March Meeting Highlights:
A large audience attended the Hicksville Community Council meeting on Thursday, March 3rd to listen to and ask questions of our local elected officials. First to speak was Rose Marie Walker, Nassau County Legislator, explaining how the county has gotten into the financial fix it’s in, how it’s trying to correct areas of immediate concern and plan for the future. Michael Montesano, NYS Assemblyman, who had just that evening returned from Albany, spoke about matters most pressing at the state level which, of course, include the Governor’s proposed budget and cuts. These are hard times and all New Yorkers need to be prepared for some hard decisions. As Montesano explained, consideration must be given equally to the down and upstate counties and residents and their needs. Rebecca Alesia and Anthony Macagnone, members of the Town of Oyster Bay Town Board, filled in with news about the hard winter and the excellent job the town’s Highway Department did with snow removal; the nearly completed parking garage; and assurance that the town is working in cooperation with the county and state to get things accomplished.
Questions posed to Walker concerned red light cameras and coming additions and whether or not they were reaping the monetary rewards expected. Although they haven’t yet proven to be financially rewarding, the number of accidents has definitely shown a decrease, she reported. On a state level, the question of school consolidation was raised. But according to Montesano that might work in the upstate districts but didn’t seem feasible for downstate districts. The parking garage drew the most questions from the audience for town representatives. Bonnie Keyer asked that work be done on the drainage problems in that area before the official opening. A question was asked whether it would be possible to have school and property payments automatically deducted similarly to auto and other monthly payments. This will be passed along to Receiver of Taxes James Stefanich for consideration.
Meeting Photos
