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HERALD Studying art and the natural world
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VOL. 127 NO. 15
APRIL 11 - 17, 2025
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Sagamore Hill tour hours cut causes concern than Parker told the Herald that the park service’s communications office was handling A reduction in public tour media inquiries about all hours at the Sagamore Hill national sites. T he NPS’s National Historic Site, the for- Region 1 office, which includes mer home of President Theo- Long Island, did not respond to dore Roosevelt, has drawn con- requests for comment. A s s e m bly m a n C h a rl e s cern from local officials and Lavine, whose discommunity leaders, trict includes Sagawho say the cuts more Hill, said the threaten not just site’s historical and local tourism but the s y m b o l i c i m p o rpreservation of tance far outweighs American values. the budget cuts drivSagamore Hill ing the change. drew more than “Sagamore Hill is 130,000 visitors in a special place for 2023 and added an me, and for many estimated $12 milother Americans,” lion to the local econLavine said. “My omy, according to a p a re n t s t o o k m e 2024 National Park CHARLES LAVINE there in 1955, when I Service report. But Assemblyman was 8 and it had just in March it reduced opened as a public its house tours from four days a week to just three facility. We never forgot that. It with a later start time for the is, to me, hallowed ground.” Lavine, who wrote a letter of tours (originally offered from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., now starting at protest to President Trump 1 p.m.), due to staffing shortages about the cutbacks, said the in the NPS. The change comes reduction in hours amounted to amid broader budget con- “a wholesale butchering of our straints, including the elimina- national economy,” and accused tion of more than 1,000 posi- the Trump administration and its allies of prioritizing partisan tions across the agency. Asked to comment, Saga- interests over historical presermore Hill Superintendent JonaCONTINUED ON PAGE 2
By WILL SHEELINE
wsheeline@liherald.com
Courtesy Rob Rich
Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joe Saladino listened to community members at a town meeting about extending a moratorium on a proposed lithium storage facility in Glenwood Landing.
Residents want moratorium extended They want to lengthen lithium battery storage ban By LUKE FEENEY lfeeney@liherald.com
Before the start of the second public hearing at the Town of Oyster Bay’s meeting Tuesday morning, Town Supervisor Joe Saladino looked out at the crowd in Town Hall North and said, “Please put your hand up if you are here in support of the continuation of the moratorium.” All but two hands rose. Several residents from Roslyn, Glen Head, Sea Cliff and other North Shore communites raised a variety of concerns about proposed lithium battery plants on Long Island. They also weighed in against the Propel NY Energy project and the Renewable Action Through Project Interconnection and Deployment, or RAPID, act. Despite the frustrations expressed by residents about the Propel NY project and the RAPID act, the topic of the public hearing
during the board meeting was specifically the extension of a moratorium on battery energy storage systems, nearly one year after it was approved. The moratorium is set to expire at the end of April, and the board will vote in May on whether or not to extend it. It will remain in effect in between its expiration and the May vote. Michael Montesano, the special counsel to the town attorney’s office, told the board that there would be no changes to the current moratorium, which prohibits the processing or approval of land use applications for battery energy storage systems while it is in effect. Montesano added that the town board was in “essentially the same condition” as it was a year ago, with no update from the state on how to maintain the battery storage systems or fight potential fires from it. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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agamore Hill is a special place for me, and for many other Americans.