1971-04-22

              SOUTH FARMINGDALE BRANCH
J'ARMINGDALE PUBLIC LIBRARY
FARMINGDALE, L. I., N. Y.
FABMINSD& LE OBSERVER w (
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS
An f » Ifiotaf Newspaper of The Incorporated Village of Farmingdale Serving r
WEEKLY
> d Melville
Vol. 8 No. 35 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmir Thursday, April 22,1971
m i
FORYOURRECREATIDN
FUTURE SITE
OF A
T0WN# PARK
TOWNOFWSTERBAY
JOHN W BURKE
SDKMIS8I
V i r
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THE FUTURE HAS BEGUN - with work at the Heisser Lane
Motor Avenue property picking up speed. Progress becomes ever
more visible although spring and summer will go by before this
new town community park will be competely ready for use.
4- H Wise Owls Busy
Collecting Old Bottles
Director of Environmental
Planning for the Town of Oyster
Bay, was special speaker at the
club meeting with Mrs. Mc-
Parland's 4- H Daisiers of Far­mingdale,
mothers, and a
teacher from the local junior high
as guests. He talked about the
The 4- H Wise Owls of Far­mingdale
are working on their
second thousand pounds of glass
for recycling. Prodded, goaded,
and sometimes shamed by Junior
Leader Cynthia Gross, unofficial
bottle captain, they've been
collecting bottles in the Grosses'
garage since last September.
They were delighted to hear
about the opening of the Town of
Oyster Bay's Recycling Center,
Winding Road and Round Swamp
Road, Old Bethpage. With the
garage momentarily emptied,
they kept going. Right now
" Grampa Gross" is the cham­pion
collector with Diane Koch
and Barbara Cooper tied for
second and Debroah Gross tied
for third.
Recently Steve Saunders,
Police Nab 6
In Drug Raid
Six members of the Cassese
family were arrested and
charged with possesion of heroin
and conspiracy to sell. According
to police reports, at 11: 57 P. M. on
Monday, April 19, four people
were arrested at 104 Lockwood
Avenue, Farmingdale, while a
few minutes later, at 12.05 A. M.
the other two members of the
family were arrested at 300 Main
Street.
Arrested at the Main Street
address were Michael Cassese,
26, and his wife Grace, 25 Those
arrested at the Lockwood Avenue
address were Joseph Cassese. 64,
Anthony Cassese, 36, Antoinette
f'assese, 61 and Claire Caseese,
31.
Among the arresting officers
were Detective C. Miller and J.
Bechara of the Narcotics Squad.
Police reports indicate that the
wholesale price of the heroin
found with the arrested was
approximately $ 10,000
Town of Oyster Bay's en­vironmental
program and the
opening of two new recycling
centers in Massapequa and the
hamlet of Oyster Bay.
The bottles must be rinsed and
sorted by color. All metal rings
have to be removed. Anyone
interested in further information
on this program, can call
Supervisor Burke's Office ( 922-
5800, extension 305. One doesn't
have to live in the Town of Oyster
Bay to join this program.
The Wise Owls are also proud
of Pauline Kwapniewski who won
a prize in the Easter Egg Contest
at Mid- Island Plaza and of
Cynthia Gross who won a blue
ribbon for her demonstration on
" a Picnic in February" and has
been chosen to represent the
Sunrise Council at the 4- H
Recognition and Selection
Program.
Exhibit and Bus Trip
On Library Program
In honor of National Library
Week, the South Farmingdale
Branch of the Public Library is
presenting an exhibit of
illuminated manuscripts from
the Middle Ages. The well
preserved specimens of ancient
European art works will be on
display at the Library through
the month of April
Thursday, May 13, the Far
mingdale Public Library Is
sponsoring a bus trip to the
Lincoln ( enter for the Per
forming Arts in New York City
Cost ol the trip is $ 4.85; sign up at
the South Farmingdale Branch of
the Public Library
Heis • > , e Park: What Is
Com 4 and What Is Not
No Plans for Swimming Pool now - And Perhaps Never
By the end of the summer the Town of Oyster Bay
will have a new community park. And it will be in
Farmingdale, on Heisser Lane and Motor Avenue.
Subject to much deliberation, argumentation and, if
you hear some people talking, aggravation, this park
will finally come into being with the help of close to $ 1
million.
