Two days after a raucous meeting at the Village of Williston Park, the Mineola School Board approved a contract to begin a traffic study on the impact of leasing the Cross Street School to the Solomon Schechter Day School at the end of a calm meeting in Mineola.

The board commissioned the traffic study to accede to requests from the Williston Park Board of Trustees during the Williston Park meeting attended by approximately 200 people earlier in the week

“We were both at the last Williston Park board of trustees meeting,” said Mineola Board of Education member William Hornberger. “We heard very loudly the need for a traffic study from Williston residents.”

After the meeting, Williston Park Mayor Erhbar said he was “elated” at the outcome.

“We need to find out what the issues are there. I’m glad they are following our request,” Ehrbar said.

Robert Eschbacher, principal of VHB engineering, surveying and Landscape Architecture, P.C. was chosen by the board to conduct the study. The firm specializes in performing traffic studies dealing with both public, private, and non profit municipalities across Nassau County.

VHB will begin the traffic study by meeting with representatives from the different schools, making assessments on the traffic situation relating to number of faculty, bus dismal time, number of students and other factors.

“That quantitative evaluation will give us an idea on how the traffic is going to change,” Eschbacher said. “We will look in terms of private vehicles, passenger vehicles, versus buses, the hours in which they would come and go and how this would interact with other things that are taking place in the immediate area.”

Eschbacher said he would also be looking at what parking conditions already exist, at the Cross Street School, going over the impact of traffic signs, and how effective the parking situation could coexist with Solomon Schechter

Mineola Board of Education President Terence Hale put an emphasis on the need for Eschbacher to study St. Aidan School parking.

Hale said the board needed to establish the information “to satisfy our neighbor village.”

The traffic study could be completed in as little as three weeks, according to Eschbacher. After the firm meets with the different schools and conducts on-site studies, it will make recommendations and present them to the Mineola Board of Education.

Some recommendations can range from the widening of roads, or the changing of a traffic light which could take from six to twelve months to complete. Other changes could include new pavement markings or changes to bus dismissal times.

Rabbi Lev Herrnson, head of Solomon Schechter Day School, said signing the lease will depend on the outcome of the traffic study.

“If the study says that its not doable, then the lease is off,” Herrnson said. “We’ve been working with the community, and we’d like to see this through.”

Herrnson also said he has been meeting with local members of the community such as the Catholic Youth Organization, Monsignor James McDonald of St. Aidans, Erhbar, and many other community members to work through the problems.

“We are interested in safety, and want to see what the results of the study will be,” Williston Park Trustee William Darmstadt said.

The Mineola School Board’s plan to lease the Cross Street School to the Solomon Schecter Day school has sparked a heated local debate over traffic congestion, public safety, access to school playing fields used by the CYO and little league teams and alternate plans, while raising questions for some of ethnic bias.

The Mineola school district has been discussed the possibility of leasing the Cross Street school to Solomon Schecter since December as part of the district’s efforts to save money through school consolidation.

The idea of the Village of Williston Park buying the school, which is located in Williston Park, had been discussed earlier. But public opposition had not been voiced until a March 21 meeting of Williston Park Village Board.

At the meeting, residents voiced objections to every aspect of the plan. They expressed anxiety about the increased bus traffic to transport 250 or more students and anger at losing the ball fields for CYO and little league. More than one resident said the village should buy Cross Street and make it a community center.

Prior to the meeting, a flyer titled “Rally for Williston Park…We Come First” was placed inside the church bulletin in St. Aidan Church and distributed to some parishioners at Sunday morning mass before the Monday night meeting.

The flyer was presented as an information sheet that raised a number of objections and concerns about the lease plan.

Presented as a series of “Did you know…” questions, the first inaccurately asked “Did you know that Mineola Schools Superintendent Michael Nagler will be leasing the Cross Street School to a private Yeshiva?” Solomon Schecter is a Conservative Jewish school, not a Yeshiva.

Another question said the playing fields at Cross Street would be “semi-exclusive and unavailable to our local children and CYO programs.” The flyer also put the number of buses at 53, while Schechter representatives say there will be 36 buses, mostly mini-buses.

St. Aidan pastor Rev. James McDonald said the flyers weren’t sanctioned by the chuch and ordered the flyers to be removed as soon as he was made aware of them.

“Nobody may put flyers in the church without my specific approval. Nobody,” McDonald said. He declined to comment on the contents of the flyer.

Village of Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar said he was aware of the flyer being distributed at St. Aidan and condemned the practice.

“I think it was very inappropriate,” Ehrbar said, declining any further comment.

In a column submitted to the Williston Times this week Ehrbar said he had 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.”

