O'side budget defeated; Hastava elected to IP board
Oceanside School District's $99.4 budget, an 8.6 increase over last year's budget, failed to pass by a total of 10 votes, 1,028 to 1,018, while Island Parker's supported their district's $24.7 budget, a 4.9 increase from last year, and elected Michael Hastava to the school board.
"The board had no inkling that the community was upset or that this was coming," said Sue Graham, president of the Oceanside Board of Education. "We had little attendance at our budget hearings, which leads us to believe that people are satisfied." Graham and others in the district, including Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown, characterized Oceanside and many other communities that voted down their budgets as "a tax revolt."
One resident summed up his talks with other Oceansiders who voted down the budget, particularly senior citizens, by explaining they were starting to feel burdened by taxes.
The school board returned to the budget drawing board at its regular meeting in mid-May to discuss their options, which include either putting to vote the same or a revised budget, or go to a contingency budget. The board has proposed a $96.8 million contingency budget, representing a 5.9 increase over last year's budget, in which it will reduce or cut certain items from the original budget, including possibly athletic teams, intramural or co-curricula clubs and certain staff.
While in Oceanside school board incumbents Bob Transom and Maryann Lehrer ran uncontested and were re-elected, in Island Park Michael Hastava defeated Alan Pozin by a vote of 696 and 342 for the seat of Catherine Boddy, who retired.
"I feel the vote really showed that the community overwhelmingly agreed with my positions," Hastava said.
Regarding the election's main issue, the proposal to create a high school in the district, Hastava stressed that all options had to be explored before opting to create a high school, while Pozin emphasized its negatives more than its positives.
Island Park residents passed the budget 573 to 380 votes. Said Superintendent Dr. Ed Price said, "We're very pleased that the community came out and passed our budget by a three-to-two margin."
The budget focused mainly on maintaining and improving various areas, including small class sizes, technology, arts and music programs, no-cut extra curriculum programs, and maintenance of buildings.
JUNE
Telese gets 50 years
Nassau County Court Judge Joseph Calabrese handed Louis Telese two 25-year-to-life sentences, to run consecutively, for the 1984 murders of an Oceanside mother and son, Susan and Richard Eigen.
"Evidence of your guilt was overwhelming," Calabrese told Telese. "They were horrific murders. They had a certain sadistic quality to them. In that sense they were almost ritualistic." Calabrese added that he found no reason to show any mercy toward him, because the method in which he murdered his victims was "designed to inflict the maximum pain and suffering," and because he has "shown no remorse" for his actions.
After Susan and Richard were found murdered on Feb. 26, 1984, their case went unsolved until 2002, when, through DNA technology, police matched a thumbprint traced to Telese that was found on the plastic shopping bag used to suffocate Richard. Two strands of his hair were inside the bandanna used to strangle Susan Eigen. Telese, 45, of Rockland County, had applied for a bus driving job in 1988 that required him to have his fingerprints taken. He was arrested June 5, 2002.
Sailors win divisional baseball series
After Plainview JFK High School struck quickly with two runs in the first inning, Oceanside pitcher Sammy Ytuarte left the Hawks scoreless as the Sailors scored 10 runs in game two of the three-game Nassau Class AA finals.
Second-seeded Oceanside answered top-seeded Plainview right back with four runs in the bottom of the first. After smacking a lead-off double, Jim Kelly scored when Plainview's left-fielder Alex Regensburg and shortstop Mike Rutcofsky collided in pursuit of a Mike Kirby bloop double. (Regensburg injured his head and arm and was taken out of the game.)
Working his curve ball, Ytuarte dominated from the second inning on when he struck out the side and allowed just two hits thereafter behind both the Sailors bats and more Hawk mishaps.
Oceanside went up 7-2 in the third after Dan Kourie (3-for-4 with to RBIs) doubled and then dashed home after the catcher threw wildly when he stole third. Later that inning, Anthony Conte smashed a grounder that shortstop Mike Rutcofsky tracked down too deep in the outfield to throw out Matt Wynn at the plate.
