Bethpage-Tribune_1984-01-19

              BETHPAGE 0LOBETHPAGE
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PLAINVIEW
ISLAND TREES PLAINEDGE
UETHPAGE LfO
47 POWELL AV
BETHPAGE; NY 117 14
SEAFORD
4 COP IES
VOL. 18 NO. 41 Week of January 19-25,1984 20 cents per copy
Veterans, Seniors
and Handicapped
Tax Exemptions
Veterans, senior citizens and physically dis­abled
persons who own their own homes must
apply for their property tax exemptions before
May 1, 1984, in order to be considered for the
exemption on the 1985 Nassau County Tax roll.
Applications for all three exemptions are avail­able
now through the Nassau County Board of
Assessnient. Since verifying eligibility often takes
some time, people are urged to file early to give
the Board of Assessment optimum time to
approve all legitimate claims for the tax
exemptions.
'Eligible ^ veterans will" receive .an exemption
which does not exceed $5,006 of assessment. It
applied to all county, town and highway taxes,
but not to school or special district taxes. He
stated that once the exemption is granted, a vete­ran
need not file a new application unless he or she
receives additional qualifying payments and
desires to raise the amount of the exemption up to
the maximum $5,000, in which case a supplemen­tal
exemption is necessary.
For seniors, there will be a change starting with
the 1985 tax roll. For th. first time, seniors with
incomes between $ 10,500 and $ 13,500 will be elig­ible
for a sliding scale exemption of between 45
percent and 20 percent with the exemption going
down as income rises. Seniors with incomes of
$ 10,500 or less will still be eligible to receive a 50%
reduction.
The senior citizen exemptions apply to county,
state, town and local taxes, but not to special
district taxes. The exemption must be renewed
annually because it is based on income, but once a
senior has qualified an application is automati­cally
mailed out each January.
Also effective in 1985 is a law that makes handi­capped
persons eligible for some relief from prop­erty
taxes as a result of construction added to
their house to accommodate their disabilities. The
physical disability exemption remains in effect
until the exempt improvement is no longer needed
to accommodate the use and accessibility of the
property by a handicapped resident.
For. applications and further information,
including free booklets on the senior citizens' and
veterans' exemptions write to: Department of
Asessment, 240 Old Country Road, Mineola,
N.Y, II50I.
Anyone living.in a village within the Town of
Oyster Bay must apply to the village assessor for
any exemption from the village property tax.
Services For Homeless
Analogous to businesses in the private sector,
not-for-profit Social Service agencies are more
frequently merging operations for cost efficiency
and service effectiveness reasons. Two Long
Island agencies announcing such a merger on
November 29, 1983 are the Mineola-based Nas­sau
Children's House, Inc. and Walkabout, Inc.
of Bethpage. Both agencies offer housing and
supportive services to adolescent males who can­not
remain at home with their families.
The decision to merge was-made in light of
economic realities which have caused small
human-service agencies to struggle with shrinking
resources. At the same time, increased demands
for service from a growing nuihber of homeless
and neglected youth strained each agency's ability
to adequately seryice the needs of this population,
i TiiesereA'Me&y-and ;the?sttbsequela;t^donversatiQns^
between both agencies, resulted in the creation of
a single merged agency, now known as Nassau .
Children's House, Inc.
Alfred E. Devendorf, Chairman of Nassau
Children's House, and Barbara Gobetz, Chair­person
of Walkabout, announced that the new
agency will provide a variety of residential pro­grams
to youth, as well as supportive services to •
their families. These programs are Nassau Haven,
which is an emergency shelter for runaway/ home­less
youth, and Nassau Group Residence, which
provides longer term care for adolescents from
Nassau and, Suffolk Counties. Two group homes
also provide services in a more family-type
atmosphere. One is known as Port Washingtori
Group Home, and the other, located in Bethpage,
is known as Walkabout. Both group homes serve
16 - 19 year old youth. Walkabout is specifically
geared to training honieless young men in living
independently in' the community. Both agencies
have a long and successful history of providing
Coming together in the merger is Richard Dina,(L), Execu­tive
Director of Nassau Childrens House; Barbara Gobetz of
Bethpage, President of Board of Directors of Walkabout,
Inc; and Al Devendorf, President of Board of Directors of
Nassau Childrens House.
much needed services to a very difficult
population.
Nassau Children's House will be celebrating it's
100th anniversary of service to youth in 1984.
Walkabout first opened in 1974 and has been in
existence for 10 years. The merged agency hopes
to be able to expand it's program in order to
provide sercies to young women and more sup­port
services to families on Long Island. Funding
for the merged agencies is provied by the Nassau
and Suffolk County Department of Social Servi­ces,
the Nassau County Youth Board, United
Way of Long Island, and community
contributions.
Dillon Hopeful On Tax Dollars
Nassau County District Attorney D^nis Dillon
said he is still hopeful that a lawsuit to recover
taxpayer dollars that went to those in an insu­rance
kickback scheme would succeed. The DA
was barred by FederalJudge Jacob Mishler from
becoming a plaintiff since his office had pre­viously
investigated the violations.
Dillon said, "1 always felt it was important for
the people of Nassau County to know that one
elected official in Nassau. County is interested in
retrieving the insurance kickbacks that were given
to party faithfuls for little or no work. I still
maintain that the participants in this fee splitting
arrangement should not be permitted to retain
this money, and that it should be returned to the
taxpayers of the Town of Hempstead and Nassau
County."
The District Attorney added, "My efforts to see
that this suit be brought and to join as a plaintiff
were not a political ploy, but an honest attempt to
right a wrong. The only politics in this entire
matter is the decision by the To\yn of Hempstead
and Nassau County not to pursue this case as
plaintiffs. I remain hopeful that the remaining
plaintiffs are successful in recovering the monies
due the taxpayers because of the wrongful acts of
those irivolved in the kickback scheme."
The lawsuit seeks more than $1.5 million from
the many party faithfuls who took the money for
little or no work. The case is now pending before
Judge Mishler,