Village of Thomaston Mayor Robert Stern called a special meeting last Wednesday to marshal local opposition against a pocket track extension proposed by the Long Island Railroad, calling on residents to contact local officials to express their concerns.

Stern said meeting was intended to update residents on recent activity involving the LIRR plan and to discuss ideas regarding the village’s next course of action. He was joined by dozens of residents who weathered snowy conditions to make their way to village hall to voice their opposition to the project.

Stern said in recent weeks he has given tours of the area to state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) and U.S. Rep Gary Ackerman (D-Great Neck).

“These are the men and women who vote on the money” said Stern. But Stern said he is frustrated with the lack of response he has been getting by the LIRR. Stern said the LIRR stopped communicating with him after learning of his opposition to their plan.

The pocket track extension is part of a $36 million project that would also replace the 113-year-old Colonial Road Bridge in Thomaston and improvement drainage. The LIRR has said the project is an essential part of its plans to improve service on the heavily used Port Washington line, which includes bringing the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal in 2016.

Stern said there is funding in the LIRR’s budget for the track extension, but appropriations needed to replacement the Colonial Road Bridge are not.

Stern said the “100 percent unsafe” bridge might be fixed as part of the five-year plan if funds are available in future budgets.

“Does anyone remember the bridge is dangerous?” said Stern.

With oversight of the Mass Transit Authority, the mayor suggested that elected officials might have the power to stop railroad construction by controlling funding.

“If we don’t make an effort now, the railroad will go ahead with their plans and we will have a noisy track to live with from now on,” Stern said.

Stern met with LIRR officials Dec. 13 at the Long Island office of U.S. Sen. Kristin Gillibrand to discuss the track-extension project, which the mayor says is a “bad idea” for Thomaston.

Because the LIRR is owned by the people of the state of New York and not staffed by elected officials, Stern said the railroad is insulated regarding concerns against the proposed pocket-track extension.

“So we just have to call them and we have to be pretty vigorous about it or they just won’t listen,” said Stern. “Up to now, my hollering is working its way back up and its coming to the attention of local officials.”

The LIRR’s multi-million dollar plan calls for the replacement of the bridge, drainage improvements and an extension to the existing pocket track that allows trains to turnaround by 1,200 feet to accommodate a 12-car train.

Stern has insisted that bridge repairs and drainage problems can be solved without adding the extra track.

According to railroad representatives, the LIRR has been working closely with Thomaston for three years while looking at all options; although they have remained firm in their efforts to address the project as one whole issue.

Stern said the money for the track extension has been secured, but funding for the much needed bridge replacement remains unfunded.

“If funding is available in the five-year plan, the bridge will be taken care,” Stern said.

Thomaston has pushed hard for repairs to the Colonial Bridge since 2007, warning the LIRR and other elected officials, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York), and state Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), that a “dangerous condition exists” regarding the bridge which does not comply with state Department of Transportation sight standards and creates flooding during heavy rainstorms that causes delays on the Port Washington line.

Stern criticized some in the media for recent articles regarding the LIRR situation in Thomaston.

“This is the kind of thing that has been going around and confusing people,” said Stern, referring to a recent published article by columnist Karen Rubin which was distributed at Wednesday’s meeting.

Stern opened up the discussion to anyone wanting to speak, except the media, who were given a chance to ask questions after the meeting ended.

One resident suggested that Stern recuse himself from talks involving movement of the bridge to another location because Stern lives near the bridge.

“I have the feeling that you are not necessarily on the same side as those that are going to be damaged by the move,” said one resident, who questioned the mayor’s stake in the bridge plan. While complimentary of Stern’s efforts as mayor, he recommended separating the bridge project from the pocket track plan.

“You will be damaged by the pocket track, but you might actually be quite pleased to have the bridge moved,” he said.

Saving his comments on the accusation until the end of the meeting, Stern said the board is only interested in doing the right things for citizens.

“I have every single garbage pale in this village on my mind,” said Stern. “Whether it’s mine or not doesn’t mean anything.”

Another resident suggested the bridge should be closed as soon as possible for safety reasons.

“From the safety point of view, it’s clearly it’s the safest thing to do before a tragedy,” said local resident Mike Zurin.

Others were worried about issues such as noise levels and environmental affects. Others said they have been left out of the discussion.

“I don’t know why the railroad has been insistent that we do not count at all,” said Willa Morris, who lives close to the track.

Other suggestions from those in attendance included starting legal action against the LIRR; form a subcommittee to explore options; and turn the bridge into a walking bridge.

The LIRR has said it welcomes comments from residents with recent dialogue has centered around a noise reduction wall which was proposed by Stern at a Dec. 13 meeting with the LIRR at the Long Island office of U.S. Sen. Kristin Gillibrand.

At last week’s meeting, Stern said the meeting was “inconclusive.”

Long Island Rail Road President Helena Williams has stated that Thomaston is a key juncture on the Port Washington line because line goes from two tracks to one in Great Neck and there is no other turnaround until a train reaches Port Washington.

E-mail Rich: rjacques@archive.theisland360.com

In a remote region of Nepal, Rajeev Goyal is disproving the idea that individual action can inspire any real social change on significant scale.

