NH YIR columnJoley Welkowitz/Herald

JANUARY
The New Year began with much good news and a bit of bad news. As has become a tradition, high schools in the Five Towns fared well in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search competition as 10 students were named semifinalists. Named were six students from Lawrence High School, three from Hewlett High School and one from Rambam Mesivta High School for Boys in Lawrence.
The dreams of many District 15 residents for a state-of-the-art Peninsula Public Library came closer to reality, in the form of a new facility planned for Zion Park in Lawrence. The plans were presented to the village Board of Trustees.
Five Towners were also hit with bad news in the month when the Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected Nassau County's plea for emergency funding to repair the many area homes damaged by the heavy rains of three months earlier.
FEBRUARY
Dr. Vicki Karant was appointed the new assistant superintendent for curriculum at Lawrence Public Schools after having served as the district's curriculum director for humanities for grades six through 12. She replaced Michele Lineal, who retired after four years on the job.
The Five Towns saw its first snow storm of the season during the Feb. 11-12 weekend, when Mother Nature dumped well over a foot of snow in the area. Some areas reported about 17 inches of the white stuff, forcing many area schools to close that Monday.
Tony Kornheiser, a Hewlett High School alumnus, was named one of the new voices of "Monday Night Football." Kornheiser has written for the Washington Post and broadcast on ESPN and now was chosen as a color commentator for the popular football show.
MARCH
Alice M. Greenwald, who graduated from Lawrence High School in 1969, was selected as the leader of the 9/11 museum, which will memorialize those who lost their lives in the terror attacks on the World Trade Center while commemorating heroic acts that were taken that day. The museum is scheduled to have a phased opening in September 2009.
Tragedy struck early in the month when Carol Tepler, 42, of Lawrence, was killed in a car accident at Nassau Expressway and Rock Hall Road on March 1, after her 2004 Lexus SUV slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer stopped at a red light, police said. During funeral services the following day, she was remembered as a devoted family person who worked hard to raise her children with the Jewish traditions her parents instilled in her when she was growing up in Eastern Europe.
The Gottlieb family found justice in the month of March when Reginald Gousse was convicted of murder. Gousse, 32, accused of posing as a phony cop to rob James Gottlieb, an assistant bank manager in Cedarhurst, and ended up killing him in Franklin Square in January 2005, was convicted on March 22 following a jury trial. Judge Jerald Carter sentenced Gousse on April 19 to the maximum life in prison without the possibility of parole moments after the victim's 9-year-old daughter Alicia pleaded with the judge "to put this bad man away forever."
David Gutmann, an assistant principal at Roslyn High School, was approved as the new principal at Hewlett High School on March 15. Gutmann replaced Dr. Joyce Bisso, who the previous July was tapped to replace Susan Pratt, the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum when she officially retires on July 1.
APRIL
On April 12, a bulldozer demolished the remaining structure of the Nassau Herald building, which was destroyed in a fire on June 15, 2004. For almost two years after the devastating fire, the shell of a building sat silent and empty, as the staff of the Herald was operating out of temporary headquarters in West Hempstead. The building at 379 Central Ave. in Lawrence had been home to the Herald since 1927. The staff has since moved into a new state-of-the art building on Endo Boulevard next to Nassau Community College in Garden City. The site of the old building will be occupied by the Heralds' former neighbor, the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR).
HAFTR High School announced plans to honor former student Jacob Greenberg, 14, who died on March 30, 2005, of sudden cardiac arrest as the result of a congenital heart condition.He was remembered by HAFTR with a golf and tennis outing in his honor on May 15 at the North Shore Country Club in Glen Head.
MAY
The Lawrence Public Schools' budget was defeated once again, putting the district on the road to austerity for a fourth consecutive year. In addition, voters rejected Proposition 2, which would have set up a capital reserve fund to make repairs in the district's buildings. The non-public school community also grabbed a majority on the school board for the first time in the history of District 15, as private-school parents Michael Hatten of Cedarhurst and Uri Kaufman of Lawrence won seats defeating two public-school parents. In Hewlett-Woodmere, voters approved the budget and re-elected all three incumbents, Jill Stern, Steve Witt and Marcy Goldberg, to their second three-year terms.

JUNE
The Lawrence Public Schools officials decided to adopt a contingency budget instead of putting up a revised budget proposal for a revote after the proposed $93.1 million budget failed the previous month. As a result, the district was forced to make $1.2 million in cuts. The decision was made to adopt a contingency budget after the proposed budgets were defeated four years in a row and another vote would cost the district $15,000.
