By JOSEPH KELLARD
The notices invited residents to an informational meeting about various services the county provides to difference segments of the population, and encouraged them to ask questions about these and any community concerns they may have. But only Lyn and Norman Mendelsohn, who live in the Ocean Harbor section of Oceanside, showed up.
"The taxes are high here," said Toback (D-Oceanside), "and there are many services available, and part of my job is to make sure people know which services are available to them. We called a meeting like this to make sure people know what's available."
Among those officials who attended the meeting to inform and answer questions were Dr. Sharon Mullon, commissioner of Senior Citizen Affairs in Nassau County; Ray Ribeiro, commissioner of Public Works; 4th Precinct police officers; and Chris Mancuso, program director of breast cancer screening at Nassau University Medical Center, to tell about the hospital's free services.
Instead, Toback spoke with the Mendelsohns personally to learn about their concerns, which included overhanging tree branches obscuring stop signs around town, the lack of double yellow lines on the newly repaved Weidner Avenue, which is a Town of Hempstead project, and late-night noise from rock bands performing at a nearby East Rockaway restaurant-bar.
Soon after the one-on-one with the Mendelsohns, since no other residents showed up, the legislator ended the meeting.
"I'm certainly disappointed that more people didn't come out," Toback said about the Nov. 9 meeting at the School 6 auditorium on Merle Avenue.
"I just felt that people are very apathetic," Lyn Mendelsohn said.
Toback's office mailed the 3,000 notices about four weeks prior to the meeting date, and legally he can only send them to constituents within his legislative district, which in Oceanside consists roughly of the area west of Fulton Avenue. Legislator Denise Ford (R-Long Beach) represents the other, much larger district in Oceanside, but she backed out of the meeting soon after Toback's mailer went out, she said.
"We were originally thinking about doing it together, because we share districts in Oceanside and Island Park," Ford said. "Originally, I'd thought about it, but had to back out because I had something I had to do with my sons and their school on that night ... It was no way that I didn't want to be seen with Jeff Toback Š I suggested to Jeff that maybe we could do another meeting after the holidays."
In part, Toback chalks up the poor turnout to the fact that information about services is something people can look into elsewhere whenever they want. Yet police in attendance noted that when they held a meeting for Oceanside residents last year to voice their concerns about policing, not one resident showed up that night at Oceanside Library.
Ford said that she believes sometimes the notices get lost among the mail at the post office, and blamed the sparse attendance on the meeting being held only days after Election Day and during the week Veterans Day is celebrated.
Toback dismissed these possible excuses. "Maybe," he speculated, "it was the big Rutgers-Louisville football game that night that kept people glued to their television."
Nevertheless, Toback said he'll work to do a better job to communicate with his constituents.
"I have to find a way to keep the lines of communication opened," he said. "Certainly, I field a lot of e-mails and phone calls from constituents all the time, and the personal meetings I think are important. And I'm going to try to continue to do them."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
