* Law enforcement authorities in March said they dismantled a major prescription drug-distribution ring that operated out of Terrace Pharmacy, at 242 Merrick Road in Oceanside, rounding up 28 suspects — including a 74-year-old pharmacist who police say raked in about $7.5 million since 2000. The alleged ringleader, identified as Sheldon Howard Topchik of Bellmore, a pharmacist for 50 years, was charged with first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. Topchik faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted, officials said. Topchik operated the ring out of his Oceanside pharmacy before he and his wife, Linda, sold it to CVS in April 2006, officials said, adding that the Topchiks continued to work in the store together. Most of the 27 other suspects were charged with second-degree forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
* Island Park and Long Beach residents meet in June with Island Park club owner John Vitale, to address the various activities and noise — particularly the booming, blaring music — coming from his bars on south Barnum Isle, including Paddy McGee’s, the Bridgeview Yacht Club and, the latest addition, Warehouse5. The residents blamed both the Nassau County Police Department and the Town of Hempstead for their lack of sleep, saying that they failed to enforce their laws and codes regarding excessive noise after 11 p.m. against Vitale’s bars. Both the town and the police subsequently stepped up their enforcement, while Vitale took various measures to quell the music and address the unruly people pouring out onto the streets after patronizing his bars. While some residents were satisfied with these steps, other residents said they still hear the bars’ music.
* Oceanside Fire District residents elected two new members to the Board of Commissioners in December. Joe Murello, a first-time candidate for a board seat, decisively defeated two-term incumbent Paul Napoli, by a vote count of 428 to 321. Former commissioner Dennis McGlynn, making his return to the board after losing an election two years ago, edged out challenger Peter Strahl, 343 votes to 332. Another candidate, Frances Bacon, received 150 votes in the election.
* After holding a series of monthly community meetings, the Village of Island Park in November made changes to a proposed housing law that its board vows will more effectively crack down on illegal rentals. Under the proposed Local Law 4, homeowners would be required to file an application with the village to allow a building inspector into their dwellings to ensure that they comply with local housing codes governing such matters as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in a home. Originally, the law called for a two-year rental permit costing $250 for an owner who lives in a rented home, and $1,000 for an absentee landlord. After hearing residents’ concerns at its meetings, the board reduced the two-year fee to $100 per rental dwelling, even for absentee landlords. The fine for violating the law can run up to $2,000.
* Phyllis Bort, 79, of Long Beach, was driving to a doctor’s appointment early on a Saturday morning in January and crashed into a utility pole in Island Park, starting a domino effect that brought electrical wires down onto Austin Boulevard, police said. According to police, Borth was headed north on Austin Boulevard, on her way to Oceanside, when she crashed her 2003 Kia Sportage into a pole at the corner of Georgia Avenue, in front of a 7-Eleven, at about 5:30 a.m. that morning. The force of the crash pulled electrical wires down from connecting poles north of the Austin-Georgia intersection, knocking out power in the area, including three traffic lights.
* Kohl's on Long Beach Road in Oceanside plans to expand its store into the parking lot on the side of the store. Some Harris Drive residents, whose homes abut the department store's property, are concerned that the project would increase traffic and create parking problems on the block. The department store's proposal is scheduled to go before the Town of Hempstead zoning board in January 2008.
* Richard Colon, who in 1990 enrolled in the Junior Firemen’s Program at the Island Park Fire Department, was sworn in as the new IPFD chief in April.
* The Town of Hempstead zoning board approved an application by CVS to build a store at the site of the East Bay Diner, on Long Beach Road and Mott Street in Oceanside, in March. The zoning board approved CVS’s application with the condition that its stand-alone store be no larger than 11,900 square feet — 1,000 less than the company had proposed for the 1.4-acre parcel. "We’re actually not due to begin work there until later this year, at the earliest, or by early 2008," said Michael DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman.
* George Westenberger, 83, a 50-year member of the Island Park Fire Department, who died on March 17, was remembered as an extremely dedicated volunteer who was still responding to calls until recent years.
* Joseph Cavallaro, a salesman for 37 years at Island Park Lumber, once located near Bridgeview Yacht Club, died on May 13 at age 90.
* Joseph Santacroce of Island Park, a former Nassau County sheriff and Korean War veteran, died on May 14 at age 79.
* After months of meetings and working out logistics, residents of Radcliffe Road, near Suffolk Road, in Island Park officially formed their own Neighborhood Watch program, and had signs posted along their streets announcing its arrival. "It’s a positive, good step," said Matthew Scully, a Suffolk Road resident, as Village of Island Park employees mounted a sign on a utility pole near his home in May. The Neighborhood Watch program is a coordinated effort between residents and the Nassau County Police Department, in which the residents work together to keep a look out on any suspicious or criminal activities in their neighborhoods, and notify police when they occur.
* T-Mobile's proposal to attach six cell phone antennas to a flag pole atop a bank building on Long Beach Road in Oceanside was rejected by the Town of Hempstead zoning board in August. In the wake of this decision, Verizon submitted an application to mount five cell antennas, to be imbedded into the structure of the same building, and the zoning board approved this proposal in November.
* Engineers began dredging East Rockaway Channel in January, months after a large fuel barge ran aground there en route to an Oceanside fuel terminal, Sprage Energy. The Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co., which specializes in port-deepening projects, was contracted to dredge some 300,000 cubic yards of sand from the inlet to Reynolds Channel and spread it on Rockaway beach over the course of 45 days. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded the Chicago-based company the $3 million project, and Great Lakes began work on Jan. 10.
* The Nassau County Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Town of Hempstead zoning board to block the proposal to reopen a recycling facility in Oceanside, once owned by Gator Recycling Corporation, on Brown Court in Oceanside. Opponents of the plan by Serota Properties to reopen the solid waste facility are pledging to continue to fight the proposal.
* The Hempstead Town Board in January approved a measure that would allow Air Stream Corporation — an Oceanside corporation that distributes some 65,000 pounds of prepared food is distributed to restaurants, hotels, airlines and other industries each week — to enjoy Empire Zone status, which would make it eligible for several economic incentives.
* What appears to be a house on Fairview Avenue in Oceanside is actually a new storage facility behind the Oceanside Library, completed in October. After talks with neighbors two years ago, the library agreed to demolish a home it owned on the property to build this $225,000 house-like structure for storage, instead of leaving the lot vacant. The library said the storage facility will help free up space in the main building for more patron use.
