Serving New Hyde Park, North New Hyde Park, Herricks, Garden City Park, Manhasset Hills, North Hills, Floral Park
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Friday, February 26, 2016
Vol. 65, No. 9
N E W H Y D E PA R K
ART GUILD PICKS 3RD TRACK COUNTIES JOIN FORCES PHOTO WINNERS TIMELINES OFF IN HEROIN FIGHT PAGE 27
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Gov, villages talk 3rd track Cuomo touts project at meeting, hears concerns from Main Line village officials B y N oah M anskar Officials from villages along the Long Island Rail Road’s Main Line went to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan office Friday afternoon thinking they’d be discussing Cuomo’s plans for a third LIRR track with one of his aides and the heads of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Long Island Rail Road. The transit chiefs weren’t there when they arrived, but the governor was. Some village officials who were at the meeting said Cuomo’s visit was proof he’s serious about listening to their communities’ concerns about the project he announced Jan. 5, but the lack of specifics at the meeting still left them with questions. “He is not trying to shove it down our throats, or he appears not to be at this point,” Village of Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira said. “... At the very least he’s trying to show some good faith. I wish it had been done before he made the announcement, that we had this meeting, but
it is what it is.” The mayors of New Hyde Park, Floral Park and Westbury joined Pereira at the Feb. 19 meeting, along with Mineola Village Clerk Joseph Scalero and Village of Plandome Heights Mayor Barbara Donno, president of the Nassau County Village Officials’ Association and an aide to state Sen. Jack Martins. While Cuomo didn’t present a detailed plan, Pereira said, he ran the meeting and “assured” village officials the project to put a third track along 9.8 miles of the Main Line from Floral Park to Hicksville was not the same plan that met community opposition and was ultimately derailed in the mid-2000s. It would be a “design and build” project like the new Tappan Zee Bridge, Pereira said, meaning private builders would handle construction, not the MTA or the LIRR. The project would be less intrusive, Cuomo told them, built within the LIRR’s existing right of way with few or no property takings, Pereira Continued on Page 20
Photo by Noah Manskar
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who met with village officials last week, appears at a rally in Westbury on Feb. 23.
Party heads to make financial filings B y N oah M anskar sure statements from town po- collected the forms from town a town committee of a party” to of town policies and procedures
litical party leaders for the first party leaders — including Gerard Terry, the Roslyn Heights The Town of North Hemp- time this year. The town has never before resident who stepped down as stead will collect financial disclothe town Democratic chairman this month — Town Attorney Elizabeth Botwin said, despite a provision in the town code requiring the “town chairman or leader of
file them. “It’s our law, we must comply, and we will comply,” Botwin said in an interview. The decision to collect the forms came at the direction of Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Botwin said. Bosworth ordered a review
last month after a Newsday report revealed that Terry, who until recently was the attorney for the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals and special counsel for the town attorney, owes more than $1.4 million in federal and state back taxes, has been party to five Continued on Page 23
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