School Buses Start at 6:30 a.m.

We have lived in our house for many years. We love our home. It's our biggest asset. On any given day, we can watch and hear the children playing in Hillside Grade School's playground. We can breathe in fresh air and smell the flowers. This is the quality of life we have grown to enjoy as we have gotten on in years. This can no longer be enjoyed, thanks to our school board!

We now see and hear school buses being stored and charged (6:30 a.m.) in our children's playground. We now breathe in polluted air and smell the carcinogens from the diesel engines. This is not what we deserve. We are homeowners and taxpayers who have been supportive of our schools and have been proud to say, Hillside Grade School is our neighbor and friend. Its playground and our backyard join one another.

My husband, Tony, is stricken with emphysema. He cannot and should not be exposed to this type of unhealthy situation, especially in our own backyard.

We have supported the school district's budget because we could see firsthand the wonderful things going on in the schools. After all, we have one in our backyard.

We are outraged that the board of education could have authorized the construction of a 15 ft. cyclone fence in our backyard to enclose a three-car garage and house four school buses that were always at Manor Oaks.

Where has this school board gotten the money to do this? Why weren't the 24 homeowners notified? This all could have been avoided. The taxpayers never approved this expenditure. This is wasteful spending! This behavior must stop! Is this school board that insensitive to its constituents. It has allowed this dangerous, unhealthy, unsightly situation to exist in our backyard. They must be held accountable. Hillside is the only school in the district that has 24 families joining property lines.

When they ask you to vote on the budget, we are asking you to carefully analyze the items and figures. Question what you don't understand. When you're asked to vote for a trustee, don't be fooled by campaign promises. See what change has brought us in just a matter of three months!

Virginia Ziolo

Heartfelt Thanks For Your Support

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for giving me a tremendous victory in my race for North Hempstead Town Councilman.

The campaign proved to be very exciting for both me and my family. I had the opportunity to meet so many terrific people throughout our town. The enthusiasm, determination and commitment for our town, that I observed, bodes well for its future.

My commitment to you, is to deliver on my campaign promises. Promises of putting the good of the people first, of bringing good common business sense to government and of operating our town government as efficiently as possible.

To that end, one of the first resolutions I will introduce is to have the North Hempstead budget process completed prior to election day. This will eliminate political games from being played by either part, which has been the case in the past and unfortunately this year as well. The only winners in the process of governing North Hempstead should and will be the residents of our town.

Once again, thank you to our campaign workers, to our financial supporters, to our strategy planners and to the tens of thousands of voters from all parties, who placed their faith in me. I won't let you down!

Have the happiest, healthiest, safest and most prosperous holiday season, ever!

Angelo Ferrara

Faced with Unsafe, Unnecessary Changes

I have lived in my house for 50 years. I have been blessed with wonderful neighbors for the same number of years.

My backyard, as well as those of 23 other families, abut Hillside Grade School's playground. We are now faced with a very stressful, dangerous, unsafe, unnecessary change in our quality of life. We can no longer see children playing, laughing and having fun in their playground (our backyard). We can now see buses, hear diesel engines being charged at 6:30 in the morning and we can also breathe in the horrendous fumes from these buses. Is this the quality of life one can look forward to? Is this the way in which we can expect our school board to spend our hard earned money? We are not going to sit still. We want all the taxpayers to know what is going on in our particular area, because this could be you!

Last month, our school board voted to lower class size and incur an expense not in the budget we taxpayers approved. This month, the same school board, approved the construction of an enclosed 15 ft. cyclone fence in our backyard to house these buses. This too is not in our budget. Where is all this money coming from? I'm sure that if Annette Giarratani was on the school board this never would have happened. Who's watching over our hard earned money now? It doesn't appear that this school board is doing the job!

I urge all my friends and neighbors to be extremely cautious when asked to vote on the school budget and representatives in May. Before pulling the lever, be certain all your questions have been addressed. Before pulling the lever, be certain you know what budget you're voting on and which trustee as well. Remember, anyone can make promises with your money if you don't hold them accountable.

Rose Ianni