The Sept. 25 1998 edition of Newsday carried an interesting and important story about the Village of Atlantic Beach. This story is especially important for people who live in villages where the right to self-govern and decide the future of the community is guaranteed.

The small Village of Atlantic Beach was incorporated after 1936. The Nassau County Charter states that any village created after 1936 would not have its own zoning powers, but would, instead, defer to the township in which it was located.

In the case of Atlantic Beach, the township is Hempstead. With a population of 2,000, one-fifth as large as New Hyde Park, it is fighting desperately to claim the right to its own zoning powers. In the wake of a threatened expansion of a local restaurant located in the village, plans for which were filed with the town, but which was opposed by many village residents, Atlantic Beach Trustee Gary Connors said "Would you rather have some guys who don't live here adjudicating these cases or people who live here and have a stake in the community?"

Closer to home, in the '80s when a developer wanted to put up a motel between South 17th and South 18th Streets in the Village of New Hyde Park, the village board had written a law into our zoning code restricting motels in that zone. The Supreme Court upheld that portion of our zoning code and, in so doing, upheld our right to self-determiantion.

How can you put into dollars and cents the loss of an ability to control the esthetics of your community which, in turn, reflects in your property values? You can't, and you shouldn't.

County Legislator Bruce Nyman of Long Beach sums up the situation in these words: "There are three things in America that are traditional¬motherhood, apple pie and home rule. This goes to the very heart of why a village is a village."

Thank you, Mr. Nyman.