In Levittown: Conference on Our Future Is Saturday

By Dave Mock

Levittown's 50th Anniversary Committee has spent much of the last year reviewing where it's been. This Saturday, with the help of Levittown residents, it'll take a good look at where the community is going.

All residents have been asked for much of the last two months to fill out and return a questionnaire prepared by the 50th Anniversary Futuring Committee in areas like community, education, environment, family, technology and health. The goal, the Futuring Committee's Jean Fontana said, is to give organizations like the Levittown and Island Trees school districts and the Town of Hempstead areas on which they should focus.

The results will be unveiled at the Levittown 2047 Conference Saturday, Dec. 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Levittown Memorial Education Center. Among the speakers will be Dr. Matthew Schure, president of the New York Institute of Technology, and John Whitehouse, author of The Year 2000 Is Coming: What Do We Have To Do About It?

"They're (the questionnaires) coming in, slowly but surely," Fontana said on Tuesday. She added that Levittown Superintendent Dr. Herman Sirois had already broken down the questions into categories like whether age, income or gender was a factor in their comments.

Discussing the residents' comments, Fontana said, "They seem to have become very sophisticated in the responses. They seem to recognize issues that may be uncomfortable that need to be addressed. On issues that are very controversial, they seem to be on the conservative side."

For example, Fontana said, most of the respondents feel that condom distribution should not be an area handled by local schools. But the factors behind those answers don't resemble each other, she added.

Fontana said that although some of the issues are controversial, the respondents trust the people doing the survey to represent their views accurately.

"We'll keep averaging in the responses as long as they (residents) keep sending them in," she said. "It's not a done deal on the 13th."

Added Louise Cassano, co-chairperson of the 50th Anniversary Committee: "I think things are shaping up nicely. We should have a very interested group of people that show up. It's a very different kind of event, and one that really is important to the future of Levittown. What value is everything that took place if we don't use it to better the community and enhance the community?"

In preparing the questionnaire, the Futuring Committee secured the input and advice of experts in several fields, who projected what Levittown would look like in the future and provided suggestions.

Sirois says that the results of community response to the Futuring questionnaire will be used to advise various community agencies and governmental units on how Levittown citizens feel about the future and how they should prepare for it.

In addition to the topical presentations, representatives from Northrop Grumman, New York Institute of Technology and possibly Bell Atlantic will be showing off new technologies, Fontana said.

Meantime, fifth graders at Lee Road School in the Levittown School District have already taken a look down the road toward 2047. Their assignment, celebrating Levittown's 50th anniversary, was to feature what schools of the future would be like in the next 50 years.

According to the district, research on the Internet and visits to many libraries did not turn up much information on which to base their display. Then came Joan Filderman, children's librarian at the Wantagh Public Library, who conducted a search through the Nassau Library System. Through her efforts, the students received information that enabled them to create their exhibit, "Tour a School of the Future."