L e t t e r s To The Editor {(.. ontitiued from Page 4)
had been received concerning the
erection of the fifteen foot flag
pole — it would cost $ 530. The
breakdown was $ 368" for the pole,
$ 60 for the installation, and the
remainder for the flag.
Upon questioning, the Library
Director admitted that only one
company had been approached for
an estimate. Again, is this
the normal procedure when an
item is required? Do we take
only one company's price and
settle for this? Help is needed
in our community and fast. The
lunacy of the whole situation is
enough to * make a grown man
cry-*
Voters of Farmingdale . . . .
the time has come for more
competent management of taxpayers*
dollars. A change is
needed. Will the taxpayers of
District # 22 rmet this challenge?
Not indifferent,
Mrs. Warren Altmarm
74 Beechwood Street
Dear Editor:
Mr. Carl Gorton, in his latest
irrationalizations in the press
has stated that I am, " as could
be expected" ( whatever that
means) chairman of the committee
for the re- election of Paul
Tilford to the position of Farmingdale
Library Board Trustee.
I am proud to be campaign
manager of a respected member
of our community whose past service
has always been in the best
interests of District 22.
Mr. Tilford, Chairman of the
Finance Committee has been hard
at work in trying to submit a
hold- the- line budget consistent
with maintaining the essential
services offered by the Library.
In response to many who have
wanted the Library to move into
a larger building necessitating a
tremendous increase in taxes,
Mr. Tilford has been in favor of
installing a mezzanine in the
South Farmingdale Branch to
obtain the needed additional shelf
space, at no cost to the taxpayer.
The $ 38,000 needed to build the
new mezzanine will come from the
monies already collected in the
fines and fees account.
With typical foresight, Mr. Tilford
has reminded those who have
been clamoring for a new building
that the library has nine years
remaining in the current lease.
To terminate this lease would
mean a needless expense to the
taxpayer. Consistent with his
alertness to the best interests
of the citizens of Farmingdale
he has recommended to the members
of the Library Board that
future monies collected from
fines and fees be used to LOWER
LIBRARY TAXES.
Yes, Mr. Gorton, " as could
be expected", I and other
members of the community sup « -
port a clear- thinking, levelheaded
individual who is a credit
to Farmingdale.
George Fain
Dear Editor:
Members of our Armed Forces,
e n g a g e d in a life and death
struggle in Vietnam, are the re as
representatives of our government.
Here, at home, the vicious,
un- American activities of certain
elements have created a second
front to unde rmine support for our
fighting men. The growing lists
of casualties indicate how well
these second- fronters have succeeded.
All great Nations have
fallen because of treason within
the nation. Recall the following
words of Cicero -
" A nation can survive its fools,
and even the ambitious. But it
cannot survive treasonfrom within.
An enemy at the gates is less
formidable, for he is known and
he carries his banners openly.
But the traitor moves among those
within the gates freely, his sly
whispers rustling through all the
alleys, heard in the very halls of
government itself. For the traitor
appears no traitor; he speaks in
the accents familiar to his victims,
and he wears their face
and their garments, and he appeals
to the baseness that lies
deep in the hearts of all men.
He rots the soul of a nation; he
works secretly and unknown in
the night to undermine the pillars
of a city; he infects the body
politic so that it can no longer
resist. A murderer is less to be
feared."
Francis A. Collins
Dear Editor:
Let me start by offering a
little background about myself.
I've been a Farmingdale resident
for 13 years. I have also
been a local business man for
many years. I have never actively
taken part in local, town,
state or national politics as my
business and family kept me too
busy to pay much attention to
who was spending my taxes and
teaching my children. Pve been
a registered Republican voting an
independent ticket for 20 years.
Last year, after I gave my
usual affirmative vote for the
school and library budgets, I
found that the library budget had
been defeated and that a Carl
Gorton had been elected to our
library board.
I answered a sympathetic plea
from the Friends of the Library
to come to a meeting to see what
could be done to get the library
budget passed.
The meeting for passage of
the budget was a farce. It was
held to work out methods to be
used to unseat or smear this
new upstart who was bringing to
Farmingdale a voice against the
liberal rule that exists here. I
met Mr. Gorton there and heard
his arguments outside of the
meeting room. Inside at the
meeting his viewpoints were r e fused
hearing even though a
majority of the people wanted to
hear them. I imagine that Mr.
Gorton converted a few liberals
to conservatives that night as
many of us were flabbergasted
by the attitude of the Friends of
the Library.
I want to thank Mr. Gorton for
waking me up frpm my lethargy
and I further want to thank
him for taking such a smearing
publicly in order to do it.
Being a mild winter, my
business went much smoother
than I planned and I found myself
with an abundance of time. I
spent every available hour in
research. I believe I have put
over 200 hours of study in on this
John Birch Society, which has
been receiving all sorts of
smears along with Mr. Gorton.
Several of my neighbors have
been members for years and I
couldn't believe that these men
and their organization were as
awful as is generally believed.
Pve been to several of their
meetings. I have ready many
books that have given me sleepless
nights ( liberals call them
hate literature). I have poured
over numerous congressional
records. I have been in correspondence
with my district
congressional leaders. I have
joined the local Farmingdale
Conservative Club in an attempt
to help them start an " Other
Than Liberal Party". I have not
yet joined the Birch Society although
Pve been called a Bircher
often enough because my investigation
of their Society has
brought me in contact with
liberals.
