At the last North Hempstead Town Hall meeting the first item on the agenda was the continuation of a local law amending Chapter No. 46 of the town code entitled "Sanitation."

"This involves our "flow control" law. We had a committee meeting with the village mayors who have formed a sub-committee. We are going up with language that still needs to be perfected," said Supervisor Jon Kaiman. "Marvin Natliss, the chairman of the committee, as well as the other mayors and I have spoken and we are going to put this on the agenda for Oct. 2 and hopefully we will have an agreement by then."

Currently, said Kaiman, the town is working to determine if the new agreement would have an "opt" out clause for the villages. "That's what we're working on. My position is create a mechanism for villages to opt out. There are limitations as to who we would let opt out and the lawyers would have to look at it," he said, adding, "Obviously, we will have to have an opt out clause that 'fits' what we believe would be for the villages and then we will have to look at what that means and how would they be able to 'opt' back in if there is a way to save money in the coming years?"

According to Kaiman, what has fundamentally changed in the current status of the law to allow the villages to opt out of this legislation is that, for one thing, "we are giving the town the opportunity to make sure that all the private carters are operating on the same playing field and we think that is of value. The greater value is if all of the villages participate and we think that most will. The last time two of the villages expressed a desire to 'opt' out and one of those villages is discussing that option with us and New Hyde Park is still expressing a desire to go their own way, which is fine. "

He continued, "However, the concern was if the remaining villages would be subsidizing some of that debt service connected with this. So there is a question if we can just have a surcharge so that village dollars are taxed directly to each home so that everybody pays that $10 or $11 a year.

"We think there is a mechanism to do this so that everything is equal and that no one is subsidizing anyone else."

When asked by a representative of the Lakeville Estates know how much the Village of New Hyde Park would have to pay if they chose to 'opt' out of the agreement, Kaiman said his guess would be that residents of the village would pay more. "We would do it through the Solid Waste Management Authority and every household would pay a set amount a year for the debt service. Right now the only way we collect that debt service is through tip fees. So the only people that pay for tipping fees are paying for the debt service," said the supervisor.

It was also established that the service would be different for each district. Some districts have three-day pickup, some have four-day, some have curbside, some have backdoor pickup. "It is my hope that everyone will have a uniform pickup, but if districts decide to do it differently, than they will have to pay accordingly, through that district," said Kaiman.

After some discussion regarding recycling for schools, Kaiman adjourned the hearing until the Oct. 2 town board meeting.