With their safety goggles on, and determination in their hearts, students from the Great Neck South High Robotics “Rebels” team took home the Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award for the third consecutive year in the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island First Robotics Competition at Hofstra University last Saturday.

The Rebels placed 43rd overall in the competition, which challenges teams of students and their mentors to design and build a 130-pound robot in six weeks using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules.

The results of the Long Island Regionals ended the Rebel’s chances for a shot at the national title, but excitement was still evident in the voice of team spokesman Jacob Roth.

“We won the underwriters safety award for the 3rd year in a row, and no other team has ever won it even two years in a row,” Roth said.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t win a spot in nationals, but we are still happy.”

The underwriters award recognizes the team that progressed beyond safety fundamentals by using innovative ways to eliminate or protect against hazards.

Last Saturday was the final day in the regional tournament, which spanned three days, consisting of more than 47 teams in total from all over Long Island, Staten Island and New Jersey.

The David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex at Hofstra was filled with a crowd of more than a thousand enthusiastic spectators on Saturday, showing their excitement as they energized the room with cheers, while watching the robotics teams compete in a series of elimination rounds.

The competition, known as “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition,” is a national program

After six weeks, teams are required to submit their projects and are unable to view it again until the week of competition. Each team received their kit on January 8.

In 1999, SBPLI founded Long Island FIRST for the purpose of developing a regional robotics competition. The Long Island Regional has grown from eight teams (school districts) in 1999 to over 47 teams in 2011.

Safety is a major theme in the competition, with Roth calling it “paramount” to the advisor that they always win the safety award.

“He has made it his mission to always make sure the team wins the safety award every year, as a minimum,” Roth said.

Rebels’ advisor John Motchkavitz, who is the head the business and technology department at Great Neck South High, said the team’s emphasis on safety is an outgrowth of their sponsor, the Great Neck Fire Company.

“The Great Neck Fire Company helps sponsor the team and with their help we made sure every member of the team was trained in AED, CPR, and first aid,” said Motchkavitz.

“The robot is a tool to teach camaraderie,” Motchkavitz said. “The process that goes into this is key.”

Motchkacitz has been the team advisor for the last four years. The robotics club, and class both were started on the same year. Students can take the robotics class as an elective beginning their junior year and take it again the following year.

The number of robotics classes offered at Great Neck South has increased to three since its first inception four years ago.

The competition also helps develop future skills for students looking to go into the engineering field.

“What you learn through competition helps you learn about teamwork.” Roth commented. “It’s extremely vital.”

Motchkavitz agreed, adding “About 90 percent of these kids go into the engineering and industrial fields, and architecture.

“Overall this was a positive experience,” said Roth. “It makes me feel like I’m part of something that matters.”

Some years ago, I remember riding my bicycle into the Plaza. One minute I was on the bike and the next thing I remember is waking up at North Shore Hospital, in a panic that I had missed my son’s Bar Mitzvah entirely.

I had no idea how long I had been unconscious. I had no memory of the Vigilant EMTs – for the most part volunteers like the firefighters, people who live or work in the community – who came to my aid, scraped me off the pavement and brought me to the hospital. I never saw their faces or a bill.

The reason I never saw a bill is that the villages contract with the Vigilants to provide ambulance service, and it is paid for through their operating budgets.

For many years, the villages have balked at paying this charge, and now, with latest obsession among governments to slash budgets any way they can, they are looking for a means to have patients pay their own way – either through their insurance, or from their pocket.

Before examining whether his proposal would actually save taxpayers money, the problem is that it is not legal for a volunteer fire ambulance to charge. To implement this pay-go policy, the Vigilants would have to set up some kind of sister corporation, which the Vigilants claim would lead to several adverse consequences.

The Vigilants are saying that they cannot function in the same way as now, with a volunteer, community-based organization, if they are forced to set up such a pay-go corporation.

In the end it would cost the residents in two ways, says Robert Lincoln, Vigilant trustee and ex-chief: first they would be charged for use of the ambulance; second, they would lose the free labor provided by the volunteer EMTs (who meet the same training and testing standards as paid people do.) So, a system with paid personnel would have to cost more. Also lost would be the mutual-aid system where fire departments help each other.

Remember the microburst disaster last June? That was a clear example of volunteer companies coming to our aid from all around Nassau County.

But for those who are obsessed with a pure bottom-line analysis, just how much more would it wind up costing and would there really be a savings?

Lincoln has done the calculation: currently a middle income home with a market value of $700,000 (paying approximately $11,000 per year in total property taxes) pays approximately $42 per year for the Vigilant EMS service, now, operating with three ambulances stationed in the Vigilant firehouse on Cuttermill Road and the Alert firehouse on Steamboat Road. The dispute over the budget allocation amounts to less than $10 per household, he says.

