Letters to the Editor -- Nov. 12-18

Kopel says thanks

To the Editor:

Our community voted to start fresh on Election Day. I can’t thank the homeowners and working families of the 7th District enough for their overwhelming vote of confidence. I am humbled that our campaign's message of new ideas and workable solutions to move our community and Nassau County forward resonated so well.

I’m also glad that our campaign for positive change motivated so many people to pull the lever for me on Election Day. Thank you for your support. I want you to know that I plan on following through with the plans and ideas I’ve raised over the past several months.

On Day One, I hope to vote to repeal the unfair and regressive Home Heating and Energy Tax. I’m also committed to attracting businesses to Nassau County and rebuilding our local downtowns. Our commercial tax base needs to grow, and I will help make sensible policies to allow that to happen.

My message to those of you who voted for my opponent, Jeff Toback, as well as the newspapers that endorsed him, is that I will work hard to win your support. I pledge to put people and our neighborhoods over politics. Nassau must have a responsible government that works for all the people. I give you my word that I will work every day to give us just that.

I am also looking forward to rolling up my sleeves in Mineola to start fixing the broken annual property reassessment system that has hit us too hard for too long. I want to protect you, our neighbors, and our pocketbooks.

Join me. Let’s work together to accomplish what’s needed to get done for a long time. Please feel free to contact me anytime. E-mail me at howard@howardkopel.com or call me at (516) 204-7260. This contact information is temporary, pending the opening of my official office in January, and I will circulate permanent information when it becomes available. I look forward to being our community advocate who gets results.

Howard J. Kopel, Legislator-elect, District 7, Lawrence

Santino expresses his gratitude

To the Editor:

I want to thank everyone who voted on Election Day. I’m very honored to have earned the support of so many of my friends and neighbors, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue my service.

I would also like to thank my opponent, Ms. Jean Brett-Leach, for the spirited debate and public discourse she contributed to during the past several months. Her candidacy only strengthened the meaning of what living in a true democracy is all about.

I am also grateful to the Heralds for their endorsement. I’m humbled knowing that the Herald and its editorial board have appreciated my record in office and my vision for the future.

Over the next four years, I will make it a priority to continue my fight against high property taxes. It is critical that all levels of government work together to provide the much-needed relief that working families and seniors need in order to continue to make ends meet here on Long Island.

I am renewed and reinvigorated by the incredible 71 percent mandate that I received at the polls. Be assured that I will continue to represent the citizens of the 4th Council District with all of my strength and energy. Serving the people of this great township is truly privilege.

Anthony J. Santino, Senior Councilman, Town of Hempstead

Board member questions letter

To the Editor:

I never thought it was possible to shoehorn so many distortions into one small letter until I read the one from Dominick Speziale in the Oct. 29-Nov. 4 issue of the Herald (“Selling Number Six? You bet!”). I’ll spare you the whole litany and focus on just two of the allegations he raises in connection with the closing of the No. 6 School.

The district’s “assessment” did not rate the No. 6 School “top-notch.” The district’s Engineering Report actually found that it needed far more work than any other school building in order to come into compliance with New York state’s building code. Among other things, the No. 6 School was found to need extensive work to become handicapped-accessible as well as major alterations of the facade to allow for more light and air. The building is so “top-notch” that last year the sidewalk in front collapsed.

Mr. Speziale said that the district has “as many eligible students today as it did 30 years ago (7,000-plus).” Though this is technically true, it is deceptive. The district doesn’t educate “eligible” students. It educates the students that register for public school. Here the trending is clear: Last year the district had 3,224 students. This year it has 3,182, a drop of 42, or a little over 1 percent. The drop is in line with falling enrollment over the past 10 years. There was some concern last year that in the current economic crisis, some parents might shift students from private school to public school. So far, that plainly hasn’t happened.

Closing a school is extremely difficult. Distorting the facts, it would seem, is not.

Uri Kaufman, Lawrence school board trustee