THE HUNTINGTON VOTER. February March 2013

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1 THE HUNTINGTON VOTER February March 2013 Marcy Emerson, Editor LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF HUNTINGTON P. O. Box Huntington Station, NY (631) Judie Gorenstein, President Running and Winning Running and Winning is a marvelous program that aims to enlighten and energize young women, helping them to become thoughtful citizens who will hopefully someday become active participants in the local, state and national affairs of this country. Thanks to the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, we look forward to hosting our first Running and Winning conference, at which young women of high school age will have the chance to meet and be mentored by a group of female public officials. This event will take place at the Suffolk County Girl Scout Center in Commack on Wednesday evening, April 24, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m Thanks to all of you whose contributions made this event possible.

2 President s Message HUNTINGTON BOARD Officers Co-Presidents: Judie Gorenstein Brenda Reiss Vice Presidents: Eileen Coblens (Dr.) Irene Ferrand Barbara Magaliff Treasurer: Mary McLaughlin Secretary: Laurel Martin Directors JoAnn Alario- Paulsen Marilyn Brown Marcy Emerson Arlene Forwand Ann Gardner Barbara Jo Kingsley Linda Lessing JoAnn McCarthy Rosemarie Sepanski Dianne Slavin (Dr.) