Rockaway Times

08/22/2025

Beach Sessions: Dancing On Sand

On Saturday, August 23, the shore and sand off the boardwalk at Beach 112th Street will come alive as Beach Sessions, Rockaway’s own professional dance series, leaps into its 11th year. Starting at 6 p.m., the beach will become its stage and the ocean its backdrop.

The performance is free and open to the public.

Previous Beach Sessions presentations have seen dancers moving along the beach, the jetties and even into the waves as part of its performances. Last year, about 1,000 beachgoers became a part of the event as they followed along with the professional dancers who emerged from disparate points on the beach to draw closer and closer, ending with a group finale set in the rolling surf.

This year, 18 performers will bring to life a new work by choreographer Kin Brandt. A Beach Sessions’ release notes, it “draws on the mutable textures of sand, sea, and sky,” while playing on the ideas of space and perception, transforming the beach “from a static backdrop into a dynamic field of shifting” landscapes.

The dance itself “resists fixed positioning,” but instead opens itself up to explore the ideas of “transience, erosion, and emergence.” As Beach Sessions explains, “Brandt invites viewers to consider not only what defines a boundary, but how the very act of definition is a temporary, shifting condition—contingent on environment, context, and collective presence.
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By Dan Guarino On Saturday, August 23, the shore and sand off the boardwalk at Beach 112th Street will come alive as Beach Sessions, Rockaway’s own professional dance series, leaps into its 11th year. Starting at 6 p.m., the beach will become its stage and the ocean its backdrop. The performance i...

08/21/2025

Neponsit Adult Day Health Care to Close Sept. 19

The Neponsit Adult Day Health Care Center (ADHC) is officially closing. This week, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) announced it approved the application by the NYC Health + Hospitals to permanently close the Center, located at Beach 101st Street in Rockaway Park. The official date for closure is September 19, 2025.

In November 2024, clients were sent home with a letter about the impending closure of the only facility on the peninsula that provides services like nursing, physical therapy, nutrition assessment, occupational therapy, medical social services, psychosocial assessment, rehabilitation and socialization, for adults with medical needs, in one place. NYC Health + Hospitals said the decision was “influenced by factors such as inadequate Medicaid funding, declining utilization, and a growing demand for alternative services, such as Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Programs (CDPAP) and the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).”

Objections from the clients, caretakers, family members, staff and elected officials led to a delay in the closure, originally planned for March 31, 2025, but it wasn’t enough. At a March town hall with Health and Hospitals on the decision, outgoing Chief Executive Officer for NYC Health and Hospitals/McKinney, David Weinstein, was asked if the Center would be viable if enrollment improved, to which Weinstein said, “Even if I get 120 more people to join and get the total registrants to the capacity of 150, averaging 50 registrants a day, the program would still lose half a million dollars a year. All of these programs are going to close.” The NYSDOH approval this week was the final nail in the coffin for the Neponsit Adult Day Health Care Center.

Senator James Sanders Jr. announced the news in a press release, saying, “I strongly disagree with the decision by the New York State Department of Health to shut down the Neponsit Adult Day Health Care Center, which has been serving the community for many years providing invaluable services for seniors and their family members. Despite my efforts and many others to prevent this from happening, I believe this is a shortsighted decision that is not to the benefit of the community. I will work to make sure that the registrants of the center are given assistance to find alternative services.”

Councilwoman Joann Ariola said, “I’m deeply disappointed by the decision to shut down the center. Rockaway is already underserved when it comes to adult services, and now dozens of our neighbors will be forced to travel farther from home just to get the care they need. This decision did not have to happen. There were other options on the table, and the state chose to ignore them. Our community deserves so much better, this is simply unfair.”
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By Katie McFadden The Neponsit Adult Day Health Care Center (ADHC) is officially closing. This week, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) announced it approved the application by the NYC Health + Hospitals to permanently close the Center, located at Beach 101st Street in Rockaway Park. T...

08/21/2025

Beaches will be closed to swimming tomorrow, 8/22.