Several people who asked not to be identified said they were concerned that there was an element of anti-Semitism among the objections being raised in the debate.

“I believe if Chaminade was opening a building there, there wouldn’t be a problem,” said one official, referring to the parochial high school located in Mineola.

In one of the 65 comments posted to the Williston Times article about last week’s meeting on Blank Slate Media’s “TheIslandNow.com: Web site, one contributor wrote, “Limited intelligence usually breeds bigotry. You can call the opposition to this lease anything you want. The traffic can be managed, the fields can be compromised on. You just don’t want the Jews coming to your town.”

Mineola School Board Vice President Christine Napolitano acknowledged there is an issue about the Cross Street lease to the Solomon Schechter of Glen Cove that remains unarticulated in public.

“There is an elephant in the room. But in my heart, I hope that’s not a big part of it,” Napolitano said.

Speaking at the highly charged Williston Park meeting, Rabbi Lev Herrnson offered an olive branch to residents, saying, “If we come here – and we’re going to come here – we want to be good neighbors and we want to be good friends. We want to talk things out.”Control of the playing fields is obviously a big part of it. And one group of residents from Williston Park is poised to make a proposal to the Mineola School Board about the Cross Street School this week, according to a source.

Ehrbar dismissed the idea of the village negotiating any kind of deal for the property in his Williston Times column this week.

“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,” Ehrbar wrote

But Williston Park Deputy Mayor Teresa Thomann said after Monday night’s meeting that the village wanted time to explore ” some options,” adding, on the lease to the Schechter school that “it’s not a done deal and there’s time for alternate concepts to suit everyone’s needs.”

Napolitano questioned the timing of the Williston board’s sudden interest.

“I was somewhat surprised. This is something they have known about. If they wanted to make an offer, why didn’t they?” Napolitano said.

Napolitano disagreed with the Williston Park board’s assertion at the meeting that it has the right to review the site plan for the Schechter School since the lease would entail a change of use. Napolitano said the Mineola School Board’s counsel has advised the school board that Williston Park did not have a right to review the plan.

She also said that many residents are focused on their own discomfort about the situation without regard for the protracted process the Mineola School District has been through in sorting out its school consolidation plan, which motivated the district to lease the 30,000-square-foot facilty located off Willis Avenue in Wiliston Park.

“Every student in this [school] district has been impacted and every parent. We know what pain is and we acknowledge it. When I hear a group of residents talking about their pain without acknowledging the pain in the school district, I have a problem with it,” she said.

Nagler said he couldn’t understand assertions from residents who complained they were left in the dark about plans for Cross Street.

“It’s not secret. I haven’t kept a secret. I have said that I was going to use the building as a revenue source. I don’t know why it’s such a surprise,” Nagler said.

He said he was also upset about rampant misunderstandings about the costs involved.

The Mineola School District will net $1.1 million over the projected five years of the Schechter lease, above all routine maintenance costs it anticipates. The tenant will pay the costs of utilities and insurance. Utilities, including water, electric and gas/oil are estimated at $56,000 annually, according to the lease agreement.

The lease is valued at $277,500 in the first year and $285,000 in the second year, with Schechter required to pick up additional costs, including installation of a new full-length basketball court. In the third year, the rate goes to $232,000 with 3 percent increases in the succeeding two years of the lease.

Nagler discounts an analysis from self-styled community activist John O’Kelly, a former member of the East Williston school board who projects that the school district’s expenses would be almost equal to the money it received from Solomon Schecter.

Umberto Magnardi, a community activist who Ehrbar threatened to eject from the meeting Monday night, said people are wary about the impact of the Schechter lease.

“I don’t think people are sold for the repercussions. The issue is a matter of impact for the traffic and a way to determine the safety for the kids attending school nearby,” said Magnardi, adding that he doesn’t think a traffic study can resolve the issue.

Nagler hopes the traffic study, now being undertaken by the Mineola School District, will satisfy Williston Park’s concerns.

“What we’re trying to do, without conceding that they have control, is to comply with their ordinance. We’re just trying to be good neighbors and do this at our expense,” Nagler said.

Magnardi said making the playing fields accessible is a key factor in enabling to Schechter fit in.

“It does seem like a perfect fit for them. But the question is the impact for the community,” he said.

Magnardi dismissed the possibility that ethnic bias was playing a part in the objections to leasing Cross Street School to Solomon Schechter.

But he said he doesn’t doubt “those kind of people are out there.” He added that he thought Schechter supporters were raising the issue.

“Personally, I view that as people who are in favor of the school being there. I think they’re trying to distract people from the real issues,” Magnardi said.

The Great Neck Bruins are gearing up for the annual end-of-the-year tournament at the Philadelphia Flyers’ Skate Zone Tournament.

