A Merrick man died when he became trapped by fire while working on his classic Jaguar inside his garage. Fire officials said he probably died of smoke inhalation.
Abraham Warshaw, a 67-year-old retired plumber, of 101 Hewlett Ave., was found dead by firefighters, who squelched the blaze within 15 minutes. Warshaw suffered burns in the fire, officials said.
Merrick firefighters, aided by fellow volunteers from the Bellmore and Freeport departments and the Bellmore-Merrick Emergency Services squad, responded to the blaze at 6:25 p.m., said Alan Lapp, a former Merrick chief who is now the department's spokesman. Officials pronounced Warshaw dead at 6:49 p.m.
Meeting over Dunkin Donuts
The Joint Council of the Merricks - comprising four area civic associations - planned to meet with Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins representatives on May 12, after press time. They were to discuss a proposal by the company to install one of its shops with a drive-through at Hewlett Avenue and Sunrise Highway.
Many believe the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins would be a good thing at that site, as it would replace a dilapidated, two-story building that has mostly been abandoned for years. But several residents feared that a drive-through could become a hazard at the corner, which is already known to be a danger to pedestrians.
In an April 29 Herald article, Derek Donnelly, president of the Merrick Gables Civic Association, said civic groups could boycott and picket the new shop if the curb cut were placed on Hewlett Avenue.
Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins representatives contacted Donnelly to request the meeting. Joe Iazzetta, a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins spokesman, said the company was aware of the drive-through controversy. He believed the issue existed because there had been little communication between the community and Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins.
All issues were later resolved, and the Dunkin Donuts was built.
Fourth in the world!
Carol Eisenstat, a 17-year-old Kennedy High School senior, earned international recognition for her science research project, which explored the possibility of increasing cotton output by enhancing the production of microscopic fibers.
Eisenstat came in fourth in botany at the International Science and Engineering Fair competition in Portland, Ore. The fair attracted more than 1,200 students from 40 nations, who competed in 10 categories. Eisenstat presented her project to 17 judges.
The district's Authentic Science Research Program begins preparing high school students to compete in local and regional science competitions by starting them on their research projects in ninth grade.
June
Cracking down on DWI
On April 20, 82-year-old Vernon Ketcher slammed his Jeep Cherokee into an Oldsmobile minivan at Hempstead Turnpike and Hill Avenue in Elmont. The van carried five members of a local youth soccer team. Two squad members, Jose Hernandez, 14, and Fermin Bravo, 13, were killed instantly.
Police alleged that Ketcher was driving drunk. Tests revealed that his blood alcohol content was .17, more than twice the legal limit of .08.
New York state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Republican of Merrick, said Hernandez's and Bravo's tragic deaths spurred him to revisit 2003's reworked DWI law and find ways to toughen it.
At a news conference, Fuschillo proposed two bills. The first would bar a person charged with driving while ability impaired (DWAI) from plea-bargaining down to a non-alcohol offense. As the law stands, someone charged with DWAI can plead guilty to a non-alcohol charge, which masks the crime of driving while intoxicated.
The second bill would require anyone convicted of DWI who had been found guilty of the crime in the previous five years to serve jail time. Requiring repeat offenders to serve time would discourage drunk driving, Fuschillo said. Currently, a two-time drunk driver can serve five days in the county jail or be sentenced to community service.
Too often, the senator said, drunk drivers get community service and probation.
Cops: Girls lured online
A 21-year-old construction worker from Inwood was held on $30,000 bond after he was arrested last week and charged with raping a 15-year-old girl he met in a chat room on the Internet. Police said the man drove the girl around Lynbrook before taking her to the Merrick train station parking lot, where he forced her to have sex with him in his car.
The suspect, identified as Joseph Rizo, of Douglas Street in Inwood, was stopped by police while driving a 1989 Pontiac on West Broadway in Cedarhurst, not far from his home, on May 26, detectives said. He was arrested and charged with third-degree rape for the incident, which occurred on April 8, according to Deputy Inspector Jay Caputo, commanding officer of the Major Offense Squads.
Rizzo had met the girl in a chat room on the Internet around April 1, and then had one or two online conversations before arranging a face-to-face meeting on April 8, police said. They agreed to meet in front of the International House of Pancakes on Sunrise Highway in Lynbrook, Caputo said.
