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Editorial
Letters To
The Editor
Tax Views
By Stanley Feigenbaum
The Special Board meeting of the Farmingdale
Public Library over whether the library should
cooperate with UNICEF was a classic. If it were not
such a tragedy that any such fine organization could
be questioned, the dialogue by the dissenters rmght
be termed that of a comic opera. The script was
' predictable', especially after we attended a meeting
to hear a former under cover agent that had infiltrated
the John Birch Spciety, speak on the inner
workings of that organization.
The remarks of Library Trustee Warren Altmann
sounded like those of a ' legitimate' conservative.
He believes that a library should not cooperate with
any one charitable organization since,, as he said,
different taxpayers have different views of various
charitable agencies. He was not supporting the Carl
Gorton idea that the library should not support
UNICEF because it was ' Communist' oriented'.
Gorton was true to form as a John Birch Society
member, or, a more recent ex- member in believing
almost everything to be a communist conspiracy.
If his expulsion account inadaUy newspaper is true,
that he was ' ousted' from the Society, it must be
very hard on him now that his extreme right wing
organization has rejected him. What this means to
the Farmingdale library and to the community is
hard to tell at this point.
If giving out information on UNICE F is not warranted
then the Mayor of our village and Town
Supervisor would be wrong in official proclamations
of various worthy groups and causes as well as
changing street signs on the various occasions
that point up the group or cause in question.
To disagree with the library giving information
on UNICEF seems all the more ridiculous when
such an accepted institution as the United States
Post Office allows volunteers to sell UNICEF
greeting cards on government property, or similar
assistance to the Girl Scouts and the League of
Women Voters.
We would like to compliment FACT for its excellent
educational program.
Committee Opposes
Republic Field Takeover
Richard M„ Weissbard, chairman
of the Do Citizens Count?
Committee, this week announced
the committee has formally taken
a stand in opposition to the proposed
aviation and transportation
center at Republic Field.
The committee, formed in February,
has previously taken no
official position either for or
against the proposed Republic
center planned by the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, ft
has previously sought legislation
to provide for a binding referendum
on all such MTA projects.
" The committee will continue
its work toward acquiring legislation
providing a referendum,"
Weissbard said. " But it will also
dedicate its efforts to stopping
acquisition of Republic by the
MTA through all legal means,"
he said.
" The proposed aviation and
transportation center can bring
nothing but harm to our community.
The MTA has shown a
complete disregard for our community.
It proposes a facility
which would do irreparable damage
to our town," he said.
Weissbard urged fellow citizens
to vote YES on town pro-postion
No. 1 on the November
ballot. " I realize that the result
of the referendum is not
binding on the MTA," he said.
" But it will at least serve to
make our position absolutely
clear to that body."
Roy Jones and Mrs. Patricia
Bozza are the elected area representatives
on the " Do Citiznes
Count? Committee and reside in
East Farmingdale.
^ flarmtngftal* ( 0bfimnv
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Observer.
To the Editor:
In the past four years we have
witnessed a rapid decline of
respect among nations for our
country, disruption of law and
order at home, and general disrespect
for our President and
country.
We have seen violence and unrest
on campuses and streets,
infringement of the rights of our
citizens by radical rabble-rousers,
and massive divisive-ness
within our society.
We have been subjected to a
mismanaged war that has cost
us an unwarranted loss of lives,
leadership that has been unable
to bring about a swift but honorable
end to this war and the
embarrassment of the Pueblo
incident.
For 36 years in this century
we have entrusted the leadership
of our nation in the Democratic
party. They have promised
us all kinds of " deals" that were
to make this country a better
place for all of us to live. How
successful have they really been?
How much of the progress gained
was really from the initiative of
the general members of our
nation as opposed to the leadership
offered by the administrations
in Washington, and how
much of the ills that we are
suffering today are a direct result
of lack of true leadership
emanating from Washington?
