As the Herricks School Board wrestles with the alternatives it faces between a “stand-pat” budget that would preserve all district programs and services at a 7.65 percent increase and a 2 percent budget that would make significant cuts in programs and personnel, the only certainty is that the outcome won’t really satisfy anyone.

Parents expressed their concerns politely – but passionately – about prospective cuts to the music programs, the district’s athletic teams and the English as a Second Language program at last Thursday night’s meeting. Senior citizens reminded their neighbors that their concerns about rising property taxes should also be considered. And board members spoke frankly about the compromises that they would likely need to determine.

“There aren’t going to be situations where everybody’s happy. That’s just not going to happen,” board member Dr. Sanjay Jain said. “Any cut will have an impact. The question is the trade-off.”

Jain suggested that residents should form a community coalition to press local legislators to change unfunded mandates, such as the requirement that the district guarantee a seat on a school bus for each student.

A new mandate, the sewer tax being imposed by the county, will add $125,000 to the district budget, according to Helen Costigan, the district’s assistant superintendent of business.

“It’s a cost being shifted by the county to the school districts,” said Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth.

Bierwirth said that any deal brokered on the anticipated loss in state education aid would likely favor city schools because of the constituency Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver represents.

So the Herricks school district would still likely lose between $1.1 million and $1.3 that Bierwirth had previously projected. If the district “stands pat” on the budget, the 7.65 percent increase on its current $96.5 million budget would push the tax levy between 2 percent and 4 percent above that, according to Bierwirth, who said the 2 percent solution would translate to a 4 percent tax levy hike. A 2 percent increase actually translates to a $5.73 million budget cut. That includes $1.1 million in unemployment costs for the 65 employees who would lose jobs districtwide – 36 of those teachers – along with cutbacks in programs it carries with it.

In response to a question on what budget increases would mean in real dollars, Costigan said a 1 percent increase would mean $965,000 in the budget and $837,000 to the tax levy.

In response to a question about talks with the district teachers. board president Christine Turner would only say the board has engaged in “serious negotiations” with the teachers over the past two weeks, but said she couldn’t divulge any details about those discussions.

“We’re going to try to balance things, but nobody’s going to be entirely happy,” Turner said, echoing Dr. Jain’s comments.

Board member Peter Grisafi said the board didn’t have a sense of what the budget increase should be from the public feedback it had heard thus far. And most comments on Thursday night were about cuts people didn’t want to see.

Resident Christine Michelen said she didn’t want to see the projected 20 percent cut in the district’s sports budget, which would combine 7th and 8th grade teams in some middle school sports and eliminate some junior varsity teams on the high school level, under an overall 2 percent budget increase.

“This is very, very important to a lot of people in this community,” she said, adding that many residents at the previous night’s varsity basketball playoff game had no children on the court.

One resident later suggested that families in the district might pool private contributions to maintain the teams. Bierwirth said doing that, through the existing athletic booster organization or on a “pay to play” basis would likely only be a short-term solution.

The 2 percent solution, as proposed, also would eliminate one of three bands and one of three orchestras from Herricks exemplary music program.

In response to one PTA member’s suggestion that the board simply “shave” something off each line item instead of making wholesale program cuts, Bierwirth said the board had kept most line items static over the past four years as it was.

“We have frozen most areas of the budget,” Bierwirth said.

Resident Neal Maffei, steadying himself on two canes, patiently waited for a microphone and recounted how his children had benefitted from an education in the Herricks district, concluding that the board faced “terrible choices” along with the residents.

“We’re going to have to cut the budget by a considerable amount and it’s going to be painful,” Maffei said, adding, “It may be the way we deal with school budgets for a long time to come.”

After residents dispersed after the budget hearing, the meeting concluded with consideration of a $5,000 study recommended by Bierwirth to find a solution to a problem of insufficient water pressure in the high school fire hydrants. And the study, he said, was just the beginning.

“It’s entirely possible we’ll have to put in a larger pipe,” Bierwirth said, as one board member audibly groaned. “This is why school districts have reserves.”

