SEP80
Cease And Desist Orders
Prevent Blockbusting
Freeport's Stabilization and
Affirmative Housing Task Force,
urges all homeowners who have
not already done so, to submit a
cease and desist order to Secre-tary
of State Basil Patterson.
These orders prevent mass solici-tation
of homeowners and undue
pressure to sell.
The cease and desist drive
began some years ago when soli-citations
of homeowners in the
Village by a few unscrupulous
real estate brokers led to "block
•busting-.-— - Discussions - between
the Village and Stale govern-ments
led to the program where-by
residents signing and filing
such orders with the State would
be protected from unwanted solic-itation
by real estate brokers and
salesmen. Those realtors refusing
to obey the order are subject to
punitive action by the Secretary's
office which can lead to suspen-sion
or revokation of the license to
operate in the real estate field.
If you' have never signed a
cease and desist order — of if you
have but have since moved with-in
the Village to another house —
clip out and sign the form below
and return it to the Village
Clerk's office (do not mail it
directly to the State).
To save postage, the form
below may be returned with your
electric payment. The Task Force
urges all Freeporters to add their
names to the hundreds of their
neighbors who have already af-forded
themselves of this form of
protecting their property, their
Village and themselves. The sign-ing
of the order will not prevent
anyone from selling his home in
a legitimate manner by merely
-contactingiany_reputable_realtor.
The difference is that the contract
is initiated by the homeowner and
not by a real estate dealer.
The forms will then be recorded
by the Village and forwarded to
the Secretary of State. When you
have received an acknowledge-ment
from the State, you will
know that you are covered by the
non-solicitation order. If you are
subsequently solicited, save the
postcard, business card or other
material received, or if solicited
by phone, make a note of the
time, date and name and broker
affiliation of the caller, and then
notify the Code Enforcement
office.
Date
Hon. Basil Patterson
Secretary of State
New York Department of State
Dear Secretary Patterson:
I (We), the undersigned registered owner(s) of property located
at : : , in the Village
of Freeport, Nassau County, New York, do not wish to sell such
property. Accordingly, I (We) hereby revoke my (our) Implied In-vitation
to solicit in any manner whatsoever.
I (We) hereby request you, by virtue of the power vested In you
as Secretary of State, pursuant to Article 12A of the Real Property
Law, to order all licensed brokers and salesmen to cease and desist
from soliciting the undersigned until such time as I (We) may
notify you in writing to the contrary.
(Signed)_
(Signed).
Print Name_
Additional
Federal
Monies Received
Mayor William White has
announced that the Village has
been awarded a total of $752,850
in federal funds.
The amount of $650,000 from
the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development' repre-sents
the final year of a three-year
Small Cities program for
Freeport. The total over the
three years was $1,950,000.
The grant will be used to fund
several projects in the Village,
including: $240,000 to continue
"acquisition of substandard
buildings for community re-development;
$200,000 for street
improvements; and $75,000 to
continue the Homesteading pro-gram.
The balance of the federal
funds will be used to improve
water and sewer facilities and to
rehabilitate private residential
properties through the loans and
grants program.
A second grant, for $102,850,
was received from the US De-partment
of the Interior. Freeport
was one of only three communi-ties
in New York State (the
others being New York City and
Rochester) to receive such a
grant. Only 29 communities
throughout the nation were
selected.
The monies will be used for the
rehabilitation of Northeast Park.
Work will include the reconstruc-tion
of the basketball courts,
replacement of lighting fixtures
and fencing, correction of drain-age
problems, replacement of
equipment and repairs in the
children's play area, rehabilita-tion
of the picinic area including
new tables and grills, repair and
extension of walkways with new
benches and fencing and ramps
and curb cuts. .
Neighborhood
Problem?
Write To:
Stabilization Task Force
46 N. Ocean Ave.
SEPTEMBER 1980
A Public Information Bulletin
of The Village Of Freeport
46 North Ocean Avenue
Telephone FReeport 8-4000
William H. White, Mayor
ONLy
Village
News
Public Meetings on the 1st. and 3rd. Mondays of the Month, at 8:00 P.M.
