Heartbroken Nature Lovers Find Themselves In Battle After County Clear-Cuts Popular Park Woodlands

Desiree Benn was horrified watching the nature park get chopped down. She quickly called the state authorities who stopped the cutting, but by then, over an acre had been wiped out, including over 100 trees. “It was a massacre”, said Ms. Benn. After asking questions and attending meetings, she quickly found out her input was not welcomed by decision makers. So, she founded Coindre Hall Park Community, in her quest to protect the sensitive waterfront area as a public nature preserve.

In the scenic harbor town of Huntington, New York, yacht clubs, private property, and members-only beach clubs dominate the shoreline. The last sliver of public access to the waterfront and undeveloped woodlands is historic Coindre Hall Park. The advisory board overseeing huge changes to the park is laden with town insiders and the yacht-club-crowd, who are determined to bulldoze anything in the way of a taxpayer funded, mega-restoration project. With neither an authorized plan, nor anyone on the board having essential environmental credentials, they’ve already begun major work. community, whose views differ from non-boat owners. Many park users want to know the benefit of constructing a pier and bringing boats into this pristine area.

Overdevelopment and commercialization of our shorelines are issues many communities are dealing with, and we need help...Please help save our nature park, and we’ll be there when your park is next.

The board is largely made up of members of the boating

Many question the wisdom of spending millions of tax-payer dollars to restore a condemned boathouse in a flood zone. Many are vehemently opposed to a road and parking spaces in the lower park area. Rather than engage in meaningful dialogue, the board refuses to acknowledge key questions,

Letter To The Editor

Dear Mr. Goldstein: and just pushes through an agenda in the face of mounting objections from the public. Hundreds have joined the grassroots group through Facebook and Nextdoor; thousands have signed petitions. Group members have been speaking up at board meetings and legislative sessions. It still may not be enough to move the needle against such an entrenched political machine. “Overdevelopment and commercialization of our shorelines are issues many communities are dealing with, and we need help”, Ms. Benn explains. “Calling all nature lovers! Please help save our nature park, and we’ll be there when your park is next”.

—Submitted by Coindre Hall Park Community

PROPOSED LAS VEGAS SANDS CORP. RESORT IN UNIONDALE

To: Robert G. Goldstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Las Vegas Sands Corp.

I write regarding Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s proposal to develop a resort at the current site of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.

As the elected representative of the Coliseum site and a fiduciary entrusted with protecting the overall best interests of Nassau taxpayers, I am always willing to take a closer look at opportunities to create jobs, expand our tax base and establish new revenue streams to aid in the delivery of essential County services.

To ensure that the intended outcomes of your proposal are aligned with the fulfillment of those responsibilities and desires, it is essential for a decision-maker like myself to have access to the most comprehensive information possible so that I can reach a well-informed decision. A thorough analysis of the economic development and job creation outcomes in host communities for previous Sands-developed resorts will be central to my review.

For the purposes of completing that analysis, I respectfully request for Sands to provide my office with data specifically outlining the number and nature of employment opportunities that were created in similarly positioned host communities; the salaries and benefits associated with each; professional development and advancement opportunities that were offered to recruits; the average duration of employment in each of these specific job titles; and the number of union employment opportunities that were created through these endeavors. Please also identify local hiring plans that were implemented; the extent to which these goals were achieved; and steps that were taken by your organization to achieve those targets.

Specific to the casino element of the proposed resort in Uniondale, N.Y., please furnish an enumeration of the job opportunities that will be created in the related service industries, including but not limited to the casino itself and associated restaurants, spas, entertainment venues, retail establishments and experiential destinations. As part of your response, please provide a detailed list of job titles, descriptions and projected salaries and benefits that are envisioned. Moreover, I am interested to learn more about the recruitment and training opportunities you are planning to offer and your strategies for maximizing the creation of union employment opportunities through this endeavor.

Please also advise my office of how you plan to incorporate minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBE), disadvantaged business enterprises (DBE); and entities spearheaded by veterans, disabled individuals and service-disabled veterans into the operations of your proposed resort. Please furthermore advise of previous scenarios in which a host community established baseline hiring requirements for such entities; the percentage that was achieved by Las Vegas Sands, Corp.; and the strategies you used to achieve these outcomes.

In the interest of mitigating concerns about potential negative economic impacts, please provide all data, analysis and studies conducted by Las Vegas Sands Corp. related to your experiences with existing small businesses in previous host communities and strategies that were utilized to address any concerns that were identified.

In the coming weeks, I will be in touch with additional questions. In the meantime, I look forward to your response and the opportunity to further review the merits of your proposal.

Sincerely,

Siela A. Bynoe Nassau County Legislature, Second Legislative District