Bierwirth’s own contribution to the budget crisis was voluntarily decreasing a 4.5 percent increase in his $265,000 annual salary to 1.5 percent in a move affirmed by the board’s approval of his amended contract.

“I think it’s appropriate,” Bierwirth, who took a voluntary wage freeze two years ago, said.

E-mail:rtedesco@archive.theisland360.com

When New Hyde Park resident Dan Madigan finally got the phone call to be on “Wheel of Fortune,” he had a strange feeling that his late grandmother had something to do with it.

His grandmother, Katherine Barone, watched the game show religiously. That was why Madigan first took a shot at being a contestant in 2005, when he was living in Los Angeles and attending film school there.

“My grandma was always a fan of the show. That’s actually why I applied,” he recalled.

When the phone call came at the time inviting him to the taping, he couldn’t make it. But he’d already told his mother, Camille, that he was going to be a contestant and she had told his grandma.

So for the next three years, his grandmother kept asking his mother about it.

“I don’t see Danny on the show,” she would repeatedly tell her daughter.

When his grandmother died three years ago, it made Madigan start thinking about his grandmother’s unfulfilled expectation of seeing her grandson competing on her favorite game show. So two years ago, he finally took another shot at it, filing an application online.

He finally received a letter late last year, telling him to expect a phone call about auditioning for the show 18 months later. But the phone call came in June, eight months after the letter.

The New Hyde Park Memorial High School graduate had since returned to live in his hometown.

So his audition was in New York City, where he survived a highly competitive – more daunting than the on-air experience – to0 make the cut.

“It was actually more nerve-racking than being on the show. You were in a roomful of strangers who all want you to fail,” the 28-year-old DVD producer said.

Then three weeks ago – on his grandmother’s birthday – the phone call about his shot at brief fame and fortune playing “Wheel” came. It was more than an odd coincidence to Madigan.

“She must have really wanted to see me on that show,” he said.

The recent taping in Los Angeles – on his mother’s birthday – was a bit of a grind, according to Madigan. He had to arrive at the studio at 7:45 in the morning and sit through several tapings before the show he was to appear on was taped at 4:30 that afternoon.

He had been told that the show would have a “green” theme, so he prepped himself with a little ecological background reading. But as it turned out, none of the subjects he researched popped in the phrases to be solved.

But he’s still looking forward to seeing himself on “Wheel of Fortune” on April 8 – and he’s convinced that his grandma will be tuning in too.

The Sewanhaka Central High School Board of Education has invited residents of the school district to a meeting next month to assist the board in the process of selecting a replacement Superintendent of Schools Warren Mierdiercks.

The public forum is planned for March 10 in the Sewanhaka High School.

“The board is facing the most important task any school board ever faces: replacing its chief school officer,” said Jean Fichtl, president of the Sewanhaka School Board in her open invitation to residents. “We are confident that you want to be part of this process.”

Consultants from School Leadership LLC, who the board has retained to help identify viable candidates for the post, will attend the meeting to hear the public input. The board hopes to identify its choice for the post by the end of April.

Mierdiercks announced last month that he planned to retire from the position at the end of the current school year.

Board members have consulted with representatives of School Leadership, who have been making contact with parent-teacher organizations in the district. A “It’s part of the focus group process,” said David Fowler, vice president of the Sewanhaka School Board. “These are their schools. This is their superintendent and we want to make sure everyone is heard as to what they think.”

The search, which included a job posting in last Sunday’s New York Times, was begun in the wake Mierdiercks’ announcement last month. Mierdirecks has been working in the district for the past 37 years – the last five as superintendent.

Fowler said the board is seeking a candidate who is knowledgeable in both finance and education.

“In this day and age, besides the educational pieces you need someone with a financial background,” Fowler said. “Aid is becoming much more difficult to obtain and you have to look to deliver the best educational product at the least possible cost.”

