The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has applied for a variance to open a flea market at Belmont Racetrack. The flea market, which has been in operation for the past nine years at Aqueduct, would be open three days a week. Part of the proposed site for the flea market abuts the Floral Park/Bellerose School.

The Village of Floral Park has no jurisdiction whatsoever over zoning at Belmont; that is a matter for the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals, which held a hearing on the application at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 29, at Town Hall Plaza in Hempstead. I can assure you that I will be present to express the concerns of the village board. We hold the safety of our children and our residents of utmost importance.

No word yet from the MTA/LIRR on when they will hold a hearing or hearings for the DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) for the proposed "third rail" transecting the heart of the Village of Floral Park.

I was told it might be right after the November elections or perhaps just after the first of the New Year. Maybe by the time you read this, news of a scheduled hearing will be announced. Or maybe it won't. Our only course is to be prepared - and we are.

Only one thing is for certain, and that is the MTA has not wavered in its justification for the now $1 billion mega-project, which is to accommodate the reverse commute they claim is urgently needed because of the putatively growing numbers of commuters eastbound. It is indeed interesting that this line of reasoning is still pursued when at the scoping hearings the MTA was hoisted on its own petard when it was pointed out that ridership for the LIRR peaked in 1949!

Nor are their arguments convincing when they tell us that a third track will be a jolt of electricity for the local economy. Tracks have reached Suffolk County destinations for decades providing plenty of opportunity for reverse commutes for workers without appreciably augmenting the natural growth of trade and industry.

Nor does their advocacy for job creation ring true. Of course construction will always create jobs in the same way that fire will always produce heat. The issue is whether it is the kind of heat that will warm us or cook our food, or is the fire of such intensity that it will consume our homes and ourselves.

The same is, more or less, true in terms of job creation. A billion dollar track construction project will create more track workers, but if those billion dollars were not extracted from the purse of the taxpayer, it would have been spent elsewhere in the economy creating other jobs in other fields of employment.

It is important to remember that the idea of job creation is not an end in itself; when it is, then the question becomes not should another track be built but where it should be built. When the where replaces should we have an unhealthy way of viewing the expenditures of public monies for capital investments. Unfortunately, numbers can be artfully intimidating and we tend to freeze when statistics of how many jobs are created are thrown at us as if to oppose such a measure means we are in favor of unemployment lines.

The fact is most of us only see the immediate effects of public policy or its effect on a special group, and not the long term effects on all groups in which lies the whole difference between good economic policy and bad.

Regrettably, these principles of basic economics have not been used as an instrument to foster clear and level headed thinking, but used or misused as a tool for distortion and confusion. High in their Ivory Towers, a priesthood of academicians, editorialists and other assorted media has been endlessly descanting on the blessings of the third track and a unified transportation system as an indispensable condition for increasing regional income and wealth. Coupled with this advocacy, is the description of the opposition as shortsighted, reactionary and worst of all a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard).

Such unfair characterizations are nothing less than a declaration of war. The residents of Floral Park do not want to raze the railroad nor even eliminate one of its four tracks. Our position is neatly and concisely expressed in the mantra: "It is not a question of not in our backyard but enough in our backyard."

It was Nancy Rauch Douzinas who, in an article that appeared in several Anton Community Newspaper editions, who disturbingly fanned the flames of Nimbyism and self- righteousness in describing third track opponents. In Trustee Tom Tweedy's pungently delicious response, he noted that Ms. Douzinas' loving embrace of this mega-project might have something to do with her living in the "Gold Coast community" of Lloyd Harbor that is populated by multi-million dollar mansions on land untrammeled by the "third track."

Most ironic of all is that Ms. Douzinas' vision for progressiveness failed to prevail over LILCO's plan to build and operate a nuclear power station on the eastern end of Lloyd Neck, which resulted in an avalanche of protest from the Lloyd Harbor residents who defeated the measure and thereby burdened all of Long Island with energy shortages, higher utility bills and the infamous Shoreham Plant fiasco.

Yet search engines have not been able to uncover one objection from Lloyd Harbor resident Nancy Rauch Douzinas on the NIMBYism and provincialism of her own hometown. We can only account for Ms. Douzinas' philosophical schizophrenia by concluding that the third track isn't by Lloyd Harbor, but the nuclear power plant is.

But let us not speculate any further on Ms. Douzinas' motivations and concentrate solely on our own. The people of Floral Park are sophisticated and intelligent enough to know that in a very real sense, modern transportation created the modern world. We recognize that a transportation system that binds a vast network of commerce with individuals, businesses and government is the very bloodstream of cultural and economic health.

This is exactly the reason the village supports the "East Side Access" into New York. Commuters are well aware that there is hardly ever a problem getting into Jamaica, but reaching parts of Manhattan is frequently problematical. The functionality, however, of two different terminals - one to Penn Station and another to Grand Central Station - will economically knit a closer and more beneficial relationship between Long Island and New York City.

This conception of an east side access is far superior to the macro-engineering misadventure of building a third track that is nothing more than a bauble of waste. But exactly what the DEIS will be calling for is not easily discernible since the MTA dispenses their information with all the alacrity of a miser hoarding his gold.

So we will see. Waiting is often the worst part, sort of like waiting for the other shoe to drop. But if, as the writer Henry Thoreau wrote, that all men live lives of quiet desperation, then it is also true that amid a potential sea change, communities experience moments of silent apprehension.

Be that as it may, our attitude should be one of remaining vigilant but unvexed. We are neither unarmed nor defenseless. We have a plan; strong allies and each other and that, my fellow citizens, is quite an arsenal.

Family and friends gathered at the Recreation Center to join the village board in paying tribute to John by the unveiling of his name on the Wall of Fame. John was born and raised in Floral Park then left but like so many others came back here to raise his own family.

John was deeply dedicated to the Titans football program and spent many hours sharing his knowledge of the game with literally hundreds of youngsters who greatly benefited from his instruction and example. He left us much too early, but his good works are fondly remembered and lives on in lives he quietly but conspicuously touched.