1973-05-17

              to of the A » ifo OBSERVER s\ j
™ TBI RUNE W
v l j f Group of t ' l/
w'i Community *. ™ wr
^ Newspapers 1 ^
FARM'NGDALE
VH00
* * * * * * *
k\- 1
u ' v^ rycr AN OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE VILLAGE OF FARMINGDALE
SERVING THE GREATER FARMINGDALE. AREA, BETHPAGE AND MELVILLE
VOL. 10 NO. 39 Second Clan Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735
Published by THE OBSERVER, Inc., Box 146, Farmingdale, N. Y. Thursday. May 17, 1973 • 15<?
School Board Renews Pleas
For Increase in State Aid
Seemingly alarmed over the delay in any decision on State aid to
education in Albany, the Farmingdale board of education has
delivered an urgent appeal to the State Senator and the Assemblymen
representing the school district in the capital. The following letter,
signed by school board president Robert G. Campbell, was delivered
to State Senator Owen H. Johnson, Assemblymen Stuart R. Levine
and Philip Healeyas well as to Governor Nelson Rockefeller:
THEY DID IT: U- Do- It did it. Celebrated its grand opening last Saturday, that is. The
largest self- service auto center in the United States opened its facilities at 45 Route 110,
South Farmingdale. Soon, the center will offer U- Do- It courses lor men and women isee
also advertising on page 10). On hand for the opening were ( left to right) Sister Joan
Marese who teaches auto- mechanics at a Brooklyn High School, Don Draizin, president
of U- Do- It, Babylon Town Supervisor Aaron Barnett, Councilman candidate Raymond
Allmendinger, Vern Reed of the Amityville Kiwanis Club, Gerry Philbin, football star
and ( kneeling) Chick Levee, president of Steven Auto Part.* photo Hank Schleichkorn
PTA Council Protests Against
R and X- Rate Movie Fare
The Farmingdale PTA Council passed a resolution at its last meet­ing
voicing its protest to the fact that the Farmingdale Theatre on
Main Street is snowing a great number of R or X- rated movies lately.
According to the PTA Council objections were raised by all units in
Farmingdale who acted on behalf of " parents who have registered
their frustrations with the various PTA units."
The PTA Council states that " parents
are upset by the consistent lack of
suitable movie entertainment for
elementary school children on weekends,
especially during the rainy periods of
spring. The persistent offerings of R and
X- rated films shows a deliberate evading
of the theatre's responsibilities toward
this portion of the community in which
they are located. This theatre is not
isolated from families and their
youngsters in a shopping center but
easily accessible."
In their letter of protest the PTA
Council will also request that " the
theatre retrain from running clips of
coming attractions that contain morally
objectionable material or violent actions
as G- rated family entertainemment
movies as wellas at weekend and holiday
matinees. All too often, alter searching
out an acceptable film offering, parents
of young and pre- teenage children have
been shocked and dismayed to find their
youngsters exposed to the very examples
of undesirable behavior they had so
carefully sought to avoid."
" We run films the public wants to see,"
said Farmingdale Theatre manager TM
Kelly, when asked by the OB­SERVER.""
It is a fact that R or X- rated
films attract twice or three times as
many customers as G or GP rated
moves."
Kelly said that his theatre has been
running 2 p. m. children matinees on
Saturdays and Sundays for years now.
" We consider this a real service to the
community." he said, " because, frankly,
we are losing money on those programs.
We need about 400 youngsters to come to
our matinees in order to show some
profit. Anybody who has come to those
matinees knows that this does not happen
very often."
State law prohibits any youngsters
under 16 to enter the theatre alone after
6: 00 p. m. " This law is strictly upheld in
our theatre,' said Kelly. He also stated
that clips of coming attractions, so- called
trailers, have not been shown at Far­mingdale
for the last month, at least not
those calling attention to R or X- rated
films.
" We simply cannot do without R or X-rated
movies anymore," said Kelly,
pointing out that the theatre patrons
would miss out on many excellent
movies, such as the R- rated " French
Connection" which won numerous
Academy Awards. " 1 feel, everything is
being done on our part to keep children
away from films that parents feel are not
in their best interest." he concluded.
On May 2 our 1973- 74 school budget was
rejected by a vote of 2,039 to 1,930. This
result occurred despite the fact that this
budget reflected the smallest- percentage
expenditure increase ( 3.9 percent) in
many years.
