This letter was sent to Mr. Donald Lister of the Nassau County Planning Commission and is printed here with the writer's permission.

As you know, after many phone calls I finally was able to speak to you about the development of Mohring Enterprises, the last vestige of the former village of Buckram, at present partly occupied by the Country Inn.

Having migrated from Austria in 1938, my wife and I and then children settled on Cold Spring Harbor Road and then White Oak Tree Lane in 1939. It had not been much later that the character of the village of Syosset started to change, and John MacKay, Harold Manser and I started the South Woods Association in an effort to retain the characteristics of living in Oyster Bay Cove and neighborhood.

The territory of the South Woods Association was later incorporated in the village of Laurel Hollow, and basically no changes incurred to the east of South Woods Road. After some 20 years in Syosset, we moved to Oyster Bay and lived there for an equal time and finally having become widowed twice, I bought my house on Wood Lane some 17 years ago. This after 20 years on Mill River Road.

It is obvious that our character of living on the north shore of Long Island had been retained on account of land requirements for homes around here, and it is equally obvious that inroads into village requirements are constantly taking place. A good example is the old Underhill property. After some 50 years of work in insurance claims and underwriting and after my retirement from business I made my hobby of painting my principal activity, still emphasizing farming and care of our land with my activities as master gardener with Cornell, and as to buildings, as member of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, having illustrated a book The Walls Speak, which had its second reprint.

I believe that for a while the intent had been to build senior residences, but after opposition by senior citizens (there are now three such complexes in Glen Cove: Senior Quarters, Mayfair and Sunrise) such "appeal" was dropped, which actually had been nothing but a feint to advocate monetary gain as against density, sewer drain, slope, retaining walls, elimination of trees and other inroads to the kind of living we have here. We, in the Village of Lattingtown, are not allowed to decimate trees on our property, and I, for instance, have added over 10 pine trees, if for nothing else, but improvement of the air quality.