The NorthWest Civic Association will hold a dinner to honor Millie Jones, a 20-year board member, for her participation and dedication to the community of Hicksville. The dinner will be Wednesday, April 27 at 5:30 p.m. at Peppercorn's. The cost is $25 and includes dinner and tax. Contact Tony Sorvillo at 938-5019 or Irene Carolmusto at 822-7662 for reservations.

For the past several years, our membership has been declining and also the number of members at our meetings. It is very important that we address this immediately because it was when the NorthWest Civic Association of Hicksville was inactive that things like the asphalt plant and the road widening were approved. Many of the projects that commercialized Hicksville took place in the '60s and '70s when most civic associations were inactive or not formed yet and most residents didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. It's up to all of us not to let that happen to us again.

The past several years we've been committed with many proposals that would have been bad for residents and businesses in Hicksville (i.e. Barclay Street expansion, Costco, Duffy Avenue expansion, etc.) along with the continuing problems with illegal apartments, commercial parking, the asphalt plants and lack of code enforcement, to name a few. When a residential area has its streets filled with cars and trucks, old cars and trucks are kept in driveways and yard, properties are neglected it brings down the value of the entire community and the value of your house.

The most important agenda is to form a membership committee and immediately start a door to door membership drive, and let all the old and new residents know that we exist and need their help to better our community. Once we strengthen our membership then we can address other issues in order of importance. With enough active members no one will have to be asked to do too much and the more we get done, the better it is for everyone.

So anyone who has the time to be on a committee or head a committee please sign up. Remember the civic association is like a second family. And together we can make our community a clean, safe place to raise our families together.

After trying since last October to have a meeting with the King Kullen executives, we were asked to give dates that the NorthWest Civic Association board would be available and what we wanted to discuss. Through Councilwoman Mary McCaffery's office we said we wanted to discuss why a Costco store would have a dangerous and negative impact on several residential communities and discuss acceptable alternatives for the property that would benefit everyone. We were told that Ed Glackin, vice president of real estate for King Kullen, refused to meet with us.

It seems clear that the King Kullen Corp and Costco don't care what they do to the residents of Hicksville, Jericho and Westbury as long as they get a store close to BJ's and Stop & Shop. The traffic study they submitted determined that the local streets could not safely handle it.

Maybe the next step that should be taken while King Kullen is still trying to get approval is to ask all civic associations and residents to boycott both companies. If everyone fights together we can win, but we have to be united.