Fowler said the ideal candidate may fit the profile of an assistant superintendent of business from another school district. That was the position Mierdiercks held prior to his appointment as superintendent five years ago.

Fowler indicated that the school board also is seeking to hire someone with experience commensurate with the demands of the large Sewanhaka district, which oversees five combined junior high-high schools.

“I’m hoping that because of the size and the diversity of the district, we would have an experienced administrator who’s interested,” he said.

The board retained School Leadership to help sort out prospective candidates according to stipulations of the board and the respective stakeholder groups it is in the process of interviewing.

Residents who are unable to attend the March 10 meeting can fill out and submit answers to a questionnaire posted on the school district’s Web site at www.sewanhaka.k12.ny.us.

A cold north wind blew down New Hyde Park Road on Saturday morning as an honor guard of Garden City Park Firemen stood in a long blue line opposite Notre Dame Church as a funeral procession with a hearse carrying the coffin of one of their fallen comrades, Tom Regan, made its way slowly up the street.

Timothy Regan, Tom Regan’s son, marched slowly ahead of the hearse in alongside Capt. John Janus of Garden City Park’s Hillside Heights Engine Company 3 who carried a white chief’s helmet in tribute to the firefighter being memorialized. Regan was elected chief posthumously in ceremonies at the Garden City Park fire house on Friday night.

A band of bagpipers and drummers provided a somber musical accompaniment in the line of march, which included several Garden City Park fire trucks.

Tom Regan had slipped and fallen on the ice in the driveway of his Garden City Park home on the night of Jan. 26 while responding to a carbon monoxide call. The 82-year-old veteran had sustained a spinal injury and succumbed to his injury on Feb. 17 at St. John’s Hospital in Roslyn.

Regan had retired from service as a deputy chief with the 12th Division of the New York City Fire Department directing elite rescue units in 1992, after 38 years of service with the city fire service.

He had also served for 34 years with the Garden City Park volunteer firefighters, in charge of safety training and tactics at the Hillside Heights Engine Company 3.

“As a fireman, he was the guy you wanted there,” said Garden City Park Fire Chief William Rudnick. “He was one of the old-time guys. He was the real deal.”

Rudnick added that at the fire house “he was a jokester, the guy who made everybody laugh.”

But Regan took his responsibilities seriously, and stayed in top physical condition to discharge them. He typically ran six to eight miles daily and worked out for two hours each day at the fire house, according to Rudnick.

One of Rudnick’s enduring memories of Regan occurred during a basement fire the two men were fighting several years ago. Rudnick was using a breathing apparatus and was down on his hands and knees because of the heat and smoke.

“I looked up and saw Tom standing there, smoking a cigar. He looked and asked me what I was doing on the floor,” Rudnick recalled.

Recalling his own memories of his father during the Mass of Christian Burial at Notre Dame, Timothy Regan described a man who was always ready to respond to an emergency. He recalled occasions when he and his brother and sister would be riding in a car with their father as he would spot an accident or some other kind of trouble.

“‘Stay in the car’, he would say, ‘I’ll be right back’, and he would spring into action,” Regan recounted.

He described his father as a man who “led a simple life, enjoyed an occasional cigar, a game of racquetball, a can of Foster’s, and some cheese and crackers while he watched ‘Friday Night Fights’.”

Regan recalled the proudest day of his life as the one in the fall of 1984 when he wore his father’s fireman badge as he was commissioned as a probationary firefighter in Queens as his father, then a deputy chief, stood beside him. “He was not just my father, he was my best friend,” Regan said.

“His greatest gifts were his sense of courage, his great sense of humor and his ability to tell great stories,” Timothy Regan said.

One of the late Regan’s 11 grandchildren, Nicole, gave the first scriptural reading of the service from the book of Isaiah and another granddaughter, Carolyn, read from the book of Revelation.

Reading from the chapter in which St. John describes “a new city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven,” she read, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no mourning, for the old order will have passed away.”

In his own eulogy, Father William Slater, pastor of Notre Dame, spoke about the quality of courage that Regan shared with that “different breed” of men who are firefighters.

