Friday, June 5, 2020
Vol. 96, No.44
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Elliman Open House Live Visit openho use.elliman.co m and join Douglas Ellim an Agents for virtual open ho across Long uses Island on Thur sday June 11. Garden City Office | 516. 307.9406
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Hall of Fame
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Golden Girls celebrate PAGE 24
© 2020 DOUGLA S ELLIMA N REAL ESTATE. EQUAL HOU 110 WALT WHITMA SING OPP ORT UNI N ROAD, HUN TING TY. TON STATION, NY 11746. 631.549.740 1.
GC School budget election takes place this week by mail
THE SEASON THAT WASN’T
BY RIKKI MASSAND
Garden City High School senior athletes missed out on their final year of spring sports this year, but have shifted their focus to the future. See pages 42-43 to see the graduating boys lacrosse team members. Above, in a pre-pandemic photo, Christian Sullivan takes on a South Side opponent.
Residents demand answers about 93’ towers on LIRR Third Track BY RIKKI MASSAND Village residents have rallied to get the Board of Trustees to approach the Metropolitan Transportation Association (MTA) and Long Island Rail Road to revisit decisions about installing 93-foot-tall utility poles along the Estates section of the village. The poles are part of the 9.8-mile Third Track project which runs from Floral Park to Hicksville.
The Village Board meeting May 21 featured questions about the process by which these poles were installed during the early spring, while the pandemic’s heavy impacts on New York and Nassau County forced residents to stay home. However residents’ questions remained unanswered after the meeting. Three residents, all with the first name Matt, started the lengthy public comment and
exchange as they addressed the Village Board of Trustees on Zoom. The creator of a Change.org petition, “Remove 90+ Foot Steel Utility Poles Along Garden City Third Rail Expansion Project” Matt Hess noted the likelihood that property values along the corridor of the tracks will plummet and quality of life, with the visual intrusions on the greenery of the neighborhoods was a See page 34
During the Board of Education’s May 27 virtual/teleconference public hearing on the proposed 2020-’21 budget of $120,913,141 public comments were not voiced in real-time or read aloud, but Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kusum Sinha and Assistant Superintendent for Business/ District Clerk Dana DiCapua worked through several questions from community members. Dr. Sinha posed the questions the community sent into the administration, and in large part DiCapua provided focused and concise answers on each topic. The proposed schools budget represents a local tax levy increase of 1.74% (the maximum allowable levy) and a budget-to-budget increase of 2.47% -- up by $2,913,173. The deadline for votes on the budget to be received in to District Clerk DiCapua’s office by Tuesday, June 9 at 5 p.m. DiCapua stated that all absentee ballots with postage-prepaid “oath envelopes” -- requiring voter signatures -- were to be mailed to all registered voters living in the district by May 29. “Each voter needs to sign the oath envelope; without their signature on the oath envelope it is not a valid ballot vote...you cannot include multiple ballots from voters residing in the same household in one oath envelope,” DiCapua explained. Dr. Sinha read one question about formulating the district budget contingent upon students returning to regular operations of sitting in schools this fall, over the coming academic year. She said plans are in place for a full ‘in-school’ program, but plans do exist for either a blended/hybrid program delivery, or a fully remote program. “The State requires us to have a fiscal and functional plan for the education of our students. We have an operational budget that is put together with an understanding that the district will be open. We are required to have a budget and we do the best we can to anticipate the needs of students and employees for next year,” she said. Dr. Sinha believes additional requirements or accommodations, which would be outlined by the State Education Department and/or Gov. Cuomo’s office could mean classrooms with fewer students in order to adhere to physical distancing. “This may be challenging but we’re in the process of planning for schools to be open in September,” she noted. Another resident’s question was about potential savings, or costs See page 40
Cathedral launches Center for Spiritual Imagination PAGE 29 Thousands attend protest rally in Garden City, Mineola PAGE 3