Freeport Report 1994-04

              Memorial Day Parade Theme:
"Honoring the Peacekeepers"
As Memorial Day approaches
on May 30th, the Freeport Com-munity
is eagerly preparing for
this year's gala procession. It will
honor the men and women en-listed
in the United States Army,
Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps
and Coast Guard who are assigned
to the United Nations command
in war torn countries, according
to Parade Chairman Charles Jack-son
of American Legion Post
#342. '.
The parade steps off promptly
at 10 a.m. at Freeport High School
and marches east on Merrick Road
to the Freeport Memorial Library,
where the High School Select
Chorale and the 42nd Rainbow
Division Army Band will perform.
Parade Grand Marshall U.S. Army
Brigadier General Harry J. Mott
III (Ret.) and Mayor Arthur W.
Thompson will address the crowd
on this year's theme "Honoring
the Peacekeepers."
All units of the Fire Depart-ment,
active and inactive military
members, veterans organizations,
and local youth and adult groups
will participate. Weather permit-ting,
Army National Guard heli-copters
will overfly the ceremony.
Further Information is available
from Parade Chairman Charles
Jackson at 868-5373.
Other Upcoming Events
Thursday, April 14, 2:40
p.m., Giblyn School —A Mer-maids
Tale, audience partici-pation
play about water con-servation
sponsored by Free-port
Water Department for third
graders.
Sunday, April 24, 2:00 p.m.,
Cow Meadow Park — "Five
Mile Ecology Walk," spon-sored
by Freeport Rotary Club
for Freeport youth. For Info
call Jerry Tedeschiat379-6858.
Monday, April 25, 7:30 p.m.
Village Hall — Public Hear-ing
on renewal of Cablevision's
Freeport franchise. Public
opinion and comment is wel-come.
For info call Inez
Sanzeri, 378-4000.
Tuesday, April 26,1:15 p.m.
Archer Street School — A
Mermaids Tale, audience par-ticipation
play about water con-servation
sponsored by Free-port
Water Department for third
graders.
Monday, May 9, 10:00 a.m.
Bay view Avenue School —A
Mermaids Tale, audience par-ticipation
play about water con-servation
sponsored by Free-port
Water Department for third
graders.
Saturday & Sunday, June 4
& 5, Nautical Mile — Annual
Summer Festival. For info call
Janice Ruger at 379-9106.
Sunday, June 12, 9:00 a.m.,
Guy Lombardo Ave. & Front
St. — Hi-Hello 5K Walk/Run.
For info call Fran McAndrews
at 379-1825.
Saturday, June 18 — Hudson
Anglers Annual Shark Tourna-ment.
For info call David
Wygoda at 374-3440.
Police Examination Hears
THE NASSAU COUNTY police test is displayed by (from I.) Deputy
Inspector Edward Locke, PBA President Jack Lundergan, and Mayor
Thompson as a reminder that applicants may pick up an Exam Prep, and
Orientation manual starting April 15th for the test on May 21st and 22nd.
FREEPORT CELEBRATED RED CROSS MONTH during March by
displaying its official flag and information poster at Village Hall. Mayor
Thompson urges Freeport resident to support the disaster relief and health
services of the Red Cross. Taking part in ceremonies with the Mayor are
Talea David, a 1990 Freeport Nigh School graduate and Nassau County
Chapter Volunteer with the HIV/AIDS Peer Education Program and Red
Cross Public Support Specialist Chris Wood (r.)
Summer Jobs
„ Trustee Rick Wisler urges students to apply now
for summer jobs in the Village. Available positions
include recreation attendant, laborer and certified
lifeguard. \ '* ; ,"* -,
"Applications must be made at the Office of the
Village Administrator, Village Hall, weekdays from;
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. No telephone inquires will be
accepted," said Wisler.
Applicants will be required to present proof of
residency in the Village and must be at least 17 years
of age (16 for lifeguards).
State of the Village
Continued from Pg. 2
"When completed in the Spring
of 1996, the new pavement will
lead to Freeport's waterfront area
and will have a positive impact
on the flow of traffic in south
Freeport."
This summer work will also
begin on new storm drain valves
that will alleviate the flooding
which has plagued Freeport,
Mayor Thompson reported in the
"State of the Village" address.
The following appointments were approved by Village
Trustees at the April 4,1994 meeting:
Michael Williams..
Thomas Preston ....
Steven Lieberman .
Bernadine Quinton
Michael Solomon..