The 1997 graduate of Herricks High School is currently continuing his efforts to improve the living conditions of people in that country, a role that has earned national recognition over the past decade.

“It’s ultimately only individuals who create change, and through leveraging their identities, experiences and interests towards a goal,” said Rajeev Goyal.

The 31-year-old graduate of Brown University and New York University Law School has had plenty of time to think his tactics through. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2001 to 2003, initially assigned to teach English in Namje, a village in eastern Nepal. He is now back in that same village in Nepal, working with architect Travis Price on a project called Spirit of Place, in conjunction with The Catholic University of America School of Architecture & Planning, which seeks to build a structure each year in some part of the world that reflects the culture or spirit of the region.

At the same time, Goyal said he is working with his wife, Priyanka Bista, on another project they’ve founded called Learning Grounds, creating organic agricultures and new forms of architecture that suit the local environment. They are seeking to raise $1 million to fund the project, and in his spare time Goyal reports that he’s studying Chinese.

When he met Goyal, Price said he felt there was a spark in them crossing paths, since the architect was contemplating a project in Nepal and Goyal was thoroughly familiar with the culture.

“It’s a bit of kharma. I’m a big believer that the right people and the place come together at the right time. It was that moment when Rajeev said that he really understood what we wanted to do,” said Price. “He talks and he gets things done.”

In this case, the project is a spiritual monument to the ancestors of the Namje villagers that will incorporate elements of Hindu and Buddhist tradition. A larger project, an agricultural education center, will be constructed in the ensuing year.

Ironically, Goyal’s sometimes frustrating experiences lobbying for Peace Corps projects in Washington, D.C. inform his ironclad sense of the impact one person can have in effecting change. He developed a reputation there as someone who was relentless in tracking down Congressional leaders in a virtual one-man campaign to keep the Peace Corps viable.

“I think my confidence grew as I saw how much waste there was in federal spending. The issue was something I had personal knowledge about and I knew I had the whole tribe of Peace Corps volunteers behind me. I knew they would help me if the powerful folks ever tried to clobber me down. I also think it was the purity of the institution and that made me kind of not fear anything. You can’t be afraid. That’s what I say to anyone who feels passionate about something,” he said.

Now in the midst of his 16th excursion to Nepal, Goyal obviously feels passionate about what he’s doing. And he said his instinct to emotionally invest himself in a cause first sprang from his educational experience at Herricks High. Goyal describes Ron DeMaio, who retired from Herricks several years ago, as the most important teacher in his life. “Take two steps into darkness,” he recalled DeMaio telling his drama students, and it is that advice that Goyal said led him to join the Peace Corps.

He also credited Herricks science teacher Karen Hughes as one of those who challenged him.

And she recalls his irrepressible, charismatic nature.

“He was very good at rallying students. His cause was to increase communication between the student council and the student body, and the student body and the administration,” Hughes said. “He could always bring people to his side with a strong level of enthusiasm and strong level of logic.”

It was while he was at Herricks that his sense of activism first surfaced, most dramatically when he led a grass-roots student effort to eliminate class rank. Goyal said that after months of research, a committee that included himself, another student and faculty and school administrators, concluded that class rank had no impact on college admission and was divisive to school spirit. But their recommendations to do away with it were summarily dismissed by the school board.

So Goyal launched a one-man campaign against the ranking practice, wearing a billboard around the halls of the school and gaining enough adherents to the cause that school rankings were removed at the next school board meeting.

While teaching in Namje, as recounted in a recent feature piece about Goyal in New Yorker magazine, he decided to solve the problem of a lack of access to water in the village. He studied books about electric pumps, piping, filtration systems and settled on a two-stage pumping system that could lift water 1,300 vertical feet to the plateau 5,000 feet above sea level where Namje is situated. He encountered a pipe salesman in the city of Dharan whose ancestors came from the same region of India as Goyal’s and ordered hundreds of pieces of three-inch galvanized pipe on credit.

He turned to his family and some of their friends for money, and lobbied for additional funds from Peace Corps, U.S.A.I.D. and the American Himalayan Foundation for the rest of what he needed. He still had to sort out the daunting task of how to assemble the pipe along a mile-long stone staircase that had to be built to enable the project. All the materials had to be carried over mountain paths by hand. And since the country was in the midst of violent political unrest, he had to get a letter from a local military officer, explaining why so many people were carrying pipes and other equipment to the village.

Ultimately, 530 people succeeded in building two pump houses, two holding tanks and 1,236 stone steps to secure the pipe. And just before his term in the Peace Corps expired, the village had running water.

Goyal’s parents, phenomenologist Ravindra Goyal and his wife Damyanti, who continue to live in New Hyde Park, visited Nepal recently, saw the project he son had spearheaded and met some of the village residents.

“It was amazing. People were praising him. They were crying,” Damyanti Goyal said. “It was a very good feeling.”

She said that she and her husband are very proud of the work their son is doing.

“People are benefitting and we’ve supported him always. He’s doing good work there,” she said.

Asked why he maintains such a positive attitude about the possibility of implementing changes for the in the world, Goyal replied, “The world never changes and nothing ever gets resolved in my opinion. It’s always a dialectic like in the ‘Tao de Ching’. I think we live in a world where people fear big ideas and spirituality and that’s why they get stuck. I’m not really optimistic or pessimistic. I think if you keep learning, that’s important. But if you get lazy and think you know everything that’s when you will fail.”

