________________ LONG BEACH _______________
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Vol. 37 No. 30
Annual parade honors veterans
Skudin delivers lifeguard gear
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July 23 - 29, 2026
$1.00
Lions celebrate a century of service in L.B. added, referring to the hospital that operated on East Bay Drive from 1922 until Hurricane The City of Long Beach was Sandy forced its shutdown in founded in 1922. Just a few 2012. “They’ve done a lot of good years later, what would become one of its longest-operating for the city, a lot of good for the civic organizations — the Long community,” City Manager Beach Lions Club — was estab- Daniel Creighton said of the Lions. “It’s amazing. lished, and it has I think they’ve done continued to congreat things.” tribute to the resiClub President dents of Long Allen Schwartz Beach, Island Park reminded the audiand the surroundence of the organiing areas for the zation’s continuing past century. impact on the comLast Saturday, munity: offering more than 200 peoscholarships to area ple gathered at the students; an annual Lawrence Yacht and pre-Thanksgiving Country Club, in food drive at local Lawrence, to join DANIel supermarkets, the Lions for their CReIgHToN which has helped centennial celebra- City manager nearly 500 families; tion, marking the and one of its most club’s founding in 1926 and its 100 years of chari- significant fundraisers — teaming up with the Smithtowntable service since then. “The Lions Club helped based Guide Dog Foundation to build the first library in Long sponsor nearly 90 guide dogs Beach,” recently elected Dis- and service dogs to help vetertrict Governor Michael Robin- ans and blind or visually son noted. “We also supported impaired people. “We breed, raise, train and the hospital when it was there — over a million dollars given place our dogs. Their funds go to Long Beach Medical Center towards all of that,” Donna over the years,” Robinson Continued on page 10
By CHRIS ColuCCI
ccolucci@liherald.com
T
Susan Grieco/Herald
ed eaton served as Long Beach city manager for nearly 25 years in three separate terms from the 1980s to the 2000s. the policies he enacted pulled the city out of finanical trouble.
Ed Eaton, city manager for nearly 25 years, dies at 83 By CHRIS ColuCCI ccolucci@liherald.com
“There was a big election in Long Beach in 1979,” former City Councilman Roy Tepper recalled. “A coalition government with Republicans and Democrats was elected. The city was at a low point then. But in January of 1980, when they took office, everything really changed when they hired Ed as city manager.” Tepper was referring to Ed Eaton, who went on to serve as city manager for nearly 25 years in three separate terms, from 1980 to 1999, briefly in 2001, and once more from 2006 until he retired in 2008.
Eaton died on July 16, at age 83, after a long illness. In a 2015 interview with the Herald, Eaton described the early 1980s as the period of his career he was most proud of. “To me, it was the best of times,” he said. “Because [for] four or five years there, all of the efforts were going toward saving the town, and not party politics.” When he first became city manager, Long Beach was in the midst of a significant financial crisis that had begun over a decade earlier. In 1980 the city earned all of $20,000 on its investments. Just two years later, after Eaton helped to implement a range of fiscal Continued on page 11
hey’ve done a lot of good for the city, a lot of good for the community.