Bethpage-Tribune_1980-01-17

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ISLAND TREES PLAINEDGE SEAFORD
VOL. 14 NO. 31 For The Week of January 17 - January 23,1980 20 cents per copy
Here Is A Man
For The Year...
The Decade...
The Century!
The Rotary came up with the idea first, a commemorative plaque,
honoring Bethpage's most senior of citizens. The plaque is for over
fifty years of service to the community.
Bubaf ter speaking with Bill Ahem, and realizing that without him,
there would be no Bethpage, we have to go a bit further. And so the
TRIBUNE is instituting the paper's first Man Of The Year Award.
But in this instance, we honor Bill Ahern as Our Man of the First
Eighty Years of the Twentieth Century. Here's just one reason why.
In his more than ninety years of living, almost all of them in this
community, Bill has been active in much of its civic affairs. But his
most important contribution took place in 1936 when the town was
called Central Park.
A few years earlier, the State Park Commission had created Beth-page
State Park, which was located partly in Central Park and
partly in Farmingdale. Both communities, and the area of the Park
were originally part of the Bethpage (BethPhage) Purchase.
Though Bethpage State Park's mailing address was (and is) in
Farmingdale, Bill and a number of other Central Park citizens felt
that a change in the name of the town to Bethpage would not only
prove beneficial to the townspeople, but it would also conclude the
endless confusion that the name Central Park brought to the Postal
Service in trying to direct the town's mail.
Bill wrote a letter to Robert Moses, who of course was making just
about any important decision that affected Long Island. Moses,
thinking Central Park was a silly name anyway, wrote to Bill giving
his blessing to change the name to Bethpage Village.
Unfortunately, Farmingdale, also wanted the name Bethpage.
When their citizenry got wind of the fact that Moses had given the go-ahead,
their leaders started to make some secret, and nefarious (for
the time) plans. But Bill was two steps ahead.
First, he prepared a petition which was signed by over half the
town's residents, 435 people, and sent it to the Postmaster General.
Then Bill learned that Farmingdale was making plans to put the
name Bethpage on a new railroad station they were establishing for
the Babylon run.
Through his good friends George Le Boutiller. Vice President of
the LIRR and Meade Dobson of the L.I. Chambefttf Commerce, Bill
set up^a stalling action for the Farmingdale Stations Before anyone
caught on, the Post Office Department had "finally agreed to the
Central Park changeover in August 1936.
As the first Chairman of the Bethpage Progress Celebration
Committee, Bill Ahern led the parade on the day that Central Park
became Bethpage. He even saw to it that the residents of Far­mingdale
were invited to the festivities.
Bill Ahern, the father of Bethpage, is quite naturally our "Citizen
of the Century."
Carey Cuts Local Funding
As the TRIBUNE was going to
press Wednesday evening we
learned that the Plainedge School
District and seven other County
School Districts have-had certain
funds cut-off through an action by
Governor Carey.
The School Districts had been
approved for a State grant of
funds for an Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Program for the Districts'
children.
The grant was to come from the
New York State Commission on
Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Prevention and Education, by
way of the Nassau County
Commission on Drug and Alcohol
Abuse. Without explanation,
Governor Carey cut-off the funds.
The TRIBUNE and the
Plainedge School District
urgently requests that parents
and community members write
or call the Governor and
legislative leaders, strongly
urging that the funds in the
State's budget be released for
this important program.
Write to: The Honorable Hugh
L. Carey, Executive Mansion,
Albany, N.Y.
In the above photo, Van
Schiavetta, President of the
Rotary presents Bill Ahern
with the Rotarian's Plaque for
oyer fifty years of service to
the community. Rotarians Leo
Shottland and Perry Delalio
are also on hand to congrat­ulate
Bill. The painting behind
Leo is of the house that Bill
has lived in for over eighty
years. Besides being Bill's
home, the house served as
Bethpage's first Post Office
in 1857 when the town was
known as "The Road to Jeru­salem
Station". At left, Bill's
wife of over fifty years, Helen,
takes time out to pose with the
TRIBUNE'S Man Of The
Century.
K