As he and his wife remain devoted to their work in Nepal, Goyal couldn’t say what long-term objectives he has in mind. He said he enjoys the energy of young people and might eventually become a college professor.

“I want to see where the world takes me and to continue to pursue what captures my interest at the time,” he said. “People are always changing and evolving. I would like to take on a lot of difficult and challenging projects and learn from them. That would be a great life.”

Although six major snowstorms have dumped equal amounts of snow in the Great Neck area this winter, the impact of the accumulations has varied widely among villages.

Nassau County responded to 30 calls involving auto accidents between the hours of midnight and to 9 a.m. due to a mix of freezing rain and snow which fell on the area early Wednesday. The ice, coupled with above-normal amounts of snow which have fallen in the region have made for some villages reeling.

With nearly 250 businesses, a multi-level downtown parking garage and parking meters all hampered by the extreme weather – the hardest hit area this season is apparently Great Neck Plaza.

“The big problem is going to be overtime,” said Great Neck Plaza administrator Pat O’Byrne. “We never have gotten storm after storm like this.”

For 17 days since Nov. 8, the Great Neck peninsula has felt at least a trace of snow with up to 50 inches reported in some areas, according to weather statistics.

Sand and salt costs are under control in the Plaza, according to O’Byrne, but with parking meter revenue down significantly due to increased suspensions of parking meter regulations because of the snow, budget shortfalls will have to be made up elsewhere.

“We hope that we don’t spend in other areas and utilize that,” O’Byrne said.

The Plaza’s municipal parking garage has also lost revenue because it has allowed free parking following heavy snow days.

According to the forecast, this week’s storm has the potential to generate accumulation amounts similar to those of earlier storms – which is bad news for all village roads.

Bordered by the Horace Harding Expressway, Lakeville Road and two service roads, the Village of Lake Success feels the affects of the snow a little differently than in the Plaza.

“Our biggest problem is that we are dependent on Nassau County for main artery access,” said Village of Lake Success Trustee Fred Handsman.

As village liaison to the Department of Public Works, Handsman said Nassau County is doing a good job with plowing, but the village sometimes has to step in and help before the county can get there which costs money.

“If a particular street has not been plowed, we will get to it for the residents sake,” said Handsman.

The Village of Great Neck is also feeling the affects of one of the worst winters in many years.

Village Mayor Kreitzman said the heavy snow has resulted in increased employee overtime and high salt and maintenance fees that are taking their toll on the budget.

We haven’t run the exact numbers yet but “at this point, we are getting close to our budget,” said Kreitzman on Tuesday.

Mostly residential villages like Thomaston seem to have it the easiest this winter season.

“It’s cost us a little,” said Thomaston Mayor Robert Stern. “We’ve got it covered.”

New York, with 31.9 inches of snow to date, has already received more snow than it does during an entire winter, according to the National Weather Service. The average annual snowfall in Central Park is 22.4 inches. This season’s total includes a nine-inch snowstorm last week and the 20-inch blizzard in late December.

The good news?

While snowfall to date has been high, Great Neck remains far from the record-breaking 1995-96 winter season which produced more than 75 inches of snow in New York City and 107.6 inches in Boston.

Reach reporter Rich Jacques by e-mail at rjacques@archive.theisland360.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203

After garnering national media attention by banning smoking on sidewalks last month, the Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees quietly named the enforcers of the law at a meeting Tuesday.

The board approved a measure, which was listed on the meeting agenda as “an update to the parking-meter attendant job description,” to give two village parking attendants the authority to issue no-smoking citations along Middle Neck Road.

With a simple request by Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman to correct a “technical point to the job description,” the proposal was unanimously passed with no discussion – until after the vote.

“We’ll submit this to the Civil Service and see what their reaction is,” said village administrator John Dominsky to the board.

“Uncivil service,” replied the mayor.

In Great Neck Village, the written descriptions of agenda items are consistently vague and sometimes hard to follow at meetings.

The board clarified the new job description for parking attendants only when questioned by Blank Slate Media during the public comment portion of the meeting, well after the vote.

According to Kreitzman, maximum fines for specific violations can be authorized by the board under general provisions of the village code. For smoking on village sidewalks, the maximum fine is $1,000 and 15 days and jail.

“That’s under our general provisions because we didn’t change it yet,” said Kreitzman. “I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of those.”

The smoking ban, enacted Jan. 4, prohibits smoking tobacco and other substances on sidewalks within 125 feet in front of commercial establishments, the Village Green Park and the Village Housing Authority. It also outlaws smoking on benches in municipal parking lots with access to Middle Neck Road.

Village officials cited health concerns and the complaint of a store owner in enacting the law, which made the Village of Great Neck the second municipality in the nation to have such a law. The village’s decision was picked up by national media outlets including the Associated Press and CNN.

Also with little or no discussion, the board quickly and unanimously approved a retainer rate increase of 1.63 percent to the law firm of Ackerman, Levine, Cullen, Brickman and Limmer without Trustee Jeffrey Bass, who had briefly left the room, absent from the vote. The law firm has represented the village for more than a decade, according to the board.