08/21/2025

Erin Go “Surf’s Up, Brah!”
Hurricane Erin is still working its way up north and isn’t predicted to hit land but she’s been powerful enough to close the beaches to swimmers and make it a playground for experienced surfers. Here’s some of the action from today.

08/20/2025

Beaches are closed for swimming but lifeguards are NOT off duty and not off of the beach today and tomorrow! They’re out there in the rain, making sure swimmers stay out of the water and don’t chance it with Hurricane Erin’s waves and rip currents.
Please don’t make their jobs harder this week!

08/19/2025

BEACHES CLOSED WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY

Due to the risk of rip currents due to Hurricane Erin out at sea, beaches are closed to swimming on 8/20 and 8/21

08/18/2025

A Miracle on 134th Street

On Saturday, August 9, neighbors on the beach block of Beach 134th could enjoy their porches in peace after two decades of dealing with an alleged nightmare neighbor. This followed an afternoon of a disturbance that looked like something out of a movie as NYPD, ESU, FDNY and the Department of Buildings took action to vacate and seal a home at 177 Beach 134th Street on Friday. The neighbors are thanking Councilwoman Joann Ariola’s office for finally resolving this issue.

“I can use my backyard again,” neighbor Samuel Epstein said. “This was a major restriction on our quality of life.”

Councilwoman Joann Ariola says one of the first issues she heard about after being elected for her second term, was about an alleged unruly neighbor on Beach 134th Street. “He had, since Hurricane Sandy, never put his utilities back on, he never did remediation, and he had become a danger to himself and the community,” she told The Rockaway Times. The he in question is allegedly Adam Kartiganer.

Epstein had experienced firsthand the growing issues with direct neighbor, Kartiganer, for the last 20 years. “I knew the family very well. But his grandparents passed, his mother passed, and he inherited the house and never put a penny into it. He is a trust fund baby from Los Angeles, and he moved here in 2003, but he has some emotional problems. He had driven four cars from LA and parked them in the driveway and didn’t move them for 23 years. When I asked him about it, he said, ‘I don’t want anyone visiting me.’” That unfriendly behavior exacerbated over the years.

Epstein says one of the most disruptive activities was Kartiganer turning on a generator after Hurricane Sandy—and never turning it off. “He was always running an old generator and it was very loud. He ran it for several hours a day near my windows and it was absolute torture,” Epstein said. “I could not sit in my backyard or my porch. He was emboldened because we called 311 and we were told he was in his legal right to run the generator until 10 at night.”

But Kartiganer was becoming a danger to himself and others. “He did not have water, heat, and he was sh*tting in a bag and putting it in our garbage cans,” Epstein said. And then his behavior allegedly became violent, to a point that Epstein had an order of protection against Kartiganer after he allegedly threatened him, which Epstein says he violated. He also claims Kartiganer harassed another neighbor’s son, following him with a baseball bat, and the last straw is when Kartiganer turned up the heat. “He was burning his grass with a blow torch,” Epstein said.

Despite a slurry of 911 calls, 311 complaints, an order of protection, and even Kartiganer being deemed “incapacitated” and appointed a court-ordered guardian, things documented in court filings, the behavior continued. “This should’ve been taken care of way long ago, but Adult Protective Services ruled that he had partial protective services because he could speak and represent himself, but anyone analyzing him knew he was not of sound mind,” Epstein said.
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By Katie McFadden On Saturday, August 9, neighbors on the beach block of Beach 134th could enjoy their porches in peace after two decades of dealing with an alleged nightmare neighbor. This followed an afternoon of a disturbance that looked like something out of a movie as NYPD, ESU, FDNY and the De...

08/17/2025

Researching Broad Channel

Over the years, Broad Channel has attracted photographers, documentarians, journalists and others seeking to know more about this island community.

Most recently, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Olivia Fiol and Broad Channel native Peyton Nerys have each chosen to base their research projects here, exploring the Channel’s past and its future.

Originally from Tampa, Florida, Fiol recently graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master’s degree in city planning. For her master’s thesis, she focused on Broad Channel, “the only inhabited island community in New York City’s Jamaica Bay, which is on the front lines of sea level rise and tidal flooding in the city.” During 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, nearly the entirety of the island was submerged under flood waters as deep as 6-8 feet. Even now, frequent high tides, often flooding into Broad Channel’s streets, are carefully observed and prepared for in the neighborhood.

“Planning for climate change is more relevant than ever,” Fiol said in her paper, “as the earth continues to warm, sea levels rise, and no global policy or political will is in sight. In order to plan under hostile circumstances, it is of the utmost importance that planners turn our attention to the hyper-local scale, continuing momentum in our personal and professional relationships.”

Why Broad Channel? “For my thesis, I worked with the Director of Climate and Sustainability at the (NYC) Department of City Planning, Michael Marrella. I knew I wanted to write about the impacts of increased coastal flooding in New York, as well as residents’ emotional experiences of home and place, and he thought Broad Channel would be a great place to better understand how those themes interweave.”

For Fiol, though, the subject wasn’t just academic. “Growing up in Florida,” she notes, “experiencing hurricanes was relatively normal. Often, my birthday coincided with a storm and had to be rescheduled. From a distance, I understood, practically, how consequential Sandy was for the lives of New Yorkers.”
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By Dan Guarino Over the years, Broad Channel has attracted photographers, documentarians, journalists and others seeking to know more about this island community. Most recently, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Olivia Fiol and Broad Channel native Peyton Nerys have each chosen to base...

08/15/2025

Shakespeare on the Rocks to Bring ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to Life

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” From Thursday, August 21 through Sunday, August 24, Romeo and Juliet will be right at the Beach 94th Amphitheater as Shakespeare on the Rocks makes their debut performance.

The Bard has made his presence known in recent years on the peninsula, with Shakespeare on the Beach bringing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to the Amphitheater in August 2023, the Rockaway Theatre Company producing a play about the making of a film adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” called “Shakespeare in Hollywood,” in September 2024, and this summer, a new organization, Shakespeare on the Rocks, is picking up the script and bringing “Romeo and Juliet” to the stage.

Some may remember Rob Bryn’s memorable, spirited performance as Bottom in the 2023 performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” “I loved playing Bottom, and I fell in love with the theater again,” Bryn said. Now the Wild Yaks vocalist is more on the top side of things as co-producer of this year’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

Co-producer Elwin Cuevas, a longtime actor who has appeared on tv shows like “FBI,” “The Blacklist” and “SVU,” had moved to Rockaway about three years ago, and was on his way to being a part of Shakespeare on the Beach’s next performance of “Twelfth Night,” which ultimately fizzled. However, dealing with his best friend dying at the time, Cuevas wanted to engross himself in something positive and keep Shakespeare going. Many pointed Cuevas in the direction of Bryn, based on his past performance. “With Rob in the Wild Yaks and me 25 years as an actor, we decided to combine our skills and rally people to put on an organized production. There was a lot lacking in the last production and we wanted to provide something more stable,” Cuevas said. That would turn into a production with lights, sound, including actors with wireless microphones, live music, backdrops, costumes and more.

Cuevas and Bryn quickly formed a great friendship, and back in March, they set out to do Shakespeare justice. They settled on “Romeo and Juliet,” one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, as they thought it would be “easy” since it’s so well-known. It’s also a production Bryn has fond memories of playing a Montague servant and guardsmen in a Kenyon College production, alongside Josh Radnor, who played Romeo and went on to star in “How I Met your Mother.”

Taking it seriously, Cuevas and Bryn took an intensive class in May, led by actor and director, Amy Michelle, to hone in their Shakespeare skills. Then, in June, they set out to find their Romeo, Juliet, Montagues, Capulets and more. Co-directors, Rob Bryn decided to play Friar Laurence, while Cuevas will take on Friar John. Through a request for video auditions and seeking out actors through Backstage.com, the roles started to fill with everyone from well-known Rockaway characters like Owen Loof, the Best Dressed Man in Rockaway as Prince, car salesman Jerry Rea as Lord Montague, and drag performer Ginger Ladd as Lady Capulet, to others who weren’t familiar with Rockaway. “We wanted, from the onset, a combination of Rockaway characters and people from outside of Rockaway who were good at acting but wouldn’t immediately be familiar with the community,” Bryn said.

