include a 9:30 a.m. “meet and greet” with Hadassah National leadership, 2022 honorees and local dignitaries before the walk commences at 10:00 a.m.

There will be music, snacks, and a food truck to support Hadassah Nassau’s an-

nual Walk.

Following the Walk’s daytime activities, registrants and supporters are invited to a 7:00 p.m. Zoom celebration highlighting Hadassah’s stem cell research and honoring Walk-A-Thon 2022 honorees.

Ben Rappaport will guide participants through the evening of learning, creativity and inspiration. All registrants will receive a link to the Zoom celebration.

Rappaport stars in NBC’s “Outsourced” and ABC’s “Shondaland” series For the People. Most recently, he appeared in the Netflix series “Inventing Anna.” He has also appeared on “Law & Order: SVU,” “Mr. Robot,” “Younger” and “The Good Wife.”

Rappaport is currently starring opposite Sean Hayes in the World Premiere of “Good Night, Oscar” at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. He has also appeared on Broadway in the Tonynominated revival of “Fiddler on The Roof” as Perchik, opposite Danny Burstein, while appearing in “Hope Springs: opposite Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.

Rosen states, “Hadassah’s mission is “tikkun olam.” With our annual WalkA-Thon for Stem Cell Research, Hadassah Nassau is healing the world, one step at a time. This year, our goal is to raise $300,000 for stem cell research at Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. We are thrilled that the 2022 Walk will be at a new location – the beautifully-manicured grounds of the Nassau County Museum of Art. In addition, after the walk, the museum is extending a 50% discount to all Hadassah supporters, to view the exhibits inside the galleries on that day. Then that evening, all registrants are invited to a zoom celebration at 7:00 p.m. highlighting Hadassah’s stem cell research, congratulating our three honorees and recognizing our donors.”

brain injuries and more.

Hadassah Nassau’s 16th Annual Walk-a-Thon 2022 for Stem Cell Research Honorees include: Sandy Rosen, 2022 Walk for a Cure Award Sandy Rosen has been involved in Hadassah Nassau for over 50 years and is one of the region’s top fundraisers.

Sandy is the former owner of Trylon Realty and now works for Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

PHOTO BY PRISCILLA GRANT/ EVERETT COLLECTION

Ben Rappaport at arrivals for Disney ABC Television Group TCA Winter Press Tour 2018, Part 2, The Langham Huntington, Pasadena, CA January 8, 2018.

Hadassah’s two world-class research hospitals in Jerusalem, Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, under the umbrella of the Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO), have been visionaries in the field of stem cell research. HMO collaborates with other cutting-edge stem cell research hospitals worldwide to produce innovative medical research that then is shared throughout the world. HMO in Israel was among the first medical centers in the world to pursue stem cell research.

Stem cell and immunotherapy research at HMO hold the promise to treat and cure numerous devastating diseases which affect over 100 million Americans. These include ALS, MS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autoimmune conditions, cancers, diabetes, joint and bone diseases, macular degeneration, strokes, spinal cord injuries, traumatic

Lynn & Arnie Gordon, 2022 Steps to Hope Award Lynne and Arnie Gordon epitomize leadership, thoughtfulness and generosity. Lynne has held key positions on Hadassah Nassau’s Executive Board and is currently Executive Vice President, while Arnie is the immediate past president of Congregation Sons of Israel in Woodmere.

Susan Falkove, Ellen Domnitch Leadership Award Susan Falkove has been an active member of the Shaloma Chapter of Hadassah. She has been an integral part of making the chapter the force it is today, and she has inspired numerous Hadassah members along the way. Susan is an attorney and is on the Syosset Central School District Board of Education.

Reubinoff, the director of the Sidney and Judy Swartz Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center at The Goldyne Savad Institute at HMO and Dr. Eyal Banin, head of Center for Retinal and Macular Degeneration. Dr. Reubinoff is recognized globally as a leader in stem cell and immunotherapy research. Dr Banin is an expert in the field of cell therapy for degenerative diseases of the retina and the macula.

Long-time Hadassah Nassau member Doris Fins and her son Albert will share their personal story about how stem cell therapy impacted their lives.

The Zoom celebration will include informative and entertaining segments

by Dr. Debra Wattenberg, board certified dermatologist and frequent healthcare contributor on Today, who will be interviewed by Hadassah member Dorette Foreman on trends in the dermatology field.

The festivities also include a live cooking demonstration by awardwinning chefs from Lola Restaurant in Great Neck, who will create a delicious Israeli dish alongside Hadassah Nassau members Tracey Drayer and Loulou Zonenshine. Amanda Ciniglio, the owner of The Hidden Gem Café in Melville will demonstrate, along with Susan Falkove and family, how to make the “perfect” charcuterie board for at-home entertaining.

Throughout the hour event, Ben Rappaport will be giving away exciting gifts to lucky winners and will end the evening with a singing performance.

To register, to donate or for more information, go to www.tinyurl.com/HadassahStemCell2022 or call 516-7662725. Registration fee is $36.

Ellen Domnitch, founder of the WalkA-Thon, along with Rachel Rosen, Hadassah Nassau President, have played key roles in this year’s event. Hadassah Nassau’s Walk-A-Thon Committee of volunteers, led by chairs Doris Fins, Linda Hillel, Brenda Korff, Roz Meyerson, Roz Weitzen, and Georgene Winick, have been organizing for months to ABOUT HADASSAH NASSAU: Hareach the $300,000 goal. dassah Nassau comprises 24 chapters The 16th Annual Walk-A-Thon Zoom as part of the NY Metro Region. celebration also includes Dr. Benjamin

Marching in Persian Parade Nance reports from On Sunday, April 24, state Sen. Anna Kaplan, the first Iranian-American elected to the New York State Legislature, marched in the 2022 NYC Persian Parade.

She was joined by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli for the annual event that celebrates the rich history of Persian culture. The parade, which is organized by the Persian Parade Foundation, is intended to introduce Iranian culture and civilization to the general public, along with its historical achievements in art, folklore, and science.

It strives to demonstrate the Iranian tradition of tolerance for ethnic, religious and cultural differences among people, as well as to express the will of the Iranian community to live in peace, unity and harmony with all.

Ukraine for temple Malcolm Nance reported from Ukraine soon after announcing, on MSNBC, that he had enlisted in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. His conver-

sation with NY1 Anchor Errol Louis, exclusive to SCW Cultural Arts at Emanuel, remains available for viewing. Call 516.482.5701.

Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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46 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

COMMUNITY NEWS

Women’s nomination Honoring Regeneron finalists deadline extended The Town of North Hempstead has announced that nominations for the 2022 Women’s Roll of Honor has been extended to Monday, May 16, 2022.

“The Town of North Hempstead is so lucky to have an abundance of outstanding women who continue to be champions for their communities,” North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said. “I encourage all residents to nominate a deserving individual for Women’s Roll of Honor while there is still time left, so we can celebrate their incredible accomplishments and thank them for helping to make our communities great.”

