The North Shore Environmental Alliance, Inc., and the Village of Sea Cliff have filed an Article 78 lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court over what they term as the lack of a full environmental impact study on the proposed ferry operation from Glen Cove to the Foxwoods gambling casino near New London, CT.

No villages in the Roslyn area were officially part of the lawsuit, but Gerson Strassberg, the mayor of Roslyn Harbor, has been in the forefront of the opposition. In recent months, Mayor Strassberg has been working with The Alliance to oppose the ferry operation. He has mailed a letter to all Roslyn Harbor residents both explaining his position and asking residents to support a legal fund that is part of the opposition's strategy.

Kenneth L. Robinson, a lawyer for The Alliance, said the ferry project should be suspended until an environmental impact study is done and the affected communities have an opportunity to "review and evaluate findings and the total impact of the operation on area traffic, air and water quality, noise and safety." Mr. Robinson claimed that the City of Glen Cove did not take the "requisite 'hard look' at the environmental, social and economic impacts" of the ferry project.

Mr. Robinson listed several "adverse impacts" on the Villages of Roslyn Harbor and Sea Cliff and surrounding unincorporated areas. They include traffic impact; the "deterioration of Hempstead Harbor, Mosquito Cove and Glen Cove tidal wetlands"; noise impact from ferry operations; marine pollution, including runoff from parking lots; and the impact upon marine habitat from both waterborne and land-based ferry operations.

Mayor Strassberg has opposed the ferry operation for several reasons. Traffic is one of them, so is the kind of drivers who might be using Roslyn Harbor streets. The mayor is concerned about alcohol beverage service on the bus service that will carry passengers from the ferry to the Foxwood Casinos and back. He claims that such buses would be full of "losers" from the casinos departing the ferry, driving down Glen Cove Road and through the Roslyn Harbor area. What the mayor worries about most is a "bunch of drunken drivers careening" around Roslyn Harbor.

Mayor Strassberg also is concerned that if the Glen Cove ferry is completed and is successful, then another ferry may be constructed in Glenwood Landing. The same scenario may occur there, also.

Defending the proposed ferry, Glen Cove Mayor Thomas R. Suozzi has said that ferry operations would help to fund a $6 million cleanup of the Glen Cove waterfront which the mayor calls the "common enemy" for residents in Roslyn Harbor, Glen Head, Glen Cove, and Sea Cliff. The money for the cleanup has already been borrowed, what is needed is a way to pay it back. Mayor Strassberg said that such motives "are wonderful," but that the proposed ferry represents "money from the wrong place, raised the wrong way." The mayor admitted that he didn't know how the money for such a cleanup could be raised.

Other local politicians, including State Senator Carl Marcellino and Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto have both said that a full environmental impact study needs to be done on the proposed project. The Alliance also believes that cleaning up "polluted sites" is a "worthy objective," but that the current plan only "[replaces] one problem with another."