I feel I can categorically state
that they are not racists, not
anti- religious, not hatists, nor
are they militant, but they have
been extensively and viciously
smeared mostly, of course, by
people who do not even know that
they are acting as dupes of communists;
for the John Birch
Society is only dedicated to an
educational campaign which will
expose and defeat a Communist-
S o c i a l i s t i c conspiracy in
America.
Whenever you hear aderogo-tory
remark about Birchers.
" Don't You Believe It". Take
the time away from your hectic
social and business world and
make a study of this Society.
I promise you that you will be
astounded by your findings. Your
time spent investigating them
may save your children from a
society that you never dreamed
could descend on America.
Robert S. Etzkorn
14 Taylor Drive
Farmingdale
Conservative Party Seeks Members
The Conservative Party of
Farmingdale will holdamembership
meeting on Tuesday, March
26 at 8: 30 p. m. at the Talbonard
Post # 449 of the American
Ugion, Eastern Parkway and
Prospect Place, Farmingdale.
It's that time of year again-when
all the amateur economists
propose their sweeping changes.
Take DEBT, for example.
Cloaked in a shield of anonymity,
these fearless crusaders
sally forth to save our local
schools from insidious decay
caused by taxes and rising
costs— and just when they were
so urgently needed in Washington
to solve the gold crisis.
Today, we'd like to call your
attention to DEBT'S concern for
our public library. Their opposition
to the proposed library
mezzanine is a good example of
their confused economy. In their
March newsletter, for example,
they ask " What equity is there
in installing a mezzanine in the
South Farmingdale Branch which
will cost $ 38,000, when the District
does not even own the building?"
Other DEBT- ers have appeared
at library board meetings
and criticized the board for then-attempts
to expand our " rinky-dink
liberry" ( sic), and have
instead suggested purchasing a
new building. Well, it seems to
us that there's plenty of equity
in the expansion plan. 1) It would
cost the tax payers about $ 200,-
000 merely to break our present
lease; 2) It would cost about
$ 800,000 to aquire our own building;
3) the proposed expansion
will not cost the tax payers one
cent in additional taxes.
It will cost about $ 38,000 to
add a mezzanine to the library
annex. The high ceiling in the
building was planned with this in
mind. Showing remarkable foresight,
the library Board and Director
have accumulated this
money from fees and fines over
the years, and no additional a s sessment
is necessary. Should
community growth eventually r e quire
a new building, the mezzanine
can be dismantled and
moved along with the stacks and
furniture. As a matter of fact,
at least $ 30,000 of this investment
would be removable. Our
library purchases 12,000 new
books each year, and there must
be some place to put them. Though
courts have ruled that money collected
from fines and fees may
be used for library improvements,
other communities have
used this money for concerts,
community programs, and other
cultural happenings. Our library
Board is using this money for
necessary expansion. We think
the people of Farmingdale would
agree it's money well spent.
In its latest assault on the
credibility of the tax payers,
Debt also attacks the library's
remedial reading program. We
like to think of this as the $ 100
misunderstanding. You see,
DEBT states that the program
costs us $ 100 per pupil, but the
actual cost is closer to $ 25
per pupil, with part of the cost
being absorbed by the families
involved. To further substantiate
the unsubstantive, DEBT
manufactured the charge that the
Library Board itself admitted
their program is in conflict with
the remedial reading program in
the public schools.
Of course, when you run out of
issues, there's always " feather-bedding.",
the description DEBT
applies to the " 4 5 - 6 0 people
employed by the library." Closer
investigation reveals that many
of these people a re part- time employees
who work as they are
needed to staff the 12 hour work
day. Residents of Farmingdale
are offered 140 hours of service
each week from two buildings,
in addition to the 33 neighborhood
book mobile stops. To provide
these services, the library staff
works out to be the equivalent of
35 full time employees. A check
of other libraries reveals that it
costs less to staff our library
than it costs other Nassau communities
with equal populations.
( i. e. East Meadow, Great Neck,
Massapequa, Levittown, etc.)
During the past weeks, many
people have signed a petition
calling for the school and library
boards of District # 22 to keep
budgets down. We dont like to
pay taxes any more than the next
guy does, however, we feel it's
only proper for groups passing
out petitions to identify themselves.
For those of you who still
don't know whose peitition you
signed, the Long Island Press of
January 22 stated that the petition
was circulated by— you guessed
it— DEBT.
DEBT likes to use the phrase
" arrogance of power" ( apologies
to Senator Fulbright) in referring
to all elected officials. Nobody,
including our library board, is
beyond criticism. However, the
nature of the questions posed by
the ax- grinders at board meetings
leads one to wonder whether
their main purpose is to elicit
information or to embarrass and
harrass. But don't take our word
for it. Come on down to school
and library board meetings and
see for yourself. School Board
meetings are held onthefirstand
third Mondays of each month at
Howitt J r . High School, and the
Library Board meets on the second
Tuesday of each month at the
South Farmingdale Library.
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Farmingdale OBSERVER, Thursday, March 2 1 , 1968