Town Clerk Ragini Srivastava asked that “Now more than ever, we must take a moment to recognize our

post-pandemic heroes as we emerge to a more normal version of our lives.

There are women who exhibited extraordinary service. We need to thank them.”

Anyone interested in submitting a name for consideration can call North Hempstead’s 311 Call Center by dialing 311 or download the application form on the Town’s website: www.northhempsteadny.gov/roll-ofhonor.

The annual breakfast celebration will be held at the Clubhouse at Harbor Links on Friday, June 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

The event continues to be free for all participants. Seat and table reservations are available after May 20 and will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The Nassau County Legislature honored Nassau County’s Regeneron finalists last week. Five Nassau County high school seniors were among the 40 finalists chosen in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2022 competition, and many more were among the runner-ups.

The finalists were chosen based on their projects’ scientific rigor and their potential to become world-changing scientists and leaders. The pool of entrants was over 1,800 highly qualified students, all of whom completed an original research project and extensive application process.

“This award not only reflects upon these great students, who accomplished this prestigious feat, but also the quality education provided by our schools and teachers,” Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello said. “These students have demonstrated their leadership and commitment to STEM innovation through their projects which ranged from eye cancer, DNA-protein interactions, voting habits, dietary restrictions effect on life span, and COVID-19-induced stress.

Congratulations to all the finalists and runners up.”

NASSAU COUNTY FINALISTS: Ethan Chiu Syosset High School Project Title: “Developing a self-formed ectodermal autonomous multi-zone organoid model using human stem cells to examine the effect of doxycycline treatment on uveal melanoma” Rohan Ghotra Syosset High School Project Title: “Uncovering Motif Interactions from Convolutional Attention Networks for Regulatory Genomics”

Desiree Rigaud John F. Kennedy High School Project Title: “COVID-19 Induced Economic Stress: The Effect on Marital Functioning and Methods of Alleviating Financial Stress” Christopher Luisi John F. Kennedy High School Project Title: “How Dietary Restriction Affects the Athleticism, Metabolic Rate, and Lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster” Hailee Youn Roslyn High School Project Title: ‘Why We Vote: How Positive Descriptive Norms and Holding a Minority Political Viewpoint Increase Citizens’ Intention and Responsibility to Vote”

Town offering Asian-American fest at beach native plant rebates The Town of North Hempstead has announced that rebates are again being offered to encourage residents to plant native plant gardens to replace lawns and existing garden spaces.

The town received $10,000 from the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District and will be offering eligible residents up to $350 per household for the purchase of native plants.

“We’re proud to once again partner with the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District on this great program,” North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said. “The Town of North Hempstead has consistently prioritized preserving our environment, and this program will continue to play an important role in protecting our environment for future generations.”

In 2021, 13 new native plant gardens were created with funding from the program throughout the town.

These native plant gardens provide residents and the environment with many benefits. Not only are these gardens beautiful, but they provide food, shelter, and nesting resources for pollinators, of which many species are in decline, as well as birds, small mammals, and a variety of wildlife species.

They also have extensive root systems that absorb polluted

stormwater, can take in carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, have low maintenance requirements, do not need fertilizer, and are drought tolerant once established.

These gardens will increase habitat for the declining monarch butterfly population, which is an important action the Town is taking for the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge.

To qualify, residents will be required to complete an application that includes information about their proposed garden location, estimated budget, New York native plant species chosen, proposed garden size, photo(s) of proposed planting location, and a basic garden layout.

Funding is limited and applications that meet the requirements will be accepted on first-come-first-served basis. For more information and details on how to apply, please call 311 or visit www. n o r t h h e m p s t e a d n y. gov/np.

The Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena has announced that the Asian-American Festival will be held on Saturday, May 14 beginning at 12 p.m. at North Hempstead Beach Park in Port Washington.

“The Town’s Asian-American Festival will be making a triumphant return for in-person festivities this year for the first time since the pandemic began,” Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said. “I invite our residents to come together for a special afternoon where we can all experience the diversity of our Town firsthand through excellent cultural performances, topnotch Asian cuisines, and a celebra-

tion of Asian culture and heritage.”

Since the first Asian-American Festival in 2010, members of the North Hempstead community have celebrated the Asian cultures represented in North Hempstead yearly during Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month. The celebration includes live performances from around the world, food from local restaurants, and cultural activities.

There will be a lively market and food representing the countries of Afghanistan, China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Korea and more.

“The Town of North Hempstead is so fortunate to have such a vibrant

and engaged Asian American and Pacific American community,” said Council Member Mariann Dalimonte.

“North Hempstead’s cultural landscape continues to grow each and every year, and our Asian American Festival is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the diversity that makes North Hempstead one of the best places to live in America.”

The event is free to attend; there is a $10 parking fee per vehicle if paying with cash, $7 parking fee if paying with credit or debit card. The rain date for the event is Sunday, May 15.

For more information, please call 311 or (516) 869-6311.

Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

47

Business&RealEstate Upgrades may boost price but not profit On April 30, I had an appointment with a seller to provide them a CMA (comparative market analysis) or what some call today a value analysis to determine at what price he should list his home. When I was on the phone with him the night before about the number of bedrooms and baths and what improvements he had done in the last three to five years, he began to explain to me what he was planning to fix and upgrade prior to placing his home on the market.

I listened carefully and then I said to him, “Wait until I come over tomorrow and we’ll discuss all of your plans and considerations.” When I arrived, we greeted each other and he showed me around his well-landscaped and flowering property with a pool in the rear.

We then proceeded to enter his home so that he could show me the fixes and upgrades he had in mind. He had all these ideas about upgrading and I let him know that he would definitely sell much quicker if he carried them out. However, the money invested in those upgrades wouldn’t necessarily provide him with a higher price, make any money above his costs or even reimburse him for what he had spent!

I did tell him some basic things he could do, such as pull up his carpeting, lightly sand the floors as needed and

then add two coats of polyurethane to bring out a brilliant shine that purchasers would appreciate and be beneficial as an improvement. Even repainting the interior wasn’t necessary as the walls and ceilings looked fine. The next buyer may not like the choice of color and the next purchaser just might repaint the home anyway, so why spend the money unless your home hasn’t been painted in at least 10 years and shows it.

By the time I finished discussing his potential improvements and repairs, he realized how much money I saved him and his home would sell without all those things he had thought would get him a higher price.

Next we went into the basement and the first thing I saw was a full bathroom.

I asked if he had a CO (certificate of occupancy) and he told me the bathroom was there when the home was constructed. To be sure, I said, go to the Building Department and ask for your folder under F.O.I.L. (Freedom of Information Law) and check to see if there was a CO or a COC (certificate of completion) document from the original build.

After that I pointed out that with a finished (not an unfinished) basement you needed to provide egress out of the basement with a separate door leading out (not the normal staircase leading up-

PHILIP A. RAICES Real Estate Watch stairs) or a pop-out window leading to a gravel or cement constructed pit with a ladder leading up to ground level. This rule (check your local ordinances) was enacted to safeguard people who might be in the basement during a fire and enable them to exit the area safely. In the event of an illegal basement rental, be quite sure that you protect your inhabitants to make it much easier for them to escape and survive.

