The-Leader_1985-04-04

              ^Y
Official
Newspapei
Village ol
, Freeport
,'•
Freeport
School District
• • . '
Baldwin
School District
THE 5^Hv^aii "wmcvm^im^^^
FREEPORT, NEW YORK. APRIL4,198S
49th YEAR. No. 50
PRICE 2 5 * PER COPY
"Status Quo" Budget
Set For Baldwin
Public Hearing
On CD Funds
FREEPORT*- The Village
Board of Trustees; will,hold a
public hearing . on Monday,
April 8, at 8 pm, at Village Hall,
on the allocation' of Freeport's
CorAmimity Development Blo^
Grant monies for 1985.86. The. '
total grant is $535,000.' -'- "
Eligible activities for the
Community Development monies
include the acquisition of land
and buildings for certain pur­poses;
disposition of property;
construction, reconslruclion,
rehabilitation or installation .of
specified public buildings, facili­ties
end improvements; clearance
and demolition; public service
- programs; interim assistance to
•alleviate hstrmful' conditions in
public or private property;
payment of non-federal shares of
certain other programs; comple­tion
of urban renewal projects;.
relocation - payments' and pay-""
_menls forjloss of yental income-where
housing units are used for
. relocation;. removal of arclu-teciural
barriers; rehabilitation
assistance; economic develop-
•" ment activities relating to
physical or economic distress
including direct assistance to the
private sector; communitywide
master " planning and -zoning
studies;- and adcninistration and
pliiiiili)^. . . , .
Storm Installed
Makes Appdntments
FREEPORT - The village's first
elected' female mayor was " in-sUlled
at the 1985 annual Organi­zation
Night meeting of the Free-
-port Village Board-of Trustees—
Taking oaths of office with Mayor
Dorothy. Storm Monday evening.
April 1. were newly elected
trustees Ralph Smith and Victor
Cohen. Smith, the village's
. first black trustee, had been
originally appointed by Mayor
Storm several months ago to
fill the seat left vacant when she
was selected by the Board follow,
ing the resignation of former
Mayor William H. White.
Stale Supreme Court Judge
Patricia Collins, a Freeport resi-
'(Cont.onP*o*lB)
School Board Also Touches
On Other Local Concerns
- .', , by Joan Detaney
BALDWIN • At its Match 27 meeting, the Baldwin Board of Educa­tion
finalized and approved the 1985^ school budget which mil be
presented to the community on Wednesday, jiay IS for voter approval..
This budget of $34, 886398.00 represenU a, 7.48% incre^ over last
yeir ^^ a dollar aih'onnt increase of $2,'425,093'. It involves an estimated'
tax rate of $30,079 per $100. ct assessed valuation for the single family
homeowner, aii increase of $2.57
ChaH And Residents' Reps^
Will Meet Again
FREEPORT - A meeting of Gordon Place residents, caUed at VUlige
. Hall by Mayor Dorothy Storm Wednesday evening, April 3, will hope-fiilly
be the beginning ci^a compromise arrangement between the
street's homeowners and residents and Fred Chall's Marina, situated
atitstip.
Several residents had refiised to move their vehicles, which were
blowing the street Friday mom-over
last year. (Final tal rates are
set by the Board of Assessors of
Nassau County in August when
new assessed valoalion figures
for the County are ofBdally com­puted.)
Described by Superintendent
RoUand Jones as. a "status quo.
budget...in-fact less than status-quo,"
he indicated that the bud­get
has "very little movement in
it." With.the exception of the
Seattle-Berkeley "Growing Up
Healthy" curriculum for grades
K-3 — a program of early pre--
^vention. of..substance abuse^
through positive self image and
early health informaUon,"~ihe"
1985-86 budget contidns no new
.programs. The only "new" items,
.in the budget, according to
Jones, are additional funds for
more security, a computer tech-,
nician, a computer repair position
because of the incrpase of com­puter
equipment in thie district
and Uie cuim-fliueiity uf in--
house repairs, and some fences
around certain ball fields. Other
than that, the budget remains
the same as last year. "With
cert^n areas diminished to off­set
increased cost«. in some
mandated areas suui as in­surance.
According to Assistant
Superintendent Richard Dop-sovic,
the budget is "alPInclu-sive".
with monies included for
negoUations with all'of the. bar­gaining
units scheduled to settle
this year.
