From LONG ISLAND – by Ann Parry (annparry.com) May 30, 2021
“The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.”– Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980)
Last weekend, I went to an outdoor Baby Shower at Puglia’s Italian Steakhouse in Seaford. It was the first social event I attended since February 2020.
One of the guests I met for the first time was ADA CEA, a registered nurse at North Shore University Hospital, Northwell Health.
Last May, my post Happy Birthday Ada, Thank you for being our hero! shared how JOEY CESTARE – who was then my daughter LAURIE’s boyfriend – helped his close friend Ada celebrate her birthday while she was staying at a hotel to avoid exposing her parents to COVID-19.
That long year ago, while capturing photos of the poster and truck Joey decorated for Ada’s birthday, I hoped to get the chance to take photos of Ada herself some day.
“Hoped” was an unusually strong and scary part of my wish because Long Island was slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic. I took little about the future for granted, and less still about the present seemed safe.
As 2020 crawled into 2021, my daughters and fiancé continued to tell me I was the strictest person they knew about limiting places I went and people I was around.
Then, not suddenly, it was Saturday, May 22, 2021, and friends and family gathered at Puglia’s under its open-sided tent for my daughter Laurie’s Baby Shower.
Virtually every guest who could be vaccinated was vaccinated by then.
Joey’s mom DONNA transformed the venue into something magical, thanks to lots and lots of talent and preparation… plus balloons the color of Laurie’s dress.
And, along with an awesome great-grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins to be…, Donna and I can’t wait to welcome our grandson with love and hope.
FEATURE PHOTO at top of post: Seaford, NY, U.S. May 22, 2021. L-R, Ada, Amy, Joey, Laurie, Erica… at Laurie’s outdoor Baby Shower at Sergio’s.
Yesterday, April 26, activists held a rally in Mineola about the unfair burden of paying dam-bursting rates – about to rise 26% higher on May 1st – for water from New York American Water, a private company.
Living in Merrick, I’m among over 124,000 customers of NYAW in Nassau County who pay rates many times higher than county residents with municipal water.
Since 2011, I’ve been covering rallies and attending meetings about the extreme, unfair difference in rates customers pay for water from private companies versus municipal water in Nassau County.
Recently, however, New York State Senate Bill S.989a passed – sponsored by Sen. James Gaughran (Dem.-5th District, Northport) – which relates to the assessment of property owned by water-works corporations – including creating a Nassau County Water Authority and exempting water works corporations in counties of populations over one million from a special franchise tax.
In addition to NYS Sen. James Gaughran, Sen. John Brooks (Dem. – 8th Dist., Seaford), Sen. Leroy Comrie (Dem. – 14th Dist., St. Albans) Sen. Todd Kaminsky (Dem. – 9th Dist., Long Beach), and Sen. Kevin Thomas (Dem. – 6th Dist, Garden City) actively supported the bill’s passage, and speakers at the rally thanked them.
But for New York American Water customers to avoid the 26% rate hike, and for such changes to take place, the NYS Assembly must also pass corresponding legislation before May 1st. [See UPDATE near end of post]
Before May 1, 2021, NYS Assembly Bill A07279 passed, which “relates to the establishment of the north and south shore water authority and capping the rate a water-works corporation may increase its rates and charges.” It was sponsored by Rep. Charles Lavine (Dem. – Dist. 13, Glen Cove), and co-sponsors Rep. Judy Griffin (Dem. – Dist. 21, Rockville Centre), Rep. Michaelle Solages (Dem. – Dist. 22, Elmont), and Rep. Michael Montesano (Rep., Ind., Cons. – Dist. 15, Glen Head).
NYS Assembly Bill A07279 differs from NYS Senate Bill A.989.a in some significant ways. For one, the NYS Assembly bill would form a North and South Shore Water Authority, covering fewer New York Water Authority customers than the Nassau County Water Authority NYS Senate Bill S.989.a would cover.
