Lakeside PTA takes stand against proposed incinerator

Children’s cries of “Two, four, six, eight…do not incinerate!” were heard outside Freeport Village Hall on Thursday when members of the Levy-Lakeside Elementary School PTA, with Merrick and Freeport residents, staged a protest against a proposal to build a waste-to-energy incinerator in south Freeport, near the Merrick border.

It was the second such protest in less than a week.

On his Facebook page, Freeport Mayor Andrew Hardwick, now one year into a four-year term, is urging calm, saying “it is not my intention to bring anything to this community that would harm me, my family or the residents of the village.”

To date, the mayor has not released plans or blueprints for the $550 million incinerator, but he has taken trips to China and Germany to study waste-to-energy plants, which create electricity by burning garbage. According to knowledgeable sources, those trips were funded with state grant monies.

Despite the mayor’s call for local residents to keep “an open mind” on the project, the Levy-Lakeside PTA has taken a stand against it. At Thursday’s protest, attended by nearly 100 people, Levy-Lakeside PTA Co-President Shari Weissbach said, “Of course we’re against it –– for so many reasons…We’re such a densely populated area. To put something of that magnitude [here] can’t be successful.”

Weissbach said she worries about increased traffic in Merrick, as a greater number of garbage trucks would likely travel through the community en route to the incinerator. She also noted that Merrick parents are worried about the potential harmful effects that emissions from the plant might have on local air and water quality.

Elisa Kandel, a Levy-Lakeside PTA volunteer, said, “We have to look for places that are less harmful.”

Elan Ribenbach, whose daughter attends first grade at Birch Elementary School in Merrick, said, “It’s all about the children. The last thing I want is any carcinogens hurting the children.”