Village News 1985-03

              '••V
Pefernana Senior Housing Started
Ground was broken last month
for the 97-unit Reverend Timothy
C. Peternana housing complex
for senior citizens and handi-capped.
Located at the inter-section
of Randall and Wallace
Avenues, it is a not-for-profit-housing
project sponsored by
the Catholic Diocese of Rockville
Centre through its Human De-velopment
Office and built with
federal funding.
The Human Development Of-fice's
similar projects include 200
units in Selden, 150 in Inwood
and 57 units currently under con-struction
in Oceanside. Persons of
all faiths are equally eligible for
residency at all of the housing
complexes.
The name of the complex
honors the memory of Rev.
Timothy C. Peternana who was
pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church of Freeport, a member of,
the Village Board of Trustees i
and chaplain for the Police and
Fire Departments. He was at-tacked
by an intruder in the office
of his church in April, 1982,
and died one month later.
Construction and management
of the complex will be under-taken
by the Halandia Group of
Oceanside. '
When the project is 50% com- •
pleted, the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Develop-ment
will authorize the formation
of a Tenant Screening Committee
to be formed of concerned local
citizens recommend by govern-mental,
civic and religious lead-ers.
The committee will be re-sponsible
for reviewing the ap-plications
of prospective tenants
in accord with current Federal
eligibility regulations..
The applications of current
Freeport residents must, in ac-cordance
with those regulations,
be given preference; other ap-plications
will be considered
in terms of their Proximity to
Freeport. . . . . •
It will be at the 50% completion
point that HUD-prescribed ten-ant
application forms will be sent
to interested prospective tenants.
In order to register to receive
such an application at that half-completed
point, parties may con-tact
the Halandia Group by writ-ing
3115 Long Beach Road,
Oceanside, NY 11572,, or tele-phoning
766-3864. Interested
parties will then be put on a list;
to receive an application at the
appropriate time. All applications
will be sent out on the same day.
When they are returned they will
be kept in a locked box for a
period of time. When the box is
opened, the applications will be
put face down and selected at
random to determine who will be:
interviewed.
Aside from the preference
given to Freeport residents,
HUD eligibility requirements,
for prospective tenants include
being of low or moderate in-come
and either over age 62 or.
handicapped.
Emergency Night/Weekend Phone Established
Mayor Dorothy Storm has an-nounced
the establishment of an
emergency procedure whereby
residents and businesses can con-tact
Village departments at night,
during the weekend and at any
other time that Village offices
are closed.
Callers, to the Village Hall,
switchboard, 378-4000, at those
times will receive a recorded mes-sage.
They will be told that if
they have an electrical emergency;
they should call the Electric
Department at 378-0146. Callers
with problems with sewers,
water, lack of heat, etc., will be
told to call the Freeport Police.
Department at 378-0700. The
Police, in turn, will notify the
appropriate Village employee.
...Those, callers.who determine
that their problem can wait until*
the opening of Village offices,
will be asked to leave their
name, phone number and nature
of problem on the tape.
Health Expo
Free basic health screenings
willl be offered to all persons,
18 years of age and older, at the
Freeport High School gymnas-ium,
Tuesday, April 23, 5 to 8
pm. The screenings are part of
Health Expo, one of the largest
disease prevention and health
promotion projects in the New
York area.
The April 23 Health Fair will
consist of health education
exhibits as well as the screen-ings
which include height,
weight, blood pressure, anemia,
foot check, glaucoma, vision
and hearing — followed by in-dividualized
counseling and re-ferral.
A comprehensive blood
chemistry test will also be of-fered
for a nominal fee.
Pfizer • Pharmaceuticals,
WNEW-TV, Citibank, the Na-tional
Health Screening Council
-for Volunteer Organizations as
well- as volunteers from various
local community groups, Free^
port School District and medical
personnel • are ..working together
on Freeport's part of Health
Expo '85.
Transportation may be ar-ranged
through the Freeport
EOC, 379-4000. Parking is avail-able
in the high school's rear
parking lot.
Summer Positions
Students are urged to apply
now for summer jobs in the Vil-lage.
Such jobs include recreation
aide, laborer and lifeguard.
Application must be made at
the office of the Village Clerk,
'Village Hall, weekdays, 8:30 am
to 4 pm. No telephone inquiries
will be accepted. Applicants
will be required to present proof
of residency in the Village and
must be at least 18 years of age.
Lifeguards must have certifica-tion.
The deadline for summer jobs
is May 1. If vacancies for life-guards
exist after the deadline,
applications will be accepted from
non-residents as well as resi-dents,
17 years or older, with
the required certification.