After the emotional and physical grind of practices and playoff games, this will be a relaxing way to end the season.

The Squirt team is looking to finish on a high note.

These nine and 10 year olds have improved greatly since the start of the season.

The Peewee team is also planning on making a big splash in the tourney as well.

The Bantams and Midget Minors are hoping the recent playoff success for both teams will translate onto the ice against the stiff competition.

The Mite program is still in the building process and is always eager to expand the squad.

As one season is ending, another one is around the corner.

The Bruins are searching for boys and girls ages nine and younger that want to pursue playing the game of hockey.

This age group gets over two hours of ice time per week.

Usually, a typical regiment is one hour to sharpen and develop hockey skating skills.

The other hour is dedicated to playing games; keeping the experience instructional yet fun.

The Village of Great Neck Estates is apparently happy with the work of the village’s public works department.

At the board of trustees meeting March 17, Village of Great Neck Estates Mayor David A. Fox began the meeting by complimenting the department.

“I must have got 35 phone calls saying what a splendid job public works has done,” Fox said.

The board then voted unanimously to appoint a new officer, Scott R. Cody to the village force. Cody is currently a New York Police Department officer with more than nine years on the force. Mayor Fox said Cody comes “highly recommended” and is taking a significant pay cut to join the village force.

Cody will be sworn in on the board’s next meeting on April 11 and will report to duty no later than April 15.

Every summer the ball field at the Great Neck Estates Park is used on Sundays for an organized softball league and this summer will be no different. The board voted unanimously to allow the league to use the field on Sunday mornings from May 1 to Oct. 21.

Along with softball, tennis will also be returning to the park this summer.

The board unanimously also authorized the mayor to sign the Willie Notar Summer Tennis Agreement.

Fox said the agreement allows tennis pros to operate, maintain and teach tennis on the courts throughout the summer at no cost to the village.

The mayor was also authorized to sign the 2011-12 Long Island Geese Agreement, the 2011-12 Belgrave Water Pollution Control District Agreement, Recreation Consultant Agreement, Great Neck Estates Civic Association Agreement, and Mayfair Generator Maintenance Agreement.

The only thing on the agenda not carried by the board was a request by a doctor to use the Great Neck Estates Park for a charity event.

Fox said the park is dedicated for use by village residents and the board has made it a policy to not allow charity events to take place there. The board unanimously declined to make an exception. Board said that if an exception was made it would open the door to other charity events.

The board also agreed to discuss a proposed bill to prohibit invasive plants in the community at their next meeting on April 11. That meeting will also host a public hearing to discuss a bill for incentive zoning.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Great Neck Estates, a Centennial Celebration will be held on Memorial Day at Great Neck Estates Park for residents with a current park membership card.

The all day event will feature children’s games and rides, food, nighttime concert and journal filled with anecdotes and memorabilia.

“Nothing particularly historical,” said Great Neck Estates Historian Ilse Kagan. “It’s just a party.”

On April 13 at 7:30 p.m., Kagan will give a Power Point presentation at the Great Neck Library on the history of the village. In an interview, Kagan shared some of that history.

What later became known as Great Neck Estates was for 240 years a farm owned by the Thorne family.

Hailing from England, in the 1600s the Thornes landed in Massachusetts, where they found a Puritan church that was as strict in its theological outlook one they had recently fled.

Known for their liberalism, the Thornes left for Flushing. Through a lottery they won a patent for land that became the Village of Great Neck Estates.

In 1911 the McKnights bought three-quarters of the farm and started a nine hole golf course along on the shore. Expanded to 18 holes in 1920, the golf course became the center of village party life.

“In the 1920s, Great Neck and this whole area was like the Hamptons of today,” Kagan said. “It was socially important for people to belong here, to come here, and they all did. Babe Ruth came here.”

Other Great Neck Estates noteworthies include F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Marx brothers.

A famous theater built by the Baron family featured pre-Broadway openings and movies.

“If you attended charitable functions, it was everybody who was everybody,” Kagan said. “The ‘20s are the highlight.”

The Great Depression hit Great Neck Estates hard.

The playhouse closed. The golf club went broke, eventually becoming semi-public- driving wealthier patrons to start a golf club in Glen Cove.

Since the 1980s, the population has remained steady while the demographics have changed.

“Africans came here in the 1980s, then Persians,” she said. “Asians have arrived, so the population is very different than it used to be.”

Mail memorabilia or first-hand impressions for possible inclusion in the journal by March 31 to Andrew Greene at 62 Maple Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021.

Even though New York State has not officially enacted a 2 percent cap on property tax increase, Great Neck School District was scrupulous this year in working the budget for 2011-12 to keep within the 2 percent.

