The Town of Oyster Bay has changed the way it assigns apartments at the town's S-2 Golden Age senior citizen complexes. The information was brought out at the Jan. 5 meeting at town hall. Darlene Ward of Plainview asked the board about the methodology for getting higher up on the list for senior housing and gave Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto the opportunity to compliment Town of Oyster Bay Councilman Angelo Delligatti for his work in fine-tuning the system.

Ward said her parents have lived in the Village of Farmingdale for 38 years and paid additional taxes for that privilege. She said they put their name on the town list for senior housing in 2001 and still have not been called. They were trying to get an apartment in Sunny Lane and Woodbury Gardens to no avail. Ward said her parents were listed as number 400 on the Golden Age Housing list and were given a number they could track through the system.

"Three years later they are further down the list," she said, adding that her father was in his 70s and had health problems with his lungs, heart and knees. "He is still working to be able to afford to live here," she said.

Delligatti said the board has addressed the problems related to senior housing that states that those who live in the school district where the housing is being built have first take of the apartments. "We recently passed a procedure to create a review board to look at the hardship cases where people should be eligible for housing and have situations such as age and health that should be considered. In Plainview there were no senior housing locations; and therefore one could be on the list and never be able to find an apartment. Now the review board can look at the list and can make exceptions," he said.

Ward added the information that the Village of Farmingdale has no purchasable land for senior housing.

Venditto said, "In hindsight we would have made the regulations different. When we made the decisions we used expert data to proceed and school districts seemed the best idea. In retrospect the decisions probably should have been made town-wide. Maybe a compromise could have been struck. Now we are putting a portion of the units on a town-wide basis so that residents outside the district have a chance to get an apartment." He invited Ward to meet in Commissioner James Fitzgerald's office to get a fresh start on their search. Her mother had come to the meeting with her.

Town of Oyster Bay Councilman Tony Macagnone told Ward that there was a new S-2 housing unit being built near her in Plainview, but while it was in the works, it would take some time for it to happen.

To get more information about the town's Golden Age housing or to get an application please call 624-6176. The Department of Intergovernmental Affairs, under Commissioner Maureen Fitzgerald, handles the list.