The-Leader_1983-12-29

              THE EBEEEOBX MEJMPBIAL; UBRARY
Ollieial
tte-Mspapei
Village of
Freeporl
•
FreepOfl •
School District •
Baldwin
School District
ItAKR nipEPORT. NEW YORK. DECEMBER 29,1983
"48th YEAR. No. 36
FRSEFOJIT aSl-O.llAL lUUKC
fRPT Ht 11520 •
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Freeport Budget Meeting Jan. 9th
Evidence Disputed
In SawyersvCasr
stadium Committee
Members Seek
More information
FREEPORT - Thrte member*
uf the Advisoiy Conmittee on
ihc Freeport Jkfimicipal Stadium
last week filed re(]uestsr<>tider'
Ihe Freedom of InfiirmatW
Act. for dociunenli and infor­mation
pertaining to Ihe receipts,
espenditures, payroll and phy­sical
plant of Ihe Stadium.
Francine Campkm, ptesident-of
the Northeast Freeport Civic
Association (NEFCA); Karrf PW-lick,
president of Steams Park
Civic Association; and Carol
Woods, co-president of the-Soath
nf Sunrise Ovic -Association
-(SOSCArare asking for records
which they say will "liy to bring
Ihe light of day" on the past
iipcraiions of the Stadium.
Village Mayor William , H.
While has repeatedly said he
would nol renew the lease, held
the past ten years by Campl
Enterprises, promotors of the
Freeport Speedway. While ap^
puinied a ctlixisn's committee W
aiicmpt to gel input on Ihe best
possible uses of Ihe Stadium.
In order for the Siadiun),land
ii) be used tor anything-other
than parks and tecreatk>na] pur­poses,
the village would first
liave to obtain permission from
the State.
While a Home Rule message
passed the Assembly in the last
legislative session, it was never
reported out of committee in Ihe
Senate.
Campion,' Woods and Pollack
have staled that they believe that
i/ie Commillee thai was appoint­ed
by Ihe Mayor was established
•'merely to ralHf » pte-an-r.
»unced result. The Mayor has
repeatedly stated." say Ihe
three, "that the Freeport Mnnici-
^ p»I Stadium lerres no • useful
function as a mnnidpai entity
and that it should be sold to pri-viie
interests.'
£xperf Wifness Tesflfies
for The Defense
Higher Indusfrial Park
Assessment HoMs
TaxHiketo30<
FREEPOSTr When the Village Board of Trustees holds its annual
public hearing on the village budget Monday evening, January 9,
Ihe figures they will be showing taipayers will have a bottom line of a
tax increase ot 30t per $100 assessed valuation, last year's tax in­crease
was more than three times Uiat amount: 98<.
Acoirding' lb village sources, . -
<• by Joan Delviey
BALDWIN • b is Ihe lengthy legal maneuveting and posturing as
much as the actual .testiuiony and evidence that is bfcomhig Ihe focus
of Ihe beatings in the caserof the Baldpin School District against
Industrial-ArtsleicfiffHoberlSawyers.'' '.'.^/i.' f "'.'^.•'•yi',- •
Sawyers has been suspended and accused by the District o{ tamper­ing
with the intake filler of an air
Ihe I984-8S tenUtive budget fig­ures
reflect a $1.9 nulBon in­crease
io the assessed valuation
of teal property in Freeport.
This valuation. Mayor William
H. White explains, comes pri­marily
btnn ootrections of assess­ments
to "more'f^rly reflect'"
mated revenues from the Recrea­tion
Center are increased by
$25,000 from 1983-84. The
. estimated ~ cash fine reflects
$750,000 to be received in state
aid. an item that was not known
when last year's budget was
^cate^d m •tThi°e^ F^Liele!pyfoTrtt Industr-iaIl -U ie work of the V^illa^g e BnUdiSg•
Park. White . cte£ls Spedal
meter which had been placed bi -
Ihe Baldwin Harbor Junior High -
School to measure possible
^beslos containination. He is
accused of "tntrixlucing a foreign
snbstaiKe into. Ihe machine's -
intake filter," but Sawyers denies
Ihe charges.
The hearing on Tuesday,
December 20. was Ihe foiirth
actual day of testimony. Thnsfar,
Ihe prosecution has presented;
Harbor Junior Ifigh School Piinci-'
pal John Fitzsimmons, tej^z
Tim Chambers. Disuict MsMPr
of Plant and Fadlities Sheldon
Fuchs; and a teacher's aide.
These witnesses testified con­cerning
Ihe back-ground and de­tails
(rf the alleged incident on
March4.I%3.
The prosecution also presented
two' employees of the TAKA
Asbestos Analytical Services who
described the air monitottng
process which was used- and
which allegedly showed Ihe pre­sence
of a type of asbestos which,
according to Thomas ICnbik of
TAKA. could iMt have occurred
naturally.