“His life’s passion was to go and help others,” Slater said, adding that Regan possessed “a generous, caring heart that put the needs of others above his own life.”

As the service concluded, the blue line of Garden City Park’s bravest reassembled outside the church. A group of firefighters accompanied the flag-draped casket down the middle aisle of the church, carried it down the front steps and raised it up atop one of their department’s fire trucks for their comrade’s final ride.

One of the officers presented the white chief’s helmet to Regan’s widow, Elsie, and the crowd of mourners who had gathered outside slowly dispersed.

Along with his wife, Elsie, Regan is survived by his sons Thomas and Timothy, who is also retired from the New York City Fire Department, and his daughter, Christine. He is also survived by his grandchildren Timothy, Carolyn, Ryan, Nicole, Thomas, Robert, Brian, Matthew, Laura, Brooke and Kristen.

The Village of Great Neck Plaza continues to explore options regarding a proposed local law to allow mixed-use development and additional building height for retail and office uses and community services.

At a regular board of trustees meeting Feb. 16, the issue was carried over for further discussion until next month after a brief discussion between village officials.

“We’ve been kind of grappling with how the code is going to be set up for this,” said Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender. “There’s a lot of different scenarios because of the way the downtown Business ‘B’ district is developed.”

The village’s mixed-use development plan could increase activity within the downtown area, potentially provide greater housing options, promote transit-oriented land use, reduce growth of vehicle trips, promote smart growth and reduce sprawl.

“I want to make sure that we do this without any pressure and that we do it with the input of our property owners and developers,” said the mayor.

According to Celender, there is a lot of different moving parts to consider and the Plaza is under no deadline to get the plan approved.

“The idea is to get the zoning in place that will be long term, said Celender. “That’s the main consideration. Main Street grants are secondary.”

As the initial draft gets prepared by village officials, Celender said overall sentiment has been positive for the plan but some negative concerns have been raised concerning parking and densification.

“Hopefully after you have these meetings we will have everybody’s input and we be able to present to the public a draft that is a good working point for public discussion,” said village attorney Richard Gabriele.

According to the village website, the Business ‘B’ District currently permits a variety of retail and service uses as-of-right and allows other business uses conditionally with authorization from the village board. Residential uses, which comprise apartments and condominiums, are neither allowed as-of-right nor are they specifically prohibited. Thus, residential uses within the Business ‘B’ District are currently non-conforming uses.

Two approaches for amending the district zoning provisions are being considered by the board.

Under the first approach, the zoning would simply be amended to allow the conversion of existing second-floor or higher commercial uses to apartments.

Under the second approach, the zoning for Business ‘B’ district can be amended to allow apartments on the second and third floors above first-floor commercial uses while raising the building height limit to three stories.

“It’s something that is doable and viable and workable with our property owners and with the board so we are going to keep doing it and keep going,” said Celender.

An exhibition of still-life paintings by local artist Joyce Barrow is helping to bring some color to the walls of Great Neck Plaza Village Hall.

On display until Feb. 25, the “Explorations in Color” series of 12 acrylic paintings on canvas and paper is based on various abstract formations, which attempt to achieve a dynamic equilibrium through the rhythmic interplay of color and form.

Barrow’s paintings are based on animated, energized formations that were produced in studio from various unrelated objects such as crumpled paper, discarded pots, fabrics, shopping bags and old posters.

Usually, subject matter for still-lifes employ more visually recognizable objects arranged together and then reproduced as separate observed objects, but Barrow has used a different approach for this series.

“I try to bring the flat, two-dimensional surface of the canvas to life by using color to create form,” said Barrow. “They are all done to bring attention, so it bursts out of the canvas and comes to life.”

Originally from Rochester, Barrow began to experiment with color while living in Hawaii after completing her college undergraduate work.

With two children, she relocated back to New York and eventually settled in the Village of Great Neck where she has maintained an art studio ever since.

