$1
Friday, June 2, 2017
Vol. 77, No. 22
State moving forward to remediate Grumman pollution plume
REMEMBERING THE FALLEN
BY GARY SIMEONE
In commemoration of Memorial Day, Hicksville Public Schools hosted a variety of activities to honor the men and women in the armed services who made the ultimate sacrifice for America. At East Street Elementary School, students and staff gathered on the front lawn to sing patriotic songs and plant American flags. With parents and community members also in attendance, students also spoke about what Memorial Day means to them. At Hicksville Middle School, the Student Council planted American Flags on the perimeter of the front lawn under the direction of advisers Janice Fitzgerald and Jennifer Presti.
Local resident gets PGA championship invite BY GARY SIMEONE
It has been quite an end to the month for Oyster Bay resident and Head Golf Pro at the Tam O’Shanter Golf Club, Mark Brown. The PGA of America Club professional was recently invited to the Senior PGA championship in Washington DC. The event was held from May 23-28 at the Trump National Golf Club. “It has been a life long dream of mine to participate in this event and now I get the chance
to compete with some of golf’s greatest players,” said Brown, who is one of 35 PGA professional’s from across the United States who qualified for the Senior championship. It was not an easy road for the long time golfer, who has previously played in six PGA championship’s and one PGA Tour event. In order to qualify for the Senior championship, he had to beat out 140 other golfers in a local qualifying event and beat
out 314 people in a national tournament that took place last November in Port St. Lucie Florida. “Out of 314 there were 35 spots available to qualify for the Senior championship,” said Brown. “I had to play some of the best golf of my life in order to try and qualify for the event.” The Senior PGA championship requires participants to be fifty years of age or older and Brown just made the cut after See page 19
Bethpage High School was host to another public hearing on the Grumman Navy plume remediation plan on Wednesday, May 24. The meeting was a question and answer format and focused on the scientific evidence and testimony from experts in groundwater contamination. Oyster Bay Town Supervisor, Joe Saladino attended the hearing as well as Nassau County Legislator’s Rose Walker, James Kennedy and Steven Rhoads. New York State DEC Deputy Commissioner, Martin Brand was also part of the meeting. “Tonight we have state and local experts to update us on the scope of the plume and to also give some history and science behind the plume,” said Town Supervisor, Saladino. “Bringing this panel together demonstrates how serious we are about cleaning up the plume.” Saladino said a bill is currently being looked at in the State Assembly regarding the use of hydraulic containment to corral the plume. “New York State is moving forward building infrastructure around the plume and getting rid of the contaminants and toxins in it.” Deputy Commissioner, Brand, said that State Governor, Andrew Cuomo, directed the DEC to do an extensive engineering study on the plume and figure out options to try and hydraulically contain the advancement of it. “By October we should have preliminary results from our modeling and by early 2018, we should be in a position to ask Northrop Grumman and the Navy to pay what they are responsible for.” Michael Boufis, Superintendent of Bethpage Water District, followed up on the Deputy Commissioner’s statement by saying that since Northrop Grumman left the area, they have been tough to get reimbursement from. “We had a past financial agreement with the Navy and Grumman on Plants 4,5 and 6 at the water district,” said Boufis. “On one of our plants we are suing Grumman for $10 million in financial expenses and we are not going to build Plant number six until the Navy agrees to deposit money for it.” In the question and answer portion of the hearing, one resident said that the back and forth between the water district and Grumman and the Navy had been going for decades and See page 19
Top honors for MacArthur tennis team PAGE 5 Levittown athletes sign letters of intent PAGE 21