The Great Neck Board of Education moved to ensure that taxpayer dollars will not be used to influence elections.

According to a newly-adopted policy which unanimously passed after a third reading Monday, the district may now provide informational material to voters concerning budgets, propositions, or other matters before the electorate. But school district funds and resources may not be used to sway voters to support particular position.

“This new language ensures that taxpayer dollars will not be utilized to influence the outcome of our annual election in any way,” said board member Fran Langsner at the regular meeting held in the North High School lecture room.

Also at the meeting, schools in Great Neck moved one step closer to allowing secondary students the ability students to opt out from providing their names and information to military recruiters and institutions of higher learning.

The board gave a second reading of the section of policy at the meeting which that addresses disclosure and use of personal information to college or other post secondary education recruitment or military recruitment.

The policy “has been amended based on a new interpretation of the Family Education Rights Privacy Act that allows secondary school students themselves to submit a written statement to opt out of this participation,” said Langsner.

Currently, only parents can opt students out, but if the new policy passes, children will have the final say.

The proposed policy might encourage more discussion on the issue between families, said Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Thomas Dolan previously.

According to the school board, parents will be notified by mail a child decides to opt out.

A third and final reading is scheduled for the next board meeting on March 28.

At Monday’s meeting, the school board held an informal budget hearing to introduce the preliminary working budget for fiscal year 2011-12.

One budget item which raised some concerns among those in attendance included an estimated $4 million paid to the Cooperative Educational Services of Nassau County.

“This is going to get out of control real fast,” said one resident, who said he was “outraged” at the cost. “Someone needs to start asking what are these real costs to BOCES.”

According to an audience member, state Sen. Jack Martins is looking into BOCES funding.

Also of concern was $385,170 paid to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“Two years ago New York state mandated that everyone had to pay payroll tax,” said Dolan. “No one was exempt from it, including school districts.”

Dolan said the tax is mandated by the state to offset losses in the MTA, and the school district is reimbursed for much of the cost.

“We will not be getting it back again,” said school board President Barbara Berkowitz.

“It’s not only school districts that are charged this tax, every level of government has to pay it,” said Berkowitz. “The MTA has its hand in everyone’s pockets.”

Great Neck officials are planning an offensive in opposition to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plans to cut bus service in Great Neck, according to Great Neck Village Mayor Ralph Kreitzman.

At a Village of Great Neck board of trustees meeting Tuesday, Kreitzman said there is a groundswell of opposition mounting against the MTA announcement several months ago to cut ABLE Ride services by approximately 10 percent in order to slash its budget by $1.2 million. The changes in service would leave some areas of Nassau County with virtually no public transportation for the disabled.

“They want to eliminate all of the buses going north of the railroad station and a weekend one going south that services the hospital,” Kreitzman said.

The Great Neck Village Officials Association, the Nassau County Village Officials Association and other area groups and local officials plan to take action against the plan in the coming weeks, according to the mayor.

“I met with the Great Neck Clergy Association who are going to take an active position against it,” said Kreitzman. “I know a number of our legislators are as well, including Judi Bosworth, our county legislator.”

Kreitzman was granted permission by other trustees at the meeting to write a letter on behalf of Great Neck Village to the MTA in opposition to proposed the bus service cuts.

Also at the meeting, the village board of trustees adopted a resolution authorizing the building inspector to act on behalf of the court in granted building permit extensions for up to three months. If residents request more than three months or request a waiver of the fee, they also may request permission of the board.

In other news, Trustee Jeffrey Bass was assigned the responsibility of talking with representatives from village bakeries, fish markets and green groceries during the next few weeks regarding possible competition posed from the proposed Farmer’s Market, to be sponsored by the Great Neck Park district.

“When it comes to the guy who’s is clearly going to be hurt who doesn’t want to participate then we might want to consider it differently, so I really think somebody needs to talk to them,” Kreitzman said.

Also discussed:

• The village board authorized the village clerk, based on the recommendations and findings of the building inspector, to take all actions necessary to bring a special proceeding to the state Supreme Court for permission to demolish an abandoned building at 14 South Gate Road in an effort to make the area safe.

• The public hearing regarding the placement of wireless communication cells on the roof of the King’s Point Tennis Center, located at 143-147 Steamboat Road, was adjourned until the May 3 board of trustees meeting.