Kreitzman said no request for proposal is needed by the board to renew the long-standing agreement of representation between the firm and the village for legal advice and representation on the planning board, board of appeals and for prosecution cases.

“For professional services like this, we don’t have to,” Kreitzman, who called the rate increase “nominal.”

According to last year’s village financial report, $161,737 was listed under law expenditures.

Listed simply as “Employment Counsel Services” on Tuesday’s agenda, the board authorized a no up-front retainer fee agreement with Littler Employment and Labor Services Worldwide, specifically attorney David Wirtz, to deal with legal issues involving village employees.

After the vote, Kreitzman was again asked by Blank Slate Media for clarification of the proposal.

“When we need him, now we can just call him up and use him when necessary instead of waiting for a board meeting and authorizing it,” said Kreitzman. “We now have someone lined up if we need someone.”

Village resident David Zielenziger asked the mayor after the meeting if progress has been made by Kings Point or Nassau County police in their investigation of a string of recent home invasions in Great Neck Village, which has terrorized some residents in the area.

“They asked us not to talk about it, but the police are working on it,” said Kreitzman. “I just don’t think we should be discussing it.”

After a request by Blank Slate Media for a comment regarding the affects of recent winter storm cleanup on village finances, Kreitzman said the heavy snow has resulted in increased employee overtime and high salt and maintenance fees that are taking their toll on the budget.

We haven’t run the exact numbers yet but “at this point, we are getting close to our budget,” said Kreitzman.

An application for restaurant use was granted to Dunkin’ Donuts, soon to be located at 566 Middle Neck Road. The eatery is expected to begin construction in about one month and plans to offer kosher donuts.

Reach reporter Rich Jacques by e-mail at rjacques@archive.theisland360.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203

For this wiz kid from Great Neck North High School, being a national finalist in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search has been a life-changing experience – but the real story goes far beyond the competition.

Completely blind since the age of 8, Michelle Hackman was born with a congenital condition called coloboma which robbed her of her sight in one eye at birth.

“I was almost like a ticking time bomb in that sort of sense,” said Hackman, who lost sight in her other eye in 2001.

Now headed to Washington, D.C., for the Intel finals in March as one of the nation’s most outstanding students, her remarkable mind and indelible spirit make her story unique.

“It’s actually crazy to be singled out like this,” said Hackman, seemingly stunned at the media attention she has generated after being named a finalists last week.

Beating out more than 1,700 students nationwide, Hackman said she is thrilled to have been named last week as one of 40 national finalists in the contest.

The 17-year-old senior said she’s understands why people find her story interesting, but as a lover of journalism, a part-time writer and a physics standout, she never thought she would be the story.

“I’ve just been this normal person my whole life just going about what I’ve been doing,”said Hackman, a self-confessed political news junkie. “I’ve never thought of myself that way.”

Hackman’s award-winning project, “Communication Underload: Validating the Existence of Disconnect Anxiety,” stemmed from a personal observation she made while sitting with friends.

Realizing that most around her were texting and mobile phone dependent, Hackman decided to measure and analyze mobile phone dependence – a topic not extensively discussed in scientific literature.

In the modern age of instant messaging, especially popular with high school teens, her question was extremely relevant although it remains mostly unexplored – until now.

“Is there something so physiologically strong that these kids find it easier to send text messages to the people sitting across the table than they would to just put their phones away and look across the table and say what they wanted to say?” asked Hackman.

After analyzing the reactions of 150 participants, half separated from their mobile phones for 45 minutes and half not, she found that the professional research term “disconnect anxiety” did not apply. Rather than becoming anxious, the students without their cell phones felt underestimated or bored, according to Hackman, who observed that they had lost the ability to “entertain” themselves.

“It was almost like a work play divide,” Hackman said, but in fact it involved much more.

Completed in-school under the guidance of science research teacher Alan Schorn, she was assisted in herresearch by South High teacher Michelle Sorise, who contributed advice on the design of the project and also by a team of 10 student aids.

Testing the last student on the final day of school last year, Hackman said she nearly missed the deadline but the results of her dedication and hard work have been life-changing.

“This is the only thing that I’ve ever done in my life that I can do for absolutely hours and hours and hours and I don’t take breaks,” said Hackman. “That’s something I probably shouldn’t ignore.”

Hackman will begin study at Yale University later this year.

Asked to join the science research program midway through her sophomore year, Schorn said Hackman’s sardonic sense of whit, sophisticated writing style, extraordinary physics talent made her an excellent social science research prospect.

“There are times where we have a problem that requires nine or 10 steps of calculus and she does it in her head,” said Schorn.

Having sent eight other students to the Intel finals in the past 17 years, Schorn said as writer, Hackman ranks in the top one or two from that group.

The Intel competition creates a general sense of school pride and inspiration, according to Schorn and Hackman who first learned of the contest as a freshman.

“It was considered unachievable,” said Hackman, who said she wondered how she has advanced this far. “It looked almost unattainable, but it was cool.”

She said most of the other science finalists are trying to cure life-threatening diseases such as obesity and cancer and searching for new antibiotic she’s happy that the judges recognized that thought that cell phone addiction was just as important.

In all 1,744 students from numerous high schools throughout the country submitted Intel applications.