Between working full-time as a technical writer in Manhattan for 30 years and raising two children, Barrow has devoted much of her remaining time to the study of art.

She earned a master’s degree in art education from Columbia University Teacher’s College and was a student of well-known artists’s Sam Feinstein, Charles Seide and Joseph Feher.

Her body of work has been displayed throughout New York, including the Hopper House Art Center in Nyack and at Lincoln Center.

Now retired from writing, Barrow remains active as a painter.

A series of Barrow’s outdoor landscapes will be on display at the Hicksville Public Library in March.

She said one the best things about painting is that is totally occupying and one of the most interesting things she can think of doing.

“It’s a constant exploration, which is fun,” said Barrow. “To create something out of nothing and make it come to life. It’s always a great experiment and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

“She’s 5 feet 4 inches and slow. I might never be lucky enough to work with another young person as outstanding as this one again.” So said Coach Glenn Lavey, head coach of the Herricks girls’ varsity basketball team.

He was speaking about a young lady whose presence becomes the personification of the expression that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. He was speaking in utmost admiration of Michelle Weinman, and although on paper she may not come equipped with the physical size and quickness one might seek in a basketball player, she plays huge and somehow finds ways to get the job done well.

She was the JV team captain as a freshman, and she was varsity team captain as a junior and as a senior. She has been responsible for leading and organizing the team, and she worked closely with the coaches both in season as well as during the so-called off-season. She has served as a volunteer coach at the Herricks Basketball Camp and at the Saturday morning basketball clinic sessions organizing and supervising drills and games for kids aged six to 12. She found time to play AAU Basketball with weekly practice sessions and up to four games on the weekends in the Westchester, New York City, and Long Island region. She has won Basketball Scholar Athlete (3 years), tournament MVP, and All-Conference (2 years) as a three year varsity basketball team member. Ah, but we barely scuff the surface. This young lady’s prowess runs deep.

She has been a three year varsity volleyball player where she has won tournament MVP, Scholar-Athlete, team MVP, and All-Conference awards. She was JV team captain as a freshman and varsity team captain as a senior. Even now she is preparing for her fourth season on the varsity softball team, where her influence as a volunteer instructor in Herricks softball clinics has helped to make this a highly competitive program.

Just another female jock, you say? Yeah, sure. Weinman is a National Merit Commended Student, a member of the National Honor Society, a member of the National Spanish Honor Society, and an AP Scholar with Honor Award recipient. By the way, Michelle has received A+ grades in all of her classes in grades 9 through 12. (Is that a lot?)

We live in a society in which it is all too increasingly common to find parents enrolling their offspring in extra tutorial (remedial?) sessions for S.A.T. exam, A.P. exam, and Regents exam preparation thereby pretty much admitting that little Hobart or Hermione are below the norm competitively (academically speaking), and of course they might have to drop out of athletics because they aren’t capable of being successful both academically and athletically at the same time; especially when one takes into consideration all of the time necessary for texting and Play Station activity. (Is it true that there are kindergarten review classes in snack and nap?)

Perhaps we spend too much time and effort in promoting the tacit message of our youngsters’ limited ability and weakness instead of developing their strengths by challenging them to manage their own time and efforts across a broad spectrum of diverse activities and endeavors.

Michelle Weinman is a throwback to the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s – times when, for the most part, parents did not feel compelled to micromanage the lives of their children.

Somehow, in those olden days, kids managed their time, invented games, arbitrated disputes, and all who wished to do so went on to college. They accepted responsibility for themselves (whether they wanted to or not) and actually believed that they could do many different things concurrently.

Michelle was honored with the Outstanding Physical Education Award by the Nassau Zone of New York State for leadership, citizenship, and outstanding achievement.

Coach Lavey says, “Michelle Weinman is the hardest working young person that I have known in my 15 years in education. Michelle is an inspiration to every person she comes into contact with. She has shown the girls that anything is possible if you are willing to work hard for it. She is intense and focused, but at the same time she is patient and can laugh at herself. She is a leader in every way. I truly believe that she could coach the Basketball team.”