On the other hand, if you actually needed an ambulance, the cost of a typical ambulance call would be about $400. And if you didn’t have health insurance or if your health insurance didn’t cover the whole amount, you would be on the hook until the bill was paid.

A village official argued that while the cost of an ambulance call is 10 times more than the tax amount, most village residents are paying for a service that they wouldn’t use. But one way to look at it is that the $42 per household cost a year is like paying for health insurance – you pay a small amount to cover the possibility of a large amount.

For some time the villages have been in disagreement over how the Vigilant ambulance budget is allocated to each village.

“We leave this decision to them,” says Lincoln. “Our budget is broken into two sections: fire protection and ambulance service because we provide EMS only to the villages protected for fire by the Alerts (they do not run an ambulance).”

But some villages (apparently the Village of Great Neck is leading the way) have threatened to withdraw from the Vigilant service, and hire another service, which would be based outside of Great Neck. Also, all the villages have been very slow to renew their contracts with Vigilant because of this dispute, Lincoln says.

But If even one village pulls out of this cooperative arrangement, Lincoln says, the cost would skyrocket to the rest, and be unaffordable – in effect, Great Neck would lose its locally-based ambulance service.

Currently the EMS system is based in Great Neck. Members are sent directly to the scene from home or wherever they are, while others bring the ambulance. This makes response time fast, and certainly faster than a provider responding from off the peninsula.

Indeed, by 10 a.m. on Monday, the Vigilants had already responded to four ambulance calls.

In situations where minutes can mean the difference between life and death, and considering the geography of Great Neck, that could be a tragic mistake. It would seem that the overarching issue over whether a decision is made to change the payment system would be whether we would lose the Vigilant service we have or how the service would be changed.

“The changes are being proposed by local villages, not by the county or the state,” Lincoln notes. “To the best of our knowledge, it is not part of a consolidation plan; however the result could be the same. We now have a community-based service which is staffed and funded locally. The system works and we believe that the cost is reasonable, if not a bargain for what our residents get. And it could be dismantled by our very own local elected officials who have been silent with their constituents.”

While consolidation of the fire services is not the essence of this proposal, the effect of the proposal could be comparable.

The Vigilant Fire Company has provided a volunteer ambulance service to the residents of Great Neck north of the train tracks since the late 1930s. At that time, the residents of Great Neck decided they needed their own volunteer ambulance service for several reasons, including faster and dependable response times. 

Today, with the volunteers living in the community, they often arrive at scenes and begin treating a patient in advance of the ambulance – making response times even quicker than the national standard.

“Having people with an intimate knowledge of Great Neck’s streets helps speed up our response times, which is paramount in a situation where every second counts,” said Chief Scott MacDonald.

The EMS mission of the Vigilant Fire Company has continued to grow with an increasingly large number of calls and greater training demands being placed on EMTs. Utilization of the ambulance service has risen from once or twice a week when it started in 1937. Today, the Vigilants see about 2,000 EMS calls a year – averaging more than five each day.

“The Great Neck peninsula has always benefited from the highly-trained volunteer EMS providers who staff the Vigilant ambulances,” says David Weiss, chairman of the board of trustees. “The volunteers are proud of what they do and are happy to be volunteers. They receive the same training as paid EMTs and they volunteer because of their dedication and passion to help the community.”

Their professionalism is truly extraordinary – but there is another benefit of having a volunteer firefighting force -and that is the sense of community that it forges. The firefighters and EMTs have a camaraderie – a kind of society- of their own, it is true, but they have a fierce loyalty to the community. And they have a superb way of cooperating with each other – our volunteers assisted during 9/11 and companies from all over Nassau County came to Great Neck after the June microburst.

But I would question whether there is a cost savings to shifting this way, and whether residents are that anxious to save the $42.

This dispute over how the villages are assessed for ambulance service has simmered for years, and now has reached a kind of a head or a stalemate, depending on who you talk to. Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman has apparently taken up the issue, seeing it as another way to examine the way governments offer services, more efficiently, and was reportedly seeking a grant to study a proposal for the pay-go system.

What is upsetting to many is that these discussions are happening among the village officials and the town, and not in a general forum, where people could express their view on whether it is worth it to pay $42 in tax a year, versus a pay-go system that could result in the loss of our local ambulance service.

The Vigilants are not standing by but are taking the matter to the people,

The Vigilant Fire Company, which opposes these proposed changes to Great Neck’s ambulance service, will hold a community meeting on Tuesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Great Neck North Middle School to inform residents of all of the facts regarding this important issue and how it could affect them.

