Proposing a Covid-19 testing center

With the number of Covid-19 cases still rising in the Five Towns, several civic leaders are pushing New York state to set up a testing site at the Five Towns Community Center in Lawrence.

On April 8, the center’s board liaison, Pete Sobol, sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, writing, “The Five Towns Community Center and its board would like to be considered for the next testing facility in Nassau County.” Sobol has served the center in several capacities, including board chairman and executive director. The letter, he said last Friday, was in the hands of close advisers to the governor.

Sobol noted that the community center would be easily accessible to people who lack mobility in areas like Inwood and North Lawrence, where a sizable portion of the population is African-American and Latino. At press time, Woodmere, which has a large Orthodox Jewish population, had 318 cases of Covid-19. Lawrence and North Lawrence had 151, and Inwood — which, according to the 2010 Census is the poorest community on Long Island — had 119. Roughly 14 percent of Inwood’s 10,300 residents live below the federal poverty level — an income of 26,200 for a family of four.

The campaign for the testing site has also gone online: Civic leaders created a petition on Change.org that had collected nearly 1,900 signatures at press time. Among them was that of Cedarhurst resident Syd Mandelbaum, founder and CEO of the Cedarhurst-based Rock and Wrap It Up! “RWU has supported the Five Towns Community Center since 1997,” Mandelbaum said. “The at-risk community, if not tested, can set back the timing for reducing the curve. Parts of the at-risk community have language, cultural and economic barriers. Our community needs to be healthy and heal together, or there will be continuing interruptions.”

There are now five testing facilities downstate, primarily in minority communities, including the Club House in Aqueduct’s Racetrack’s parking lot, at 110-00 Rockaway Blvd. in Queens and a drive-through facility in the parking lot of a Sears store at 2307 Beverly Road in Brooklyn.

The state is expected to open three walk-in, appointment-only facilities at health care centers in Jamaica and Brownsville, in the South Bronx, this week. Residents who would like to be tested at these facilities must make an appointment by calling (888) 364-3065.

State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat who represents the Five Towns, and Assemblywoman Missy Miller, a Republican from Atlantic Beach, sent a joint letter to state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker on Monday, noting the area’s demographics: 60 percent Latino immigrants and roughly 20 percent African-Americans. “You and your staff have reached out and offered them assistance during times of emergency before, and now they are asking for your help again,” the legislators wrote. “An onsite Covid-19 testing center is vital to this community.”

Inwood resident Sasha Young, who has handed out food and other items at the Community Center for the past three weeks and runs Gammy’s Closet and Gammy’s Pantry at the center, posted her opinion on the Lawrence District 15 Residents Facebook group page. “Many in our area are without transportation,” Young wrote. “We need free local access for the undocumented and the uninsured. There should be no barrier for testing. We also need a local clinic!!! Gammy’s Closet and Gammy’s Pantry collects and distributes clothes and food, respectively to those in need.”

Sobol noted that the community center has a 113-year-old tradition of service to the community, dating back to when it was a settlement house, the first stop for many people who were becoming acclimated to a new country. It was a trade school and then the Inwood Community Center before becoming the Five Towns Community Center.

“As we did after [Hurricane] Sandy, the Community Center will service all the Five Towns,” Sobol wrote in a note sent to civic leaders. “The Five Towns have been crushed by this pandemic. We are in the process of forming a coalition of religious leaders in the Five Towns to support our effort.”