Electric Dept. Having Trees Trimmed
Property owners should be;
aware that the Freeport Electric
. Department has contracted with
the Harder Tree Company to
4\ trim tree branches interfering
with overhead power lines.
In those instances where the
lines extend into rear yards,
it may be necessary for Harder
personnel to gain access. It is
suggested that residents ask
such personnel for the identifi-cation
they are required to carry
before allowing access.
^M^4;& ""' 11
ONLY
MARCH 1985
C ww ^^
A Public Information Bulletin
of The Village Of Freeport
46 North Ocean Avenue
Telephone FReeport 8-4000
Dorothy Storm, Mayor
Public Meetings on the 1st. and 3rd. Mondays of the Month, at 8:00 P.M.
Recreation Center
Rooms Offered
For Meetings
In a change of policy, the Youth
Lounge, Pre-K Room and the
Restaurant Lounge of the Free-port
Recreation Center will now
be available at no cost for meet-ings
of community groups. The
availability of the rooms is
governed by their usage for
Recreation Department program-ming.
The rooms will be made avail-able
only to non-profit Freeport-based
organizations and groups,
on a first come, first served
.basis. Each organization or group
. is limited to the use of the rooms,
at no charge, to no more than six
i times annually. Room usage is
'also limited to the Center's
normal operating hours.
Those sponsoring such meet-ings
will be expected to set up
any tables and chairs them-selves
and return them to the
proper "storage area at the meet'-"
ing's conclusion. The room must
be left in a clean condition. As-sistance
in setting up the tables
and chairs and other custodial
requirements can be provided by
the Recreation Department at
cost.
-Further information may be ob-tained
by calling the Department
at 223-8000.
IT'S SMART TO
$HOP FREEPORT
Funds For Library Elevator
Mayor Dorothy Storm (left) presents a Freeport Community Develop-ment
check to Freeport Memorial Library Director Gerald Nichols with
the federal funds to be used for the construction of an elevator at the
newly expanded library. A member of the Friends of the Library, the
• Mayor had urged Nichols to apply to the Village Board of Trustees for
funding. A total of $25,000 of the federal monies was alloted to the
project which will make the levels of the library accessible to senior
citizens, the handicapped and others.
Annual
Organization Night
The Annual Organization Night
of the Freeport Board of Trustees
will be held on Monday, April-1,
beginning at 8 pm in the Village
Hall.
The meeting will begin with
the swearing in of the Mayor,
two Trustees and the Village
Justice selected in the March. 19
Village election.
It is at this annual meeting that
the Board of Trustees appoints
various department heads and
chairpersons and members of
the Village's Boards; Com-missions
and Committees.
The public is welcome to at-tend.
'
Village Offices Closing
Residents are reminded that
all Village offices close at noon
on Good Friday which occurs on
April 5 this year. The date is also
the first night of Passover.
Garbage and trash collection
is not affected. The Freeport
Recreation Center will close at
5 pm on Friday, reopen on Satur-day,
and be closed on Easter
Sunday.
Trustees: Alfred Sirlin, C. James Clark, Vincent DiCostanzo, Ralph Smith
Village Clerk : Thomas DeVincenzo; Attorney: Harrison J. Edwards, Jr/i Treasurer: John Schmidt
Mayor Brings
Concerns To State
Mayor Dorothy Storm wrote to
two State officials last month re-garding
two matters of concern to
the Village.
One communication went, to
Commissioner of Health Dr.
David Axelrod concerning the
future of Lydia E. Hall Hospital
which has filed for protection
under Chapter 11 of the bank-ruptcy
law.
"I am expressing the feelings
of the citizens of Freeport in voic-ing
concern that this institution
might close, thus depriving Free-port,
of a primary source of
health care including emergency
services," Mayor Storm wrote.
"In addition, the closing of this
institution would result in a
serious loss of employment for
hundreds of our people which
would have an adverse impact on
the economy of the Village. I
would ask your assistance in
seeing that this facility, under
whatever auspices, remain open
to serve the health needs of our
people."
The second letter, addressed
to Secretary of State Gail Schaf-fer,
with a copy to Governor
Mario Cuomo, protested the De-partment's
elimination of its
Mineola Civil Rights Unit. The
Unit's two Special Investigators,
long time workers with the Vil-lage
government and residents,
will be assigned to an area tht
runs east of the Wantagh Park-way
and through Suffolk County.
Freeport, will fall under the juris-diction
of an all-purpose New
York City office of the State
Department.
In her protest Mayor Storm
. wrote, "Your licensing division
covers a wide spectrum of pro-fessions
and activities but, in my
opinion, few impact on society
more-than the real estate in-dustry.
