1972-12-28

              r<^ LIBRARY
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TRIBUNE
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AN OFFICIAL NEWSPAPE,
SERVING THE GREATER FARMINGDALE
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VOL. 10 NO. 19 Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735
Published by THE OBSERVER, Inc., Box 146, Farmingdale, N. Y. Thursday, December 28, 1972 • 16c
Howitt Students
Help the Needy
Underprivileged children of the
Farmingdale district were guests
of the Freshman class of Howitt
Junior High School at a Christ­mas
party held last Thursday
afternoon in the school cafeteria.
The party was arranged by
students Elaine Yabroudy and
Leslie Brenner with the
assistance of Science teacher Mr.
Pito. Freshmen raised funds to
provide for the food and gifts
distributed to the children.
During the afternoon the guests
were entertained by Mr.
Bowman's drama class. Santa
Claus ( Ronnie Watts) handed out
stockings filled with all kinds of
cookies and toys. A turkey dinner
was prepared by Mrs. Germain's
home economics class. By the
end of the party, it was obvious
that ten local children had
thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Johnson: Taylor Law
For URR Workers
New York State Senator- elect Owen Johnson ( R-West
Babylon) has announced that he'll prefile a bill in
the State Legislature this week, to include the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority's 61,000 em­ployees
under the Taylor Law. Johnson, who
represents the 4th Senate District which has a heavy
commuter population in the Towns of Oyster Bay,
Huntington, and Babylon, called the 20- day old Long
Island Railroad strike, " the worst backward step for
mass transportation in the past three years."
" Everyone is entitled to some commissions. Justifying the
form of wage increase," he amendment, Johnson said,
continued, " but this time out the " Actually the MTA is being
LIRR exces sievme ploiny eeths eiar red ejumsat ndtoso. supported by public funds and the
They're not hurting or pressuring
MTA officials one bit. They're
really punishing the poor com­muters,
who don't deserve this
treatment. It's time for the State
Legislature to respond and put
these employees in their place."
Johnson said the controversial
Taylor Law, on the books since
1967, would be the most effective
way of ensuring that such public
employee irresponsibility di. es
not happen on the Long Island
Railroad again. Johnson's bill
would amend the Taylor Law,
named after educator George
Taylor ( who died last week), to
include quasi- public government
agencies like the MTA. At
present, the law only covers
public employees who work for
municipalities and public
railroad's employees are serving
the public."
If MTA officials could invoke
the Taylor Law, Long Island
Railroad employees could be
subject to a loss of pay at twice
their normal daily rate for each
strike day, they could be put on
probation status, the represen­tative
union could be subject to a
fine, the union could lose its dues
check- off privilege?, and tt* v
union officers coulo be held in
contempt of court.
Johnson said he will press for
immediate enactment of this bill
as soon as the Legislature opens.
" If the strike is allowed to con­tinue,"
he stated, " the employees
will have done criminal,
irreparable harm to the Long
Island Railroad as a mass transit
system."
Five year old Rickie ( below left) and Jason ( top) had a very good time during the special Christ­mas
party given to them by the freshman class of Weldon E. Howitt Jr. High School last week. Rickie
in particular appears as if he had enough turkey, ice cream and cake for a while. Center picture
shows Elissa Strauss ( left), Leslie Brenner ( center) and Elaine Yabroudy ( right) enjoying their
special turkey dinner at the school, too. They were the principal organizers of the Christmas party
given for underpriviledged children in the community. All Photos: Hank Schleichkorn
Moon Shot Eyewitness Upset
By Threat To Space Prtw ..
Christopher Visco, son of Mr. and Mrs. Prospero Visco, 23 M'^
Road, Farmingdale, both on the staff of State University at Fat
mingdale, who witnessed the spectacular night- time blastoff ol
Apollo 17 at 12: 33 a. m. December 7 at the invitation of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, made several interesting
observations about Cape Kennedy and also expressed his feelings s
and concern that the United States would not press forward its space
program in the future.
Chris, who is a sophomore at the State University College at
Oneonta, had this to say about his visit to Cape Kennedy for the
Apollo 17 blastoff:
" Having just returned from
Cape Kennedy, where I was an
invited guest of NASA to see the
launch of Apollo 17, I bring with
me many memories and thoughts
V.
New Year's Wishes!
As we celebrate the arrival of 1973,
we want to say " Thanks" to our good
friends.
Our resolution? To try to serve you
even better in 1973! Thanks for putting
your trust in us.
The
OBSERVER/ TRIBUNE
i omnium!> Newspapers
about the space program. During
my stay there, I saw and learned
many new things, not just facts
and figures on launching a
rocket, but I learned quite a deal
about people and their needs, and
how very important it is for the
space program to relate to these
needs. During this age of
priorities and the anti- technology
movement in our country, the
space program is in dire peril of
extinction. The fact that the
space program is facing this
threat upsets me quite a bit. I
want to be an astronaut some
day, or at least an integral part of
the program, because I truly feel
that this is a worthwhile area of
investigation.
Once at Cape Kennedy I toured
its many facilities, saw its
historic sites, and talked with
many people. There were a few
places at the Cape where I had
some strong feelings about what I
was seeing. One such place was
the site where John Glenn made
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