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Friday, November 22, 2024

Vol. 101, No. 47

Ready To Sell ?

Call me for re that move yo sults u!

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Erin Fleischm

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Hymn Festival PAGE 8 n Tree Lighting PAGE 12

NY STATE CHAMPIONS

EAB member reviews Village’s Safe Fields Initiative BY RIKKI MASSAND

The Garden City boys varsity soccer team captured the first ever State Championship title in school history with a dominating performance over the past weekend. See pages 58-59

GCPD Commissioner: Safety initiative includes lights, cameras BY RIKKI MASSAND At the Village Board of Trustees’ meeting held on Thursday, November 7th, Garden City Police Commissioner Kenneth Jackson presented a report on a proactive safety initiative aimed at curbing incidents of

rowdy behavior and suspicious activities in a few locations around the Seventh Street/ Franklin Avenue business district. The plan focuses on enhancing public safety in Garden City’s shopping and dining hub. A recent police study reviewed several locations, including

alleyways between Seventh Street, to Village Parking Field 7N – directly behind Dunkin Donuts, just east of the Key Food rear entrance, and the little path behind Pure Barre, between J. McLoughlin Clothing and Coquette. Jackson collaborated with See page 44

At the November 13 meeting of Garden City’s Environmental Advisory Board (EAB), members highlighted ongoing efforts to maintain safe, sustainable public recreation areas despite pressure to lift the village’s ban on chemical treatments for athletic fields, particularly at St. Paul’s. The discussion examined quality-of-life concerns, including parents’ worries about children’s exposure to pesticides, alongside challenges faced by sports groups using worn and uneven fields. The Village of Garden City’s pesticide-free field treatment protocol was the first in Nassau County, initiated between 2016 and 2020. EAB member Dr. Kelly Smith has been a leading advocate for the initiative, which began nearly a decade ago. Smith, along with resident Colleen Ciullo, launched the “Go Green with Kelly & Colleen” series of articles in the Garden City News to raise awareness about the dangers of chemical treatments. Their efforts ultimately led the Village Board of Trustees to adopt an all-organic treatment policy. “I was really proud of Garden City as we were the first municipality in the Town

of Hempstead and in Nassau County to move towards a safer and healthier field treatment program, by promising to eliminate the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides on our village playing fields,” Smith said. Immediately preceding Dr. Smith’s report, Program Coordinator Jordan Christensen from the Citizens Campaign for the Environment gave a presentation on “Health and Environmental Impacts of Artificial Turf and PFAS Chemicals, and How We Can Protect Our Community.” Christensen’s insights complemented Smith’s updates on the ongoing Safe & Healthy Fields initiative, which faces pushback from some youth sports groups advocating for limited pesticide use. This year, Garden City applied a pre-emergent chemical for crabgrass control for the first time in over four years, but only in areas under renovation. Smith expressed gratitude for the presentation, and thanked Christensen for explaining the PFAS in artificial turf as it relates to health and safety for all field users. At an EAB meeting in September, the recently-retired former Superintendent of See page 36

Rotary to present Comm. Service Awards PAGE 20 Trojans storm past Cyclones in playoffs PAGES 52-53