Both Board members Ira
Matetsky and Lorraine DeDer
spoke of the need for the com­munity
to understand that the
budget increase is caused be­cause
of the "unfair treatment
from Albany" — specifically
the decline in the percenuge of
stale aid which must be ofiset
by the homeower,. lo. .com-.',
munities such as Baldn-in, with­out
significant commercial prop- •
erties, jtpproximately 80% ' of
the tax burden must be placed on
the individual homeowner. .'
Additional iteins included the
acceptance of the results of the
special referendum on the sale of
the Qyde Road property. As.re-ported'in
last week's LEADER;
the vote was 743 against the sale
and 629 for. The opposition
centered basically on public
comments that the building' of ,
96_condomininiri units, as pro-'
pbsed"by^Uie"ayIaw developers. '
would-create too'much-^traffic-and
congestion and-result in too
' many new .children for the
schools. There was a significant
amount of organized .community
opposition in the form of flyers
opposing the sale and large at­tendance
at the two community
meetings at which the develop­ment
was discussed.
In other business.- Dr. Jones
ing, March 29th, in an alleged
attempt to prevent a trailer-tnick
fiom carting a wide-bodied
boat slated for .delivery to the
marina.
Arrested eariy that morning, at
ab(xjt9 am were Charies Wertz of
160' Gordon Place and Keith'
Raiiaho of 16S Gordon Place.
Wertz was taken to police hea3-
qiiarters and charged with dis-oirderiyConduct
and refiisal to.
move the. white van. registered
in his wife's name. Raitano, who
told THE LEADER he had also
been arrested,remained at liberty
due, he said, to the" arrival and
pleas of vmage Mayor Dorothy
,Storm. Raitano later claimed that
village polic* were unsympathetic
to the fact that he was home alone
at the time with two youngsters-under
the age of five..-
Mayor Storm, "whose Village
Board meetings had already been
attended by scores -of Gordon
Place residents with complaints
about Chall's operation, had sub­sequently
jnailed letters to.each
of the street's residents, inviting
them to this" special meeting";"
to which Chall was also invited.
On Wednesday night.' she
chaired the meeting, at wMch an
overwhelming majority of the
residents were present. With her
were • Village - Attorney Joe
Edwards, Freeport Police Sgt.
Frank Medgalia, and the village's .
Human Relations Director
Michael Kirwan. who has worked
with various local groups and
residents as a conciliator and
mediator.^
Storm and Kirwan suj^ested to
the" group that tiie issue they.
should discuss was what to do'
about uie truck traffic •:— de{iver-ing
wide boats— on their narrow .'
street. Several of the-residents '
apparently also wanted to discuss
their other complaints, issues
they had raised at recent Village
Board meetings, including, what
they felt was an illegal use of the
property, which has a non-con­forming
use in a residentiallv
zoned area; the construction of a
"new" building on the premises;
"pollution" - both noise and litter
and oil; arid speedingTiars.'
• Storm set the tone of her own
views'when she explained several
times that, she "doesn't like
.confr6ntations...rd rather have
an amicable settlement...I don't .
want agitation."
Shecalled. the arrest of Free-port
residents by village police
"sorely - distressing" - but' said
that while she sent out the letters
to the residents following the con-fiontation'
on Friday, she had
(Com. from Page 4)
read a statement concerning the
Human Relations Day which took
place at the Baldwin Senior
High School on March 8. J[See
THE LEADER. March 28); Jones
noted his- "deep sense of con­trition"
regarding the incident
and the initial incorrect informa­tion
given by the high .school
administralinn regarding the.
scheduling of Bill Baird as *
speaker. Jones saiid that'the.,
"paper' trail" of the invitation
process showed that an kivitation
had in fact been sent iJ the Bin
Baird Institute. His letter to the
editors of local papers outlined
his "regret" at the confiision
land any "perception of insensi--
'livity."
This incident had caused com­munity
reaction including the
signing of pelitions^^ opposing
Baird for his alleged anti-Catholic .
- statementSr comments - at - open
(Cent, on Page 10)'
OATHS OF OFFICE were administered to (he newly elected and re­elected
officials of the Village of Freeport.u the Village Board o f
Trustees' annual Organizational Night meeting Monday, April 1.
State Supreme Court Judge Patricia Collins (2nd I.) swore In Mayor
Dorothy Storm (c), the villagefa first female mayor; Trustee Ralph
Smith (I.), the village's first black trustee; Trustee. Victor Cohen
' (2nd r.) and Village Justice Ralph Franco 0^.).