September Fluke and Bass Tournament in Freeport
Junior Achievement of New York, Inc.
will sponsor the Second Annual Freeport
Fluke and Stripped Bass Tournament on
Saturday, September 6, 2003, to benefit
Freeport School District students. The JA
programs encourage young people to learn
business concepts through school projects
which stress free enterprise, marketing,
sales, accounting, and personal discipline.
Sponsors include Frank Hunter Century
Boats, Captain Lou's Fleet, Roslyn Savings
Foundation, Otto's, The Shoppes at Crow's
Nest and the Nautical Cruise Line. The
Woodcleft Fishing Station in Freeport and
the Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside
are the tournament weigh-in stations.
Jones Inlet Marina is sponsoring the
awards event which will take place directly
after the end of the tournament on
Saturday at 4:00 p.m. For further
information contact Heather 0. Grant at
516-625-9089 or visit the website at
www.freefish03.kintera.org.
Remember to Water
the Curb Trees
The many young curb trees
planted by the Village require a
lot of watering right now dur-ingi
these very~h6t~days7These
plantings are part of the
Glacken Administration's
"1,000 Trees a Year" plan which
began six years ago.
Please remember to water
them according to the schedule
established by the Village
based on your house number.
Odd numbered houses may
water on the odd dates on the
calendar, and even numbered
houses on the even numbered
dates. All watering of lawns,
gardens and curb trees must be
done between the early morn-ing
hours of 4 a.m. and 10 a.m.,
or in the evening between 4
p.m. and 10 p.m.
Freeport School District Begins the New Term
with New Celebrations
September will see several unique "back
to school" events at Freeport District schools.
A community-wide barbeque, open to every-one,
will take place at the Freeport High
School, Wed., Sept. 3rd, from 2 p.m. to 1 p.m.
The event will feature good food, good com-pany,
chances to win great prizes and an
opportunity for everyone to learn more
about the school district and its many pro-grams.
Thurs., Sept. 4th, opening day for
youngsters in the pre-kindergarten to mid-dle
school grades, will be "Take Your Parents
to School Day." The program will promote
parental participation in education with spe-cial
information sessions, demonstrations,
and opportunities to meet the teachers and
administrators.
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AUGUST, 2003 www.FreeportNY.com THE HOME OF CHAMPIONS
Annapolis Midshipmen Return to Freeport
The six sailing boats from the United
States Naval Academy arrived with the high
tide early Friday morning, August 8th, and
docked at the Esplanade on Woodcleft Ave.
in Freeport. Mayor Bill Glacken, members of
the Village Board of Trustees and local elect-ed
officials, were all on hand to greet the
midshipmen. The six sailboats were open for
tours during the three-day stay to the
delight of visitors who learned about the
Naval Academy's various programs from the
midshipmen.
During one of the scheduled events,
Mayor Glacken thanked the midshipmen for
their commitment to the Naval Academy
programs and their future plans to partici-pate
in the various branches of service as
defenders of the United States. The midship-men
and their supervisors said they
appreciated the warm welcome and the
hospitality they received during their stay
and declared Freeport the best port on
the eastern seaboard. This was the sixth
consecutive summer that the Annapolis
sail-training program has visited Freeport,
since Mayor Glacken first extended the
invitation.
Some of the Annapolis Commanding Officers with local officials including
Freeport Chamber of Commerce President Cm Creamer,
Freeport Trustees Don Mauersberger and Bill White, Jr.,
Hempstead Town Coundtwoman Angie Cullin,
Hempsteod Town Supervisor Sole Murray, Freeport Mayor Bill Glacken,
Lt. Kevin Coats and Tom Warrington, with Hempsteod Town Clerk Mark Bonilla.
A group of the midshipmen posed during the Sunday evening dinner cruise
onboard the Capt. Lou VII.
Freepqrt just went through the largest
blackout in history without suffering many
of the serious consequences endured by
almost 50 million people throughout the
northeast United States and Canada
because we continue to maintain our
municipally-owned and operated electric
generating plants.
