Regretfully, in his zeal to unseat Commissioner Ed Winrow and garner support for his own election as a Manhasset Park District commissioner, Mark Sauvigne has, in his statements to the press and in his advertisements and in his mailings, consistently made suggestions that the park district, quote: does not "get a fair share of the town tax increase".

Mr. Sauvigne needs to catch up on his fiscal knowledge of how NY State districts collect tax revenue, and specifically how the park district that he wishes to help reform, collects its tax revenue. If he did, he would learn that none of the (North Hempstead) town tax revenue goes to the park district; the park district sets its own tax rates and budgets at public hearings and its taxes are listed as a separate line item on the town's general tax bill, in the same manner as the (Nassau) County and Manhasset/Lakeville Fire & Water District taxes are listed as separate line items. The town acts merely as a central collection agency for all these entities when it sends out its general tax bills and then turns over the amounts collected for each entity to each of them individually. Sauvigne has certainly missed the boat on this issue; this is just basic municipal accounting stuff.

Mr. Sauvigne also wants, quote: "pedestrian crosswalks with speed bumps to protect our seniors". Again, he should educate himself on the NY State Vehicle Safety and Traffic Law, which forbids the use of speed bumps on any public street, because of the possible danger to emergency vehicles that may have to use such streets at high speed; speed bumps are only allowed on privately owned streets.

Mr. Sauvigne wants to: "preserve the Whitney property ... from development". Laudable, but, the Whitney estate is already in a nonprofit preservation trust that already precludes the kind of development he wants to prevent. Then he suggests the park district acquire the land to save the drinking water: the only way that can happen is to go through an expensive condemnation proceeding which would cost the park district taxpayers millions of dollars: however, the Whitney preservation trust has already provided for ensuring the watershed lying beneath the property: no need to spend taxpayer dollars to accomplish what has essentially been done by Mrs. Whitney.

Our present commissioner, Ed Winrow, knows the facts; he has the experience gained from 18 years of service as our park commissioner and has earned his present status as the current chair of the board of commissioners. He knows better than to make idle suggestions that smack of scare tactics, just to get votes. Trust Ed Winrow to do the research and do the job that needs to be done.

John W. Walter

Former Mayor, Village of Flower Hill