“The Vigilants want to inform the community of the proposed changes that are being discussed,” says Lincoln. “We welcome all residents to come out on April 5th for an important community meeting regarding the future of their ambulance service and what it means for them.”

He adds, if the people decide they want to change from a tax-based system to a pay-go system, then so be it.

The Great Neck Estates Civic Association voted unanimously on Monday to support the fall AutoFest/street fair sponsored by the Village of Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District and the Village of Great Neck Plaza by writing an Op-Ed to the local papers.

The vote came after Jay Corn, chairman of the Village of Great Neck Estate Board of Assessors and vice president of the BID, explained the economic situation that faces the nine incorporated villages in the Great Neck area.

Declining market value on commercial space has led to an increase in tax deductions that will ultimately fall on the backs of the residents, Corn said.

“That will result in one of two things, either our taxes will go up or our services will decline. Meaning that our schools will no longer be at the level we are accustom to,” he said.

“Great Neck cannot survive anymore with just Great Neck residents. We need to draw people from outside of Great Neck to come in, see our community and perhaps see something they’ll come back and shop for.” Corn said. “Its exposing people from outside the community to this and it’s extremely important because we cannot survive any longer on Great Neck residents, we don’t have the kind of support anymore.”

Corn said competition has increased and Great Neck is losing revenue to the bigger “warehouse” stores like Home Depot and Costco. Also with the rise of Internet shopping many people are opting to stay home and shop instead of going into the town.

“This is extremely important because he we want to maintain that tax base the commercial district has to stay healthy.” Corn said. “You’re seeing more and more stores going now because they just aren’t making enough.”

In an effort to generate more revenue for those villages various festivals and promotions are held, Corn said. There is a sidewalk sale in the spring, restaurant week and others. But, he said, none of them however are as popular as the Autofest.

According to the Great Neck Police, the event brings in 20,000 to 30,000 people.

“We’re all holding hands in this,” Corn said. “If Middle Neck Road becomes a tumble weed blowing across the street it will affect our homes and it will raise our taxes because the commercial properties won’t be contributing.”

As chief of medicine at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Dr. Bharat Shah suffered from his own elusive psychiatric condition.

Predawn hours saw him wake with chest pain in his Great Neck home. Driving was a challenge. Normally content with his own company, solitude turned into loneliness. Then the suicidal thoughts started.

“You are running as if there is a tiger, but there is no tiger,” he said. “It’s literally all in your mind.”

Panic-attack free for four years, the retired pulmonary internist shares his story in “My Life With Panic Disorder,” his ninth self-published work.

Shah, who retired four years ago, has lived in Great Neck for more than 30 years.

There was a lot on Shah’s mind when the panic attacks started in 1997.

The sole income earner, Shah had been laid off twice from his job, suffered a stroke and had to cope with his wife’s illness, which would eventually required a liver transplant. When he woke up at 4:13 every morning with chest pain, he learned to ignore the feeling.

“That’s a pretty risky thing to do, but you can’t call 911 every day,” he said.

Still, Shah does not blame his disorder on stress.

“When my wife got a liver transplant I did not have panic attacks,” he said.

Easily confused with a heart attack, panic attacks are anxiety without reason. Marked by the sudden onset of symptoms such as sweating, chest pain, shortness of breath and fear of dying, recurrent episodes can signal panic disorder.

Panic disorder is easily diagnosed and treated, according to Shah, but like him, many patients only end up receiving psychiatric care by process of elimination.

Despite a battery of tests by a variety of specialists, it was Bharat’s sister-in-law and her colleague at the Great Neck Public Library who suggested panic disorder. The diagnosis came after a year of chronic anxiety attacks.

Lack of awareness can have fatal consequences: one-third of people with panic disorder develop depression and one-fourth commit suicide, said Shah.

Born in the Indian state of Gujarat, Shah immigrated to the United States in 1967, after graduating from medical school. He met and married his wife Usha in India two years later.

“You’d be surprised,”he said. “We met and decided to marry in 15-20 minutes.”

There is a lot of confusion in the West about arranged marriage, which Shah described as arranged date that can end in marriage if things click.

“Things are different now,” he said. “Practically within three weeks we met, got engaged, got married and arranged for her visa.”

Describing himself as an observer of life, the Renaissance man has written how-to books on learning Sanskrit, Gujarati, English for Gujarati speakers and an introduction to his native religion of Jainism.

“Gujarati is the mother tongue, Sanskrit is the language of scripture,” he said.

Book sales do not pay the bills, but they pay for themselves.

“My Life With Panic Disorder” is available for $10 plus shipping on amazon.com.

For the Great Neck Library, this is the beginning of the end.