Hackman will advance to compete in Washington, D.C., during a week-long event in March which features a rigorous judging process, meetings with national leaders, interactions with leading scientists and the display of her research at the National Geographic Society.

“I suddenly have to become a science expert and to be perfectly honest with you I’m not right now,” said Hackman, with a giggle. “I’ll probably win the award for the most amusing project.”

Intel, formerly known as the Westinghouse competition, is the oldest pre-college science competition in the U.S.

“It was one of the most nerve-wracking and stressful things I’ve ever done, but at the same time I enjoyed more than anything else in the world,” said Hackman.

Intel applicants are judged on research ability, scientific originality and creative thinking. Research projects cover many disciplines, including behavioral science, biochemistry, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, medicine and health and physics. Entries are reviewed and judged by top scientists from a variety of disciplines.

The Intel Science Talent Search ignites curiosity and passion among youth to tackle challenging scientific questions and develop the skills to solve the problems of tomorrow, according to Shelly Esque, Intel vice president of corporate affairs.

Past Intel winners hold honors including the Nobel Prize, National Medal of Science, Fields Medal and MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

With plans to become a behavioral scientist and journalist, Hackman advised others who wish to achieve to go for their dreams.

“Find something that you are passionate about and really pursue it more than you have ever even thought to,” said Hackman. “Especially when you are living for something that’s is larger than yourself.”

E-mail Rich: rjacques@archive.theisland360.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203

The Denton Avenue School was transformed last week into an international pavilion of exotic arts and crafts and dances that students of all ethnic groups had an opportunity to experience.

It was the school’s second annual Heritage Week, celebrating the differences and the similarities in the native cultures of all the students who populate the elementary school.

“Whether it’s through art or dance or music, the kids are involved,” said Beth Rosenman, lead teacher at Denton Avenue, who oversees the week’s activities that are planned with the collaboration of teachers and parents.

In the gym on Tuesday morning, a group of grade schoolers were wearing white caps askew, striking hip hop poses and gleefully following the break-dance steps their teacher Jenna Grieco was showing them.

“They love to dance and it’s nice to teach them how to do a few moves,” she said.

Meanwhile, in a nearby classroom, Dr. Nancy Ho was taking time out from her practice as a pediatrician to teach her daughter Caitlin’s classmates how to make Chinese lanterns.

Caitlin, dressed in bright blue traditional Chinese garb, demonstrated her expertise.

“I made it before, but it was so big it was hard,” she said.

The children were working on small lanterns and visibly enjoying the experience of watching their folded red paper parts take shape. Dr. Ho was enjoying it too.

“I love it. They’re great. I teach them about the culture so they understand a little bit,” she said.

And that’s the whole point of Heritage Week: to open a window for the children on each other’s culture, and inspire a sense of pride about it.

In the school auditorium, a presenter named Roni Yari was teaching an attentive groups of third and fourth graders the fine points of Bhangra. It’s a northern Indian dance form that gave the kids a chance to express themselves, spinning around gracefully and jumping up and down to the expressive mellifluous tones and beat of Indian tempos.

Kaitlin, a young Chinese girl, who was smiling and laughing through it all, said afterward, “It was fun because we got to do a lot of stuff.”

And there was still a full day of more stuff ahead, including Rangooli, Indian sand painting, a primer in playing cricket, Polish folk art lessons, Latin dance, American jazz, yoga and Chinese brush painting.

“It’s been a wonderfully enriching experience for the children. We all eat, we all dance, we all celebrate,” said Andrea Bittman, teacher, gifted and talented, at the Denton Avenue School. “It builds tolerance and respect. We build it right into the curriculum.”

The New Hyde Park Memorial High School girls basketball team could be on the verge of a worst-to-first turnaround as they remain in the fight for a title in the highly competitive Conference ABC-1.

The team has vaulted from a dismal 0-12 season last year into contention for top conference honors with a 7-4 record (4-3) in conference play on speed, tough defense and a gritty style of play.

New Hyde Park Coach Hugh Flaherty attributes their dogged style to the fact that five of his players are as comfortable on the soccer field as they are on the basketball court.

“They’re very aggressive without the ball,” he said. “Everybody marks up and plays girl-to-girl defense.”

Flaherty said the “heart and the soul” of his Gladiators girls squad is Maria Katsoulis, the rangy senior forward who can score from anywhere on the court and still sprint back to play defense. In a tough 35-32 to conference rival Division last Friday, Katsoulis drew an ovation when she wrestled on the court with one of the Division players for a loose ball.

“That’s her game. That’s what she does,” said Flaherty, who requires his players to wear knee pads so they can all scramble on the court.

“We have aggressiveness. We go for every ball on the court,” Katsoulis said.

Katsoulis is a triple-threat athlete, who plays volleyball and runs the 800 meters and relays in track. But she’s planning on studying speech pathology in college, with basketball as an intramural sideline.

Her partner in rebounding on the team, senior center Ciara McCullagh is drawing plenty of attention from college scouts. But right now, her attention on keeping her team competitive as the season reaches a climax.

“I think we’re really stepped it up since last season,” she said. “I think we’re working well as a team together. We’re moving the ball well.”

Two of the reasons for that are the fast and agile back court tandem of sophomore point guard Gabriella Tomasini and senior shooting guard Lexi Pevararo, both soccer players at heart.

