(Editor's Note: This letter was originally sent to the Farmingdale Board of Education President Anthony Vitale and is being reprinted here at the author's request.)

It has been almost two years of being patient with the Howitt Parking situation. By that I mean the teachers parking in front of our homes all day on Grant Avenue, Van Cott, Cherry and William Streets. In your letter of Sept. 19, 2003 you stated that a 56 car gravel parking lot would be formed on the back end of Howitt (Conklin side) which we do all see does exist; however the teachers I guess don't know that because very few cars are parked there. Instead they are on our neighborhood streets for more then the three-hour limit permitted by the village.

We live in the village and pay village taxes. We expect to have the code enforcement start ticketing the teachers' cars starting in September 2005. We have been holding off calling the village hoping that it would be resolved the proper way by you and your staff. We also do not get our streets cleaned by the sweeper. We all watch the sweeper go down our blocks at about 10 a.m. every other week, riding in the middle of our streets because the teachers' cars are parked there. We all still have the winter sand in front of our homes. I have also sent a letter asking the sweepers to come after school hours or on the weekends but they say overtime is a big issue and they are unable to change anything at this time. Another issue is when you do leave your own home for a brief hour to shop in the village, you come back and there is no parking for a few blocks of your own home. Yes the teachers at all times of the morning and afternoon take our own spots in front of our own property. When it is time to unload your 10 food shopping bags, you must walk two blocks away to get your packages and make several long unnecessary trips.

This is not fair to the elderly, handicapped or the citizens of the Village of Farmingdale living near Howitt. We are asking for the last time to make this your top priority during the summer discussions with your staff before the September 2005 school year starts. There have been discussions of giving village residents a window sign or tag showing they are indeed the homeowners who are parked in front of their own homes so when code enforcement does give out tickets they will not ticket residents, just the violators. A lot of people in those surrounding streets are thinking of other ways to handle this matter such as putting out orange cones in front of their own homes to save spots for themselves when out shopping. If you want to contribute to having the village streets lined with bright oranges cones then you will probably have a problem with town hall too.

Please see previous letters sent to the village, Farmingdale Observer and to yourself back in September 2003. I am expecting to hear from you and your board about this situation shortly. If you would like to hold a meeting with all residents living on those mentioned streets it can be arranged.

Mary Ellen Hribok