Homefinders Volunteer
HOMEFINDERS VOLUNTEER. Freeport Homefinders Director
Ramona Crook (seated) goes over applications from families seeking to
purchase houses in the Village through yie government's free service
which puts buyers and sellers together at no fee. Shown with her is
Lydia Roman, a long-time resident of West Second Street. Mrs. Roman ,
works each Sunday at the Homefinders booth at the Freeport Recrea-tion
Center as a volunteer. In choosing Mrs. Roman as "the Volunteer
of the Month," Mrs. Crook reports, "Business at the Center booth has
been booming and I couldn't handle it without Lydia's very appreciated
support."
Police Auction
The Freeport Police Depart-ment
will hold a public auction of
bicycles and other lost or stolen
. goods for which the rightful own-ers
have not been located. The
auction will take place on Sat-urday,
October 4, at 10 am in the
Police garage next to Head-quarters
at 40 North Ocean Ave-nue.
Payment for items must be in
cash and there will be no refunds.
Village Will Pickup
Bagged Leaves
Superintendent of Public
"Works' Edwin Prefer -has an-nounced
that the special Highway
Department pick up of bagged
leaves begins the last week in
October. Property owners must
adhere to the proper schedule if
the program is to be successful.
Plastic bags holding leaves are
not to be placed on the curb for
pick up, except on the day set
aside. The schedule is as follows:
MONDAY - Northwest: Sunrise
Highway north to the Village
Line, North Main Street west to
the Village Line.
TUESDAY - Southeast: Sunrise
Highway south to the Village
Line, Long Beach Avenue east to
the Village Line.
THURSDAY - Northeast: Sun-rise
Highway north to the Village
Line, North Main Street east to
the Village Line.
FRIDAY - Southwest: Sunrise
Highway south to the Village
Line. Long Beach Avenue west
to the Village Line.
This program will be carried
out by the Highway Department
personnel using packer trucks.
The private carters will NOT pick
up bagged leaves on trash days.
Extra large and heavy duty
plastic bags may be purchased at
Village Hair at. 10 for $1.50 on
week days between 8:30 am and
4 pm. A maximum of 20 can be
purchased at one time. For
additional information, please call
the Highway Department at
FR 8-4000, ext. 224,
Trustees: Dorothy Storm, Alfred Sirlin, James Clark, Timothy Peternana
Village Clerk: Thomas DeVincenzo; Treasurer: James J. Lyons; Counsel: Michael Solomon
Garbage Disposal Proposal Dropped
The Freeport Board of Trus-tees,
meeting August 18, directed
Village Counsel to drop all nego-tiations
with BW Energy Systems
Inc. on the proposed purchase of
the municipal incinerator site by
that firm for the construction of a
resource-to-energy facility.
Following are remarks by Mayor
William H. White given at
the meeting.
' 7 believe it is the responsibili-ty
of myself, as Mayor, and the
members of this Board of Trus-tees
to act in the face of a prob-lem.
I refuse to believe it is
prudent to wait until 'a problem
has become a crisis, thus making
it necessary to react rather than to
act.
' 'Based on this committment to
responsibility the Board decided
to face the problem of garbage
disposal rather than wait and be
forced to deal with a very real
crisis. That is why we listened to
the presentation for the second
time, by BW Energy Systems and
made one formal motion. Nine
major points were set down for
discussion by both ponies'
attorneys in preparation for
possible future contract negoti-ations.
The beauty of the BW
proposal is that it would not cost
our taxpayers a quarter. Indeed,
it would increase our tax rate-ables
based on the assessed
valuation of the completed plant,
would reduce our tipping or
disposal fees, and would have
logically reduced collection
charges by private carters when"
our contract is rebid in the next
year or so.
"There are those who contend
that we do not have an immediate
problem. I disagree. Under our
present contract with the Town of
Hempstead, our solid waste is
disposed for SI5.50 per ton.
That's over' double the rate
charged in 1973. Some experts
see such prices doubling again in
the near future. A doubling of
today's tipping fees for Freeport
homeowners would mean an in-crease
of 55* per $100 of assessed
valuation on Village property
taxes, which does not consider
the increase in School District
disposal costs also borne by our
taxpayers. The same experts
guessestimate that in the future it
could cost between $30 and $50
per household per month to dis-pose
of a normal amount of waste.
