“We visited quite a few communities, looking for a place to put our headquarters,” said Gary Port, a Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged Kate Murray for Town of Hempstead Supervisor on Election Day. “But when we got to Baldwin, I knew we’d hit bottom. This was the worst place we saw.” more

Veterans Day was made extra special for Plaza Elementary teacher Leigh Sofarelli when she and two students were chosen to participate in the “Call for Photos,” an effort to assemble images of every person whose name appears on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Sofarelli, an educator for 11 years, flew on a special “Honor Flight” to Washington last weekend to participate in a full slate of events, accompanied by BHS graduate Nora Kogelschatz and Baldwin elementary student Taylor Parides.The Herald spoke to Sofarelli about her experiences. more

The leaders of the Town of Hempstead Democratic party were hunkering down this evening in Baldwin while waiting for election numbers to trickle in. more

The third race between seven-term 5th District Nassau County Legislator Joe Scannell, a Democrat from Baldwin, and Chris Browne, a Republican from Rockville Centre, took a provocative turn last week. The flap was sparked by a mailing, produced by two Wantagh Republicans and distributed by the Nassau County Democratic Club, which asserted that in June 2010, Browne, a member of the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals, voted to approve construction of a strip club in Wantagh. more

The effort to revamp Baldwin’s civic association — dormant since the 1990s — has brought many members of the community into the public eye. One of them is David Viana, an 18-year-old college freshman who looked somewhat out of place at a public meeting at the Baldwin Public Library on Oct. 22, ceding the podium to veteran public speakers like County Legislator Joe Scannell and Linda Reed of Town Councilman Anthony Santino’s office. The 200 or so concerned citizens who attended were full of questions about Viana: Who was he? How did he get involved? Was he running for something? The Herald spoke with Viana last week. more

Starting last week, the amount of air traffic over Baldwin increased, at the direction of the Federal Aviation Administration. Whether or not the additional planes will create additional noise is now a matter of debate, but some Baldwin residents are worried that the racket will quickly become burdensome. more

Around 200 residents sacrificed a beautiful Saturday afternoon to pack the Baldwin Public Library’s Community Room on Oct. 22 for the inaugural meeting of a new civic association. more

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced on Oct 19 the arrest of Baldwin resident Charles Weaver, 54. Weaver, a level three registered sex offender who served 10 years in jail after sodomizing a young girl, has been charged with “possessing and distributing images and videos of child pornography on the Internet,” a release from Rice’s office said. more

A number of fronts collided at a contentious Board of Education meeting at Shubert School Oct. 12. One large group of parents was on hand to express their frustration about fiscal shortfalls, and another wanted to ask the board about rumors of school closings. These aggressive clusters of parents were further spurred when a third group emerged to question the district’s response to the discovery of an unloaded shotgun on Plaza Elementary School grounds. The first topic was business, and the general shortage of funds dominated discussion. The primary issue is a projected $3 million-to-$4 million shortfall in the district’s revenue if the financial picture does not change. more

An embattled proposal to develop the old Brooklyn Waterworks site on Baldwin’s border with Freeport into a 121-unit, six-story apartment building took a step toward approval with a vote on Oct. 4 by the Freeport Landmarks Preservation Commission. The 4-4 tie was a victory for the project’s developer, Gary Melius, because the commission’s charter requires a majority to vote a proposal down. more