Plainview brought in Frank Roscigno to pitch, but he walked in a run. The Sailors scored their final two runs that inning when pinch-hitter Ed Risner drove in a run on a double play, and Kelly followed up with an RBI single.
"We dropped down 2-0 in the first inning and then my guys showed guts," said Sailors Coach Andy Morris, "and Sammy shut them down from there on in and we hit the ball," Morris said after the game. "We rely on pitching and we produce runs and hopefully that's enough."
The win qualified the Sailors to play Smithtown in the Class AA Southeast Regional Final/Long Island Championship game in Yaphank on Memorial Day.
Drag racer loses appeal
An appeals court upheld the decision to convict Kevin Hart for starting a fatal drag race in Oceanside on June 24, 2001.
Frank Schroeder, a Nassau County prosecutor, proved Hart "set in motion the events which ultimately" resulted in the death in Michael Vasipolli, the motorist he was racing, and that the harm from the crash "is something which should have been foreseen as being reasonably related to the acts of the accused," ruled a panel of a state Appellate Division.
According to Schroeder, Hart instigated a drag race by challenging Vasipolli while heading southbound on Lawson Boulevard by revving the engine in his Corvette, driving at twice the posted speed of 40 mph. Driving with his wife, Karen Mauro, Vasipolli, crossed the double yellow line while trying to pass a slow-moving Cadillac in front of him, and crashed head on into Glenn Jacofsky of Oceanside, who was driving northbound on Lawson in his Volvo with his wife, Amy. Both Vasapolli and Jacofsky were killed in the crash, and both their wives received minor injuries. Hart drove into a fence but was uninjured.
Hart, 30, a Malverne resident, was convicted in August 2002 on two counts of manslaughter in the second degree for recklessly causing the deaths of Vasipolli and Jacofsky, and assault in the third degree for recklessly causing injuries to Amy Jacofsky. He was sentenced to 5 to 15 years.
Hart contended that he shared no responsibility for the deaths of Vasipolli, 30, of Woodmere, and Jacofsky, 43. He argues that his actions were not the direct cause of their death, since Vasipolli voluntarily participated in the race, and because his Corvette never came into contact with Vasipolli's Lamborghini to force him to cross the double-yellow lines and into Jacofsky.
Girls top OHS class for first time
Valedictorian Raimy Schutzman and salutatorian Kristen Lurie were the first female duo to graduate at the top their class at Oceanside High School.
With a weighted academic average of 104 and a 1,580 score on her SAT (out of 1,600), Raimy said her main academic achievement was being named valedictorian and that she didn't particularly excel at one subject over another, but the subjects she enjoyed most depended mostly on the teacher. Raimy planned to attend the University of Pennsylvania this fall to study architecture.
Kristen is mainly interested in science, and was to attend Dartmouth College in September to major in engineering, with a focus on biomedical studies.
Kristen discovered a compound in a cancer-related drug that could possibly treat tuberculosis, and it earned her semi-finalist status in the nationwide Intel science competition, and second place at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair this past semester.
Raimy and Kristen became friends as lacrosse teammates at Oceanside Middle School. Looking back on their years together, particularly their high school days in which they were always among the top three students in their class, they developed a mutual admiration for each other.
"I've always been impressed by how well she presents herself," Kristen said about Raimy, who earned first place for public speaking at a John Hopkins Scholarship competition. "I've always admired her writing, too, because she writes really well. And she makes things easier."
For Raimy, Kristen's work ethic stood out most. "I admire how hard she works and how dedicated she is to everything she does," Raimy said. "She's also an easy person to talk to and has a great sense of humor."
July
O'siders accused in
holiday pharmacy blast
Police arrested Nicholas J. Lelo, 21, and John T. Skinner Jr., 20, both of Oceanside, and charged them with first-degree criminal mischief after setting off an explosive device that damaged the Eckerd Pharmacy at 3199 Long Beach Road July 4. The device blew open a rear door of the pharmacy and caused thousands of dollars in property damage, specifically to an exterior cement-block wall, according to police.
