‘State of the Village’ address delivered at Lawrence Association meeting

Mayor Alex Edelman and NCPD Fourth Precinct officers speak at May 16 meeting

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Lawrence mayor Alex H. Edelman touched on a number of items when he delivered his annual “State of the Village” address at the latest Lawrence Association meeting at the Lawrence Yacht and Country Club.

In his address, Edelman described the villages’ financial situation as ‘excellent.’ “The financial situation in the Village of Lawrence is healthy and has never been better,” Edelman, the Lawrence mayor since 2016 said. “We actually have money leftover that we can use for an emergency.” Lawrence’s approved 2019-20 budget is $5.859 million and it includes a $307,750 increase over the current fiscal plan of $5.551 million and an uptick in the tax rate per $100 of assessed value of $3.50 from $79.50 to $83.

Another issue that Edelman touched on was the brown water that Lawrence residents have found in their homes. “We’ve had continuous discussions with New York American Water about this and they’ve assured us that the water is safe to use,” he said. “Ultimately there’s not much NYAW can do about the brown water. The ultimate solution would be to install new water pipes, but that will be very costly.”

Lawrence Association president Paris Popack noted why it’s important to have the “State of the Village” address at an association meeting. “It’s important to our village to have this address at our meetings,” Popack said. “I feel that there’s not a lot of people who attend village board meetings unless they have a personal issue to air. These meetings are more personal and it humanizes the people who represent the village.”

The Lawrence Association meets once a month and more information can be found at their website: https://lawrencecivic.com/.


Fourth Precinct Presentation
Another portion of the meeting consisted of officers from Nassau County’s Fourth Precinct Police Department in Sgt. Charles Sollin and Problem Oriented Policing Officer John Zanny discussed the rise of phone and internet scams in which scammers look to take people’s personal information to steal their money. These scammers target the elderly because they feel that they can get one over on them,” Zanny said. “Some people are getting these scam phone calls about four to five days per day.”

The officers noted what people should keep in mind when receiving these phone calls. “Utility companies will never ask you for your personal information or passwords,” Zanny said. “These scammers try to rush you into giving up your personal information and they try to deceive you by changing their phone number to a number that looks familiar to you.”

Sollin mentioned how a person was scammed out of nearly “$250,000.” He was referencing how a 76-year-old Lawrence resident allegedly had $296,000 stolen from him through a scheme that had him transferring money into several fraudulent accounts, according to the police. The man received a telephone call at 2 p.m. on May 15, from a person identifying himself as working for the Social Security Administration.

The NCPD recommends that anyone who is contacted by any individual requesting money should call 911 immediately.