Unfortunately, he was not aware of this law and my feeling is that the county

has not educated the public sufficiently to make homeowners cognizant of this most important requirement.

We proceeded to go back outside and he was showing me the fences on the property and his wife pointed out that their property was 10 feet beyond the fence and that their neighbor was aware of it. I told him to get a letter from their neighbor attesting to that fact. Otherwise adverse possession could come into play if their neighbor has had that piece of property on their side for at least 10 years and could claim the property.

As it happened, the neighbor did have it for over 35 years when the fence was installed incorrectly on their property line by the fencing contractor.

For your information adverse possession can vary widely between states.

For example, it’s five years in California and 30 years in Louisiana.

The fence on the other side of the property was also suspect, too. I urged the owners again to go down to their local or county Building Department (or hire an expediter) to search out and handle whatever paperwork was required to make sure everything was legal. No one wants surprises when the buyer’s attorney orders a title search and then your headaches and stress begin with the possibility of having your sale die prior to the

closing.

The buyer will not be approved for the mortgage unless those illegal conditions are remedied and paperwork filed with the Building Department. A word to the wise should be sufficient. So, homeowners, make sure all your improvements, extensions and whatever you thought didn’t need a permit will have one with a CO before you put your home on the market.

Donate to the Ukrainian Crisis and save a life or 2: IOM’s Ukraine Response OR:The International Organization for Migration a 501(c) 3 Corporation: http://donate.iom.int Philip A. Raices is the owner/Broker of Turn Key Real Estate at 3 Grace Ave Suite 180 in Great Neck. He has 40 years of experience in the Real Estate industry and has earned designations as a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (G.R.I.) and also as a Certified International Property Specialist (C.I.P.S). For a “FREE” 15 minute consultation, a value analysis of your home, or to answer any of your questions or concerns he can be reached by cell: (516) 647-4289 or by email: Phil@TurnKeyRealEstate.Com. Just email or snail mail (regular mail) him with your ideas or suggestions on future columns with your name, email and cell number and he will call or email you back.

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48 The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

GN

Recent Real Estate Sales in

Great Neck

19 Gilbert Road, Great Neck

79 Red Brook Road, Great Neck

4 bd, 6 ba, 4,800 sqft, Sold On: 2/10/22, Sold Price: $3,170,000 Type: Single Family, Schools: Great Neck

5 bd, 4 ba, 4,000 sqft, Sold On: 2/14/22, Sold Price: $1,975,014 Type: Single Family, Schools: Great Neck

5 Sinclair Drive, Great Neck

5 Lighthouse Road, Great Neck

5 bd, 3.5 ba, 3,568 sqft, Sold On: 2/11/22, Sold Price: $2,935,000 Type: Single Family, Schools: Great Neck

5 bd, 5 ba, 4,481 sqft, Sold On: 2/22/22, Sold Price: $2,575,000 Type: Single Family, Schools: Great Neck

Editor’s note: Homes shown here were recently sold in Great Neck by a variety of real estate agencies. This information about the home and the photos were obtained through the Zillow.com. The homes are presented solely based on the fact that they were recently sold in Great Neck and are believed by Blank Slate Media to be of interest to our readers.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! SUBMIT YOUR PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS ITEMS ONLINE AT THEISLAND360.COM/SUBMIT-NEWS

The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

GN

49

South High cracks list’s top 25 N.Y. schools Continued from Page 1 In total, 19 Long Island public high schools made the national list, with Jericho High School ranking No. 13 in New York and No. 109 nationally. The top spot in New York went to Townsend Harris High School in Flushing, which also ranked No. 19 overall.

Fourteen Nassau County school districts were on the list, with Garden City High School at No. 214 overall, Syosset High School at No. 328 overall, Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School at No. 691 overall, John F. Kennedy High school in Bellmore at No. 712 overall and Bethpage High School at No. 973 overall filling out the list.

Suffolk County had five schools make the national list including Cold Spring Harbor High School in Hungtington at No. 298 overall,

Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills at No. 392 overall, Harborfields High School in Greenlawn at No. 564 overall, Half Hollow Hills High School West at No. 759 overall and Elwood-John H. Glenn High School at No. 944 overall.

U.S. News & World Report ranks schools based on student performance on state tests, graduation rates, participation in college-level Advanced Placement courses, and passing rates on Advanced Placement tests.

The publication reviewed more than 24,000 public high schools across the country that were eligible to be ranked based on their size.

Due to COVID-19, some calculations were adjusted since schools were shut down during state testing, U.S. News said.

PHOTO FROM THE GREAT NECK PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Great Neck South High School was named the top school on the North Shore according to U.S. News & World Report.

Manhasset attorneys allegedly misappropriated funds the trust after her death, and for her Foundation for 24 years,” Gilles con“Marchese and Maynard and its tinued. predecessor firm have been the exGilles also said the missing docuclusive attorneys for Helen Gottlieb, mentation was the result of a 2020 for her living trust, for her estate, for fire at the law firm’s office along with

Continued from Page 2

“the loss of documents due to incomplete records transfer during multiple transitions — from handwritten paper time sheets to a primitive floppy-disk computer system, and ultimately to a more sophisticated law office technol-

ogy package.”

“As the Attorney General’s office is aware, most of these issues are already before the Surrogate’s Court in Nassau County in an action we filed last year,” Gilles continued. “We are

happy to resume discussions that stalled nearly a year ago with the Attorney General’s office to resolve this matter.”

Antisemitic incidents increase throughout L.I. Continued from Page 3 The North Shore has seen a fair share of antisemitic and anti-Asian instances and subsequent demonstrations condemning those actions over the past two years, including a hijacking of a torah study event held via Zoom, vandalism on a local high school’s website and swastikas spraypainted on the outer walls of various structures.

In October, Great Neck North High School held a forum organized by community leaders Lori Beth Schwartz and Judy Liman which discussed ways to combat antisemitism through education.

State Sen. Anna Kaplan (D-North Hills) also promoted legislation for the state Senate to conduct a study on courses of study on the Holo-

caust in New York’s schools in April.

Kaplan said that a recent study by the nonprofit Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany revealed that 58% of New Yorkers aged 18 to 39 cannot name a single concentration camp, that 19% believe that Jews caused the Holocaust and that 28% believe the Holocaust is a myth or has been exaggerated. In

each of these three metrics, New York had the worst score of any state in the country.

Kaplan said the statistics were “deeply disturbing” but something that did not surprise her.

“We need to stop this cycle,” Kaplan said.

“And I think education is one of the key factors how we could do this.”

Curriculum concerns led me to run: Hakimi Continued from Page 2 “We’re so adamantly denying that critical race theory exists in our schools, when this was literally the definition of critical race theory,” Hakimi said in a phone interview.

School district officials said in response to the complaints at the school board meeting they would launch an investigation into the matter and previously addressed the issue at prior public meetings.

