1971-04-15

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FARMINGDALE M P T O U(
WHERE THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMMUNITY IS RF'
An GfficJaf Newspapt- r of The Incorporated Village of Farmingdale Serving Grea* \,
Vol. 8 No. 34 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingda*
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Thursday, April 15, 1971
Vacant Library
Seat Up For
Special Election
The vacant seat on the Far-mingdale
Library Board will be
filled by holding a special elec­tion
in conjunction with the
regularity scheduled School
Board election in June.
This decision was made by the
library's Board of Trustees at its
meeting Tuesday night, with
trustees Callahan, Crocco and
Jacovsky voting in favor of such
an election and trustee and board
chairman Altmann. opposed.
Holding of a special election
was one of the alternatives open
to the Library Board. The term of
office will be one year, it being
the remainder of the term
originally won by Carl Gorton. At
next year's regular election the
trustee elected in this special
vote will have to run for a full
term.
Another seat in contention this
year will be the one presently
occupied by trustee Callhan
whose term will expire.
Whether or not Mr. Callahan
will be a candidate to succeed
himself will have to await his
decision, which as of this date has
not been announced.
As far as the remainder of Carl
Gorton's seat is concerned a
number of contenders seems to
be waiting in the wings. While the
Library Board debated the other
alternative available to it, at
least five residents expressed
their interest in serving on the
Farmingdale Library Board.
Sweepstakes
For Color TV
Security National Bank will
open its 67th branch office at 1745
Broad Hollow Road ( Route 110),
East Farmingdale, on April 28,
1971.
A special celebration including
a sweepstakes drawing for a
color TV will be featured at the
East Farmingdale office starting
April 28 and ending at 5: 30 p. m.
on May 7 at which time the
sweepstakes winner will be
announced. Sweepstakes entries
will be available starting April 28
at the East Farmingdale office.
Regular banking hours at the
East Farmingdale office will be:
Monday thru Wednesday 9 to 3;
Thursday and Friday 9 to 3 and 4
to 6. Drive- in hours: Monday thru
Wednesday 9 to 4: 30; Thursday
and Friday 9 to 6.
GOP Club Plans
Candlelight Bowl
The Farmingdale Republican
Club, will have a CAN­DLELIGHT
BOWLING PARTY
at the Farmingdale Lanes,
Conklin St. on Saturday, May 8,
starting at 9 pin. Tickets are
$ 13.50 per couple.
Games, prizes, door prize, plus
hot and cold buffet arc featured.
For further information con­tact
Jack Palma at 249- 0579 or
. Joe l) i Prima at 094- 0340.
Reservations are limited.
It is not Jericho but rather Farmingdale -- but the walls are coming
down nevertheless. The walls of the gymnasium of Weldon E. Howitt
Junior High School, to be exact. To what extent the fire of March 27
necessitates demolition still remains to be seen. This much is clear,
however: One wall has to go completely ( and is going, as the pictures
show) and two more will have to be taken down at least partially.
Barring unforeseen circumstancessthe hope that demolition work is
completed before school starts again Monday save for minor clean­up
work, will be fulfilled. The amount of damage as expressed in
dollars is also yet to be ascertained and will be subject to completion
of the demolition. Published figures ranging from $ 500,000 to $ 750,000
are unofficial and so far unsupported private estimates. The
photograph on top, showing careful work to prevent damage to the
chimney comes from our youthful and enthusiastic shutterbug Hank
Schleichkorn. The lower picture giving an overall view of gaping
emptiness after the fall of one wall was taken by his friend Marc
Piatt.
> illage Taxes:
Up, Up and Away
It is happening everywhere and Farmingdale makes
no exception: Taxes are rising. As far. as the in­corporated
village is concerned the increase amounts
to 50 cents per $ 100.00 assessed valuation or $ 30.00 per
year for the typical house assessed at $ 6,000.00 The new
tax rate is now $ 2.75 per $ 100.00.
The budget carrying this new
tax rate was adopted at the public
hearing by the Board of Trustees
last Monday night. Surprisingly
only two resident tax payers
attended the hearing, Mrs.
Josephine Jones as represen­tative
of the Women's Club of
Farmingdale and Mr. William
Wesche, former village clerk.