New firehouse in the works
Construction work began on a new firehouse for the Merrick Fire Department's Hook & Ladder Company No. 1. The old firehouse is being gutted to make way for the $3.95 million facility.
The old firehouse on Brooklyn Avenue will be razed, and the firehouse at Oakwood and Brooklyn avenues, in the heart of downtown Merrick, will be renovated. Construction was projected to take 14 month, according to fire officials.
Blaze destroys Herald's home
Suddenly, people accustomed to covering the news became front-page news themselves. In a matter of minutes, a decades-old institution was homeless, and not long after, an effort to regroup and continue a journalistic tradition had begun.
A quick-moving fire ravaged the Herald Community Newspapers' building in Lawrence on Tuesday, forcing about 120 employees to safely evacuate to the street.
The blaze gutted much of the historic building, at 379 Central Ave., which is home to Richner Communications, publishers of 16 weekly newspapers and PrimeTime Guide. The buildings had been in continuous use as the newspapers' home since 1927 when the Nassau Herald and Rockaway Journal relocated from far Rockaway. The Herald, founded in 1924, was the oldest business in continuous operation in the Village of Lawrence.
More than 150 firefighters responded to the blaze from several South Shore fire departments. They brought the blaze under control in about two hours, but stayed long afterward, pouring water on the building to ensure the fire was extinguished.
The fire's cause was under investigation, but it was not deemed suspicious.
New life for Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in North Merrick is moving ahead with plans to raze its current house of worship and build a larger church in its back parking lot. The site of the current church will become a parking lot.
Sacred Heart was built in 1953 when North Merrick's population was considerably smaller. Between 2,400 and 3,200 people celebrate Mass at Sacred Heart each weekend. The church, however, can only accommodate 500 parishioners at a time.
4th-grade test scores drop
Results of this year's fourth-grade New York state English Language Arts test, released in June, showed lower scores in Merrick and North Merrick elementary schools.
The passing rate among Merrick schools dropped 5 points, down from 87 to 82 percent. In Merrick, the rate declined 3 points, from 83 to 80 percent.
The Merrick and North Merrick school superintendents believed the passing rates for their districts declined owing to the test's increased difficulty. They said some reading passages were written for older children. North Merrick and Merrick school administrators were busy analyzing ELA test results to better understand how they could help children next year.
Chamber fetes its own
The Merrick Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner at Chateau Briand was, by all measures, a good time. People dined. They danced. And they celebrated the installation of Sal Vassallo, owner of the Vassallo Insurance Agency, as chamber president.
Julie Marchesella, the outgoing president, had served in the post for six years, the longest tenure of any Merrick chamber president. Her immediate predecessor, David McDonough, now an assemblyman, had the previous record of four years. The New York state Senate passed a resolution recognizing Marchesella's achievements as chamber president.
Jerry Silverman was named the chamber's Man of the Year, and Marion Turk its Woman of the Year.
Heralds still print
Despite a devastating fire that destroyed the offices of the Herald Community Newspapers in Lawrence on June 15, the 16 weekly papers published by Richner Communications still came out, and the company stayed alive and well in temporary offices in West Hempstead.
The papers were published thanks in large part to a computer salvaged from the fire that backed up all previous work done by the reporters, editors, advertising representatives and the photo, art and production staffs. Other publishers, some from as far away as Minnesota, offered the use of their printing presses in order for the papers to get printed.
Five of the papers - the Baldwin, Elmont/Franklin Square, Malverne/West Hempstead, Oceanside/Island Park and Rockville Centre Heralds, were completed before the fire ravaged the building. The early completion of the papers helped move the delivery schedule along. The Rockville Centre Herald was finished just minutes before the fire began, at about 3:15 p.m. in the building's printing press room. The blaze quickly spread to the rest of the building, forcing more than 100 employees to safely evacuate.
July
Ride of his life
In July, Fred Jones, a chiropractor at Sunrise Chiropractic & Wellness in Merrick, took part in the Tour de France, the internationally acclaimed race that American Lance Armstrong has won six times. Jones was a member of the High Gear team, a group of 30 amateur cyclists who were granted special permission to begin their ride the day before the tour started.