On Long Island you have
a largely all white population
with blacks and other minorities
concentrated in a few com-munities.
This has not happened
by accident or as a result of
free choice. By and large there
are two real estate markets on
Long Island — one all white and
the other for minorities. This
has been a creation of the real
estate industry and it continues
2 to be maintained by the real
Board Approves Veterans Benefit Plan
The Freeport Board of Trustees
has adopted the State's new
"Alternative Veterans Exemption
From Real Property Taxation"
law. .
To qualify for the new program,
a veteran must have served in the
active military, naval or air serv-ice
during the Spanish-American
War, the Mexican border period,
World War I, World War II,,
the Korean War or the Vietnam
War.
The veteran must have also
been discharged or released
under honorable conditions and
the property on which the exem-ption
is applied for must be used
exclusively for residential pur-poses
and be a veterans's pri-mary
residence. Additionally, a
husband or wife of a veteran or
an unmarried surviving spouse
will also qualify under the new
program's guidelines.
The new exemptions will be
granted as follows: (1) for all
qualifying veterans, a 15% ex-emption
will be granted up to
$12,000; (2) for all veterans who
served in a combat zone, as docu-mented
by the U.S. campaign
ribbon or service medal, an addi-tional
10% exemption will be
granted, up to $8,000; (3) for all
disabled veterans with a compen-sation
rating, an additional
exemption equal to 50% of the
veterans' service connected dis-ability
rating will be granted
up to $40,000; (4) all exemptions
are capped on properties with
full values in excess of $80,000;
(5) exemptions are applicable to
County and Town as well as
Village taxes; and (6) exemptions
granted under this program will
be applicable for 10 years, except
the disabled veteran portion
which will not expire.
Veterans currently receiving
real property tax exemptions,
excluding the seriously dis-abled,
will be affected as follows:
(1) veterans :who move with-in
the Village will be allowed to
keep their present exemptions;
(3) no further exemptions will be
granted under1 the old system
and (3) the program 'contains a
grandfather provision whereby
any veteran currently receiving
an exemption may choose to
continue that exemption. Addi-tionally,
if the veteran chooses,
he/she may apply for an exemp-tion
pursuant to the new pro-gram.
However, once an exemp-tion
is granted under the new pro-gram,
no further exemption may
be granted under the old one.
All veterans currently holding
exemptions on their property
in the Village will be sent the ap-plicable
form and instruction
sheet. Others who feel they may
qualify for this program should
contact the Village Assessor,
Barry F. Dunn, at 378-4000.
All exemptions must be filed
in the Village's Assessor Office
on or before, October 1,1985.
estate industry. Over the years
the Department of State was a
valued ally in helping combat
illegal real estate practices.
Through community meet-ings
— always attended by
the Mineola-based investi-gators
— such actions as the is-suance
of cease and desist orders
and the limitation on new brokers
entering certain markets came
about helping integrated com-munities
in their efforts to main-tain
their racial diversity rather
than to be willy nilly consigned
to the process of resegregation.
"Communities such as Free-port,
Uniondale and Elmont felt
that they had an ally in the
Department. We felt that there
was a commitment to the national
goal of integrated living. Your
decision to assign the investiga-tors
to other duties can only af-ford
comfort and relief to the real
estate industry, and to those who
would manipulate that industry
to create and foster ghettos,
whether black or white.
"It is easy to reply that the
laws will continue ...to be en;_
forced. When communities need
guidance and support, who will
represent the Department of
State? Who will supply the
necessary local knowledge and
expertise and commitment of
the special investigators of the
past? I would ask that you
reconsider your decision in this
instance or at least ask for and
receive some input from the com-munities
most affected by this
move."
Living In: Freeport Cedars, Sycamores And The Sea
The following appeared in the
January 26, 1985 edition of
"Newsday" in the "Living In"
feature carried in each week's
Saturday Real Estate Section. It
was accompanied by photos of
"Sunrise over still water in
W.oodcleft Canal," "The house
once owned by wartime radio
commentator Gabriel Heatter
(on Lena Avenue), " and "Water
tower over tracks.
Mrs. Schaffer, who lives on
New York Avenue, has been a
resident for 25 years and taught
English at Freeport High School
for nine years. She is presently an
assistant principal at Herricks
Middle School, Albertson.
The following is reprinted with
the permission of "Newsday"
and Mrs. Schaffer.
He was lonesome and home-sick.
Perched on his suitcase, wear-ily
awaiting my arrival, Yoshiro
Kudo had completed just one leg
of his journey through three
countries to study their schools.
Spring had come and the teacher
yearned to return to Japan.
Then, as our houseguest,
he arrived in Freeport and found
an oasis.
