Observer_1988-03-02; East Rockaway/Lynbrook Observer

              t
Newspaper
Inc Village
School District
Inc Village
School District
*'THE GOOD NEIGHBOR mmPAPER "'
Since 1967 by Mailed Subscription
Executive Offices: Seiffert Building, 2787 Long Beach Road, Oceanside, NY 11572
Post Office Box A, East Rockaway, NY 11518 (516) 764-2500
„ K. p u b l i c L i b r a ry
K a s t UocKaway
NY .1.1518
! IN THE
COMMUNITY"
The Eait Rockaway-Lypbrook Obierver Publication *1650«ia in pub-ilibed
weekly for S12.0 ' by the ERLO Corporation. Second CI*M
PosUge Paid at RockviVe Centre, N.Y. llSTO'and additional mailing
pfficei. Send addretijcbangei ,to' The East Rockaway-Lynbrook
Observer,Aty A. Eaat ^kawayi N.Y. 11S18.
VOL. 35 NO. 8 Wednesday, March 2,1988 30< PER COPY
Lent Bill to Restore
Postal Hours
P.R.I.D.E. GRADUATION, Robyn Yaker, President of
the Marion Street School Student Council, presents a Cer-tificate
of Appreciation to Lynbrook Police Office Fred
Fusswinkel, P.R.I.D.E. Program instructor. Looking on are,
from left to right bottom row: Dr. John Beyrer, Assistant
Superintendent of Lynbrook Schools, Police Chief James
Lauriano, Dina Nutini, Dana Weissman, Chuck Penning-ton,
Drug and Alcohol Awareness Chairman of the Lyn-brook
Elks and Lions Clubs; middle row: Greg McCavera,
Ellen Petrakis, Elizabeth Schimenti, Jack Small of Marion
Street School; top row: Jason Simonetti, Gustavo Deabreu,
Louis Vetter, and Jason Simonetti. See story page 9 ^
Rock Rivalry Tickets On Sale
Rock Rivalry tickets will
go on sale Wednesday,
March 9, to all eligible
seniors and juniors. A stu-dent
must be on the
Entrance list to be eligible to
purchase tickets. The sale
will begin at 3 PM in the
Rock Room, with tickets
being sold to seniors first,
and then to juniors.
Eligible sophomores and
freshmen will be sold their
tickets on Thursday, March
10, also at 3 PM in the Rock
Room, with sophomores
being taken first, and then
freshmen.
Eligible students who did
not purchase their tickets on
these two days may do so on
Friday, March 11, at 3 PM
in Room 7,
Tickets are $7.50 each,
and each eligible student
may purchase two. Checks
should be made payable to
East Rockaway High
School. In the case of stu-dents
from the same house-hold
being eligible, only the
student in the upper grade is
eligible to purchase. A stu-dent
may purchase tickets
for another eligible student
with written permission.
Remaining tickets will be
sold to the general public
beginning at 5:30 PM,
Monday, March 14, in the
rear auditorium corridor.
No tickets will be sold to
current East Rockaway
High School students or to
childi en. If there are enough
tickets, each adult present
may purchase two. Other-wise,
only one ticket will be
sold to each adult on line,
though you may be get on
line again if the supply lasts.
Everyone who was pres-ent
on line last year was able
to buy all the tickets he or
she wanted. (In fact, there
were 30 or 40 tickets left
unsold.) If you call the
'school (887-3111) on March
14, you will be informed of
ticket availability.
It is possible that some
tickets may even be avail-able
at the door Friday
night, due to cancellations
and no-shows.
Tickets for the Rock
Rivalry Preview Perfor-mance
will be available for
advance purchase at the
above-stated times and pla-ces.
Anyone may buy an
unlimited number of tickets.
Tickets will also be available
at the door the night of the
performance beginning at
6:30 PM. No students in
Grades 7-12 in East Rocka-way
High school are permit-ted
in the audience Thurs-day
evening, unless they
h a v e a d m i n i s t r a t i on
approval.
Tickets for the Thursday
evening preview are $4 each.
Children not yet in 7th
Grade are admitted only
with an adult. Senior Citi-zens
are admitted at Vr price
on tickets sold at the door
Thursday.
Sports Night tickets go on
sale at the gym door at 6 PM
Wednesday, March 16. All
tickets are $l each. The
games begin at 6:30 PM.
