Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

Pool is wrong for Rockville Centre

To the Editor:

I retired from the Town of Hempstead Parks Department in 2008, having worked as a certified pool operator.

Within a 15-minute drive of Rockville Centre, exit 17N off the Southern State Parkway, is Echo Park in West Hempstead. It’s an impressive, lexan-domed complex completed in 1973. It is open all year round, except for three weeks in January. In the summer, the park has an outdoor lap pool, a kiddie pool and swimming lessons. All year round, the park offers extensive water exercise programs in a heated environment.

Beyond the cost of building a new pool, which may seem low if your taxes only go up $32 a year for a bond, there is continued maintenance for the facility, insurance payments, salaries and additional energy use — which all cost money. Certified lifeguards are required — even when half of them go back to college in late August.

Please don’t build a pool.

Franklin Rothenberg

Rockville Centre

We shouldn’t allow Syrian refugees in NY

To the Editor:

After the tragic Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, I have called on Governor Cuomo to restrict Syrian refugees from entering New York state.

New York does not have the resources to screen and vet all Syrian refugees entering our borders. More than half of the governors in our union, as well as the leaders of several Middle Eastern nations, do not want to allow Syrian refugees to resettle in their regions. This is proof of the groundswell of anxiety over ISIS operatives infiltrating countries around the world.

I support immigration and understand its role in shaping the diversity of our nation, but as a Long Island representative, I am deeply concerned about the accessibility of New York’s coastline and borders to potential terrorists. Our major metropolitan areas are prime targets for terrorist attacks, and that is a risk that we cannot afford to take. I call on the governor to close the borders, at least temporarily, to Syrian refugees until we can ascertain whether a threat exists inside our state and neutralize it. Our top priority should be safeguarding New Yorkers.

David McDonough

New York state assemblyman, 14th District