District Superintendent Teresa Prendergast reiterated her support and faith in the district’s administration and educators to provide students with quality education and keep its reputation intact.

“The district’s role is to guide students to see

and consider differing perspectives so that they may make informed decisions and develop personal viewpoints,” Prendergast said in a statement. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that the District provides all students with a diverse set of opportunities and tools needed to be successful in school and in all their future endeavors.”

“As previously shared publicly, viewpoint neutrality is the expectation of the Board of Education of the Great Neck Public Schools,” a statement from the Board of Education said.

Hakimi also said his stance on the adopted $261.4 million budget for the 2022-23 school year has been mistakenly portrayed through some social media posts, clarifying that he is in

www.facebook.com/TheIsland360

favor of passing the budget.

“I am unequivocally supportive of the budget passing, and I encourage all my supporters to vote in favor of the budget as well,” Hakimi said.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, he said, parents and district stakeholders need to work together and prioritize the education the district provides to its students.

“We are all one community here, we all share the same instinct to want what’s best for our children,” Hakimi said. “So please, let’s all be kind to each other. Regardless of the outcome of this election, we must all be united for this common cause.”

Peirez, who was first elected to the board in

2016 to fill a vacant seat left by Monique Bloom, said in a letter to Blank Slate Media that protecting quality public education and promoting transparency throughout the district are her paramount concerns ahead of the May 17 election.

“All parents who live in Great Neck are entitled to a quality education for their children,” Peirez said. “In order for our students to continue to excel in school and beyond, we must preserve the creative, innovative and visionary programs we offer and continue to hire and retain the best teachers.”

@TheIsland360

50 The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

GN

No discussion on 733-41 Middle Neck Road Continued from Page 1 project” and noted the controversial views of many village and peninsula residents in a phone call with Blank Slate Media. Kessel said the preliminary approvals and public hearings had already been conducted so a vote on the project and its’ approval resolutions will be conducted “at some point.”

The project is a proposed fourstory, mixed-use building that would stand 44 feet high and contain 60 homes – including 56 two-bedroom apartments and four one-bedroom apartments – along with 93 belowgrade parking spaces, a recreation center and a public art gallery. Five buildings riddled with chipped and faded paint currently occupy the space that the plans encompass.

In December 2019, the project started out as a 25-unit complex with 12 incentives later granted by the Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees in February 2020.

Village officials later said that the original proposal was withdrawn by the developer, and plans for the 60unit complex were taken directly to the village’s Board of Zoning Appeals later that year.

With the expansion of the proposal, the project overlapped with the village’s Residence C and Residence E, or apartment, zones.

According to Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral, the project was resubmitted to the zoning board rather than the Board of Trustees due to the zoning approvals that the Board of Trustees could not grant the developer.

“Changing zones is not within the scope of the Board of Trustees and only the Zoning Board of Appeals is able to make those changes,” Bral said in a September interview with Blank Slate Media.

Because the plans were changed, the incentives initially granted by the Board of Trustees became null and

RENDERING COURTESY OF OZ BENCETIN

The Nassau County IDA again tabled draft approvals for a mixed-use proposal on Middle Neck Road last week. void, Bral said.

In March 2021, the village’s Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved the site plan for the updated proposal, which also includes a meeting room, two recreation rooms and a storage unit on the sub-level floors.

The Board of Trustees approved updated architectural and facade plans for the proposed complex in May. Updates featured French balconies, a more compartmentalized appearance and ornamental lighting on the building’s exterior.

Residents expressed their concerns about the proposed structure to IDA officials during a September meeting at Village Hall. Some spoke about their displeasure with the project and advocated that the developer not be granted any tax breaks in the form of payments in lieu of taxes, also

known as PILOT relief.

A week after the meeting at Village Hall, the IDA board addressed the proposal and the various resolutions packaged with it during a public board meeting. The resolutions included a 22-year tax break package, approval for the project under state environmental law and an overall approving resolution.

More information surrounding the tax breaks was not immediately available.

John Farrell, a lawyer for the project’s developer, Gesher Center LLC, said he and the developer were aware of the residents’ concerns but added that the project was something that the village wanted to incorporate into its community during the board’s Sept. 21 meeting.

Farrell told the IDA board that the project does not anticipate more than

seven children living in the building.

Carrie-Anne Tondo of Ingerman Smith LLP, representing the Great Neck school district, spoke during the Sept.

21 meeting about the lack of concrete information from the developer on how schools would be affected by the building. Tondo said that if the building had 10 school-age children, the annual PILOT payments would not cover the cost of those students until 14 years into the PILOT relief the developer seeks.

“The payments to the district from the applicant are significantly less than if that property were put onto the tax roll as an approved project,” Tondo said. “Additional analysis concerning costs for projected school-age children was also absent in any of the documents that were submitted.”

The IDA is scheduled to next meet on May 26.

During the Village of Great Neck’s Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday night, Bral and Deputy Mayor Bart Sobel discussed the difficulties developers face when trying to work in the village.

“The reason developers, which we need to come in, when you villanize developers… they’re not going to come here, they’re going to go next door,” Bral said.

“People go through hell and high water to build anything here,” Sobel said. “Since this applicant went to the IDA, interest rates have approximately doubled.”

Bral said it is imperative for the village to show potential developers that they are pro-development and wanting to see changes from the dilapidated structures scattered throughout the village. Bral said developers will look at the surrounding areas of where they want to potentially build.

“I fault all of us, the board and the public, because we are not pro-development,” Bral said.

Village resident Karen Bardash asked the board if there was a way for the landlords of the run-down storefronts to maintain their facades so that, even if there is no business occupying the space, the building could remain somewhat attractive to potential developers and the general public.

“If you walk down Middle Neck Road, it’s just ugly,” Bardash said. “If you came to my house and you say to hang some nice curtains and mow your lawn, I would do that if it made a difference for my whole neighborhood.”

Bral said some of the difficulties he and the board have encountered speaking to landlords has been that the rent is too low and that they cannot afford to refurbish their facade.

Other developers that enter the village, Sobel said, can eventually take the burden off of other stores in the area.

Dems block DeSena’s building department reforms Continued from Page 4 partment with 56, or 14.4 percent, of them being overridden by a member of the Town Board. In that same time period, no expedited permits that were approved were ever overridden.

Dalimonte continued by suggesting a task force that would be composed of residents with expertise in the residential and commercial construction and make recommendations to the board, which was backed by Lurvey and Zuckerman.

DeSena, who later said she was in favor of a task force, asked the three members who have been on the board a combined 13 years where the urgency for a task force had been previously.

Dalimonte responded by saying Thursday night was the first meeting in her two years that the board has not faced a pandemic, based on White House Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci’s declaration earlier this week.

Councilman Robert Troiano said there was a “false assertion” that the Town Board is getting involved with things not under its jurisdiction.

Troiano clarified that board members are not making decisions on permits themselves but can provide expertise on one of the four criteria that applications for expedited permit requests must be meet, such as accommodating emergency situations, furthering public interests like job creation or economic development, providing an essential service or avoiding extreme financial hardship to the applicant, among others.