On November 29. the defense
ai templed to present James
Morrow as a wiuiess. Morrow is
. the chairman' of the Grievance
iComittiltee of th^ Baldwin Teadi-ers'
Association. Sawyers' at­torney
Robert Cleariield indicaled
that he wanted to show the School
District's moiivaLtion in bringing
suit against Sawyers in a case.
which Clearfield indicated was
a "frame-up." Jerome Ehrlicft,
attorney for Ihe school district,
object^ to the Iiteleiancy- of
that testimony and the cAijection
of lestimOny in Satsyers' defense
and Qearfield called as his first
witness Nancy Dark of the firm
Clark and McCrane. Clark des­cribed
herself as an Industrial
Hygienist and said that she had"
a Master's Degree in Occupa­tional
Safely and Health from
N.V.U.. heads her own company -
and. since 19T7. has been work­ing
in the field of industrial
health and safely. Her respon­sibilities,
Clark said, include walk
through on-sile inspection of
fac3itics. the evaluation of haz­ards,
the monitoring and diagnos­tic
testing for possble hazards
as wen as the itecominendation
of controls to correct hazards.
.She is a member of the American
thdusttial Hygieiusts Board
which she dcuribed as "the
professional organization in the
field," b a certified instructor
.in industrial hy^enics, and has
performed and is presently
engaged in pnijects involving the
removal of - large amounts of
asbestos. She is on the stajf of
and has served as a consultant
lo many large firms as weU as
unions. ,
For the first hour, questioning'
was slow as Ehrlich objected to
Ihe inclusion <^ certain. written
materials regarding EPA. OSHA
and NYOSH standards and pro­cedures
for occupational safely.
Ehrlicfa objected to Ihe irrelevan­cy
uf the maleiial to the case
and noted that Ihe guidelines:
were 'not legal maad^es nor
applicable to schools. Clark
described the recommended
NYOSH method ot testing for
asbestos and the relevancy of
'Cransel'Horace Kramet.'Village
Coimsel Harrison J. Edn^rds'and
Village Assessor Barry Dium for
uie irork involved. •
Durm and I&amer worked on:
the teassessment of Ihe property,
most of whidi is owner-occupied,
says White, but "there is no
way," Ihe Mayor'claimed this
week, '^that U could have been
acconipUshed without a frill time,
village counsel" (Edwards) to
prepare the files, do the research
and conduct the hearings.
Krainer. .While sud, had
originally brought the matter to
Ihe Mayor's attention.
White also noted the long
extra hours put in at the various
hearings by the Board of Trus­tees.
Up to a few. years ago. White
noted,' the v31age tax roles
virtually fciOowed. the county's.
In recent years, with Kramer
as Special Counsel, this has
chan^sd.
Several business sources in
the community told THE LEAD­ER
that property owners in the
Industrial Park have organized
to fight Ihe assessment changes.
VSlage Budgtt Chcmges •
Besides assessments, revenues
are also up over lut year.-Esti-
Department. Police Department'.
and Court .jdknr for;.aiitk^)ated _
increased revenues under Fines
and Forfei^red BaD.
The'Village's proposed munici­pal
budget for 19&4-SS is $17.9
million, up finom $16.5 mil&m in
1983-84. The proposed 30* in­crease
would bring the Village's -
tax rate to-$13J6 per $100 of
assessed valuation. The home­owner
of property assessed at
$7,000 wiU pay about $21 ad­ditional
for the year or $1.75 per •
month.
liie largest angle allocation,
dose to S% of Uie budget, is
earmarked for PubUc Safely, a
heaiSng that includes the opera­tion
of the Police Department,
expenses for the volunteer Fire
Department and the runiung of
the Bnildihg Department. Bene-fiu
For Employees,, induding
active ' and rethed otB and
cxdusve of salaiies, takes a
nearly 14% share, or $2J5 million,
of Ihe total municipal budget.
Tl»e January 9th pubHc heating
on - the tentative budget will
begin at 8 pn> at Village Hall.
Copies of the line-by-line budget
are scheduled to be available for
the public be^nning Tuesday,
January 3. They may be picked up
at that time al Ihe Office of jhe
VilUge Qerk in Village HaU or
at Ihe Freeport Memoiia] Library.
Sidewalk Stabbing Follows
Argument In Social Club
The three caH theXotnmiitee was_5SS!iJned S?J Jon^ Sijyer.. 'he proeednrea and, standards in
lice" and diln) "II U flSHJ^^SiaSmah of the three ^ an panel '^^CSOOG^S^K llic^uealsa'places
iniicd by puppets of Uie Mayor.
Members of U>e Commiuee
(Cont. on P»Ot »2)
hearing the case.
' The heating of December 20,
therefore, was the first fiiD day
of employment.
The qtiestioaing by Clearfield
(Cont. Dfi Pag* $)
FSEEPOBT - A 33-year.old
Hempstead man b in the inten­sive
care unit at Lytfia.E. HaO
Hospital foiknriag aa'. early
Chrbtinas cgoniag fight in frost
of Oub Inter-AmcTJcano.in Free-port.
..
,' ThefitiaappaientlT^)Oowe^«.
verbal argimn^t brer a winnan.
Acoordisg to the police'report,
.''Alfonn^ewton of Hemp^ead
^ and a]'s»fn"'8i^<Vnttf>fd. tof^JfH-,
lowed their argument in the Oab
with a brief fist fight tn the ride-walk
in front of the' premises, .
11 West Sunrise Highway. .
Tbe tmidoitified man went
back into tbe dsb aiid came out
with a third man. who then
ptaceeded topgncfa Hewtoi^ ?.'^'
'face, whie the first niaa MESST
him several times in Ms back. T.
Newton wax admitlrd into the
, ..IC0Ct-PPJ>fl*.\H..