Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 6

A A Town Land Values Decline By Bruce Lambert Jr. Mineola- Town's total property value decreased slightly this yearthe first townwide decline in the history of Nassau County. The figures, released yesterday by assessment chairman Abe Seldin, were a further indication of Nassau's trend of declining growth. He recalled, "Back during the boom years, the tremendous growth of the 1950s, the assessment roll went up as much as 25 per cent in a single year." Assessment figures are watched closely and when a problem appears in Hempstead, the Island's most populous town, it is seen by planning officials elsewhere in Nassau and Suffolk as a portent. A growing property base automatically generates more revenue to pay for inflationary costs, without raising the tax rate.

A standstill property base eliminates that crutch. County Executive Francis T. Purcell has warned repeatedly that Nassau faces a significant tax increase of at least $1.52 per $100 of assessed valuation next year. He also has said major layoffs in county personnel and elimination of some departments may be necessary. Though Hempstead comprises more than half the county, the losses there were offset by some small growth in Oyster Bay and North Hempstead towns.

As a result, the countywide assessment total registered a marginal gain of about two-tenths of one per cent. Even that gain was disappointing, however, because it is the lowest increase in the county's history. It was about half last year's growth rate. Seldin blamed the trend on the scarcity of new construction, plus a court-ordered reduction in the assessments of numerous business properties because they were assessed at a higher proportion of their market value. Next year, the countywide assessment actually could go down, depending on the disposition of further lawsuits from businesses complaining of being overassessed.

Hempstead's valuation declined because the town has little vacant land left for development, Seldin said, and the stagnation hour of a section of the Long Island Expressway. Suffolk police reported no major accidents. Newsday Photo by Karen Wiles Flash Flooding Snarls Traffic It was slow going through the flooded intersection at Main and Maple in Smithtown yesterday as it was on major and secondary roads all across Nassau and Suffolk. The heavy rains in the area from White Plains to Trenton came between 4 and 4:45 PM, just in time to snarl traffic, including the closing for nearly an Families and Friends To Mourn Fire Victims By Maureen O'Neill Families and close friends of the six New York City firemen killed in Wednesday's supermarket fire in Brooklyn will mourn their dead at funerals and wakes today. Four of those men were Long Islanders.

This evening, a memorial mass will be offered in St. Agnes Catholic Cathedral in Rockville Centre to honor those six plus four Long Island firemen who died in the line of duty in the past 15 months. Bishop John R. McGann will celebrate the mass, scheduled at 5:30 PM, and the Rev. Vincent A.

Kennedy of Valley Stream, Nassau Fire Department chaplain, will concelebrate. While funeral arrangements were completed, two of the 36 firemen injured fighting the blaze at Waldbaum's supermarket in Brooklyn Wednesday filed suits against the city and Waldbaum's. Fire fighter James Dooley of West Islip filed a suit and a notice of claim for $16 million was filed on behalf of a Brooklyn fireman, Charles Sciascia, who also named several contractors working on the store. Two special funds have been set up for the six widows and 18 children of the city firemen. Contributions are being accepted by the Family Fund FDNYC, 110 Church New York, 10007.

The August 2nd Firefighters' Widows and Children fund, set up by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Goldin and the fire unions, also is taking contributions for those families at PO Box 1800, Brooklyn, 11202. of businesses in certain sections of the town prompted assessment reductions. Broken down by Nassau's 62 school districts, the figures show 19 of them went down in value, in contrast to only five last year. Thirteen of the declining districts were in Hempstead Town and the sharpest reduction was for the Hempstead Village district, whose property roll fell 2.5 per cent. Leading the list of increases was Herricks, whose valuation rose 6.3 per cent.

Seldin attributed this to the large-scale construction of condominiums in the North Hills area, plus the conversion of two vacant school buildings into taxable residences. Nassau's total valuation was set at $3.58 billion, a rise of $6.8 million from last year. Hempstead's decrease was $4.2 million, or 0.22 per cent. Oyster Bay's valuation rose 0.78 per cent and North Hempstead's was up 0.56 per cent. Countywide, the overall increase was 0.19 per cent.