Troiano, who was on the board when the law was first passed 15 years ago, said it was made to give residents a public, accountable person who can make decisions if need be to protect residents.

During public comments, Building Commissioner John Niewender initially said he does not have a position or opinion on whether the law gets passed but will work with the “criteria set forth by the board.”

He said the department cannot take at face value when someone requests an expedited permit because the town runs the risk of letting someone who wants to solely flip houses, for example, jump in front of the line of other people who may have more pressing needs.

The commissioner, who has been in his role since 2004, asked the board to trust his decisions because that’s what he is paid to do and that he and his staff have the same tools as the Town Board to make determinations.

“All I can tell you is there are times when we feel strongly about something not being expedited and it does get overturned,” Niewender said. “It’s not my town, it’s my department and once it’s out of my hands and someone else overturns it, I move forward.”

When pressed by the board on the proposal’s wording, Niewender said there is a flip side to the long delays at the building department.

“We hear ‘how did this person get the request, he doesn’t even live here, why did he get that expedite’ and it’s because they falsely met the criteria or it got overturned,” Niewender said. “So I do agree that the power should stay with me.”

Residents who spoke in favor of the proposal included Matthew Donno, co-president of the Manhasset Chamber of Commerce, and Donna Squicciarino, trustee for New Hyde Park.

Edna Guilor, former deputy mayor of Great Neck, called for more advocacy from council members.

During the vote, Troiano abstained, citing wording he said raised a legal issue.

Town Attorney John Chiara said the proposal was not legally problematic as written, but could be defective as applied because it makes the commissioner’s criteria for considering expedited permit requests “arbitrary and capricious” and not rooted in the four current criteria.

Zuckerman and Lurvey joined Troiano in abstaining. Dalimonte deliberated on voting after expressing her desire to change the wording of the proposal while also asking the board to consider tabling the discussion but voted no when neither of those requests was met.

DeSena and Republican Councilmen David Adhami and Dennis Walsh each voted yes.

Another rewording of the proposal can be added to the May 19 Town Board meeting agenda.

Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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Systemic change to way we live Continued from Page 17 Late ecologist Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) founded The Half-Earth Project with this mission to conserve half the land and sea to safeguard biodiversity and support the viability of our species.

A sustaining cure to the current crisis comes from realizing the cognitive bias leading us to think we’re superior to other living beings. Thinking we’re separate from others is indeed an optical illusion. We’re completely dependent on each other and all living beings and non-living things that together compose the ecosystem.

We may be the first species on earth cognizant and aware of the possibility of us causing our own extinction. This does give us the evolutionary advantage

to learn from our mistakes and change our behaviors. We must in this defining moment look to our indigenous relatives for guidance.

Instead of claiming ownership over people, land and other resources, we must shift our mindset towards stewardship.

Biospherism begs us to replace dominance and aggression with humility and receptivity. It’s a viable approach to living.

We must all care deeply about our ecosystems, our lives depend on the health and wellbeing of the biosphere.

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Deadlines Monday 2:00pm: Classified Advertising Tuesday 1:00pm: Legal Notices/ Name Changes Friday 5:00pm Buyers’s Guide Error Responsibility All ads placed by telephone are read back for verification of copy context.

In the event of an error of Blank Slate Media LLC we are not responsible for the first incorrect insertion. We assume no responsiblity for an error in and beyond the cost of the ad.

Cancellation Policy Ads must be cancelled the Monday before the first Thursday publication. All cancellations must be received in writing by fax at: 516.307.1046 Any verbal cancellations must be approved by a supervisor. There are no refunds on cancelled advertising. An advertising credit only will be issued.

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56 Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, May 6, 2022

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57

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While certain district lines may change, what does not change is our party’s record of results which contrasts clearly with the Republican Party’s radical agenda to drag this state backward,” Jacobs told the Post.

Efforts to reach Jacobs for comment were unavailing.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that required county redistricting to follow guidelines that aim to promote fairness and not favor parties. The legislation states that district lines must consist of contiguous territory, be drawn nearly equal in population as is practicable, promote orderly and efficient election administration and not be drawn with the intent to deter certain minority groups from participating in elections.

“As bad actors across the country work to undermine public faith in our electoral institutions, the importance of clear and uniform rules to govern political representation has never been more critical,” Hochul said. “This law will ensure the entirety of our state is governed by rules that are derived directly from the federal and state constitutions and ensure the right to equal participation in our political process.”

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Continued from Page 8 Nassau County Legislator Josh Lafazan (D-Woodbury) and former North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman, also Democratic candidates in the 3rd district, echoed Zimmerman’s sentiments.

“No matter the communities that end up in #CD3, I’m going to continue campaigning to provide more affordable healthcare, less taxes, safer neighborhoods and to take care of our seniors and veterans, and that’s not going to change,” Lafazan tweeted.

“With so many challenges to confront at home and abroad, our democracy depends on experienced leaders to answer the call to serve,” Kaiman said.

George Santos, the Republican nominee in the election, said the vote stopped the “Democrats’ attempt to cheat and rig the upcoming election,” in a tweet last week.

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the state’s and Nassau County’s Democratic Committees, told the New York Post that he remains “confident” of Democratic victories in the upcoming November elections, despite what lines are redrawn and ultimately approved.

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6 things for first-time homebuyers Continued from Page 22 Note that once you sign the contract, unless specified otherwise, you’ll be buying the property “as-is,” meaning in its condition at the time of signing (with the exception of broken utilities or appliances).

Skipping the inspection in a rush to “close the deal” can end up being very costly.

KNOW THE PROCESS Understanding the homebuying process will help you be prepared, reduce stress and frustration, and avoid unpleasant surprises.

As mentioned above, determine your budget and get a pre-approval letter from a loan officer before you start looking at homes.

Once you’ve found a property and your offer is accepted, have a professional inspection performed. This is also the ideal time to retain a real estate attorney; they’ll guide you from the onset to ensure a smooth and quick transaction.

If following the inspection you still want to move forward, the seller’s attorney will send a deal sheet with basic terms (purchase price, party names, etc.) to your attorney, followed by a contract.

Once a mutually agreeable contract is arrived at, you’ll review and sign it with your attorney and send it to the seller, along with your down payment check. Note that the down payment is normally 5–10% of the purchase price. This money is held in the seller’s attorney’s escrow account, and gets applied toward the price at closing.

Once the contract returns to you signed by the seller, it’s binding.

This is when you should proceed with your mortgage application.

Normally you’ll have 45 days from the date of your contract to get a mortgage commitment, but this changes from contract to contract.

Check yours to know exactly how much time you have. Your attor-

ney should also order a title report upon receipt of the fully executed contract.

Once you receive a mortgage commitment from your bank, the bank’s underwriter approves your loan as “clear to close,” and the title is cleared, you can schedule the official closing.

KNOW THE TIMEFRAME Know what timeframe to expect for the process.

If you’re applying for a mortgage, the contract will likely be contingent upon you getting a mortgage commitment, which normally takes 45 days from contract, as mentioned.

