The-Leader_1970-03-12

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TSe LEADER "NASSAU'S LARGEST WEEKLY I I
Freeporlfs
Offlelal
Newspaper
25pOINI READERS
FREEPORT
Zip CedB 11820
BALDWIN
Ztp Coda 11810
MERRICK
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34tli Year. No. 47 FHEIPOIIT, N. Y« THUHS15AY. MARCH 12, 1970
ROOSEVELT
Zip Codt ItBTg
PRICEJ FIVE CEHTS PER COPY
Inside Freeport
b y J o !i n M i i ek
The 'Treeport Plan" for controlling apartment rent increases
has attracted national attention. Many inquiries are being received
from other communities, large and small, askiiig how Freeport has
been able to make such progress with this difiEicult and controversial
problem. X asked Mark M. Domowne, co-chairman of the committee
that has handled this matter, to teU me how and why tbe Freeport
Plan has succeeded where so many others have failed.
"We've applied a combination of fair play, sound business, and
a quality you might call flexibility . , .or ingenuity . . . or maybe
creativity, by which I mean we tackle each case on its merits as a
unique problem, without set formula," Mr. Domowne told me. Mr.
Domowne, incidentally, is one of those dedicated citizens I enjoy
talking about, those people who try to solve Freeporfs problems by
rolling up their sleeves and tackling them, instead of just complain­ing
about them. A resident for about seven years, he, his wife Sylvia,
and his champion boxer "Rusty," form one of Freeporfs 3,500 apart­ment
"family units." Like a number of local residents, Mr. Domowne
devotes a major part of his time to Freeport because, as he puts it,
"It's my home town and I want it to be a good place." He came here
from Brooklyn where he was active in civic, political and other
affairs including membership ih the Kings County Post of the
American Legion which he served as Vice Commander. A Korean
War veteran, Mark served as a forward artillery observer for the
famed Colonel Kiiowlton's Raiders. He is well equipped to apply
"sound business" thinking to our local problem of tenant-owVter rela­tions
because, in his personal business he is a consultant to business
and industry, serving clients nationwide and abroad.
"Our Tenant-Owner Committee completed three months of
service at the end of February," he said, "and we are now ptoporing
a report of our activities for near-future issue. Our Committee is
currently solving about seventeen te^iant problems each week. We'll
continue to serve, at the pleasure of the Mayor and Village Board,
until every tenant is satisfied." I asked him what the major com­plaints
were. "Rent increases are the biggest causes of tenant grief,"
he replied. "But Uieie's another big complafnl. You might call it
breakdown of communications. Another way to put this would be
"nbeontee landlords'."
Two Types Of Landlords
According to Mr. Domowne there are two types of local land­lords,
the speculator and the investor. The former is often an absentee
(Continued on page 3)
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$57,757 state Grant Y j l l a g g Qg,,|^ ^ g j ^ j lj
Approved For ^^ • • «-
Petitions Asking Vote
On Officials Raises
Local Sewer Plant
AJ'reeport application for par­tial
reimbursement of operating
the Municipal Sewer Plant has
been approved in the amount of
$57,757.00, Mayor Robert J.
Sweeney reported today. These
grants are giveh only to the
sewage treatment systems that
comply with the State standards.
In other actions regarding the
Sewer Plant, the Village Engineer
reported that four metal plating
factories in Freeport have been
denied the, use of the sewer sys­tem
because it was found they
were polluting the system. The
chemicals used by this type of
operation tdnds to desl^oy one of
the essential processes at the
Sewer Plant.
The Village Board last year
prohibited any additional metal
plating or etching plants in Free-port,
and adopted stringent in­spection
and control procedures
for those which already existed
here.
PBA President To
Address Chamber
The Freeport Chamber of Com­merce
weekly luncheon will be
held today at 12:30 p.m., at the
Villa Rosa, 244 E .Merrick Rd.,
Freeport.
The guest speaker will be Ed-i!
ward J. Kieman, president of the
New York City Patrolmen Benev­olent
Association. He will be in­troduced
by Robert Gordon of the
Freeport Police Department.
Michael H. Kemp, president,
will preside,
Atlantic Nursery
Scores Big Again
Atlantic Nuraeiy and G a r d^
Shop of Freeport received the
following awards at the Fif^-
Third International Flower
Show, held at the New York.
Coliseum:
1) International Flower Show
Trophy for^OWM) sq. ft. Gardens.
2) Betty Blossom Memorial
Trophy presented by her family
tor the finest example of land-
»^pe design in the Garden
classes.
3) Hie Gard€h Club ot Toronto
Tropliy lor the best use of conifers
In a garden setting.
4) Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society Bronze Medal lor out­standing
Nursery Exhibit
•N 5) International Flower Show
Plaque ion Best garden seating
design.
8) Untemational Flower Show
Plaque for: Best garden fencing
design.