Many leadership changes in Lawrence Public Schools were announced in the month of June, including the pending retirement of Dr. Mark Kavarsky, who was principal of Lawrence Middle School for more than 10 years. When Kavarsky left on Aug. 31, he would be replaced by George Akst, the district's math and science curriculum director since 2000. Also, the district's assistant superintendent for business Frank Ruggiero announced that he was resigning to accept the same position with Long Beach Public Schools, effective July 20.
The Lawrence school board and the Lawrence Teachers Association negotiated a new five-year contract, almost a year after the last contract expired. The contract approval caused controversy because it came two weeks before the new school board ‹ made up of a majority of private-school parents ‹ was to take control. The new trustees, Uri Kaufman and Michael Hatten, who are from the private-school community, have been critical of how much Lawrence teachers are paid. The new teachers' contract, which will expire on June 30, 2011, includes a flat $2,000 raise for 2006, a 2.25 percent hike starting in the 2007-08 school year and a 2.75 percent increase in the last year of the contract.
JULY
The month presented good news and bad news for Five Towns crime. While burglaries and robberies declined, assaults and auto thefts were on the rise. Overall, major crime saw a 9 percent increase for the first half of 2006 as compared with the same six-month period in 2005, according to 4th Precinct crime statistics.
Marvin & Sons Fine Jewelry, Watches and Gifts, which operated in Cedarhurst for 57 years, closed its doors on July 8. The store had been run by three generations of family, some staying with the business for nearly 50 years.
The bloody Mideast conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah produced tensions in the Five Towns as nervous parents awaited word on their children who were in the Jewish state. Rabbi Paula Winnig of Temple Sinai of Long Island in Lawrence and Rabbi Steven Graber of Temple Hillel in North Woodmere both had sons in Israel when the war broke out. Shai Knight-Winnig, 16, and Daniel Graber, 18, were safe in Jerusalem and out of harm's way. Meanwhile, in the Five Towns, security was beefed up around Jewish institutions as a precaution after an FBI report that Hezbollah operatives had conducted surveillance of numerous potential targets for attack in the United States, including Jewish community centers and synagogues.
AUGUST
District 15 voters overwhelmingly approved the sale of the former Number One School property to Neuberg Development LLC for $27.5 million, paving the way for the developer to move forward with his plans to convert the property at 260 Central Ave. into luxury condominiums. With 72 percent of the vote, residents gave the go-ahead to the Lawrence school board to sell the 3.79-acre site.
The Jewish Community Center of the Greater Five Towns announced plans to build a 62,000-square foot facility on the east side of the Temple Israel of Lawrence property, at 140 Central Ave., after signing a 99-year lease with the temple. The cost to build the facility would be about $25 million and would include a pool, gymnasium, exercise room, auditorium as well as classrooms and an art studio.
Led by the Train Noise Abatement Association and its founder Jack Mevorach, Cedarhurst community leaders and Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) managed to get some relief for residents from train noise, including a concession for conductors to reduce the number of horn blasts from the Long Island Rail Road, as well as the removal of some of the bells at the warning gates at the Cedarhurst crossing.
Three Five Towns bank customers were victimized by a team of con artists who staked out area banks and watched as tellers handed customers large sums of money. The thieves punctured the tires of the victims' cars and then pointed out the flats to the unsuspecting victims. While the victims inspected their tires, the con artists escaped with cash that was left in the vehicle. A total of about $13,500 was stolen from the three victims in separate incidents during a two-day period. Jose Echevaria, 38, of Elmhurst, Queens, was charged on Sept. 18 in at least two similar tire-slashing scams and is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on Jan. 4, 2007.
Tragedy struck in August a continent away when 19-year-old Avinoam Grossman of Cedarhurst was thrown into the Indian Ocean by a huge wave while he was sightseeing in Torpedo Rocks in the southwestern part of Australia. Grossman was a member of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, where he was regarded as "one of the finest young men" who often led prayer services.
SEPTEMBER
As the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks was being commemorated, the Ogden Elementary School Shared Decision-Making committee proposed that Hewlett-Woodmere students create a memorial garden at the corner of Peninsula and Gibson boulevards, where a World Trade Center Remembrance Plaza was to be constructed. Since no action has been taken on the plaza, which was announced three years ago, the committee decided a garden should be created to memorialize the victims of 9/11.
