Bethpage-Tribune_1984-11-01

              BETHP^GE OLDBETHPAGE
ISLAND TREES PLAINEDGE
PLAINVIEW
b r 4C0PICS
Bt T H P A O e LIBRARY
47 POWE L L AVt
B E T H P A G C NY M 7 I 4
SEAFORD
VOL. 19 NO. 31 Week of Nov. 1 - Nov. 7,1984 20 cents per copy
Moving The Mountain Will Be Expensive
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Colby
holds a press conference to announce the ramifi­cations
of a decision by the regional office of the
State Department of Environmental Conserva­tion
refusing to allow the Town to extend the
height of its landfill in Old Bethpage. Stating that
the regional DEC has *'tied the hands and feet of
our residents and is blithely proceeding to pick
their pockets as well," Colby said the Town will
...Helen Richardson Ahern, beloved wife of Wil­liam
J. Ahem; died October 29,, 1984. She was 89 years
of age. A daughter of Mary K. and Edward J.
Richardson, born in Hawley, Pennsylvania, she had
made her home in Bethpage, L.I., New York for the
past 56 eyars. A music education major in school
Helen, an accomplished pianist and organist, distin­guished
herself not only in the field of private music
education but pioneered improvisational piano
accompaniment to early silent motion pictures. For
many years since she and her husband moved from
Brooklyn to Bethpage to raise their large family,
Helen was the organist for St. Martin of Tours R.C.
Church in Bethpage, St. Ignatious Loyola R.C.
Church in Hicksville and was active in church affairs.
Married to William J. Ahern, former Vice President
of the Bank of The Manhattan Company and Chase
Manhattan Bank, Helen is survived by her husband,
three daughters: Mrs. Mary Katherine A. Looney of
Farmingdale, New York, Mrs. Anne A. Fulton of
Southport, Connecticut and Mrs, Helene A. Stahl of
Walnut Creek, California, Four sons: William Jr. of
New Rochelle, N.Y., Jeremiah F. of Farmingdale,
N.Y. Robert E. of Bethpage, Thomas P. of Hunting­ton,
N.Y., 20 Grandchildren and 5 Great Grandchild­ren.
Mrs. Ahern reposed at the Arthur White funeral
home in Bethpage. A Funeral mass was conducted at
St. Martin of Tours R.C. Church, Bethpage, on Wed­nesday,
October 31, 1984. Internment at Holy Rood
Cemetery, Westbury, New York. Memorials may be
made to the Nassau Chapter of the Assocaition for the
Help of Retarded Children in lieu of flowers.
amend its 1985 General Fund no-tax-increase
budget to cover a $20 million Sanitation Transfer
and Transport Expense Tax for hauling garbage
out of the Town to an as yet unknown site. He also
announced legal action the Town will be taking to
have the State Supreme Court overturn the deci­sion
of the regional DEC and discussed prepara­tions
for implementing an emergency, short-term
cutback in garbage collection service.
Budget Increased To Ship Garbage
On October 30, 1984, the Oyster Bay Town Board
adopted an amended 1985 Budget which includes a $20
million dollar increase in the General Town Tax to provide
for increased costs incurred by the State's actions in forcing
Oyster Bay to ship refuse off Long Island.
Oyster Bay Towii Supervisor Joseph Colby said that, "1
am outraged that this administration's successful efforts to
hold the line on property taxes to pennies while maintaining
and iinproving Town services, should so willfully be swept
out the window by the arbitrary and capricious decision of
the Regional Office of the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation.
"To force each and every taxpayer in this Town to assume
an additional tax burden to ship garbage off Long Island
when there is a reasonable alternative available to the prob­lem
is beyond comprehension," Colby stated.