Last week the Town Board
adopted a resolution authorizing
the issuance of bonds in the
amount of $ 180.00 for a park and
recreation building to be erected
at the Heisser Lane property.
This would make it the crowning
touch of what is officially
described as phase one of the
project, which already carries a
price tag of $ 733,000. Phase one,
to answer the question asked
most, make no provisions for the
much talked- about swimming
pool.
What then is phase one?
Phase one consists of creating
a fully serviceable and complete
community park. Starting with
the basics, this means fencing
( which is already in place),
grading and surfacing, the
construction of a football field,
Little League baseball field,
regulation baseball field and
facilities for less active en­deavors,
such as boccia, hor­seshoes
and the like, as well as
parking fields. All of this is
estimated to cost $ 733,000 and
was originally to be the extent of
phase one.
Since this scaling down of the
original plans for the Heisser
Lane park, which envisioned a
year- around swimming pool,,
community rooms and other
public facilities in the manner of
a full- fledged community center,
a scaling up has taken place. The
extent of this change of heart and
plans is embodied in last week's
Town Board resolution. It had
become apparent that phase one
in its original form had a serious
drawback in not making
provisions for the most basic
necessities, such as sanitary
facilities.
With the $ 180,000 provided by
the bond issue this lack will be
overcome. The Heisser Lane
Community Park ( for which
surely a better name will be
found once it is ready for the
ribbon- cutting ceremony) will
now have a service building.
This service building will
contain, beside the sanitary
facilities, a mother's care room,
a first aid room, a canteen area,
equipment and game storage
rooms and a manager's office.
And all of this might be ready for
use by the end of the summer or
early fall. Which will be good
news for football fans but is not
doing much for the baseball or
even horseshoe players. For all
intents and purposes, this new
park will be a fully operational
only in 1972.
But what happened to the
swimming pool? Nothing, so far.
It is, so to speak, up in the air.
Plans for phase one do not in­clude
a swimming pool, be it a
year- around pool or an open pool
just for summertime use. Nobody
in Town Hall is willing to go
beyond phase one in his com­ments
about Heisser Lane park
and its getting a pool.
The reasons for this are as
varied as the feathers in a
peacock's tail. There is first the
fact that practically none of the
town fathers who originally dealt
with the issue is around anymore.
Today's supervisor and coun-cilmen
view this project from
more of a distance than their
predecessors, who were con­stantly
prodded by Frank Hynes
who at that time was councilman
and the prime mover of the park
((. ontiimed t> n lyam- 12)
Public Shares the Blame
With Eyesore Owners
The Women's Club of Far­mingdale,
the moving force
behind the present Clean- Up,
Paint- Up, Perk- Up Campaign in
Farmingdale has followed our
pictorial exposures of par­ticularly
ugly sights in the
Farmingdale area with great
interest.
Early in the campaign our
paper published a picture of an
unidentified lot. It showed a true
Eyesore of the Week
This burned out building is visible to all at Merritt Road and
Motor Avenue, Farmingdale.
Photo: Hank Schleichkorn
eyesore, centrally located in the
village. In a follow- up in­vestigation
the Women's Club of
Farmingdale came to a number
of conclusions as reported to us
by Virginia Barke:
" The owner of the lot was
contacted and his side of the story
heard. The question arises, who
is to blame for the unsightly
appearance of this and other
empty lots? True, the owner is
legally responsible. This par­ticular
owner has paid more than
once to have the lot cleaned.
However, it doesn't stay that
way. Why? Because we, the
public litter whether we throw
away a gum wrapper, a soda
bottle, a beer can or a sack of
garbage. As Pogo says, " We
have met the enemy and he is
us." Some are more guilty than
others, and the worst offenders
should be apprehended and made
to pay a heavy penalty for
dumping litter, whether it be in a
neighboring lot, a park or along a
highway.
" The Women's Club of Far­mingdale
plans to tackle this lot,
with the help and cooperation of
any group organization who feels
that litter is everyone's business
and would like to improve the
appearance of Farmingdale,
starting with this eyesore. It is
then up to the owner to do all he
can to discourage the garbage-dumping
at the rear of his lot; to
the authorities to apprehend the
offending litterers and to all of us
who pass by this and other empty
lots to put trash where it belongs,
in trash barrles, instead of
throwing it in empty lots.
" All of us use the environment.
It we want to enjoy the en
vironment, we must all do our
share to improve it. Start by
helping to clean up Farmingdale
and then help keep it clean."