(This letter had previously been sent to Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto and is being reprinted here at the author's request.)

I recently read a report of a meeting with Twin County Recycling in the Northwest Civic Association's Newsletter. The meeting took place on Feb. 18 and the attendees were Frank Lizza Jr., Councilman Tom Clark, Patricia Conway, members of the Northwest Civic Association and representatives of the recycling firm and VIM Construction. I was very distressed when I read the details of the application submitted to the town by Twin County.

According to the newsletter, the company plans to build a new asphalt plant and expand operations to a new site between Engle Street and Laurel Street. There are so many details of this application that can further cause major problems in this neighborhood. First, let me tell you what my personal concern is. My property backs on to the north side of West John Street between Laurel and Engle Streets. Directly across West John Street is a row of businesses and behind that is where they are talking of building this new asphalt plant. So my house is one of many that will be directly affected by this new plant.

In case you don't know, let's talk about the problems that currently occur with the existing plant. The existing plant is about one-half mile west of my property on West John Street. There are mounds of dirt as high as three to four stories. When the winds blow, this dirt is carried through the neighborhood. I cannot hang laundry in my yard now. My swimming pool always has a film of dirt on the top of it. The screens on the windows of my house have to be constantly cleaned. The lawn furniture that is outside has to be cleaned every time before someone can use it. This dirt is tracked through the entire house. Our cars are always dirty and the paint and windows of the cars have these tiny nicks in them from the dirt constantly hitting it. Imagine how much of that dirt is being inhaled in by my family's lungs and my neighbor's lungs. There are many trucks constantly going up and down West John Street. The amount of noise from these trucks is unbearable now. The dirt is constantly flying off these trucks as they make their way down the street, not to mention the exhaust fumes from the plant and the trucks. The dirt piles are out to the very edges of West John Street. It is a terrible eyesore in our community.

According to the newsletter, these operations will be phased out. What does that mean? That we will have both the new plant and the old plant operating for some time at the same time?

Now the new plan is to open a new asphalt plant almost directly across the street from my house with almost twice the production capacity and four times the amount of storage silo capacity. Is that the kind of business the Town of Oyster Bay really needs next to a residential area?

It says that the trucks will enter on Engle Street and exit on Laurel Street. That means that there will be trucks constantly stopping in the middle of West John Street waiting to make turns. There are already many accidents along the stretch of West John Street between Burns Avenue and Charlotte Avenue. How many more are going to happen with trucks waiting on the street to make turns and pulling out in the middle of the street? Engle and Laurel Streets are not very wide. The trucks will have to almost stop before making the turn and really get their engines going to pull out on to an already busy West John Street. How much noise and fumes is that going to create? If these trucks fail to negotiate the turns, they will end up in someone's backyard!

The proposed hours of operation is from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. How can we live with noise from this plant and trucks starting at 6 a.m.? I sometimes have to close my windows now because of the noise. With this new plant, I will not be able to open them at all and I guess the residents around here can forget using their backyards! According to the newsletter, there is a possibility that night deliveries and operations would be necessary to fill certain contracts. You can bet that this will not be on an occasional basis, it will become the normal way to do business.

And they expect us to believe that a 15 foot high fence around this 2.2 acre, 500 tons per hour, 1800 ton storage operation will help prevent this from destroying our way of life! This company has gotten completely out of control with their existing plant. What will they do with their new one?

I am pleading with you to take a good look at what this company is doing to our neighborhood. Please do not let it get worse. We have schools, children and families in this neighborhood. Burns Avenue Elementary School is right down the block from West John Street. The current site of Twin County is further away from the residential area than this proposed site and it causes enough problems where it is. Twin County is currently located directly adjacent to the railroad tracks and the new site will also be adjacent to the railroad tracks. This is the first thing the passengers on the train see of Hicksville. Seeing the Twin County sites, I would doubt that any of these passengers think of Hicksville as a community they would like to live in. Please make a better lifestyle for us by looking very close at what Twin County can potentially do to us. The people of Hicksville have been fighting for a long time against Twin County. We really do not want asphalt plants in our neighborhood.

I am inviting you and any other town board members to visit my property and take a look at what is going on now. I believe Twin County currently owns the property that they are talking about expanding their operations on. Look how they maintain it now. Do you think it is going to get any better? Please take a look around and see if you would consider living here.

Please let me know if I can provide you with any other information or what else I can do to prevent this expansion from happening.

Cele Kremler