1971-03-25

              FARMINGDALE P' iVEB » <
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMW A
An Official" Newspaper of The Incorporated Village of Farmingd*' <?*
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JRDED WEEKLY
ngdale. Bethpage and Melville
Vol. 8 No. 31 Second Class Postage has been paid at FarminR / 1735 Thursday, March 25, 1971
Village Board Meeting:
Acrimony and Antagonism
VOICE OF DEMOCRACY essay contest winners smile happily after
receiving their prizes, U. S. savings bonds for $ 75.00, $ 50.00 and $ 25.00
respectively. The contest was sponsored by the VFW Corp. George
Benkert, Jr. Post 516 and open to students of Farmingdale High. Our
picture shows from left to right first prize winner Steven Botkin,
contest chairman Frank Galgana, second prize winner Steven
Schuster, third prize winner Andrew Pasternak and Mrs. Francis
Trudden, chairlady of the Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 516.
( Photo: Jack Pokress)
" A" stood for acrimony at Monday night's Village
Board meeting. And for antagonism. Certainly not for
altruism and effort. Aggravated assault ( verbal, not
physical, that is) aptly describes the action that took
place before a small audience of residents and tax­payers.
The item on the agenda that
made this session livelier than
many a board meeting was the
report by attorney Charles
McDonald regarding litigation
originally instituted in 1966
against Morris Karp & Son, the
then owner and operator of the
property north of the Far­mingdale
Railroad station.
This litigation involves the
presumed illegal use of the
property then for the
manufacture and wholesale of
fertilizer and now for the storage
and wholesaling of fertilizer.
Mayor Joseph Zureck was in­strumental
in instituting this
litigation, which has yet to reach
a courtroom.
And herein lies the tale of last
Monday night's acrimony and
adversity. After village attorney
Ginsberg Investigates Incinerator
Environmental and Conservation Department Will Look at Problem
State Assemblyman Martin Ginsberg, responding to an avalanche
of complaints from Oyster Bay residents about Oyster Bay Town's
Old Bethpage Incinerator, has made arrangements for the State
Department Environmental Conservation to investigate the plant's
pollution problems.
The incinerator, long an
environmental controversy since
its construction in 1963, is located
on Winding Road. Residents have
complained that the plant is a
health hazard, and affects the
quality of the neighborhood
According to Ginsberg, " many
Oyster Bay residents have told
me that they have received no
satisfaction on a local level
regarding this problem. I am
going to see what the state can do
toward providing them with
relief, as a measure of last
resort." State Commissioner
Henry Diamond has advised
Assemblyman Ginsberg that
environmental conservation
Petition Drive to
Fill Library Seat
Residents of Farmingdale
are circulating petitions to the
Library Board to hold an
election to fill the vacant seat.
The petition roads:
" We, the undersigned
registered voters of U. F. S. D.
22, petition the Farmingdale
Public Library Board of
Trustees to hold an election to
the vacant seat on the Library
Board ( formerly held by Carl
Gorton) in time for the annual
meeting in June, according to
the motion of trustee Robert
Callahan, submitted at the
meeting of the Board on
March » , 1971."
The organization sponsoring
this drive is the newly created
Committee for Filling the
Vacated Library Seat for
which S. M. Weinstein, one of
the five persons who had in­dicated
interest in filling the |
vacancy, acts as publicity
chairman.
officials will be making an in
depth investigation and report on
the incinerator immediately.
In another matter, Ginsberg
called the New York Telephone
Company's request for a 29.1
percent rate hike " an arrogant
gambit."
" The New York Telephone
Company received an 8.5 percent
increase in February, 1970," said
Assemblyman Ginsberg. " An
additional 29 percent would make
this an increase of almost 38
percent in approximately one
year."
In a statement, Ginsberg
condemned the telephone
company's request charging
that " lack of competition has
created a situation where the
consumer is at the mercy of a
single giant who controls all the
lines of communication.
" The rapid and extensive
deterioration of service in the
New York area would be more
deserving of a penalty decrease
rather than the contemplated
increase."
" Dial tones are increasingly
harder to get," according to
Assemblyman Ginsberg. " After
finally obtaining a dial tone and
dialing the number - another
obstacle appears - it frequently
doesn t ring. Static and poor
connections are common. Cross
connections are a daily oc­currence.
Overloaded circuits
are the order of the day."
The Assemblyman said the
conduct of business was made
increasingly difficult by poor
telephone service and individual
subscribers are " subjected to
innumerable inconveniences. It
is inconceivable that a record of
failure should be rewarded by a
huge increase in telephone
rates."
Assemblyman Ginsberg said
there should be no increase in
telephone rates until there is a
definite improvement in service.
He also pointed out that 29 per­cent
was hardly the kind of an
increase that could be considered
non- inflationary.
Clean- Up Is
Gathering Steam
The Clean- Up Paint Up- Perk-
Up Farmingdale Campaign,
initiated by the Community
Improvement Committee of the
Women's Club of Farmingdale, is
gathering momentum. Clubs and
organizations have expressed
interest and support. Those who
have not yet replied are urged to
do so. The Village Board has
promised cooperation.