That's the sort of gloomy pre-dictions
the Board was looking at
when it was also estimated that a
successful, privately owned gar-bage
disposal plant in the Village
could have saved us some
$174,000 in fiscal year 1982-83
over our estimated costs during
the same period through the
Town of Hempstead contract.
"When this Board of Trustees
entertains any proposal it relies
on the Village professional staff,
the department heads, to thor-oughly
investigate 'the matter
individually and collectively. This
was being accomplished during
that period when the Board began
hearing cries from Freeport resi-dents,
those of nearby communi-ties,
and from legislators and the
media, as to the need for in-dependent
environmental and
engineering studies...if not out-right
if. ^mediate rejection of the
plan based on the perhaps un-related
problems encountered at
Love Canal, Three Mile Island,
etc. I stated over and over again
that such expensive studies were
not needed at that time.
"David Lovejoy, our Super-intendent
of Buildings, brought to
our attention a possible legal
barrier that apparently would be
extremely difficult to overcome.
Under our present zoning ordi-nances,
there is a lengthty
list of prohibited uses in an indus-trial
zone with those prohibitions
established* many 'years" ago.
Specifically mentioned as bejng
prohibited in such a zone, -our
most lenient, is the disposal and
reduction of garbage. The site
BW proposed to purchase is in-dustrially
zoned and although it
presently houses our incinerator
which operated until 1973, the
municipal use apparently super-seded
the zoning. In any case, it
is the opinion of counsel that such
a non-conforming use cannot be
transferred from a municipality to
a private firm such as BW.
"The option was open to the
Board of Trustees to hold a public
hearing which might have led to
the dropping of the prohibition of
garbage reduction in an industrial
zone. The path would then have
been open toBW. I could not pro-pose
such a hearing and I do not
believe that any member of this
Board would have voted in the
affirmative at such a session. It
is quite clear such action would
have opened up a Pandora's Box.
It would have meant that in any
industrial zone in the Village —
Commercial Street, parts of
Woodcleft and Ocean Avenues,
the area near Westend Avenue,
etc. — BW could be followed in
by XYZ Garbage Disposal Inc.
and others. The prohibition would
have been lifted and the Village
would have had none of the con-trols
planned to be.placed on BW
as to Village-only garbage to be
processed, tight environmental
controls on the local level and so
forth. The potential for Freeport
to become "The Garbage Capital
of Long Island,'' would be very
real.
"Two years ago the Board of
Trustees brought about real
savings to our taxpayers by
switching from a municipal sani-tation
department to a three year,
guaranteed contract under a
private carter. This in itself was a
highly controversial move and the
Board was in no way wholly
supported in that investigation.
Nevertheless, I believe we acted
in the best interest of the com-munity
in the face of ever-rising
costs and it was an example of
dealing with a problem before it
became a problem. It was our
responsibility to act.
' 'It was our responsibility to act
it_on the BW proposal. Hardly any-ir
one supported our investigation
and I will not sidestep the issue of
that nonsupport.
"I have no patience with in-nuendos,
deliberate misinfor-mation,
inflammatory state-ments,
political subterfuge, poor
reporting or threats. However, to
the best of my ability, I have
always sought to weave my way
through such tangled webs in
order to openly listen to the
people of Freeport, and in this
case, the people of Merrick as
well. What I heard, what we all
heard, from those residents was a
thread of fear. That fear, whether
it was rational or irrational, was
understood and became part of
our deliberations. It was recog-nized
as a real fear of our times
based on both facts and possibili-ties.
It was carefully weighed
along with our knowledge, that we
~ vere also dealing with a problem
vhich is a reality.
