By ANTHONY BOTTAN
, mayors and village officials discussed the problems that affect their communities, such as garbage disposal and hurricane preparedness, and the most effective ways to find solutions.
At the East Rockaway Senior Center, East Rockaway Mayor Ed Sieban opened the dialogue among officials from Valley Stream, Rockville Centre, Malverne, Lynbrook, Island Park and Freeport in the hope of collaborating to fight the problems they face.
Garbage disposal contracts with the Town of Hempstead and the disposal company Covanta were among the meeting¹s highest priorities. According to Malverne Trustee Joseph Hennessy, the town and Covanta offered the villages a new 25-year contract, but revisions in the contract will force residents to pay $13 more per ton to dispose of their garbage. As a result, village officials are reluctant to sign the contract, and are looking into alternative ways to dispose of garbage and be environmentally safe at the same time.
Malverne Mayor Patricia McDonald said the garbage disposal contract is a definite problem for the villages.
³It affects the residents and their pocketbooks,² McDonald said. ³People are always concerned about where their money is going.²
Hurricane preparedness was another pressing issue, especially for officials from Island Park, Freeport and East Rockaway, the three villages nearest the water. Sieban said that if a hurricane were to hit the South Shore, roughly 15 percent of its residents could be housed in shelters, since there is a dearth of them in Nassau County.
According to Sieban, the Town of Hempstead has made it clear to village officials that in the event of a hurricane, the villages are on their own when it comes to evacuating residents.
³We have to help ourselves and put the resources and technology in place,² he said, ³or we¹re going to be left in the cold.²
The technology Sieban referred to is a reverse 911 phone service, with which officials can contact residents in an emergency to tell them when and where they need to evacuate. Some suggested evacuation destinations were neighboring villages like Lynbrook and Rockville Centre.
Another challenge the villages share is the need for more sales tax revenue. Freeport Trustee Jorge Martinez said that villages are building up their commercial base, but the town and county are getting all the revenue. Martinez said that the issue needs to become a political one and should be presented to legislators. Others agreed, saying they need to meet with legislators as a coalition, which might have more impact.
³If the villages can get an extra five percent, think of what could be done,² Martinez said.
Village Clerk Vincent Ang and Deputy Mayor Guido Cirenza represented Valley Stream.
Village officials found the meeting a great chance to get to know one another and ³put names to faces,² Sieban said.
³This is a great opportunity on a social level to really get to know each other and network between villages,² he added.
The overall assessment of the mayors and trustees who attended was that the gathering was positive and informative, and they agreed to meet quarterly. The next meeting was set for September, and will be hosted by Rockville Centre.
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