Observer_1989-04-12; East Rockaway/Lynbrook Observer

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School District
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Inc Village
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"THE GOOD NEIGHBOR NEWSPAPER "
OBSERVER
Since 1967 by Mailed Subscription
Executive Offices: Seiffert Building, 2787 Long Beach Road. Oceanside, NY 11572
Post Office Box A, East Rockaway, NY 11518 (516) 764-2500
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COMMUNITY"
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VOL. 36 NO. 12 Wednesday, April 12; 1989 35c PER COPY
New Broom Sweeps Village Hall Clean
Old Guard Launches "Sour Grapes" Attact
By Mildred Roemc
Not New in East Rockaway
"We will arrange to cele-brate
with balloons and
parades in honor of the great
men of our couintry." This
quote could have been in the
OBSERVER today con-cerning
our upcoming
Frolic, but it appeared in the
"Brooklyn Union Times" of
September 4, 1932 pertain-ing
to the forming of a
Historic Society in East
Rockaway. The aim of the
Society was to "Promote
Patriotism on Long Island."
Beginning with the tirm^ of
the Revolution, objects of
interest would be sought and
be preserved, and other
communities on the Island
would be inspired to follow
suit.
So all the much more
recent talks and aims in East
Rockaway are really
"Nothing New!" The facts of
that Society planned 52
years ago seems to have been
lost in history; but today, we
do have a fine Museum in
which to "collect and pre-serve
historical objects" and
Frolic with balloons, a
parade" and much more to
honor our past.
This year we are remem-bering
the inauguration of
George Washington in 1789
and his oath taken at the old
Treasure Building on Wall
Street in our own state.
It is good to know that the
spirit of patriotism still alive
in East Rockaway. Wish our
Museum's resident ghost,
Dave Push, could round up
some of those who started
their society back in 1932,
and let them know we still
care! Among them were
Ysidro Pendas, who was
president of the group. He
lived on Ocean Avenue in
one of a long row of large,
white frame homes, all of
which have since been dem-olished
save for the Hewlett
home, now the East Point
Inn. Serving with Mr. Pen-das
were Charles R. Castag-nino,
Hugh S. Gambel,
Henry W.A. Helfrich (bank
president), Harold H. Haw-thorne,
Darsley Eversley,
W.W. Dimmick, and Mrs.
Grace A. Jaburg.
Drefer Awarded
Gold Link
Norman L. Dreyer of
Lynbrook has been awarded
the GOLD LINK AWARD
by the Link Counseling
Center. According to Link
Board Chairman Emma
Tolmach the award is given
annually to that indivudual
who has demonstrated over
time a tangible commitment
to the well being of children,
youth, families, and the
elderly within the Link ser-vice
area. Chairman Tolm-ach
stated that Dreyer, a
prominent local attorney
and Lynbrook Village Board
Trustee, has been fully
involved in human service
programming for many
years and was unanimously
selected by the Link Board
of Directors for his out-standing
accomplishments.
Mr. Dreyer presently serves
as Chairman of the Village
of Lynbrook Drug Abuse
Prevention Council and Co-
Chairman of the Lynbrook
Senior Citizen Council. Mrs.
Tolmach said that Norm
Dreyer has worked very
closely with the Link Board
and Executive Director to
substantially assist Link in
its direct programming. She
stated, "with Norm's help
our programs have achieved
maximum effectiveness."
rhe award will be pres-ented
to Mr. Dreyer at a
Brunch in his honor between
11 A.M. and 2 P.M. on
Saturday, June 3,1989 at the
Union Avenue Cafe in Lyn-brook.
Those wishing to
attend may contact Robert
Taussig, Executive Director
of LINK by writing to him
at 21 Langdon Place in
Lynbrook or calling (516)
887-4848. Tickets to the
Brunch are $20 per person
and arc tax deductible in
accordance with IRS rules.
The politics of the past
is over in the Village of
East Rockaway.
On Monday evening,
April 3, 1989, the village
board made several stra-tegic
appointments to the
Village family which are
designed, according to the
board majority that voted
in favor of the appoint-ments,
to "sweep more
than 20 years of 'old
guard' control of village
affairs out of the doors of
village hall." In response,
the 'old guard' led by
former village attorney
M. John Pittoni, and with
the full support and
acquiesence of Mayor
Irvmg Shaw, launched
into a vicious, petty per-sonal
attack that shocked
and dismayed most of
those in attendance.
