GC BZA Hears Monte Nido's Case

________________ _______________ GLEN COVE Residential & Commercial WATER Are you FILTRATION concerned about the quality of water in your home HERALD or business? Gazette Honoring L.I.’s Baking up some 61 Glen18/21 Head Road itc FG Real Estate Glen Head, NY 11545 holiday treats Professionals www.betterwaterny.comDemi Condensed Call For BLACK FRIDAY 1065183 Page 12 Pullout 516-801-0191Page xx Specials VOL. 28 NO. 47 NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2019 $1.00 Parking lot at issue at Monte Nido home Residents file appeal before BZA By RONNY REYES overcrowded, and that its [email protected] employees and patients were parking on local streets. Gallagh- The Monte Nido group home er refuted those claims, but said for people with eating disorders that the parking lot would help finished paving ease tensions its new parking between the home lot recently, nine and local resi- months after the e’ve never dents. center opened at 1 “We’ve never St. Andrews Lane W parked on parked on High- in Glen Cove. At a Highland Road or land Road or St. Nov. 7 meeting, Andrews Lane,” however, the Glen St. Andrews Lane. Gallagher said. Cove Board of “We’ve had to Zoning Appeals We’ve had to park park in public Ronny Reyes/Herald Gazette heard an argu- in public lots, and lots, and one of NORTH SHORE HIGH School junior Anthony Katok, right, presented a ceremonial knot board to ment by residents t h e n e a r b y Sgt. Leander Willett’s great-grandson Leander Willetts IV. t o re j e c t t h e one of the nearby c h u r c h e s h a s group home’s per- been a lovely help mit to build the churches has been during this tran- lot, and no deci- a lovely help during sition.” Honoring the Harlem sion was reached Monte Nido’s at that session. this transition. original applica- Jennifer Galla- tion to operate as g h e r, M o n t e JENNIFER a group home at Hellfighters in Glen Cove Nido’s chief the site was unan- development offi- GALLAGHER imously rejected cer, said the lot Monte Nido chief in February 2018 Residents preserve legacy of all-black regiment would be ready development officer by the Glen Cove for use in the City Council, but By RONNY REYES centuries. Among the Willetts descendants, the Hellfighters coming weeks. It the State Su- [email protected] who inspired the family’s fas- received little recognition measures 108 by 40 feet, and will preme Court later overturned cination with the past was the through the years. An all- have 12 parking spaces. that decision. Then, in Septem- Oyster Bay native Debra late Sgt. Leander Willett, Deb- black division in a segregated Residents have complained ber of this year, the city’s Board Willett, 59, has loved history Army, they could not fight ra’s grandfather, an Oyster that Monte Nido’s driveway was CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 since she was a student at Bay resident who served in with the U.S. military, and Oyster Bay High School. World War I in the U.S. instead fought with the Members of her family have Army’s 369th Infantry Regi- French army. always been history buffs, too, ment, also known as the Har- Richard Harris, a member she said. lem Hellfighters. of the North Shore Historical Willett’s roots on the North Although Leander’s valor Museum’s board of directors, Shore go back more than two was well known among his was captivated by the story of 2 November 21, 2019 — GLEN COVE HERALD GAZETTE 2019 — GLEN COVE 21, November 1064211 3 Glen Covers celebrate resident Hellfighters GLEN COVE HERALD GAZETTE — November 21, 2019 21, HERALD GAZETTE — November GLEN COVE CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE the Hellfighters when he learned that 40 men from Glen Cove had served in the regiment. When Harris reached out to Debra Willett in 2017 to learn more about them, they decided to work together to give the men the recognition they were due. Willett and her family, joined by dozens of local residents, gathered at the North Shore Historical Museum last Saturday to celebrate the memory of Leander Willett and the other North Shore Hellfighters. The event included a surprise announce- ment from U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who presented the Willett family with a long- sought posthumous Purple Heart for Leander. “This means so much,” Debra Willett said. “Thank you for honoring him.” “What we’re doing today is one small thing to right our past wrongs,” Suozzi said. “The family has waited for this for a long time.” Fighting no matter what Records at the North Shore Historical Museum’s Harlem Hellfighters exhibit, which opened in February, indicate that Leander