\
Key Club Joins
Dystrophy Drive
Members of the Freeport Key
Club from Freeport High School
will be sporting the green in the
loiin of "Shamrocks for Dystro­phy"
tags as your town joins the
rest of Long Island in an Island-wide
Nassau-Suffolk one day
fund-raising campaign to bene­fit
Muscular Dystrophy Associa­tions
of America db Saturday,
March 14.
George Gollin has been named
Freeport' Key Club's "Sham­rocks
for Dystrophy" Chairman
and urged local residents to put
St Patrick back into St Pat­rick's
Day.
The Village Clerk Monday night rejected as "invalid" petitions
calling for a public vote on the question of salary increases for
Freeport Mayor Robert J. Sweeney and the four Village Board
members.
Clerk John J. MacDonald notified the political opponents of the
Mayor that over 1100 of the 2200 |
signatures they gathered were not
acceptable. Mr. MacEk>nald also
rejected a second group of 77 sig­natures
delivered separately to
Village Hall four days after the
first petition. He pointed out that
under the law this would have to
be considered as a separate peti­tion
which, by itself would have
to meet all the requirements for
the number of signatures.
Last month Henry Spitzler, an
unsuccessful candidate for Village
Trustee in last year's elections,
presented the signatures at a pub­lic
meeting and demanded that a
public referendum be held to ap­prove
or disapprove salary in­creases
for the Village officials.
Included in the budget for this
year were raises for the Mayor's
position to $10,000 from $5,000, and
for the Trustees to $5,000 from
$2,500. These were the first in­creases
for the top official posi­tions
since 1964.
Under the law a public vote
would have to be held if at least
10% of the qualified voters who
cast votes for Governor at the last
general election petitioned the
Board for a public referendum.
The 10% figure in this case would
amount to 1432 signatures.
In his statement to the Village
Board rejecting the petitions Mr.
MacDonald detailed the reasons,
including such factors as 460
signers were not registered voters
in Freeport, 368 additional signa­tures
did not agree with those on
file with the Board of Elections,
12 of the witnesses were not quali­fied
voters, which cancelled out
all of the pages they signed. There
were also 120 signatures that had
been altered in some manner.
Deputy Village Clerk Thomas
DeVincenzo, who was involved in
checking the petitions, stated,
"apparently Mr. Spitzler and his
friends made no real attempt to
determine if a person was quali­fied
to sign such a petition but
just gathered names helter-skelter.
We also have evidence that wit­nesses
made false statements at­testing
to things that they did not
really witness. There are dozens
of such falsifications, in my opin­ion,
including petition sheets that
were just left in a^ublic place to
be signed by anybody who walked
in, disregarding the requirement
that the witness be present.
"1 also believe that the Spitzler
group mislead petition signers be­cause
they were not told that the
Mayor and the Village Board
could not legally put this question
to a public vote on their own de­cision.
The only way for the Vil­lage
officials to obtain a salary
increase is to vote on it themselves
and have a public hearing, which
is exactly the procedure followed
by Mayor Sweeney and the Vil­lage
Trustees in January.
"Obviously, many people in the
Village have been misled and told
that their top officials could have
called for a public referendum on
the proposed salary increases.
They could not have legally done
so."
Invitation From
Housing Authority
Tie fteeport Housing Autliisil^
cordially invites you to attend
the groundl»eaklng ceremony of
ttie 100 unit federally financed
l<t^ rent lipartme&ts designed far
theA^derly, Sat^: Uaich 14 fA
11 a.m., comer Beanmr S i and
South Main, Fkj^^iort. " J
FHS Student
Natl. Merit Finalist
Freeport High School was no­tified
today that one of its se!n-iors,
Lora Palladino, was named
a finalist in the National Merit
Scholarship competition. Ap­proximately
one half of one per
cent of the graduating seniors in
high schools throughout the Unit­ed
States reach the finalist status.
The students are ia competition
for National Merit Scholarships
valued at flOOO a year, renew­able
annually for the four years
of college.. Oontestants have tak­en
the National Merit Scholw-shlp
test, and their scores on this,
test, coupled with their Sdiolar-shqiAiptitude
Test scores and the
school's endorsement, are tUe
fbasis fp^^tlie stdection.
Ba xpacliing the finalist stage,
Lora PitUadino r e f l e t credit to
her fpoUy, teacdiers, and Freeport
R i g h ' . S c h o d l / •;•••••'-'•;-•••?•••,••-- ••"
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Roosevelt H.S. PTA
To Discuss Drugs
Drug abuse and suggested meth­ods
of education and prevention
in the area of drugs will be the
subject of a meeting sdieduled by
the Roosevelt J r . ^ . High Sdiool.
PTA on Tues., March 17, In- tbe
Community Eoom of the schapL
I^e program wiU include s film
on the subject and preMntatiom
by Bilr. Charles Ward, mutee nf
the Roosevelt Basrd of iSdlicattoni
and a Conununi^ B^tfa»a^^:i^^
cialist working with loo^iiiin^Uap^
gulclance councils , tor- ^fl^;::'lf(BW^l|:</SM
York State NaiTOttexCOiitfpl-'<?<Wpi»lrSt^
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