They found their Romeo and Juliet in young actors, Ellington-Blue Chapman, a 20-year-old surf instructor for Locals, who will play Romeo, and Jeneice Brown, a talented young actress from Brooklyn, who has been building her film and theater resume since 2021. “Ellington is incredible. He’s so talented and focused and enthusiastic,” Bryn said. “Jeneice, her cadence and everything is great,” Cuevas said.

The large cast also includes Peyton Housten as Lord Capulet, Catherine Yaeger as Nurse, Charlene Ruscalleda as Lady Montague, Lauren Harrison, their fight choreographer, as Benvolio and Balthazar, Myles Rich as Mercutio, Seamus O’Sullivan as Tybalt, Sydney Reeddeleon as Peter, Abishek Ojha as Paris, Vera Kahn as Abraham, Josh Armstrong as Gregory, Eric Dahl as Sampson, and Steve Hyltons as the Apothecary. They are also supported by costume director, Sam Burgoon, intimacy coordinator Connor Percifield, music director Dave Treut, and assistant director, Scott Seward.
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https://www.rockawaytimes.com/shakespeare-on-the-rocks-to-bring-romeo-and-juliet-to-life/

By Katie McFadden “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” From Thursday, August 21 through Sunday, August 24, Romeo and Juliet will be right at the Beach 94th Amphitheater as Shakespeare on the Rocks makes their debut performance. The Bard has made his presence known in recent years on the p...

08/14/2025

Skudin Surf-Rockaway—Making Big Waves For All

“Long Beach — Rockaway Beach, same church different pew,” is a sentiment commonly shared by the neighboring beach-loving communities. And with Skudin Surf-Rockaway local grom, 14-year-old Charlie Gallo, not just qualifying for the U.S.A. Championships in California, but placing top 20 in the nation; plus, Robert Browne placing fourth at the U.S. Para Surfing Championships in California—for Jeff Anthony of Skudin Surf and its nonprofit arm, Surf for All, what binds the two beach enclaves is a shared faith in the trinity of ocean, surf and community.

Anthony grew up in and lives on the west end of the peninsula. His connection with the Skudin family started long before Skudin Surf’s founding in 2008.

He said, “I grew up on Beach 122nd Street. We didn’t have a swim team here, so my parents brought me out to Long Beach, where I competitively swam for the Long Beach Aquatic Tiger Sharks. A big contingent of Rockaway people would carpool to Long Beach as besides the St. Francis De Sales CYO team, we didn’t have a ‘serious’ swim team here. I met Will and Cliff Skudin on the swim team, and we just formed a bond. And as we got older, we more loved our free time surfing in the ocean. I met Will when I was eight years old, and he was seven, and we became really good friends.

“Will chased the big wave professional surfing world, while his older brother, Cliff, and I went to college swimming competitively.”

Will and Cliff Skudin are both globally ranked as top big wave surfers, but Anthony has wave cred of his own. He’s won enough contests to garner a sponsorship from apparel brand Quiksilver. And in 2009, became the first and only NYC resident to be crowned the East Coast Surfing champ. However, after getting a “real job,” digging on excavator barges on waterways—a chance meeting with Will Skudin in Rincón, brought life full circle for them.

“I was still doing some private surf coaching and ran into Will in Puerto Rico on a coaching trip. Admittedly, I was getting unhealthy. Will looked at me, after seeing me a little bigger than I’d been before, he made a comment, ‘Come on, you gotta get back in the game.’ After a few months of serious thought, I resigned my dredging job and got back into working with Skudin Surf and became the director right away. They worked it out to where I was running Skudin’s Rockaway location because well, I’m the Rockaway local. That was 13 years ago, and I’ve been running Skudin-Rockaway Surf Camp ever since,” Anthony said.