In fact, the budget is increasing by a 1.99 percent increase, a feat that would seem mathematically impossible given the pressure of unfunded mandates that were supposed to be lifted before a cap went into effect. The mandated contribution for pensions, alone, went up $4 million, while state aid to Great Neck is being cut, and the school population is continuing to increase. To stay within the 2 percent, the district had to find $5 million in cuts.

Not everyone (including me) greeted the news of such a small increase with unqualified joy. In fact, you would have expected more of those at the school board’s first public hearing on the proposed budget, on Monday, March 14, to have urged the administration not to forecast so tightly and cut so sharply – in effect, leaving no “wiggle” room for such things as a spike in energy costs, a natural disaster like last year’s microburst (which already spent down the district’s reserves), or reneging by the state on promised funding (like reimbursement for the MTA payroll tax).

Indeed, it was surprising that more of the district’s education boosters did not protest, as they did last year, when similar dire economic situation forcing the district to “cut to the bone” actually threatened to affect classroom instruction.

This time the cuts were made without affecting programming unlike districts across the country which are seeing their sports, music, arts, theater and anything that is not specifically mandated being slashed.

But the concern was that by doing what Nassau County school superintendents told state senators, led by state Sen. Jack Martins, was “mathematically impossible” without first getting relief from mandates, which cost the district $22 million this year, the district has contradicted their own claim, raised expectations among politicians and the community that the 2 percent cap is workable, and also set a base at a lower level that will forever be the base upon which future budgets are capped.

It is important to remind the community that unlike most districts around the state, which derive 35 percent to 40 percent of their school budgets from state aid, Great Neck will only receive 3.56 percent of its budget this year, and 3.4 percent for the 2011-12 budget. That means that Great Neck schools are overwhelmingly dependent on raising its revenue from property taxes, which fund 94.26 percent of the budget. The irony is that the state’s cut in aid hurts us less than the cap on property taxes.

Board of education members at the Monday meeting said they weighed long and hard the implications – and risks – of a minimal increase in the budget for all these reasons. In fact, most Nassau school districts, are expected to exceed the hypothetical (at this point) 2 percent cap. But their assessment was that many in our community are in financial distress, that the reason our school budgets pass with overwhelming support (with the percent of “yes” votes in the 80s) is because the community – which includes a significant proportion who do not have children in schools – trusts that the schools are not seeking a penny more in taxes than is absolutely needed. And anyone who attends the Saturday morning, line-by-line budget review, knows that to be true, that literally every penny is discussed and debated, in a process that is the best example of zero-based budgeting by a municipality anywhere.

School Board trustee Don Ashkenase, who is also a member of the finance committee, admitted the board and administration wrestled with the risks in slashing anything and everything that could be slashed this year, leaving little room to cut next year if the cap is in effect and mandatory pension contributions increase at the same rate, but in the end, decided that the economic plight of many in the community was significant.

This year, he said, they were able to keep within the 2 percent cap “without damaging the program, but we won’t have [the same latitude] next year, and if we face the same pressure of [mandated increases in contributions to] pension and health, we will really be between a rock and a hard place. It really worries me, the long-term implications.”

If the mandated contribution for pensions goes up at the same rate, that would force the district to find a further $5 million in cuts, “in order to have a chance at a 2 percent increase.”

In fact, the Board and administration recoiled at the notion that the administration not cut as much as they could this year, in order to have room to cut next year.

“This is an issue concerns us all. Great Neck schools going back as far as anyone can remember have enjoyed tremendous support,” said Trustee Lawrence Gross, a member of the finance committee, and the longest sitting school board member. “That comes because people respect what [we propose as the budget]. If we start to play games for $1 million, we would undercut the confidence, and do something we’ve never done before – It is hard to be in favor of that.”

So it is important to understand how the district was able to manage to keep to within the 2 percent cap this year – especially in the absence of mandate relief and why it will be hard to repeat this feat next year without cannibalizing what makes the Great Neck public school system, well, “great.”

The biggest savings came because 17 teachers retired – more than expected especially since the state didn’t offer a retirement incentive – on top of the 43 teachers who retired last year. These teachers at the top of the salary scale are replaced by teachers at the low-end of the salary scale (and a different tier for pension and benefits). This allows for a cut to the salary line of $796,000, but that is a one-shot – there won’t be that cut next year, in fact, salaries are likely to increase.

Also, SAGES, the collective bargaining unit for school administrators including principals, for the second year in a row, agreed to freeze salaries. Despite Gov. Cuomo’s vilification of the salaries that superintendents get – as if they are not deserving of six-figures when they manage the equivalent of a small city – it is not likely that administrators will go forever without any increase in salaries.

