Munsey Park Women's Club's children's committee held its second annual "Give Your Hearts to Our Local Heroes" day. The children came out to give their homemade Valentines to our local heroes at the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department. The event, which was coordinated by Pam Landeta, Dorothy Leung, Alice Guariglia and Stephanie Catlett, raised $500 for the fire department. The committee gave special thanks to Faith Whelan, Lisa Meyer, Colleen Only, Margaret Crowley Farrell and Melinda Gillane for donating a rescue heroes toy basket for the raffle. FULL STORY

Municipalities around New York State received bad news from Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi this week. In August of 2002 they were told to expect an increase of 4 percent of their payrolls in annual contributions to state pension funds. This week they were told that that 4 percent would have to be increased to 11 percent. North Hempstead Town Supervisor May Newburger, who is recuperating from hip surgery, said that she was pleased that Comptroller Hevesi got the bad news out to the municipalities as early as February. "If he waited until August of 2003 we wouldn't have had time to do much about it. We may have to trim back some capital projects," she added. "We'll be talking to the heads of all the departments." FULL STORY

Several of our area sailors who are involved with Junior Sailing Programs on Manhasset Bay battled the cold weather and the unexpected snowstorm to be in Annapolis, MD on February 5-9 to attend the US Sailing's National Sailing Programs Symposium (NSPS), which was sponsored by Vanguard Sailboats. More than 230 people attended, a record number of sailing instructors, coaches and program directors, which is 20 percent more than the previous year, and more than half of the attendees were there for the first time. US Sailing organizes the annual event to encourage people involved in sailing programs at any level to share ideas and learn more about sailing programs and instruction through seminars, meetings and networking. Sessions covered a wide range of subjects, including how to encourage teenagers to stay in a sailing program, sailing opportunities for people with disabilities, and how to run a community sailing program. Thanks to those who spent their weekend in "Arctic Annapolis" so that our area's junior sailors receive the very best sailing instruction this summer. FULL STORY