Tomasini relishes her role directing the action and distributing the ball to her teammates.

“You give it to everyone. We all work together. There’s no go-to girl,” the deceptively diminutive Tomasini said.

She and Pevararo virtually fly down the court along with their well-conditioned teammates, and conditioning is a factor in playing with pace from the opening tip-off to the final buzzer, as they did against Division.

“We do a lot of ‘suicides’ with the ball,” said Pevararo, describing a court-long sprint the team practices. “That’s our advantage. We’re such a fast team we can keep up with the other team.”

Pevararo was doing a good job of keeping up and passing the ball until she fractured her finger and had to leave the game against Division.

That mishap, and Katsoulis fouling out of that contest might have been the difference, although a running Tomasini layup and a bank shot from forward Victoria Lofaro put them in the lead at 28-26 with four minutes left.

Pevararo praised her team’s strong bench play, and said she’ll be back for the final games of the season next week that include games against Westbury and Roslyn at home and Garden City – a team they beat by one point at home – on the road.

However the ball bounces, the Gladiators will mix it up and maintain their signature frenetic pace for all four periods.

As Tomasini puts it, “I’m up for the challenge. I like a good game.”

Two special districts in Nassau County have joined the bi-county Long Island Intergovernmental Purchasing Council.

The Jericho Water District and the Port Washington Water Pollution Control District are the latest municipal entities to join the purchasing consortium intended to reduce costs of good and services by leveraging the buying power of local governments and school districts.

The LIPC was created in August by a joint resolution signed by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy.

“I am pleased to welcome the Jericho Water District and the Port Washington Water Pollution Control District as they join our efforts to protect taxpayers from wasteful spending,” Mangano said in a statement.

Officials from the Jericho Water District issued a statement saying, “The District joined the LIPC in the interest of reducing the cost of water supply chemicals and other consumable goods.”

The two districts joined more than a dozen towns, village and cities in the LIPC, including the Towns of Oyster Bay and Brookhaven, City of Glen Cove and the Villages of Kings Point, Laurel Hollow, Mineola, Northport and Patchogue have also elected to opt into the Long Island Purchasing Consortium.

School districts are notably absent from the list. Several school board superintendents in Nassau County have questioned the vaguely defined restrictive nature of the purchasing agreements the LIPC requires from its members. School board superintendents have suggested that joining the LIPC would stifle their freedom to shop for bids from other state consortia or BOCES.

“It’s like buying a pig in a poke,” one school board attorney said.

Both counties are urging school districts to reconsider their decisions to not join the LIPC.

The more entities that join, the deeper discounts the LIPC could ostensibly realize for its purchase.

The LIPC recently awarded its first bid for multipurpose office paper.

Nassau County is expected to save $57,000 on its paper purchases, and Suffolk County is projected to save $50,000 on its paper buys as a result.

A North Hills cardiologist who hid a camera in the bathroom of his office has been sentenced to 45 days in jail and has been forced to forfeit his medical license.

Vincent Pacienza, 54, convicted in June for the second-degree felony charge of unlawful surveillance, was sentenced Jan. 21 in district court to 45 days in jail and five years probation.

According to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, Pacienza was found guilty of illegally installing a hidden camera in the office bathroom in Manhasset on Plandome Road to secretly view patients and employees without their knowledge.

“This defendant committed a deplorable act by putting his employees and patients on display,” Rice said. “For a doctor to misuse his profession and the trust of his employees to sexually exploit them is unconscionable.”

Pacienza, a resident of Links Drive in North Hills, was convicted after a bench trial before Judge William Donnino. Pacienza surrendered his medical license last year following his conviction.

Prosecutors had recommended that Pacienza serve six months in jail, five years probation and also register as a level one sex offender.

Rice said that in June 2008, Pacienza, a cardiologist, told some of his female employees that he would be installing an air purifier in the office restroom that was shared by both employees and patients. Pacienza also closed down the employees-only bathroom, forcing employees and patients in the office to use the bathroom with the air purifier.

The air purifier, which faced the toilet, contained a hidden wireless camera with a direct video feed to a monitor underneath Pacienza’s desk. The camera was discovered that same month when an employee opening the office mail discovered an invoice to Pacienza for the hidden camera and air purifier from a website specializing in surveillance equipment.

Pacienza was arrested on June 13, 2008, by detectives from the Nassau County Police Department’s Sixth Squad. Police officers and the NCPD Electronics Squad executed a search warrant and recovered a wireless transmitting camera, a receiver and monitor.

A house fire claimed the life of a 72-year-old woman in Mineola early Tuesday morning.

The Mineola Fire Department responded quickly to the call about the house fire at 167 Jackson Ave. shortly after midnight and the 90 members who responded with four ladder trucks and a rescue truck eventually brought the fire under control by 1:30 a.m., according to Mineola Fire Department Chief Robert Connolly.

“On arriving, we found that the rear of the house was fully engulfed,” Connolly said. “We started making an aggressive attack on the fire. That‘s when we found a victim in the rear bedroom who had succumbed to her injuries.”

The fire was spreading to the second floor of the two-family house, and firefighters initially climbed onto the roof in an attempt to prevent it from spreading into the attic of the house. But Connolly said the roof was weakened from the damage to the underlying structure and firemen were forced to subdue the flames by breaking into the attic from ladders placed against the sides of the house.