The Town of North Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously approved on Wednesday, March 23 five variances to reconstruct Great Neck’s main library branch in an expansion that would add about 8,600 square feet, and bring the aging structure into the digital age.

If the project receives site-plan approval from North Hempstead’s Town Board, the next step is a referendum on the $22.5 million construction project, which will be financed by a bond.

With various library boards trying for 15 years to bring the project to a vote, the time is now right, said Janet Eshaghoff, president of the Great Neck Library Board of Trustees.

“The minority opposition has been successful in delaying this, and I’m very happy that the residents are going to be able to express their opinion,” said Library Trustee Martin Sokol. “I feel very confident that they will recognize the wonderful asset that this community has in its library.”

Site-plan approval could take until the end of June, said Sokol, who is hoping for a referendum in September or October.

“We need to use the library a little differently,” said assistant Library Director Laura Weir. “We need more study rooms. We may need a much bigger AV space.”

Built in the late 1960s, the building’s heating and cooling systems are beginning to “break apart,” Weir said. When the furnace broke down a couple of winters ago, it was hard to find replacement parts.

The renovation would expand the children’s room and make it a more kid friendly space. An adjoining multi-purpose room would be used for programming, in lieu of current basement level facilities.

Computers would be located in a dedicated space, away from the sometimes noisy children’s room, while the audio visual department (i.e. DVDs) would be in larger, more central location.

Eshaghoff said that the AV department is one of the most heavily used sections of the library, but it is difficult to find anything because the DVDs are so tightly packed.

Although referendum details are not yet available, with a vote planned for fall, the project’s supporters are hopeful there is enough time to inform the community about the need for construction.

According to library trustees, it might be a job best left for professionals.

At a meeting March 23, trustees interviewed two public relations firms who, if hired, would be charged with giving Great Neck residents nothing but the facts. A request for proposals send out by Library Director Janet Marino yielded only one response, a firm the board previously interviewed.

“If we do hire a PR firm, which is something that we are considering, we would charge them with informing the public,” Eshaghoff said. “That’s our goal. To make sure that everyone is apprized of the issues. It’s always been one of the frustrations we have, that the public is somewhat apathetic about voting. Hopefully for this particular election we will get them out to the polls.”

Firms previously interviewed by trustees would charge in the “high teens.”

The referendum will have an advocate in the Committee for a 21st Century Great Neck Library, chaired by former library president Mischa Schwartz and his wife Charlotte.

“What we hope to do is educate the community about what the renovation is all about, why we need it, and hopefully get as many people as possible to support it,” said Charlotte Schwartz.

Despite the obstacles and financial issues, Eshaghoff thinks the vote will be affirmative.

“If it’s not now it’s never,” she said.

Local politicians and LIRR representatives came out for the grand opening of an information center about the Colonial Road Improvement Projection at Great Neck Station on Monday, March 28, along with a handful of protesters questioning the $36 million project.

Decked out with a flat-screen TV, maps and renderings, and comment cards, the information center will be staffed by LIRR personnel who can discuss the proposed project that would extend an existing pocket track in the Village of Thomaston, replace the century old Colonial Road Bridge, and address track drainage problems to bring LIRR service to Grand Central Terminal.

“This is the most important project that we are launching as part of the East Side Access Project,” said LIRR President Helena Williams.

The project has drawn vocal opposition from Village of Thomaston residents who have complained about noise that would accompany project-track extension. Village of Thomaston Mayor Robert Stern has also repeatedly complained that LIRR officials had been unresponsive to his requests to talk after he announced his opposition to the project.

But Stern had a different message after discussing the project with Williams immediately before the grand opening.

“We have a good working relationship,” Stern said. “I think we’re lucky to have this president.”

U.S. Rep Gary Ackerman (D-Great Neck) said LIRR officials are willing to consider any suggestion that reduces the projects’s impact, both on the environment and residents who live near the pocket-track extension.

“There is no solution that will satisfy everyone, but we have to try,” he said. “It would not be realistic or practical to abandon the whole process. There are a lot of people who use the rail to get to the East Side. Certainly more than the 75 families who live around the tracks. But it certainly should not be done totally at their expense.”

Thomas said potential sound mitigation measures include a sound wall and sound-absorbing landscaping.

LIRR officials have said the Colonial Road Improvement Project will improve rush-hour service and seat availability from Great Neck, provide better service for special events at Mets-Willets Point, provide construction jobs, and replace the Colonial Road Bridge. They have also said the project will give the LIRR the ability to add up to 10 trains to the East Side of Manhattan during the morning when the $7.3 billion East Side Access Project brings the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal for the first time in 2016, cutting as much as 40 minutes off commuting time for tens of thousands of customers along the entire branch.