The total amount appropriated
for the next fiscal year beginning
June 1 comes to $ 922,991.00. This
represents, as mayor Joseph
Zureck pointed out in his budget
message, an 11 per cent reduction
of the initial budget requests
from the various departments.
The Board of Trustees spent
two months examining the facts
and figures and, as mayor Zureck
said, could cut no more without
impairing necessary services
and facilities.
Quite a number of reasons are
listed for the need to increase this
budget by 22 per cent over last
year's figures, the highest in­crease
in many years. And some
of them, such as the reduction of
state aid to municipalities and
other, state programs, are totally
beyond the realm of influence by
the Village Board.
Within its jurisdiction a
number of facts had to be faced
which, too, could not be changed.
There was, for instance, the
expiration of the garbage
collection contract. For the past
five years this service was
provided at a fixed and un­changeable
rate. Inflation is now
extracting its dues and the Board
of Trustees was actually
prepared for a greater increase
than that asked for by the con­tractor.
The new contract was awarded
after competitive bidding to the
same contractor again by virtue
of his presenting the lowest bid. It
is again a fixed- price contract for
five years at $ 79,000.00 per year
which represents a 20 per cent
increase. The only events af­fecting
this annual charge would
be an increase in the number of
homes served ( presently about
2,000) or an upward change in the
fees charged by the Town of
Oyster Bay for the incinerator
service.
Other items putting pressure
on the village's treasury include:
Increase in the cost to provide
dog warden services to the
village by the Town of Oyster
Bay, where contractual costs
have risen by 50 per cent;
replacement of a Fire Depart­ment
Pumper over 18 years old
and too costly to maintain;
drainage facilities on Anita Place
and Fairview Road to correct a
condition of flooding which has
been existent ' for 20 years; an
extensive program of road
overlay to maintain village roads
rather that repairs on a
piecemeal basis which has
proven to be too costly; required
admustment of the Fire
Department radio wave bands as
dictated by the Federal Com
munications Commission, af­fecting
all trucks and the
department base station; a
minimum salary increase of 6 per
cent to village employees, which
is more or less consistent with the
cost of living index on a national
scale; the utilization of Gerngras
Park through installation of
equipment and fencing to provide
a children's playground.
To maintain the efficiency of
the water system, a new Diesel
engine is to be installed at the
Eastern Parkway pump house,
and a new pick- up truck is to be
purchased to replace an old piece
of equipment.
Over a ten year period, the
village tax rate has increased
83.3 per cent, which the Board of
Trustees considers minimal in
relation to the rising cost of goods
and services on a local and
national basis during the same
period of time.
Conservation
Meeting Held
A number of top figures in the
conservation field are scheduled
to appear Friday at a conference
on Long Island's South Shore
problems to be held at the La
Grange Inn under sponsorhip of
Congressman James R. Gover.
The session " will, hopefully,
reach a concensus on a coor­dinated
plan of action before
further damage is done to our
wetlands resources," Mr. Grover
said. A number of spokesmen
from the federal, state and local
levels of conservation work have
already scheduled appearances,
the Babylon lawmaker said.
Among those scheduled to
appear are Richard E. Griffith,
Regional Director of the United
States Department of Interior's
Bureau of Sports Fisheries and
Wildlife; David H. Wallace,
Director of the New York State
Department of Environmental
Conservation's Division of
Marine and Coastal Resources;
Frank Panuzio, Chief
Engineering Consultant for the
New York District, U. S. Army
Engineers; Dr. John C. Baiardi,
environmental scientist with the
New York Ocean Science
Laboratory; A. Harry
Brenowitz; Director of the
Adelphi University Institute of
Marine Science and Murray
Barbash, prominent local con­servationist.
Local officals scheduled to
attend include Assemblymen
William L. Burns and Charles A.
Jerabek; County Legislators
Patrick Adams, Syd Askoff and
George Moore; Babylon
Supervisor Aaron Barnett and
Islip Supervisor Clyde Pearsall,
and Babylon Mayor Gilbert C.
Hanse. Congressmen Norman
Lent and Otis Pike and Nassau
County Executive Ralph Caso
will be represented. The session
is scheduled to run from 1 to 5
P. M.