LIRR ticket office hours

The Seaford ticket office has been closed for about a year.

In addition, effective July 20, 2011, Massapequa and Wantagh ticket offices are open only on Mondays and Wednesdays. What follows is from Train Talk of the LIRR.

Some Ticket Window Hour Changes in Effect July 20
Labor Agreement Helps Retain Ticket Offices
As of July 20 ticket office hours at seven LIRR stations will be revised as follows:

Station	Open (Effective July 20)	Hours
Amityville	Mondays & Thursdays only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM
Bayside	Monday-Friday only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM
Flushing-Main Street	Mondays & Fridays only	6:15 AM-1:55 PM
Long Beach	Monday-Friday Saturday & Sunday	6:10 AM-1:45 PM 10 AM-6 PM
Lynbrook	Mondays & Thursdays only	5:45 AM-1:45 PM
Massapequa	Mondays & Wednesdays only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM
Wantagh	Mondays & Wednesdays only	6:10 AM-1:45 PM

Ticket office hours will change or be reduced at seven LIRR stations as part of an effort to prevent some ticket windows from closing and to retain the current level of cleaning services. LIRR management and leaders of the LIRR’s Transportation Communications Union agreed to temporary changes in contract rules, providing savings sufficient to avert the planned layoff of 17 ticket clerks, closure of ticket offices and a reduction of ticket window hours at over 18 stations. The LIRR hopes to discuss extension of this temporary nine-month agreement to avoid shutting ticket windows and laying off employees in 2012. The revised ticket office hours at seven LIRR stations take effect July 20, as shown in the above chart.

Water Tower Proposal

About 230 residents attended a meeting on the evening of July 12, 2011, concerning Aqua New York's proposal to construct a water tower on their property on the north side of DeMott Avenue, Wantagh, just west of the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway. The meeting was informative despite the frequent interruptions. A person, for example, would ask a question of one of the two representatives of Aqua, and then cut off the reply with argumentation. The audience, obviously, was almost totally against the construction, citing loss of home value, and the lack of water-pressure problems at present.

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After about an hour, county legislators Dennis Dunne and David Denenberg spoke.

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Aqua New York is asking approval of the sale of its Long Island operations to American Water Works, which supplies water to Lynbrook. It appears that the rates in Lynbrook are similarly high.

Seaford School Board meeting 7.7.2011

About twenty interested spectators attended the reorganization meeting of the Seaford School Board in the high school band room Thursday evening, July 7, 2011. After the Pledge, there were two surprises: The president was chosen by a 3-2 vote, whereupon one of the negative voters, John DelGuidice, resigned from the Board. This is well related in the Wantagh-Seaford Patch, linked here.

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The new air-conditioned band room provided a comfortable setting, but it was a bit difficult to hear those who spoke without a microphone. I stayed about an hour, including a discussion about the State requirement that school districts on contingency budgets charge fees to groups using facilities, fees that must cover the costs.

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There was also a discussion whether Patch could be an official newspaper similar to Newsday and the Citizen, which receive legal notices.

Seaford school budget is defeated

On June 21, 2011, the Seaford, N. Y., school budget (2nd try) was defeated by a vote of 1,479 to 1,278.

Ninth grade cohort of 2006

Today's Newsday (6.15.2011) gives a summary of high school graduation rates in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The NYS Education Department has released these figures and more in the pdf file linked here.
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The "2006 cohort" is those students who began ninth grade in 2005-6 and ordinarily would have graduated by August 2010 after four years of high school. I have not yet found an explanation of how transfers-out and transfers-in are counted, and whether the cohort includes the same students at the start and at the finish. Not in Newsday but rather in the file linked above is the size of the 2006 cohort. Seaford's 2006 cohort is 193 students, 88% of whom graduated by August, 2010. Wantagh's numbers are 285 students and 99%. Massapequa: 636 and 96%. Plainedge: 279 and 94%. Bellmore-Merrick: 1,015 and 94%. Island Trees: 231 and 90%. Levittown: 648 and 93%.
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I have not located NY State figures for non-public schools, where again I feel that the size of the beginning cohort and the transfers are important information.
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My previous post on the 2005 (graduating in 2009) is linked here.

