By Anessa V. Cohen

 Here we are, just before Yom Kippur, and I was thinking back on the past year and all the different changes in the community. It had never occurred to me that things in our midst continue like an ongoing television series. But when you think about it, that is what happens!

New stores and restaurants pop up all over Central Avenue and its environs, while stores we have become used to as fixtures in our lives close, such as Brach’s and OfficeMax, to name two.

Every week it seems something new is happening that becomes the conversation topic of the week–until something newer takes its place. At this point everyone takes for granted the free parking provided by Seasons in the municipal parking lot behind the store; but before Seasons started feeding the meters for its customers, where did we ever have meter-fed free parking for shopping at a store in town?

I still look around for Mayor Parise’s car as I drive around Cedarhurst. A real missing fixture in town after so many years of our taking his leadership for granted. No matter his age, he would be out there checking on everything, coming up with new ways to beautify Cedarhurst.

Anyone driving by the old Number 6 School, now the soon-to-be new headquarters of HALB, regularly tries to picture how it will look when the construction is complete. Parents who send their children to HALB on those daily commutes to Long Beach wait with great anticipation for the day the school opens here and the ride changes to a short hop from wherever they live in town. Here in Cedar Bay Park and the Woodmere side of Branch Boulevard, many wait to see how the new school will affect the neighborhood locally, with all the new activity after the building was shuttered for so long.

Everyone realizes that the opening of the relocated yeshiva will bring even more life to our community, so much so that now Seasons is opening a Seasons Express on Branch Boulevard and Peninsula Boulevard across the street from HALB. It’s another new topic of conversation as we talk about what that will look like. This will replace the old gasoline station and empty stores that seem to have been sitting there for years, waiting for someone to wake up and finally do something on that corner.

On the other side of town, talk continues on the possibility of the Woodmere Golf Course being subdivided into lots with 150 houses to be built. There has not been too much real talk about this yet since I think it is still in the discussion stages, but I am sure we will be hearing more on this subject eventually.

All of this activity gives us much to look forward to this year. And because the Five Towns seems to never sleep, this is probably only the beginning of the new things happening in our community.

Shanah tovah u’metukah to all!

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a licensed real-estate broker and a licensed N.Y.S. mortgage broker with over 20 years of experience, offering full-service residential and commercial real-estate services (Anessa V Cohen Realty) and mortgaging services (FM Home Loans) in the Five Towns and throughout the tri-state area. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 or via her website, www.AVCrealty.com. Readers are encouraged to send questions or comments to anessa@AVCrealty.com.

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