Observer_1984-08-08; East Rockaway/Lynbrook Observer

              Newspaper
INCORPORATED VILUGE
East Rockaway
SCHOOL DISTRICT
INCORPORATED VILLAGE
Lynbrook
SCHOOL DISTRICT
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COMMUNITY" USPS 165080
VOL. 32 NO. 38 Wednesday, August 8,1984 25c PER COPY
Mercy Receives
Kiwanis Donation Financial Crisis Explored
DONATION. Presenting the check to Diane Winter of
Kiwanians Steve
J^t JohnKrull,
Mercy Hospital are (left to right) Silberg,
Bill Gibson, Bob Sisco and Preside
John Krull, president of
the East Rockaway Kiwanis
Club, recently presented a
check for $150 to Diane
Winter of Mercy Hospital
during a recent dinner meet-ing
at the Ship's Inn Restau-rant
in East Rockaway. The
East Rockaway Kiwanians
annually raise funds lor a
variety of charitable and
non-profit organizations in
the area.
Ms. Winter, who is the
Community Relations
Coordinator for the hospi-tal,
expressed appreciation
lor the donation and des-cribed
some of the special
programs which Mercy
offers the surrounding
communities including
extensive mental health ser-vices
(Mercy was the first
community hospital on
Long Island to open a psy-chiatric
out-patient clinic in
1959), alcohol rehabilita-tion,
and the first Hospice
on Long Island for
t e r m i n a l l y - i l l cancer
patients.
The 400-bed, not-for-profit
community hospital is
located in Rockville Centre.
The claim in an Observer
headline/ news story that the
$90,000 shortfall in revenue
projections for 1984-1985
from the estimated 1983-
1984 end-of-year balance for
the East Rockaway School
District "was actually fore-seen
more than seven
months ago" is "simply
untrue," according to Board
President Richard Meagher.
"There are severe fiscal
problems in 1983-1984,
including over-estimation of
state a id,. undec-estimation of
fringe benefits, and a critical
delay in the district's book-keeping
system," Meagher
said. "However, after the
errors had been noled, and
after a cautionary freeze was
put on all but the most vital
expenditures, and after the
bookkeeping was brought
up to date in April 1984, the
projected balance lor the
end of 1983-1984 was then
estimated to be in the range
of $250,000 to $300,000. "A
healthy balance left over
from 1982-1983 was the dis-trict's
major asset," said
Meagher.
The Board, of Education
had to wait until the books
had been brought up to date
and the end-of-year balance
had been estimated by the
administration before com-pleting
the 1984-1985
Work to be Published
A paper written by
"Observer" editor John
Hambel in 1983 will be pub-lished
in book form by the
end of this year, according
to Ambassador Armin
Meyer, adjunct professor at
.Georgetown University,
Washington, D.C.
The paper, entitled "Uni-ted
Nations Resolution 242"
will be incorporated as a
chapter in Case Studies in
American Diplomacy in the
Middle East, to be 'pub-lished
by the Middle East
Institute sometime in late
1984. Mr. Hambel wrote ihe
paper for Ambassador
Meyer's course in "Practic-ing
Diplomacy Abroad"
while he was an undergrad-uate
at Georgetown Univer-sity's
School of Foreign
Service.
Mr. Hambel used as a
basis for his research per-sonal
interviews with sea-soned
diplomats who were
involved with the Arab/Is-raeli
problem during the
1967 War.
discussion
dor Hal Saunders and
former Supreme Court Jus-tice
Arthur Goldberg, who
served as Ambassador to the
United Nations under Pres-ident
Lyndon Johnson and
drafted much of United
Nations resolution 242.
This is the second work
published by Mr. Hambel.
In 1982, he authored "Pro-tectionism
and U.S. Trade
Policy," which studied the
effects of governmental reg-ulations
to protect home
industries on the economy at
large. The paper was pub-lished
by the Congressional
R e p u b l i c a n Research
Committee's Task Force on
Economic Policy, and was
distributed to every member
of congress.
RESERVE THIS DATE!
The East Rockaway Cul-tural
Arts Council will hold
its Annual Arts and Crafts
Fair on Saturday, August 25
from 10 am to 4 pm in
Memorial Park, East
Rockaway.
Music will be provided
from 2 pm to 4 pm by Walter
Leege and His Dixiecrat
Band. Kenny the Balloon
will provide clown make-up
as \Vell.
In case of rain, the Fair
will be held at Bethany Con-gregational
Church, for
more information, call 599-
1331 or 887-9458.