We tip our Highland tams to her folks for all that they have done (and in some cases not done) to have provided her with an environment in which she could spread her wings.

We commend Michelle for her contributions to our community, and for demonstrating yet again that you can be an accomplished athlete and an accomplished scholar concurrently.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has asked for the appointment of a special prosecutor to lead the investigation into possible past impropriety of the now-shuttered county crime lab.  

Rice requested that former state Superintendent for Insurance Eric R. Dinallo lead a team of attorneys who will be guiding the investigation and determining what happened at the lab.

The lab was closed last Friday after a lab audit uncovered testing errors that police supervisors were aware of but did not report. The inaccurate test have resulted in thousands of drug cases being put in jeopardy.

Dinallo is a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and investigative bureau chief in the New York Attorney General’s Office. He is currently a partner at the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Manhattan.

“He’s the ideal special prosecutor and I am supremely confident that he will get to the bottom of what happened at the crime lab so our county’s legal system can ensure the fairness and integrity I believe is required of it,” Rice said.

The decision to close the lab was made “out of an abundance of caution” by county officials after the county medical examiner’s office learned that six prior cases involving the drugs ecstasy and ketamine were the subject of inaccurate testing results, according to Rice.

The discovery made it impossible for prosecutors to offer narcotics evidence to the court with the fairness and integrity, said Rice, who requested that Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano shut down all sections of the crime lab “until a review is complete and scientific and procedural standards are being met.”

“Let me be clear, at this time we have found no evidence of wrong doing or compromised analysis outside of the drug chemistry section of the lab,” Rice said in a statement issued Feb. 18.

In December, a state forensic oversight agency documented a series of procedural and policy violations related to the drug chemistry section of the police department lab in their annual report. The lab was placed on probation and the county executive placed the county’s medical examiner in charge of the crime lab. Mangano also put the medical examiner in charge of implementing corrective actions and the design and the planning of a new ‘state of art’ laboratory.

Rice said county police supervisors were informed of the inaccuracies in ecstasy drug testing at the crime lab before the publication of the state audit, before disclosures were made to the medical examiner’s office concerning the testing of ecstasy and ketamine and before all the drug chemistry testing was halted as a result of those two events

At Rice’s request, Mangano ordered the immediate closure of the remaining sections of the police lab last week.

Evidence is now being sent to an independent lab.

According to published reports about 9,000 drug cases from 2007 through 2009 could be put in jeopardy as a result of the testing inaccuracies.

The new lab will shift from a police department controlled lab to a county-run facility, according to Rice.

“The district attorney and I are making every effort to ensure the criminal justice system remains credible and fair to all,” said Mangano in a statement.

Mangano said the county has hired an architectural firm to design a new crime lab at the Public Safety Center in New Cassel.

The public hearing on tax cap and mandate relief organized by state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) and Sen. John Flanagan (R-Smithtown) last week was billed as the “True Path” to reducing the state’s real property tax burden.

But while many concepts recurred during the five-hour hearing at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building, the paths speakers at the forum suggested often diverged.

Great Neck Superintendent of Schools Thomas Dolan told the senators that “mandate relief is the only option open to us.”

Dolan had a laundry list of suggestions, including basing school district transportation requirements on actual use of seats on school buses rather than guaranteeing a seat for each student who might use the bus.

Dolan also suggested dumping the requirement for annual reports on the incidence of violence and corporal punishment in each school district, teacher mentoring costs of $100,000 a year in Great Neck (which he said would continue without the cost), $50,000 for internal auditors, the requirement to supply students with calculators (a $70,000 annual expense in Great Neck), and excessive standardized testing among students in grades 4-8.

Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler suggested that school districts should be able to override the 2 percent tax levy cap in school budget elections by a “simple majority” rather than the 60 percent plurality the recently passed law would require.

Nagler also joined the disparate group of speakers who endorsed the concept of restoring public employee pension contributions.

“A non-contributory pension system is no longer viable in the present environment,” he said.

