THE SOUTH SHORE STANDARD • MAY 13 - 19, 2011

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The Shoe Men Page B7

Vol. I No. VIII

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MAY 13-19, 2011

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Court Blocks New Redistricting Plan

MOVE EFFECTIVELY STOPS NEW DISTRICT LINES

Lawrence Cuts Budget $500K Taxes Down by 6 to 7% By AUSTIN SYKES

Standard Staff Reporter

During his State of the Village address, Mayor Martin Oliner told residents they’ll soon be looking at a six to seven percent drop in taxes, as well as operating budget cuts of more than half of a million dollars. “The Average homeowner should feel approximately a 6 to 7 percent cut in their taxes for this year,” said Oliner. The cut, according to Oliner, comes from lower property assessments. “In an environment where other villages within our community have in fact increased their taxes, ours have not increased.” Oliner assured residents through much of Wednesday’s address that Lawrence “is not an island,” – but that it is in fact surrounded by dirty water. During his address, Oliner

Mayor Martin Oliner

told residents that a key focus in handling the “fiduciary responsibilities,” of managing the roughly $6 million budget will rely on cooperative efforts with Nassau County – which should come in handy when dealing with a new initiative intending to fix an old problem in the water filtration and sanitation facilities. “Our water is horrible! I don’t know if there’s anyone in this room who is satisfied with their water- I’m certainly not.” Oliner mentioned that a near ten year struggle with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) brought the town out of compliance with the DEC. “At the end of the day, we’ve tried several different ways to come into compliance with those facilities. Essentially, we have too much pollutants in our water after it goes through our facilities. Part of the reason for that is that our facility is old, and the other part is there are new rules and regulations.” The DEC however, controls and licenses the ability to cure any sewage and water issues – which led to officials looking for other options to keep from drowning. The life boat came after signing a municipal agreement with the county, who set course

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Atlantic Beach Griping Over Lack of Ticketing by Police

By JONATHAN WALTER Standard Staff Reporter A temporary restraining order on the Republican-controlled County Legislature’s proposed redistricting plan, which may still be put to a vote on Monday, was put into effect by New York State Supreme Court Justice Steven

Beach Clubs Set to Open for Memorial Day Weekend By JONATHAN WALTER Standard Staff Reporter

Memorial day weekend is approaching fast, and for Five Towners, that means it’s time for beach season. The Atlantic Beach clubs will open their doors on May 28th and are currently working hard to prepare their clubs for members looking for some fun in the sun. Sandy Wein, one of the owners of Catalina Beach Club, outlined some of the work that is being done to prepare for the season. “We’ve hired a lot of staff,” Wein said. “Every single surface of our club gets painted every year. We clean and acid wash the pool, and have to get all of our water systems up and running because all of the plumbing is closed down before the winter. You get leaks in the pipes and

some plumbing work needs to get done. There’s a whole lot of winterization in the fall and now it’s time for summerization. The excavator also has to level the beach. We also have to re-supply all of our food among other areas of the club. There is tons of work that needs to be done.” Locals will soon be relaxing in their cabanas, small sheltered areas near the pools or beach that range from looking like a large closet with no amenities to moderately sized rooms with running water and electricity. Cabana boys straight out of the 1984 movie, The Flamingo Kid starring Matt Dillon, are the stars of the beach club staffs and do a variety of odd jobs at members’ requests as they work for tips. “They basically do anything they’re required to

Jaeger, granting a request by the Democrats in the Nassau Legislature. Jaeger ordered that both sides return to court on May 26th to show why the plan proposed by the Republicans was not “arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of discretion and violates the constitutional precepts governing redistricting.” Five Towns Democratic Club President, David Friedman was thrilled with the news. “I think it’s terrific,” Fried-

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DRS Defeats Depleted HAFTR Squad

By SUSAN VARGHESE

Standard Associate Editor

Atlantic Beach wants the Nassau Police to write more tickets in their town. Atlantic Beach Mayor, Stephen Mahler blasted local police for the low number of moving violation summonses they’re issuing at the board of trustees meeting on Monday night. Mahler referred to the police report as “disgraceful,” only having 16 summonses issued, compared to previous months with 58 summonses. “They [officers] think that by making it up and riding around furiously next month, that is the cure all, and it’s not. We want uniform traffic enforcement on a monthly basis. It’s a disgrace to give out 16 moving tickets, which means that on most days, nobody is doing anything.” Mahler added, “We ask very little of the people assigned here, just coverage during rush hour, in the morning and evening. I don’t think that it’s too much to ask of them. I really am out of words to describe the poor performance. It just goes on year after year.” It seems that the village has also been wrongfully assessed for their sewage taxes, Mahler noted, and said that they taken it up with the sewer district. “ It turns out, right or wrong, that the sewer district assesses taxes based on the whole area of the beach. So the little beach house that has a couple of toilets and a couple of sinks, is being taxed at a rate based on the entire footage of the beach.” Mahler said that they would need to have new surveys drawn and get new sub-division where the beach houses are no longer a part of the beach property. At the meeting, Atlantic Beach Cats, (a volunteer organization that advocates for the humane methods to control and reduce the Atlantic Beach cat population) spokesperson, Beth Brenner, noted that their annual Mother’s Day plants sale was a success, they had $900 worth of plants early in the morning, and they sold out by 10:30am. Also during the meeting, it was noted that the village fund at the end of April of this year was in excess of $1.25 million, of that amount, $600,000 represents general funds that are available, and the remaining $654,000 represents the amount of bond issued for capital improvements and roadwork.

DRS Soccer Team An undermanned HAFTR team fell to DRS 14-5 in an indoor soccer match on Monday evening at DRS. HAFTR had only six players on hand as they tried to keep pace with DRS, who had over a dozen players to rotate in and out. The win improved DRS’s record to 5-2 while HAFTR fell to 4-3 with each team having just one regular season game left before playoffs begin. HAFTR head coach Harry Rozenbaum said, “…My team played their hardest even though they knew they probably weren’t going to win. Really, they were in it for the sake of the game and they didn’t give up.” DRS coach Rabbi Benjamin Jacoby added, “Everyone got included in the goals and everyone was being unselfish and I’m proud of how they played,” Jacoby said. “…It’s a great group of boys. They play hard. They play clean, and they’re good sportsmen. I think they’re a proud representation of this school and I very much enjoy being able to work with them.”

E v e n t s B 4 • O p e n H o u s e s B 2 • O p i n i o n s A 8 • M o v i e s B 2 • S p o r t s A 6 • We a t h e r A 5


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THE SOUTH SHORE STANDARD • MAY 13 - 19, 2011 by Mike Kurov - Issuu