G. Lane-Lo Presti..
Administrator (1 -year )/Clerk (2 years)
Treasurer (2 years)/Assessor (1 year )
Deputy Treasurer (1 year)
Deputy Assessor (1 year)
Village Attorney (1 year)
Senior Deputy Attorney (1 year)
Cheryl Clarke Associate Village Justice (1 year)
David Lovejoy Public Works Superintendent (1 year)
Robert Coane Building Superintendent (1 year)
John McTighe Fire Dept. Executive Director (1 year)
Inez Sanzeri Public Affairs Director (1 year term)
Carole Wood : Assistant to the Mayor (1 year term)
Mayor: Freeport Advancing Confidently
Thompson Reports on Improving
Quality of Life in Freeport
Mayor Arthur W. Thompson
cited the Village-wide crack-down
on illegal landlords, the
demolition of blighted areas, and
better-intergovernmental coop-eration
in his "State of the Vil-lage"
address and said it has led
to an improved quality of life in
Freeport.
Code Enforcement
In his remarks at the April 4th
Board of Trustees' meeting, the
Mayor pointed to an increase in
summonses for building code
violations from 100 per month
last year to 800 per month this
year. He also disclosed that fines
for violators increased to 60% of
those cited,-up from a low of
15% last year.
"This administration," he said,
"has taken a bold, forward leap
in code enforcement, prosecu-tion
and_the administration of
justice. Unscrupulous landlords
who drag our Village down have
been more than put on notice."
Thompson pledged to continue
the crackdown.
"We have risen to the chal-lenge
of improving our quality
of life. In the year ahead we will
have more vigilant enforcement,
more vigorous prosecution, more
swift and convincing justice," he
said.
Freeport Revitalization
"The decay and disuse that has
IMPROVEMENTS TO SUNRISE HIGHWAY CONTINUE: Mayor Thomp-son,
left, meets with Frank Dellaquilla, owner^of Hassel Motors, Inc. The
Mayor, who is working to improve the look for Freeport's main east/west
thoroughfare, discusses with Dellaquilla his plan to redo the front section of his
new building. Dellaquilla recently purchased the building between his Jeep/
Volvo dealership and the Village Power Plant on Sunrise Highway.
concealed our productive com- vealed that "new foundations will
mercial real estate is being elimi- soon be poured to anchor down-nated,"
said the Mayor as he re- Continued on Pg. 2
Revitalization of Downtown Freeport Begins
The new visionary future of
Freeport began in March with
the demolition of portions of
Freeport Plaza West on Sunrise
Highway as part of the Village's
Urban Renewal Project.
Early in the morning of March
4, construction vehicles rolled
in, knocked down empty build-ings
and cleared the way for a
newer, brighter Freeport.
An $890,000 Federal devel-opment
grant the Village re-ceived
toward the Urban Re-newal
Project is being used for
land acquisition and the redevel-opment
of blighted areas.
The first new construction to
rise on the site could be a 55,000
square foot Service Merchandise
center that will employ up to 45
permanent workers and eventu-ally
generate as much as
$200,000 in property taxes.
; "This'cbuld be'the first major
step in revitalizing Freeport's
downtown area," said Mayor
This is the architect's rendering of the Service Merchandise center recommend for Freeport Plaza West by the Business
and Economic Development Committee. The project was proposed by Phillips Associates developer ofMeadowbrook
Commons.
Arthur W. Thompson, who is
studying the plan in before for
bringing it to Village Trustees.
The proposal was made to the
Village's Business and Economic
Development Committee by
Phillips Associates, which ear-lier
developed the Meadowbrook
Commons further east on Sun-rise.
It calls for replacing the 54-
year-old Meadowbrook Bank
building at the corner of Sunrise
Highway and Grove Street with
a modern two story building and
142 parking spaces. The land-mark
four-sided clock will be
preserved as part of the project.
Gregory Saunders, Vice Presi-dent
of Phillips Associates, said
that Service Merchandise is a
four billion catalogue retailer of
jewelry, sporting goods,
housewares, audio/video equip-ment,
giftware, toys and lawn
equipment. A showroom would
occupy the first floor with stock
stored on the second floor.
Cacciatore Elected Village Justice
JUDGE V. ROY CACCIATORE
Judge V. Roy Cacciatore, who
was appointed to the Village Court
bench last year by Mayor Arthur
W. Thompson, was overwhelm-ing
elected to the post on March
14. His term will expire in 1997.
Cacciatore garnered nearly 75%
of the vote in defeating Michael J.
Raab 1,903 to 660.
"Judge Cacciatore has been do-ing
an outstanding job helping pre-serve
the quality of life in Freeport
by energetically enforcing the laws
and the codes of our Village. At
the same time he has improved the
administration of our court," said
Mayor Arthur W. Thompson.
