What a relief that the sun finally came out! I don’t know anyone who could take the bleak rainy weekends any longer. We finally got our wish with the beautiful, sunny July 4 weekend. The Ocean Beach Park Fire Department had a community fundraiser barbecue on Independence Day. This year there was a wait to get a table on the back deck due to the huge turn out. Congratulations to the Fire Department for a great community event.
The Brookhaven Highway Department has completed construction of the staircases along the beach. A big thank you to Manny Lopez, the beach foreman, Eddie Keiffert and crew, from the highway department who built the best staircases we ever had in Ocean Bay Park.
Winnie Grant, Steven Jaffe, Bartley Horton and Steven Placilla attended the Fire Island Association meeting in the Pines. Please go to the FIA Web site to read the meeting’s notes at www.fireislandassn.org.
The Ocean Bay Park Association had a community meeting on July 12h. There was a motion made at the meeting to circulate a petition throughout the community to increase our police protection.  If you would like the notes from the meeting or to receive emails with updates from the association, please go to www.obpassociation.org and sign up with your email address.
The Gourmet Fair is being held at the Fire House on Aug. 15 from noon to 3 p.m. The event is being renamed the Lillian Laikind Gourmet Fair, in her honor. Letters to the community, along with raffle tickets, have been mailed. The entire community is invited to participate in the only fundraising event for the association. Donations are being solicited door to door by the block captains. Hot dogs, Hamburgers and Alan’s famous Chili will be sold. There will be a silent auction including theatre tickets, Winnie’s beautiful handmade gift baskets, restaurant gift certificates, bikes, wagons, art work and jewelry. Homemade food donated by your neighbors, may be purchased at the Fair. We hope the entire community will get together to support Ocean Bay Park. Please join us once again. If you have an item to donate for the Silent Auction please contact Alan Schankweiler at 583-8673.
OBP Friends and Family: Longtime friends of many in OBP, Gwen and Cliff Cobb, along with Keith and Karen Ballard, are staying at the Gurrerra’s guest house for a week in July.
Guzzy and Jimmy Grashow’s daughter Zoe Klein had a reading of her new book “Drawing in the Dust” at Barnes and Noble on Broadway. More than 100 friends and family members attended, many from Fire Island. The after party was held on CPW at Jay and Robin Lewis' from Seaview.
Winnie Grant’s nephew, Alex Lichtenstein, who is an actor, just completed a pilot that got picked up for Fox’s fall lineup called "Past Lives." He is looking forward to coming to the beach in August.
Ricky and Joel Mandel had the entire family, including his lovely mother, out for a long weekend. Daughter Sarah had just flown in from Israel.
Bernie Weil’s daughter Amanda is in for a visit from Charleston, S.C. Both he and Norma are looking forward to spending time with Jack and Ben.
Jeff and Janet Lewis’ daughter Leslie is not spending much time on Fire Island this summer. She is too busy jet setting to Paris and Cannes.
Taylor Siegel graduated from Trinity and will be going to Lehigh University in the Fall. The Siegels hosted a graduation luncheon with Eileen and Chloe Slobotkin as well as Patsy and Lilly Polatchek. Pete Siegel opened up a new location of Gotta Have It in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Soho.
Ed and Wendi Schechter had their niece and nephew, Dayna and Randy Brandoff, out for a few visits this summer.  Another frequent guest, Jeff Feverstein, enjoyed a weekend retreat with his college buddies.
Janet Lewis hosted a dinner party in Manhattan celebrating Jeff’s 70th birthday—he doesn’t look a day over 55. Felice Andon celebrated a special birthday with friends and a champagne and dessert get together.
Joe and Yusi Gurrera had their grandson Michael out. What a wonderful time he had playing in the wagon on the bay. (Please see photo).
Amy Horowitz had her good friend and former coworker Rachael Hager staying with her.
Fran and Wally Lobo have had a lot of family out. Nephew Scott came for a visit right before getting married on July 18. Their other nephew Josh is getting married in October. Fran’s mother, sister Lenore and husband Alan, along with friends Linda and Jimmy, celebrated Alan’s promotion at Valley National Bank.
The Slobodkins' nephews came in from Philadelphia. Daughter Chloe came in from Villanova. She will be getting ready for her sophomore year. How time flies.
Community Events: The Inn Between hosted an arts and crafts show; the first that Ocean Bay Park has held in many years. It was a beautiful afternoon that showcased some of our local, talented artists. Fran Miller has taken her Fire Island photos and enhanced them with Photoshop and superimposed such items as the ferry schedule and airplanes on the photos creating beautiful pieces of art. She would have sold out in the first half an hour, but she instead took orders to deliver them personally so she could keep more on hand. Rita Addo had Lou’s beautiful note cards and brought the portfolio of his work. There were so many that that no one had seen before. Eleanor Ellix was showing her green friendly shopping bags and carriers. Jeannie Jackson made some gorgeous necklaces, brackets and earrings. Carol Ann Miller made beautiful handmade jewelry with gem stones. Linda Nielson made miniscapes of people’s lives in miniature. The artists were all from Ocean Bay Park with the exception of a few from Point o' Woods and the Fire Island Summer Club. Be sure to look for Rita, Fran and Eleanor at the Ocean Beach Craft Fair.
