It was yet another historic event for the Town of Hempstead when the board held its first scheduled night meeting on Tuesday.

Holding occasional night meetings was one of the pledges made by the first Democrats elected to the Town of Hempstead Board following the November election. N. Scott Banks, Dorothy Goosby and Rita Kestenbaum all spoke of the need for night meetings to accommodate residents of the township who work and could not attend the bi-monthly meetings which are normally held at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays. At 7 p.m., the board room at the Nathan L.H. Bennett Pavilion at Hempstead Town Hall, was left with standing room only. As the meeting progressed, the crowd dwindled and as it approached nearly 10:15 p.m. less than half the original crowd remained.

With more residents present at the meeting, there were more public comments than the board typically heard at the meetings. Several residents took the opportunity to thank the board for scheduling the night meeting, thus allowing them the opportunity to attend. One woman commented that when she was standing in the vestibule at the beginning of the meeting, because there was no room left in the board room, she heard many others discussing the fact that this was the first time they had been able to attend a meeting because usually they would be at work when the board normally met.

The six councilmembers, which include Curtis Fisher, Joseph Kearney and Tony Santino, along with the three Democrats, and Town Supervisor Richard Guardino heard a sundry of concerns from residents throughout the township as the evening progressed.

When it came time for the board to adopt resolutions on the administrative calendar, Goosby requested that one item of the 27 included on the calendar be severed from the rest, while Banks requested that two others be severed, thus opening discussion on those three items. The resolution that brought about the most heated discussion, from the board and the public was regarding adopting a SEQRA negative declaration and determination of non-significance in connection with application for site plan approval for construction of Bed, Bath & Beyond retail store, retail space, storage, restaurant, and parking stalls in Westbury. The location of this site would be in the Roosevelt Center, where the raceway was formerly located. This site is part of the area which has been slated to become the Nassau "HUB."

Banks noted that he requested that this item be pulled from the last meeting because he wanted more information about the impact of the restaurant on that area. It was then stated that although the restaurant was included in the public resolution, the backup information that the board received included only the Bed, Bath & Beyond. Kearney said, "We're simply approving a site plan and nothing else. We are not approving a permit." Goosby stressed the importance of clearly delineating the retail space with the restaurant because of the possible impact a new restaurant would have on the water supply. The Democrats on the board and many residents expressed concern about the restaurant being included in the resolution because of the future plans to develop the entire Raceway area, which includes the building of a hotel and Planned Unit Development (PUD).

Representatives for the developers noted that the company had offered to pay for ensuring an adequate water supply in that area. It was also noted that the Bed, Bath & Beyond which is currently proposed, is going to be located at a site which three years ago had been approved for a Bradley's Retail Store. The developers pointed out that although Bradley's did not go into that site at the time, it was approved and Bed, Bath & Beyond actually has a need for less water than Bradley's. The Town's Commissioner of Water then stated that currently the town's water supply is adequate but they do not have backup if they lose the use of one of their wells for some reason and added that the water department is currently working on that situation, by going out to bid on the air-stripping of a well that had been found to have contamination. Goosby noted that she could not approve the resolution until the total picture had been looked at and the water and traffic impact fully studied. After over an hour of discussion on this topic the board voted 5-2 in favor of the resolution, with only Banks and Goosby voting no.

Other topics raised by residents during the historic meeting included opposing views regarding a toddler playground on Cornwell Avenue in West Hempstead, problems with the sanitation department in areas of Uniondale, and the request of Wantagh resident, Vicki Rosenberg, for the town to develop a task force to figure out what can be done with regard to cellular phone antennas in various areas of the town. She noted that many different communities within the town had battled this topic and gathered information about what could be done but it had been done separately. She pointed out that a lot more could be accomplished if the town had a task force to study the situation. Guardino thanked her for the suggestion and asked the town attorney to discuss it further with Rosenberg. Another town resident then took the opportunity to state that not only was it a historic evening for the town, but it was also Councilwoman Goosby's birthday. There were many jokes about the fact that her birthday fell on Feb. 29 and Goosby was visibly embarrassed as those gathered sang Happy Birthday to her.

Despite some debates throughout the evening and the length of the meeting, members of the town board, the supervisor, and residents remained in good humor throughout the night. Garden City resident, Courtney Fleming summed up the attitude of the evening when he said, "I would like to congratulate all the councilmen and women for having this meeting tonight ... it's a real historic event and I certainly hope you'll continue this because working people can't get to these meetings ... thank you very much and congratulations."