Following the opening remarks of the panel of state senators assembled to hear testimony, Peter Baynes, executive director of the New York Conference of Mayors, said the legislature ought “to provide for tax relief that genuinely helps local governments.”

Baynes suggested that the legislature find a way to reinstate the 3 percent pension contribution rate for public employees in Tier III and IV. Failing that, he said, “another legal equitable way must be found.”

Flanagan said he did see legal problems with reinstating the contribution system Baynes endorsed.

Baynes replied that restoring those contribution rates would lower state Employee Retirement System costs by 20 percent over 10 years, “which we think is significant.”

Municipalities should be permitted to negotiate health insurance contribution rates with local employees, Baynes said, with rights to implement minimum contributions for villages and school districts to be “phased in” over two years.

Baynes said the mayors conference’s position on the tax cap is that “it will discourage economic development in New York,” and he criticized the exclusion of new ratables in the tax cap in their first year on local tax rolls. He also said that health insurance and pension costs should be excluded from tax cap calculations.

E.J. McMahon, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, told the senators he thought they were at least on the right track with the recent passage of the 2 percent property tax cap that takes effect in 2013.

“By passing the [tax] cap, you’ve committed yourself to stop passing the buck,” McMahon said, although he added that some upstate municipalities might have to stop clearing snow from some of the streets.

Martins asked McMahon what he thought the biggest “cost drivers” need to be addressed by the legislature. McMahon pared down what he had called a “12-step” financial rehab program for the state to four points, giving “highest piority” to elimination of the Triborough Amendment, which provides for step increases for public employees even in the absence of a contract. A statewide pay freeze for all public employees was second on his list followed by long-term pension reform.

“If you one want another generation of New Yorkers to go through this, you’ve got to change the system,” McMahon said.

McMahon said amending compulsory arbitration also is vital since it has a “steady racheting-up effect” on personnel costs, which he cited as the biggest single overall driver of all.

“It sits right in front of you. That’s what you have to get control of,” said McMahon.

“The plain fact of the matter is that real property taxes in New York State are too high,” Martins said at the outset of the hearing, making the one statement no one would controvert

Flanagan sounded an oft-repeated theme when he said, “If we’re going top have a property tax cap, we’re going to have to have a meaningful mandate relief.”

State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) suggested the current state fiscal crunch was forcibly pushing residents in the wrong direction.

“We are driving people away from us. This is not a good thing. It’s not a healthy thing. We’re losing the people who built this place,” Marcellino said.

When residents go to the polls for municipal elections on March 15, they’ll be using the familiar lever voting machines that were supplanted by electronic ballot scanners in the November general election, and municipalities will be able to keep using the less expensive lever machines through the end of 2012.

Use of the lever machines instead of the controversial electronic scanners was the result of legislation co-sponsored by state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) and state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck), which was approved by both houses of the state Legislature last week.

“At a time when people are struggling, it is our responsible to alleviate burdens placed on our taxpayers. This legislation will prevent local villages from having to incur the expense of renting scanner machines and having election workers trained on them or purchasing ballots,” Martins said.

Martins had previously said that reprogramming scanning machines for upcoming local elections is “effectively impossible” and would represent a “significant cost” to local tax bases. Without the scanner machines, local municipalities would have been forced to use paper ballots, at a cost of 55 cents for each ballot.

In pushing for approval of the legislation, Schimel noted that each lever machine is a $150 rental, while the scanners cost $1,500 per machine to rent.

“Without changes to current state law, many villages will be forced to conduct their upcoming elections by hand counting paper ballots or by renting machines at an exorbitant cost,” she said after the bill passed.

The bill gives municipalities the same break that the state Board of Elections granted to school districts in permitting the same latitude for the continued use of lever machines in school budget elections through the end of 2012.

Municipal officials in Nassau County universally lauded passage of the bill.

“We would have had to contract with an out-of-state vendor in Nebraska at a significant increased cost for paper ballots and optical scanners rather than the mechanical lever machines,” Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said. “Passage of these bills in the Assembly and Senate has enabled us to make our local elections more affordable.”

