The-Leader_2004-09-02

              1st Precinct to move?
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www.freeportbaldwinleader.com
69th Yeair, No. 35 Freeport, N.Y. 11520
The Community Newspaper
Thursday, September 2, 2004
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by Laura Schofer
For the cost of two cups of coffee at Starbucks, about $8, you can save the environment. That's what residents would have to pay to help fund an envi­ronmental bond issue that will be placed on the November ballot.
Voters will be asked if they are wilUng to issue $50 million in bonds that will mature in 20 years. The money from the bonds would help to protect clean drink­ing water supplies, acquire rapidly van­ishing open space; renovate worn-out parks; remediate polluted industrial brownfields and reduce run-off into our streams, lakes, wetlands, harbors and bays.
All 19 Nassau County Legislators agreed and approved to put the bond before voters at an emergency session held by the County Legislature last week. The legislature had to vote on this pro­posal before the September 2 deadline in order for the Board of Elections to place the referendum on the ballot. The ballot title is "The Nassau County Clean Water, Open Space and Parks Trust Fund."
"Fabulous" is the way County Legisla­ture Majority Leader Judy Jacobs referred to the referendum.
"I'm just thrilled," said Minority Leader Peter Schmidt. "It's not perfect but it aU happened so fast and we made compromises, but we're moving for­ward."
"We were behind the eight ball on envi­ronmental issues," said Legislator David Denenberg, "but in the last five years we have made enormous strides. It's too bad the prior administration balanced the budget by selling open space [in Plainview]."
Dozens of environmentalists waited all morning to speak about me bond issue including representatives from SPLASH (Stop Polluting Littering and Save Harbors) but the legislature did not go into session until after noon. Still, many people waited to voice their opinions including local activists Lisa Tyson, executive director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition and Richard Schary, an envirotmientalist who is a member of the Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee (OSPAC).
"I support this. I live in the Bellmore/Merrick region and even there we see small precious pieces of property that need to be preserved," said Ms. Tyson. "I shop at Frugee's Farm and that's the kind of property we need to be looking at. It's just a little place but we
have so few farms in Nassau, only four in the county."
Those four farms include the 2.2-acre Frugee's property located at 832 Merrick Avenue; Myers' Farm in the Syosset area; Schmidt's Farm in Laurel and the farm at the Old Bethpage Village.
How would Nassau County preserve the open space at a place like Frugee's Farm?
"We'd buy the development rights, if the owner wanted to sell it to us," explained Legislator Norma Gonsalves. "It means that the land would be desig­nated as farm land in perpetuity. Whoever owns that land has to keep it as farm­land."
"This is what we call a virtual idea. It separates the land itself fi'om the ability to develop it into something else," said Ms. Tyson. "There is a reduction in taxes, the farmer has money in the bank and you
THE BOND ISSUE will help reno­vate parkland such as Milburn Pond.
can continue to farm the land. Right now, if the owner wanted to sell that property which is zoned for single-family homes, someone could make a fortune." Frugees Farm is not for sale, said Caleb Torrice, the owner of Frugee Farms.
Here in Freeport, the environmental bond could help to protect the the South Shore estuary. "Stormwater run-off is the number one problem for non-point pollu­tion into our waterways, especially here in the western section of the estuary where there are so many people and so many impervious surfaces," said Jeffrey Fullmer, executive director of the South Shore Estuary Preserve. "The environ­mental bond could help to identify a rev­enue source that will help to protect our tributaries, open canals and bays. These funds could assist in creating a high qual­ity stormwater."
(continued on page 2)
ISSUE:
m Baldwin school audit page 3
H Harfem hook fair at Rec page 8
m FFD Wins parade page 9