The contract will also include an anticipated closing date, usually “on or about” 60 days from the date of the contract. It can be adjusted as you get closer, but is usually within a month of the date.

If you need more time (or less), address it in the contract. Make sure to let your attorney know, including any availability issues like an extended trip.

HOW WILL YOU TAKE TITLE? How you’re listed on the deed will determine your rights to the property; are you married? Engaged? Purchasing with friends or other family members? This not only affects your ownership interest in the property, it’s also a factor in determining to whom your share of the property goes after your death. Make sure to discuss this with your attorney.

Phillip Hornberger is an associate in Vishnick McGovern Milizio LLP’s Real Estate and Business & Transactional Law practices, with a focus on residential real estate. He can be reached at phornberger@vmmlegal.com and 516.437.4385 x104.

The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

GN

59

COMMUNITY NEWS

Northwell Health deploys telemedicine to Ukraine As Russian forces engage in a second offensive on the eastern border of Ukraine, Northwell Health is providing telemedicine support to aid these frontline regions.

Northwell’s Center for Global Health, in cooperation with the Ukrainian military, is launching telemedicine platforms to several undisclosed health centers where intense fighting has left millions displaced and thousands of civilians wounded and killed – stressing already taxed medical resources and providers in those areas.

“Our main objective during this crisis has been to be thoughtful to our approach and to do what’s sustainable and immediately needed,” said Dr. Eric Cioe Peña, Northwell’s director of the Center for Global Health. “What we don’t want to do in this situation is to duplicate and compete with the sustainable efforts already in place.”

In February, Northwell aligned with Doctors Without Borders, an organization with extensive experience in combat medicine and humanitarian relief across the globe. As part of the health system’s humanitarian efforts for Ukraine, Northwell collected more than $210,000 earmarked for Doctors Without Borders and shipped 18,000 pounds of medical supplies to the government.

“We’ve learned from our work in other parts of the world, sometimes sending personnel isn’t always the most effective because of the limited number of people you can send and the logistics it takes to get them there. To be able to leverage the skills and talents of our entire health system at a moment’s notice can make all the difference in saving lives,” Peña said.

Telemedicine is a unique area of opportunity for the health network to provide 24/7 consultations and a support mechanism that lends expertise to clinicians in the field caring for wounded soldiers and civilians.

It offers training to newly enlisted providers and education to battlefield-promoted physicians. The Northwell Centralized Transfer Center, which provides access to thousands of Northwell hospital-based specialists to patients in the New York region and beyond, will manage the day-to-day operation.

This initiative will roll out in two phases: Northwell will mobilize its telemedicine call center to funnel incoming requests to providers on a variety of readily accessible mobile platforms, anything from laptops to mobile devices and tablets.

The second phase will bring medical grade/ high fidelity telemedicine systems, ones routinely used in hospitals in the U.S., to these centers to collaborate on higher level cases in the operating room, to aid in combat trauma and other procedures.

PHOTO PROVIDED B Y NORTHWELL HEALTH

Michael Dowling, Northwell Health’s president and CEO stands in front of 28 pallets holding 18,000 pounds of medical supplies that Northwell sent to the Ukraine in March.

These systems can be controlled remotely by physicians in the U.S. to change their desired field of view for better patient assessment. These systems can also be vital in post-operative care.

“Over the course the of the war, there’s been an outpouring of support and relief from Northwell providers with a desire to help,” said Michael Dowling, Northwell’s president and CEO. “The Northwell Transfer Center, which played a significant role in load balancing of our hospitals during COVID, will develop this complex operation which will allow physicians in Ukraine to access the same world-renowned specialists that we offer to patients and physicians in the New York region.”

Northwell’s platform will allow seamless telemedicine, including telephonic and written translation, and provide support for a request for any specialist within the Northwell network.

Writing the telemedicine war theatre playbook Rising to the occasion during the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine helped provide care to patients across New York State at home, allowing providers to focus their efforts in the hospital, to care for the sickest patients with coronavirus.

“We’ve leveraged the versatility of our team during COVID and we see many of the same opportunities it can provide in this fight,” said Dr. Jonathan Berkowitz,who serves as the medical director for Northwell’s Center for Emergency Medicine. “This is a space where we’ve written the playbook. We’re going to do it again and will adapt this platform to serve the greatest need in a variety of situations.”

To contribute to the fund, visit Northwell’sCenter for Global Health.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

WILLIAM J ALLSBROOK Jr.

“William “William, liam you were always my hero hero. I wanted to be just like you, but I didn't play football or basketball like 'The Will', just didn't have your touch. I enjoyed watching you and was always proud to be your brother. Never does a day go by that I do not think of you. What would it be like to be able to call you. I have told my daughters about you letting me drive Mom and Dad’s new car around Tarboro although I was only 14 years old. October 2, 1970, Daddy’s birthday and the day that changed my life. You were my hero before Nam and you are still and one day I hope to walk with you again. I Love you. Mike”

Help us find a photo for every name on The Wall Each name on The Wall represents a family who was forever changed by their loss.

Help us find photos for the Wall of Faces to ensure that those who sacrificed all in Vietnam are never forgotten.

Vist www.VVMF.org/Faces to learn more

60 The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

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COMMUNITY NEWS

Donating nearly 100,000 seized counterfeit jackets Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly has announced the completion of a six-year-long effort to donate nearly 100,000 counterfeit jackets – seized during multiple investigations – to more than 160 charities across Long Island and the greater New York area.

During three investigations between 2015 and 2017, the NCDA and its law enforcement partners in the Nassau County Police Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations, seized nearly 100,000 counterfeit jackets from warehouses in Hicksville, Westbury, and Old Bethpage, intended for sale with a street value that – at the time – exceeded $3 million.

The NCDA has distributed the jackets to more than 160 nonprofits, charities, and volunteer groups for individuals in need.

The final 1,000 jackets were distributed to charities, including 600 jackets

that have been donated to St. Finbar Roman Catholic Church, which will be sent to Ukraine as part of humanitarian relief efforts in the region.

“After three seizures netted us nearly 100,000 counterfeit jackets, we were faced with a tough choice: send them to the incinerator to be destroyed like most counterfeit goods, or get creative, and find a way to put these jackets into the hands of people who needed them most,” said Donnelly. “With the help of our extraordinary partners, the jackets were given new life and donated to charities across Long Island and New York. Now, at the end of this journey with one final donation, we are glad to be able to provide some small measure of relief to the people of Ukraine.”

“After a lengthy multi-agency investigation was conducted, the most advantageous way for the counterfeit goods to be dispersed was to ensure that the deserving in our communities are taken care of,” said Nassau County

Police Department Commissioner Patrick J. Ryder. “Not only will these jackets keep them warm, it will bring smiles to their faces knowing that their law enforcement agencies care. With many of the jackets also being shipped to the Ukraine, it’s a great way for Nassau County to show our support.”