Police said the device used was a homemade explosive consisting of a mixture of household items. Before the blast, Lelo and Skinner were behind Eckerd Pharmacy - formerly Genovese Pharmacy, in the TJ Maxx Shopping Center - shooting off fireworks, including rockets and mortars. The homemade device was the final explosive the tandem set off, and it produced a "very loud explosion" and a "plume of smoke," police said.
Uniformed officers were in the vicinity of the pharmacy at the time of the blast, and reportedly spotted the suspects still standing in the back of the shopping center, where they were arrested.
IP man arrested for card store holdup
Anthony Torente, 33, of Island Park, was arrested and charged with a spree robberies throughout Nassau County, two of which occurred in Oceanside, on July 9.
Police said Torente robbed Half-Off Cards at 3556 Long Beach Road in Oceanside on June 29, charging he went behind the counter and placed an unknown object to the back a male clerk, age 20. Torente demanded that he give him the contents from both registers, and the clerk complied and handed him an undisclosed amount of cash. Torente led the male clerk and a female manger, age 25, to the back of the store, and then fled the scene in an unknown direction.
Police said that in all Torente got away with approximately $3,000. The Island Park man was charged with three counts of robbery in the first degree, one count of robbery in the first degree (attempted), criminal use of a firearm in the first degree and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Zoning board gives
OK to IP kids' park
The Town of Hempstead's Zoning Board of Appeals has ruled in July that Barnum Isle Properties (BIP) could build an amusement park on Beach Street in Island Park, an area that has busy summertime restaurants and bars such as Paddy McGees and Bridgeview Yacht Club.
The board granted virtually all of BIP's original plans to convert a storage warehouse into the amusement park the company said would be geared mainly toward children ages 13 and younger. BIP proposed to build a children's soft play area in the warehouse as well as a downstairs carousel and two upstairs party rooms. Outdoors on the site's 16,000-square-foot property, which would replace an existing auto body shop and a junkyard, BIP proposed an 18-hole miniature-golf course, a mini-race track with battery-powered cars with rubber wheels, and a pond with non-motorized rubber bumper boats. (BIP's president John Vitale later scrapped the bumper boats feature because of liability issues.)
The board approved these features as well as proposals for a 114-space parking lot, a maximum capacity of 356 people in the park at any given time, and business hours from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, all conditions that BIP applied for originally.
While BIP at the hearing in March said that the facility would be primarily geared toward pre-teens, residents who live in the area argued that the park's main attraction, the miniature-golf course, would serve as a place where adults would start the night before hitting the nearby bars.
10 rounds fired near IP convenience store
Justin Dorfman, 20, of Island Park, and Brian Rodden, 20, of Oceanside, were arrested and charged with firing a 9 mm Beretta automatic rifle at a 25-year-old Island Park man at California Place on July 25, according to police.
The shooting occurred just minutes after the suspects and the victims - the other a 27-year-old Island Park man - exchanged heated words and fisticuffs in the parking lot of the Island Park train station. Following the altercation, the two victims drove to a nearby convenience store on Austin Boulevard so one could get napkins to clean up his bloodied hand. While he was inside the store, Dorfman and Rodden drove up behind their car on California Place, where Rodden exited the car and began shooting at him.
No one was hurt in the incident in which police found 10 discharged casings at the scene.
Weather's effect:
A tale of two summers
With the mercury mostly held in the high 70s to mid-80s and humidity temperate enough to keep shirts dry, different businesses in Oceanside and Island Park gave mixed results compared with last years generally rainy summer.
"The last two summers were horrible because of the rain," said Steve Jordan, of Jordan's Lobster Farms in Island Park, where people can both shop for shellfish and dine. "But business has definitely been better down here this year."
Like the mostly waterfront restaurant/bars that surround it, Jordan's is a weather-dependent business. To these establishments, storm clouds are as welcome as mosquitoes.
AUGUST
Area bank robbed
An unidentified man robbed the Roslyn Savings Bank in Oceanside on Aug. 2 after handing a teller a piece of paper with a written note demanding cash and threatening to hurt her.
The suspect, described as a Hispanic male in his mid-20s of medium height and build and pockmarks on his face, fled the bank and was last seen walking westbound on Perkins Avenue near the bank at 3140 Long Beach Road.