• An April 5 public hearing was scheduled regarding the preliminary village budget.

Great Neck village candidates were 17 for 17 in bids for re-election Tuesday – not an unexpected outcome when 17 people run unopposed.

The closest thing to drama in the six village elections held March 15 was in Russell Gardens, Great Neck Plaza and Great Neck Estates, which featured candidates who received a few write-in votes.

In the Village of Thomaston, longtime Mayor Robert Stern was re-elected to two-year term with 44 votes. Incumbent Trustees Gary Noren and Steven Weinberg received 45 and 44 votes respectively.

Stern said there are advantages to having such a large number of incumbents returning to their positions on the Great Neck peninsula.

“I appreciate experience coupled with enthusiasm, it’s the most wonderful thing in the world,” said Stern.

Facing a slight challenge from three apartment-dwelling write-in contestants, Village of Russell Gardens incumbent Mayor Matthew Bloomfield was re-elected to a two-year term with 240 votes. Incumbent Trustees Martin Adickman and Jane Krakauer were re-elected to two-year terms with 242 and 241 votes respectively.

Write-in Russell Gardens candidates Leonard Goldstein, Ted Miroe and David Rosenburg received 30, 26 and 28 votes respectively.

In the Village of Great Neck Plaza, incumbent trustees Gerald Schneiderman and Marion Green were elected to two-year terms, receiving 191 and 193 votes respectively. Receiving 195 votes, incumbent Village Justice Neil Finkston, was re-elected for a four-year term. Write-in trustee candidates Michael Glickman and Stu Hochron received 2 and 1 vote respectively.

In Great Neck Estates, Mayor David Fox was re-elected to a two-year term with 56 votes. Incumbent trustees William Warner and Sidney Krugman received 56 and 54 votes respectively. Marc Seidenberg received 2 votes as a write-in candidate. Village Justice Harold Hoffman was elected to a four-year term with 54 votes.

In the Village of Kensington, Trustees Gail Strongwater and Alina Hendler each received 22 votes and were elected to two-year terms.

In the Village of Saddle Rock, incumbent J. Leonard Symansky was elected to his eleventh term as mayor with 34 votes. Incumbent Trustees Mark Collins and Dan Levy were elected to two-year terms with 33 and 35 votes respectively. Village Justice Leonard Lorin was elected to a four-year term with 35 votes.

Last month Michelle Hackman joked she might win the award “for the most amusing project,” which as it turns out could be the understatement of the year.

Blind since the age of eight, the Great Neck North High School super-senior is now $75,000 richer after finishing second in the national Intel science competition on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

The vivacious 17-year-old said her prize money will come in handy for college next year.

“That goes straight to Yale,” said Hackman, traveling back from Washington on Wednesday. “It will cover a year and a half.”

On Tuesday, the Hackman and other Intel winners were invited to meet President Barack Obama at the White House.

Hackman said she told the president she was Michelle from New York and he said “That’s easy to remember.”

“It was incredibly exciting to be gathered in the East Room,” said Hackman, who said she was also thrilled to have met U.S. Reps. Gary Ackerman and Steve Israel, and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer during her stay in Washington.

Still in awe of the “how truly brilliant” all of her competitors were, Hackman said she is still taking it all in.

“It’s just such a huge honor in itself, said Hackman. “It’s far beyond anything I could have ever imagined.”

Evan O’Dorney, 17, of Danville, Calif., won the top award of $100,000 from the Intel Foundation for his mathematical project in which he compared two ways to estimate the square root of an integer.

Third place went to Matthew Miller, 18, of Elon, N.C., who won $50,000 for his study of the affects of small bumps on the surface of wind turbine blades.

Her award-winning project, “Communication Underload: Validating the Existence of Disconnect Anxiety,” studied the effect of separating teenagers from their cell phones.

The Intel Foundation awarded $630,000 to the top 40 finalists in the competition.

Chosen out of a pool of 1,744 high school senior entrants, the 40 finalists were flown to the nation’s capital to compete for the top 10 spots.

The week-long event featured a rigorous judging process, interactions with leading scientists and the display of her research at the National Geographic Society.

Born with a congenital condition called coloboma which robbed her of her sight in one eye at birth, Hackman became sightless by the age of eight.