“In supporting neuro-diverse inclusion and employment opportunities through this donation, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office has strengthened the fabric of the entire county,” said Stanfort J. Perry, CEO, AHRC Nassau. “These machines provide a pathway for men and women with developmental disabilities to become meaningfully employed while supplying needed resources in our local Long Island economy.”

Seized counterfeit clothing was once destroyed by law, but in 2015, state forfeiture laws were amended to allow for counterfeit items, like clothing or jackets, to be donated to charity with

proper safety testing and the permission of the victim.

In 2015, NCDA, NCPD, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations seized more than 50,000 counterfeit jackets in a Hicksville warehouse, with a street value at the time in excess of $2 million.

State law requires not-for-profit recipients of donated counterfeit clothing to inspect or pay for the inspection of the clothing to ensure it is safe for consumers. The defendant was ordered, as part of his plea, to pay for the expense of the independent testing and the storage of the jackets earmarked for donation.

Two additional seizures, in Westbury and Old Bethpage in 2016 and 2017, respectively, brought the total number of seized counterfeit jackets to 98,000.

With the permission of the victim manufacturer, a project was initiated to alter the jackets to remove the fraudu-

lent labels using embroidery machines that were also seized during the investigations.

NCDA donated four seized machines to AHRC Nassau and Spectrum Designs, who trained their clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities to operate the embroidery machines and remove the counterfeit labels, ensuring the jackets were ready for charitable donation while providing their clients with valuable, transferable, occupational skills.

All jackets were safety tested and counterfeit trademarks were removed before donation to charitable organizations.

The NCDA thanks the many organizations that have assisted in these efforts, including our law enforcement partners, AHRC Nassau, Spectrum Designs, the recipient charities, veterans’ associations, local business owners and manufacturers, and NCDA staff who participated in the project.

Panel discussion to defend freedom under siege An unprecedented attack on our system of representative government is now underway across the country.

Increasingly, candidates that lose at the polls are refusing to concede their defeat and instead attack the integrity of the election.

In many states, politicians are replacing professional election ad-

ministrators with partisan hacks, undermining their bi-partisan mission.

And, some states have even empowered their legislatures to overturn the election results entirely. These trends have been widely reported in the news, but exposure has not been enough to stop this onslaught against our system of free elections.

In order to defend our free institutions of representative government, non-partisan religious and community groups have organized a public forum to publicize these threats to our freedom, and to suggest ways in which a concerned citizenry can defend our system from attack.

For example, the forum will pro-

pose “The Candidate’s Pledge” which commits a candidate to accept and affirm the legitimacy of our system of free elections. Signing the Pledge will show that the candidate – regardless of party — supports our system of representative government.

The forum, “Freedom Under Siege,” will take place on Thursday,

May 17 from 6:30-8 pm at: https:// us02web.zoom.us/j/85614666354 and is open to the public.

For further information, contact Dr. David Sprintzen at dsprintz@ gmail.com.Ethical Humanist Society is located in Garden City, with members across Nassau County; I live in Syosset.

JCC Hosts ‘Plant a Greenvale’s Mullen celebrates Tree’ with Kaplan Arbor Day at Eisenhower Park On Sunday, April 24, Senator Anna M. Kaplan and the Sid Jacobson JCC held an Earth Day event for kids and their families at the JCC in East Hills.

Kids were able to plant their own Eastern White Pine seedlings to take home

and make eco-themed arts and crafts projects. The “Miracle Musicians” entertained the crowd with a musical performance, and numerous volunteers from the JCC volunteered their time to make sure the event ran smoothly.

Greenvale resident Erin Mullen, a senior supervisor of Customer Outreach and Education for PSEG Long Island, celebrated the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day on April 29 by educating customers and helping to beautify Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.

Mullen was part of a team of PSEG Long Island community ambassadors who spent the day planting shade trees native to Long Island and the East Coast, including swamp white oak, red maple, blackgum and eastern white pine.

Another team of PSEG Long Island employees gathered outside the Lt. Michael Murphy Museum in West Sayville, planting flowering fruit trees in a historic orchard area to support local wildlife.

In addition, PSEG Long Island and the PSEG Foundation partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to give away energy-saving trees to the first 100 customers who visited the teams in Eisenhower Park and West Sayville to learn about where to plant trees so they do not interfere with power lines, how to save money through energy efficiency, and what financial assistance programs are available. When planted properly,

these energy saving trees can provide shade and wind protections that can reduce heating and cooling costs.

“Supporting the environment is an important way of improving life in the communities we serve,” said Peggy Keane, interim president and COO of PSEG Long Island. “We are thrilled to show our spirit of community service by planting trees in Eisenhower Park and West Sayville, honoring a 150-yearold American tradition and ensuring nature continues to inspire for generations to come. As Long Island’s own Walt Whitman so eloquently wrote, ‘The solid forests give fluid utterances, they do as well as most speaking, writing, poetry, sermons — or rather they do a great deal better.’”

“In Nassau County, we are known for the prevalence of trees, and we take pride in maintaining our suburban quality of life, and the environmental benefits these trees provide,” Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello said. “Thank you, PSEG Long Island, for helping us plant new trees in Eisenhower Park.

Not only do they provide health and energy benefits, but they literally keep us alive, providing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide.”

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PSEG LI

Erin Mullen

The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

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W LEGALS W LEGALS GN

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2022-23 Property Tax Report Card GREAT NECK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Budgeted 2021-22 (A)

Total Budgeted Amount, not Including Separate Propositions

Proposed Budget 2022-23 (B)

252,194,682

261,432,690

217,072,046

222,658,679

B. Tax Levy to Support Library Debt, if Applicable

0

0

C. Tax Levy for Non-Excludable Propositions, if Applicable 2

0

0

D. Total Tax Cap Reserve Amount Used to Reduce Current Year Levy, if Applicable

0

0

217,072,046

222,658,679

8,847,791

10,290,234

G. School Tax Levy Limit , Excluding Levy for Permissible Exclusions 3

210,001,896

214,082,074

H. Total Proposed School Year Tax Levy, Excluding Levy to Support Library Debt and/or Permissible Exclusions (E - B - F + D)

208,224,255

212,368,445

1,777,641

1,713,629

6,696

6,612

A. Proposed Tax Levy to Support the Total Budgeted Amount

1

E. Total Proposed School Year Tax Levy (A + B + C - D) F. Permissible Exclusions to the School Tax Levy Limit

I. Difference: (G - H); (negative value requires 60.0% voter approval) 2 Public School Enrollment Consumer Price Index

1.23%

4.70%

1

Include any prior year reserve for excess tax levy, including interest.

2

Tax levy associated with educational or transportation services propositions are not eligible for exclusion under the School Tax Levy Limit and may affect voter approval requirements.

3

For 2022-23, include any carryover from 2021-22 and exclude any tax levy for library debt or prior year reserve for excess tax levy, including interest.