Kudo's first glimpse of the
village was from tree-lined
Pennsylvania Avenue, an espe-cially
riveting street. Our guests's
startled reaction to the street was
the same as mine 24 years ago.
On that long ago June day, the
moment we rounded the curve of
the street where the village
.begins I knew the hunt, hardly
begun, had ended.
The trees — 60-foot oaks,
cedars, maples, sycamores
and dogwoods — lined the wide
street, filtering the heat of the
sun through the green arbor of
overhead branches.
We bought the first house we
set foot in on New York Ave-nue
because a different tree could
be seen from every window. Now,
years later, Kudo's response was
similar. He dropped his suit-case
in the front hall and did a
quick about-face — outdoors to
spend the next hour in "the place
of the trees" — his name for
•Freeport. He stared at the
branches and, pointing, named
every tree. The azaleas and
'the dogwoods were in full bloom,
'and he found even a touch of
home when he spotted the Ja-panese
maple next door.
Hoping to sustain Kudo's
enthusiasm for Freeport, we
headed for the Atlantic Nursery
where a duplicate Japanese
garden is on display. But we
arrived after closing, so instead
we admired the colorful flowers
around the building. Exploring,
we righted an overturned flower
pot — and set off alarms. Our
embarrassment turned to delight
when the owner appeared and
invited us in. Kudo was en-tranced;
he used an entire roll
of film inside the greenhouse and
inner garden.
It is the trees rather than the
waterfront that remain in "my
mind when I think of Freeport.
But for others, the water is the
lure: The Nautical Mile on Wood-cleft
Canal, waterfront homes,
seafood restaurants and fish mar-kets.
Not being boat people, though,
we are drawn to the docks for
summer strolls, to buy our
seafood, or to catch a view of
the passing boats from indoors
while sipping chowder on a
winter's Sunday. Which is not
;to say that we don't feel the tug
of the sea: Marseilles comes to
mind as we watch the fishermen
repairing their nets.
And, for years, the first line
of the John Masefield poem has
haunted me: "I must go down to
the seas again, to the lonely
sea and the sky." The long
sleek speedboats at the boat
show have long stirred some-thing
inside, me, but the canoe
races may have clinched it;
my heart is set on the two-seater
pictured in a well-leafed catalog.
In the meantime, the trees.
One day's raking of the autumnal
deposit from above provided
many an afternoon's fun for our
kids. And how we mourned
one winter when a 50-foot Fir
snapped in two from its weight
of snow and ice. Hurricanes
periodically took a toll on the
trees, but I don't think any of our
neighbors has ever bought logs
for their fireplaces. One fallen
giant attracts a coterie of us bear-ing
saws, axes, hatchets, plus
thermoses of coffee. On cold
nights the air is delicious with the
smell of hickory and cedar in
our fireplaces. '
A block-long, landmark stands
by Dolores Gollin Schaffer
on Merrick Road — Freeport's
Memorial Library. The four-belled
carilon on its east wall
bears the inscription: "Proclaim
liberty throughout all the land
unto all the inhabitants there-of"
— appropriate for the village
that once was a stop oTi the
Underground Railroad. The just-expanded
library boasts more
than books; with a grand piano
for my master's thesis on John
Steinbeck was done here; the
library was able to tap resources
statewide for me.
We are delighted that as the
real estate prices skyrocket on
the north shore of Long Island,
the popularity of Freeport in-creases.
But it's been'a re-dis-covery
— after all, Freeport
has become home to some well-known
people. Down the street
stands the home Marion Davies
occupied before William Ran-dolph
Hearst built her the San
Simeon castle-by-the-sea in Cali-fornia.
Two blocks away is the
beautiful stone home once owned
by World War II radio com-mentator
Gabriel Heatter. And
entertainers Lillian Russell, Leo
Carillo and Guy Lombardo lived
here.
Today's artists-in-residence in-clude
composer Hale Smith,
poet Virginia Terns, artist Mary
Westring, writers Jeanette
Caines and Bill Brittain.
There's a new breed of house-hunters
now, and they're coming
to Freeport from different direc-tions.
But once they get to
Pennsylvania Avenue, it's just
a mile down the street before^
they turn the curve and the
romance begins. The oaks,
the maples, the cedars, the syca-mores...
Trash Bags
The Village continues to sell
extra large, double ply plastic
garbage bags which are partic-ularly
handy for spring yard
cleanups.
The price for a set of 10 is $2
and there is a limit of two sets
per purchase. Each set comes
wtih an equal number of ties.
They are available from the Tax
Cashier, main floor, Village Hall,
weekdays, 8:30 am to 4 pm.