Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 34

lx LONG iSLAND 32 () A Park Worse for the Wear Budget Formula Schools OKd Lindenhurst because of shrinking budgets In 1978 the to buy new swings In the Field 5 lot near the boat-launch ramps grass is growing up through cracks in the asphalt The bulkhead by the is rotting By Estelle Lander and Phil Mintz STAFF WKITKItS ramps away allowing the pavement to slump as it is undermined "We just keep filling in with temporary Buonomo said Some of the fenders along the ramps that protect the hulls of boats are missing in many spots leaving nails sticking out can scratch up your said Lucille Ma-grone of Islip Terrace who had just returned from cruising in the family speedboat a lovely park but they should take care of the ramps On the beach swimmers had to step over piles of slimy eelgrass to get to the water Now it is raked up about once a week It used to be done almost daily Brown paint is peeling off the outside of the bathhouse Holes punched by vandals in the exterior walls have yet to be repaired The beach first-aid station no longer has a full-time nurse Emergencies are now handled by two medical technicians who have to cover the entire park At the pool glass is broken in the doors or the administration building been that way the winter No one has time to fix them have a shortage of Buonomo said More than 4000 people came to the pool on July 4 and had to play musical chairs to get one of tne 100 seats around the pool Back on the loop road Catalano said pruning for the health of trees is all but And when dead or diseased trees are rc moved there is little money for replacement too down 42 trees last Buonomo said How mar were replaced? The greenhouses where mploy-ees raise flowers for most of the other state irks on Long Island need new roofs arid glass In the maintenance shop Bob Dorsey a schanic for 14 years said that there are now three ractors for cutting grass instead of the six in tl past you cut the grass because there is no equipment to cut it he said Despite all the cutbacks park officials 8 ly they rarely get complaints from the public think the public has become accustome I to the declining Catalano said expect that there will not be flowers planted or that they will find litter on the As for whether the funding for Heckscher i likely to improve next year Foley said tougl to tell at this point What happens to us is part of the global budget bathhouse at Field 6 was closed eliminating the only source of beach umbrella and towel rentals In 1980 the locker rooms and rental operation were closed at the Field 6 swimming pool Between 1980 and 1982 the pool was closed first one day and then two days a week In 1983 the pool began closing right after Labor Day instead of in mid-September In 1984 Field 8 began closing weekdays in the summer And this year the season at the campground shrank from mid-April to Thanksgiving to a new schedule of May 17 until Sept 9 The park manager retired two years ago He was never replaced Neither was the horticulturist or the operator of the pool filter system or a host of other park maintenance employees The result: see the garbage picked up less frequently grass mowed less frequently seaweed on the beach not picked up at all buildings such as the historic farm structures from the original estate that actively used said Foley Instead of employees stationed in bathrooms workers go in every few hours to clean them in between other duties Garbage get picked up as regularly Flowers are no longer planted by the office as they were from the time Robert Moses created the park in the 1920s until just a few years ago Money is so tight that one of the two beach areas on Great South Bay that serves up to 3000 people on a busy day has only a half-dozen litter baskets because the department afford to replace missing receptables said Sal Buonomo the deputy manager at Heckscher who is in his second year of running the park know what needs to be done and you just get to A tour of the problems starts right at the entrance The roofs of the tollbooths leak and the automatic fee accounting system worked in a decade Buonomo said In the main picnic area weeds have grown up around the trees because they have been trimmed only once this summer Vandals have ripped off the corner of the concession building at the picnic area and plywood covers a broken window Buonomo has no idea when the damage will be repaired Nearby in the playground swing sets are missing seats The frames were supposed to be taken dovyn but the stalT had the time There is no money The Lindenhurst school board last night agreed on a compromise approach to formulating a new school budget to present to voters who turned down a proposed $54-million spending plan in June The board agreed 6-2 with one abstention to the compromise suggestion offered by Superintendent Anthony Pecorale That came shortly after the board which is dominated by five members of the TaxPac group turned down another compromise proposal offered by board member Richard Eisner who is not a member of the TaxPac faction which seeks to cut school spending Under the compromise the board will hold three meetings beginning next week to analyze the budget proposal Last meeting which often turned loud with cheers and boos was held with the presence of uniformed police officers and extra security guards hired by the school board A board meeting one week ago had to be cut short after the session became so raucous that police were called in to escort the board members from the room