HALF HOLLOW HILLS Copyright © 2013 Long Islander Newspapers, LLC
Online at www.LongIslanderNews.com
N E W S P A P E R
VOLUME FIFTEEN, ISSUE 33
20 PAGES
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
DIX HILLS
Friends Of Missing Man Join The Search Photos by Bob Savage
Volunteers get a briefing from a park ranger before they began scouring the 600-acre Edgewood preserve for Dix Hills resident Robert Mayer. Mayer has been missing since June.
Friends, family members, and even strangers have banded together in the search for a Dix Hills man who had been missing for nearly a month as of Monday. Since Robert Mayer’s disappearance, police and his wife, Ida Mayer, have been going through surveillance footage and working through leads. A citizen-powered manhunt has also been in full swing, as relatives, friends and members of St. Anthony’s High School, from which Robert graduated in 1985, have begun combing local areas. The search party has grown through an online presence, the Robert Mayer Search Group on Facebook. Daily posts from people who know Robert personally, or who just know of his story, generate ideas on where to look as well as messages of support for his family. His children are students in the Commack School District. The group’s most recent search
took them through the 600 acres of Edgewood Preserve on July 7. They have also scoured Pilgrim Psychiatric Center and the area surrounding the Deer Park train station, near where his car was found. Robert Mayer never returned home from work on June 14. Ida Mayer, said he ran out the door to his job as an electrician with JG Electric early that Friday. He was seen by co-workers shortly after noon. Police were able to go back and track his cell to Route 110 around 1:45 p.m., although his signal disappeared at 2:45 p.m. His red 2004 Pontiac GTO was later found near the Deer Park train station, but no one is sure why it would be there. The missing man was last seen wearing jeans and work boots. He is 6’1” with hazel eyes and about weighs about 200 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Second Squad at 631-854-8247. - DALLOJACONO
TOWN OF HUNTINGTON
Senators Slam Town Officials On LIPA Stance jbirzon@longislandernews.com
Two of Huntington’s state senators are accusing town officials of misleading the public through “theatrics and distortion” of facts regarding pending legislation against the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Senators John Flanagan (R-East Northport) and Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) claim Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone and Councilman Mark Cuthbertson “distort the facts,” “grandstand” and “are playing politics” when it comes to their very public campaign against LIPA regarding the utility’s 2010 tax certiorari for a 90-percent assessment reduction of the Northport power plant. If successful, the reassessment would result in a tax hike for town residents and homeowners in the Northport-East Northport School District. The town has since filed a lawsuit to stop the reassessment, citing a tax certiorari agreement made in 1997 saying LIPA was barred from seeking a reassess-
ment of the plant until 2013. In a July 2 letter to the editors of several local newspapers, the senators chide Petrone and Cuthbertson for holding a “politically motivated” press conference on June 11 when the senators were in Albany for legislative session. The press conference urged Governor Andrew Cuomo to include in his plan to restructure the power authority language preventing the utility from filing for a reassessment of the Northport power plant. The plan was to go to vote nine days later. “It is disingenuous to say you want to work together, but instead take actions to the contrary…,” the senators wrote. The letter also chastised the town for using the town’s emergency communications system to place town-wide “robo-calls” from the supervisor to promote the town’s “Stop the LIPA Tax Hike” campaign, launched to encourage the public to sign a petition urging the state to include a certiorari settlement in the legislation. The campaign, the senators allege, is a
“pure misconstruction of fact” launched strategically during an election year. “They distort the facts, grandstand by stating they have been sold out, and are playing politics with a critically important issue affecting local taxpayers that instead deserves serious considerations and leadership, not theatrics and distortion,” the senators wrote. The senators also criticize town officials for lamenting “their inability to be involved” regarding Cuomo’s plan for restructuring when public records indicate otherwise, they said. According to Marcellino and Flanagan’s letter, Petrone was quoted in a Newsday article in February saying his office had been in “direct contact” with the governor’s office regarding the tax certiorari issue. The senators also cite a May 13 press release from the governor’s office in which Petrone applauded Cuomo’s restructuring efforts “despite the fact that the governor’s proposal contained no resolution of the tax cases,” the senators wrote.
Half Hollow Hills photo/archives
By Jacqueline Birzon
The controversy surrounding LIPA’s push to decrease taxes it pays on the Northport power plant has pitted local officials against each other when it comes to the facts of the process. The senators point out that while town officials claim they were left in the dark, they executed a $30,000 per year contract with a taxpayer-funded lobbyist to correspond with the senator’s offices as the LIPA litigation unfolded. They said the lobbyist suggested language for Cuomo’s bill to in-
clude regarding the tax certiorari cases, but which was not received until the final days of session. In the late hours of June 20, Gov. Cuomo’s bill to restructure LIPA by transferring operations to New Jersey-based PSEG, freezing rates for two years and shrinking (Continued on page A13)
IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION
Grammy Winner Paula Cole To Perform A9
GET YOUR COPIES OF THIS EDITION AT LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE COMMUNITY (see list on page 2) Register for free digital subscription at
HalfHollowNews.com
Hicksville, NY 11801 Permit No. 66 CRRT SORT
US Postage PAID STANDARD RATE