OBMSA in the news

2023

The renovation of Fireman’s Field in Oyster Bay is underway, as the asphalt parking lot gets a long overdue makeover. Over the next several months, the field will see environmental and pedestrian upgrades to the space as it turns from an eyesore to a more aesthetic and useful part of the community.
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Thanks to an influx of funding from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the town has finally been able to make improvements to Fireman’s Field that it had been considering for the last decade. The town had previously considered remaking the field in 2011, however that plan ultimately fell apart.

The project costs roughly $3.6 million and is expected to be completed in early October, Rich LaMarca, the town’s clerk, said in a statement. It is being overseen by Cameron Engineering & Associates L.L.C., a Woodbury-based company.

“Town of Oyster Bay officials developed the initial project concept and then consulted multiple Oyster Bay hamlet civic groups for comment prior to proceeding,” LaMarca stated. Continued...
It has been another great summer in the books for downtown Oyster Bay, even through the rainy days and unprecedented low air quality.

Because of where the downtown Oyster Bay is located, it’s not a spot that people would pass through unless they were going there. But lately, community members have been seeing more and more people taking day trips to Oyster Bay, enjoying restaurants like 2 Spring, Wild Honey, Stellina Ristorante and Teddy’s Bully Bar; Breweries like Oyster Bay Brewing Co. and, of course, the new wine bar, The Wine Line. And besides just food and drink, visitors can take a sailboat or a paddle ride courtesy of the WaterFront Center or a walk along Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park.

And for the history buffs, Oyster Bay was once home to many historical figures, including Robert Townsend, an American Revolutionary spy and the former President Theodore Roosevelt. You can learn all about them, and other interesting historical facts, at the Oyster Bay Historical Society, Raynham Hall and the Oyster Bay Rail Road Museum. Continued...
Once again Fridays in July and the first two weeks of August people were found dancing the night away at Dancing in the Street, made possible by the Oyster Bay Main Street Association, a grassroots and non-profit organization who host the event.

Celebrating its 12th year, the free music and dance event has become more and more popular. It was originally born out of the Main Street’s mission to promote historic downtown Oyster Bay by providing initiatives and events for the community and visitors.

“At the heart of any downtown revitalization is community,” Meredith Maus, the association’s executive director said. “One of the best ways to foster that feeling of community is to bring people together.”
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There is hope that by coming to an event, people will also want to experience one of the local restaurants or visit the many shops in the hamlet. Maus said people were disappointed when Dancing was canceled during the coronavirus pandemic. It came back in 2021.
“It was so well received then, and people were just so excited to be able to come out and be back together,” Maus recalled. “Honestly, it was great.”
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The Town of Oyster Bay and Empire State Ride Long Island hosted Long Island’s largest charity bike ride to raise funds for clinical research and trials that will benefit cancer patients at Catholic Health on Long Island and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Over the past two years this event has raised over $200,000 to support cancer research and clinical trials.

Held on July 22, the ride featured three different course lengths for riders of all ages and abilities. All course routes began in downtown Oyster Bay and featured a ride through beautiful beaches, woodlands and historic destinations, including Theodore Roosevelt’s home at Sagamore Hill, in and around the town’s North Shore.

2022

Whether it’s for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza, people around the country are getting ready to celebrate this holiday season. In Oyster Bay, nothing puts people in a festive spirit like the hamlet’s Holiday Stroll and Tree Lighting.

Organized by the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Chamber of Commerce, the Main Street Association, and Dawn Riley, from Oakcliff Sailing, the event was originally called the Holiday Market and focused around the bandstand. Like with everything else, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the organizers to adapt by spreading the market across Audrey Avenue as well, turning it into a “stroll” through town.
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“This was enacted actually as a way to control crowds and enforce social distancing, but it has become so popular we decided to keep it,” Meredith Maus, executive director for the Main Street, explained. “This really helps our brick and mortar stores and has only served to grow the event.”
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The Oyster Bay Main Street Association has been in operation for over two decades, helping to invigorate the economy while preserving the integrity of the historic hamlet. Although it’s known for its current efforts, the organization has a history of supporting local businesses.

The association was formed in 2000, and its original six-person board met at the Bookmark Café, a space now occupied by Wild Honey. Its members were brought together by David Lamb, a landscape architect with family roots in Oyster Bay, and his wife, Daria.
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Lamb had spent time in Washington, D.C., in the late 1990s with George O’Neil, a village trustee, learning about the National Main Street Center program. Developed in 1977, its purpose was to economically empower historic communities and support businesses that maintain the cultural and architectural heritage of places like Oyster Bay.  
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Oyster Bay restaurants are booming in 2022
If you want the truth, so goes the adage, follow the money. But if you want the truth about Oyster Bay — along with clues to its resurgence — it’s Johnny Verrelli’s chicken cutlets you need to follow, which is interesting, not least because there is no such person. Johnny Verrelli is the nom de consume of Simeon Cruz, a short, bald man from Honduras, whose nickname comes courtesy Verrelli’s Market, where Cruz worked the deli counter for 30 years, during which time Oyster Bay lost its collective heart to his cutlet sandwiches. Eventually, Johnny, or Yanny as Cruz spells it, became a hero to those with hero cravings, and a local legend by the time the market met its pandemic-hastened demise in 2020.
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"I’ve made chicken cutlets for the whole city," said Cruz with a smile when nally tracked down. "The people are crazy for them." Though chicken cutlets were all he knew — on a busy day he made 1,500 of them — Cruz quickly pivoted, opening a demolition business, Yanny Demolitions, with a Verrelli’s co-worker. Eventually, Oyster Bay missed him too much, and he was conscripted for sandwich-making at La Favorita, a nearby Italian specialty market. Until November, that is, when that closed too.

"Johnny was Verrelli’s big draw," said Meredith Maus, executive director of the Oyster Bay Main Street Association.  Continued...

2021

Despite the clouds and wind last Saturday, Santa and a few determined volunteers brought Christmas cheer to Oyster Bay. The sixth annual Holiday Market and Tree Lighting offered hundreds of people, coming from Mill Neck, Manhattan and points in between, the chance to enjoy the season and support the hamlet.

Stretching the length of Audrey Avenue, the event turned Oyster Bay into a Christmas village and bazaar. Whether it was the main event — the speeches, the lighting of the tree and Santa’s arrival — or the parents’ lounge, the ice rink, the dance performances or the holiday market stands, this year’s event was enjoyed by many.

Much of its success was owing to Dawn Riley, executive director of Oakcliff Sailing and the tree-lighting coordinator. Along with her sailors, who formed the core of the volunteers, Riley made sure the market would happen, rain or shine.
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“We have fire pits, warming stations and all of the stores open, spilling their wares onto the streets for a festive setting,” she said. “At Oakcliff Sailing we know how to deal with weather, so we have foul-weather gear and umbrellas if people need them.” Continued...