But despite her disability, the high-spirited teen started a recycling program and sings with the jazz choir at school. She and a friend have been instrumental in their quest to promote and construct a rural school in Cambodia for underprivileged girls and she is a volunteer with Reporters Without Borders with plans to attend Yale University.

Hackman is the daughter of Daniel and Sarah Hackman, of Kings Point.

School administrators were extremely pleased with the results.

“We are both proud of and happy for Michelle’s accomplishments,” said Great Neck School Superintendent Thomas Dolan. “She has earned everything that Intel has awarded her.”

Allegations of cheating at SAT test centers involving students attending Great Neck High School are being investigated by the Educational Testing Service, according to testing service officials.

“ETS is working on a test security case involving students attending Great Neck High School, but for confidentiality reasons, we cannot discuss the specifics of the case,” Education Testing Service administrative manager Albert Brown, Jr. said in a press release. “We can confirm that the alleged incidents did not occur at Great Neck High School test centers, but elsewhere.”

The Educational Testing Service is the corporation that administers the SATs and other college entrance examinations. The SAT examination is owned by the College Board.

Seniors at John L. Miller-Great Neck North High School allegedly tried to improve their college prospects by hiring a third party to take their SAT exams, according to a story in the New York Post.

Among those under investigation, the story said, are two brothers – one a senior and the other already in college.

Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Tom Dolan said in a statement released Tuesday and later repeated at the school district’s regularly scheduled board meeting that he could not discuss the individuals involved in the investigation and was unable to name any of the testing centers in question, but said the probe involved a “handful of students.”

But, he said, “none of the matters being investigated involved tests that were administered at any of our high schools. Our test administrators are consistent with the regulations imposed upon us by ETS. No test administration at a Great Public School is under investigation.”

Dolan added that “in instances where students fall prey to the pressure surrounding such high stakes testing, the district has consistently held students responsible when we have learned of it, and cooperated fully with ETS in determining the validity of the score.”

Dolan’s comments were supported by Brown, who said Great Neck “tests carefully and follows all the rules and guidelines” for administering tests. “Any irregularities or inappropriate behavior is noted by supervisors in the testing rooms and reported to ETS.”

All students who take the College Board’s SAT test are required to provide an official school or government-issued photo ID, a handwriting sample, and an admission ticket. They are also supposed to closely monitored throughout the testing process.

“School officials have been very cooperative during this process,” Brown said.

Dolan, Great Neck Schools Board of Education President Barbara Berkowitz and Great Neck North High School principal Bernard Kaplan spoke Monday night at a Great Neck School board meeting regarding the ETS investigation.

“I make a promise now to every child in this room that I would do everything in my power to protect a child’s anonymity in the event that they made a mistake,” Dolan said.

In response to the article published in the NY Post, Dolan said “The article was awful, I’ve worked very hard today to shape the news, if you will.”

Dolan also said he would only inform the parents of students involved in the investigation and would not disclose their identity to the public.

Great North High School principal Bernard Kaplan said that “If any allegations come to our attention about student dishonesty on an SAT or in any aspect of the school, we approach it very aggressively and very thoroughly with the idea of correcting it and helping that student.

The board meeting’s agenda included honoring students for contributing to the quality of life at Great Neck North High School, an occasion used by Berkowitz to defend the school and its students.

“I am in awe of the students being recognized here this evening.” Berkowitz said. “Unfortunately you have some unwelcome notoriety forced upon you now on several occasions…. And now, when once again, the outside world is focused on the misdeeds of the few we will ignore this tonight as we are here to celebrate you for your fame, your integrity and passion for what you do that is good and right and we honor you for your accomplishments and contributions to the climate from North High.”

The East Williston hockey team’s season came down to the third period of a game in the state high school playoffs Saturday night Feb. 5 against East Aurora that the upstate squad led 4-1, and seemed destined to win.

But the East Williston team stepped up, kept skating hard and scored three goals in the period to draw even with East Aurora at 4-4 with just 50 seconds to go.

East Williston pulled its gutsy sophomore goalie, Graham Turk, but couldn’t score the winning goal it needed to go through to the final playoff round on Sunday – despite what coach Jon Turk described as a couple of “mad scrambles” to find the goal that proved to be just out of reach.

So the team that nobody – not even themselves – saw as much of threat going into the playoffs, finished on the brink of putting a final punctuation point on an improbable run in an exemplary post-season performance.

