1971-06-17

              FARMING MAlMNODAtt PUBLIC L I b
7 4 MAIN T SERVER Ut
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS RECORDED WEEKLY
An Officiaf NewspapiT of The Incorporated Village of Farmingdale - Serving Greater Farmingdale. Bethpagc and Melville
VOL. 8 NO. 4 3 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 • Published by THE OBSERVER, INC., Box 146, Farmingdale, N. Y. Thursday June 17 1971
Approval or Austerity Again
Budget Voters' Choice
Although the budget of the Farmingdale Schools Budget went down to defeat
last week - and quite decisively so - the very same budget will be resubmitted to
the voters on Saturday, June 26. In a press conference, held in the superinten­dents
office, Dr. William Kinzler reaffirmed his conviction that the school board
had knifed away all nonessential costs in the defeated budget. " The budget that
was presented to the voters last week could be called a budget of austerity plus
essential services", he said.
57 YEARS: After a combined 57 years of teaching, Mrs. Esther
Farrow ( left) and Mrs. Mary Calhoun will be retiring at the end of
this school term.
Northsiders Chalk Up
57 Years in Teaching
Two teachers at Northside
Elementary School - Mrs. Mary
Calhoun and Mrs. Esther Farrow
- are in the final weeks of their
Professional careers after having
served in New York State
classrooms for a combined total
of fifty- seven years. Thirty- six of
these years have been devoted to
teaching youngsters in the
schools of Farmingdale. In
recognition of these distinguished
records of service, Mrs. Calhoun
and Mrs. Farrow received
engraved plaques from the
Farmingdale Board of Education
which were presented at a recent
dinner by Dr. William A. Kinzler,
Superintendent of Schools, and
Mrs. Lucille Goulding,
President of the Board.
Mrs. Calhoun, who attended
Pratt Institute and received her
degree from New York
University, taught almost nine
years in several Nassau and
Westchester County school
districts before coming to Far­mingdale.
In her twenty years of
teaching in Farmingdale, she has
served as art teacher at Main
Street, East Memorial, Wood­ward
Parkway, and Northside
Schools.
A resident of Farmingdale for
the past twenty years, she and
her husband Walter Calhoun, a
retired industrial arts instructor
in the Manhasset schools, will be
moving this summer to Sun City,
a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.
The mother of Norman and Bruce
Calhoun, she is looking forward
to continuing her interests in
painting, reading, traveling, and
camping at a more relaxed pace
than an active teaching career
would permit.
Mrs. Esther Farrow received
her degree from Adrian College,
Michigan. She has subsequently
pursued graduate studies at
McGill University ( Montreal),
Syracuse University, and the
State University of New York at
Oneonta, Oswego, and Cortland.
Before coming to the Far­mingdale
schools, she taught in
her native community of Oswego
and in several Broome County
school districts for a total of
twelve years. In Farmingdale,
Mrs. Farrow has served for
sixteen years as a primary
teacher at East Memorial Albany
Avenue, and Northside Schools.
A resident of Old Bethpage, she
is the wife of Wayne Farrow,
professor of psychology at the
State University of New York at
Farmingdale. Together they
enjoy gardening, playing bridge,
spending vacation periods at
their summer home on the shores
of Lake Ontario at Oswego, anf
visiting their daughter Janette,
who is employed by the State of
Illinois.
The choice which will be
presented to the voters on June 26
will be, once more, between the
budget as proposed or asuterity.
The decision to resubmit the
budget in its original form was
made by the school board. One
board member who felt that the
result of the vote should be
reflected in some cuts was the
lone dissenter.
Dr. Kinzler admitted that there
is very little time to present the
case for the budget in its original
, form once more. " The reason for
our resubmission on such a short
notice is simply because any
decision of the voters will affect
our summer program," he
stated. " In case of a second
defeat the number of students
enrolled in the summer program
would have to be reduced from
1,000 pupils to 600."
The Superintendent em­phasized
that the original budget
had encompassed some drastic
reductions, totaling $ 600,000. -
which included the closing of
Main Street School and the
reduction in teaching and
secretarial staff.
The austerity budget, which
would go into effect if the voters
can not be persuaded to change
their mind, would shave $ 568,000
of the budget. Many of the items,
scratched under austerity, would
then have to be paid for by the
parents themselves, according to
Dr. Kinzler. Among them would
be instructional supplies
($ 100,000.) for grades 1- 6
($ 50,000.) and over ten mile
transportation ($ 23,000.).
It was pointed out that the voter
on June 26, again can actually
only decide whether these
$ 568,000.- ( 2M> percent of the total
budget) should be part of the
budget or not. The reamining 97v2
percent of the budget are state
mandated and out of the juris­diction
of the voter.
