Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor Aug. 25, 2011

Ticked off by ticket ‘blitz’

To the Editor:

It’s been quite some time since I’ve jotted a note to the Herald, but once again my parking ire has been raised and I’m ticked off.

I’ve lived in and/or worked in Rockville Centre for more than 26 years, and for the past 15 or so, I’ve had to have parking permits on my car so that I might have the privilege of parking where I reside. Those who know me are aware that I might have some quirks. Well, one of those quirks is that I don’t put permanent stickers on my car. I’ll put something in the window because I can remove it, but I will not put a glue-like substance on my car. At least I didn’t until today.

Yes, for 15 years it’s been OK that the Rockville Centre day and overnight parking stickers have been placed prominently in my back window for anyone over 4 feet tall to view easily, but for some reason I was given tickets twice last week. Never mind that in the same period, two or three cars have been parked with no stickers at all — and gotten no tickets.

I know the stickers go on the back bumper (I can read the instructions), but they don’t come off easily, and I don’t like to mar the car’s finish (something that has been done often enough in our public lots). To ticket me because you now think I’m an easy target is pettiness of the worst kind.

Fuming at the ticket blitz and having a day off from work, I stormed into City Hall ready to vent my anger. But the woman in Accounting was a pleasure, and replaced my stickers in a friendly manner so that I might put them on the bumper. I then ran into the mayor’s secretary, Mary Rohr, and Village Administrator Frank Quigley, and again vented. Once again, they could not have been more pleasant and understanding. And I left, hoping for some upcoming change in our system, and after placing the darn stickers on the car, I drove back home to begin my day off.

That might have been it. Originally I had started this day off by having a friend pick me up. All the spots in front of the Tudor were taken, and so she pulled into the lot. That’s when I originally noticed the ticket on my car. Obviously, I asked her to park so that I might take my car to Village Hall, get the new stickers and then return to her car and be on our way. Yes, when I returned, she, too, had a ticket.

Well done, Rockville Centre. You’ve raised $60 and really ticked me off. So that’s $60 less that I’ll donate or spend in town. I now realize how angry customers in my store used to get, and those tickets were only $10 and most of the time I paid for them — another cost of doing business in the village.

Our systems leave a lot to be desired. Recently I got a guest parking pass, but was told that it wasn’t good during the day, only overnight. You’ve got to love that.

Everyone comments that I walk in town. Well, part of it is health- and exercise-related, but most of it is because there aren’t enough parking spots. So once I come home and can park my car, I don’t move it until I go to work the next day. I feel it’s safer walking down North Village Avenue late at night than walking through our municipal lots.

Sue Roth

Rockville Centre

Parents must take

a more active role

To the Editor:

It seems that for the past few years, the scores that students have received on the ELA and math tests have been down — this year especially.

In response to this, schools Superintendent Dr. William Johnson has continually come up with excuses and not solutions. He keeps saying there are other ways and we are preparing children for college.

One way to prepare children for college is to prepare them to take and master exams. The new ELA takes in all areas — written (the ability to write a comprehensive essay, so necessary on the SATs), and a variety of questioning techniques as well.

The math exam tests a child’s ability to think out of the box and logically. All of these are necessary in today’s world, to get into college and eventually to get a job.

I teach teachers and work with children in preparation for the state tests. My public school (in Queens) scored mostly 3s and 4s in both math and reading, with very few 2s and no 1s. We are a small school in Bayside, and our teachers knew how to prepare our students. Our administration supported all the ideas, and sat with teachers and all staff in discussing ways to improve students’ learning. We thought of the future in working with our children, but also the present in what they had to accomplish. Our students can write beautiful essays on their own, solve complex math problems and lead discussions on books with high-level conversation.

Dr. Johnson talks the talk, as he has done for years, but there are always excuses. His teachers work hard and his school population is wonderful, but excuses don’t help the students.

Are we going to have another year of passing the budget, giving him everything and yet the children of Rockville Centre are not receiving the skills and strategies necessary to compete in today’s world? Parents have to step up and ask questions, demand answers and keep asking. It seems that being passive has not helped anyone.

I hope that, beginning with this school year, parents take a more active role in their children’s education. I also hope that teachers talk about what they know will help the students, and that administrators finally listen.

In my years of teaching children, I have learned that we have to look to the administrators. They are the decision makers, and they have to start making some that will help our children.

Flo Zaccaria

Rockville Centre

‘You are forgiven’

The following is an open letter to an unknown local motorist.

To the driver who hit and killed our beautiful white cat on Hempstead Avenue near Princeton Street: you are forgiven. He must have come out of nowhere, and I’m sure you tried your best to avoid him. He was loved and had a good life.

Lori Nevias

Rockville Centre