Before the July 16 Board of Trustees Meeting began, Deputy Mayor Hecken, the Board's liaison to the Environmental Advisory Board (EAB), approached Garden City Life about our story which appeared on page one of our last issue regarding the plans for the Nassau Hub. He stated that he was disappointed to see the quotes attributed to the EAB and stated that no such press release had ever been released by them. This took us quite by surprise, as the release from which we had quoted had appeared in both of the Village's newspapers the week of June 11 (it was on our page three, in fact) and no one had ever called to disclaim the release that had been headlined "GC EAB Urges Residents to Attend County Public Meetings." We were then told by Mike Merrick of the EAB that he did not recall the release and Director of Public Works Robert Mangan informed me that unless a release comes directly from him, that it is not an official release from the EAB and should not be published as such. I readily told all concerned where the release had originated --from the same source all such releases run in either paper have come from in the past and the same source who also provided the sample letter and release labeled from the SAFE subcommittee of the EAB, which ran in our June 25 and July 2 issues without response. A resident in the Village had presented themselves as serving in a publicity officer capacity for the EAB and, in good faith, as when anyone introduces themselves as the publicity officer for any group, the releases ran whenever so delivered, without any commentary from anyone until now.

While certainly willing to comply with the wishes of the EAB officials by agreeing to only run releases from Mangan from now on, we couldn't help feeling a bit discouraged that unless information from press releases appears on page one, it seems to go unnoticed.

When the meeting was well under way, Hecken was asked by the mayor to give his report, at which time he publicly stated that he did not know from where the comments made in the Garden City Life story had originated, despite our earlier conversation, and proceeded to read a letter written by Merrick addressed to the County's Planning Commission regarding the Draft Plan, (which does not currently include the Hub plans, rather it only refers to their existence and future inclusion in the plan) which was to represent the official position of the EAB. The letter's comments, frankly, echoed the press release's concerns about the revitalization of the business district --the very comments that sparked the concern over the quotes from the release, and proceeded to call the Draft Plan "fatally flawed" because of its omission of the Hub plans for review. Merrick also later stated, in response to resident questions asking if an extension to the July 24 deadline for comments from the Village to the Planning Commission could be obtained to allow the residents to organize and work on statements, that there have been Work Sessions of the Planning Commission, the dates of which were announced by the EAB in the Village's newspapers. The only release that contained the dates of the Work Sessions was the very release they just publicly stated they didn't send.

Mayor Tauches also expanded upon Hecken's report by stating that he and other officials have attended the Work Sessions and offered comments and suggestions to the Planning Commission, effecting changes in the Draft Plan. He said he appreciated the input from "the media," but was quick to say that the Village leaders have played a critical role in the Draft Plan. The article in question did not state that there was no role, rather it pointed out that a Village-wide effort has not been organized. When residents asked about the extension, it was Trustee Asselta who recommended that they write and request one and that she saw no reason why they wouldn't have a chance at obtaining one, but the mayor did not offer to attempt to work with the residents to do so. The mayor also stated that the public could attend Public Hearings scheduled for September if they wanted to, but did not express an intention to orchestrate a Village effort. The POAs have not been asked to contact their residents and rally people together to either support or oppose the Hub, or play any direct role in the development. The point was simply that the release, which was presented as an official statement by the EAB, questioned the plans and called for a mass effort to bring these questions to light. Comments made by members of the EAB at a meeting covered in our April 2 issue expressed tremendous concern about the Hub's possible impact on the Village's economy and the traffic within the Village. The letter written by Merrick and read by Hecken expressed those same concerns listed in the questioned release in rather similar and equally strong language.

Certainly we will not run any release without first receiving it from Village Hall regarding the EAB or SAFE from now on, but the manner in which this issue unfolded was odd and unfortunate, to say the least. Sadly, while we should be able to trust that someone who presents themselves as the spokesperson for a group is who they say they are, this is not a perfect world and we will need to verify everything strictly from now on. In another unfortunate example of dishonesty, after some investigation, it seems that the letter by the CPOA President last week was presented to our staff as having been delivered by the author and was thus published, when in fact the author had not requested its publication.

The Garden City Life staff will continue to cover the events and issues that matter to our readers and do it with the same standards of objectivity and quality of writing to which we have always adhered. We also would like to thank our readers for their words of kindness --this week in particular-- and look forward to seeing everyone around the Village.

AE