When Town of North Hempstead Councilman Robert Troiano announced at the Central Westbury Civic Association meeting last March that he and the town had successfully renegotiated the PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement with Neptune Regional Transmission Systems (RTS) and the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, the spontaneous burst of applause was understandable. North Hempstead Town Councilman Robert Troiano stated that the original agreement whereby Westbury School District would receive a total of $10 million over the course of 12 years was upped to $30 million, as it was argued that the benefit to Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and Neptune far outweighed what the town would receive from the deal.

To fully comprehend the scope of this deal, it is necessary to briefly summarize the contributing factors. From as early as 2003, Neptune and LIPA proposed investing millions of dollars in Nassau County to install an under sea buried cable and to construct an electricity converter station that would transport 600 megawatts of electricity from New Jersey to Long Island. The converter station was originally proposed to be built on an 8-acre site of the Cedar Creek Sewage Treatment Plant in the Wantagh -Seaford area, and would convert electricity from DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current). However, residents of the area expressed opposition to the project and raised serious questions about the station's impact on the electromagnetic fields produced by alternating currents.

After relentless opposition from civic and community organizations, including the Seaford Chamber of Commerce, the Seaford Kiwanis Club, and the Seaford Homeowners Association, it was clear that there was no support for the project, and alternate sites were sought - Freeport, and the Nassau County Hub, located off the Meadowbrook Parkway in Garden City were among the alternatives considered. Construction of the plant at its current location on Duffy Avenue began in July 2005 and became operational in 2007.

I was among those elated by the news from Councilman Troiano, and couldn't wait to get the full details of this payment plan to the school district at the next board meeting. Imagine my dismay when I asked at three consecutive meetings and was told that no one on the board knew anything about it - from the superintendent, the president of the school board, or any of the other six board members. Perhaps I'm naive as to how things are done politically at this level, but I would have thought that if the school district was going to be one of the chief beneficiaries in a deal of this nature at least letters of exchange between the parties involved would seem to be quite in order to me!

Frustrated, I submitted a FOIL request to the five entities involved in this deal, and learned that the $30 million payment to the district is in essence a back-ended deal, in that the bulk of the money will be disbursed in the last four years of the 20 -year payment beginning in 2023, in amounts of $3,250,00-$3,400,00. The first payment of $100,000 was made on July 1, 2007, and will continue to be in the hundreds of thousand until 2013 when the first million-dollar payment will be made.

While to my mind, this may not seriously ease the high budget burdens that the district has been faced with, it's an unexpected windfall which is welcomed. But the district may be losing out on another windfall that may be on the horizon in the form of monies that may be available as a result of the much talked about Lighthouse project; the 150-acre site at the Nassau Coliseum that is proposed to be transformed into 5.5 million square feet of new mixed use development by developer Charles Wang.

Groundbreaking for this project is expected to be in July 2009, and is expected to be completed before 2015 when the Islanders lease expires. State law dictates that Uniondale School District would be the sole beneficiary to the tune of $35-40 million yearly, even though the surrounding districts of Westbury, Carle Place, Garden City, Hempstead and East Meadow will share in the impact of traffic, etc.

Nassau County Legislators Roger Corbin (D - 2nd LD.) and Richard Nicolello (R - 9th L.D.) are both supporters of the project, but they are not leading the way in lobbying Albany to bring equity to these surrounding district. Call them at these respective numbers - 571-6202 or 571-6209 and ask why.

Chester McGibbon
Vice President
Westbury PTA Council