The poster contest is com­pleted.
Judging is under wav and
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Eyesore Campaign
Support the Eyesore Campaign
with pictures to this newspaper.
Send in your picture of a par­ticular
eyesore that bothers you.
The CIP Committee of the
Women's Club of Farmingdale
will direct the picture to the
proper group or authority for
action.
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announcement of the prize
winners will be made next week.
The posters will then be
displayed throughout the Far
mingdale area.
April has been designated
Clean- Up Month in Farmingdale.
All residents are asked to do their
part to help put a smile on the
face of Farmingdale. Everybody
will want to clean up his own
property, of course. But let's dc a
little more: Get your neighbors
together to clean up any
neglected spots in your neigh­borhood.
Joseph Stern had asked for and
received permission to remove
himself from the case because he
was and is a neighbor and
acquaintance of Karp, Mayor
Zureck, again with the consent of
the board, hired attorney Charles
McDonald to handle the matter.
According to the mayor,
however, the board has since
remained studiously disin­terested
and made no effort to
energetically move ahead with
the case. And attorney McDonald
backed the mayor by calling the
board non- cooperative..
McDonald made this charge in
the course of his explanation why
this litigation has not yet
proceeded past the initial stages
although almost five years have
gone by.
Two reasons were given by
McDonald for this slow pace:
First is the fact that the original
charge has now no basis in fact
anymore. The original defendant
Morris Ka p & Son has ceased
operations on the property in
question and a new company,
Wagner Bros. Feed Co., is on the
scene- which means a new
defendant with a new set of
charges against him. Second
there is the fact that proof of the
charges against the old and the
new defendant is hard to come
by. It is alleged that any
operation other than the main­tenance
of a retail business on
this location violates a zoning
ordinance passed in 1926 and
amended in 1926.
The trouble is that the legality
of these ordinances can not be
established - legality in this case
consisting of evidence that these
ordinances were properly
published in a newspaper and
publicly posted. In the absence of
such proof the claim of the
defendants that the previous
manufacturing and now storage
and wholesaling of fertilizer is
protected by an old permission
for non- confirming use remains
legally unchallenged.
The search for evidence of the
publication and posting of the
ordinances establishing a busines
zone D, which permits only retail
merchandising, is hampered by
missing minutes of the village
board meetings of that period and
by a fire at the Farmingdale Post
in 1957 which destroyed the old
newspaper files. And here at­torney
McDonald accused the
Village Board of being un­cooperative
in helping him in
assembling the needed evidence
for his case.
He detailed his search for
proof, which among other things
led him, according to his report,
to the library, where, too, the
appropriate files are missing, as
well as the Albany and even
Washington. He is sure, said
McDonald, that somebody is
ducking the issue and that
somebody knows something.
And, besides the village board
being uncooperative, he termed
this whole matter suspicious.
That was where the fat dropped
into the fire. Trustee John T.
Hallahan disputed the charges of
lack: ng cooperation, trustee
Norman Krasnow hotly resented
insinuations and implications not
backed by specific charges and
trustee Willis B. Carman, Jr.
asked McDonald unsuccessfully
for details to substantiate his
charges. It was then that Mayor
Zureck declared that he has
specific information regarding
the missing files but that he
would reveal his knowledge only
when the case has reached the
trial stage and the courtroom.
During preceding heated and
acrimonious exchange between
Krasnow and McDonald the
latter asked Krasnow to
disqualify himself because of his
acquaintance and business
relationship with Morris Karp.
A completely new issue was
injected when village attorney
Joseph Stern revealed that
( Continued on Page 12)
Gas Station Permit
Agitates Residents
The Town Board's decision to grant a zoning, variance and to
permit the construction of a service station at Merritt Road and
Motor Avenue keeps on arousing residents in the immediate neigh­borhood.
On March 6, a petition drive was instituted by Robert A.
Palermo of 198 Merrit Road aimed at a withdrawal of the variance
granted. Now the Viceroy area residents are voicing their
displeasure.
In a letter dated March 21,
addressed to Tohay supervisor
John Burke, Don Phelan, past
president of the Viceroy Civic
Association sums up this
displeasure by saying, among
other things :
" Despite the fact that several
hundred area residents voiced
their opposition to another gas
station at the corner of Motor
Avenue and Merritt Road during
a hearing in the Town of Oyster
Bay in 1969, the current Town
Board has seen fit to approve
another petition for a gas station
at this location. In 1969, following
the residents protests, the Town
Board had refused to permit such
construction."
" The record should show that
there are now six gas stations on
the East side of Merritt Road
between Hempstead Turnpike
and its termination at Boundary
Avenue, a distance of less than
one- half mile. The residential
area involved hardly needs
another gas station. Several
instances of failure have already
occured."
" In direct violation of existing
town ordinances, several stations
store trucks and cars outside
their station at night and on
weekends. The town makes little
effort to force the station owners
or operators to abide by the town
ordinances. We do not need a
seventh gas station. We do need
more supervision of the area by
town officials."