Celender urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign the legislation.

Village of Sands Point Mayor Leonard Wurzel seconded that sentiment.

“We certainly hope that the governor will sign the bill as soon as possible. Time is getting short for villages to have the March elections,” Wurzel said.

Ironically, it was the alleged unreliability of the electronic scanners that formed the basis of former state Sen. Craig Johnson’s unsuccessful effort to seek a full recount in the November election battle that he lost to Martins in the 7th state Senate District race.

Village of Mineola Trustee Thomas Kennedy has pulled out of the race for another term on the Mineola Village Board, citing increased job responsibilities as the reason for his withdrawal from the contest.

Life-long Mineola resident George Durham, who had previously run unsuccessfully for trustee in 2006, is replacing Kennedy on the New Line Ticket, which includes Trustee Lawrence Werther and Trustee Scott Strauss, who is running unopposed for mayor.

Long-time Mineola resident Christopher Wales is seeking a village board seat as an independent candidate.

Village of Mineola Joseph Scalero said that local law permits candidates who drop out due to illness or other reasons can be replaced after the Feb. 14 deadline for candidates to confirm their intention to run.

Prospective candidates for village board had to file nominating petitions by Feb. 8.

Kennedy was originally appointed to the village board by then Mayor Jack Martins in November 2008 to replace John DaVanzo when DaVanzo stepped down from his position as deputy mayor. Kennedy subsequently ran for a one-year term to fill out the remainder of DaVanzo’s term, and then ran with Trustee Paul Pereira for the two-year term he is now completing.

Kennedy said he has taken on a larger role at Bank of New York Mellon where he has been loan servicing director on government contracts for the past four years. He said the bank won a new contract, which increased his responsibilities.

“I have new responsibilities here at work that happened in the last 10 days or so. It’s going to take an enormous amount of my time,” Kennedy said. “I know that I would not be able to dedicate the appropriate time to fulfill the responsibilities. It just wasn’t fair to go through with the election. It’s not just fair to my family, myself, or the residents of Mineola,” he said.

Kennedy said he informed his running mates of his decision early last week, and said they were understanding about his decision.

This is the second change in the lineup of candidates running on the New Line party ticket, which is now led by Strauss. Strauss was appointed to fill the vacancy on the board created when Werther was elevated from deputy mayor to mayor.

Werther had been elevated from deputy mayor to mayor after Martins won election to the state senate last year. After his appointment, Werther said he would run for mayor, but later changed his plans and announced his bid for another two-year term as trustee.

James Bumstead is running a one-man campaign to challenge Barbara Alagna in her race for a one-year term on the board of trustees in Williston Park.

Bumstead, 77, said he feels that no one should run unopposed and believes his financial background would be helpful in addressing village issues.

“I think I have experience the board can use,” he said. “I still have the ambition of offering my services.”

Bumstead is a former vice president of Fleet Bank. He is also a past president of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce and former president of the Mineola Kiwanis Club.

A Korean War veteran, Bumstead is a member of Williston Park American Legion Post 144.

He has been a resident of Williston Park since 1991.

Alagna expected to run uncontested for the seat she was appointed to last year to fill the vacancy left when Beth Swenson-Dowd was appointed associate justice in the village. Alagna, who has served as secretary to the mayor, the board of trustees and the zoning board of appeals, is running to fill out the full term.

Bumstead said he is motivated to run by concerns about “quality-of-life issues” in Williston Park. He said he had recently complained to Village of Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar to remedy situations of snow not being removed from sidewalks in the village. He also said he’s concerned about the growing number of potholes in on Williston Park streets, and suggested that village sanitation workers should be issued forms to carry on their routes so that they can note potholes in need of repair.

He said he has been running his self-styled campaign by handing out leaflets as he has been walking through the village over the past two weeks.

“If they want me, great. If they don’t, I won’t cry about it,” Bumstead said.