“If you could have a tie feel like a win, that was it,” coach Turk said. “We really were playing against some bigger and stronger teams from up north. We could not have been prouder about how they played and carried themselves up there.”

Wheatley sophomore Zack Shields, junior Joe Samuels and junior Lucas Blumenfeld had given it their best shots, scoring the three goals that brought East Williston back in that third period. And Turk had turned away 20 shots in the game to keep his team in it.  

They fell short, but coach Turk is betting it’s a game they’ll remember – and build on – as they fight to get back to the playoffs next season.

“You kind of tuck this experience away for next year,” he said. “Most of the boys will be back.”

Before boarding the bus at the Wheatley School to make the trip north, the team exuded confidence about their chances.

“I feel pretty confident,” winger Joe Samuels said. “Now that we have everybody on one bench, we feel like we’ll give a good accounting of ourselves.”

After winning a junior varsity title in their division last season, the team had moved up to play against varsity teams with players that put them at a physical disadvantage.

But with the return of Shields for the playoffs after a five-game absence due to a concussion, the team certainly appeared to have hit its stride at just the right time.

Fourth-seeded going in, they knocked off top-seeded Garden City 5-2 in what goalie Turk recalled as a pivotal effort.

“Going in we really didn’t think we had a chance. Toward the end of the game, that all changed because we knew we were going to win,” Turk said.

Coach Turk said his squad was young, virtually all sophomores and juniors from Wheatley, and said they didn’t know what to expect from the teams they would face “up north.”

They maintained their new-found confidence with two straight victories against Manhasset-Roslyn after being down 2-1 in the first period of the first game.

But their game attitude showed through in their first match-up against Akron on Friday, with a winning 5-2 effort.

On Saturday, they stumbled through an early morning match-up, incurred nine penalty calls and found themselves on the short end of an 11-1 score against City Honors, a home-town team to the Buffalo arena where they were playing. A three-goal third period was the start of a comeback from too far back.

So they faced a must-win match in the 6 p.m. game against East Aurora when another three-goal comeback left them short of a trip to the semi-finals.

It was still a trip to remember.

“It far exceeded our expectations in our first year as a varsity team,” Coach Turk said. “We saw that we could play with those teams and that we belonged.”

Forty-One Nassau County school districts have filed suit to challenge Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s move to end the so-called county guarantee, which obligates the county to make up for shortfalls resulting from successful challenges to property taxes.

The lawsuit, filed in Nassau County Supreme Court last week, follows the vote of the Nassau County Legislature in November to change the county charter. If the country guarantee was eliminated, school districts would effectively be responsible to cover back payments of multi-year tax certiorari settlements.

Herricks, East Williston, Sewanhaka and Great Neck are among the school districts that have joined with the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association in fighting the county’s attempt to put the onus of covering unpaid property taxes on the school districts.

The school districts’ liability would be approximately $52 million annually, according to Richard Hamburger, an attorney representing the school districts. Hamburger said the case hinges on whether the county has the right to rescind the guarantee.

“They’ve taken it on themselves to change the law. The legal issue is whether they have the authority to do that,” Hamburger said.

Mangano defended his decision to end the guarantee.

“For too long Nassau County has stood alone in the State, being the only County to collect 17 cents on the dollar in taxes, yet return the whole dollar when someone overpaid their taxes. This craziness has resulted in $1.6 billion in debt and outstanding liability while costing the average homeowner 10 percent more annually on their county tax bill,” said Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin.

Former county executive Thomas Suozzi previously tried to challenge the validity of the county guarantee in court on the basis of amendments to state statutes on collecting taxes. Under Suozzi’s administration in 2002, the county also had sought relief from its obligation by lobbying state legislators, who ultimately 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. That code also shifted the responsibility to compensate for any deficiencies in tax collections from municipalities and villages to the county.

Notwithstanding the difference in issues in the current court case, Hamburger said he is confident about the outcome.

“I’m optimistic that the result will be the same,” Hamburger said.

He said he expected that he expected the case to be resolved by the summer, long before the lapse of the guarantee would have take effect in July 1, 2012.

The participation of 41 of the 56 school districts in Nassau County lends weight to the case, he said.