Willett, born in 1895, enlisted in the Army in 1917. Back then, black soldiers were not permitted to fight among their white counterparts and faced rampant discrimination, given manual labor tasks rather than partici- Photos by Ronny Reyes/Herald Gazette pating in training. This came as a surprise to Willett and his fellow New York- U.S. REP. TOM Suozzi presented a Purple Heart to the family of the late Sgt. Leander Willett. ers, who, unlike the black soldiers from the South, had already received combat fearsome in battle that none other than National Museum in Washington, D.C. and rifle training. opposing German forces dubbed them the Harris and Amy Driscoll, the director Fred Nielsen, 73, a member of the Hellfighters, a sobriquet the men wore of the North Shore museum, said that Harlem Hellfighters Citizens, Soldiers with honor. They were also the first Allied the medals were just the beginning of a and Patriots Advisory Board, said that unit to cross the Rhine River and reach four-part plan to cement the legacy of black recruits in Glen Cove were Germany. the Hellfighters on the North Shore. A trained in the city by Benjamin Pratt, a As she accepted a citation from Suozzi, monument will be erected in their honor white community leader who had thanking the French for their embrace of at Glen Cove’s Monument Park, she said, served as one of the commanders in an the Hellfighters, Legendre said that the and work is under way to get the state to all-black infantry division during the soldiers are featured in exhibits all over create an annual day of remembrance Civil War. France. “These men didn’t know the for them. There are also plans for an “These men learned how to shoot country or people they were fighting for, educational program, with local schools with Pratt, and eventually joined the but they still fought and paid the ultimate including lessons on the soldiers. training camp in Harlem with other sacrifice,” she said. “You don’t know how “We hope to set up the educational pro- black soldiers,” Nielsen said. “They vividly we carry their memory.” gram by February for Black History were ready to fight, but their govern- Month,” Driscoll said. “It is our duty to ment wouldn’t let them.” Preserving their legacy make sure that they get their rewards for In April 1917, Col. William Hayward, of When he learned about the Hellfight- their heroic deeds.” Nebraska, sought to include the soldiers ers, Dominick Williams, 16, of Glen Cove, State Assemblyman Charles Lavine in the military’s Rainbow Division, which said he couldn’t help feeling a sense of and a representative of State Sen. Jim was made up of soldiers of all races. “But both pride and anger. He was amazed at Gaughran’s office agreed to work together he was told that black was not a color of the courage and fortitude of the soldiers, to promote legislation that would create a the rainbow,” Harris said. Nonetheless, he said, but also disappointed with how Harlem Hellfighters Remembrance Day in the Hellfighters — who had not yet been the men were treated and how little New York. Nassau County Legislator given that nickname — still managed to known was their legacy. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton added that she and make it to the front lines, thanks to the “They risked their lives for a country Glen Cove City Mayor Timothy Tenke French government, which welcomed that is still sick and ailing with racism, have reached an inter-municipal agree- them to fight alongside its own troops. and they were men of this beloved city, but ment to work to construct the monument, Although they came late to the war, the some of you are just learning about them,” and are currently requesting a grant for regiment spent 191 days in combat, longer DOMINICK WILLIAMS PAID tribute to the Williams said. “Don’t you feel cheated?” $75,000 from the county to build it. than any other U.S. unit, and lost 1,500 Harlem Hellfighters. In order to spread the word about the With federal, state and local officials men, the greatest casualty count of any Hellfighters, Williams asked Suozzi at last all working together to preserve and pro- unit. Leander Willett sustained injuries them as heroes, calling them the Men of Saturday’s event to apply for a Congres- mote the soldiers’ legacy, Debra Willett in a mustard gas attack and from an Bronze for their seemingly endless valor. sional Gold Medal for the soldiers. Suozzi said she could barely find the words to enemy bayonet before he was discharged. More than 170 of them were awarded the said he would do better. He plans to pres- convey her joy.

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