I read your response, Councilwoman Banks, "correcting" my inaccurate statements and assumptions.

First, your comment that my letter would have readers believe that the court agreed with the position of the families on Longview Road is insulting to all members of the Port Washington community. I have yet to find one individual in town on either side of the issue who misunderstood my statements.

Second, your vote was, without a doubt, predetermined. You came to the town board meeting supposedly to listen to all sides. After hearing from a long list of Longview Road residents as well as from your own Consulting Engineer (Mr. Eschbacher) about the dangers of overturning the 1994 Ordinance, you read from a prepared statement explaining your "rationale" for voting in favor of repeal. Did you know that Mr. Eschbacher recommended in his earlier report that Longview become a private road because it was so hazardous? I didn't think so. Your mind was made up long before the hearing, as your prepared statement proved. You say you were concerned about "trapping" so much traffic on Beacon Hill Road. There is not a shred of data supporting your position, Councilwoman Banks. As Supreme Court Justice Winslow said in his Memorandum Decision, "although the adoption of the 1994 Ordinance was supported by extensive empirical data, the 1998 Ordinance had no such supportive record." In addition, the judge cited from the data a comparison of the number of vehicles that traversed BHR in May 1998 and a comparable time period in 1990 and concluded that the totals "were nearly identical." So how about the truth, Councilwoman Banks? I'm certain, as are most Port residents familiar with the situation, that if Barbara Johnson moved to the north end of her street, your vote would have been different. I guess as author Kin Hubbard once said "Honesty pays but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people."

Come to Longview Road during rush hour, Councilwoman Banks, as children board and exit the school bus daily, and see firsthand the nightmare created by your vote. But then again, you shouldn't be surprised since Justice Winslow, a Democrat like yourself, said that your vote was "politically motivated and bore no relationship to the safety and welfare of the community." I hope all voters of Port Washington remember the judge's revealing words when they enter the voting booths on Tuesday, Nov. 2.

Wesley Berkowitz, PhD.