Among the 'old guard'
members who found
themselves out of village
Positions, which some
ad held for as long as 20
years, were Village Attor-ney
M. John Pittoni,
Chairman of the Board of
Assessors Charles Comis-key
(who also was
replaced as Multiple
Dwelling Inspector), Neg-otiating
Committee
Chairman Murray Eske-nazi,
and Zoning Board
member George
McDougal.
Pittoni, Comiskey and
McDougal, were vesitiges
of the 'old guard' clique
that had held virtually
exclusive sway over vil-lage
affairs since the East
Rockaway Action Party
came to power in 1967.
Voting in favor of all
of the new appointments,
with the exception of the
position of Village Attor-ney,
were senior Village
Trustee Anthony San-tino,
and Trustees Cha-rles
Formont, Kevin
McNulty and Robert
McTauge. Formont was
the lone dissenter in the
dismissal of M. John
Pittoni.
The board's new
appointments were as fol-lows,
William J. Kelleher,
Jr. as Village Attorney,
John Roberts as Chair-man
of the Board Asses-sors,
Elvira Perricone as
a member of the Board of
Assessors, Leonard Poli-koff
as Multiple Dwelling
Inspector, Richard Jor-dan,
Esq. as Negotiating
Committee Chairman
and Robert Stalzer as a
member of the Board of
Zoning.
"These are outstanding
^pointments," noted
Trustee Santino. "Each of
the individuals named by
the board has a long
record of civic involve-ment
and has a wide range
of experience for the peti-tions
to which they nave
been named. But most
importantly, these
appointments signal the
end to the 'closed-club'
that the village govern-ment
had become under
the 'old-guard's'
influence."
Two years ago, a group
of public spirited citizens
banded together to chal-lenge
the small group of
individuals who had
tightly controlled the
affairs of the East Rock-away
Action Party, and
by extension, the village
government. In
December 1987, William
J. Kelleher and Martin
Evans challenged the
incumbent President and
Vice President of the
Action Party, Murray
Eskenazi and Rita Van
Buren, and resoundingly
defeated them. Kelleher
and Evans victory was a
prelude to a new openness
m Action Party affairs.
First and foremost,
Kelleher and Evans
undertook a revision of
the Action Party by-laws
which has been drawn to
discourage anyone but
the hand-picked candi-dates
of the 'old guard'
from vying for Village
office. Secondly, in the
most open and forthright
nominating process in the
history of the Action
Party, interested residents
were invited to submit
their names to a nominat-ing
committee for consid-eration
for Party and
Village office. The nom-inating
process was pub-licly
announced 4 months
prior to submission of the
nominating committee's
report.
"In the previous admin-istration,
you didn't even
know there was going to
be an election until the
candidates were
announced." Mr. Kelle-her
said. "Last year we
sent a letter to every
member of the Party
advising them of which
positions would be up for
election in the village and
the party, and we encour-aged
anyone with an
interest to apply. I also
appointed a distm^shed
committee of residents,
instead of the same 'old
guard' hacks, to a nom-inating
committee which
did an outstanding job of
selecting the most quali-fied
applicants for Village
Justice and two Trustee
positions. Those two new
Trustees, Bob McTauge
and Kevin McNulty
joined with Trustee San-tino,
to give Village
government back to the
people."
After the vote was held
and the new appoint-ments
were made, Mr.
Pittoni rose and launched
into a personal attack on
Mr. Santino and Mr.
Kelleher. He made what
a number of those present
termed "wild, incoherent"
charges, as well as vicious
jersonal attacks which
eft most of the audience
stunned. Mayor Irving
Shaw, who has appar-ently
aligned himself
firmly with the old guard
faction, allowed the per-sonal
attacks to continue
unabated.
In retribution for his
support of these reform
appointments. Mayor
Shaw stripped Mr. San-tino
of his position as
Deputy Mayor, a position
which Shaw had seen fit
to appoint Mr. Santino to
for the last two years.
"Clearly the Mayor
wanted to 'get even' with
Trustee Santino," Kelle-her
noted. "Trustee San-tino
is to be commended
for standing up for open
and fair government, even
though it cost him person-ally.
I am proud of him
and I think the village as
a whole should be proud
of his courage and deter-mination
to act in the best
interests of the entire
ViUage."
Support Your Merchants
In East Rockaway
and Lynbrook
Congressman Ray McGrath, R-VS r'-ft) congratulates
Kevin Gottlieb, of Lynbbrook, upon kit.- iiomination to the
United States Military Academy at West Point. Each stu-dent
is nominated by the Congressman based upon aca-demic
excellence and extra curricular activities after und*"--
going a highly competitive interview and review process.