Calling the LIRR a “cooperative partner,” Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said, “We want to have rail road service enhanced, but not at the expense of the community.”

Still unanswered is how the Village of Great Neck Plaza will accommodate a projected 20 percent increase in rail road traffic.

“How are these people going to get here and where are they going to park?” Ackerman asked.

Among the comments Williams received in Great Neck were a couple that stressed the importance of bus-rail coordination.

Approximately eight protesters stood outside the info center holding signs that said “No money for service…$36 million to build!” and flyers with a list of questions for the MTA, including question No. 1, “How can we justify this work when the MTA is willing to cut transportation for those who desperately need it?”

The project will be paid for using capital funds that can only be used for construction, Williams said.

Among the protesters was Great Neck resident Steven Hirsch, who lives along the pocket-track extension.

Pointing to a rendering of the extension, he said, “I live at a property here where there are no trees. It doesn’t appear that there is room for them.”

When the LIRR cut down the trees that line his property a few years ago, he said it had a big impact on noise.

The information center will be open in Friday, April 1 from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 am and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, April 2 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday, April 3 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

So you are joining an athletic team (or perhaps your daughter or son is doing so). Enough has been written about the human need for exercise in order to achieve both a physically and a mentally healthy lifestyle. That’s one reason why so many adults trot around the neighborhood, play golf, tennis or join a gym, but what, if anything, should you expect from high school or middle school interscholastic athletics?

First, you will have the opportunity to show up everyday for practice to demonstrate to yourself and to others that you have made a “reliable commitment.”

Second, you will have the opportunity to be prepared everyday with everything that you are supposed to have to demonstrate to yourself and to others that you are “organized.”

Third, you will have the opportunity to work harder each day than you did the day before to demonstrate to yourself and to others that you are “industrious.”

Fourth, you will have the opportunity to face daunting challenges to demonstrate to yourself and to others that you have “courage.”

Fifth, you will have the opportunity to get back into competition after setbacks and losses to demonstrate to yourself and to others that you are persistent and will “persevere through hard times” to reach success.

Sixth, you will have the opportunity to strive together with others to achieve difficult worthy goals to demonstrate to yourself and to others that you understand the power and the virtue of “teamwork.”

Seventh, you will have the opportunity to succeed graciously and to fail with dignity, both with an aura of good sportsmanship, as you demonstrate to yourself and to others that you act with “honor and respect” toward yourself and toward others. You can come away with faith in yourself and the feeling that others have faith in you too, the foundation of “self-confidence.”

So often it has been said and written that athletics builds character. Perhaps more to the point, athletics reveals our character, and from that point forward competitive athletics provides to us the opportunity to refine and to strengthen those traits within us which can enable us to ascend to the highest level of our potential.

No one is entitled to success. Perhaps writer Jack London wrote it best in his novel “The Sea Wolf” when his character, ship’s captain Wolf Larson, said in effect that the World is filled with amoebas and that the big ones eat the little ones. Social Darwinism? Sure, and seemingly pretty perceptive. So we enroll in extra SAT courses to become bigger amoeba. We try to attend a prestigious college to become a bigger amoeba. We have after-hours tutors to become a bigger amoeba. We join a gym to become a bigger amoeba. The list goes on.

Learning how to overcome obstacles is a major league key to achieving success, especially entrepreneurial success, but to be able to develop the self-confidence that you can overcome obstacles you have to actually face them. Just how do you know that you faced an obstacle? Probably because you did not get something that you wanted, you lost, you got knocked down. It is precisely at that point that your character is revealed.

You could choose to react like Aesop’s fox who did not reach the grapes that he craved. He quit trying and concluded that they were probably sour anyway (sour grapes). Or you could get back to work and apply yourself with greater energy and creativity to find a way to achieve your goals like The Little Engine That Could.

So many of life’s valuable lessons were couched in classic bedtime stories and fairy tales, which, unfortunately are seldom read these days by parents to their children. We have swapped them for television, X-Boxes, and iPods, and have thereby generally substituted entertainment for lessons in ethics. Yet, these valuable lessons can still be learned through properly supervised interscholastic athletic competition.

In the classroom we have driven the curriculum to teach to the standardized test, whether that is a Regents exam, PSAT or SAT, but what does a high score on any of these exams really prepare us for?

Perhaps we should conduct a nation-wide search to find a high school somewhere in this land of the free and home of the brave that teaches to the tests that so many of us are actually compelled to take.

You know, the how to buy a house test, the get your kids through their teen years test, the finance your kids college education test, the how to pick a spouse test, the how to keep a marriage together test (or how to survive the breakup test), the how to keep your business solvent during hard times test, the how to care for an aging senior family member test. There are all sorts of real tests for which middle schools, high schools and colleges make no attempt to address.