School officials were also quick
to point out that a defeat of the
budget would save the individual
homeowner $ 34.- a year or $ 2.83 a
month. The actual increase in
school { axes, should the budget
be accepted, would average $ 78.-
a year. In case of a defeat of the
budget the increase would total
$ 44.- a year.
There was one shimmer of
optimism at the end of the press
conference. As reported by the
" Observer" last week, the MTA
legislation " to authorize the
establishment of a program
providing transistion assess­ments
for certain real property
acquired by the metropolitan
transit authority" was passed by
both houses in Albany. According
to Dr. Kinzler, the amount to be
received from Albany will be
$ 100,000.- which could be worked
into the tax rate as soon as the bill
is signed by the governor.
Altmann Leaves Library
Defeated Budget Is Back Without Change
Within a short time the Far­mingdale
Library Board will be a
four member board again, after
it has just come up to its full
complement of five members by
virtue of Mrs. Rose Foucek's
election to the seat left vacant by
Carl Gorton: Board chairman
Warren Altmann is going to be
transferred to Florida by his
employer, the Wackenhut Corp.
and has let it be known that he
intends to resign from the library
board as soon he knows the
definite date of his departure.
Selection of a successor to Mr.
Altmann should pose no problem,
however. According to the ruling
by State Education Com­missioner
Nyquist, which was
originally sought to resolve the
impasse created by Mr. Gorton's
absence from the board, the
Tax Bills Are
Due on July 1
Village Clerk McKenna
wishes to remind all village
tax payers that property taxes
for the fiscal year 1971- 72 are
due and payable up to and
inclusive of July 1st, 1971,
including any tax bills sub­mitted
by mail bearing a
cancellation date of July 1st,
1971, without penalty.
Tax bills submitted for
payment on or after July 2nd,
1971, are subject to a State
imposed penalty of five
percent until July 31st, after
which date an additional
penalty of one- half of one
percent per month or part
thereof will be added until the
tax bill is paid.
COMMENDATIONS: Fourteen members of the volunteer Farmingdale unit of Civil Defense
Auxiliary Police received Commendation Ribbons from Gen. OthoC. Van Exel, left, new Director of
the Nassau County Civil Defense Office, at ceremonies held at the Village Hall, Wednesday night.
Mayor John T. Hallahan, standing right, spoke at the ceremonies, as did Farmingdale CD Director
Eugene J. Leyendecker. Among the Auxiliary Police in the photo are Capt. Joseph Romano, IX.
Austin P. Granat, Sgts. Francis Zarodkiewicz, Paul Toumbacaris, and Santo Calderone. and Ptl.
Jerome Trattner, Peter Chiusano, and John Restani. Missing are Anthony Armellini, Hyinau
Fonnan, Allen F. Magnus, Jack J. Navaro. and Dennis Dukofsky. Auxiliary Police Chief Anthony
Adamo is standing third from right and is flanked by George Collins, CD Auxiliary Police coordinator
in the Town of Oyster Bay. Police Sgt. Paul Lazowsky, Liaison officer from the 8th Precinct, is seated
at the right. The Auxiliary Police volunteers were honored for " outstanding service" performed
during the recent disastrous fire that destroyed the gym at the Weldon E. Ilowitt Jr. High School.
board may appoint a trustee to
fill out the unexpired term of any
member by majority vote. It can
safely be assumed that such a
majority will be forthcoming
through the efforts of trustees
Callahan, Jacovsky and
Foucek.
The defeated library budget
will once more be presented for a
vote on Saturday, June 26 in
conjunction with the school
budget vote. Warren Altmann
opposed the decision by the board
majority to resubmit the budget
without change, pointing out that
such an action disregards the
voters' expressed desire to have
either a reduced budget
presented to them or to have the
library operate with the same
budget that was in effect during
the fiscal year just ending.
This would have been the case
if no revote on the budget were
taken a position favored by
Altmann. And it still may be the
case if the budget is defeated
again.
Hallahan New Mayor
Posillico Trustee
It's official now: John T.
Hallahan is the new mayor of the
Incorporated Village of Far­mingdale,
succeeding Joseph
Zureck, who resigned for health
reasons.
Such was the decision of the
Village Board of Trustees, who at
the same time appointed Rocco
Posillico, of 45 Bernard St., as
trustee for the unexpired term of
Hallahan until the next village
election of March 1972.
Posillico, born and raised in
Farmingdale and owner of
Farmasco Paving Corp., is an ex-chief
of the Farmingdale Fire
Department. He served until his
appointment as trustee on the
Zoning Board of Appeals. As his
successor the village board
named Dr. Benjamin Giminaro,
also a native of Farmingdale,
who practicies medicine in his
home town since 1949.