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BEACH,
BENCHES, BALLFIELD & BIKINI’S
As
always, after our escalating Property Taxes, the issue that is
paramount on the Civics’ Agenda continues to be the plight of
our ever eroding beach. On a cold rainy day in April 20 hearty
souls from the Civic coupled this year’s Earth Day with a Beach
Awareness theme. As
volunteers, under the able direction of Ed Brown scoured our beach
for empty cans, bottles and old Christmas Trees; Beach Chair Gerry
Ottavino led a contingent including our County Legislator Denise
Ford, TOH Commissioner Ron Master and Long Beach Herald Reporter
Chris Munzing in viewing first hand the tremendous impact “Old
Man Winter “has had on Civic and Middle Beach.
No
one does it better than Gerry Ott in
his continuing ability
in mobilizing our governmental officials and citizens to petition
the Army Corps to allow the Federal Storm Protection Plan to get
underway. The Long Beach Herald did stories on two consecutive
weeks highlighting the importance of this issue.
CONGRESSMAN
KING TO THE RESCUE??
As
a result of these efforts our Cong. Pete King has written to the
Army Corps to begin the process of getting an interim step –the
much needed dredging of Jones Inlet. Our hope is this”
Band-Aid” project will commence in time for sand to be deposited
on
Civic
Beach
by the SUMMER OF 2006!
We will all need to be bikini friendly and respectful of each
other this summer as space (like the bathing suit) will be skimpy
and in short supply this summer.
WRITE
TO YOUR OFFICIALS
The
PLCA has begun a letter writing and/or e-mail campaign to the
following officials, asking them to get the ARMY CORPS to move
this project. Gerry Ott has copy of a sample letter or check out
the bulletin board at the Post Office; otherwise e-mail pete.king@mail.house.gov
,skelos@senate.state.ny.us
and weisenh@assembly.state.ny.us.
If you care about our beach you’ll do it today.
BENCHES
FOR THE BALLFIELD
Ted
Van Erk has informed us that it appears our bench quota for the
beach has been met and we are now turning our attention to
providing new replacement benches for the ballfield and select
locations throughout the community. Jim Corcoran has informed us
that the Little League plans to continue to improve the “field
of dreams” by including dugouts. If anyone believes they would
like to dedicate a bench for the dugout or the playground area,
please let Ted or myself know at our next General Meeting or send
me an e-mail expressing your interest.
COMMUNITY
SERVICE AWARD
Remember
part of the proceeds from this bench initiative is for our
Community Service Award. This monetary Award is presented each
year at Children’s Day to some young person who has given
something back to our town in the form of community service. We
have started to receive some candidates. Let Claire Curtin,
Roberta Doheny, Ted Van Erk or myself know if you know someone we
should consider.
SCHOOL
BUDGET/ PROPERTY TAXES
It
is our hope that area residents will express their concern and
vote on our school budget on May 17th. With an almost
100 million proposed budget this translates to a local tax levy
increase of just under 10%. The PLCA served on the Budget Advisory
Committee and we entertained Long Beach Superintendent Robert
Greenberg and School Board President Patrick Gallagher at our
April General Meeting. We expressed to these school officials our
extreme dissatisfaction on how school districts continue to raise
the cost of doing business yet don’t seem to make the tough
fiscal cuts that could result in direct reduction in our property
taxes.
This
Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) strongly urged the district that
as negotiations got underway to establish a new salary scale for
teachers, administrators and additional school personnel that it
freezes salaries for the first two years and grant modest
increases (under 3%) for the ensuing years of the contract. There
was a strong recommendation that contributions to health insurance
co-payments, retirement funding follows more closely the trend of
private industry to require greater worker fiscal contributions.
With
close to 60% of your property tax bill coming from this source our
hope is that you will voice your concern by Voting on May 17th.
