Consolidation Bill
The village board and I attended a meeting hosted by the Nassau County Village Officials Association (NCVOA) last Wednesday evening. The meeting was to discuss the recently proposed Consolidation Bill (A8501 and S5661) that was presented in Albany May 26, conveniently after the Memorial Day weekend.
The purpose of the bill is to amend the current law for Consolidation and Dissolution of Local Government. This bill is being introduced by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, at the behest of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, sponsored in the Senate by Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, and supported by Governor David A. Paterson. In short, it will amend the process to dissolve villages. Simplifying this process makes our village vulnerable to outside influences and costly unnecessary expenditures.
This bill places the future of our Village and our families in the hands of local and outside activists who can push for dissolution or consolidation, based upon abstract concepts and hide the facts from the community and its voters. Decisions on whether or not to dissolve or consolidate a local government should be a local decision made by informed citizens and informed elected representatives of those citizens. It should not be a decision made without study and all of the facts being presented. There must be a cost benefit analysis done before the decision is put before voters or elected representatives. Touting consolidation without merit on the village level of government, closest to the people, is foolish and threatens to change the suburban character that we love. Bigger government is not better government.
It is obvious by the way the bill was presented and the lack of advertisement that this bill is nothing more than a mechanism for special interests to take away the ability of communities to govern themselves and make local choices on the services they want for their communities.
We need your help. Please contact your state and local representatives and insist that they vote no on the ill-conceived and hastily drafted Assembly Bill #A8501 and Senate Bill #S5661, which amends the process to dissolve our village. Let’s preserve the place we love to live, work and raise a family.
LIRR Substation
This past weekend, the MTA/LIRR upgraded their substation located on Plainfield Avenue between Terrace Avenue and Stewart Street.
A meeting was held with the MTA and the Village of Floral Park on May 5 to discuss the details and the impact to the surrounding area. The planned project included the placement of some large equipment that required the use of a crane. The project started on Saturday morning and was completed by Sunday afternoon. We apologize for any inconveniences as a result of traffic being detoured and at times stopped while they safely maneuvered the equipment into place.
