{ title: 'The Farmingdale observer. (Farmingdale, N.Y.) 1963-current, October 13, 1977, Page 4, Image 4', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071030/1977-10-13/ed-1/seq-4/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071030/1977-10-13/ed-1/seq-4.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071030/1977-10-13/ed-1/seq-4/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn95071030/1977-10-13/ed-1/seq-4/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Long Island Library Resources Council
CO Editorials •Viewpoints •Comments I O O 5 u H O cu \as T3 • 6 u a Welcome Associated Yesterday, the Associated Food Markets officially opened in downtown Farmingdale, giving the Main Street shopping area the much needed supermarket again. Once the village shopping area thrived with three major supermarkets downtown alone. With the closing of the A&P and then Hills, Farmingdale was left with only Bohacks to serve downtown shoppers. Limping along through three years of bankruptcy with half empty shelves and higher prices than nearby super- markets, Bohacks sent even those shoppers looking for new places to buy the weekly groceries. Then they too closed. Now, with a strong independent Associated Food Market offering top quality merchandise at highly competitive prices, the downtown shopper should begin returning. The entire downtown community will benefit from the arrival of their new neighbor. To Farmingdale's senior citizens and others who have no transportation to go to outlying markets, the arrival of Associated is indeed a blessing. We welcome them to our community and we are sure we will have a long and enjoyable association. They fill a great need in our downtown area. From Our Trustees of the Village of Far- mingdale: According to the newsletter from the Farmingdale Public Schools, I understand our village trustees are legally responsible for authorizing the use and purpose of the Main St. School. Therefore I address this letter to them. After reading Ms. Passarella's letter in the Farmingdale Post (Sept. 15) I truly agree with her that the school should be used as a community center. I believe if this center con- tained a senior citizens unit, a roller skating rink for our youth and a theatre for the cultural arts for residents and visitors, upon leaving the center they would patronize the local stores and restaurants, therefore everyone would benefit, merchants and residents alike. Why not fund this center through the already accepted proposal by Congressman Ambro as presented in his Aug. 77 progress report. This permits Long Island townships full participation in the \multi-billion dollar U.S. Community Development Act.\ And I quote from his progress report, \This measure will give townships greater control over their role in the program and will retain local authority over zoning and land use planning in town govern- ments.'' Here we have both the idea and the means to fund it. A com- munity center funded by the Community Development Act. So, village trustees this is your ball game, the ball is yours, now run with it. Sincerely Yours, Mrs. A.F. Rinira Scout Twirlers Attention all Girl Scouts: Free Baton Twirling Lessons will be given by Amy Grumet of Senior Troop #9, at Northside School, every Friday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sign up on Oct. 28, in the large gym. \YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER\ -Established 1920- 51 Heisser Lane, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735 Telephone: CHapel 9-0131 - 0170 Publisher Joseph Merendino Editor/Manager . Robert J. Starrett Production Mgr Steven Vid Published every Thursday by Farmingdale Post Division of Merlin, Printing Co., Inc.' Joseph Merendino, President; Steven Vid, Secretary-Treasurer COMPOSITION RESPONSIBILITY This newspaper will not be liable fc. errors, appearing in any advertising be- yond the cost of the space occupied by the error. By—Lined Articles & Columns are the sole opinions of the writers fit do not necessarily represent views of the paper. Second Class Postage at Farmingdale Post Office. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: 1 YEAR $5.00 MEMBER: New York Press Assoc. MEMBER: Nassau County Press Assoc MEMBER: American Newspaper Repre sentative MEMBER: National Editorial Assoc. CAHIDL COMMENT Congressman JEROME A. AMBRO Third District It took more than four years, but Long Island's largest towns will now be eligible to apply directly for federal funds under the 1974 Community Develop- ment Act. Without going into the merits or demerits of a program already authorized and on-going at the time I came to Congress, the problem basically was that Long Island's biggest townships, in- cluding the two in my Congressional District, Oyster Bay and Huntington, could not apply directly for funds because they contain incorporated villages. Towns were eligible com- munities, according to the original language, but not if they contained \within their borders incorporated places.