PRESS POINTS

Horace Mann backs off historic home

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Horace Mann School administrators have withdrawn plans — at least for now — to renovate a landmark-protected home at 4456 Tibbett Ave.

The school had approached Community Board 8’s land use committee earlier in the month to turn the one-time residence of the late attorney Arthur Dillon into a college recruitment center for its older students.

The school received some pushback from committee members not only about this particular house, but other neighboring properties Horace Mann has gobbled up in recent years, especially along Tibbett.

“Slowly but surely you’re turning that portion of Fieldston into a college or high school campus,” land use committee chair Charles Moerdler told the school administrators earlier this month. He added that removing the Dillon home “from a residential community ... has a historic effect.”

Administrators maintained that while houses are turning into school building, the street’s visual aesthetic remains intact.

 

Williams wants funeral rules relaxed

No one wants to know anyone who has died from complications related to the coronavirus. But for those who do have to receive tragic news like this, ensuring a funeral and burial that meets the family’s wishes has been difficult to come by.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has asked state health commissioner Howard Zucker to relax rules requiring a licensed funeral director to remove bodies from morgues, expanding it to allow any paid employee of the funeral home to do so.

This, Williams says, will help alleviate some of the overcrowding of hospital morgues, and prevent delays with families looking to mourn the loss of a loved one.

“With this change in place, more families would be granted the dignity of giving their loved ones an individual burial,” Williams wrote in his letter to Zucker.

As of Tuesday, New York has reported 17,638 deaths related to complications from the virus that causes COVID-19.

Horace Mann School, Community Board 8, CB8, Charles Moerdler, Jumaane Williams, Howard Zucker, Michael Hinman,

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