The common denominator for all tests is that they are challenges for which the outcome is uncertain yet important.

Learning how to face such situations is precisely what interscholastic competitive athletics prepares us to do by bringing us face-to-face with our limitations, encouraging us to overcome those limitations, and showing us how to go about doing that. The beauty of it is that these lessons can be learned while we are young, and while we are playing a game, where setbacks do not have anywhere near the impact that setbacks will have for us as adults.

There are those, who during these trying times would have us cut out or eliminate interscholastic athletics. There are those who find the demands to be more than were bargained for up front, so they quit. Yet the values of participation in a well-run competitive interscholastic athletic program are real, they are essential to achievement, and they are life-long.

For the past year, I have been advocating on behalf of those who use the services of Long Island Bus.

I have met with representatives of the Tri-state Transportation Campaign, New York Communities for Change, the Transportation Workers Union, Vision Long Island, Jobs with Justice, and with many bus riders, including those who live within my district as well as outside of it. I have attended meetings at which scores of physically challenged individuals spoke so eloquently about their need for Able-Ride to take them to their doctor’s appointments, classes and jobs. I have stood at bus depots and heard the pleas of those who cannot afford to maintain their own vehicles and must have a way to get to work or school on Long Island. I have had constituents calling my office pleading with me to help insure continued service of all Long Island Bus routes.

These constituents warn of unintended consequences, such as when those who ride the N58 to the Great Neck train station suddenly begin to cause traffic jams or parking problems during rush hour. Or when home health-care workers can no longer find a way to get to the elderly or infirm, perhaps leading those individuals to give up their independence and wind up in assisted living facilities or nursing homes.

Most of my constituents get to work by car or train, it is true. But there are many, and they are often the less fortunate or those who are just at the beginning or toward the end of their adult lives, who rely on buses to get them to their first job, or college, or the senior center.

These adults must be treated with the same consideration as the attorney who drives to his law office in Garden City or the hotel concierge who takes the Long Island Railroad in to Manhattan.

Without the ability to further their education, earn a living, seek medical attention or visit with family and friends, these people who rely on Long Island Bus will be robbed of the ability to maintain and further their quality of life. What will they do? Will they leave Long Island?

Walking is often not an option and cabs are prohibitively expensive.

This is not the time to engage in brinksmanship at the expense of innocent victims. We need to work to find an option other than eliminating this valued and necessary service. We must do what we can so that the county and the MTA can come to an arrangement and continue to provide necessary services to our residents.

This cannot be about politics – it must be about the people.

Please feel free to contact me at jbosworth@nasaucountyny.gov or at 516-571-6210 if you have further questions or concerns about this or any other issue.

Observing its 45th anniversary, the Queensborough Performing Arts Center in Bayside seeks to keep a diverse audience entertained, but it’s a particularly big draw among baby boomers.

In the wake of last weekend’s “Abbamania!” show, jazz guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli and the Swing Seven move into the concert spotlight on Saturday, April 2 at 8 p.m. in the popular Queens venue.

Pizzarelli is the son of his father, journeyman swing guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. The John Pizzarelli Trio was the opening act for the late legendary Frank Sinatra on some of his final concert dates, including Ol’ Blue Eyes’ 80th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall.

Pizzarelli and the Swing Seven will be swinging on standards at the Queensborough Peforming Arts Center with a particular emphasis on the compositions of Richard Rodgers.

Pizzarelli’s most recent CD release with Jessica Molaskey, his life and musical partner, is a tribute to Duke Ellington dubbed “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” featuring Pizzarelli’s quartet with his bassist brother Martin Pizzarelli, pianist Larry Fuller, and drummer Tony Tedesco.

But the Saturday night performance of Pizzarelli with a larger ensemble will likely reflect tunes he recorded on a 2008 tribute album, the Grammy Award- nominated “With A Song In My Heart,” which included versions of “The Lady Is A Tramp,” “Mountain Greenery” and “Johnny One Note,” along with Rodgers & Hart songs from “South Pacific” and “The King and I.”

“We’re going to do a lot from that record,” Pizzarelli said. “All my records start out as something else. That one started out as something else on Johnny Mercer.”

Pizzarelli said the Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation wanted the show to be done.

He’s anticipating work on a new recording, but said he hasn’t yet settled on a theme for the project.

“This is the fun time. We haven’t come up with something definitive yet. But we never run out of ideas,” Pizzarelli said.

The $40 ticket price for all seats at Pizzarelli’s performance is a foundation of the concert model for the Queensborough Performing Arts Center, according to Susan Agin, the arts center’s managing and artistic director.

