Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor - Nov. 12, 2009

Serving the

people is a

privilege

To the Editor:

I want to thank everyone who voted on Election Day. I'm very honored to have earned the support of so many of my friends and neighbors and am grateful for the opportunity to continue my service.

I would also like to thank my opponent, Jean Brett-Leach, for the spirited debate and public discourse she contributed to during the past several months. Her candidacy only strengthened the meaning of what living in a true democracy is all about.

I am also grateful to the Herald newspapers for their endorsement. I'm humbled knowing that the Herald and its editorial board have appreciated my record in office and my vision for the future.

Over the next four years, I will make it a priority to continue my fight against high property taxes. It is critical that all levels of government work together to provide the much-needed relief that working families and seniors need in order to continue to make ends meet here on Long Island.

I am renewed and reinvigorated by the incredible 71 percent mandate that I received at the polls. Be assured that I will continue to represent the citizens of the 4th Council District with all of my strength and energy. Serving the people of this great township is truly a privilege.

Anthony J. Santino

Town of Hempstead councilman

East Rockaway

One more to thank

To the Editor:

In your Oct. 22-28 issue, the Rockville Centre Lions Club ran an advertisement thanking various supporters and sponsors. We inadvertently omitted a longtime, enthusiastic sponsor, Front Street Bakery. Thank you guys for all of your support! We're very grateful that you've been with us over so many years.

William Kurrus

President, Rockville Centre Lions

The story behind

the story

To the Editor:

We enjoyed the article on Best Buddies, one of South Side High School's newest clubs (“A Mission of Friendship,” Oct. 22-28). The mission of Best Buddies, an international organization, is to foster one-to-one friendships between people with intellectual disabilities and their typically developing peers.

The Best Buddies chapters at both South Side High School and Middle School were the brainchild of a school district parent, Suzanne Valls. Mrs. Valls is also a longtime member of Rockville Centre's Special Education PTA (SEPTA). It was her vision that planted the seed to form a Best Buddies chapter in the middle school last year and in the high school this year.

Valls's first step was to reach out to Wilson teacher Linda Burdi and a Wilson parent, Jane Duggan, who were instrumental in putting her in touch with Lisa Schouten, the Best Buddies program supervisor for the Long Island region. In addition, Mrs. Valls's daughter, Melanie, contributed her Sweet 16 money, along with a contribution from Derek Borut's bar mitzvah money and a contribution from the Newman family, to help fund Best Buddies. These contributions became the seed money to bring Best Buddies to Rockville Centre.

This summer, SEPTA provided the funds for Lindsey Levine, South Side High's Best Buddies chapter president, to attend a three-day international leadership conference at the University of Indiana. SEPTA greatly appreciates the support we received, and continue to receive, from Eileen Kamhi, assistant superintendent for special education and support services. We are most grateful that she embraced the idea of bringing Best Buddies into the district and worked with us to see it come to fruition.

SEPTA would also like to thank high school Principal Dr. Carol Burris, who supported the necessary staff members. We also appreciate the involvement of Noreen Leahy, Mariann Vogel, Gina Peck, Rob Devlin and Bill Busch. SEPTA is committed to the success of Best Buddies and wishes it well in all its future events.

Felice Borut

Donna Santora

RVC SEPTA co-presidents

Village usury?

To the Editor:

When I arrived home from being away, I discovered that a village water bill had arrived and was 10 days overdue. What surprised me was the fact that the initial penalty for failure to meet the due date is 10 percent, and that it increases 5 percent per month after that. Taking into account the compounding of interest, that represents a penalty of 88 percent by the end of the year. As an interesting side note, I had an electric bill credit that would have more than covered the entire bill, but that didn’t matter. Also, I had paid the village real estate tax bill for December back in June.

Somehow the village is not cognizant of the fact that residents should be getting interest for paying tax bills in advance. (Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead offer a reduction when that is done.) So, in effect, the village thought it was due a penalty even though it had more than 10 times the amount to cover the bill in its coffers.

I appreciate the fact that the village wishes to keep its accounts separate. Nevertheless, I would suggest that it is usurious, from an ethical point of view, to charge 88 percent per year interest when there is solid collateral involved (residents’ homes). The intent to practice that usury is established by the fact that the village makes no provision for online accounts with e-mail notification or automatic withdrawals on the due date (as private utilities do). Every indication suggests that the village wants residents to miss the due date if they are away so that the outrageous interest can be charged.