Within 8 minutes of the initial shut-down,
Freeport's Electric Utility had
restored partial power to its customers
with one generating unit in service. Just
about 2-1/2 hours later, the utility was
delivering 40 megawatts of electricity to its
commercial and residential customers
using all of its available generators at
Power Plants 1 and 2.
At the time the blackout spread
throughout the region, approximately 4:10
p.m. on Thursday, August 14th, Freeport's
commercial and residential customers were
using 54 megawatts of electricity from a
combination of hydroelectric power from
the New York Power Authority, other
imported sources and 8 megawatts gener-ated
by Power Plant 1. The blackout cut off
all outside sources and interrupted genera-tion
at Power Plant 1.
Because we were not immediately
able to deliver as much energy as needed,
it was necessary to require all Freeport cus-tomers
to reduce their electric use to strict-ly
essential appliances, and to employ
rolling blackouts. This way, Freeport's
electric utility was able to provide at least
partial power to everyone in the village
during the first 24 hours of the blackout.
Freeport's 15,000 electric customers
had partial service throughout the black-out,
which provided hot water, lights, and
electricity for individuals with health, and
life support equipment needs. The local
merchants were able to offer consumers
from Freeport and the surrounding com-munities
gasoline, non-perishable food
and other much needed items such as bat-teries
and first aid supplies.
Shortly after midnight Saturday, LIPA
was able to reconnect its transmission lines
with Freeport, and by 1 o'clock Saturday
morning, full power was restored to the
village.
I cannot express in words how proud I
was of the entire village workforce and
volunteers during this emergency. With the
onset of the blackout, employees returned
or remained at their workstations ready to
do whatever was needed to enable
Freeport to get the power back on. Many
of the operators, line crews, and other
employees of the Electric Utility worked
through Thursday night and into Friday
afternoon to bring all the generating units
on line and reestablish electric service.
After power was fully restored early
Saturday, line crews continued to service
individual homes experiencing electrical
problems.
Freeport's Emergency Management
Team was on duty and ready to perform its
role of informing and assisting residents in
this emergency. The police and volunteer
firefighters worked closely with the electric
utility employees and helped to direct traf-fic,
maintain order and respond to medical
and other emergencies during the black-out.
Working with the electric utility, the
Village's Water Department was able to
continue to operate and maintain an ade-quate
supply of water to Freeport resi-dents
throughout the blackout. Employees
of the Freeport Recreation Department
worked overtime to monitor the power at
the Recreation Center in order to maintain
the safety of the chlorinated pools.
Everyone did an outstanding job.
Obviously, this history-making black-out,
which left large urban and suburban
areas in the dark for a record amount of
time, underscores the critical importance
of Freeport's plans to maintain its munici-pally-
owned and operated power generat-ing
capability. Never has it been so clear
to everyone, both in the village and in the
surrounding communities, how critically
important electricity is to our safety, our
economy and our health and well-being.
Throughout the blackout, Freeport
remained an island of light in a vast sea of
darkness.
Our plan to install two new dual fuel
turbine generators at Power Plant 2 is crit-ical
to the future of our Village, and we are
steadily moving forward with that project.
One of the new generators will be owned
and operated by the Village, producing 47
megawatts of electric power, of which 10
megawatts will be sold to LIPA for thirty
years, and the remainder available to
Freeport ratepayers. The other generator,
producing 47 megawatts of power, will be
owned and operated by a merchant devel-oper
which will sell electricity to LIPA.
Ideally, when these new generators are
operating next year, Freeport will be gen-erating
sufficient clean, dependable elec-tricity
to meet its own needs and to help
supply supplemental power to the region.
Freeport has a 105 year tradition of
being a public power community. It will
continue to generate electricity for its
more than 15,000 commercial and residen-tial
customers for decades to come in an
environmentally safe manner. As a mem-ber
of the Policymaker's Council of the
American Public Power Association, I have
participated in efforts to ensure that our
village will always have input into federal
municipal power regulations. I am equally
determined that Freeport will continue to
generate enough electricity to cover cur-rent
needs and to meet the needs of future
economic growth in Freeport for our chil-dren
and grandchildren.
