(Editor’s note: This letter was originally sent to the Farmingdale Board of Education and is being printed here at the author’s request.)
I am writing to you as an extremely disgruntled taxpayer in the Farmingdale school district.
I live on 11th Avenue, directly opposite the football field. While I think it was wonderful of Senator Hannon to provide the school district with the grant to redo the field, it was a waste of taxpayer dollars. My taxes are still paying for the field that was put in several years ago. It is simply not true that this grant did not cost the taxpayers anything. For example, who paid (and is still paying) the salaries for the school security guards who were/are stationed at the school overnight? I am quite sure that the contractor did not reimburse the school district for this money. And, considering the economy today, $1.4 million could have been used by the school district for far more important purposes.
To add insult to injury, the work that was done was without any regard to the people living on 11th Avenue. The trucks usually arrived before 6 in the morning. And, at least once, they showed up at 11 at night to remove equipment. This affected not only me, but some of my neighbors on 10th Avenue as well.
When I called Nelson Dominguez, assistant director of school facilities and operations, to complain about the situation (the dirt left all over the street, the dust flying around, etc.), he was extremely rude, telling me that the taxpayers had voted for this and the project would not stop. I informed him that I had not voted for this. I informed him that all I was requesting was that the street be cleaned so that my children could play outside and that I could leave my windows open without dust flying in. His solution: two men with a push broom and a shovel, which made the dust worse. Even after a face-to-face meeting with my husband, Mr. Dominguez and someone from the town, the dirt situation was not resolved satisfactorily.
The one-day a street sweeper came down the block, it splashed dirty water onto all of the cars.
Now, I have heard rumors that the field will be used as runoff for town sports. If this is true, it will make an already bad parking situation even worse for the local residents. Parents for some reason don’t like to park in the school parking lot and would rather park on 11th Avenue. That means that when there are soccer, lacrosse and football games, more cars will double and triple-park. There are even parents who block the fire hydrants, making it dangerous for all of us.
Calling the police does not help. They are already short staffed and while these events are extremely inconvenient and troublesome to me, they are not a 911 emergency.
I do not know what can be done about this, but I believe that these issues should be addressed. I also thought that you would want to know how some of the residents and voters feel about the things that are going on.
I would be happy to discuss this further.
Michele H. Frontino
