(Editor's Note: The following letter was sent to Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto)

Due to illness I am sorry that I could not attend the Town of Oyster Bay meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 17 regarding the hearing requesting a Special Use Permit for storage facility by the applicants Public Storage, Inc., ACJ Realty, Inc., and Grand Prix Leasing, LTD to construct a 78,792-square-foot, three-story building for public storage on the northwest corner of Old Country Road and Railroad Lane in Hicksville.

I have attended all of the "hamlet" meetings you held at the Hicksville Middle School where you promised the residents of Hicksville that you were going to work with us to beautify Hicksville. If you pass this special use permit, this will be the fourth public storage facility in Hicksville. We already have that ugly building (the tomb that has less than 50 percent occupancy) on West John Street; one on Charlotte Avenue and, of course, the public storage on Broadway by McDonald's that has some class to it with the landscaping.

It seems to me that your idea of beautifying Hicksville is to add the ugly buildings and storage facilities to our once lovely hamlet. This is not going to beautify downtown Hicksville. I remember you telling us how you grew up in Massapequa and it has remained a lovely hamlet as have all the others in the Town of Oyster Bay. But it seems Hicksville must be the exception. I would love to have you live and work in Hicksville for a year and see how it is to drive down "beautiful" Broadway or Jerusalem Avenue. I am quite sure you wouldn't be very proud to admit you live in Hicksville.

Then, with great interest, I read the full page letter in the Sept. 20 edition of The Hicksville Illustrated News from the Cerro Wire Coalition thanking you for all the "help" you have given them so they will not have a mall up there. Is it because we don't live north of Jericho Turnpike and we don't have the financial resources others have that you can push this through for Hicksville?

I just happened to read in the shaded box in The Hicksville Illustrated News' Sept. 13 edition about the short notice for the hearing on Sept. 17. Are we the "lost sheep" in the Town of Oyster Bay? (Note: During a recent phone conversation with the Hicksville Illustrated News, Joan Testa was advised that the Town of Oyster Bay did submit the information on the hearing in a timely matter. The hearing was posted in the Sept. 13 issue due to space constraints and timeliness.)

Whatever happened to the senior/assisted living facility that was proposed for the former Sieman-Eisman property on Broadway just north of Old Country Road? I am truly disappointed that you have not lived up to your promises.

Joan M. Testa

P.S. To the residents of Hicksville who had no idea of this hearing please note: You had better all wake up and speak up if you want to live in a beautiful hamlet in the Town of Oyster Bay. If you don't watch for and attend the Town of Oyster Bay Special Use Hearings, you'll have more storage buildings next to your door.