Nassau
HERALD All the News of the Five Towns
Honoring those lost on 9/11
Handing out school supplies
chabad rabbi at historic signing
Page 4
Page 9
Pages 18 and 22
Vol. 97 No. 38
SEPTEMBER 17 - 23, 2020
$1.00
Election victors By JEFFREY BESSEN and MATTHEW FERREMI jbessen@liherald.com, mferremi@liherald.com
Jeffrey Bessen/Herald
PRoPER SocIAl dISTANcINg and mask wearing outside the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence in May.
Covid-19 remains a threat
Vigilance still needed — second wave coming? By JEFFREY BESSEN jbessen@liherald.com
With schools and business reopening roughly six months after the coronavirus pandemic shut down the area economy, and residents now regularly venturing out — albeit with face masks and frequently sanitized hands — local physicians are warning
that Covid-19 remains a genuine threat. Dr. Marc Sicklick, a Lawrence resident with a Cedarhurst practice who specializes in allergies, asthma and immunology, recently wrote a three-page letter that was emailed by the Village of Lawrence to residents. Sicklick noted that there had been an uptick of cases in Nassau
County and in the Five Towns, and said he was joining the nearly unanimous chorus of doctors who are “warning and begging people” to take the pandemic seriously. “My take is that we have to get across that this is not over,” Sicklick told the Herald. “There is a prevalent feelContinued on page 12
After all the sniping, the political gamesmanship and a lawsuit, incumbent Lawrence Mayor Alex Edelman was overwhelmingly returned to office for another two-year term, 1,127 to 178, in Tuesday’s election, defeating challenger Trustee Daniel Goldstein, who will remain on the board. The two board seats were captured by Eli Kutner (920 votes) and Paris Popack (871), who ran with Edelman. The other trustee candidates were incumbent Uri Kaufman (268), Joel M. Preminger (200), J. Lawrence Kolodny (160) and Bruce Backman (104). The term is two years. Village Justice Gary Mandel won his first four-year term with 1,096 votes. His opponent, Shrage Rokosz, had 176. Along with the record field of 10 candidates, Tuesday’s Lawrence election turnout was the highest in many years, according to officials. The line to vote stretched out the doors of the Lawrence Yacht & Country Club clubhouse, with up to 200 people waiting to vote at 9 p.m., when the polls closed, and voting was not completed until nearly 10 p.m. Eleven candidates vied for six board seats in Atlantic Beach and Hewlett Harbor. The six incumbents won. All terms are two years, with the exception of Cedarhurst, which has four-year terms. Incumbent Atlantic Beach Mayor George Pappas defeated his predecessor, Stephen R.
Mahler by a vote count of 314 to 213. Incumbent Trustees Linda Baessler and Edward Sullivan won re-election with 301 and 280 votes, respectively. Challenger Danielle Struss received 240 votes. The vote count was not completed by press time in Hewlett Harbor. Incumbent Mayor Mark Weiss and Trustees Tom Cohen and Kenneth Kornblau were being challenged by Ron Austin, David Mosayov and Kim Volman. Cedarhurst Trustees Dan Plaut and Myrna Zisman both ran unopposed and were re-elected to four-year terms. Plaut received 218 votes, and Zisman received 215. In Hewlett Bay Park, incumbent Mayor Steven Kaufman and Trustee Gail Rubel won re-election with 87 and 82 votes, respectively. Trustee candidate Dr. Antonio Oliviero was also elected, with 75 votes. Oliviero succeeds Trustee Joel Schinder, who stepped down. There were two write-in votes for Stella Gershfeld. Ross Epstein, mayor of Hewlett Neck, and incumbent Trustees Aron Schnell and Steven Hochberg were each re-elected with 39, 38 and 37 votes, respectively. Woodsburgh Trustee Carl Cayne (9) won his ninth term. David Perl (11) was elected to his first term, replacing incumbent trustee Barry Platnick, who stepped down. Lawrence resident Frank Argento and Avi Fertig, of Woodmere, were re-elected and elected, respectively, as commissioners of Sanitary District 1.