Merrick homes contaminated?
The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, state Department of Health and owner of Busy Bee dry-cleaner, Robert Bernstein, agreed to work together and test three homes behind Busy Bee, at 181 Merrick Road. The homes may have been contaminated with dry-cleaning solvent.
La Piazza's patio plan
The owner of La Piazza, a popular, upscale pizzeria and catering hall on Merrick Road in Merrick, applied to the Town of Hempstead Zoning Board for a variance to build an addition to the eatery. Residents of Lincoln Boulevard, near the restaurant, immediately cried foul. La Piazza eventually withdrew its variance application.
August
Cleanup nearly complete
The effort to clean up a gasoline spill from a Sunoco station at Babylon Turnpike and Merrick Road that made its way under Levy-Lakeside Elementary School showed results in August. The New York sate Department of Environmental Conservation, which oversaw the cleanup, said the project would soon be complete.
Honoring our fallen heroes
Merrick's new firefighters' memorial, at Merrick Avenue and Sunrise Highway, was dedicated in August, paying homage to three Merrick fire volunteers - Brian Sweeney, Ronnie Gies and Ken Smith. Two firefighters, Sweeney and Gies, lost their lives at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and Smith died while on duty in Merrick in 1982.
Smith Pond still a mess
The privately owned Smith Pond, on the Merrick-Bellmore border just north of Sunrise Highway, remained littered with bottles, motor oil, dog feces, beer cans, and grass cuttings, a full year after the pond's decayed state came to light. At least some of the 34 property owners whose homes line the pond said it was impossible for them to enjoy their backyards.
Mepham coaches file suit
Four of the former Mepham High School football coaches, who lost their coaching jobs as a result of the sexual assaults that occurred last year during a pre-season football camp, filed a $20 million lawsuit against the parents of the players found guilty of the attacks.
Photo credit: Rebecca Lopatin/Herald
Photo caption # 20433A: Sunrise Highway became the focus of civic leaders' concern after a series of accidents at the corner of Merrick Avenue.
Sunrise danger
Civic leaders became increasingly vocal about Sunrise Highway, saying the thoroughfare had become treacherous for pedestrians. Two fatal accidents that occurred there on July 30 and July 31 were but examples of serious accidents there.
Trustee steps down
Charles Reinhardt, president of the North Bellmore Board of Education and a Central High School District trustee, stunned the community when he announced his resignation from both boards in August. He stepped down after it was revealed that he had spent nearly $7,000 in Central District money attending conferences, but failed to turn in expense reports to justify that amount.
Fire rips through library
Fire ravaged the Merrick Library Wing, at Merrick and Kirkwood avenues, severely damaging the historic building and destroying many books. The building was being used as a temporary home for the library while a new structure is built. No one was in the building when the fire broke out.
They are the champions
The Merrick-North Merrick Little League's elite 9- and 10-year-old baseball travel team breezed through the Long Island championships to get to states. They were the first Merrick team to win the state championship in more than 50 years.
Mepham rebuilds
Dressed in maroon-and-white practice jerseys, baggy shorts and well-worn helmets, members of the reconstituted Mepham High School football team dashed across their gridiron in mid-August. The sun beat down hard. Again and again they sprinted, huddled in the middle of the field, broke and took off once more.
At precisely 12:15 p.m., practice ended, and the squad marched tiredly off the field into the school, through its unlighted kitchen and down the hall to the locker room. Players carried their helmets in their hands, breathing heavily and sweating. One young man slipped as he clattered across the tile floor in his cleats. He was all right. He laughed, and the others joined in.
It was a seemingly normal practice. But of course, it wasn't. It was the first time in a year that the Mepham squad had practiced together. In 2003, the Bellmore-Merrick Central District Board of Education abruptly canceled Mepham's football season after it was revealed that three varsity squad members had sexually abused three junior-varsity teammates at a Pennsylvania training camp. All three perpetrators pleaded guilty to the crime. One was on parole and living at home in Bellmore, where he received tutoring. One was sentenced to boot camp in Pennsylvania. The third underwent counseling at a Pennsylvania facility.
