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All the news of the Five Towns
April 4, 2024
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With seawall comments in, what’s next? By PARKER SCHUG pschug@liherald.com
Courtesy Five Towns Kiwanis
The Kiwanis Club of the Five Towns celebrated its 80th anniversary at Frank’s Steaks in Rockville Centre. From left were former President Syd Mandelbaum, Vice President Yolanda Robano Gross, President Bill Bressant, former Gov. Joe Corace, Secretary Dr. Fred Seltzer and immediate past President Anthony Campanile.
Five Towns Kiwanis marks 80 years
Charitable group supports students with scholarships By MELISSA BERMAN mberman@liherald.com
For eight decades, the Kiwanis Club of the Five Towns has been an active community service organization, helping to support college students, hospitalized children, police officers and breast cancer survivors. The club, established in 1944, celebrated its 80th anniversary at the organization’s regular meeting place, Frank’s Steaks in Rockville Centre, on March 21. Charitable donations are always on the club’s front burner, donating tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships to students, as well as aiding with senior citizen projects, and supporting the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center Foundation, a program at Cohen Children’s Medical Center and Stony Brook University Hospital, a level 1 trauma center. “The whole meaning of the Kiwanis is the charitable affairs, helping people by supporting different charities in the community,” Ronnie Lanzilotta, a club member since 1960, said.
Even throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the group held meetings via Zoom to stay in touch with its membership and sent scholarship money through the mail to recipients. Since the club wasn’t able to host any in-person events, the organization still made sure to give back to those in need, including supporting food pantries, handing out scholarships, as well as aiding senior centers, the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence and the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC in Cedarhurst. “Even through Covid, we did not miss a beat,” Dr. Fred Seltzer, the club’s secretary and a 43-year member, said. “We gave out our scholarships. We still gave out the money that we planned to do, even though it was a little tough for those two years.” Syd Mandelbaum, a past president and a club member since 1980, said, “One of the great things our club is known for is scholarship night. We give scholarships out to deserving students… For the last 80 years, we’ve given out nearly a million dollars in scholarConTinueD on PAGe 15
The construction of a seawall on the Lawrence High School campus has grown more complicated as it has become clear that deter mining the impact of community pushback to the proposal is weeks, if not months, away. “Next step is all the comments during the comment period need to be answered for,” Donald Caetano, external affairs director for Region 2 of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said. “All the comments need to be adjudicated and worked through. We got more comments than we normally get for a project. We have to do our due diligence going through that with the subapplicant, the school district.” T he Cedarhurst villa g e board held a public hearing on March 14 to give residents a chance to express their opinions on the proposal for the seawall made the Lawrence school district. Many attendees voiced concerns about the potential flooding in that part of the village that could occur after the construction because, they said,
the high school property would be protected from rising floodwater during a stor m, but homes in the immediate area would not. Some suggested that the high school be relocated, but district Superintendent Ann Pedersen said that was an educationally unsound idea, and that such an under taking would not benefit students. The seawall would surround the campus, on Reilly Road in Cedarhurst, which borders Motts Creek, and was flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. FEMA funding would cover a large portion of the $75 million cost, Lawrence Board of Education President Murray Forman said previously. FEMA extended its public comment period on the project from March 9 to 30. Cedarhurst Mayor Benjamin Weinstock said that the comments from the hearing, as well as additional comments submitted to the village by email, had been sent to FEMA. “The seawall hearing came to a head on the 24th” of March, Weinstock said. “We got all the paperwork in from the different people that wantConTinueD on PAGe 14