We need new leadership to
unite the country, to restore
law and order at home and curtail
the rapidly rising crime rate,
to guarantee both majority and
minority rights, to regain our
prominence as a strong world
leader among other nations and
at the same time offer the leadership
to perpetuate the dream of
our founding fathers to guarantee
a better place for all of us to
live.
To find this new leadership
we must look not to one who
has been a member of the present
administration which has brought
on so much of the discontent nor
to one who i s attempting to have
those who are frustrated and long
for a change believe that his programs
would coincide with their
principles. Anyone who believes
that the former governor of
Alabama is a conservative should
carefully review his performance
as a governor. His excessive
spending and welfare programs
were in the tradition of the FDR
philosophy of government. He is
not a conservative but Populist.
How can he be for law and order
when he, him self, brazenly defied
law enforcement officers? What
kind of an example has he made?
Surely if he can interpret the law
and break it at will, whycan* tthe
hippies, yippies and kooks do
likewise? If we don't like a law,
we should work within the democratic
processes afforded to
change the law. The breakdown
of law and order today is due to
the disrespect for the law and
the refusal of extremists to follow
the procedures given to them by
the constitution to bring about
change. If the proposed change
is for the good, the people of our
nation will support it and insure
its adoption. But if it is not for
the betterment of our nation as
a whole, what right does any
minority of extremists have in
subjecting the majority to abuse?
One concerned with law and
order should also review Wallace's
state of Alabama as far
as the crime rate is concerned.
It's one of the worst in the
country.
The new leadership we need
must come from a man who
can unite the entire nation, give
confidence to the people and restore
our country to normalcy.
He must provide leadership to
captain our ship of state into
the difficult years ahead to insure
peace abroad and prosperity
for all at home. Other policies
have been tried and failed. It's
time for a change. Make your
vote'count. It's time for Richard
Nixon to be President.
Most people seem to assume,
if they bother thinking about it
at all, that state operating aid
to public schools is somehow,
mysteriously distributed fairly.
To a large extent, this is true,
but there are some glaring inequities,
usually short- changing
districts like ours.
In general, state operating aid
is based on aformula which compares
the full value of property
per pupil in each district with
the state average of full value
per pupil. Under the formula,
more state aid is paid to poorer
districts, and less is paid to
rich districts. This would be
a fair arrangement, except that
there is a high minimum guarantee
to the rich districts. Because
of this guarantee, districts
which should receive very little,
or no aid under the formula, are
paid $ 274 per pupil. By contrast,
District 22, which is poorer than
a v e r a g e , receives only $ 467.
This is an inequitable subsidy to
the rich districts, and since there
is only a certain amount of money
available for state aid, the poorer
districts must be receiving less
than their fair share.
In fact, there are 19 districts
in Nassau County which are rich
enough to qualify for the minimum
guarantee. These 19 districts
will receive about $ 11,500,000
more state aid than the formula
calls for. If this money were
distributed fairly, in the county,
D i s t r i c t 22 would receive add
i t i o n a l aidofmore than $ 600,-
000, equivalent to a tax rate reduction
of about 65C per $ 100
assessed value in the Oyster Bay
portion of the district.
Operating aid is the most important
type of aid paid to public
schools, but it is only one of
several types. One of the others
is called Size C o r r e c t i o n Aid.
This aid provides money in addition
to the operating aid to districts
with problems of size,
either small or large. District
22 will receive, this year, about
3.5% of operating aid as additional
money under Size C o r r e c t i o n .
The six largest cities in the state
receive an additional 17.5% of
operating aid for size correction,
presumably because these cities
have many problems because of
their large sizes, and need the
extra money. Five of these cities
are large, over 200,000 population,
and do have large public
school enrollments. The sixth,
Albany, has a population of about
130,000, and has a smaller public
school district, in number of
pupils, than does District 22, yet
it receives an additional 17.5%
and we receive only 3.5%. 17.5%
size correction aid would mean an
additional $ 850,000 to us, or a
tax rate reduction of about 93C
per $ 100.
