Observer_1985-05-01; East Rockaway/Lynbrook Observer

              Official
Newspaper
INCORPORATED VILLAGE
East Rockaway
SCHOOL DISTRICT
INCORPORATED VILUGE
Lynbrook
SCHOOL DISTRICT
"THE GOOD NEIGHBOR NEWSPAPER "
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East Rockaway, NY 11518
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VOL. 23 NO. 23 Wednesday, May 1,1985 30c PER COPY
Lynbrook FD Christens
New Pumper
Board Eliminates Honors Courses;
Budget Defeat Threatened
By a vote of three to one,
the East Rockaway Board of
Education in a late night ses-sion
voted to eliminate
h o n o r s and modified
courses from the District's
curriculum. The actions of
the Board, which were
announced at the onset of a
4 hour marathon session,
prompted outraged cries
from members of the public,
who threatened to defeat the
upcoming budget to be
voted upon on Tuesday,
May 14.
"Your're treating us like
fools," stated community
resident John Dempsey.
"You made up your minds
before coming in here. What
did we sit here for for two
hoursr
The majority consisted of
President Richard Meagher,
Vice President John Van
Houten and Elaine Boll.
Opposing the recommenda-tion
of Acting Superintend-ent
Robert Parry to elimi-n
a t e the honors and
modified program was
Mary Jane Brezenoff. Not
present was Carol Burris,
who excused herself after
making known the fact that
she was in favor of the elimi-nation
of honors programs.
The crowd of more than
CHRISTENING. Mrs. Mary Pearsall, widow of ex-captain
and committee member, Clinton Pearsall brealiing the tradi-tional
bottle of champagne while Mayor William Geier and
memebrs of the Department look on. Left to right Third
Deputy Richard Neidecker, 2nd Lt. George Rockford, 2nd
Deputy Chief Peter Sfceris, 1st Lt. Anthony Badaiato, 1st
Assist. Chief Robert Gieason, Mayor Geier, Chief Robert
CitKovic, Capt. George Tierney and Committee members;
Waiter Fitzer, Richard Miller, William Cosenza, Chairman,
Robert Magnusen and Jack Callanan.
Lynbrook and East Rockaway
Pass Modest Tax Hike
On Sunday, April 28,
1985, Engine Company #1
of the Lynbrook Fire
Department hosted cerem-onies
inaugurating the new
Kenworth pumper. Deli-vered
after three years of
i n t e n s i v e cooperation
between members of the
Fire Department, current
and past chiefs and members
of the Village Board, the
truck is capable of delivering
1500 gallons per minute.
The truck replaces a 1964
vfehicle and will be housed in
the company quarters on
Carpenter Avenue,
by Annette Ling
The East Rockaway Vil-lage
Board held a special
meeting on Monday. April
29 at 8:30 pm in the Village
hall and adopted the 1986
budget.
The new budget calls for
an increase of $.15 per
hundred of assessed valua-tion,
representing only
2.9%, which is approxi-mately
half of the national
inflation rate. The Village
tax will increase from $5.13
per hundred to $5.28 per
hundred.
Tbw assessed valuation of
the Incorporated Village of
East Rockaway is $28,128,
414.
Potential problems could
arise next year when the
Veteran's Exemption goes
into effect. The exemption
.has the effect of curtailing
the total assessed valuation
and increases the rate per
hundred. The full force of
the exemption will not be
feh until 1986.
Beautification Program Receives State Aid
New York State Senator
Dean G. Skelos and East
Rockaway Village Trustee
A n t h o n y J. Santino,
Chairman of the Village's
Beautification Committee,
today formally announced
that East* Rockaway has
received a $5,000 grant from
New York State to help
finance this year's village
beautification program.
According to Trustee
Santino, the special legisla-tive
grant was procured by
Senator Skelos to help the
Village finance a tree-planting
program on Village
streets.
"Many streets in the Vil-lage
have been hard hit by
various strains of tree
blight," Santino noted. "By
implementing this program,
Mayor Reinhard and the
Board hope to restore much
of the tree-lined beauty for
which East Rockaway was
known in years past."
The details of this year's
tree planting program were
released today, and are as
follows: After a determina-tion
as to which areas in the
Village have been most
adversely effected, the
Board will make available to
residents- in the designated
areas a dwarf variety of trees
specially designed for curb
side planting. Residents in
, the effected area will be noti-fied
individually as to the
time and specific procedures
for applying for a free tree.
This current phase of the
tree-planting program is a
follow-up to the joint
County-Village effort to
plant trees on County road-ways
(Atlantic Avenue and
Main Street) within the Vil-lage
limits. Many of those
trees, planted last Fall, are
currently beginning to
bloom.
"Thanks to Senator Ske-los'
efforts," Trustee San-tino
noted, "this year's tree
planting program should
result in plantings in almost
every section of the Village
that has suffered from tree
bli&ht."
While making the formal
grant award announcement.