“It shows that there is a remarkable unity among school districts that there are 41 of 56 that have chosen to go to court,” Hamburger said

The school districts have come together through the Nassau County School Boards Association, which initiated the effort to bring the school districts into the lawsuit in a common cause.

“School boards have an obligation to bring this litigation” Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association President Jay L.T. Breakstone said in a statement. “Having failed in New York’s court system, including a complete disregard of the repeated denials by New York’s Appellate Courts, the County of Nassau has decided to simply do what it wants to do anyway.”

Mangano maintains that ending the guarantee makes prudent economic sense for the county.

“For too long Nassau County has stood alone in the State, being the only County to collect 17 cents on the dollar in taxes, yet return the whole dollar when someone overpaid their taxes. This craziness has resulted in $1.6 billion in debt and outstanding liability while costing the average homeowner ten percent more annually on their County tax bill,” said Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin.

An initial hearing date of April 8 has been set in Nassau County Supreme Court, but Hamburger said he anticipated that the county would seek an extension.

An East Hills man has pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after he fatally struck an 81-year-old Roslyn Heights woman last April.

Nassau County Kathleen Rice announced earlier this week that Thomas Krauss, 26, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident where a fatality occurred in exchange for a promised sentence from Judge Philip Grella capped at one-to-three years in prison. Krauss will be sentenced May 2.

At approximately 4:45 p.m. on April 19 last year, Krauss was driving his 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee eastbound on Warner Avenue in Roslyn Heights when he struck Vaghar Giae, 81, of Roslyn Heights, who was crossing the street northbound, according to Rice.

Giae, taking her daily walk, was on her way to a nearby 7-11 to purchase candy for her grandchildren. The impact knocked Giae out of her shoes, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Rice said that Krauss did not exit his vehicle and immediately fled the scene and drove home. Police located his vehicle at Albertson Auto Body two days later, finding damage consistent with that of hitting a person, and also finding Giae’s hair on the front of the vehicle. Police subsequently arrested Krauss at his house.

“To run over a fellow human being and then flee the scene shows not just a shocking capacity for cruelty, but also for cowardice,” Rice said. “Excellent work by police and members of my office, however, guaranteed that this defendant would not be able to hide from what he had done.”

Assistant District Attorney Michael Bushwack of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case for the District Attorney’s Office. Krauss is represented by Dennis Lemke.

Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@archive.theisland360.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204

Three Great Neck men were arrested in Roslyn Heights late last Wednesday night after assaulting and robbing a man who was apparently selling marijuana, according to Nassau County Police.

Nassau County Police detectives said Tal Grinbaum, 18, of 12 Hewlett Lane, Great Neck, Ori Matalon, 18, of 30 Carriage Road, Great Neck and Jacy Baron, 18, of 10 Bancroft Lane, Kings Point contacted the victim Kristopher Novinski, 21, of 70 Woodward Street, Roslyn Heights with the purpose of purchasing marijuana.

When the three men arrived at the residence, Baron, who police said was armed with a BB gun, and Grinbaum entered the home while Matalon waited in the auto.

In the residence Baron picked up a metal knife off of a coffee table and held it towards Novinski while Tal Grinbaum picked up the marijuana and attempted to leave without paying for it, police said. Novinski was punched several times in the face and body, before the two men fled the scene into the awaiting auto as Novinski chased them.

As the defendant’s were fleeing the scene at 11:25 p.m., a Nassau County Police officer on routine patrol observed the defendant’s car speed away and was able to conduct a car stop and investigation, which led to the arrests.

Police said that after further investigation Novinski was arrested for criminal possession of marijuana in the fourth degree and criminal sale of marijuana in the fourth degree.

The other three defendants were charged with robbery 1st degree, conspiracy 4th degree, and possession of a dangerous weapon 4th degree.

Grinbaum was also charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.

All defendants will be arraigned at First District Court 99 Main Street Hempstead on March 10.

As kids, most of us dreaded the seemingly endless amount of homework assigned by our teachers and the hours upon hours of sitting at the kitchen table studying, memorizing and writing. As grown-ups, sometimes the tasks required by our jobs are not accomplished in an ordinary eight-hour day.

At some point, when we have outgrown the dining table as a work surface and if we have a spare room, we imagine a home office. Our initial thought is that once we have this room, all work will be done magically in a quicker and more efficient manner. And that may very well be the case. Designing a home office should be an exercise in both function and aesthetics.

