________________ OYSTER BAY _______________
HERALD Exhibit explores Black whalers
Event for lovers of water sports
Bayville man to lead parade
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VOL. 125 NO. 9
FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 2, 2023
$1.00
Youthful poets craft special valentines By LAURA LANE llane@liherald.com
Courtesy OBEN School District
THE WINNERS OF Raynham Hall’s Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest gathered outside the museum with educators and administrators from the Oyster Bay-East Norwich School District.
Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District teachers, a principal and the superintendent came to Raynham Hall Museum’s Education Center on Feb. 13 to celebrate 10 young poets. The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade winners of the museum’s annual Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest, which included students from East Norwich’s James H. Vernon School, read their entries to a room filled with family members, friends and poetry lovers. “The Vernon teachers and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Historic oyster boat Ida May nears end of restoration By WILL SHEELINE wsheeline@liherald.com
Residents of Oyster Bay are used to seeing the harbor filled with boats. By in early May, however, vessels will be sharing the water with a reconstruction of the historic oyster boat the Ida May. The original Ida May was built in 1925, and was part of the Bayville-based Frank M. Flowers & Sons’ oyster fleet. One of the first oyster dredges to be powered by an engine, the ship worked local waters for roughly 75 years before being retired. The ship was donated to the WaterFront Center by Flowers &
Sons in 2003, but was in too poor condition to be repaired. Starting in 2009, a local group, the Christeen Oyster Sloop Preservation Corporation, which had previously helped restore the historic oyster boat the Christeen, worked with local politicians and raised money to build a full-scale replica of the Ida May. Jack Hoyt, the secretary of the Christeen Corp. board, explained that the group was founded in 1992 for the sole purpose of refitting the Christeen. When members heard about the Ida May’s situation, however, they knew they had to help. “Our mission is to preserve
O
ur mission is to preserve the tradition of wooden boat building in Oyster Bay.
JACK HOYT
secretary, Christeen Corp. the tradition of wooden boat building in Oyster Bay,” Hoyt said. “Having the project take this long at least allowed us to have a continued exhibit open to the public, so they could see that traditional boat building meth-
ods work.” The Ida May Project has been funded largely by government and charitable grants. State Sen. Carl Marcellino secured several grants that allowed the Christeen company to take the measurements of the original ship and prepare initial sketches and drawings, while the musician Billy Joel provided another
grant via the Main Street Association. One of the unique aspects of the Ida May Project is that many of those working on it are volunteers. They are mostly retired residents of Oyster Bay, and they include some former Flowers & Sons employees. They work in shifts alongside professional CONTINUED ON PAGE 5