I would like to respond to Arnold J. Finamore's letter, "Village Should Quit Leaf Collection Business," in your Dec. 1, 2005 issue. Bravo sir! You have surely hit on a great solution to both noise control and excess expense on the village and we the taxpayer. True, we could save money by selling the equipment and reassigning the workers plus eliminating overtime pay.

Based on your knowledge expressed in your next to the last paragraph, I can only then assume that you as a resident (perhaps an infrequent Saturday visitor) are stepping up as the head of a volunteer group to police the village parks (Edgemere, Tullamore, Nassau Haven, Hemlock, Hazelhurst, Stewart Little League, Grove Playground), the parking lots of the Long Island Rail Road stations (Stewart Manor, Nassau Boulevard, Garden City and Country Life Press) and the additional public pieces of village property where trees are located, bud in spring and drop their leaves in the fall?

Again if the equipment is sold, which I can only assume you also mean the trucks that drag the leaf pick up machines, you are going to be out on the Main Streets of the village between 4 and 5 a.m. with your volunteers and their shovels when the snow falls so each and every resident can get out on to the roadways to go to work and their other appointments. Of course, you will make sure that the fire station streets have been cleared first in case one of our residents, perhaps yourself or a family member, needs emergency assistance, medical or fire.

I must commend the trustees and department heads present at the board meeting you attended last year. They were exceedingly kind and compassionate to you by their silence. Actually, had I been there I probably would have expressed my dismay and laughed out loud. Sir, you are a self centered individual and care no more for Garden City than what the address can do for you. My advice to you - 1) buy a set of ear covers that eliminate the outside noise or 2) decide that Saturday is the day to take your family on a motor trip to see the beach in the fall, to the Children's Museum, even to New York City.

Geraldine R McDonnell