Time To Smell The Coffee

To the Editor:

On Tuesday September 29th I went to a meeting at the high school which was called to tell the public why a 36.5 Million Dollar school bond is being presented for a village wide vote on October 27th. All of the presentation was given by the school board and the various consultants who prepared the estimates. However, the meeting began with a thank you to the Joint Conference Committee (JCC) (a group composed of the presidents and vice presidents of the four property owners associations [POA]).They were credited with sponsoring the meeting. In fact, as a resident of the western section who regularly attends meetings, I know that our POA was never solicited for an endorsement of the bond referendum. Our POA ,which deals almost exclusively with village administrative matters, has not solicited input from our members on the issue. I have no idea why the JCC was asked by the school board to host the meeting, unless it was to give the impression that the various POA’s endorsed the bond.

Although the meeting was publicized in both village newspapers I counted fewer than forty residents in the audience. Does this mean that everyone agrees that because the school board says so, additional taxes need to be raised? Does everyone know what is included in the proposal? October 27th is not that far off. If we don’t start asking questions now we will not have enough information to make an informed decision. Let us all start paying attention to what is going on and study this issue.

Arnold Finamore

Parking Fee Doubled

To The Editor:

I recently received my invoice for next year’s LIRR commuter parking permit and was outraged to see that it had doubled. We should have all figured something was amiss when the renewals were a month late in coming. For what reason was it necessary to increase the fee by this magnitude? By what venue was this discussed and was anyone in the Village ever asked for input? Were any of the POA’s notified that this was coming?

This is nothing but a flagrant, albeit sneaky attempt to wring a few additional dollars from those of us who have no other choice. The minimal maintenance done at the commuter fields could not possibly warrant a 100% increase. I believe one of the primary reasons is to justify $200 or more fees in the near future.

I would hope that in the future, some advance notice would be given before these types of hidden surcharges are levied but then that would eliminate the surprise factor.

Frank X. Ruggiero

Suozziland?

To the Editor:

When Charles Wang was busy buying up Oyster Bay real estate, my LIRR seat mate said they should call it “Wang’s World”. He was a several years premature. Perhaps they should just rename the proposed Lighthouse debacle “Wang’s World”.

Now we have Suozzi’s HUB project, map below, redefining the face of Nassau County with a Light Rail Transit system. Our local newspapers should run a full page color copy of the proposal map so residents can get an idea of the scope of this project and it’s impact on local travel. Does Suozzi really think Nassau residents will give up their cars to be held hostage to another mismanaged government run mass transit system? Hell, most of the buses I see are running at 10% capacity and no doubt heavily subsidized by taxpayers, as will the LRT. Why don’t we get rid of all those pesky villages and rename the HUB area “Suozziland”?

At least Walt Disney built “Disney World” and “Disneyland” with his money!

Thomas Brosnan