Thursday, May 31, 2007

Wantagh-Seaford Homeowners Assoc. 5.30.2007

On May 30, 2007, Ella Stevens chaired a meeting of the Wantagh-Seaford Homeowners Association at the Seaford Public Library. Scheduled for 7 p.m., the meeting began at 7:13 with twenty-one present. First was an informative and helpful presentation by Gary P. Sauer, Acting Director of the Traffic Control Division of the Town of Hempstead. The main discussion with him was the difficulty of cars exiting north out of Pine Street onto Merrick Road because of street parking at the new diner there. One interesting point: a sign totally lacking county or town identification is often non-enforceable. Town signs are now being marked TOH.
As for Town parking lots (such as near the railroad), a stall is defined as having a white line on both sides. Concerning the stalls in the center of a town parking lot, beware of parking outside the last painted line even if there is a curb nearby.
Other Wantagh items were then discussed. A Seaford discussion began at 8:18 p.m., thirty-two people present, with the proposal to build eighteen town houses at the south end of Arrowhead Place. The builders must get the zoning changed from commercial (the present marina) to a residential designation. A young woman (lawyer for the developer?) displayed large maps and sketches of the town houses and their adjacent docking spaces. If you see these maps again, be careful to note where north is, because not all their maps have north at the top. For an excellent aerial view of the marina, go to Google Maps, type in "Arrowhead Place, ny 11783," and later choose the hybrid view. You can count the boats!
She referred to a man there as "our client,' so I presume he was the developer. He made some verbal promises: that the homes would stay as "age 55 and older," that the lofts were not a third story, etc. The asking price may be $650,000 per townhouse, no basement, two floors (and a loft), two bedrooms, two baths, and a dock. "We are not asking for variances from the code." "Hempstead limits residences to a height of thirty feet." One boating enthusiast pointed out that several marinas in Nassau County have already sold out to developers and that dock and boat storage space is falling greatly. I left the meeting at 8:55.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Results of Board of Education vote

The Seaford, New York, school budget passed. For the two open seats on the Board of Trustees, John DelGiudice won with 1,678 votes and Linda Hurley with 1,377. The five candidates (including these winners) pulled in 4,852 votes in total, each voter being allowed to vote for two candidates. The budget passed, 1,780 to 1,222. My May 31 letter to the Wantagh-Seaford Citizen, therefore, was misleading, as I forgot that each voter could cast two votes for trustees.