A ladder truck from the Williston Park Fire Department assisted at the scene, along with a rescue vehicle from Garden City Park Fire Department, according to Connolly, who said that additional units from the New Hyde Park and Garden City Fire Departments provided stand-by support.

The fire marshal and the county police arson/bomb squad also responded to the scene and determined that the cause of the fire appeared to be non-suspicious, police said.

Connolly, who arrived at the scene with First Deputy Chief Joseph Pratt, said the cause of the fire remains undetermined.

“At this point it appears to be accidental,” Connolly said.

He said the Nassau County Fire Marshall’s office is investigating the blaze.

The identity of the elderly female victim who was discovered in the rear bedroom of the house was not being released by the Nassau County Police Department as of Wednesday. Occupants of an apartment on the west side of the house who had been in the house when the fire started evacuated the blazing structure before firefighters arrived at the scene, according to Connolly.

Connolly said the fatality was the first one to occur in Mineola since 1999.

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

As it moves toward presenting two versions of next year’s school budget in two weeks, the Herricks School Board received some potentially good news at last Thursday’s board meeting as the Herricks Teachers’ Association indicated its willingness to work with the board to cope with the current state fiscal crunch.

Craig Legnese, president of the teachers’ association read a statement to the board, saying, “In light of the financial crisis facing the Herricks School District, the Herricks Teacher’s Association agrees that it is necessary to enter into a serious dialogue with the Board of Education. We hope that our conversations can lead to solutions which may ease the burden facing the Herricks Community.”

Herricks board member Paul Ehrbar called the statement “a beginning step,” adding, “It hopefully will begin a good process.”

The teachers’ association statement follows board president Christine Turner’s report at the last meeting that the Herricks Association of Administrators and Supervisors had made a similar overture to the board through its president, Karen Hughes.

“It was welcome news to a lot of people’s ears,” said resident Jim Gounaris.

Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth reported that he and his staff are working “intensely” on two budgets, one that would maintain all current programs and services in the school district, and a second to comply with the anticipated 2 percent tax levy cap that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will seek to impose with the next state budget.

“We are not done. We’re brainstorming,” said Bierwirth, who said his staff is looking at specific positions and what people earn. Bierwirth had previously indicated that “dozens” of teaching positions would likely be eliminated with a budget complying with the 2 percent cap.

A budget complying with the cap would either show no increase from the current $50 million budget, or could require a 1 percent cut in spending from current levels, according to Bierwirth, who said a “stand-pat” budget retaining all current programs would increase spending by 6.77 percent.

Bierwith said he planned to make presentations of both budgets to the PTA Council at its Feb. 2 meeting and at the next school board meeting on Feb. 3.

With no state budget yet in place, Bierwirth said he could not estimate how much the school district was likely to lose in state aid this year.

“They don’t even know where they’re starting from. It’s very strange,” he said.

Bierwirth noted that the board had created a $500,000 reserve last year, anticipating a shortfall in state aid equal to that amount. But he indicated erosion of state beyond that level would present the district with serious financial hardship.

“It there are further cuts on top of that, we’re in trouble,” Bierwirth said.

A reduction in aid by $870,000 would translate to a 1 percent increase in the tax rate, Bierwirth said.

One issue he intended to address in budget discussions is the state requirement that all students eligible for bus transportation have a seat available on their respective bus routes. Bierwirth noted that he observes high school buses with many vacant seats and said some “slack” in the state rule – prompted by an injury to a student who was standing on a crowded bus – could mean a $150,000 reduction in costs.

“Empty seats benefit nobody,” Bierwirth said.

In other developments:

• The board tabled a resolution to join in a lawsuit being brought by Hamburger, Maxson, Yaffe, Knauer & McNally, LLP on behalf of the Nassau-Suffolk School Board Association to challenge the proposed end of the “County Guarantee.” Bierwirth said the board’s counsel, Jaspin & Schlesinger is not comfortable with the language of the contract the school board association’s firm has in the agreement it is asking school board’s to endorse.

But Bierwirth said he did want to indicate to the association that the school board isn’t yet prepared to sign on, but does supports the suit.

“When they’re sitting there deciding whether they have 56 or 35 school districts behind them, I think we want to say we’re behind them,” he said.

The Nassau County Legislature recently approved a plan by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano to eliminate the guarantee, which obligates the county to make up shortfalls in local tax revenues due to tax appeal cases.

• The board tabled a resolution for approval of late transportation requests. The deadline for such applications will be April 1.

• The board voted unanimously to retain Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers to perform work to solve a problem with water pressure in the fire hydrants at Herricks High School. Bierwirth said there is sufficient pressure in each individual hydrant, but when more than one hydrant is opened simultaneously, the water pressure drops. He said it represents no immediate danger to the students, and could date back to the construction of the school.

Walter Crosby vividly recalls the first call he responded to as a chief of the Mineola Fire Department at the scene of accident on the Long Island Rail Road crossing on Herricks Road.

A van with six teenagers was struck by a train on the tracks. One had been thrown from the van and impaled on the third rail. Only one of the six young victims survived. And Crosby knew all of them personally.