Senator Skelos stated: "I
was happy to have been of
assistance to the Village of
East Rockaway's efforts to
help beautify the commun-ity.
I look forward to work-ing
closely with Mayor
Reinhard and the entire Vil-lage
Board on other matters
of concern to East Rocka-way
residents."
Kiwanls Club To Aid
Disabled Girl
The East Rockaway
Kiwanis Club will be spon-soring
their Annual Hoe
Down and Country Western
Dance on Saturday evening,
June 1, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
This year, all proceeds from
this event will go to assist the
family of Jacqueline Carver.
Miss Carver suffers from
Goldenhar Syndrome, a dis-ease
which causes severe
facial deformity and which
requires years of plastic
surgery to correct.
According to Dr. Steven
Spielberg, East Rockaway
Kiwanis President, all funds
raised at the Hoe Down will
go to meet the numerous
medical expenses which the
Carver family has incurred
in their efforts to help Jac-queline
lead a healthy and
normal life. Dr. Spielberg
said, "We are looking to
raise as much money as is
possible to help defray the
astronomical medical bills
that this family will encoun-ter.
It is my understanding
that the type of surgery
which this young lady
requires would run tens of
thousands of dollars."
The Kiwanis Club will be
asking $ 17.50 per person for
tickets to the Hoe Down.
For this sum, all in attend-ance
will receive unlimited
hot and cold buffet, beer and
soda. A cash bar will be
available. There will also be
music and square dancing
with a professional caller.
The Hoe Down will be held
at the Colonial Room
Main Street.
on
Tickets may be obtained
by calling any of the follow-ing
Kiwanians, Mike Piz-zino
(599-7025), Robert
Keon (887-2614), Dan Gan-ley
(593-9079) or Anthony
Santino (599-3748).
At a Board of Trustees
Meeting of the Village of
Lynbrook held on Monday
evening, April 22, 1985 at 8
p.m. at Village Hall the con-tinuation
of the Tenative
Budget Hearing was on the
Agenda, The final determi-nation
and formal vote on
the Budget Tax Rate was 8c
per $100 of assessed Valua-tion,
an increase of 3<t over
the tax rate of the past two
years.
There was much discus-sion
of the budget and var-ious
parts of it when fornier
Trustee Scarpato asked
Mrs. Moskowitz questions
from the floor which she
answered in detail. Trustee
Peter Ledwith objected to
the fact that the final budget
called for putting aside a so-called
"cushion or contin-gency
sum of money from
t h e New York State
Revenue Sharing Amount
given to Lynbrook of
$178,000. Mrs. Moskowitz,
as Chief Budget Officer and
Village Clerk had suggested
that the sum of $86,863 be
put aside in a contingency
fund in case of unexpected
rises in LILCO rates, tax
certiorari law suits etc. Trus-tee
Ledwith objected to this
use of the state funds claim-ing
that the entire amount be
used to cut the final tax rate
amount to be paid by Lyn-brook
taxpayers. It was
pointed out that most vil-lages
make it a policy to save
a certain amount of at least
5% to 8% of their revenue
for contingency purposes in
order to keep their village
solvent and to protect their
rate with Standard and
Poor. By a vote of 3 to 1 the
budget was passed.
At a question raised at the
(Continued on Page 6)
150 emotional residents
spoke in near-unanimous
agreement that the honors
program—the concept of
" t r a c k i n g " - should be
retained, as a way of prom-oting
excellence in educa-tion.
A host of students,
facuhy members and con-cerned
parents spoke at
length of their desire to
maintain an honors and
modified program.
"I am disappointed that
the Board is going against
the overwhelming interests
of the students and parents,
"stated Charles McAnulla,
Chairman of the East Rock-away
High School English
Department. He related that
in the past he could assure
7th aind 8th graders that East
Rockaway High School
could compete with such
p r i v a t e i n s t i t u t i o n s as
Chaminade. "I'm not so sure
I can say that anymore."
One student related how
here class had studied
Chaucer as part of an accel-erated
program. "Not eve-ryone
in the class could fully
understand it at the start,"
she said, "but it challenged
our minds and made us want
to learn more."
The outpouring of pleas
f r o m t h e c o m m u n i ty
assembled had no aff^ect on
the majority of Board
members. "Every student
should have the same oppor-tunity,"
stated Mrs. Boll. "I
don't know if this is the
answer, but I'm willing to
try," Vice President John
Van Houton stated that
"this decision has not been
made lightly; we have care-fully
considered it." Presi-dent
Richard Meagher
called for a move away from
tracking an approach which
produces acceleration. He
also cited the problems of
class size. "We only have 75
to 80 children coming over
to the High School next
year."
Many residents questi-oned
why the Board was tak-ing
such a decisive step that
was so in conflict with the
community residents pres-ent
when honors are modi-fied
courses added not a
penny to the school budget.
In a direct question from
Michael Racanelli, Acting
Superintendent Parry stated
that these courses "do not
add one cent to the district's
budget." The rationale for
(Continued on Page 6)