One of the main items to assess is how much time you will spend working there. Is this your main office space, or is this just a work area to complete and check daily work and pay household bills? These questions may seem like common sense, but their importance often is underestimated as we design our spaces. Determining the function of and the amount of time we will spend in a home office is vital to designing an adequate workspace that will meet our needs. Besides a work surface or desk, other items to consider are bookcases, storage, filing, a computer, electronics, lighting and appropriate seating.

Planning is crucial. List all your necessary equipment, down to the linear feet of filing space required and the number and dimensions of books and journals, etc. Measure all computer equipment, including the monitor and printer, and note ventilation requirements to avoid equipment burnout. If possible, draw a layout of your room and overlay different furniture scenarios to help you sort out your preferences. This phase of your project can feel cumbersome, but this exercise will help identify problems that can be ironed out before any major purchases or costly mistakes are made.

Once the issue of a layout has been addressed, aesthetic considerations can begin. What is the design attitude that will guide your home office? Deciding what colors your walls will be can help you identify the style of office that is best for you. Darker colors make for a powerful and mysterious place of work; lighter colors evoke a feeling of trust and transparency.

Other important factors that impact the design of your room are the case goods. These are all the hard surfaces — desks, filing cabinets, bookcases — that are the main components of the room. Case goods can be either stained or painted, and their finishes are the defining factor in the styling of the room. Your selection of flooring — whether carpet, wood or tile — will further help you with the design.

Your office’s design should be reflective of your dÈcor and also of your work. So what is yours going to be? A warm clubby library, cool high-tech contemporary or sophisticated high-style glam? Make it appealing but not distracting. Be conscious of the fact that your environment should be conducive to doing work. After all, isn’t that what the room is for? Stave off the unnecessary wall-to-wall aquarium. Select some art you enjoy, and get to work!

In today’s housing market, many potential home sellers are wondering whether to update their houses before putting them on the market or to try to sell them “as is.”

“As you have heard, remodeling and/or updating your home can be a big contributor in getting you the most money in the shortest amount of time when selling your home,” says Lee McClelland, associate broker of Prudential Kansas City Realty and a mortgage loan originator. “Just remember not to put so much money into your home that you overprice it for your area/neighborhood.”

Elizabeth Mendenhall, a sixth-generation Realtor with Re/Max Boone Realty, says home sellers should pay special attention to the exteriors of their homes. “Curb appeal is so important. What they see outside immediately will determine whether they want to go inside,” she says.

“A new steel door is one of the best things a person can do to improve curb appeal,” says Mendenhall, who is vice president of committees for the National Association of Realtors. “That kind of door is important — and a new coat of paint if a home doesn’t have siding. You want to make sure the garage doors work. Replacing windows makes a home energy-efficient and is a good investment.”

Mendenhall says exterior replacement projects typically pay off in the end. The same is true for updates to kitchens and bathrooms. “For example, the return on adding a sunroom is 48 percent, whereas the return on a minor kitchen remodel is 78 percent,” she says.

Fresh paint and nice carpeting can also help sell a home. “Carpet and paint are easy things to do. Be sure to choose a color palette that people can identify with,” Mendenhall says. Historical homes will require different paint colors than modern homes. “It makes a difference where you are. Paint palettes for the coastal regions will be different from those in the Midwest.”

If you are trying to sell a home that was built within the past 10 years or that is situated near a newly developed community, you will be competing to grab the attention of buyers who are looking at brand-new homes. That’s when you need to make sure newly painted walls aren’t covered with a lot of framed artwork or family photos.

“When buyers are going to be comparing an existing home with a new home, it is as if your home is being compared with a fresh canvas,” Mendenhall says. “You should know that.”

If you have decided to move forward with a sizable project, be sure you know how best to pay for it, McClelland says. “If you have the savings to pay for the project, that’s great. But maybe that is not an option,” he says. “One choice is to look at the equity that you have in your home. Dividing the amount that you owe by the appraised value of the home will give you the loan-to-value ratio. Having that ratio at 20 percent or higher keeps you from paying private mortgage insurance. Any amount more than the 20 percent is what you can borrow against.”