The district made reductions across the board – including in its allocations for security, supplies, contractual items, transportation, materials, noninstructional aides – but these are “fairly minor cuts, nibbling around the edges,” Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Tom Dolan said.

Principals agreed to small reduction in “index” money – that is, allocations to individual schools for such things as textbooks and supplies, based on student population. The cuts in the elementary schools, alone, amounted to $178,000.

Working with secondary school principals, the individual school buildings came up with $500,000 in programmatic reductions.

This is accomplished by “more careful scheduling,” which allowed the elimination of 1.2 full-time equivalent positions, which affects six classes between the two buildings; reduced teaching assistant hours at all four secondary schools, and reducing hourly teaching assignments. These changes resulted in total reductions of $296,859 in salaries and benefits.

“That’s a considerable amount when we will still be able to offer same program, even with a 1.99 percent budget,” Dolan said.

A key source of savings, $500,000, was the elimination of the “positive variance” in the budget.

Budgeting always involves guesstimating, especially since you are projecting more than a year in advance.

So budgeters typically use actual, year-to-date numbers, then give some projection of increases based on cost inflation and anticipated need, round-up, and if the best-case scenario works out, they might wind up with a budget surplus. This budget, though, uses “real hard numbers” – exact numbers – leaving no wiggle room at all, especially if there is a worst-case scenario.

“You can do that only once,” Dolan said.

In all, the number of students in K-12 in Great Neck’s public schools had been steadily rising since the 1990-1991 academic year (5,311, when state aid was at $7.4 million and covered 8.8 percent of the budget), and this year, numbers 6,352; next year, the projected enrollment will be 6,362 (2,477 in elementary and a greater number, 3,885, in secondary, where the cost of instruction is more expensive), plus another 39 students in other settings.

In addition, the district funds transportation, textbooks and other services for more than 1,500 Great Neck students who attend 73 parochial and private schools (a $3.2 million expenditure for transportation, alone, 25 percent of the total transportation budget of $11.9 million).

One area of mandate relief that school districts have been pleading for – and which seemed so obvious to school delegate Matthew Wigler, an 8th grader representing North Middle – is to be rid of the requirement to provide a seat on a bus for every student, rather than only those who actually use the school buses.

“What a big waste of money,” he exclaimed, “The majority don’t take bus.” School districts have also been looking to be allowed to cooperate on providing bus service for parochial and private school students out-of-district. But mandate relief does not seem to be on the horizon.

Despite year-after-year of “cut to the bone” budgets and rising enrollments, the most miraculous feat of all is that the district has managed to preserve low-class size.

Our district was able to preserve sports, music, art, theater, science research and all the things that make kids actually want to go to school.

This proposed budget has the support of the key groups, including United Parent Teacher Council and the Adult Education Advisory Committee. Adult Ed gets some 10,000 enrollments, including Basic

Adult Education programs that enable adults to earn their GED, programs which generate revenue but nonetheless, go into the total, $193,324,596 operating budget.

“One thing we are reassured about – for this [coming] year, I can’t speak beyond – when your kids come in [to school] their days will be the same,” said Board President Barbara Berkowitz. “These cuts were made with the principals who know their buildings, to keep the continuity of the day as close as possible for all the children. We kept cuts as far away as possible from the children.”

The irony is that despite the administration’s heroic efforts to keep the budget increase to less than 2 percent, by the time the property taxes are assessed, residential home owners can wind up seeing their property taxes rise more. That is because the continued shifting of base proportion (the amount that each class of taxpayer pays) on to the residential property owners, and because of tax certioraris, which lower the taxes for some, while shifting the gap to the rest.

It will be interesting to see if parents and others in the community come out to the Saturday, April 2, line-by line review that takes place at South High School (beginning at 9:30 a.m.). Nothing crystallizes the priorities and mission and vision of a school district than seeing how money is allocated.

That is followed by the official public hearing and adoption on Monday, April 12 at North Middle School (8 p.m.); then another hearing on Monday, May 9 (discussion only), and finally, the budget vote on Tuesday, May 17. (all the detail about the budget is at the district website, https://www.greatneck.k12.ny.us/).

After more than an hour of heated debate, the Village of Great Neck Zoning Board of Appeals tabled an appeal by a Magnolia Drive couple seeking to add a fourth bedroom to their Great Neck Estates home.

The couple, Adir and Mor Cohen of 15 Magnolia Drive, have been seeking to expand their home since last year but their plans are in violation of two village codes.

At the board’s meeting, the Cohen’s attorney, Paul Bloom faced off against board members, concerned neighbors and Village of Great Neck Estates Mayor David A. Fox.

