Bethpage-Tribune_1976-09-23

              BETHPAGE W
%
OLDBETH&V5E
also serving ISLAND TREES
PLAINVIEW PLAINEDGE SEAFORD
VOL. 10 NO. 44 Thursday, September 23, 1976 10 cents per copy
KICK OFF: Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John W. Burke (fourth
from left) and Town Councilman Salvatore R. Mosca (right) join the
festivities at the opening day of Bethpage Midget Football. Also on
hand were Judge Warren M. Doolittle (fourth from right); Florence
Cullem, Editor of the Bethpage Tribune and Leo Shottland, a
columnist for the Bethpage Tribune, The players are (left to right)
Patrick O'Obrien, Tom Luchese and Richard Andre.
Burke Urges State DEC
Hold Landfill Hearing
Town Supervisor John W.
Burke has called on the State
Department of Environmental
Conservation to conduct a public
hearing on the development of a
Sanitary Landfill in Plainview.
Burke urged the hearing in
response to the request by State
Environmental Conservation
Commissioner PGter A. A. Berle,
who asked the Town to provide
him with information that would
assist in his reaching a deter­mination
on a petition from civic
association representatives
asking for a hearing.
"At the meeting with Com­missioner
Berle on September 2,
I, and other Town and State of­ficials,
reviewed, with the
Commissioner, the facts con­cerning
the Plainview site from
the beginning to its current state
in development," Burke said. "At
the close of the meeting, the
Commissioner provided us with a
copy of the petition and asked
that we review it and offer any
other input that would assist him
in reaching a determination on
the matter."
The petition was reviewed by
various Town officials to receive
as much input as possible. "As a
result we found that in our
opinion the Commissioner is
certainly not legally bound to
conduct a hearing. However, a
prevailing concern of all in at­tendance
at the meeting in
Albany was the matter of the
people's confidence in govern­ment
and in decisions that will be
made concerning this projects
The questions of groundwater
protection, odors and vermin
must be clearly answered."
In a letter sent to Com­missioner
Berle on Friday,
September 17, 1976, on behalf of
the Town Board, the Supervisor
stated the overriding belief that:
"The public must* be kept in­formed,
and I believe that at the
present time you have the means
to obviate much of the misun­derstanding
and confusion that
has been recently created about
vital aspects of the Town's Solid
Waste Management Program."
To this end, the Town informed
(Continued on Page 6)
Court Holds For TOB
In a decision delivered by State
Supreme Court Justice David T.
Gibbons, the court has ruled that
there was no evidence showing
the Town of Oyster Bay violated
any laws or regulations in
developing a sanitary landfill in
Plainview.
The decision also pointed out
that the Town of Huntington
provided no facts that could
support its request that the court
stop Oyster Bay from continuing
in carrying out this "lawful
governmental function."
In his decision dismissing the
Huntington Town suit, Justice
Gibbons noted that the Hun­tington
Town complaint "con­tains
no factual allegations to
show that the defendant (Town of
Oyster Bay) is doing anything
illegal or contrary to or in
violation of the conditions of the
permit issued by the Department
of Environmental Conservation
or that it has violated said
Department's rules and
regulations in excavating for the
construction and operation of a
solid waste disposal facility, a
- lawful governmental func­tion...
undertaken under the
supervision of the Department of
Environmental Conservation."
Bethpage Board Of Ed. Considers
Plans For Bloomingdale School
At the August 31 meeting of the
Bethpage Board of Education,
approximately 80 people
gathered in the Little Theater to
discuss the Bloomingdale School.
Under consideration of the Board
of Education is renting the
Bloomingdale facility. The school
would be utilized by the Central'
Nassau Senior Citizens Center,
the Central Nassau Child
Developmental Program and the
Head Start Program. This pro­gram
would service the Hicks-ville,
Levittown, Plainview, Beth­page,
Jericho and Plainedge
areas only. The school would be
used five days a weekfrom 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. for 12 months. The
Bethpage Daytime Adult Educa­tion
Program would continue but
on a limited basis* The comnufc.
nity usage of the building would
continue as in the past years.
By Eve Glasser
Projected enrollment for the
Senior Citizens Program would
be approximately 100 to 125 and
the Children's Program enroll­ment
ranges between 80 and 100.
The rental fee of $40,000 annually
is being considered by the Board
of Education. This fee would
include custodial salaries, elec­tricity
and fuel. The annual debt
of approximately $24,000 on the
building has to be paid by the
district whether it is being used
or not. Bloomingdale School costs
the district approximately
$30,000, including the debt, for the
year.
