Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park
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Friday, July 24, 2020
Vol. 69, No. 30
N E W H Y D E PA R K
NHP-BASED FIRM KEY CURRAN, SUOZZI NASSAU MOURNS IN SILVER SENTENCING SEEK FINANCIAL AID JOHN LEWIS PAGE 9
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Schools feel heat to change Native mascots Online petition has garnered nearly 1,900 signatures advocating change BY R O S E W E L D ON AND ROBERT PELAEZ
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SEWANHAKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
A Sewanhaka High School student dressed as an Indian, the school’s mascot, at their 2017 homecoming parade. The district is coming under fire for their mascot, seen as insensitive to Native Americans
Two North Shore school districts with Indian mascots are being urged to change them to avoid offending Native Americans. The Manhasset and Sewanhaka school districts are both receiving heat from community members and alumni to retire the mascots as the Washington Redskins football team announced that it would retire its name, which Native American groups have called a racial slur, and logo. A Change.org petition for Manhas-
set to change its mascot now has nearly 1,900 signatures. Commenters on the petition refer to the Indian mascot as outdated and “racist.” “Native American have been abused and mocked enough for centuries,” one signer wrote. “Why would we want this?” One alumnus called the mascot “disrespectful,” and remembered getting into “an intense argument” with her senior class after one suggested “dressing up as Indians” for a spirit day. “Despite trying to explain the racContinued on Page 37
Clinton Martin lawsuit moving ahead BY E LL I OT W E L D A lawsuit that Gramercy Group, a contractor that renovated the Clinton G. Martin Park pool, brought against the Town of North
Hempstead was delayed by the pandemic, but now is moving forward with depositions, a lawyer for the plaintiff said. Michael McKenna, who is representing Gramercy in the Bank-
ruptcy Court case, said he has finished taking a deposition from an engineer, James Ahrens, who worked at a company called LiRo and was in charge of overseeing the project at the pool in New Hyde Park. He plans to take the depositions of former North Hempstead Commissioner of Public Works Paul DiMaria and the engineer who designed the
project. McKenna said he believes that will be all the depositions needed. Ahrens said in his deposition that the town had not consulted him before declaring Gramercy to be in default on the Martin pool project, a move which contributed to the contractor declaring bankruptcy. He also said changes were made to the original contract for
the project and Gramercy was told to go ahead with these changes, but the typical process for making such changes through Ahrens was not followed. McKenna said he believes one problem was the town running out of funds to complete the project. McKenna said the town has brought a motion to withdraw the matter from Bankruptcy Court, which he Continued on Page 37
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