LNG island, pizzaria, fishing

Kudos to council on LNG

To the Editor:
Kudos to the Long Beach City Council for continuing to voice their opposition to the proposed LNG Project 13 miles off our shore, and to Ray Ellmer, who served as the council's representative at the Sept. 9 energy hearing in Farmingdale. If we are to protect our coast from the dangers of LNG, we must all join the council and ally with the Surfrider Foundation and Clean Ocean Action in writing to Gov. Paterson, demanding he close the door to LNG in New York.
Jeff Kupferman

Long Beach

Pizzaria deck should stay up

To the Editor:
The pizzeria at the foot of New York Avenue and the ocean has been there for over 40 years. It has remained in the same family the entire time. It is a Long Beach icon and is a meeting place for residents and visitors alike.
In 1994 the owner went to see then City Manager Ed Eaton and asked permission to build a deck in the immediate area south of the business. The land was city-owned property and Mr. Eaton complied with a letter that would allow the owner to build his now famous deck. In the 15 years that the deck has been in operation, there have been no incidents that the Long Beach Police Department has been called to settle. However, the current city government has decided to inform the owner that the deck must go or the city will forcibly remove it.
For 40 years, this business has been paying taxes, employing Long Beach resident and has run a clean facility to relax at and listen to and watch the ocean. Some complainants say the music goes on until 2 a.m., and there is a lot of drinking and noise. But the complainants must be thinking of one of the many possibly out-of-control bars nearby, because this pizzeria closes at 11:30 p.m and has no juke box or speakers on its deck.
There must have been another reason for this decision to take down the deck. Is there a developer lurking in the background? Is there someone who might benefit from the removal of this deck? Fifteen years are enough to assert that the city abandoned this deck area.
Alan Symons
Long Beach



Sink the fishing licensing fee

To the Editor:
Ariella Monti’s "Still hooked on fishing" (Aug. 13-19) was a great nostalgic look at local fishing on Long Beach. Living just a block from the Magnolia Boulevard pier, the pier has been my venue for many a spur-of-the-moment whiling away summer days fishing.
My idyll was broken by the realization that, for the first time, New York state will require licenses to fish salt-waterways. The fee was stealthily enacted in May. The law requiring a $10 license fee for anyone over 16 goes into effect in October and is mandatory as of Jan. 1. License-free saltwater fishing is a birthright that goes back to colonial times. The licensing requirement will stifle local fishing and deter tourists from electing to fish. It appears to me another foot-in-the-door of state control, another hustle for fees on the back of the already over-taxed common man. It erodes yet another part of the free and spontaneous for all of us on Long Island.
Assemblyman Fred Theile and Senator Ken La Valle have proposed repealing the law. I thank them and wish them well. I hope the license fee is repealed and we can return to the joy of being able to drop a line into the water when the spirit moves us as we always have.
FRANK McQuade
Lido Beach