That compared with 0.39 last year, 0.56 in 1976, 0.86 in 1075, 0.72 in 1974 and 0.86 in 1973. LI Channel 67 To Reopen, Offer Pay TV By Mitchell Freedman A Canadian firm has agreed to spend $5 million to pay the debts of Channel 67 and put the bankrupt Long Island television station back on the air, in part as a pay-TV operation, federal officials said yesterday. Samuel Saady, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's television section, said the firm, Can West Capital Corp. of Manitoba, would provide the financing as part of an agreement under which CanWest's agent-Universal Subscription Television, Inc. of San run a pay-TV system during part of the station's broadcast day.

Further financial details of the agreement are not yet available. Channel 67 had been in business two years when it went off the air in June, 1975. Its operator, Suburban Broadcasting filed for bankruptcy in February, 1976, claiming assets of $3.9 million-including $3 million for its license and good willliabilities of $4.7 million. It was the only commercial television station ever aimed exclusively at Long Island. Under plans already approved by the FCC, Channel 67 would sell blocs of air time to Universal Subscriptions, which would use the station's transmitter to send a scrambled television signal that could be decoded by a special receiver attached to television sets of pay-TV subscribers.

Universal Subscriptions would also have to provide some local, nonscrambled programming during prime time, 7-11 PM, according to the FCC. The FCC did not specify a minimum amount for the nonscrambled programming, which would have to be of the public service variety. Officials at Channel 67 and Universal Subscription Television Inc. could not be reached for comment, and it could not be learned when they plan to put Channel 67 back on the air. Federal officials said the station could be operating a few weeks after business arrangements are completed, although the pay-TV portion of its business might take months to set up.

Channel 67 will remain in the hands of Suburban Broadcasting and will continue to use its broadcast facilities in Central Islip. But its official address will have to be moved from Patchogue to Smithtown. Television reception is slightly better there, and the FCC requires that the headquarters of a pay TV station be in an area able to receive at least five high quality signals from commercial television stations. Saady said that one reason a Canadian firm may be interested in Long Island is that pay television is not permitted in Canada. A CanWest spokesman said, however, that its interest in Channel 67 is simply as an investment opportunity.

Having a local commercial television station could help "put a focus on Long Island matters," according to Lee E. Koppelman, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk Regional Planning Board. He said Long Island is large enough to support a commercial television outlet. Koppelman said he does not feel Channel 67 would compete with Channel 21, the Long Island educational television station in Garden City, because of their different audiences. The nearest commercial pay-TV station now operating is Channel 68 in West Orange, N.J.

"One segment of the population that will benefit will be politicians," Koppelman said, explaining that people running for local office now buy television time on Channel 8 in Connecticut, whose broadcasts cover part of Long Island. "They have to travel to New Haven for the campaign season They could stay home and spend their money," he said. Abe Seidin 1978 45 AUGUST SATURDAY, 'AVOSMEN (O The widows will receive full-pay pensions under a bill signed July 12 by Gov. Hugh Carey. Each family will receive $50,000 in federal funds under a national program which aids families of fire and police officers killed in the line of duty; $25,000 in line-of-duty death benefits from the city; a grant from the city of a year's pay and about $5,000 in union life insurance and Social Security benefits.

Mass in St. Luke's Catholic Church, Brentwood, this morning for Lt. James Cutillo, 50, of Brentwood; burial at Northport Rural Cemetery, Northport. Gov. Hugh Carey was to attend the mass for James McManus, 44, at St.

Adalbert's Church, Elm Park, Staten Island, this morning. Mass for Harold Hastings, 39, Hicksville, 9:30 AM Monday, Holy Family Church, Hicksville; burial, Long Island National Cemetery, Pinelawn. Mass for Charles Bouton, 38, of Farmingville, St. Margaret of Scotland Church, Selden, 11:30 AM Monday; burial in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Coram Mass 10 AM Monday for George Rice, 38, of Islip Terrace, at Resurrection Church Brooklyn. Mass for William O'Connor, 29, 10 AM Monday at Holy Name Church, Brooklyn.

Also to be remembered in the mass at St. Agnes' are Fire Capt. Joseph Dunn and fireman Robert Hassett of Bethpage, killed May 25 in a swimming pool supply store fire; Jerry Cotignola of Freeport, who died Jan. 27 after fighting a fire at Freeport Mall, and Richard Provost of Garden City Park, killed in April, 1977, when he was hit by an exploding propane canister..