The month of September ended in tragedy when a 9-year-old boy was shot in the head during a home invasion in Inwood. The boy, John Henry Romano, Jr., of Far Rockaway, who was visiting his cousin at 47 West End Ave. when he was shot on Sept. 23 during an exchange of gunfire between the robbers and an occupant in the home, was fighting for his life. Detectives arrested Tyreek Williams, 21, of Brooklyn, on Oct. 4 after he checked himself into a Brooklyn hospital for wounds he received to the face, leg and hand during the shootout, police said. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Jan. 11, 2007. Investigators were searching for two other men. Even though the boy was making a surprising recovery, he will need a prosthetic eye and will likely be partially paralyzed on his left side.
OCTOBER
Former State Sen. Carol Berman of Lawrence was seriously injured when she fell between the gap from the Long Island Rail Road train and the platform at the Lawrence station on Sept. 28. The 83-year-old Berman suffered a broken left ankle and bruised ribs. She underwent ankle surgery, and after she was released from the hospital, she developed an infection and had to be hospitalized again. In late October, she and her husband Jerry filed a $1 million notice of claim, which is a prelude to a lawsuit, against the LIRR and its parent company, the MTA, to force them to fix the gaps. LIRR officials said several measures have been taken already to caution commuters to watch their step.
Accusations were flying in October that some members of the Lawrence school board formed their own committee to study the possibility of closing one or two elementary schools ‹ without the knowledge of the full board. This comes more than two years after the Number One School in Lawrence was closed as part of a consolidation plan. School board members denied any knowledge of such a committee or a secret consolidation plan. About three weeks later, trustees, including board President Dr. Asher Mansdorf, received death threats mailed to their homes, warning that harm would come to them and their families if any more schools were closed.
NOVEMBER
The Herald Community Newspapers suffered a great loss when Richner Communications Inc. co-founder Edith Richner died on Nov. 17 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare brain disorder. She was 79. Ms. Richner, of Rockville Centre and Boca Raton, Fla., was described by family and friends as beautiful, intelligent, forthright, dedicated, friendly, demanding but fair and, most of all, selfless. Hundreds of mourners, including family, friends, colleagues, elected officials and local business owners, packed the Central Synagogue in Rockville Centre on Nov. 19 to pay their final respects and to celebrate the life of a remarkable woman who was known as "super-mom." More than four decades ago, she co-founded Richner Communications, the parent company of the Herald newspapers, with her husband Robert who passed away more than five years ago.
An Oceanside-bound oil tanker ran aground in the East Rockaway Inlet off Atlantic Beach when it got stuck on the sandy bottom. But quick response by emergency officials averted a potential environmental disaster as they secured the ship without any of the thousands of gallons of home heating oil the tanker was carrying leaking into the water.
On Election Day, longtime incumbents Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-4th CD), Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) cruised to easy victories over their opponents to earn re-election. McCarthy defeated Republican Martin Blessinger of Floral Park, Skelos defeated Democrat Odelia Goldberg of Lawrence and Weisenberg emerged victorious over Republican challenger Frank McQuade.
The Lawrence school board decided to put up two referendums on a Jan. 16, 2007 ballot which, if passed, would provide transportation to all kindergarten and pre-K students in public and private schools and allow certain community groups to use district facilities after hours without having to pay a fee. The proposals sparked outrage among public-school parents who called the planned election a waste of taxpayers' money. But in December the trustees decided to cancel the vote.
The month of November ended on a winning note when the Lawrence Golden Tornadoes stunned Bellport, 28-27, to win the Long Island Class II football championship. Lawrence pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the 15-year history of the championship by beating the Suffolk County representative Clippers, who were riding a 21-game winning streak and hadn't allowed a point in five consecutive playoff games. It was the first L.I. championship for Lawrence since 1995.
DECEMBER
Voters in the Hewlett-Woodmere School District approved a $24.9 million plan to renovate Woodmere Middle School and other district school buildings. After years of neglect following the defeat of three previous bond proposals, the approval gives the school district the green light for a massive upgrade to the 45-year-old middle school building.
The Atlantic Beach Club Association, comprising five beach club owners in the village, proposed a new vision for waterfront housing for the community, with the thinking that the "life of the beach club is coming to an end." The association discussed the concept of residential development south of Ocean Boulevard. The beach club owners are considering the possibility of selling their clubs to a developer to make way for housing. However, the club owners' plans have gotten a cold shoulder from many residents who reside on the Long Beach barrier island.
The year ended with a history-making event ‹ Christine Dorn-Rizzo was elected the first female commissioner in the Inwood Fire District. She defeated Tom Lynch, a three-term incumbent who has been on the board for 15 years, and Mark Rolon, an ex-chief of the Inwood Fire Department who has put in 26 years of fire service. She will officially assume her new five-year post on Jan. 1.