To i l l u s t r a t e why equitable
state aid is so important to us,
remember that our school tax
rate increased this year by $ 1.38
per $ 100 value in the Oyster Bay
section of the district. The two
items mentioned here could reduce
our present taxes by about
$ 1.58 per $ 100 assessed value.
How The State Tries
To Save Marriages
By Gerhard Hirseland
C. Raymond Radigan
New York's divorce law was
one of the strictest in the nation.
Divorce was permitted only on
the grounds of adultery by the defendant
and the need to prove that
such was the case spawned, a-mong
other things like quickie
Nevada and Mexican divorces the
disgraceful staging of divorce
raids complete with witnesses
and photographers.
On September 1 of last year
the divorce law, which stood for
over 100 years, was liberalized
and permits now divorces on other
grounds besides adultery.
The courts in New York have
nevertheless not become divorce
mills. Quite to the contrary the
legislature in passing the new law
made clear thatbefore dissolving
a marriage all attempts should
be made to try to save it. To that
end it createda Conciliation Bureau
and the office of Conciliation
Commissioner in the Supreme
Court in each Judicial District of
the State. Before a divorce will be
granted all parties are asked to
consider whether or not conciliation
could be affected instead of
taking this final and irrevocable
step of divorce.
In order to find out exactly bow
this process works we asked Edward
J. Poulos to describe it to
us. Mr. Poulos is the Conciliation
Commissioner for the Tenth
Judicial District which also embraces
Farmingdale. Taking time
out from his busy campaign schedule,
( he is running for District
Court Judge), Mr. Poulos explained:
An action for divorce or for
separation and most annulments'
cannot begin before the service
of a summons. After service of
the summons, however, and before
the complaint is filed, which
sets forth the specific charges
this new conciliation procedure
is interjected as one more try
to save the marriage.
Therefore, after service of
the summons a notice of commencement
of a divorce action
must be filed within 20 days
with the Conciliation Bureau of
the Judicial District where the
action is pending. If no notice
is filed, which simply contains
the names, addresses and ages
of the parties and their children,
the divorce action is
deemed discontinued.
After receipt of this notice
the Conciliation Commissioner
mails to each party a questionnaire,
called " Statement by the
Party" with the request to fill
it out and return it as soon as
possible. The key word here is
" requested" because the recipients
of this form are not
required to return it. These questionnaires
are rather useful to
the Conciliation Commissioner
for they help him to determine
whether or not a conference with
both parties concerned should
be called. At least one conference
will be held although
it is in the Commissioner's discretion
to dispense with it. This,
however, would only be in cases
where there is no chance of
conciliation, e. g. where one
spouse disappeared and his or
her whereabouts are unknown
so that service of the summons
was affected by publication. In
cases like this a " Certificate
of No Necessity" will be issued
by the Commissioner and the
divorce action can continue.
Such a conference, at which
at the option of the parties their
attorneys may or may not be
present, is conducted very informally.
There is no reporter
present and no notes are taken.
After first seeing both parties
together the Conciliation Commissioner
will then talk to each
side privately and try to determine
whether the marriage
is only sick and could possibly
be healed or whether the
marriage is really dead without
chance of reconciliation.
While not a professional marriage
counselor, to whom he
may refer the couple if there
is a flicker of hope for the
marriage, the Conciliation Commissioner
is to some degree
counseling and advising. Besides
the required law degree and at
least five years of practice as
an attorney he needs qualities
that cannot be acquired at any
school. He has to be a warm
and understanding human being,
he must inspire confidence and
trust, he must have wisdom and
the capacity to judge objectively.
While not every marriage can
be saved there have been minor
miracles achieved in the Con-
( Continued on Page 9)
Page 4 Farmingdale OBSERVER - Thursday, October 24 ,1968