McClelland continues: “Once you know the percentage that you have to work with, you can look at taking out a home equity line of credit. This is the second loan on your property, which you will make a second monthly payment on until you sell your home to pay it back. Call your lender to get all of the details, because the requirements have changed in the past couple of years.”

Another option to get the project done may be to use a home improvement center that offers same-as-cash financing, McClelland says. “You can then pay it off when you sell your house.”

Mendenhall believes that homeowners who are thinking of remodeling and selling their homes should ask a Realtor for his opinion before doing a lot of updating. “Bring in a Realtor who knows the area,” she says.

“Sometimes just changing a few things can increase or maintain the value of a home,” Mendenhall says. “Remember, Realtors visit hundreds of homes a year and know what people in that market are looking for.”

McClelland agrees. “Whatever you decide, look at all the options and talk to the experts so that you can make the best decision in maximizing the sale of your home.”

The inaugural Gold Coast Film Festival, set for the first week in June, aims to hearken back to the Jazz Age when Long Island’s Gold Coast entered the American cultural consciousness through novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”.

“It’s about geography, history and audience,” said Sean McPhillips, senior programmer for the festival. “The whole ‘Gatsby’ angle is big. You do have the opportunity to sort of bring things back.”

So the festival will seek to set the stage with an ambience that mirrors the sensibility of that bygone era. McPhillips, formerly vice president of acquisitions for Miramax Films, is currentlythe programmer for the Furman Film Series in Great Neck, which screened the New York metropolitan area debut of “The King’s Speech” last fall among other films.

“There’s no limit to the size of the movie. The sky’s the limit in terms of selection,” McPhillips said.

The Gold Coast festival will present a balance of studio films, independent films and short subjects June 1 through 5 at several venues, including Great Neck Squire Cinemas, Manhasset Cinemas, Port Washington Cinemas, Roslyn Cinemas and the New Hyde Park Gerricks Cinema 4. Special screenings will be held at Adelphi University, Hofstra University, the Nassau Museum of Art and the Great Neck Arts Center.

“There’s an audience here that’s diverse and affluent,” said McPhillips, who said that interest in the festival has mushroomed since it was announced last fall.

McPhillips is scrambling to line up entries for the festival, and said the festival will offer a range of flims to match the diversity of its audience, which includes Indian Americans, Israelis and Korean Americans. McPhillips said the festival will be revealing some of its entries in the next several weeks.

“It’s got to be a balance,” he said. “It’s a populist festival. We feel we’ll be able to appeal to everyone.”

“This festival has taken off like a rocket,” said Regina Gil, founder and executive director of the festival. “We’re not saying we’re going to be the world-wide premiere of any film in particular. We can certainly say we’re premiering and previewing films that people haven’t seen before.”

The festival will feature 40 screenings in five days, a relative whirlwind of events compared to the month-long schedule the Furman Film Series maintains. The festival will start with a opener will be a red carpet event with at the Hempstead House.

“It’s going to be an intense week,” Gil said.

The festival is lining up sponsorships, according to Gil, who said announcements about sponsorships are imminent.

Opening and closing night sponsors will pay $250,000 to participate, with sponsorship of filmmaker events going for $150,000 or $75,000. Other levels of sponsorship are being sold at increments of $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000, offering acknowledgement in press releases, placement of sponsor’s logos on the festival Web site and signage on-site as benefits.

The Town of North Hempstead is providing seed money for the festival, according to Gil, who said that Nassau County is also a sponsor of the event. “It really does highlight our history, showcases our communitites, and gives our local businesses a chance to thrive,” said Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman. “Ultimately we do see this as a great economic development vehicle but it also gives our local residents a chance to appreciate our local culture and history.”

Vic Garvey, who is overseeing the creative and business sides of the event, compares it to the production of the nine Olympic Games he handled when he worked at NBC.

“It reminds me very much of setting up an Olympics. You have different cultures and different agendas and you really have to sort of marry them,” said Garvey, who has overseen the Nantucket and Savannah film festivals in the past.

The opening night red carpet event will feature a “major talent,” according to Garvey.

He said the atmosphere of the festival will be “fan-friendly” for videophiles and a “perfect place” for sponsors and marketers.

“It’s a jazzy thing. It’s a really terrific thing,” Garvey said. “Based on the conversations I’ve had in Los Angeles and in Europe, this is going to be a terrific environment.”