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Friday, January 13, 2023
Vol. 83, No. 2
Town honors Vietnam veteran with MLK medal
Civic Assn. launches program to install license plate readers BY GEORGE HABER
The Oyster Bay Town Board recently presented the Town of Oyster Bay Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award to retired United States Army Staff Sergeant Arturo Jerome Edwards of Farmingdale for his service to the nation and community. BY RIKKI MASSAND
At the January 10th meeting of the Oyster Bay Town Board, Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino explained that the Town will be celebrating Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday January 16, as well as Black History Month this February. He noted this will be a “much larger, educational and informative” commemoration than previously organized by the Town government.
One of the community members Saladino and the Town Board members welcomed at the meeting was U.S. Army veteran, Staff Sergeant Arturo Jerome Edwards, who was presented with the Town’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award. Edwards was recognized with a loud round of applause at this week’s meeting, the first Town government meeting of 2023. Arturo Jerome Edwards served in the Army for two
years and another 16 years active in the U.S. Army Reserve. He achieved the rank of staff sergeant E-6 and fought in Vietnam, serving there from May 1966 to November 1967. Supervisor Saladino noted how difficult those years of the Vietnam War were. Following his Vietnam experience Edwards became a member of the NYPD, serving with distinction. Saladino said this was just the beginning of a commitment to serSee page 6
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The Birchwood civic association has launched a fundraising campaign to install twenty license plate readers at ten entrances to the East Birchwood community. Following up a discussion by Second Precinct police officers in October on crime in Jericho, the BCA Board voted to contribute up to $35,000 for funding the program, if the community donates a marching amount of funding. “If we cannot get to our goal [of $35,000],” said BCA President Roy Chipkin, “everyone gets their money back.”
Proponents of LPRs around the country say the devices help deter neighborhood crime. But critics of the program say the results have been mixed. Second Precinct police officers who addressed BCA members in a September meeting agreed that the readers can play a significant role in tracking down lawbreakers who enter and leave the neighborhood. BCA President Chipkin said “Because of technology, license plate readers are definitely the wave of the future” in crime deterrence. Chipkin is asking residents of East Birchwood to make donaSee page 6
JHS theater program chosen to perform popular musical BY GARY SIMEONE
It will be a March to remember as the Jericho High School theater program was recently chosen as the only program in the state to perform the full Disney tour-version of Frozen the Musical. The school was selected by the National Educational Theater Association as part of “The United States of FrozenLove is an Open-door” contest. The performances will take place from March 9–12 in the high school’s Lit-
tle Theater. Theone Rinaudo, theater director at Jericho, said she was on vacation in the Cayman Islands with her familywhen her daughter informed her about the upcoming competition. “My daughter Stephanie, who usually helps with the choreography in our musicals, told me about this competition, which was being put together by the Educational Theater Alliance,” said Rinaudo. “We found out on a Friday night See page 6
Sophomore selected for showcase PAGE 18 Town chorus seeks new members PAGE 8