________________ _______________ GLEN COVE CALL TO GET A QUOTE AUTO • HOME • LIFE We are open regular hours during this time. HERALD Personal service for all to all our readers of the Christian faith Gazette your insurance needs. Celeste Gullo Infections as of 516-466-2111 Dec. 21 Toys for Tots 6018/21 Glen Head itc Rd FG 1,727 Glen Head Infections as of a huge success [email protected] Condensed Dec. 14 Photo by Lauren Gallery Photography Wishing You A Safe & COMMUNITY UPDATE 1,635 Page 7 Page xx Happy Holiday Season! $1.00 DECEMBER 24- 30, 2020 VOL. 29 NO. 521111024 City Council rejects director salary increase By JENNIFER CORR yea. The city’s $64.3 million 2021 [email protected] budget, passed on Oct. 27, includ- ed the layoffs of Belyea and On Tuesday, at the last Glen other city employees in the new Cove City Council meeting of year. the year, council members voted Tenke made a motion toward 4-3 against approv- the beginning of ing an additional the almost two-and- $10,000 in salary for a-half-hour virtual Glen Cove Youth just don’t meeting to discuss Bureau Director Tsirkas’s proposed Spiro Tsirkas next Isee how we salary increase. In year. the 2021 budget, his Councilwoman could do this salary was upped Marsha Silverman responsibly from $72,480 to and Councilmen $90,000, reflecting Gaitley Stevenson- at this time, an increase in Mathews, Rocco workload, Tenke Courtesy the Waters family when we’re in Totino and John said. But the direc- Slip-slidin’ away P e r r o n e vo t e d the financial tor’s salary needed ag ainst raising to be increased fur- Days after the nor’easter, Glen Covers Aidan, front, and Dan Waters, 14 and 10, spent hours play- Tsirkas’s $90,000 situation we’re in. ther, the mayor rea- ing in the snow, the first of the season. More photos, Page 4. salary. Councilwom- soned, because it en Danielle Fugazy MARSHA should have been Scagliola and Dr. SILVERMAN $100,000. Eve Lupenko Fer- “There is a tre- rante, and Mayor Glen Cove City mendous amount Tim Tenke, voted Councilwoman of work, between North Shore residents plan for the raise. the camps and the To consolidate sports run by the departments to save money, the Youth Bureau, and now the Rec- to lobby for local skate park city parks will be managed by reation Department, that I the Department of Public Works believe the salary would be a in 2021, and recreation will be proper compensation for the By JENNIFER CORR where my father didn’t believe in demic, they had extra time on managed by the Youth Bureau. amount of work that he [will be] [email protected] cable television, I read all about their hands, and they wanted to Tsirkas will remain its director, doing,” Tenke said. “Nothing has skating in magazines. I was just learn how to skate. But much to and take on the duties of Parks Jason Lane spent much of his a Long Island kid that enjoyed their father’s disappointment, Department Director Darcy Bel- CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 youth, in the 1980s and early ’90s, skating.” there were no skate parks in skateboarding in the streets of Today Lane, 42, lives in Glen Glen Cove or the surrounding Port Washington, which didn’t Cove. He often tells his children, area to take them to. win him and his friends many Devin, 12, Drayer, 10, and Stokely, “They’d always see the skate- fans among fellow residents. 7, who live in Locust Valley with board paraphernalia I have, and “There were no skate parks their mother, Emily Lane, about there was a skate park built in anywhere on Long Island,” Lane his skateboarding days when he Bethpage,” Lane said. “My kids said. “Coming from a household was their age. During the pan- CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2 ADVERTORIAL Ask The Expert: A local skate park would benefit the MOLLY DEEGAN North Shore’s children, residents say CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE said, ‘Hey, Dad, can we go there?’ and I said sure. So I bought them some skate- boards and took them skating, and they took a massive liking to it.” Bethpage’s skate park was one of just a handful in Nassau County that were open during the pandemic, so it got crowded, Lane said. And while he was happy to see The Diversity Wave - lifting all ships that Long Island had skate parks for Let’s just put it out there—this has enthusiasts like him and his boys, he been an awful year. Yet I see light and knew that a crowded skate park can be a December 24, 2020 — GLEN COVE HERALD GAZETTE 2020 — GLEN COVE December 24, hope at the end of what feels like a dangerous one. long and VERY challenging tunnel. “Most of the parks allow BMX [bikes] So, on that note, here is my parting and inline skating as well as scooters and holiday thought as we mercifully say skateboards,” Lane said. “You have BMX goodbye to 2020. It used to be that kids crashing into skaters, and a 60-pound the true hubs of diversity were our big bike, no matter how slow it’s going, is still cities – New York, Los Angeles, San a big deal.” Francisco. But as someone who was The crowding at some of the parks, born and raised on the North Shore of Lane said, “got to the point that they’re LI, and is raising a family here, I have not even fun anymore because there’s just to say that has changed. Our local communities are now more diverse too many people.” And he began to see than ever, and this is fantastic news more and more accidents. because a diverse community truly is a A solution, he believes, is to build a stronger community. skate park for North Shore residents. He’d particularly like to see one in Glen Cove. In real estate, I am always meeting So he took to the “Glen Cove Neighbors” people from different cultures and Facebook page to see if anyone else Courtesy Jason Lane backgrounds, all seeking the same agreed, and found several residents who DEVIN AND DRAYER Lane, 12 and 10, have spent much time during the pandemic learn- thing—a place to settle and raise a did. ing how to skate. family. A place to belong. Yes, these “This town doesn’t have much in the are polarized times, but I am also way of entertainment for the kids,” said ure out how to use that support to achieve idents of Sea Cliff, Glen Head, Greenvale, witnessing just the opposite— Glen Cover Janine M. Grech, adding that our goals.” Glen Cove, Locust Valley and the sur- connection through common needs Fellow North Shore resident Alex rounding area. Once the petition reaches and goals—the things we all seek as she’d love to see a skate park in the city to human beings, especially when it take her daughter to. “The parks are Greenberg is also working to get a skate the 1,000-signature goal, he plans to take it comes to creating a home. All you beautiful, but Morgan Park, you can’t ride park built in the area. His goal is to see to the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County have to do is look at the marketplace your bike there or skate.” one at Tappan Beach, a Town of Oyster Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton of Glen for evidence of this. Multi- The closest skate park is one in Port Bay park in Glenwood Landing. He pub- Cove, State Sen. James Gaughran of generational households are on the rise Washington — which closed indefinitely lished a petition on change.org, and so far Northport and Town of Oyster Bay for the first time in decades. Friends because of the pandemic — and other it has collected almost 1,000 signatures. Supervisor Joseph Saladino. and chosen families are buying houses skate parks like Bethpage’s are 40-min- “Skateboarding has been a part of my “I’m for anything that enriches peo- together here in the burbs. Some utes drives, Lane said. If he can’t per- life since I was six years old,” Greenberg ple’s lives, and a skate park would be just buyers are upgrading to bigger spaces suade the City of Glen Cove to build one, wrote on the petition. “It has had an that,” Grech said. “If you build it, they to accommodate elderly parents. The he added, he will try to get it done private- incredibly positive influence on my life will come.” percentage of single, female first-time ly, with the help of nonprofits or business- and directly gave me opportunities that To sign Greenberg’s petition, go to homebuyers is second only to married es looking to sponsor or franchise a skate made me a better person.” www.change.org/p/town-of-oyster-bay- couples, and the percentage of park. “I’ve definitely got a lot of support,” Greenberg said he wanted to share the build-a-skatepark-at-tappen-beach. minority, first-time home buyers he said. “It’s just about now trying to fig- positive impact skating can have with res- continues to rise. This is all very interesting and noteworthy! So as 2020 begins to fade into our Northwell Health’s Office of Academic Affairs launches new rearview mirrors, let’s look towards 2021 with positivity and hope in app to deliver teaching tips to trainees and faculty building our communities to be stronger and kinder.