The Cohen’s original proposal to the board was to construct a two-story addition to the rear of their existing home, but the zoning board directed the Cohens to seek an alternatve plan.

According to a public hearing notice, the plan would require a front yard setback of 17.9 feet, where a minimum of 30 feet is required by the village code. The proposed addition would also exceed the village’s height-to-setback ratio.

The revised plan’s height-to-setback ratio still exceeded the maximum allowable, but by only by an inch. Bloom said this would not affected the neighbors of their home on 13 Magnolia Drive. A shadow study done by the Cohen’s architect, showed that the shadow that would be cast by the home would not reach the base of their neighbor’s home.

After the study was provided to the board, Kwok Au, the Cohen’s neighbor on Magnolia Drive spoke to the board in opposition of the variance. Au said the Cohen’s architect altered the dimensions and positioning of his home to fit into their shadow study. He provided the board with a survey of his land which showed that his home was larger than shown in the shadow study.

Following that testimony Fox entered the room and also spoke in opposition of granting the variance. Fox said that several residents in the community had approached him with concerns that the Cohens’ new structure would depreciate the value of their properties and he urged the board to keep in mind the feelings of the residents in Great Neck Estates.

After Fox left, the board asked if the Cohens would be willing to pay to have a board appointed architect redo the shadow study with the correct dimensions of the property. Bloom declined, saying that doing so would cause his clients to miss the “building season.”

The board then agreed to close off all public discussions about the case.

Seconds later Bloom changed his stance and said they would be willing to pay for the study to be redone.

The board then took some time to deliberate on whether they should give the Cohen’s the opportunity to have the shadow study redone. The chair of the board, Stanley Fischer, made it clear that he thought the case had gone on long enough and that it would be a waste of the Cohen’s money and everyone’s time to redo the study.

The other board members noted that while they were not sure if a positive shadow study would be enough to pull them onto the Cohen’s side, they were willing to give the Cohen’s one final opportunity to redo the study.

The Cohen’s remodeling dreams are scheduled to be continued at the board’s April meeting. But if the shadow study is not completed by that time it could be bumped to a later date.

Six residents attended a Village of Thomaston meeting on Monday, March 21 hoping to find a long-term solution to a persistent problem- traffic on Lee Avenue.

Nestled between Schenck Avenue and Northern Boulevard, the road is closed due to ongoing construction.

Lee Avenue resident Sarah Mejia said that when drivers realize the street is closed they back up and crash into her retaining wall.

“It’s embarrassing,” she said. “I can’t imagine what my property is worth now. There’s garbage all over the road.”

Although Lee Avenue will probably remain closed for the next two years, when it is open local residents say that too many cars turning onto Northern Boulevard break the speed limit.

Village of Thomaston Mayor Robert Stern said that the street would be quickly cleaned and offered to post dead end signs.

“We have a lot of people who do not obey the law in this village,” he said. “It’s unfortunate.”

On March 31 at 8 p.m. a Long Island Rail Road extension subcommittee will report to the board. At the meeting will be an engineer who the committee is requesting Thomaston hire at a cost of $10,000 to help build a case against the extension.

The board approved a $5 per hour raise for the village attorney, who will now receive $285 per hour.

The board also approved an expenditure of $89,316 to lease two garages on land owned by the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District. The garages will store infrequently used equipment such as vacuums and wood chippers.

The board took no action on a bill proposed by the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire District that would require residents to clear fire hydrants of ice and snow or face a fine.

Trustee James Sharkey said that although the water district owns the hydrants and shovels after a light snow, it was impossible to keep up with the volume of snow during last winter’s blizzards.

“Imposing big government on you must clear your hydrant seems un-American,” he said, wondering what would happen if an infirm homeowner was unable not clear their hydrant.

Trustees agreed that the law would be unenforceable and will rely on residents to do the right thing and keep their hydrants clear.

The announced takeover of Long Island Bus by Nassau County has further clouded the future of bus service to Great Neck.

Brian Nevin, a spokesman for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, said the county received three bids from private vendors who are seeking to provide bus service for Nassau and will be evaluated by a committee of unnamed county employees whose members will meet in private to render a recommendation.

Nevin said their decision is expected in two to three weeks.

Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman is concerned about the secrecy surrounding privatization.

“At this point, lack of knowledge is the worst thing,” he said. “Apparently the county has been very secretive about their plans for an alternative structure. What’s upsetting to me is that they have known about this for months and months and not told anyone about this.”

The request for proposals seeking private vendors to run Long Island Bus was released on Sept. 15, Nevin said.

A privatized Long Island Bus will offer better service for a cheaper price, Mangano said in a statement released by his office.