“We’re very conscious about making our shows affordable to the people who put us here in the first place,” Agin said. “I think that we have a great selection and I think that our prices allow families, seniors on a fixed budget and the working folks all to be able to participate.”

Following the Pizzarelli show, Queensborough Performing Arts Center presents Broadway star Betty Buckley on April 10 at 3 p.m., when she will reprise performances of songs from shows she’s appeared in, including “Sunset Boulevard,” “Carrie,” “Song & Dance,” “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” “1776” and “Promises, Promises.” She won a Tony Award for her legendary performance as Grizabella in the Broadway production of “Cats.”

Ben Vereen brings his smooth vocal style and impressive Broadway credits to the arts center on May 15 at 3 p.m. in a show that will include Vereen’s interpretations of tunes popularized by Sammy Davis Jr. Vereen is best known among theater-goers for his performances in “Pippin,” “Fosse,” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,”

In between Buckley and Vereen, the Russian National Ballet will perform Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” on April 23 at 8 p.m.

Tickets for the Buckley and Vereen shows are $45; Russian National Ballet are available for $42 and $39.

The overall objective is to present programs with broad audience appeal.

“Nothing that’s too inaccessible,” Agin said. “It doesn’t help us to have a wonderful program and have no one in the audience. We still manage to bring big names.”

Those have included former Monkees star Davy Jones, Three-Dog Night and Herman’s Hermits this year, in sold-out shows with distinctly nostalgic appeal.

“The baby boomers are going to feel right at home. Everything old is new again,” Agin said.

Next season, Blood, Sweat & Tears will be on the schedule, according to Agin, who notes that senior citizens, core Queensborough Performing Arts Center supporters, are a primary target audience, as evidenced by the Sunday matinee shows.

But the art center’s regular roster of rock, Motown and disco shows, along with its Beatles tribute band show, are intended to appeal to all age groups. One arts center program recently featured the Rock Band video game edition featuring Beatles tunes.

A Saturday sing-along series, where Queensborough Performing Arts Center shows movies of classic musicals, boasts a modest $5 ticket price – with a cash prize for the aficionado who demonstrates the most passionate approach.

“We identify someone who we think is the most enthusiastic participant and they win $100 in cash,” Agin said. 

“Mama Mia,” featuring Meryl Streep is coming up on April 9 at 7:30 p.m.

Agin, who’s been the director of the arts center for the past seven years, said the arts center has witnessed “a tremendous resurgence of patrons and loyalty over the last 10 years.”

Agin was formerly director of performing arts at Flushing Town Hall.

The Queens performance venue is currently serving 90,000 patrons each year, according to Agin, who credits a change in programming and a new direction in audience outreach for the center’s popularity.

“We’ve changed the menu,” said Agin, who cited an advertising campaign in Blank Slate Media newspapers as one of the marketing charms helping the center to mine new audiences.

“We’ve found our identity,” Agin said of the center, which sits near the border of Nassau and Queens counties. “We’re paying better attention than ever before to our Nassau neighbors.”

The Queens Performing Arts Center expects that it’s broadened aesthetic and geographic appeal will continue to be winning formula with customers from 10 years old to 80.

It’s been a hectic two weeks and as a result it, has been difficult to put together an article. I apologize for not keeping up with passing along village information.

A few weeks back, Evelyn Atanas, a local realtor, who grew up in Williston Park was awarded placement on the North Hempstead Woman Honor Roll.

Congratulations to Evelyn for receiving this honor. Evelyn has been actively involved in community life for many years. Currently she is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce of the Willistons, as well as an active member of Neighborhood Watch.

In my last article, I mentioned my concerns with traffic congestion and safety concerns with Cross Street School reopening as a private school.

Although this appeared to be moving under the radar, at my direction the village took action to review this process to ensure the safety of our residents.

As noted previously, in this paper, a meeting was held at Village Hall on March 21st.

Approximately two hundred people attended this meeting to review concerns they might have with Mineola School District leasing Cross Street School to Solomon Schechter Day School. The results of this meeting have been covered elsewhere in this paper.

However, I would look to take this opportunity to reiterate my position as your mayor and that of the village board. It is our belief that a traffic study must be completed prior to the implementation of this lease arrangement.

This past Thursday, the Mineola School Board approved such a plan.

From a village stand point this decision was welcomed but long overdue. The results of this study should be available in approximately three weeks.

There is disagreement between Williston Park and the Mineola School District as per site-plan review.

The school district believes that the village lacks jurisdiction while the village maintains it has that review capability. This position has been made clear by the village and will be pursued upon completion of the traffic, study if not sooner.

A secondary issue of field usage by CYO and Williston Park Little League has also been a focal point of discussion.