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Today's Newsday also contains a chart of "College prep indicators." This link leads to a fee wall, but many readers will be able log in.

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In Seaford, 55% of the 2010 graduates earned an advanced Regents diploma, in Wantagh 76%, in Massapequa 64%, in Plainedge 62%, in Bellmore-Merrick 68%, in Island Trees 45%, and in Levittown 65%.

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Seaford Museum will be open Sundays 1 to 4 p.m.

The Seaford Historical Society's Museum will again be open on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., thanks in good measure to the the work of Eagle Scout candidate Nick Johns.  The Museum is located on Waverly Avenue between Washington and Southard Avenues.

Memorial Day, 2011

Two hours of rain stopped ten minutes before the 2011 Memorial Day parade began its path north on Washington Avenue, Seaford.  Above, the color guard of the Seaford American Legion post leads the parade. I had better luck with photography last year, linked here.
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Decoration Day had its beginning honoring those who lost their lives in the American Civil War of 1861-1865 and those who were veterans of that conflict.  This year, the day after Memorial Day, the newspaper USA Today gave the names of eleven more service personnel who paid with their lives in Afghanistan.  Three of the eleven called Ohio home, and one each from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Kansas, Washington, North Carolina, Iowa, California.
   

May 17, 2011, voting results

These numbers are found on the Seaford Schools website here.
The proposed budget failed: No: 1881; Yes: 1448.  Votes cast: 3329.
The Harbor roadway proposal lost: 1604 to 1366.  Votes cast: 2970.
The increased transportation proposal lost: 1810 to 1098.  Votes cast: 2908.
Two trustees were elected: Richard DiBlasio with 2278 votes, and Brian Fagan with 2157 votes.  Laura Philips received 957 votes.  Each voter could vote for two candidates. 

Seaford School Budget

Quite a few people searched this blog for "Seaford School Budget" and did not find it.  Below, I provide a link to the budget issue of Seaford Education Spotlight, mailed out to almost all households about a week ago.  It is a pdf file:
Link here.
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I use the word "almost" above, because I have heard that school district residents residing in Wantagh zip 11793 have not been getting some mailings.  That's the neighborhood north of Merrick Road and west of Willoughby Avenue, almost to Cedar Creek.

Seaford Library budget passes

On April 6, 2011, the 2011-2012 budget for the Seaford Library passed, 110-36.  Stephen Gaughran was reelected as trustee, with 129 votes.
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Below, I list some results from previous years:
In April, 2010, the Seaford library budget passed, 103-29. Eileen Montalbano was reelected as trustee, with 119 votes.
In April, 2009, the Seaford Library budget passed, 98-30. John Rall was reelected as trustee with 115 votes.
In April, 2008, the Seaford Library budget passed, 110-52.  Peter Ruffner was reelected trustee for a five-year term.
The 2007-8 budget of the Seaford Public Library passed, with a vote of 78 "Yes" to 45 "No." Maybe the drenching rain kept the turnout low. Possessing a valid library card is different from registering to vote in a library district or school district, and I do not know the number of registered or eligible voters. About 10,400 Seafordites have Seaford Library cards in a district of approximately 16,000 residents. As library cards must be renewed every three years, the number of card holders may be a little inflated by people moving out of the district. The voting register for school district and library district (a combined list) totals about 10,000 to 12,000 names.

Some weekend trains skip Seaford

On the new weekend train timetable, the half-hourly service to and from Seaford has five omissions (or gaps of an hour) in each direction.  Please check your timetables or the LIRR website.
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There are five trains that serve Massapequa and Bellmore but not Seaford and Wantagh.  These express trains from Babylon stop only at Amityville, Massapequa, Bellmore, Freeport, and Jamaica.
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One of the upcoming weekends (date not yet disclosed), service will be interrupted to replace and test new signals near Oakland Avenue, Wantagh, an installation that has taken years already.