Last session opened with Edward Murphy superintendent of the Board of Educational Cooperative Services District III saying that he met with the school board before the meeting in executive session and suggested that there be three meetings during which the bourd members and Pecorale would go over the defeated budget Murphy said he would monitor the progress loss of state aid of $4 9-million for Lindenhurst is the same story being played throughout western Suffolk and Long Murphy said a terrible price to pay for what we are trying to do for the The compromise proposal accepted by the board was largely the same as lhat suggested by Murphy Last month the TaxPac-dominated board directed Pecorale to tell them what a state-mandated bare-bones budget would look like and then to itemize all the programs that are at the discretion Pecorale said there was not time to do that and announced his intention to resign But last night Pecorale noted that he had not yet handed in his resignation but the question was not addressed at the board meeting Prior to the board vote parents generally seemed happy with the compromise suggested by Murphy sounds said Debra Milana a PTA president hope they listen to Murphy But there's so much conflict I know if they will be able to think The board also elected Daniel Greenwald to be the board president and Robert Maclnness to take over the vice post Both are affiliated with TaxPac and both votes were 5-4 Greenwald will replace Grace McGraw who resigned as board president at last meeting She remained on the board Man Stabbed Robbed A Babylon man who was walking to the Frqeport railroad station yesterday morning was stabbed repeatedly in the bnck after unsuccessfully attempting to flee from a man and woman trying to rob him Nassau police said Edwurd Voliton 44 was listed in critical but stable condition yesterday at Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow First Squad Det Sgt Richard Laursen said one of the multiple stab wounds punctured a lung The victim who was robbed of $40 also suffof'ed a broken left leg when an unknown objqet was thrown at him by the robbers during a Anyone with information is askjjcPw) call First Sqba detectives at 573-6153 Susan Forrest Vanishing Services Visible Hurt SERVICES from Preceding Page that means is I have to take nine people who are now out doing park operations and maintenance out of their parks and put them to work at the theater where I just need Foleylsaid In many case the true relationship between dollars and services remained murky as officials (bund ways to make the numbers add up differently before 'VV and after the dust cleared on the budget The State Health Department for example lhad insisted even after some of its money was restored that it would have to lay off more thanpJOO people and quit investigating complaints from hospital and nursing home patients Instead at the last minute officials said last week they would avoid Ihe service cutback and every single layoff The agency credited various budget techniques and other measures such as ofinterof mail But such wide swings breed skepticism you have an agency whey not a single bo went out the door but they move their maf from one desk to another I think the public is being said James Larocca president of the Ixmg Island Association business group and a former commissioner of the State Transportation and Energy Departments arguing that agencies should have implemented more far-reaching restructuring instead of piecemeal cuts the kind of sentiment Elaine Ingram could appreciate Her work inspecting and auditing games of chance is supposed to be taken over by its counterpart in Manhattan which has no inspectors and is getting cut back by 50 percent itself think counting on in a perfect world the police and towns will fill the Ingram said it work that Alvin Bessent David Zinman Eric Nagour- ney and Bill Bleyer contributed to this story across the board yes we are thankful we only were cut by 25 said Kathie Bodily administrative director of the Inter-Media Art Center which promotes jazz and new music a pretty sad At Long public television station WLIW (Ch 21) a 20 percent cutback in state and local funding was enough to cancel all its local programs including the new nightly show 21 The set now sits empty most of the week while the station tries' to raise funds to bring it back is nightmarish because it all came down at one said Terrel Cass the president and general manager a pretty swift But in the midst of the losses not every aspect of state government has suffered In each county of the state one Republican and one Democrat each hold part-time jobs recommending whether liquor licenses should be granted even as the the State Liquor Authority had to cut back so many people that the current three-month wait for those licenses is expected to double At State University at Stony Brook health sciences center professors have been chagrined at a $750000 renovation of offices for the medical dean and his staff The renovation comes at a time when University Hospital has lost the state subsidy that made up 10 percent of its budget and medical school professors face big increases in their teaching loads University officials said the renovation originally planned in 1988 was appropriate and only the timing was unfortunate In one bizarre twist nine people who performed maintenance on Long Island parks were transferred in the budget to the Jones Beach theater budget against the wishes of regional parks director Ronald Foley NEWSDAY THURSDAY AUGUST 8 1991.