On Jan. 4, the Community Council held its third Community Forum. The forum was developed to reach out to every civic and community organization within the hamlet of Hicksville and provide information to those in attendance on what's happening on the other side of town.

The first forum held in January 2006 provided a basic re-familiarization with the civic leadership of our community and discussed the problems each one of us has in the areas we represent. It was at this forum that the issue of the redistribution of commercial tax revenue was first brought to light and discussed. During the second meeting in June 2006 specific issues were discussed; water quality, illegal housing, community esthetics and voter registration.

Illegal housing was first brought to a head at the Community Council's June 1, 2006 meeting. We here in the Hicksville Gardens Civic have made great progress addressing this issue in our area with Block Captain Joe at the helm of our Illegal Housing Committee. After the town's absence at the June 1 Community Council Illegal Housing Meeting I challenged those in attendance to get involved and help address this growing concern.

Through a meeting I chaired on Aug. 3, a committee was formed to do just that. At that meeting I had the pleasure of being introduced to Mark; a local resident who has since chaired four meetings on this issue and has just recently been appointed a trustee to the Community Council to chair its Illegal Housing Committee. The town will directly deal with Mark. Mark will then make a report on the first Thursday of each month at the council's general meeting. That report will be distributed to every civic and community organization involved with the Community Council and they will then disseminate that information among their respective memberships.

Our next forum, held on Jan. 4, didn't go as well as the previous two. However, our next one in May shows much promise. NorthWest is dealing with the Costco issue that was postponed from December and Costco contacted the Hicksville Community Council to address those in attendance. Due to the uncertainty of Costco being allowed to address the group, additional neighboring civics also affected by the Costco proposal were invited at the last minute. The Citizens for an Informed Hicksville were led to believe that they could present the issues they had with our local Fire Department and no one bothered to communicate with one another before it was too late.

The Citizens for an Informed Hicksville began their presentation but were not allowed to finish because of the time restraints we are under with the library. The meeting ended on a sour note leaving many people more confused than before. I brought this issue up to our board at an emergency meeting I called on Jan. 6 and it will be further discussed at the next Community Council Board meeting.

As you can see from the Hicksville Illustrated News' lead story, the civics in Hicksville are finally starting to get their act together.

Henry Goessmann

President, Hicksville Gardens Civic Association

Trustee, Hicksville Community Council