"He basically walked in and handed her a note that said if she didn't hand him money, he would do physical harm to her and her family," a Nassau County Police Department public information officer said.
Triangle renovations remain delayed
As weeds grew waist-high at the triangle at Lincoln Avenue and Long Beach Road, residents still awaited the renovations proposed a few years back by Nassau County.
Both Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback and former chamber president Bob Towers said they expected the construction project to finally commence in the spring of 2004, after it was originally slated to start at the end of 2002.
The plans for the triangle involve a nautical theme, including a 20-foot lighthouse on a four-foot concrete-and-stone base, a fishing boat doubling as a planter for flowers, and pilings with fish-netting made of reinforced steel cable to act as guard rails.
Auxiliary police expand security in O'side/IP
Two or three nights a week, after Marshall Smith gets home from work, he puts on a uniform and hits the streets.
Smith is commanding officer of the Nassau County Auxiliary Police Unit 119. In 2001, his force had a total of four men and one car that patrolled Oceanside. Since January, however, his unit has added Island Park to its patrol area, and in August accepted two more volunteers and a second car (donated by Famous Brands clothing store on Long Beach Road).
The volunteer officers, all Oceanside residents, rotate their patrols from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. each week night. Armed with two-way radios linked with a communications unit at NCPD headquarters in Mineola, they act as the eyes and ears of the police department, reporting everything from a damaged traffic sign in a heavy storm to crimes.
Man charged
with rape at motel
Oscar Hernandez Romero, 22, of Jamaica, Queens was arrested and charged with statutory rape, after police said he took a 15-year-old girl to the Oceanside Motel on Long Beach Road to have sex on Aug. 11.
According to detectives, Romero drove from Jamaica with the girl, who lives "within the vicinity of Jamaica," to the Oceanside Motel, rented a room, and engaged in sexual activity with her there. "He didn't use any force to get her to the motel or while there, but being that the victim is under the age of consent he is guilty of statutory rape," Detective Sgt. John Azzata said.
Toback denies conflict in motel case
Following the reported rape of a 15-year-old girl at the Oceanside Motel, Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback announced before news cameras that the county would go before a Nassau County Supreme Court judge and ask him to declare the business a public nuisance in order to get it shut down immediately. Meanwhile, Hempstead Town Councilman Anthony Santino said the town has been working toward the same goal but has been delayed by Toback's actions as a private attorney.
Kevin O'Brien, attorney for motel owner Bharat Bhatt, said that Toback has represented Usman Bandurka of the S&S Investment Group in Oceanside, in an effort to buy the motel for retail or medical office space for $2.7 million, but that, to his surprise, the deal fell through in early August.
Santino said that on June 14, the Supreme Court judge delayed the town's efforts to use its own public-nuisance law against the motel because of the potential purchase of the property by Toback's client.
"On the one hand, it's ironic that Toback is out there holding press conferences saying that he's going to do something on the county level to close the motel under the county's law," Santino said, "when on the other hand, his actions as a private attorney have impeded what the town has been trying to do since June to close the motel down."
OFD ambulance
a no-show
When Ken Garden, 78, suffered a stroke while getting ready to go to work Aug. 20 an ambulance never showed up at his Oceanside Cove condominium. Although an EMT from the Oceanside Fire Department arrived within minutes to treat Garden, an ambulance was still required to show up at the emergency scene. It wasn't until a half-hour after Garden's call that the OFD signaled the Baldwin Fire Department for mutual aid. By then, Garden's daughter had given-up and driven him to St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn.
While Garden survived and was back home three days later, he and his family still expressed concern that an ambulance failed to arrive even after Solomon decided to take her father to St. Francis following a wait of about 40 minutes.
When a Oceanside resident calls 911 for a medical emergency, the protocol is that Nassau County receives the call and dispatches one of its two ambulances in the Fourth Precinct's coverage area. If both are occupied, the call is diverted to the OFD, whose dispatcher typically puts the call out to all members of its rescue company on their fire department pagers. If after a certain time there is no response, or the ambulances are occupied, the OFD contacts its backup from a neighboring fire department for a mutual aid response.
