The Town of Oyster Bay has just closed the books on the year 1998. The town's Director of Finance Robert McEvoy said in preparing his year end report: "Every fund is ending with a surplus." The budget came out as projected when he was planning the 1999 budget, "After all the adjustments are made, each and every fund ended with a surplus."

Still, the town has been operating with a budget gap they have been contending with. It would appear the "gap" started when then Supervisor Lewis Yevoli took office as a Democrat with a Republican board. He prepared his town budgets that they rejected for various reasons and came up with their own offering similar reductions to his. Before Mr. Yevoli came on board, the New York State Comptroller's office had chided the town for having too much in surplus funds.

At the present time, the town appears to have switched their accounting practices - and have instead been following Mr. Yevoli's lead - of giving back to the taxpayer in the form of reducing budgets with surplus funds. Mr. Yevoli created his budgets by cutting down on the town fleet of cars and combining titles to eliminate jobs.

The last year of Mr. Yevoli's six years in office, the town began using funds from the projected sale of property in Plainview - to balance the budget. They took what they saw as the total sale price, halved it and credited it to two budget years. When the sale took longer then hoped for, they asked the state to allow them to get Revenue Anticipation Notes. The RANs were gotten with an average of 2.73 percent borrowing. The money can't be kept in the bank to earn interest, that would be arbitrage, said Mr. McEvoy. You have to spend it - you have to show the cash flow to get it, he said.

The Plainview sale has not yet occurred and the current development plan is now being challenged by Lee Koppleman, the executive director of the L.I. Regional Planning Board, who is concerned that the site being developed is over the groundwater protection area.

Local Plainview residents are fighting the current plan and were at town hall on Tuesday, Feb. 16, asking for the property not to be developed. The school board is particularly concerned because of the possible influx of students in an already crowded school system, should the proposed 538-unit "Colony at Olde Oyster Bay" an up-scale project be approved. The original plan included 160 units for senior citizens which would cut down on the number of children that might funnel into the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District.

At the board meeting, Supervisor John Venditto was very cordial in listening to residents complaints. He said "We're not going to balance our budget on the back of the ecology!"

A Plainview resident said he was amazed at the depth of the hole in the property. "It was 100 feet down. They are going to fill that in!" As part of the Plainview development, the town created a new zoning ordinance, the Planned Unit Development (PUD). The purpose of the PUD is to provide flexibility for the coordinated development or redevelopment of large parcels of appropriately located industrially zoned land to accommodate independent residential communities allowing for diverse housing types.

The Plainview property is broken up into single family detached homes; two-story attached villas; two-story villas; three story condos.

Mr. Venditto said, "We're waiting for an Environmental Impact Statement which will take 30 to 60 days to complete. It should be no longer than April."

Councilman Tom Clark took the larger view of the issue. He said, "Mr. Koppelman thinks it only rains in one area. It rains all over Long Island." The groundwater is recharged from all over the Island and the township.

What is of concern is that without the sale of the property, there will be a need to find revenues to balance the budget. Mr. McEvoy, in a telephone interview said, his view was that "When the town had a surplus, they wanted to return it to the taxpayer - with cash. The land is considered a surplus too, (with the money from the sale) a way to lower the tax rate."

Next year, how will they work to replace the revenue from the RANs? Mr. McEvoy said they raised fees for some town services, got a slight tax increase from the taxpayers and received revenue from other sources, for instance the town recovered money from responsible parties involved in the Syosset landfill.

The town also receives money from their contract with Cablevision. They are paying the town about $1.1 million to the general fund. The current rate is 3 percent a year and the town is negotiating for 5 percent a year, which is what Great Neck and similar municipalities pay.

When asked if the town was "tightening its belt," a town spokesperson didn't like the expression. She said, "We have reduced our operating budget in 1999. We are working with each and every department to stay within their budget. They have been very receptive. We are also looking for other sources of revenue and we are looking for grants."

"Belt tightening is a good way to run the government," said Mr. McEvoy. "John Venditto made it clear that he wants a cost efficient government.

Ms. Barry said, "In 1998 the town received more than $6 million in grants. That was money for a myriad of projects including: highway and road projects; environmental projects on both the north and south shore; safety training and a records management improvement project. We continue to pull in grants that have impressed the state."

When asked if the town is planning ahead to fill the gap - by selling other land - such as Goat Hill in Oyster Bay, town spokesperson Phyllis Barry said the town has a lot of land throughout the town, which covers about 110 miles. "Periodically we appraise them to find out what we are worth. We have to know what our value is."

And of the surplus funds the town has identified from the 1998 budget - they were anticipated said Mr. McEvoy, so they are being used in this year's budget.

If the Plainview sale, doesn't work - then what happens? Is Charles Wang interested in more property in Plainview? Last week it was announced by Nassau County Executive Tom Gulotta that Mr. Wang is the proposed buyer for 144-acres of land in Plainview. The purchase will help Nassau County with their budget gap.

The town had no comment.

Mr. Wang is one of the buyers of the Stoothoff farm for St. Dominic's. He also owns a large part of Cove Neck, where he lives, as well as Youngs Farm, the place where George Washington slept when he came to Oyster Bay on April 23, 1790.