Friday, November 15, 2019
Vol. 79, No. 46
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SERVING BETHPAGE, OLD BETHPAGE, AND PLAINVIEW
HOMECOMING 2019
Officials reflect on election results, discuss goals BY GARY SIMEONE
The Plainview - Old Bethpage Central School District recently held its Homecoming celebrations. Above, Homecoming Queen and King, seniors Skylar Musick and Andrew Zutler, pose in Homecoming royal apparel. See pages 14-15.
Worker injured at Hicksville company
Nassau County Police assisted a man who lost his arm in a workplace accident on Friday, November 8th at 12:53 p.m. According to detectives, a 28-year-old male worker was operating a piece of machinery at the US Food Corp located in Hicksville, when his right arm became lodged in the machine, severing his
arm below his elbow. The victim then ran next door to Energy Mechanical Corp for help. Workers there immediately assisted the victim by using a belt as a tourniquet that controlled much bleeding. Eighth Precinct Police along with a Nassau County Police Medic arrived and observed the victim on the
ground and applied a new tourniquet in place of the belt to control bleeding. The male victim was transported to a local hospital in a Nassau County Police Ambulance for further treatment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) responded and will continue further with the investigation.
It was an exceptionally good election campaign for Republican party candidates as they dominated the election results earlier this month. Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino was reelected to his position as Town Supervisor and Steve Labriola was re-elected to the Town Council along with candidates Laura Maier and Vicki Walsh. Richard LaMarca and Jeff Pravato all earned victories in the races for Town Clerk and Receiver of Taxes, respectively. “I believe the election results are reflective of the public seeing all that we were able to accomplish in such a short period of time,” said Saladino. “I think the fact that I'm a fiscal conservative in contrast to my opponent, (James Altadonna,) was another reason that the people voted the way they did. I want to show my appreciation to the voters of this Town.” Councilma Labriola was re-elected to the Town Council seat along with candidates Maier and Walsh. LaMarca was re-elected to Town Clerk and Pravato was elected to fill the seat of the recently retired James Stefanich. It was not a landslide victory for the Republican party, but they won with a favorable margin of 60-40 %. Labriola said that his future goals are made up of local initiatives as well as quality of life concerns and what he calls, “micro-initiatives,” which deal with monitoring properties that are owned by the Town. As far as local initiatives, he said that he wants to continue to provide
an honest, transparent government to his constituents and open up the budget process so that it is easily understandable. One of the websites that people can browse to see how money is being spent in the Town is opengov.com. He also wants to see reforms in some of Town’s departments to eliminate unnecessary waste and spending and provide the necessary oversight to review important town contracts and leasing deals. “We need to look to find alternative sources of revenue similar to our beaches and parks, which have seen their revenue double from last year,” said Labriola. “Spending at concession stands was up considerably and are golf courses and beaches have never been more popular.” Some of the micro-initiatives include working with developers on the former Sears property in Hicksville to make sure it fits within the image of the town and on the Westfield Mall in Massapequa, which was recently bought by an overseas corporation. “The Westfield Mall has a high vacancy rate and it is a priority and extremely important property to our administration,” said Labriola. “A French corporation bought and wants to redevelop the property, so we need to work with them on building an appropriate venue that fits the character of the community.” He added that city planners and the Town’s environmental review board will be closely monitoring the project to ensure that it fits the suburban mold of Long Island. See page 19
A safe Halloween tradition continues PAGE 18 Town demolishes 'zombie house' PAGE 8