"This election is a mandate to
continue vigorous enforcement,"
Judge Cacciatore declared.
Before becoming Village Jus-tice,
Cacciatore was Deputy Vil-lage
Attorney, Counsel to the Zon-ing
Board of Appeals, Special
Counsel to the Community De-velopment
Agency and Special
Prosecutor in Village Court.
Judge Cacciatore is a graduate
of St. John's Law School and has
practiced law in Freeport for 20
years. He is a founding partner of
the Freeport law firm of Caccia-tore
and DeLessio.
He is admitted to practice in the
New York and Federal courts
where he has specialized in civil
and municipal law.
He, his wife and their sons live
on South Long Beach Avenue.
State of the
Village
Continued from Pg. 1
town growth, bring customers,
tax revenues and jobs to the heart
of our commercial district."
The Mayor also noted that the
Meadowbrook Care Center,
which will soon occupy the
former Lydia E. Hall Hospital
site, has promised the Village it
will list its available jobs in the
Freeport Job Bank, as will the
proposed Service Merchandise
center (see p. 1 story) as part of
the Freeport First partnership.
"This skilled nursing facility
will bring an immediate infusion
of hundreds of jobs to Freeport,1'
the Mayor said.
Other signs of progress Th-ompson
highlighted were the
demolition of the old Heritage
Hotel, and the clean up and ex-pansion
along Sunrise Highway
at Hassel Jeep/Volvo.
Innovative ideas for an enter-tainment
center in Freeport are
being seriously considered, Th-ompson
said.
"Several national theater op-erators
are showing strong inter-est
in establishing a state-of-the-art
entertainment facility in our
community."
Government Funding
In the past year, Freeport has
received substantial funding
from the State and County for
the repair of problem areas.
Thompson noted that design
work is underway for extensive
road repair along Guy Lombardo
Avenue including new curbs,
sidewalks, turning lanes and
wider roadbeds.
Continued on Pg.4
Real Estate Broker Fined $1,000
For the first time in Village
history, a Freeport real estate
broker was slapped with a sub-stantial
penalty during the
March 3 session of Village Jus-tice
V. Roy Cacciatore's court.
The $1,000 fine was issued
to New Vision Realty, 56 Guy
Lombardo Ave., for the illegal
rental of a cellar apartment.
"We hope this landmark de-cision
sends a strong message
to other real estate brokers who
may be breaking the same
Now You See It.
Now You Don't!
' The Heritage Hotel, one
bfFreepbrf s most blighted
buildings, began its dis-appearing;
act early Mon-day,
March 2 U;The two-
, storycondemnedstructure
>w,as almost', Completely
leyeied in the first hour of
, demolition worlc.
' "The -'removal' of this
eyesore reinforces the
The Mayor inspects the demolition with Su-perintendent
qfCommunity Development
EricHemphia(L),LouDiGrtKia,Engineer-ing
Department Senior Drafter (2ndl), and
Chairman of the-Economic 'Development
Village's, aim to clean Up CommitteeK<yGurtatare;Sr.
and create a shining community,",said Mayor'Arthur W.
Thompson. *_ ' _ . / ' ' • - , '," ''•'/', "/.,'/''' ;,'. >',"-,' '
The building was secured last summer after'seyeral code
-violations^were found in the single room pccupancy.hotel.
Following, a fire last July,; Mayor Thgmpson and Acting
^Superintendent of Buildings J,6seph Maaigatf-joined work-men
in boarding up the hotel. Demolitioni of the^building has ,
enabled the Village to extend the adjacent'parking field;and
create.access to it from Merrick R6ad.<-;S '";'<„
laws," declared Mayor Arthur
W. Thompson.
Village code, prohibits the
rental or offering for rental of
any sleeping unit within cellars
or basements.
Following a building search,
Senior Building Department
Inspector Keith Nicholson is-sued
two summonses for viola-tions;
for renting an apartment
in the cellar at 17 Lakeview
Ave. and for renting a danger-ous
building in violation of
Village codes.
The tenant, who pleaded
guilty, must relocate within 60
days or face a $2,000 fine.
"It is the avarice of some un-scrupulous
real estate brokers
that creates the foundation for
Freeport's illegal housing prob-lems,"
Mayor Thompson
added. "Once the problem is
severed at the root, tenants can
live in safer, legal conditions. I
commend our vigilant Build-ing
Department, our vigorous
prosecution and our Village
court for this action."
The Freeport Report is pub-lished
monthly throughout the
year by the Village of Freeport,
46 North Ocean Avenue, to
keep residents better informed.