The Wounded Warrior cocktail party was held at the Ocean Beach Community House on July 24. A donation from the OBP Association was given to them as well as a good number of individuals from OBP bought tickets to the event. The OBP Fire Department bought tickets as a donation and gave them to some of their members so they could attend.
Well, that’s it until next month. Let the good times, good friends and good laughs keep coming.

 

Memorial Day weekend started as usual with welcome back to the island cocktails Friday at 5 p.m. at Flynn’s happy hour. It seemed like the entire community was there. The Ladies Auxiliary Plant Sales fundraiser was on Saturday morning at the Fire House. It opened at 9 a.m. with the crowd gathering outside at 8:30. Once again it was a major success and was sold out in record time. There is talk for next year to be able to place your orders in advance. Contact any auxiliary member with your email.
OBP typically has the white elephant sale at the Fire House, but this year it was canceled because it was held in Seaview on June 6. Both OBP and Seaview bargain hunters were spotted going back multiple times.
Lillian Laikind is expected back to the island by the Fourth of July weekend. We loved the articles that she did for the other Fire Island paper and will miss her humor and knowledge now that she has stepped down. We do look forward to her arrival.
 Fitness: Ocean Bay Park residents seem to be extremely fitness orientated. We have our baseball team that battles it out with Seaview at the end of every season.  They are out on the field practicing every weekend. We have our daily tennis matches which continue throughout the summer until Labor Day weekend, crowning the king and queen of the courts. Cami and Lisa teach yoga at Island Yoga which is taught at the boathouse in Ocean Beach. Annie has been teaching aerobics for 20 years in Ocean Beach with her creative and inventive classes.
Fire Island Fitness just opened in Ocean Beach where the children’s game- room used to be. They have the latest and greatest spin bikes. I went to try out the class and it was like riding a stationary spin bike but it moved left to right like a real bike so that you had to balance. You can take individual classes or join for the season. Besides the bikes they have treadmills, cross trainers and weights. It’s great to have a gym close by. We wish Josephine the owner the best of luck.
We also have our runners and joggers all along the walks. Some are in training for the 5K Run for Rose, which is going to take place on Aug. 9.
Our swimmers and surfers are out there every day. So no matter what your sport of choice is, we have it all.
If you have a chance to go down Cayuga on the way to the market, please look around and notice the beautiful brick work and planters. On Cayuga, Nonda and Jeff did the most beautiful job with their garden and property transforming the space into a beautiful peaceful oasis.
Community updates: The old broken garbage containers have been replaced with new ones by the OBP Asociation. Do you know that garbage pickup is paid for out of the homeowner’s taxes? Everyone is allowed to call Tony’s Barge to pick up one to two large bulk items per week. The corner receptacles are meant to prevent littering. Please do not add your garbage to the public corners.
There are now new lights on the ferry dock opposite the police booth and new concrete on the walk.
The courtesy cart has been given to the OBP Association from the Ocean Beach Community Fund. The Association pays for the insurance on the cart.  It is now in operation. Please refer to the rules of the cart in the directory (Page 24) or on www.obpassociation.org . The call in number is (516) 659-2086.
The staircases on the beach will be installed after the piping plover symbolic fence is removed on July 1.
The OBP Fire Department had its annual physical on June 6. We are sure everyone passed with flying colors.
Temple Talk: The Fire Island Synagogue is looking forward to a dynamic summer. Join Saturday services, educational “Breakfasts with the Rabbi,” the children’s program and much, much more.
Upcoming Events: The annual Fourth of July barbeque at the Fire House will be on July 4 from noon to 5 p.m.  All of our favorite BBQ items will be sold. I look forward to the raw clams on the half shell. They will also have a raffle.
The OBP Assoc.’s summer meeting is being held at the Fire House on Sunday, July 12, at 11 a.m. On July 18, at the Inn-Between there will be a mini art show from 2 – 5 p.m. Fran Miller will be showing her wonderful photos. Rita Addo will be selling Lou’s note cards and showing his whimsical sketches. Eleanor will be showing a variety of decorative “green” tote bags. In August they also plan on going into the Ocean Beach Art Show. I know I’ll be making some purchases. On July 25, there is the Ladies Auxiliary annual cocktail ball at the Fire House. This year’s theme is “Woodstock” so get those 60’s outfits and wigs ready.
Let the good times, good friends and good laughs keep coming.