Banned Workers Win Lawsuit Against Hempstead Town, Scholars Honored

After two years of ongoing litigation, the three banned volunteer animal rescue workers from Hempstead Town Animal Shelter have won their case against the town.

It was announced Tuesday that the plaintiffs -- Diane Madden of East Meadow, Lucille DeFina of Merrick and Frances Lucivero‐Pelletier of Levittown -- had accepted an offer of judgment that their lawyer, Steven Morelli, referred to as a "total victory against the Town of Hempstead, Town Supervisor Kate Murray and various town officials."

Court documents state that the settlement totalled $150,000, including attorney's fees.

Click here to read more about the lawsuit.

Town Honors Siemens Westinghouse Finalists, Regional Finalist and Semifinalists

Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray honored students from throughout the township at the Jan. 8 Town Board meeting. The students are finalists, semifinalist and regional finalists in the Siemens Westinghouse Science Competition.

The Town of Hempstead is very proud to honor the following students for making it to the semifinals: Devan Oodal of Garden City High School; Kyle Johnson, Thomas Keady and Samantha Preshad of South Side High School; Shovan Hasan, Kathryn Hockberg, Daphne Superville, Benjamin Kramer and Valery Zajkov of Hewlett High School; Jessica Ramos and Lee Stetson of Freeport High School.

The town's very own regional finalist is Evan Chernack of South Side High School. Chernack, of Rockville Centre, received a $1,000 scholarship for having competed in a regional competition at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., in November. His project was: “A Study of the Role of the ROCK Kinase Pathway in Dental Pulp Stem Cell Differentiation and Mineralization.” This project dealt with advanced research for clinical regenerative therapies.

In addition, Hempstead Town is home to three finalists: Jeremy Appelbaum, William Gil and Allen Shin of Hewlett High School.

The finalists -- Appelbaum of Woodmere, Gil of Valley Stream and Shin of Valley Stream -- are teammates who competed in the finals at George Washington University in Washington D.C. The three teammates split a $100,000 scholarship with each other.

Their project was, “COP1 Arrests Photomorphogenesis in Dark Grown Gametophytes of Ceratopteris Richardii; A Study of COP1 in Cryptogams.” This project examined a fern protein with potential for fighting cancer.

The team did this after struggling with the flooding effects of Hurricane Sandy on their exhibit posters, which were stored in Jeremy’s basement in Woodmere. Not only were the posters ruined, but also their school was shut down for eight days because of the storm’s impact. The teammates managed to design smaller substitute posters and local school officials supported their efforts to use the school building on weekends. 

There were 2,255 applicants in the competition. A total of 322 students were named semifinalists and 93 were named regional finalists, representing 25 states. Another 63 students were named semifinalists and 16 students in New York State were named regional finalists, the largest number for any state.