"I enjoy being on a boat and
last Wednesday I had two visitors
from France with me. I pointed
out the landmarks which can be
seen from Jones Inlet and Long
Creek — the World Trade
Towers, Empire State Building,
the Nassau County Medical
Center. I didn't bring their
attention to our two new land-marks...
the landfill areas which
have become Long Island's first
mountains since the Glacial
Age — one to our east in Merrick
and the other to our west in
Oceanside. Looking at them J
could'riot bufihink Kow' ironic it
is that the federal government
made us shut down our Village
sewer treatment plant because of
the possible polluting of our
waters. I'm not alone in wonder-ing
about the damage two moun-tains
of raw garbage on the shore
line are doing not only to our local
waterways, but also to the quality
of our air. Freeporters have
already begun complaining and I
can't blame them. However,
40,000 Freeporters will continue
to contribute to Oceanside's
and Merrick's mountains until the
Town of Hempstead's recycling
The Freeport Board of Trustees
has voted to raise the maximum
income allowable for senior
citizens to receive property tax
exemptions from $8,000 to
$9,200.
Applications for the exemp-tions
must be made at Village
Hall between now and October 1
and between 9 am and noon or
2 pm and 4 pm each working day.
Senior citizens must apply each
year.The requirements are:
One owner must be 65 years of
age or older and must show
ownership of the property for at
least two years. Proof of age and
ownership is required for new
applications only.
Combined income cannot
exceed $9,200. Income includes
social security payments, salary,
wages, interest and dividends,
net rents, capital gains, alimony,
support payments, disabitily pay-ments,
workmen's compensation,
etc. Proof of income must be
furnished with all applications. If
plant is reopened, assuming it
does.
"If you are not a boatperson,
drive down Long Beach Road in
Oceanside, or the Meadowbrook
Parkway, just south of Merrick
Road in Merrick, and you 'II see
what I mean.
"The problems that created the
atmosphere under which we even
investigated BW's proposal have
not gone away. Indeed the recog-nition
of those problems as
regional and national ones have
multiplied many times over since
our deliberations began in the
spring of 1979.
' 'Of course, we are part of the
problem — 25,000 tons annually.
We apparently can't be part .of
the solution with private funds
without leaving the door wide
open to becoming the solution to
everyone's problem.
"The Hempstead Town Board
acted responsibly in encouraging
the development of the garbage-to-
ener;?/ plant known as Black
Clawsc"\Itis imperative that this
plant be i^iade to work, safely. I
ask the Town Board to set a
realistic deadline for that goal. If
it can't be met, I urge the Super-visors,
to organize the efforts oj
other Towns in our County and
State to find a solution to this
nationwide problem — to pres-the
owner filed a federal or state
income tax return for the pre-ceding
calendar year, a copy of
the return is required.
Some veterans are also entitled
to partial property tax exemptions
and also must file before October
1 if they are filing for the first
time or updating their applica-tions.
The following is required for
initial applications: Contract of
sale and closing statement; deed
to property; discharge papers;
evidence of veterans' benefits re-ceived
from either state or federal
governments; last bank statement
showing amount of unpaid
mortgage; and other pertinent
data.
Veterans filing for an additional
exemption by update a prior
application, need bring only the
following: Evidence indicating
the additional amount of money
received for veterans' benefits;
last bank statement showing un-paid
mortgage; and other pert-inent
data.
sure the New York State Depart--
ment of Environmental Conserva-tion
and the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to use every
means at their disposal to find
solutions — not to continue to say
what can't be done but what can
be done.
"At the executive- session q
last Monday night the Board q
Trustees was made aware that /
after a long period of thought.
intended to drop whatever sup
port I have had towards thi
proposal of BW Energy Systemi
to construct a resource-to-energy
facility in our Village. Although
she is on vacation, I consultea
with Deputy^ Mayor Dorothy
Storm by long distance during the
week on tonight's proposed action
so that I know all Board members
are in agreement. On that basis 1
met with the principals of BW
last Friday morning and informed
them that the proposal being
investigated since the spring of
1979 was now to be dropped.
Therefore, I will accept a motion
to direct Village Counsel to drop
all negotiations with BW Energy
Systems on the proposal that that
firm purchase the municipal
incinerator site for the purpose of
building a resource to energy
facility. "
IN FREEPORT
A - Healthy " Business"'
Community Lessens The
Burden-Of The Taxpay-ing
Resident . . .
e by broadening the tax
base
« by providing employ-ment
e by attracting more
tax-reducing develop-ment.
You can Help By Thinking
"Freeport First"
For Purchase Of Goods
and Services
SHOP
