My name is Hedy Navarro, I was told my husband Sgt. Rick Navarro who's a Reservist, the only one left in Levittown that is still stationed in Iraq, that he has been deployed for one year. He's in the 800th Military Police Brigade and he may be coming home by March 1, 2004. He has been in several parts of Iraq, but mainly Baghdad. There's not one day that goes by that I'm not worried about him. Just like any other military family, we can't help but to worry. I try to remain strong for the sake of my 3-year-old son, Justin.

We had moved to Levittown in December 2003 and two weeks later, my husband was deployed. This has been very hard to deal with emotionally and financially. Especially being a first time homeowner.

I want to thank everybody in Levittown, etc for your great concerns and prayers for all of our Soldiers.

I wanted to thank Kate Murray, Victor Sparaccio, Bob Arzberger and the Levittown Post Office, the Massapequa Post 1066 and The Rebuilding Together affiliated with the East Meadow Home Depot.

They all have thought of us during the holidays and because of them I made sure my son would have a traditional Christmas with all of the trimmings. My son was able to get everything he asked Santa for, except for his daddy. But we hope daddy will be home soon.

This has been a very sad time for me, sharing these holidays with my 3-year-old son Justin without his father. It's very difficult because even though my son is 3, he always asks for his daddy, but I'm trying to do my best.

Our Town Supervisor Kate Murray and Victor Sparaccio have been checking up on me often to see how I've been. They have been so sweet. My son was invited to light the Christmas tree at Town Hall on December 2, 2003, and he was so excited that later that week I had to buy him his own Christmas tree so he could decorate and light it himself. Our town supervisor also gave Justin a Christmas gift (which he loves) and our very sweet and caring mailman Bob Arzberger, who always asks about my husband in Iraq, gave me a Christmas card (three days before Christmas). Bob and the Levittown Post Office gave me $100 to help get me through the holidays. This brought me to tears. I was so shocked that our local post office did something so kind. They also sent my husband a big box for him and the other soldiers and they received it by Christmas day.

I must include Lou Ulino and the Legion (Post 1066) in Massapequa. Mmy husband has been a member of this legion for three years, he was already a vet from Desert Storm. Lou has truly done a lot for us since Thanksgiving. Two nights before Christmas, Lou and Mike (the Chaplain) came over with a beautiful Radio Flyer Wagon and a bike for our son (which Mike had put together) and they also gave me a Christmas card with a donation from the Post of $100. They also bought me a nice sized turkey and a Roast beef for Christmas dinner.

And as for "The Rebuilding Together" they have done a lot of work in my new home to make sure our small family is safe and secure. This includes the donation of a beautiful stove from Home Depot, which I have done all of our Christmas cooking on.

I would really like to say thank you to everyone who has been so caring to my family, in such rough, lonely times. I thank every one of you for making us have such a beautiful Christmas after all and for putting a smile on my husband's face. I am so glad we moved to such a beautiful community. I have been so overwhelmed that words can't even truly express how grateful I am to all of you.

Again I have tears in my eyes as I say thank you.

Many people in Levittown are familiar with the fact that the 1908-11 Vanderbilt Cup Races were held right here in town and that today only an undeveloped meadow resides where luminaries like Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan sat in the Grandstand and cheered-on the race car drivers who, in those days, were the nation's biggest sports heroes. Many know, too, that for some years thereafter, the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway was employed as a toll road and that the section that ran through Levittown was used by Charles Lindbergh and other members of the Long Island Aviation Country Club. But what happened to the Levittown section after the 1930s?

In 1938, William K. Vanderbilt sold the Long Island Motor Parkway for back taxes after Robert Moses threatened to route his proposed Northern State Parkway parallel to Vanderbilt's toll road; matching it exit for exit. Putting the unprofitable toll road out of business was essential if those who controlled the purse strings in Albany were to accept Moses' claim that his parkway was absolutely necessary for Long Island. Fifty-four years later, in 1984, Nassau County sold sections of the Long Island Motor Parkway in Levittown to a company named Giordano and Venteau - including the 2.7 acre lot between Heron and Skimmer Lanes in Levittown that had been the site of the Grandstand for the 1908-11 races. Giordano and Venteau paid $26,000 for the lot which seemed odd given that a lot of similar size between Heron and Pintail Lanes sold the following year for more than $900,000. Curious, two Levittowners investigated and found that the address for Giordano and Venteau was a boarded-up store front in Bethpage. (This and the following events were documented by Lynne Matarrese in a 1996 article in The Long Island Forum). Shortly thereafter, Terra Homes acquired the property for $90,000 - ten times less than the value of the adjacent Heron/Pintail lot!

Since 1984, Terra Homes, which now operates under the name Josato, has been engaged in a sporadic legal battle to change the Town of Hempstead's zoning laws so that it can build houses on substandard-sized parcels. In 1986, it lost its case in the New York State Supreme Court. Undaunted, it continues to this day in its attempt to build on what are the last parcels of open land left in Levittown - including the historically significant site of the Grandstand.

What should happen to this site? Obviously I don't think building upon it is a desirable endeavor. Zoning in Levittown was enacted to prevent the kind of urban crowding Terra Homes/Josato seeks. I also think that there are too many unanswered questions about how and why Nassau County sold a parcel of land worth close to $1 million for $26,000. Or why Giordano and Venteau had an abandoned store front as an address. Or why Giordano and Venteau sold a valuable parcel of land for 1/10th its value. Far too many questions. Indeed, enough to doubt the legality of the transactions and to wonder if the parties involved, who would stand to profit should this land be developed, ought to benefit. Frankly, from Robert Moses to the Nassau County sale to Giordano and Venteau and Terra Homes purchase, the history of this parcel, after its place in the history of auto racing, has been one that reeks of Big City politics; the backroom deals and boiler room operations that most of us left the Big City to the suburbs to get away from.

But mostly, I think this meadow is worth preserving because it is an important part of our history and if it were to be preserved as a park and/or a nature preserve (which Levittown lacks), it would continue to serve the interests of the ordinary people of Levittown.