NOT
FOR PROFIT STATUS –A REALITY
Thanks
to Civic Member, Leo McGinity and Civic Committee Chair Sara Moran
the PLCA has obtained its 503C –Not for Profit Status. This will
allow the PLCA to apply for grants with respects to traffic
calming, streetscapes programs or beautification initiatives. It
became apparent that PLCA continued to receive an underwhelming or
protractive response when we attempted to explore these
initiatives through the local governmental route. We hope this
will be an avenue that will bring more traffic calming measures to
our town. Much thanks to Leo and Sara for a job well done.
FORD
INDICATES SPEED SIGN COMING
Speaking
of Traffic Calming, County Legislator Denise Ford has indicated
she is working with Senator Dean Skelos to secure another
electronic speed sign for
Lido Blvd.
This would assist
immeasurable in alerting drivers of their speed when heading
westbound from the ball field and post office. 15
M.P.H. IS ALIVE AND WELL!
AUTISM
IN OUR COMMUNITY
The
PLCA introduced a special Sunday afternoon meeting for our
citizens and it proved to be worthwhile. In addition to seeing
many new faces, we were honored to have Audrey Brown in
attendance. Purpose of the meeting was to hear from John Gilmore
who gave a compelling and thought provoking discussion on Autism
and the possible linkages of mercury in vaccines being a potential
cause. John is the director of the NYS Chapter of the Autism
Association and a father of an Autistic child. He strongly
encourages residents to lobby our elected representatives and
inquire with their personal physicians the need to get mercury out
of all vaccines. John has such an important message we will be
inviting him to a general meeting over the summer so a wider
audience can be witness to his message. If you want more
information regarding this topic try www.naanyc.org
EGG
HUNT/ VANDALISM/ APPEARANCE TICKETS
It’s
unfortunate that we do have a few mindless souls or interlopers
into our community who get their “rush” by destroying,
stealing or defacing our community. On our Earth Day weekend some
imbecile decided to break into the Civic Shack bathroom and
trashed the place destroying the sink, toilet and breaking the
mirror. The following weekend some lackeys decided that knocking
down part of the wall at the beach would be the “fun thing to
do”. Several houses
near the beach have been consistently pelted with eggs. Rather
than making omelets with these delectables some moron thinks
“it’s a thrill” to deface someone’s home. We are asking
all people if you see something, say something! Call the Police
immediately by dialing 911, don’t wait a day. Young people, talk
to your parents to make certain THEY are behaving and not stirring
up trouble in town. Parents talk with you Kids to instill in them
a pride in their community and know where they are going each
night. If everyone did their small part by looking, observing and
taking action these issues would be few and far between.
RIGHT PLACE
,
WRONG TIME
With
the warm weather upon us and vacation season commencing please be
aware that the 4th Precinct and Town of
Hempstead Public Safety
will be ramping up their
surveillances of our parks, dune areas and beaches. Please be
mindful that APPEARANCE TICKETS have been issued in the past
resulting in a mandatory court date for the violator.
Please
observe the signs and don’t be caught in the right place at the
wrong time.
WANTED
A FEW GOOD WOMAN AND MEN
As
the summer of 2005 approaches we are appealing to our community
family to consider becoming a Board Member or Officer of the Point
Lookout Civic Association. This
August, up for election includes the positions of President, Vice
President, Treasurer, Secretary and Recording Secretary. If you
think you got what it takes or your power hungry and want to
improve your resume. Maybe you always wanted a fancy title with
over 400 people as your members, have we got a job for you!!
Gives
us a shout or send me an e- mail. The hours are long yet the
salary and benefits are tremendous. You will receive the greatest
satisfaction that you will be compensated for giving back to your
community some of your talent and energy and receive in return
being part of a community that is truly a slice of heaven. Think
about it, we are looking for you!
Next
General Meeting June 16th – Rec Hall- 8:00 p.m.
Sincerely,
Francis
X. Ryan- FRyan19788@aol.com
President
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