“My heart fell down. All those kids were associates of my kids,” Crosby said. “I had a lot of trouble with that call because of the horrific scene we confronted.”

It was the worst call that the 73-year-old Crosby ever had to go on in a career of volunteer service that spans 50 years. But it’s an indication of the kind of selflessness that has characterized a life spent as a member of the New York City Police Department and as a Medicaid fraud investigator, along with his volunteer efforts.

He originally joined the department as a member of the Mineola fire volunteers’ Truck Company No. 2 in December of 1960. He rose in the ranks to become a lieutenant in that company from 1966 to 1970, and served as captain of the unit from 1970 to 1972.

He achieved the rank of second assistant chief from 1981 to 1983, and then first assistant chief from 1983 to 1985, becoming chief for a two-year term in 1985.

Crosby was recognized as Fireman of the Year in 1977 and was given the Town of North Hempstead Firematic Service Award in 2008.

“I was actually there during the pioneering years,” he said.

In his early days as a chief, there was no home alert system for the volunteer firefiighters in the community. He had the fire sirens turned off when he was chief, in deference to residents who had medical issues, and established the home alert alarms. Some residents objected, but the new system worked admirably.

“The home alert systems blew us out of bed,” he recalled, smiling.

When he was chief, he didn’t ride in a chief’ car. He had a detachable flashing light for the top of his car, a citizen band radio and a walkie tallkie.

He improved conditions in the fire house itself by installing air conditioning in the building.

“It was a time when we were looking for change,” he said, recalling that he always enjoyed a cooperative relationship with the village board.

His volunteer work in the community also included a term as commissioner of the Mineola Little League.

Meanwhile, his full-time job through the early 1980s was in the NYPD, where he was a detective in the Brooklyn North Homicide Division for the last 13 years of his tenure.

He investigated Mafia hits, was one of the detectives assigned to the infamous Son of Sam case and emerged as a decorated veteran with a 92 percent clearance rate on his cases.

“I had a lot of Mafia hits and they’re hard to investigate because nobody want to talk to you,” he said, adding, “I miss it. I’d go back tomorrow.”

After serial killer David Berkowitz’s car was identified, Crosby remembers being staked out near the Brooklyn Park where the car was parked one night when Berkowitz struck again, shooting a couple parked in a car a short distance away in one his signature attacks.

“We shot right over there. I almost had him a couple of times,” Crosby said.

Living with danger was a common condition for Crosby, who once learned that a gang member he had arrested had put out a contract on Crosby’s life while he was in prison.

“I’m living on borrowed time,” he said.

That thought recurs when he recalls the day near the end of his detective career when he was one of a cadre of cops surrounding Ralph’s Gun Shop in the early ‘80s when a group of four terrorists were holding 23 hostages inside after a botched attempted robbery.

“This went on for hours. The guy next to me got shot,” he recalled.

And Crosby was almost hit when the side door of the gun shop opened near the car he was concealed behind. A figure emerged with hands raised, saying “Don’t shoot, I’m a hostage.” But right behind that hostage was one of the would-be terrorists with a semiautomatic shotgun. Crosby ducked into the wheel well of the car he was standing behind as the shooter blew out the windows of the vehicle and then retreated back inside.

Ultimately, the heroic store owner led the hostages to safety through a hole he’d managed to cut in the plasterboard wall of the shop and the robbers were arrested. The incident was the basis of a thesis Crosby later wrote in the course of studying for a bachelors degree in criminal justice at John Jay College.

Crosby settled into a much less anxiety-ridden routine when he joined the state prosecutor’s office as a Medicaid fraud investigator shortly after retiring from the city police department in 1982. He directed a staff of 60 people as an assistant chief of the state Medicaid Fraud task force.

“We were among the pioneers of Medicaid fraud. It became a very involved job and we were very busy,” he said, noting that investigating the nefarious practices of nursing homes was a far cry from tracking down murderers.

But Crosby’s new role put him in harm’s way again on September 11, when he was standing in the plaza of the World Trade Center near his office when the first plane struck Tower One.

He immediately went to work, administering first aid to some of the victims who emerged from that building.

“I saw people falling and jumping,” he said.

When the first building collapsed, he found shelter in a nearby sub-basement, eventually emerging into the surreal scene unfolding on that infamous day.

“We were knee-high in debris when we got out,” he recalled.

He heard the same sinister whooshing noise he had heard when the first plane had struck moments later when the second plane hit the other tower. He remembered how the ground shuddered when the second building collapsed.

But mostly he remembers the incredible scenes of carnage and the heroism of the rescuers. He modestly downplays his own role, although he received a Certificate of Commendation from the state attorney general’s office for his actions that day.

“I was just in the right place at the right time. By the grace of God I wasn’t killed,” he said. “Anybody who says they’re not scared, they’re liars. Your training kicks in. But you want to get home to your family.”

A practicing Catholic, Crosby believes God had a purpose for him being in that place on that day. “No doubt about it,” he said.

He returned home to his wife, Grace, that day. And he’s thankful that he’s still able to enjoy the company of his four children, Jeanne, Michael, Thomas and Chris, and his three grandchildren, Lauren, Amanda and Michaela.

The people he helped on September 11 are doubtless grateful to him too, as are the people in his home community who have seen his service as a firefighter first-hand.

It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.