Village Green For Sunday

For the first time, the Village of Farmingdale on Sunday, March 17, will be holding a St. Patrick’s Day parade in what is to become an annual event.

Organizers are hoping that the parade will give Farmingdale residents a chance to come together and share a special event, and are also hoping that the parade will bring customers to Main Street and help support the businesses located there.

Downtown Master Plan

Implementation Committee News

The Farmingdale Saint Patrick’s Day (SPD) committee continues to promote the ‘first ever’ Farmingdale Saint Patrick’s Day Parade and events. We have come a long way in less than six weeks from the start of planning this event, it has been ‘organized chaos’ and there are more details to work out. With the cooperation from the weather man above and a bit of the ‘luck of the Irish’ we are hoping for an all round family-fun day… so let the planning continue with only 14 days to go for the ‘first ever’ Farmingdale Saint Patrick’s Day Parade and events.

Venditto: Debt Not A Worry

Supervisor speaks about bonding, taxes and town debt

Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto believes that the town is a great place to live and he emphatically said so at a recent board meeting. 

He also forcefully defended the decision to incur debt, which he said protects the quality of life of the town’s residents.

“I made a decision a long time ago, that while I would never spend unreasonably, I would spend appropriately to advance legitimate town purposes,” he said. “And I don’t think there is any higher town purpose than to protect the quality of life that we enjoy in the Town of Oyster Bay– the suburban quality of life that we enjoy here in the Town of Oyster Bay.”

Farmingdale Opens $25M Building

Farmingdale State College, the once quiet, tiny educational institution that specialized in animal husbandry programs, continued on an expansion spree, recently opening a 50,000-square-foot, $25 million Campus Center that boasts a cafeteria, bookstore and lecture hall.

The new building was unveiled Feb. 1.

Tougher Than Cancer

Every year in Nassau County, more than 200 women – mothers, daughters, wives and friends – die from breast cancer. According to the New York Cancer Registry, an average of 1,265 cases of breast cancer are reported annually within Nassau County.

Farmingdale resident, Grace Verderosa’s bra creation, “Tougher Than Cancer,” is one way in which many local artists, breast cancer survivors, their friends and family members and others have used originality and creativity to transform bras into folk art.

Suozzi Hits The Ground Running

Levittown: New Suburbia?

“We have to wake up to the reality, that America’s first suburb, Levittown, has to be the new suburbia; when I think of the southeast part of Nassau county, It’s probably one of the only places left in the county that is consistent with the original suburban concept; it’s still working there,” said County Executive challenger, Thomas Suozzi, of Glen Cove. “It’s still the closest to our original suburban dream; it hasn’t been as ruined as other places.”

This, among myriad issues facing the county that Suozzi would work to fix if elected to the position of county executive, was forefront in the topics of a recent interview by the editors at Anton Community Newspapers.  

When his own daughter went away to college, he began to wonder if she would ever come back to Long Island, not just because of the high cost of living, but whether there would be areas that would appeal to a young adult. “Suddenly, young people leaving the island became very real to me.” 

Security, Funding On Forefront

A packed Farmingdale school board meeting Feb. 6 focused on the issue of security. Stemming from issues brought to light from the tragic Sandy Hook School shooting in December, the district has been re-evaluating school security procedures. “We have an RFP (Request For Proposals) in place which bids are due on soon and we are reviewing all procedures. We are having drills and bolstering what we can,” said superintendent John Lorentz.  

One parent said that he realized that the room numbers are not visible on the outside of classrooms – something he said would help with security as well as something that is easy to do and the district would not have to wait for an outside company to approve.  “I would love to see this district become a showcase for security; a lighthouse for other districts to look to,” he said. 

Two Place In American Legion Oratorical

Israelle Sylvain, 16, has recently been named the runner up in the American Legion Zone Finals Oratorical Competition, which was held Feb. 2 at Elmont Public Library. She is the senior class president at St. Pius V High School in Melville. 

Sylvain speaks French and Creole and would like to eventually learn Italian, Korean, and Spanish. She would like to pursue a career in obstetrics and gynecology.

Stephen Vasques, a senior at St. Pius V High School, placed fourth in the zone finals of the American Legion Oratorical competition. 

During the summer, he works for the Town of Smithtown, counseling children. Vasques is also a junior fire fighter. Vasques plans to take the upcoming FDNY test, and would alternatively like to pursue a career in civil engineering. 

Plympton’s Farmingdale Exhibition

The master of indie animation, Bill Plympton, recently graced the campus of Farmingdale State College to host several lectures and film screenings for the public, as well as for the school’s graphic arts program students. 

Plympton, who considers himself the “Johnny Appleseed of Animation,” told Anton Newspapers that this is a very exciting time for animators, “This explosion of animation right now is amazing; it’s now in its second golden age.”

Aside from cartooning, animators now have a wider variety of career opportunities, such as Internet, gaming, commercials, and movies. “There are lots of students who love to draw who have a wonderful opportunity to get work doing animation,” Plympton said. 

Grants Support Military Families

The Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD) is set to receive a $25,000 grant from the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF) to support the creation of a brand new Military Families in Training (M-FIT) Program designed to educate, support, and strengthen military families. 

Addiction rates among active duty soldiers, returning veterans and the spouses of service men and women are several times higher than rates seen in the general population. LICADD Executive Director Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds recently told Anton Community Newspapers, “We’ve been seeing more returning service men than women, coming back in significant number with drug and alcohol issues.”