Many residents from the
Bloomingdale area attending the
•meeting were concerned with,
and questioned the Board of
Education about geographical
areas other than specified, using
the Bloomingdale School. The
Taxpayer's Union Fears
Higher Taxes In 1977
Mario V. Colleluori, chairman
of the Taxpayers Union of Long
Island, Inc. stated recently that
Long Island property owners face
large tax increases next year,
and for some time to come unless
local governments, including
school districts reduce spending.
"This is not speculation on my
part," Colleluori said, "but
comes directly from Governor
Carey's budget director, Peter C.
Goldmark."
The State's Budget Director
was guest speaker at a meeting of
Taxpayer Associations from
throughout New York State held
in Albany on September 17, and
sponsored by the Citizens Public
Expenditure Survey.
In response to questioning by
Colleluori, Goldmark stated that
future state budget cuts will be
more painful than this years.
Among expenditures to be
reduced will be State Aid to
municipalities and school
districts. Therefore, Colleluori
said, the burden for any in­creases
in local spending will fall
more heavily on local property
owners. Colleluori predicted that
unless local governments make a
sincere effort to economize the
resulting property tax, increases
could be devastating.
According to Goldmark,
Colleluori said, New York State
cannot be alone in reducing
spending. The State and all local
governmental units, the budget
director pointed out, are in­tertwined
with each other so that
the income of one is the ex­penditure
of the other.
"The cost of local govern­ment,"
Goldmark said, "exceeds
$20 Billion, and the only way the
Taxpayers of New York State will
get tax: relief is when local
governments do what the State
has already done, and will con­tinue
to do... .Reduce Spending.''
High among the concerns of the
Representatives of Tax
Organizations that came from as
far as Buffalo, Colleluori said,
was the high cost of local
education. Suggestions for
legislation to control local
spending was submitted.
Legislation to bring the State's
Agencies and Commissions under
scrutiny of the legislature for the
purpose of evaluating whether or
not they are worth the money to
continue them received qualified
support from Peter C. Goldmark.
The law, popularly known as the
"Sunset Law" will be prefiled by
State Senator Owen Johnson and
Assemblyman Lewis J. Yevoli at
the request of the Taxpayers
Union of Long Island, Inc.
The Citizens Public Expen­diture
Survey will issue a
legislative report card prior to
the November election which will
be diseminated by the taxpayer
organizations so that voters will
know how their legislators voted
on bills affecting their tax bur­den.
At the suggestion of
Colleluori, the C.P.E.S. agreed to
issue the report card on a regular
basis throughout the year.
One thing was made clear at
the meeting Colleluori concluded,
there is a definite anti-tax ground
swell building throughout the
State to which the politicians and
special interest groups had better
pay close attention.
program is similar to the
program turned down by the
Levittown and East Meadow
Schools. Other concerns were:
Funding- Senior Citizens is
funded 90% by federal grant;
Child Development and Head
Start Program is funded by
federal, state and county, 80%.
20% is funded by local matching
services- many volunteers are
used in this area. Traffic- they
were concerned about the Impact
on residents of Bloomingdale,
i.e., buses vs. cars. Plavground-
Bloomingdale has no facilities
and they would be essential to
this program. Also concern was
raised about the opening of the
South gate at Bloomingdale
School and that it would then
become a speed way.
Mr. Clive Chilton, Executive
Director of Action Council
(Operation Outreach), assured
the Bloomingdale residents that
only the specified areas of
Bethpage, Hicksville, Levittown,
etc., would use the Bloomingdale
School and he has no objections to
this being written into the
proposed one year lease. Many
residents questioned the ability of
Action CbundEl#) pay their bills
(.i time. Mr. Chilton stated...
although the Action Council was
behind in paying their bills, it was
because of slow reimbursement
from federal, state and county,
funds... He emphasized that the
Organization's audited books are
public information and could be
made available to the Board of
Education. Mr. Chilton estimated
the traffic control in the area
would be 90% Senior Citizens and
children, bused. Dr. Larsen
interjected there would have to
be some re-scheduling of
Bloomingdale bus stops to have
the procedure run smoothly and
alleviate any traffic jams. Re­garding
playgound facilities, Mr.
Chilton said they would be
provided by Action Council and
would not deter from the local
usage of the Bloomingdale field
for baseball and football etc.
Also, according to Mr. Chilton,
the south gate could be left closed
(Continued on Page 6)
Plainedge Passes Budget
On Wednesday, September
15, the residents of the
Plainedge School District
passed their third proposed
budget by a vote of 1,960 to
1,588.
The newly approved bud­get
of $15,518,052 carries a
tax rate of $19.56 per $100 of
assessed valuation, which
represents an increase of
$1.03 from last year's rate.