\ That restriction applied to most L.I. towns, effectively excluding them from full and direct par- ticipation in the program of historic preservation, develop- ment of recreational facilities, neighborhood or Senior Citizen Centers, sidewalk or lighting construction, etc. It was an outrageous, discriminatory restriction which allowed cities of over 50,000 and urban counties of over 200,000 to participate, but not townships on Long Island that contain 850,000 people,\ 330,000 and 215,000 residents.' What resulted was a tortured manipulation of the law, wherein the counties \borrowed\ the towns' zoning authority to pur- poses of the program. The counties then applied in behalf of the towns. Of course, the counties then primarily administered the program and disbursed the federal monies to the towns, something which led to delays, confusion, foul-ups and un- dermined the towns' most basic and most important power - to zone. In October 1973, before the act passed, I came to Washington as a Long Island Town Supervisor and testified on the township provisions before the House Banking and Currency Com- mittee. It passed, but with the \incorporated places' prohibition. In the Fall of 1974 when I first ran successfully for Congress, I made the township ban a cam- paign issue and one month after I was sworn into office introduced an amendment to remove that section of the law^i. Several months later, the committee agreed to hold hearings on my amendment. I testified, once again, in support of the measure, but it never emerged from subcommittee and remained bottled-up for the duration of the last Congress. We went at it again this year, re-introducing the amendment in January on the opening day of the 95th Congress. This time, Diabetes Club The Long Island Chapter New York Diabetes Association - Mid- Island Hospital Diabetes Club will hold its monthly meeting on Monday, October 17 at 7:45 p.m. in the hospital, the program will feature Sandra Jossel, M.S.W. leading a discussion on Diabetes and the Family: however, we took a low-key approach working behind the scenes through staffs and with a key New York member of the committee. My amendment to strip the township restriction from the language of the law was modified slightly, permitting towns to participate fully if they enter into cooperative agreements with their villages to participate jointly in CDA. The modified amendment carried in subcommittee, committee and was contained in the committee bill which was approved on the House floor. There was no companion language in the Senate bill. When the two chambers went into conference recently to reconcile differences in their respective bill, the House position prevailed and the conference report, the compromise legislation, contains the amend- ment. The conference report was passed in both the House and Senate last week and has been sent to the President for his signature. We're home! ^JOSEPH 'COLBY COMMENTS The Town is the form of government closest to the people, and as such, is on the \front line\ in terms of delivering service, protecting our neighborhoods and addressing the questions or problems of in- dividual residents. Since January, I have given priority to cutting red tape to resolve citizen concern. Through the thousands of letters, phone calls and personal conversations that have taken place in the past nine and a half months, one issue stands out as a concern shared by all residents - - taxes. At first blush, the issue seems simple - taxes are taxes, period. Look at the issue carefully, however, and you will see that it's a bit more complex. -A About 57% of the average resident's annual property tax bill goes to the local school district, 29% accounts for county taxes and state court costs and another 9% goes to special districts. Your Town levy is only 5% of your total property tax bill - a nickel of each tax dollar. The nature of our local economy and the continued effects of in- flation mandate that every level of government - from the Federal bureaucracies on down - do all that is possible to hold the line on taxes. That's exactly what we are doing in Oyster Bay. The Preliminary Budget I presented to the Town Board last week, not only holds the General Town tax rate, it actually reduces overall expenditures in the general fund. If this budget is adopted, it will be the first budget in thirteen years that reverses the trend of increased spending. The Town, like the homeowner, faces the increased costs of materials, supplies, utilities and services. We have managed to overcome these increases through a line-by-line review of all ex- penditures, clamping down on proposals for additional spending and cutting spending levels where possible. The new costs of unemployment insurance imposed by the State government and the second-year expenses of our union contract made holding the line even harder, but we have managed to do so without reducing the services the Town provides today. Next year, every dollar spent will have to be spent with the greatest of care; we must continue our search for savings. You may be interested in two booklets which the Commerce Department is making available free to enable business and industry to operate in a more profitable way. These booklets, \Why it Pays To Do Business in New York State\ and \How To Do Business in New York State,\ contain information which is useful to firms already operating in the state. They are also helpful for those which plan to locate facilities in New York. The \Why To Do Business\ brochure, for example lists the ad- vantages for New York businesses. These include the fact that we are located in the center of the largest and richest market in the world and we have a highly qualified labor force. In the \How To...\ booklet, names, addresses and telephone numbers of all major state agency heads are listed, as well as the names and addresses of federal agencies and regional offices of the state departments which have jurisdiction over business. For free copies of these pamphlets, write to Charles J. O'Connor, director of the Bureau of Industrial and Business Development, New York State Department of Commerce, 99 Washington Ave., Albany, N.Y., 12245. * • • ELECTION DAY Here's a reminder for Election Day. You must be registered to vote by October 15 in order to be eligible to vote on November 8. In addition to deciding local elections, the voters will also be ex- pressing their opinions on one question (the desirability of holding a state constitutional convention), one proposition (the $750 million economic development bond issue) and eight proposed amendments to the state constitution.