The proposed new budget line, identified as Sanitation
Transfer and Transport Expense (S.T. A.T.E.) tax, will raise
an estimated 20 million dollars a year in taxes which is the
anticipated cost of transporting refuse and garbage out of
the State. The increase represents an additional $2,152 levy
oh Class 1 properties, bringing the total General Town tax
for Class I properties to $3.02 l/5th per $100 of assessed
valuation. The General Town rate for Class 11 properties
increases $2.34 2/5th for a total $3.29 l/5th; Class 111 prop­erty
increases $2.35 for a total of $3.30 1 / 10th; and Class IV
property increases by $2.36 1 / 5th for a total of $3.31 7/ lOth.
Colby reiterated his prior pledge that "if the Town is
successful in obtaining a court decision which reverses the
arbitrary and capricious decision of the Regional DEC
Office, the funds that are collected under this new budget
line will be placed in a separate account and will be refunded
to taxpayers through the 1986 budget as a direct tax
decrease."
Colby added that the Town Attorney has been directed to
file a legal action compelling the DEC to release a letter in
which a Senior Sanitary Landfill Engineer in the Albany
office of the DEC recommended approval of the Town's
request to increase the height of the landfill by 20 feet. "By
denying-the Town access to his letter," Colby said, "the
Regional DEC Office is in violation of the State's Freedom
of Information Law."
Letter of Permission Hidden
FromTOBAY
"The regional office of the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation is in violation of the State
Freedom of Information Law," charged Oyster Bay Town
Supervisor Joseph Colby, Monday, October 29, 1984. "The
Regional DEC Office in Hauppauge has denied this Town
access to a letter dated September 7, 1984, from a high
ranking Senior Sanitary Engineer which recommends that
permission be given to the Town to increase the height of the
landfill of Old Bethpage," Colby said, "and by such denial
has flagrantly violated the intent of the State's Freedom of
. Information law."
Colby said,tba, "T. Sanford, Senior Sanitary Engineer for
the New York State DEC, wrote a letter on September 7,
1984, to the office of Harold Berger, the Regional E>irector
of the DEC, in which Sanford recommended that the
Town^s request for an increase in height at the Old Bethpage
landfill be granted. That permit," Colby continued, "would
allow the Town to increase the elevation by 8%, to a height
of 120 feet, approximately 20 feet higher than the current
elevation.
"As an administrator who oversees and coordinates the
operations of several regional solic waste management
bureaus," Colby said, "Sanford's recommendation was not
without authority or beyond his jurisdiction."
Colby noted that Mr. Sanford had attended a Solid Waste
Conference at Hofstra University in September at which he
had met Town of Oyster Bay Executive Assistant Frank
DeStefano and Karf Leupold, Deputy Commissioner of
Public Works, and told them of his letter recommending
that permission for the height increase be granted. "That
letter was alos seen by a member of the Town's Enviromen-tal
Control Division in early October," Colby stated.
**Oyster Bay received a formal denial from the Regional.
DEC on October 18th," Colby said, "six days AFTER
Newsday published a story quoting the DEC Regional
Director as saying that the Town had been sent a letter
denying its request. More than 40 days had elapsed between
the State's recommendation that we be allowed the addi-;
tional 20 feet and the Regional office denial. What happened
in those forty days?"
When the Town was denied access to the September 7th
letter Colby explained, the Town formally applied under
Freedom of Information for a copy of the letter. "The Town
Attorney also spoke with Robert Freeman, who is the
authority in the State office for the Committee on Public
Access to Records, who indicated that the Town was entitled
to the letter. Under the Freedom of Information Law,"
Colby continued, "the DEC had five days to inforni the
Town whether or not it would release the information
requested."
On October 26th, when the DEC was already is violation
of the law, repeated phone calls from the Town to the DEC
and their attorneys went unanswered. "Finally," Colby said,
"a Town representative went tot he Hauppauge office and
was told that the Town was being denied access to the letter
and would receive formal notification of that denial by mail.
"1 have therefore directed the Town Attorney to take the
necessary legal actions to obtain the release of that letter,"
Colby said, "including the filing of a formal appeal with the
DEC appeals officer to overturn the arbitrary decision of the
Director in denying us the access to material which is ours as
a matter of right. We will not wait another 40 days for the
DEC to provide this Town with material upon which the
economic future of Oyster Bay depends."