Letters to the Rockville Centre Herald - Jan. 12, 2012

Village recyclers need help

To the Editor:

On a monthly basis, Rockville Centre (via the village newsletter and on its website) urges us to “Help the Village and yourself by recycling all your paper products — magazines, catalogs, newspapers, junk mail, cardboard and most product packaging — from the convenience of your curb on Wednesdays. Recycling can save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, lowering the cost of government and lowering your Village real estate taxes!”



I’m all for recycling and I’m certainly in favor of lowering real estate taxes (although I’m not sure that ever happens on this planet), but this time of year, we could use a little more effort from the village to accomplish this mutual goal.

I think it’s safe to say that the volume of junk mail, catalogs, boxes and packaging (especially wrapping paper) goes up dramatically during the weeks before and after Christmas. I don’t have statistics, but I would guess it goes up five to 10 times, based on what I’m seeing in my household. Unfortunately, this high-volume period also coincides with back-to-back sanitation holiday weeks, which totally exclude the paper/cardboard pickups.

We’re fortunate to have enough space in our garage to keep three weeks’ worth of boxes and paper until the week of Jan. 11. Many people don’t have that kind of space or the patience to see things pile up in their house for three weeks. The result is typically that most of that valuable recyclable material goes right into the trash. It would be very helpful if the village either found a way to make paper recycling pickups available during these high-volume weeks or made a drop-off site available at Public Works (or elsewhere), where dedicated Rockville Centre recyclers can go to do their part. 


Scott Cunningham

Rockville Centre

Community rallies for veterans

To the Editor:

Responding to demand, the Nassau County Veterans Resource Center, run by volunteers at the Rockville Centre American Legion post, has expanded its operations to include working with the Homeless Veteran Project of Catholic Charities, job training opportunities sponsored by Chase Bank and a veteran-accredited welding firm here on Long Island.

We are also now accepting non-perishable food, lightly used and clean winter clothing, and toiletries. These items may be dropped off at the Rockville Centre American Legion Hall, at 197 Maple Ave., every Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In addition, local recreation clubs are designing special training classes for disabled veterans that will enable them to adapt to daily situations made difficult by war trauma. Molloy College and SUNY Farmingdale are making literature and enrollment forms available to veterans at the center as well. We have received donations of computers, food, coffee, time and much love from members of the Rockville Centre and surrounding communities. The Lynbrook office of Disabled American Veterans, on Atlantic Avenue, has made accredited personnel available to handle veterans’ claims, while a noted attorney in veterans law has offered to provide advice and guidance when needed.

All in all, what started as a temporary assist to the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency is turning out to have a life of its own. Volunteers have been contacting us in droves, offering their assistance in helping our veterans. It has been a most heart-warming experience. Thank you, Herald, for helping to make our mission possible, and thanks to all those offering their time and talents to help our veterans who have sacrificed so much.

Mickey Clark

Nassau County Veterans Resource Center

Rockville Centre

Absolutely unfair!

To the Editor:

I write this letter so that Sen. Dean Skelos, if he reads this publication, and I sincerely hope he does, takes note of the situation of many of us out there who drive automobiles. I am very perturbed and angry over the no-fault law in this state. Here is my plight, and I would like to know from anyone out there if they have had the same issue and just don’t know what to do.

  Last May I bought a new car in Oyster Bay. I drove the car out of the dealership’s lot and headed to the Northern State Parkway to get home to Rockville Centre. Within 12 minutes of owning this brand new car, while I was sitting in stop-and-go traffic, a motorist’s foot slipped off the brake and her car smashed into the rear of my car. I was sitting there minding my own business, doing absolutely nothing wrong, and BAM!, the rear end of my car was damaged.

She admitted guilt on the spot to me and the state trooper who came upon the scene. The accident report also noted it. I guess you can take a guess at what happened next. This event, as the insurance company calls it, was added to my driving record and will affect my insurance rates for three years.

What kind of outright insanity is this? (Are you reading this, Senator Skelos?) Someone has to effect change when it comes to things like this. I am rip-roaring mad, and it seems that I can’t do anything about it. Who makes laws like this? Who in their right mind would sit by and allow this to happen to their driving record without going mildly nuts? It’s kind of like being sent to prison knowing you didn’t do it, and you yell and scream every day but no one is listening. How, as citizens, do we allow something like this to occur and just look away and do nothing about it? It may not mean much — until it happens to you.

I think I’m going to start a petition to reverse this law so that innocent people who have nothing to do with causing an accident but are victims don’t end up suffering the consequences. It’s just simply outrageous!

Burton Diamond

Rockville Centre

Stores should close for Christmas

To the Editor:

Kudos to King Kullen! It was closed on Christmas Day so its employees could observe the true meaning of the day.

A pox on those stores that stayed open on Christmas Day, including CVS, Rite Aid, Waldbaums, etc.

How about a January boycott of those open stores, except to buy prescriptions? Maybe next year they’ll get the message.

James Deneen Jr.

Rockville Centre