But Nevin said the county couldn’t comment on specific routes until the bids were reviewed and Mangano selected an operator.

Kreitzman sent a letter to the MTA on March 17 – the same day Mangano announced his decision for the county to take over the operation of county buses from the MTA.

In his letter, Kreitzman said that two bus routes the MTA planned to eliminate – N57 and N58 – and Sunday service on the N25 were “critical to so many people and, importantly, many people who have no alternative means of transportation and cannot afford private cars or taxis.”

“You must find ways to save money without cutting their service,” Kreitzman said. “With a budget of a billion dollars, a few million dollars is a small sum.”

Mangano cited service cuts as well as the high cost of operations in taking over Long Island Bus.

“While I feel for the average MTA bus driver who may lose their job, I am also compelled to protect the taxpayers of Nassau County who already pay the MTA nearly $100 million more than ever before through the job-killing payroll tax,” he said. “Since taking $100 million more than ever from Nassau County taxpayers through the job-killing payroll tax, the MTA has applied no credit for this money toward the LI Bus system. Instead, they have cut services for riders, the disabled and our students. In fact, the MTA is using our tax dollars to subsidize New York City’s transportation system. Residents should be outraged at the MTA.”

The MTA has more employees making $100,000 or more than Nassau County has employees, an example of the MTA’s colossal waste of money, Nevin said. Though one private vendor bid $2.1 million to run the Long Island Bus system, no further details were available.

But union leaders questioned the claims of county officials.

Privatization will be bad for riders, workers and economic development, said Patricia Bowden, President of the Transport Workers Union Local 252, which represents 1,000 Operators and Maintainers at Long Island Bus.

“Mangano has been completely unwilling to negotiate with the union or the MTA to reach a viable solution to what we view as manufactured crisis for Long Island Bus,” she said. “Mangano knows that there are solutions other than destroying public bus transportation on Long Island, yet he prefers to push his privatization agenda in the press rather than working with us and the MTA in the best interest of Nassau County. Privatization of public transportation is a proven loser that may provide temporary budget relief, but in the long run will cost the county in jobs and growth opportunities, as well as cutting off peak service to the bone, and stripping entire communities service altogether.”

Bowden added that with “sky high energy prices, now is the time to maximize public transportation, not destroy it.

“The union’s statements against my administration are misguided and should be redirected toward the MTA, who has demanded that Nassau taxpayers contribute another $17 million annually to their coffers,” Mangano said. “With the Nassau Interim Finance Authority’s recent action to impose a control period over County finances, the County has no choice but to end its relationship with the MTA. The only other option is to increase property taxes to fund the MTA’s bloated bureaucracy. I refuse to increase property taxes.”

Private vendors would allow for more accountability because taxpayers elect the county executive, Nevin said.

“If the bus system fails it will be on him, and if it succeeds it will be on him,” he said. “The problem with the MTA is they’ve been cited by almost every state watchdog for wasting tax dollars. Now taxpayers are going to get a better bang for their buck.

Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Thomas Dolan said this week that the district’s decision to join 40 other school district to file suit against Nassau County’s decision to end the county guarantee was based on both fairness and finances.

“We believe that the county has an obligation to continue to pay tax certiorari as they are the ones who are doing the assessing,” Dolan said. “If mistakes are made, the payment should come from the party that makes the mistake.”

Dolan said that ending the county guarantee could cost Great Neck schools up to $1 million per year and if Great Neck Public Schools were forced to fund the shortfall, it would mean less money for instruction or higher property taxes.

The school districts filed the lawsuit in Nassau County Supreme Court two weeks ago, following a vote by the Nassau County Legislature in November to change the county charter so that school districts would be responsible for covering their share of property tax settlements. Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano had sought the change to reduce the cost to the county of successful property tax challenges. Nassau County was the only county in the state to pay for the cost of these challenges for itself and the governments for whom they collected money.

Great Neck school district’s proposed budget for the 2011-12 school year is $193.3 million, a nearly 2 percent increase.

Dolan said the district already faces a 2 percent cap on spending imposed by Gov. Mario Cuomo and the loss of the county guarantee could cost the district .5 percent.

“I would like to see the status quo,” Dolan said. “That the county continues to make payments when they make errors in assessment and that we continue to be in the education business not the real estate business. We’re much better at education.”

If the guarantee were eliminated, districts would be responsible for back payments of multi-year tax certiorari settlements to the tune of $52 million, according to Richard Hamburger, an attorney representing the school districts.

Although there is still time for local legislators to change their mind, Dolan does not believe it will happen.

“You hear about cases that go on forever,” he said. “We hope for a quick determination, a quick positive determination.”