A special presentation
will be made to the East
Rockaway Fire Depart-ment.
Don't miss this great
budget it finally adopted,
including the planned use of
$150,000 from the total
estimated balance of
$250,000 to $300,000.
"We thought we were
being prudent by working
from the low end ol the
ran^e, using the $250,000
figure in our planning and
ignoring the higher figure of
$300,000," said Meagher.
"We also thought we were
being prudent by applying
only $150,000 of the total
estimated 1983-1984 bal-ance
to the 1984-1985
budget as 'Use from
Balance.'"
The story to which Mr.
Meagher referred was based
upon a statement made a
source closely connected to
the school administration
during the 1983 period.
According to this source,
educational supplies were
frozen at their current levels
in early 1984 due to the real-ization
that the District
quite possibly could not
meet its financial obliga-tions
through the end of the
school year.
The freeze was enacted
during a time period when,
from September, 1983,
.through April, 1984, the
District's bookkeeping
records were so far behind
schedule that an accurate
accounting of the District's
finances could not be made.
Observer editor John
Hambel responded to
Meagher's charges by stat-ing,
"The information given
me came from an extremely
knowledgeable source who
was quite close to the situa-tion.
1 think that Mr.
Meagher misunderstood the
major point of the state-ment;
the shortfall predicted
was not from an overestima-tion
of the end-of-year bal-ance,
but was instead a reali-zation
in early 1984 that
current funding could not be
maintained. The fact that
school supplies were frozen
amply supports the conten-tion
that a financial shortfall
was realized. That seems to
have been the purpose of the
supply freeze." He con-cluded,
"The Observer
stands 100% behind the
statements made in the July
25 issue."
When the actual 1983-
1984 balance was announced
on July 2, the three separate
fund balances that existed
for 1983-1984 as of that date
were: General Fund -
$61,503.61; Trust and
Agency Fund - $22,427.34;
(Continued on Page 9)
Art Work in the Museum
by Mildred Roemer
When visitors stroll
through the Museum, they
might tend to overlook the
many pieces of artwork dis-played
on the walls. At the
time the aforementioned
"Mill Ducks" were working
on the Bay Exhibit dio-drama,
a tall, dignified grey-haired
gentleman arrived
and asked if he could be of
any assistance. Mildren
Roemer, Museum chair-man,
recognized him as
retired commercial and fine
artist Theodore Coester liv-ing
in Lynbrook. It was sug-gested
that he might help out
in doing some sketches for
the Bay Exhibit depicting
clamming, eeling, and how
the early settlers (farmers)
collected salt hay on our
shores their cattle.
Shortly after his visit, a
group of finished sketches
were presented for approval,
sketches that might well
have been the finished work.
Mr. Coester, who would
accept no pay for his "con-tributions"
to a worthy
cause, not only completed
the Bay paintings, but upon
his death willed many of his
oil paintings to the Museum.
The painting of a pirate
which earned him entrance
to the Art Student League in
the city, is also displayed in
an upper floor case.
"Commuters Rushing for a
Train at Dawn," by an
unknown artist and a huge
oil of Teddy Roosevelt's
"Siege at Black Kettle Hill,"
artist unknown, loaned by
William Kelley. Also there is
an imaginary scene of how
the Mill might have looked
years ago painted by a
young sailor who was in
"sick bay" at Lido Beach
Naval Center during World
War 11. There are also oils
by William Temmen and
Gertrude Howell. These
gifts of talent, just as those
of the volunteer services of
the "Mill Ducks," were alt
donated in the spirit of the
"joy of giving."
Local and quite-young
aspiring artists have always
had their work displayed in
the Museum School Room
Exhibit arranged by Gloria
Christiano, This year the
Rhame Avenue students are
represented, next year from
Centre Avenue or St. Ray-mond
artists' work will be
seen. The high school stu-dents
have done the large
Huckleberry Frolic posters
displayed throughout the
Village just before that
important event takes place.
Included in the Man will also be there who event. Other paintings that have
were Ambassa- been donated include
POLICE CONTRACT SIGNED. Lynbrook Mayor Wil-liam
P. Geier signs a new 3 year contract with the Lynbrook
Police Benevolent Association as PBA President James
Fotis looks on. The contract was approved by the Board of
Trustees at the July 23rd Board meeting. The mayor has
stated that the new contract "is a very fair contract, both to
the village and for the men;'- (Photo by John Cribbin)