a christmas eve Candlelight Service is being held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Garden City on December 24 at 5 pm. Meet and enjoy the company of other Catholic singles on the first Saturday of each month. Worship in Community at the 7:30 pm Mass in the Church, then gather for discussion, fellowship and pizza in the Upper School cafeteria. The next meeting is being held on January 1, at St. Aidan’s Church, 505 Willis Ave., Williston Park. Call 746-6585. $5 donation....a 6-hour defensive driving course for point reduction and insurance discounts is open to the public. Sponsored by Temple Emanuel, 3315 Hillside Avenue, west of Herricks Rd., classes are Monday, January 10 and Tuesday January 11, from 7 pm to 10 pm. Call Steve at 437-0705. Cost is $45....the Irish American society, 297 Willis Ave., Mineola will hold a New Year’s Eve party, at 8:30 pm on Friday, Dec. 31. Donation is $75 per person. Call 746-9392 to make a reservation....

police report: mischief & mayhem

on december 21, 1:45 pm, someone stole a laptop computer valued at $150 from a Kellum Place building....on december 20, 6:25 pm, a man described as black, wearing a white ski cap grabbed a handbag from a woman who was loading shopping bags into the trunk of her car, in the parking lot at Lord and Taylor. The woman yelled and the man dropped her pocketbook before police arrived. The bag and its contents were recovered....on dec. 18, 3:05 am, PO Oswald arrested a 21-year-old Rockaway man for alleged DWI (.11%), the failure to signal, tinted windows, no insurance and for alleged speeding, on Clinton Rd....on dec. 17, 4:06 pm, a 15-year-old Garden City youth was hit by a car being driven by a 17-year-old Hempstead man who left the scene at Clinton Rd./Brook Street. The driver was eventually apprehended and issued a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident with a personal injury....on december 15, 9 am to 2 pm, a wallet containing a credit card was stolen at Adelphi University....on december 8, PO Hickey arrested a 34-year-old Franklin Square man for alleged DWI (.10%) and for passing a red light on Nassau Boulevard....on dec. 19, PO Hickey arrested a 24-year-old Freeport man for alleged DWI (.14%) on Stewart Avenue....on december 13, between 4 pm and 6 pm, a Dell laptop valued at $1200 was stolen from an Old Country Road office....on december 14, 8:30 pm, police officers responded to the scene of a 3 car-accident on Stewart Ave./Cherry Valley Avenue. Evidently, a 58-year-old Oceanside woman had rear ended a car, which in turn had pushed a car in front of it, while pulling up to a red light there. The woman was arrested for alleged DWI and while officers investigated the scene - a fourth car, being operated by a 41-year-old Garden City man, struck the woman’s car. That motorist was also charged with alleged DWI (.22%)....

fire responses:

on december 14, FD answered a call for a structure fire at a Maple Street house and found that a fire that had occurred in a wastebasket there, was already extinguished. The occupant had burned feet and was taken to the burn center at NUMC....on december 16, firemen shut off power after an oil burner blow back occurred....an over heated circular pump in the basement of the BOCES building on Stewart Ave., set off an alarm, on December 16....an overflowing toilet caused a water leak at a Meadow Street residence on December 17....on december 18, smoke occurred in the basement of a Cambridge Avenue house because of low water in a boiler....on dec. 18, the FD assisted police at the scene of a car accident at First St./Rockaway Ave....firemen disconnected the power to a motor on a garage door that had overheated at a Third Street house on December 21....on the same day, the FD removed water form Bookspan, Franklin Ave....firefighters used over 250 gallons of water to extinguish flames in a LIPA utility van parked on Seventh St., on Dec. 21....That’s all this week. g.t.