Former County Executive Thomas Suozzi tried unsuccessfully to challenge county guarantee in court. Under Suozzi’s administration in 2002, the county also sought relief from its obligation by lobbying state legislators, who enabled an extended time frame for sorting out tax grievances, giving the county one year and 30 days to resolve them.

The guarantee was established when the state Legislature enacted the Nassau County Administrative Code in 1948, empowering the county to make assessments, with the responsibility to make refunds. The code also shifted the responsibility to compensate for any deficiencies in tax collections from municipalities and villages to the county.

Despite recent controversy surrounding the Great Neck AutoFest/Street Festival, the annual event will continue this year, said Ron Edelson, executive director of the Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District.

“The majority of the merchants want the AutoFest,” said Jay Corn, Vice President of the BID. “There were six to eight who did not want the AutoFest, but not even most of them were adamantly against it. I don’t want to hurt the village by giving the impression that a small majority is speaking for everybody.” Though a petition calling for an end to the AutoFest was signed by 52 business owners from Great Neck Plaza and Great Neck Estates, Corn said it was “really shoved in front of people’s faces” and presented as a way to get the BID’s attention.

Great Neck Plaza cannot survive on Great Neck shoppers alone, said Corn, who described the AutoFest as the No. 1 event showcasing the area to out-of-towners.

“We have done Promenade Night, we will do Promenade Night, but that does not mean that we have to replace Promenade Night with the AutoFest,” he said. “The AutoFest is still the No. 1 traffic builder that we do.”

With at least 20,000 people attending last year, Corn said he does not think that any other event could draw those numbers.

“I know that many people from Port Washington and Manhasset have been to the AutoFest and look forward to it every year, and I know they have come back,” he said.

Residents can expect to see some changes this year, possibly including exotic cars and motorcycles, exotic animals at the petting zoo and a talent show.

The antique show might have seen its last year.

“We are always changing the event,” Corn said. “This is nothing new.”

At a meeting on March 16 held by the BID to address the petition, several local merchants criticized the demographics of the AutoFest’s attendees.

Local merchant Steven Dann, owner of Steve Dann Shoes, described people who attended AutoFest as “hicks from God knows where” – not the upper middle class and high-end clientèle who he said shop his store.

Dann could not be reached for comment.

Phillip Meltzer of Spectacles, who was instrumental in starting the petition, also declined to comment.

Edelson said that the meeting ended on a more constructive note than the one on which it began.

“The concept was, how do we diversify it, how do we bring more people in,” he said.

For Edelson, the meeting was a success because it generated useful suggestions towards the end of the meeting.

“That’s all I wanted, to have some ideas that we could actually act on,” he said. “How we got there from my vantage point is unimportant.”

Longtime Great Neck Resident Sonia Cohen, beloved music teacher, composer and artist, died on March 11 at the age of 93.

“Most of the time when someone passes away there are tears, difficulty, crying,” said her husband of 71 years, Joseph Cohen. “My children and I were very happy that she never had a debilitating disease. She never had pain.”

Their marriage was the best kind of miracle, said Cohen, who lived with Sonia in Great Neck for 50 years. The two met at a fundraiser in 1939, where his future wife was playing duets on the piano. They married after a nine-month courtship.

During his three years overseas with the U.S. Army during World War II, Cohen said he wrote her every day.

Sonia wrote nearly everyday, despite a demanding job at a war plant, he said. It was a brief break from a career spent teaching piano to hundreds of students from her home and through Head Start.

“I came home and we continued to live an enriched life,” he said. “I don’t mean we were floating in money. We were floating in enjoyment of life and love.”

The couple raised three children, and during retirement visited Manhattan several times a week to attend the ballet, opera or hear chamber music.

After a massive stroke left her partially paralyzed at 80 years old, Sonia composed music that she could play using only her non-dominant left hand. Those pieces were proudly featured at private concerts in their own home, or the house of the fiddlers with which she played.

Though the stroke was a case of malpractice and need never have happened, Sonia did wallow in bitterness, Cohen said.

“She simply went on to live,” he said. “She did exercises everyday, and we used to walk her around the house.”

With the help of master artist Arline Michaelson of Great Neck, Sonia created paintings that were displayed at the Great Neck Library and The Graphic Eye in Port Washington.

Cohen said the stroke gradually brought her busy teaching schedule to a halt, with the exception of one student who could not bring himself to leave.

Sonia was immersed in music until the end when she requested from her hospital bed her favorite baritone, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, which they played with the aid of a small record player.

Sonia Cohen is survived by her three children, Andrew, Beth and David, and five grandchildren.

“It was a very quiet, very interesting life in Great Neck,” Joseph Cohen said.