Although our budgeted expenditure
total dollar increase was held down to the
lowest figure in our recent history, and to
even less than half of what it was three
and four years ago, our local school tax
rate had to be projected to rise ap­proximately
ten percent, from $ 14.29 per
hundred of assessed valuation this year
to $ 15.68 in the school year 1973- 74. For
the owner of an average cost home in our
district worth about .$ 28,000 and assessed
at $ 6,000 this projected tax rate means an
annual local school property tax bill of
some $ 940. This is several times the
average homeowner's state personal
income tax and many times that of
limited income persons such as elderly
retirees.
We earnestly and respectfully appeal
to you to take steps in these closing days
of the 1973 Legislative session to make a
significant increase in the State's support
of our school costs. In our original budget
submission we were unable to show any
increase in state aid ( indeed, for largely
bookkeeping reasons we were obliged to
reflect a decrease of $ 172,564 in state aid
for building, transportation, BOCES and
textbooks). Thus, a major reason for this
month's budget defeat is the fact that all
of the rising cost burden was shown as
having to be borne by the already greatly
overburdened local school property tax.
Also, as we have pointed out on
numerous occasions, a major factor
complicating our Farmingdale school
finance situation and adding
significantly to our local school tax
burden is the annual and cumulative
assessed valuation loss we are ex­periencing
due to the MTA takeover at
Republic and the recent large Fairchild-
Hiller assessed valuation reduction. We
Telephone Duct Work
On Farmingdale Roads
Lizza Industries, the contractor for the
New York Telephone Company, is in­stalling
telephone ducts on the following
streets within the Incorporated Village of
Farmingdale: Merritt Road from Fulton
Street to Thomas Powell Boulevard;
Thomas Powell Boulevard to Jefferson
Road; Jefferson Road to Sherman Road;
Sherman Road to Melville Road;
Melville Road to South Front Street;
South Front Street from Clinton Street to
Secatogue Avenue; and Secatogue
Avenue from South Front Street to Maple
Street, North.
This work will cause some in­convenience
to the people, but the village
board of trustees wishes to assure the
residents of the Village that all streets
will be restored to their proper condition
as soon as possible.
The board also announced that in the
near future traffic on Division Street
going north between Cornelia Street and
South Front Street will become One Way.
trust we will have your full support for
the legislation that has been introduced
to alleviate this problem.
Just as we held our initially proposed
budget down to the lowest figure we could
achieve after months of effort for
economies, we are diligently reviewing
all aspects of the budget again in an
effort to present to the voters on June
23rd a revote budget that will show a
smaller total expenditure and, hopefully,
a better revenue picture and thus a
somewhat reduced tax increase figure.
Our school board and administration
will continue to do our very best to
control and reduce the expenditure side
and, if at all possible, improve our
revenue through a slightly larger
balance ( although it will in any case still
show a substantial decrease from last
year). But the hard fact we face is that
the only source of revenue, other than our
local property tax, we can look to for
support of our budget is the State, which
does of course have the constitutional
responsibility of providing " for the
maintenance and support" of our public
schools.
A five percent increase in our basic
save- harmless operating aid would mean
about $ 342,000 to our district and would
enable us to lower our projected tax rate
increase by approximately one- fourth. A
ten percent increase would reduce our
projected tax rate increase by one- half,
and would enable us to have the smallest
increase in seven years.
School Musicians
Make the Grade
Six Farmingdale Performing
Organizations entered New York State
competition in the Annual NYSSMA
Spring Music Festival. This year's
" contest" was held at Great Neck South
Senior High School on Friday, May 11.
Each performing organization
prepared four selections for this
Festival, three of which were performed
before two State- appointed adjudicators,
who graded the performance basing their
comments on tone, intonation, technique,
rhythm, balance and interpretation.
The Farmingdale High School Or­chestra,
directed by Paul Erlanson,
competed in Level VI Music, the highest
level available to public school musicians
in the State of New York. They received
an " A" for their efforts.
The Howitt Concert Band, directed by
Sol Flum and the Howitt String Or­chestra,
directed by Ronald Boy kin,
were awarded " A" in Level III Music.
At the elementary level, Dr. Quagenti,
Director of the Woodward Parkway and
Northside String Orchestra Programs,
entered a combined orchestra that
received an " A" rating in Level II Music.
The Farmingdale High School Wind
Ensemble, directed by Alfred Fiore, was
awarded a " 13" rating in Level VI Music
and the Howitt Bulldog Band, directed by
James Jackwood, was awarded a " B"
rating in Level 11+ Music ( the+ indicates
that the Band prepared six . selections
instead of four for this competition).