Actual 2021-22 (D) Adjusted Restricted Fund Balance

Estimated 2022-23 (E)

55,535,707

52,862,406

Assigned Appropriated Fund Balance

3,184,205

8,614,076

Adjusted Unrestricted Fund Balance

10,062,568

10,431,164

3.99%

Adjusted Unrestricted Fund Balance as a Percent of the Total Budget

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The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

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63

COMMUNITY NEWS

What you need to Kaplan bill promoting electric cars know about copyright The Art Guild invited Matthew Kaplan, an attorney with more than 20 years of experience in copyright, trademark, and patent law to provide a tutorial on how artists and photographers can protect their creative property.

The lecture was extremely well attended, a clear indication that artists today are struggling to understand the delicate balance between sharing and disseminating their work on the internet while protecting against unauthorized copying of their artistic works.

Kaplan explained some basic concepts regarding intellectual property.

He discussed major legal cases regarding copyright law including a case currently pending in the Supreme Court.

Kaplan also offered advice on how and when artists should register their work so if the artists’ rights are infringed upon, the artist would qualify for statutory damages.

TAG Co-President Ilene Silberstein said, “The lecture provided me with very valuable advice. Moving forward, it will change how I approach cataloging my paintings. I’m also going to mark my work with the “C” copyright symbol.”

Marceil Kazickas, a TAG board member, found the lecture extremely informative. She said, “all artists will be watching that Supreme Court Case in October as it could lead to drastic changes in how art is used going forward.”

Kaplan is an attorney with the law firm of Abbott Bushlow & Schechner LLP, who practices in the areas of copyright, trademark, employment and personal injury law. Mr. Kaplan has represented clients ranging from photographers and small content li-

censing businesses to large entertainment/media companies. He helps clients both in securing rights in their works and enforcing or defending those rights in litigation.

Lisa Grossman, executive director of the Art Guild, said, “The lecture was totally engaging and interactive.

Everyone in the audience had questions, and scenarios they wanted to discuss.”

Grossman continued, “Listening to our members and responding to their needs is always our number one priority. At the beginning of the pandemic, we shifted to online classes and even online gallery exhibitions.

We now offer in-person and remote classes and workshops, an expanded number of children’s programs, and summer camp. This lecture was another example of our ability to recognize a need in the arts community, and our effort to fulfill that need.”

Members and non-members are always invited to attend programs at the Art Guild. The Art Guild is located at Nassau County’s Elderfields Preserve at 200 Port Washington Blvd., Manhasset, NY 11030. The Art guild offers classes and workshops for children and adults year-round.

Visit www.theartguild.org to learn more about upcoming classes and workshops. Artists and community members are invited to attend our upcoming exhibition “How Grows Your Garden” which will be on view from May 15 to June 4.

The gallery is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-5 p.m. while the exhibit is on view. The Art Guild is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing encouragement, education and a forum for the appreciation of the visual arts.

The state Senate recently approved legislation sponsored by state Sen. Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills) that requires the construction of certain parking facilities to be capable of supporting electric vehicle charging stations The bill passed was part of a package of legislation intended to combat climate change and promote environmental conservation.

Kaplan said “climate change has the power to devastate life on Long Island, and in order to combat it we must take decisive action and make real investments in the green infrastructure, technology, and jobs of the future. Ensuring that new parking structures are pre-wired for electric vehicle charging is a no-brainer, and it’s what needs to be done to ensure that our infrastructure will be ready to handle the growing number of electric vehicles on the road today and tomorrow.: The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which Kaplan co-sponsored, requires an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. With the transportation sector accounting for the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, reducing vehicle

emissions will be a vital component in achieving the goals of the CLCPA. One major impediment to the adoption of electric vehicles is by the general public is “range anxiety,” or the fear of running out of power on a drive and not being able to find a charging station. This legislation combats this problem by ensuring greater access to charging stations by drivers by requiring the installation of new electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Drucker ‘Harry Chapin Day’ bill Nassau County Legislator Arnold W. Drucker (D-Plainview) joined Harry Chapin’s son, Josh, and leaders of Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Food Bank at the organization’s Essential Market in Bethpage on Monday, May 2 to unveil legislation that would designate July 16 as Harry Chapin Day in Nassau County.

Not only would recognizing the acclaimed musician and humanitarian generate much-needed awareness about the prevalence of food insecurity in our region, Legislator Drucker’s proposal — which is cosponsored by the Legislature’s sevenmember minority caucus — would also direct the County to partner with Long Island Cares and local community organizations to host an annual, three-week long food drive starting on July 16. Donations will also be accepted for Baxter’s Pet Pantry, a Long Island Cares initiative focused upon delivering emergency pet food and supplies to struggling families.

“Harry Chapin distinguished himself as a musical storyteller whose gift for capturing the human condition in song made him one of our most beloved and relatable entertainers,” Drucker said. “His talents as a musical storyteller are only eclipsed by his desire to help others and his remarkable mission to end hunger here on Long Island and around the world. I can think of no better way of celebrating his life’s work than by supporting the cause he so passionately advocated for.”

“We are very grateful to Legislator Drucker for proposing that July 16th be commemorated as Harry Chapin Day in Nassau County. Long Islanders had great love and respect for the way that Harry used his celebrity statis and global platform to call for and to hunger during his lifetime,” Long Island Cares CEO Paule Pachter said. “Sadly, Harry’s lifetime ended on July 16, 1981 at the age of 38 but, he left the world his music, stories and one historic Long Island organization that continues his work

PHOTO PROVIDED B OFFICE OF LEGISLATOR ARNOLD W. DRUCKER

Pictured from left: Josh Chapin; Legislator Drucker; Long Island Cares CEO Paule Pachter; and Chief Government Affairs Officer Michael Haynes, pictured in Bethpage on Monday, May 2. and social advocacy four decades later.”

“I’m sure our beloved founder would be thrilled with this honor,” Long Island Cares Board President Dave Cassaro said. “Beyond that, he would be even more thrilled that Long Island Cares continues to fight to end not only food insecurity, but also the root causes of hunger.”

“Our founder, Harry Chapin, paved the way for socially conscious entertainers like we have today. He used his celebrity for good — and utilized his platform and following to shine a light on the interconnected issues of hunger and poverty both here in America and abroad,” Long Island Cares Chief Government Affairs Officer Michael Haynes said. “Realizing the importance of thinking globally but acting locally, he founded Long Island’s first food bank, Long Island Cares, Inc., in 1980. For all this and

so much more, he deserves every July 16th to be recognized as Harry Chapin Day.” “My dad really brought a relentless positive energy. When you think of him, he was inspirational — and he was inspired by love, and he was inspired by doing the right thing,” Harry’s son Josh Chapin said. “One of the last things I did in Nassau County with him was to go to the beginning of that [New York Islanders] Stanley Cup run… and I think about collective energy that is so beautiful in a sports arena and the inspiration that comes from sacrifice and working together and being greater than the sum of your parts. My dad really recognized that; Long Island Cares recognizes that; and I think it’s inherent in the Suffolk County Huntington community I grew up in, but also here in Nassau. I’d love to see that continue.”

64 The Great Neck News, Friday, May 6, 2022

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Heidi Spellman Realty, LLC Working Remotely

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