Many readers of the Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot and many residents of Oyster Bay Cove remember the tumultuous meeting of the Oyster Bay Cove Planning Board last May 29 at the East Woods School on the subdivision of the Pulling Estate.
At that meeting, Michael Peragine, now mayor of Oyster Bay Cove, and James Glass, now chairman of the Planning Board, and others were stingingly critical of the Planning Board for the limited distribution of the notice of that meeting and the notices of prior meetings of the Planning Board. They castigated the planning board for conducting four years of meetings on the Pulling Estate subdivision with notices of the meetings having been given only to those property owners within 100 feet of the subdivision as required by law and for not mailing notices of the meetings to every resident of the village.
The Enterprise-Pilot's June 12 article on the Pulling Estate quoted Mr. Peragine stating, "There were only 14 notifications including one cemetery, one church, one to Nassau County and one was a notice hung in the police station."
The Enterprise-Pilot's article correctly noted that the village had notified everyone required, according to the law, within 100 feet of the subdivision. (Mr. Peragine did not mention, and Mr. Glass did not acknowledge, that all notices had been mailed to Marlene - Mrs. James D. Glass.)
Outraged by such limited distribution of notices of planning board meetings, Messrs. Peragine and Glass demanded at the May 29 planning board meeting that notices of all future planning board meetings on the Pulling Estate subdivision be mailed to every village resident. The planning board agreed to do so, and the village mailed to every resident notice of the next planning board meeting on the Pulling subdivision, which was held in the East Woods School gymnasium on June 10 and was attended by approximately 200 residents.
Now, the residents of Oyster Bay Cove have been informed in the inaugural fall 1997 edition of the Oyster Bay Cove-Village News (edited by Marlene - Mrs. James D. Glass) in a "Planning Board Update" by James D. Glass, planning board chairman, that the Planning Board has conducted "two executive sessions" and an Oct. 22 "public workshop session" on the Pulling Estate subdivision.
Inexplicably, these "sessions" were held with no notice other than publication in a local newspaper, even less notice than the 14 notifications that Peragine and Glass so vehemently criticized six months ago at the May 29 planning board meeting.
Where's the notice, gentlemen?
Stephen E. Gilhuley
Former Chairman
Oyster Bay Cove Planning Board
