1972-12-07

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Vol. 10 No. 16
AN OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE VILLA*"'
SERVING THE GREATER FARMINGDALE AREA, B F
Second Class Postage has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735
Published by THE OBSERVER, Inc.. Box 146, Farmingdale, N. Y. December 7, 1972 # 150
^" Dalers Honors at a Glance
/ Football honors came pouring in for the Farmingdale Lions,
once again New York State's Number One team. Among the
ones honored were:
t * Jim Teatom
t * Joe Patrovich
Back
Guard
f* George Caraberis Tackle
* Bill Barret
* Lance McCoy
* Mike Donavan
Joe Diange
* John Bates
* Bob Mule
t = captain
* = senior
Guard
End
End
QB
Tackle
Center
All Division
Grid Iron 44
All Nassau County
All Long Island
All Division
Grid Iron 44
All Nassau County
All Long Island ( Hon. Mentic
All Division
Grid Iron 44
All Nassau County
All Long Island
All Division
All Division
All Division
All Division
All Division ( Hon. Mention)
All Division ( Hon. Mention)
More details on Daler Honors on page 8.
GETTING A REST: Except for a couple of young tightrope walkers, the rails are getting a rest
these days. So do the ears of people living near the Farmingdale railroad station. The railroad strike,
however, is bad news for the wage earner who has to find other ways of getting into the city.
Photo: Hank Schleichkorn
$ 64 Question: How to Get on Melville Rd.
All the Woodland Civic
Association was interested in was
the find a way to get from • the
sidestreets onto Melville Road.
The Association asked the traffic
and safety department of Suffolk
County to come up with an an­swer
to their question, but
what department director John
Sheridan told them last week was
anything but encouraging.
He suggested that they might
as well forget traffic lights to
allow side street residents access
onto Melville Road. His studies
brought to light the fact that
Melville Road is indeed a very
busy thoroughfare with 17,800
cars passing through each week­day
when Farmingdale State
University is in session. As
Sheridan pointed out to the
association the problem on
Melville Road is traffic back- ups
which would only be worsened by
additional traffic lights.
The back- ups, especially bad
during rush hour time. 7 - 9 in
the morning and 4- 6 in the
evening , are caused by the two
traffic lights on Main Street and
Powell Place in Farmingdale and
by a lack of traffic arrows at the
Rt. 110 intersection.
One side is controlled by
Nassau County, the other ( Rt,
110) by the State so that Suffolk
County is quite helpless on both
ends of the thoroughfare.
The traffic survey by Suffolk
brought to light some other in­teresting
statistics: 45 percent of
the traffic on Melville Road is
generated by the State Univer­sity,
35 percent of the traffic
comes from the Plain view area.
This would indicate that
residents have their real
problems only when the
university is in session.
It also indicated that some of the
problems would disappear could
the Plainview traffic be re­routed.
According to Woodland
Civic Association president, Anne
Byrom, there may be a solution.
Mrs. Byrom expressed hope that
the Bethpage Spagnoli Road
which runs north of the
University in the township of
Huntington could be improved
enough to divert all of Melville
Road's Plainview traffic.
The association will also try to
get Nassau County interested in
synchronizing the traffic signals
on Main Street and Powell Place
a bit more effectively and to
persuade the State to install
traffic light arrows on Route 110
and Melville Road. Until that is
accomplished - Mrs. Byrom
readily admits to difficulties
ahead - people who have no other
way to leave their street except
on Melville Road will have to
remain expert racing drivers: on
the average they have only about
six seconds to make their turn
onto Melville Road.
Gas Station Foe Wins
First Round in Court
The price that the Humble Oil & Refining Co. paid for
the property would buy a luxurious heme en three
acres in Brookville with swimming pool, a stable, and
quarters for the gardener, maid and butler. It was
meant to be a gas station. Whether or not it eventually
becomes one is now a matter for the courts to decide,
with £ he opposition hat ing scored the first round.
At issue once again is the
parcel on the northern corner of
the intersection of Merritts Road
and Motor Avenue, originally
owned by Joseph Angelone. He
sold it to Gulf Oil Co. contingent
upon approval of an application
to rezone the parcel to Business G
and the granting of a special use
permit allowing construction and
operation of a gasoline service
station. This special use permit
was applied for a 150 ft. wide strip
of the parcel, which measures
199.42 ft. on Merritts Road. This
very same property, by the way,
figures in the proposal for a Town
of Oyster Bay Master Plan as
possible site for an apartment
and, or town house complex.
The property, which sub­sequently
was sold to Humble Oil
& Refining Co., was eventually
rezoned by the town board on
February 16, 1971, some 14
months after the required public
hearing, which was held on
December 23, 1969. At the same
time the special use permit was
granted- but, according to papers
filed with the Nassau County
Supreme Court, for the
property's full frontage of 199.42
ft. in contravention of the ap­plication
which asked only for a
special use permit for a 150 ft.
wide portion of the parcel.
At the time of the public
hearing in December 1969, op­position
was evident which
manifested itself in personal
appearances at the public
hearing as well as in a petition
asking the town board to reject
both applications. One of the
most fervent critics was Jack
( Continued on Page 5)
Farmingdale Student Witnesses Apollo Lift- Off
Christopher Visco, son of Mr. and Mrs. Prospero
Visco, 23 Mill Road, Farmingdale, by invitation of
the National Aeronautics and Space Ad­ministration,
witnessed the lift- off of the final
moon shot of the Apollo series yesterday at Cape
Kennedy, Florida. Apollo 17 was the last of 14
Apollo missions, 11 of them manned.
A graduate of Farmingdale High School,
Christopher is a sophomore at the State University
College at Oneonta, New York, where he is a
secondary education major in earth science.
Mr. Visco is an instructor at the State University
Agricultural and Technical College at Far­mingdale,
New York.
Christopher has been keenly interested in the
space program for many years and hopes to be an
astronaut some day. His tentative plans following
graduation in 1975 are to either apply to NASA
immediately or to attend graduate school.
Dining the summer o( 1972 he loured the
Cruminanu Aerospace plant at Bethpage, and
observed their simulated lunar modules and space
shuttle mockups.
His invitation by NASA was arranged by
Thomas Brownell, a 1972 graduate of Oneonta
State, who is Executive Director of the Federation
of Americans Supporting Science and Technology
based, at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Christopher was at Cape Kennedy Tuesday,
December 5, to observe the day long preparations.
The countdown began on Wednesday morning,
December 6 at 8: 30 a. m. It was the first night
launching of a manned space mission.
Of special interest to Christopher was the fact
that Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt, a geologist, one of
the two astronauts who are to land on the moon, is
the first scientist to go to the moon.
Apollo 17 is scheduled to land on the moon
December ll and remain there for 75 hours. Lift­off
from the moon is set for December 14. Splash­down
in the Pacific ocean is scheduled for
December 19. Chris Visco