While past use of the fields by these groups has been fairly regular this appears to be changing.

With the proposed lease to Solomon Schechter a middle school/high School, field availability most likely be reduced which is a major concerns of the local residents.

Schools officials have been attempting to resolve these issues, but to date a satisfactory agreement has not been reached.

There have been requests for the village to either take ownership of the property or lease the property from the Mineola School District.

As I’ve noted in past articles, the building is not for sale and for the village to attempt to obtain the property through legal maneuvers would be extremely costly without guarantee of success.

To lease this facility would, once again be expensive for the village . For the village to involve large sums of money in a leased property that could be returned to Mineola, if their enrollment changes, makes no sense.

Having been involved with the Herricks School District and the Herricks Community Fund ( a non-for profit) maintaining both a building the size of Cross Street and running various community programs is once again extremely expensive.

For the village to assume such costs would require a large tax increase at a time when government assistance is basically non existence( i.e. Craig Johnson grants).

As your mayor I have engaged in conversation with many of our various officials involved in the community, hopefully to ensure a review process that will protect the safety and well being of all in our community.

I have been disturbed by the tone of comments made by some. I’m surprised with the outcry of those who don’t live in either the village or Mineola School District but are looking for either or both to spend taxpayers dollars.

As a community we must avoid hysteria and look at this situation with an objective critical eye. I will continue to remain in involved as this matter continues to progress.

With the countless amounts of misinformation regarding the closing and leasing of the Cross Street School, I felt the need to get some facts out to the public.

You may ask who I think I am and where did these facts come from, so I will clear that up right off the bat.

I am a resident of the Mineola School District for 43 years. I attended Mineola public schools, and have been very active in following all the discussions regarding the re-configuration for the past two to three years. I have gone to board of education meetings, read the Mineola American and Williston Times and even Newsday, as well as visited the district website. All the information is out there for the taking.

With that said, on to the facts.

Some people are trying to stop the lease of the Cross Street building to Solomon Schecter Day School. They have come up with various reasons to stop the progress of this lease, as well as spread inaccuracies as to the impact and the details of the lease.

1) Since the beginning of the reconfiguration process, Cross Street School has always been a school that will close. At no time did the Village of Williston Park or St. Aidan’s made a request or an offer to lease the property from the school district. Even at this point, it is only the residents and parents who are speaking of wanting to lease the property.

2) It has been said that the rental income from Solomon Schecter Day School is equal to a savings of between $12 to $20 dollars per household. That may be the figure from the income, but the true savings is realized in the closing of the building and the excessing of staff. Any costs of improvements requested in the lease negotiation have been stated to be offset by increased rent for the first two years of the lease, thereby having no impact on the tax levy.

3) Some are worried that Solomon Schecter Day School will bring too much traffic to the area. There will be approximately 36 vehicles including one full-sized school bus and the remaining being small buses and vans, coming to the school.

The on-property parking will be expanded to accommodate 78 parking spots as well as a lane for buses to use to drop off and pick up. We need to consider the number of parent vehicles that drop off and pick up currently each day. Will there really be an increase in vehicle traffic? The result will be found in the traffic study.

4) The fields of Cross Street School have been used by St. Aidan’s and the Williston Park Little League for many years as a courtesy. Limited access to the fields that neither entity pays for is better then no access at all.

I encourage you all to attend a board Meeting, visit the website, read the local papers, use whatever type of forum or media you want, just please, please get the facts.

Do not be swayed by anonymous flyers and inaccurate posts on the internet. Get the facts for yourself.

Linda Ramos

Mineola

As a lifelong resident of Williston Park that chose to raise his own children here, I cannot help but be saddened by the current state of affairs in our town.

Our roads are in the worst condition than ever before in my 45 years living in the town and those tasked with the well being of our children (e.g. superintendant of Mineola Schools) are making seemingly arbitrary decisions that, mark my words, will result in serious injury if not the death of a child.

On the latter point I am referring to the decision by Mr. Michael Nagler to rent out Cross Street as a Yeshiva school.

Although I have no issue with either the renting of the building or to whom it is rented, I do have serious concern with the decision to begin the school day at the same time St. Aidan students arrive each morning.

Anyone who has been in the proximity of Willis and Hillside avenues just prior to 8 a.m. on weekdays knows exactly how chaotic and untenable the traffic situation (vehicle and pedestrian) has become. Add in 40+ buses, vans and cars and you’ve created a recipe for disaster.

I only wish that those making decisions that so significantly impact our community had the same love and vested interest in its well being as many of its residents (lifelong or otherwise). I pray that the worst outcome is increased re-alignments from horrible street surfaces and not the death or serious injury of a child.

John O’Hara

Williston Park