2012-07-26

              ^M I
Keep up on breaking news!
Become our
fan on facebook
Bookmark us on the web
q*2****.**CR LOT0032A**C029
FREEPORT MEMORIAL LIBRARY
H4 W MERRICK RD COMPLIMENTS OOJCCWE LEAC
FREEPORT NY 11520-3726 . , , , , ,
I,,,!!,,,!!,!,!,,,!,!!! ll,L,l,.l,UlM.U.U.I.I.
www.freeportbaldwinleader.com
77th Year, No. 30 Freeport, N.Y. 11520 The Community Newspaper Thursday, July 26, 2012 75C
Freeport has a
field day
FREEPORT HIGH SCHOOL'S new turf field is just about done. School officials
promise the field and accompanying lights will be ready for the first football
game in September. Leader photo by Arielle Martinez
Sanitary district dissolution is proposed
by Arielle Martinez
The local civic organization
Residents for Efficient Special
Districts (RESD) has filed a petition to
dissolve Sanitary District 2.
The group says the taxes of District
2, which has served Roosevelt,
Baldwin, South Hempstead and sec-tions
of Uniondale for 84 years, are too
high and the Town of Hempstead could
provide less costly service, according
to the RESD website.
RESD is calling for dissolution
under the New York Government
Reorganization and Citizen
Empowerment Act, which states that
voters may commence a dissolution
proceeding by filing a petition, which
must contain the signatures of at least
10% of the number of voters in the dis-trict
or 5,000 voters, whichever is less.
The organization collected over 5,000
signatures and delivered the petition to
the office of Nassau County Clerk
Maureen O'Connell on Monday, Long
Island Business News reported.
But district representatives have stat-ed
that the dissolution of Sanitary
District 2 would not result in signifi-cant
savings in sanitation collection
costs.
"The pie chart that they were walking
around with, saying people will save
hundreds of dollars, shows that there's
only a $128 difference. The district
gives all the school districts fuel and
garbage collection. That's thousands
and thousands of dollars that would just
be absolutely lost," Douglas Wiedmann,
the secretary of the district's Board of
Commissioners told The Leader.
Officials also argue that the dissolu-tion
of the district would result in loss of
employment for district workers, and
claims that the Town of Hempstead
would provide the same service are false.
"The Town of Hempstead told us that
they would not take on any employees
from Sanitary District 2. We just feel
that the service we provide is far supe-rior
to the Town of Hempstead," said
Mr. Wiedmann.
"These people are getting paid to
walk around trying to get these signa-tures.
Most of them are not even resi-dents
of our district. Some aren't even
residents of Nassau County. If the facts
were out there and people weren't being
told that each commissioner gets
$100,000, a Cadillac and lifetime ben-fits,
which is not true, that would make
a difference. But people are hearing this
misinformation and they believe it."
Mike Deery, a spokesman for the
Town of Hempstead, responded, "Our
position has always been and remains
that we're very much committed to the
will of the people. If residents of the
special district think that we'll do a
good job and would like to see the Town
of Hempstead assume service in this
particular district, it's something that
we would seek to accommodate."
According to the Government
Reorganization and Citizen
Empowerment Act, the Office of the
Clerk must make a final determination
on the sufficiency of the signatures of
the petition within 10 days of its filing.
A referendum on the proposed disso-lution
must be voted on at a special
election to be held not less than 60 or
more than 90 days after the enactment
of the resolution calling for the referen-dum.
If the efforts of RESD are success-ful,
the district will be the largest local
government entity to be dissolved by
petition under the act on Long Island.
An election will be held to vote for
a commissioner of Sanitary District
No. 2 today, July 26, between 2 and
10 p.m. in the Sanitary District 2
building on Grand Avenue in Baldwin,
the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary
Parish on Centennial Avenue in
Roosevelt and Covert Elementary
School on Willow Street in South
Hempstead.
James Major is on the ballot oppos-ing
John A. Cools, the current chair-man
of the district's Board of
Commissioners, whose term will
expire next Tuesday.
NAMES MAKB THE NEWS: Read about your neighbors! 45, local people's names were in your community newspaper this past week. Maybe yours is in this week! See inside. 4—•>-« ,..,.J..,.....a...i...,i,... . i , . , , . . , .', jg^.,',.a..,..,»... .f: ,.C....... ..-.,.-, . »..fc.. AA,.....-^,—»-./....«. J,i.f... . ~t _y* - ..„',.'. . . *.
Sex offender el's Waterside
w