Mayor _ Arthur W. Thompson
Administrator Michael Wllllami
Managing Editor Inez Sanierl
Editor Robert A. Allen
Freeporters A ttend Health Fair
MAYOR ARTHUR W. THOMPSON, welcomed the Health Fair to Atkinson
School on March 19, where he and other officials watched Nassau County
Comptroller Fred Parola undergo a cholesterol screening from technician
Debby Weber. Theevent, attended by more than 500 people, wassponsored
by State Senator Norman Levy and the Freeport School District. It involved
numerous health related activities and health awareness information
stations and offered free Mammography screenings andpediatric immuni-zations.
In attendance (left to right standing), were Helen Mutter, School
Board President Cal Venzen, School Superintendent Dr. Richard Bonen,
Sen. Levy, Mayor Thompson, and Assemblyman Charles O'Shea.
Oldest Firefighter Honored
Seventy-one springs ago,
when Warren Harding was in
the White House and Prohibi-tion
was the law of the land,
young Conrad Ott was eagerly
awaiting his 21st birthday. That
was when he could fulfill his
childhood dream of becoming
a Freeport volunteer fireman.
Hope became reality on May 8,
1923 when Ott joined Ever
Honorary Ex-Chief Conrad Ott
Ready Hose Company No. One
on Southside Avenue.
Ott became a driver of Hose
One's first motorized truck, a
1915 Mack and quickly rose
through the ranks becoming
Captain in 1929. Today, at age
92, he is an honorary Ex-Chief
and an active member serving
with the same dedication to
excellence he had during the
Roaring '20's.
At the 100th Anniversary
Dinner Dance of Ever Ready
Hose^Cpnipany.Number One,.
March 12, Ott was cited by
Mayor Arthur W. Thompson
for outstanding service and ex-cellent
performance.
"Conrad Ott, the Village's
most senior fireman, is living
proof of the dedication and loy-alty
that Freeport's Volunteer
Firemen have always shown.
We are proud of him and the
department," said the Mayor.
Grants for Local Arts Programs
Two Freeport organizations Freeport received $3,296;
received grants from the 1994
New York State Council on the
Arts' Decentralization Program,
which is administered by the
L.I. Arts Council at Freeport.
The Nassau Dance Theater in
$1,055 went to Freeport's Op-eration
PRIDE. Purpose of
the grants is to make programs
available to geographically, eth-nically,
and racially diverse seg-ments
of the population.
Freeport Named
Tree City USA
Trustee Ralph Smith proudly
reports that Freeport has been
named "Tree City USA" by the
National Arbor Day Founda-tion
in recognition of its com-prehensive
commu-nity
forestry pro-gram
and its Arbor
Day observance.
Word of the selec-tion
by the National
Arbor Day Founda-tion
comes as the
Village reinstitutes
its Curbside Tree Planting Pro-gram.
Under the new program, the
Village will advance $100 to-ward
of the cost of each tree, up
from the previous $75 a tree.
Funding is providing from a
$29,000 grant from the Small
Business Administration. The
balance of the cost of each tree
must be provided by the
homeowner.
Trees will be purchased by
competitive bid and will cost
from $150 to $175 per tree.
CITY USA
The trees will be planted, fertil-ized
and staked between curbs
and sidewalks or five feet be-hind
sidewalks. Each tree will
be from two and a half to three
feet in diameter and
12 feet high and
will be planted this
spring, according to
Public Works Su-perintendent
David
Lovejoy.
Applications
for trees are avail-able
by calling the Public Works
Department at 3 78-5020. Com-pleted
applications should be
mailed to Public Works, c/o 46
North Ocean Ave., Freeport,
NY 11520 or delivered to 355
Albany Ave.
"The trees planted and cared
for today will increase prop-erty
values, cool and beautify
Freeport, fight pollution, con-serve
energy and give local
birds and squirrels a home for
years to come," said Trustee
Smith.
South Nassau Flower Days
The Village has proclaimed Thursday, April 28 and.Friday,
April 29 as "South Nassau Communities Hospital Flower
Days." Members of the Hospital's Central Council of Auxilia-ries
will sell cybidiums at locations throughoutFreeportto raise
funds for the volunteer hospital. All flower sale proceeds go to
support the hospital, which has become more dependent on
contributions because of reductions in governmental support.
Freeport Post Office Shines
RENOVA TIONS at Freeport's Merrick Road Post Office have been com-pleted.
Six months of work was supervised by architect Delisa Aguirre.
Newly bronzed chandeliers hang from the repainted ceiling. Two eagles
(inset), once white to blend with the walls, have been painted bright gold.