For Anthony, who has over 25 years of surf coaching and judging under his board, his passion is seeing how years of mentorship reaps rewards with Skudin’s competitive wave riders like Charlie Gallo and Robert Browne.

With Skudin’s grom, Gallo, from catching her first wave—to this year being sponsored by surfing brand, Hurley, placing top 20 in the nation at the 2025 USA Surfing Championships—Gallo is a testament to Skudin’s passion to pass the board on to the next wave of surfers.
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By Kami-Leigh Agard “Long Beach — Rockaway Beach, same church different pew,” is a sentiment commonly shared by the neighboring beach-loving communities. And with Skudin Surf-Rockaway local grom, 14-year-old Charlie Gallo, not just qualifying for the U.S.A. Championships in California, b...

08/14/2025

Fr. Gabriel Shares His ‘Voice of Love’

In 2021, Father Gabriel Okeke was assigned to St. Francis de Sales Church in Belle Harbor, where he has been assisting and leading weekday summer Masses since. And with him, he brought his God-given gift of his voice, often singing during Masses. Now he’s bringing his “Voice of Love” into homes, with an album he released just last month. And donations for the album go towards spreading that gift to others, as Fr. Gabriel continues to support and grow a music academy for youth in his homeland of Igboland in Nigeria.

Father Gabriel, native name Dozie Okeke, knew from a very young age that he would dedicate his life to God. He explained that Christianity grew in Igboland in the 1860s, due to Irish missionaries. Today, Igboland remains entirely Christian, predominantly Catholic, while Christians are being persecuted in north Nigeria, where Islam is the predominant religion.

For Fr. Gabriel, Catholicism was in his roots. “I grew up Catholic. I was given the name Gabriel when I was baptized at three months,” he said. At just 4 years old, he became an altar server. “We expose children to Catholicism early. Being in the church, I started desiring to be like the priests at the time. Our priest, Father Ezeobata, was such a good man. He would sing the whole Mass from beginning to end with a wonderful voice, and I knew seeing him, I would one day become a priest,” he said.

At just 10 years old, Fr. Gabriel entered the minor seminary. “It spans six years, from when you are 10 to when you are 16,” Fr. Gabriel said. At 17, he entered the senior seminary, and by the time he was 27, in 2010, Fr. Gabriel was ordained as a priest.

Also at a young age, Fr. Gabriel found his singing voice, something in his blood. “My mom is the choir mistress for the village. She teaches songs and conducts the Mass on Sundays. So, when I was like 2 or 3, she would take me to the back where the choir stays. All of us in my family sing,” Fr. Gabriel said. “From childhood, I was very gifted in music. We had a group of children come together from every block to pray the rosary in the evening, and we would do competitions, something established by the Irish missionaries. At 6 years old, I went for a competition, and they were searching for who would conduct the choir. I won the first prize as best conductor at 6,” he said. He also soon started singing at Masses. “They discovered that I had a wonderful voice and made me choir master at 11,” he said. And by age 15, Fr. Gabriel was composing his own music, writing his own songs. As he entered the senior seminary, Fr. Gabriel started working on his own album and by age 21, he had released his first. “I felt like I had arrived,” he said.

Fr. Gabriel had been teaching choirs, leading his archdiocese’s music department, and wrote some songs. During this time, he created a music academy for youth in Igboland called Kids-Angelica. But he didn’t find real inspiration to continue sharing his own gift until he came across a Bible passage in Matthew 25:15-21 about sharing talent with others. “I got inspiration from prayer. God was telling me to share my talent,” he said. At age 32, he released his second album.
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By Katie McFadden In 2021, Father Gabriel Okeke was assigned to St. Francis de Sales Church in Belle Harbor, where he has been assisting and leading weekday summer Masses since. And with him, he brought his God-given gift of his voice, often singing during Masses. Now he’s bringing his “Voice of...

08/13/2025

Several boats went on fire last night at Marina 59. Three people were injured, including a firefighter, who was taken to St. John’s Hospital.