2011-02-17

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76th Year, No. 7 Freeport, N.Y. 11520 The Community Newspaper Thursday, February 17, 2011
CELEBRATING THE CHINESE.NEW YEAR: Second-grade students at the New
Visions School of Exploration and Discovery in Freeport recently celebrated the
Chinese New Year. Coinciding with their curriculum, the Chinese New Year
offers a special learning experience for students to further their exposure to
other cultures and traditions. As parj of the celebration, students spent the
day decorating traditional Chinese lanterns, designing dragon hats and listen-ing.
td'Ssohgs-ahd/storie^ from Chinese culture. In culmination of the celebra1
tion, studehts'had the opportunity to sample Chinese cuisine such as chicken
with broccoli, fried rice and eggrolls. The second-grade Chinese New Year cel-ebration
has been a tradition at New Visions School for more than 10 years.
Pictured is Mrs. Magan's second-graders with their lanterns and dragon hats
as they celebrate the Year of the Rabbit.
SNUUC presents Train of Angels' Schumer says phooey to flood maps
': South Nassau , Unitarian
'Universalist Congregation
kSNUUC) will offer a celebration
iof creativity and the human spirit
| in a program entitled "Train of
i Angels: An Artists' Initiative for
!Hope and Prosperity" on Saturday,
'February 19, at 'SNUUC, 228
'South Ocean Avenue in Freeport.
; The program opens with a
i Keynote Address at 1 p.m. and
jwill include an afternoon of pre-isentations,
exhibits and work-i
shops. A grand celebration will
; follow beginning at 6:30 p.m.
i The Keynote Address will be
given by performing artist Arden
i Fekett, who is also a licensed cre-lative
arts therapist and ordained,
jinterfaith minister.
' Mrs. Fekett describes the event
:for painters, poets, actors, singers,
musicians, dancers and those in
the healing arts to share what they
love and to entertain and uplift the
community with their gifts. The
; program will also provide artists
1 with an opportunity to speak about
; their life journey and provide
mentoring to others.!, %, i? & ;• ,*j
The program includes perform- f
ances' and ^appearances;; by Larry k
Carlson,^ radio; host .of j"Music >is -4
Therapy;" vyoice^pver 3trtjst;,Bill ^
"Chamberlain; \ singf r/|ongwriter ^
Kemi Nahal; Gerard, a^pfiotpgra- "^
pher, radio and television person- \
ally and '(' 'editor of | SGTB '\
Magazine; f spoken wbrd artist 3
Douglas'Cala; Elina;-jazz-singer "\
and educator;"the popular focal ^
band Ardiehte with "special guest fi
Geri Carlson; textile artist-Alexis \
Chait; poet and';author 'Jessica »
Abel; painter Dina Fine and belly \
dancer Isis. I ' *- ~* - ,- 'i: ' \
"This is an event and-jnitiative, ^.
named for a^song that moved me," \
said Mrs. Fekett. She pointed.out \
that when she heard, the song, it *
made;her think ,about "coming \
together for. a wonderful purpose, J
to serve as angels to the ,world*and }
to each other." , „„ „ * ^ , \
For inforrnation about this free •
event or to inquire about present- 1
ing, you can call 655-0573 or 3
email ardiente77@ aol.com
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer called on the
inspectors general of both the U.S. Defense
Department and the Department of Homeland
Security on Monday, to conduct an independ-ent
investigation into the process, methodolo-gy,
and relevance of data collected by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers (USAGE) for map-ping
in Suffolk County that ultimately was
used by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) to update flood maps in
Nassau County.
The new flood maps in Nassau County have
forced over 25,000 new structures into high-cost
flood insurance cones with premiums as
high as $3,000 per year.
"From start to finish, FEMA's.flood mapping
efforts in Nassau County appear to be flawed,
both in terms of the actual data used and to
determine the maps and the process for imple-menting
them," said Senator Schumer. "If you
are going to update a flood zone that could
force thousands of Long Islanders into high-cost
insurance plans, you'd better use the best
science possible. It appears FEMA didn't do
that."
He said recent reports indicated that reserva-tions
were raised with officials at FEMA about
the applicability of the data obtained from the
USACE's Suffolk County storm damage
reduction study, known as the Fire Island to
Montauk Point study (FIMP), before the
agency decided to move forward with mapping
new flood elevation levels in Nassau County.
FEMA was presented with a cost analysis of
$1,082,000 from USAGE for data collection
specific to Nassau County for the purposes of
redrawing flood maps, said Senator Schumer
in a press release. After receiving the proposals
from USAGE for Nassau-specific modeling,
FEMA decided to use data already in its pos-session
from Suffolk and apply the Suffolk
mapping model to Nassau County.
Local officials and coastal experts have
expressed doubts with the level of scientific
credibility in that application, citing different
coastal characteristics, tide behaviors, and
geography in Nassau that would require a spe-cific
model for that area.
According to local officials, the FIMP study
was specifically designed to look at potential
effect of flooding on the Suffolk County shore-line
in the bay area between Fire Island Inlet
and Montauk Point, is considered "prelimi-nary"
by USAGE, and was not made available
for public review during the appeals period.
(continued on page. 3)
Animal shelter
hires vets
page 3
~
SPLASH
fundraiser slated
pages
Kennedy on
Rec Center ouster
page 6