Board to Change
Tax Collection Procedure
At the February 16, 1988
Village Board Meeting the
Mayor and Trustees decided
against implementing the
once-a-year Village tax col-lection
in 1988, moving it
back one year until June 1,
1989. A resolution to post-pone
the collection will be
voted on at the next Board
Meeting on March 7, 1988.
One of the points
expressed during the Febru-ary
1st meeting was that
more time would be needed
for residents who do not pay
their taxes monthly through
bank mortgage payments to
accumulate the one time
payment. Since that meet-ing,
the Mayor and Trustees
have discussed this issue
with many residents and
business owners and have
In response to concerns of
4th District residents. Rep.
Norman F. Lent (R-East
Rockaway) will shortly
introduce legislation that
will help local post offices
resume normal working
hours.
Rep, Lent's action comes
in response to an outpouring
of complaints from local res-idents
and merchants over
the drastic cutback in hours
at are post offices.
"Slashing operating hours
at local post offices places a
tremendous hardship on our
communities. Businesses
simply cannot operate this
way, and many individuals
have been greatly inconven-ienced,
Congress meddled
where it didn't belong, and
the legislation I am drafting
should remedy this disaji-trous
siiuaticn, said K c p;
Lent.
The Lent bill will repeal
provisions of the FY 1988
budget reconciliation bill
which mandated that U.S.
P o s t a l Service absorb
$ 1.234 billion in budget cuts
over the next two years
through its operations and
facilities. This left the Postal
Service with little choice but
to significantly curtail oper-ating
hours at post offices
across the nation.
In addition. Rep. Lent is
cosponsoring a bill soon to
be introduced which would
move the U.S. Postal Ser-vice
outside the federal
budget. This initiative,
which will be offered by the
Chairman of the Post Office
and Civil Service Commit-tee,
Rep. William D. Ford
(D-MI), would allow the
Postal Service flexibility in
determining its own budget
priorities
The quasi-independent
U.S. Postal Service is, for
the most part, self-financing
and has been so since it
became a largely private
enterprise in 1970. In FY
1988, Congress approp-riated
only $517 million of
the Postal Service's $35 bil-lion
annual budget. This
amount is allocated to off-set
icuuc-w-^l' pbiial VMtSiS-X^i
charitable and non-profit
organizations.
"Congress shouldn't be in
the business of micro-managing
Postal Service
operations. By ordering the
Postal Services to reduce
hours, the U.S. Congress,
perhaps unknowingly,
worked a great hardship on
both individuals and busi-nesses
across the country. I
intend to do everything I can
to rectify that situation,"
Lent concluded.
by Mildred Roemer
decided to postpone the
change until June I, 1989 to
give residents the time they
have requested.
At present over 60% of the
Villages on Long Island col-lect
their taxes once a year.
More are expected to make
this change as cost saving
measures. With Lynbrook
moving from a twice to once
a year tax collection, man
hours, stationery, and mail-ing
costs will be reduced.
Right now the Village Clerk
staff and Assessing Depart-ment
staff spend extensive
man hours in tax collection
related processing, only to
begin repeating the process
some months later.
Besides man power and
processing savings, the
(Continued on page 4)
East Rockaway's Debt
To The Mill
"The Grist Mill, built in
1688. Resulted in near
Rockaway growing into
Early Trading Center,"
stated an article published in
the NASSAU DAILY
STAR, August 10, 1933,
The lengthy piece on Long
Island was written by James
E, Jenkins. And now, this
year of 1988 we are celebrat-ing
the 300th anniversary of
its inception.
Mr. Jenkins' text con-tinues,
"In the 17th century
Near Rockaway began to
develop its seaport along
with the struggling farms.
Just how early sloops and
packets began to make a
practice of tieing up at the
end of what is now East
Rockaway inlet is not known.
but in 1688 enough trade
had developed for Joseph
Haviland to figure the place
would be a good spot for a
Grist Mill. Prior to that
time, milling had been done
at 'Fosters Meadow' or in
Hempstead. The flour was
then trucked over the
Hempstead turnpike or
shipped by packei^t boat to
Near Rockaway of Free-port"
(then called Raynor).
We owe a debt to our old
Mill that gave us a start, so
let's give it a big salute this
year. The East Rockaway
High School Alumni Asso-ciation
has certainly started
with their plans for a play in
the High School on June
11th.