Face of America 2003 Bike Ride
will Commemorate Sept. 1.1th Tragedy
Volunteers who will be riding in the event are left to right, Jimmy Wilson, Farmingdale; Seth and Caleb Torrice, East
Meadow; Freeport Trustee Don Miller; Freeport firefighter Fred Jones; Peter Gpriano,
East Meadow and Ed Zacher, Merrick.
The annual cycling journey has been organized by world
T.E.A.M. Sports, a non-profit organization committed to bringing
diverse groups of people together, both with and without disabili-ties,
through unique athletic events. This year the organization is
planning a 280-mile bike ride which will begin at Ground Zero in
New York City, the site of the fallen World Trade Center, on Sept.
12th, and culminate at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on Sept.
14th.
"Face of America 2003, like Freeport, celebrates diversity and
shows how we can look beyond our differences and recognize indi-vidual
abilities to make our community and the world a better
place," said Village Trustee Don Miller, who will be participating in
the bike tour. Riders are encouraged to raise $1,000 toward each
team goal of $6,000. Anyone interested in donating or participat-ing
may contact John Brennan, National Federation of the Blind,
1800 Johnson St., Baltimore, MD 21230 at (410) 659-9314 ext. 408 or
email him atjbrennan@nfb.org.
Freeport PAL and the
Chamber of Commerce
Sponsor Annual Canoe Races
Freeport Village Trustee Don Miller
congratulated some of the winners of the
canoe races held at Waterfront Park recent-ly.
The races were sponsored by Freeport
PAL and the Chamber of Commerce as a
fund-raising event to help support the
many sports teams and other activities
which PAL provides to local youngsters
throughout the year, including basketball,
golf, tennis and wrestling programs.
There were races for just about every-one,
including adult and child combina-tions,
amateur and pro participants and
team rivalry divisions. Thanks to the many
organizers, volunteers and sponsors, "the
fund-raiser was a major success.
Trustee Don Miller with Irv Morgan and Cindy Combs, winners of one of the canoe
rates alongside volunteer Susan Lyons, and one of the many sponsors of the event,
Les Endo, Sr. The two youngsters, Christian Wright and Jack Williams, participated in
the races.
Oct. 1st Deadline for 2004 Property Tax Exemptions
The deadline for new applications for
real property tax exemptions for the 2004
tax year is Wednesday, October 1st, 2003.
Because many property owners must put
together various items of paper work, it is
important that they are informed well in
advance of the impending deadline.
Residents who currently have property tax
exemptions that must be renewed annually
must also reapply to the Village Assessor's
office by Wed., October 1st. Renewal appli-cations
have been mailed to everyone who
received a renewable exemption on the 2003
tax roll. If you believe you are entitled to an
exemption, and have not received an appli-cation,
please call 377-2256.
The property owners who must reapply
annually include homeowners, co-op and
condominium owners, clergy and/or non-profit
organizations that meet the require-ments
for senior citizen, clergy, and/or non-profit
organization exemptions. Residents
who are receiving a veteran's real property
tax exemption, as well as recipients of capi-tal
improvement and business exemptions,
need not reapply annually.
Application forms are available at the
Assessor's office, Room 105 in Village Hall,
Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. for the following exemptions: senior
citizen, non-profit, clergy, veteran's, firemen,
capital improvement, and business.
Additional information is available on
Freeport's website, www.FreeportNY.com, in
the Village Assessor section. Forms may be
downloaded directly from www.orps.state.ny.us.
"Star" exemptions are a separate
application and must be acquired through the
Nassau County Assessment department. For
information on the "Star" exemption, please
call 571-3000.
According to the Real Property Tax Law,
applications for property tax exemptions
must be received (not postmarked) by
Wednesday, October 1, in the Village
Assessor's office by 4:30 p.m.
