Questions raised for Town officials

Oceanside and Island Park residents had many questions for Councilman Anthony Santino and Town of Hempstead officials at the Town Hall Meeting on Dec. 2. About 50 people attended the meeting at Oceanside Middle School.

Two officers from the Nassau County Police Department’s Fourth precinct spoke to the crowd first.

POP back

“No matter where we go, no matter what the issue is — we could be talking about a serious, serious crime — inevitably the most complaints we get are about not enough traffic enforcement, the speeding, the stop signs, that kind of thing,” said Sgt. Leslie Moulds. “So hopefully we’ll be able to get some more resources directly to some of [those] because that’s universal throughout the county. It’s not just your stop sign — even though you think your stop sign is the worst. But we really do want to put some more attention out there where we need it.”

The police officers also said that thanks to the recent “unmerger” with the Fifth Precinct, the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) unit would come back, although they were unsure how the unit would be organized.

Villages

Debra Rothman of the Island Park Civic Association questioned the benefits of Island Park being an incorporated village versus an unincorporated one.

“To answer from an overall point of view, the difference between living in an incorporated village and an unincorporated area is the level of local control of municipal functions,” said Santino. “If you live in an incorporated village, you have a mayor and a board of trustees who are your local neighbors that you can go to about different issues.” Santino said that incorporated villages have control over zoning and services like street sweeping and sanitation, while in unincorporated areas the Town of Hempstead does those services.

As a result, village residents pay taxes to their village, while non-village residents pay taxes to the Town of Hempstead. Santino said village residents do not necessarily pay more taxes overall.