Joseph Collison

Rockville Centre

School district should ‘save’

and ‘slash’

To the Editor:

It is astounding how arrogant and out-of-touch the school board and school administrators in Rockville Centre can be in this most trying time in our economic history. Why not propose a giant school bond when the nation is in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s? Why not? Just pile it on. That’s the school district way.

It’s incredible to me to read that SSHS principal Dr. Carol Burris would use as justification that we should think of the three S’s when contemplating this bond: science, security and safety. How could anyone think about voting against safety and security? I didn’t know these were issues. I read the Herald every week and don’t recall any number of incidents that would call this to task.

Has the school administration been hiding anything from the people of this town? I think not. I believe this is another self-serving attempt to once again raise the costs to the citizens of Rockville Centre by masking the facts and touching people’s emotions. Why not go directly for the hot button when the money’s on the line?

This $31.8 million bond issue seems ill-timed, irresponsible and unconscionable given the worst recession that most of us have lived through. Dr. Burris left out a couple of other S’s in her discussion that should be considered. How about the S in “spend,” a trait rampant in the Rockville Centre school system? “Save” is another S word that’s foreign to both the administration and the board. “Slash” costs would be a novel S approach but one that seems to be anathema to anyone associated with the process. No, let’s go directly to the R and T words —raise taxes.

I urge the citizens of Rockville Centre to vote this bond issue down and prepare for a very intricate, line-by-line examination of the next budget proposal. I’m sure it will be a chart-buster.

Brendan J. Cahalan

Rockville Centre

Policy advice

The following is an open letter to Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi.

Dear Sir:

It is time to stop this unfair and complex assessment system. There is a simple way to assess properties and put the lawyers out of the property-assessment business. Assessments should be based on the square footage of the structure and the property. The property should be assessed by location. If this system were implemented, there would be no more yearly filing for assessment reductions.

Assessments based on market value are wrong, as the value of property changes from year to year. Square footage and location are always the same. The price per square foot should be changed yearly based on the budget.

I would love to see the day when political leaders have the courage to take on the education system. Nassau County should have three school districts. This would eliminate all the incompetent school boards that spend most of our tax money. It would also eliminate most of the superintendents who make more money than the governor, county executives and most of the people who run our country.

There is also another matter that should be fixed — the collection of sales taxes. In Europe, when selling anything, a merchant must ring the sale through the cash register and hand you a receipt. That assures that any transaction is recorded and the authorities can verify if the sales tax has been paid. This system can be spot-checked when customers leave the store and, upon request, must show a receipt. If this is done, we could see millions of dollars in sales tax revenue.

Frank Prochilo

Rockville Centre

With big shoes to fill, hire from within village P.D.

To the Editor:

Let me be clear, I like cops. I have friends who are cops, I always gravitated to them when I was a kid and I even had a cousin who was "on the job" in the city.

So when I moved to the village some years ago, it did not take me long to find out who the police commissioner was and eventually to meet him.

"Call me Jack," he said, no matter how many times I called him "Commissioner" or "Chief." And no matter how uncomfortable I felt calling him Jack, Jack felt more uncomfortable with me calling him "Commissioner." And that sort of sums up the man. Humble, unassuming, good-natured and very unimpressed with himself. But I came to learn quickly as a friendship developed that this man was very impressive.

Quite simply, Jack is a career cop who worked his way up the police hierarchy and educational ladder, a loving father, devoted grandfather, veteran and patriot. 

Jack is a man I admire. He is a man I wish I could be more like. He is a man who gave this village all he had for almost 40 years. If the crime rate is under control in this village, thank Jack. If the quality of life in this village is high, thank Jack. If our police officers are of the highest caliber and serve us well, thank Jack. If our department is one of the best-trained in the country, thank Jack.

Many of us tried to talk him into staying on the job just a few more years. But Jack being Jack, he said it was time now. I do wish the mayor had made more of an effort to keep him, but if this is his time, so be it. If Jack must leave, I ask that he be replaced by someone already in the department here in the village. To bring in an outsider is to bring in someone who does not know this department and who does not know Jack. And while Jack may be Jack, he is also the commissioner, and his are going to be some very big shoes to fill. Give his successor a head start. Let it be someone who knows us and knows how Jack did it.  

Enjoy your retirement, Jack. You have been one hell of a guy and for that we thank you, Commissioner.

Ted D. Gluckman

Rockville Centre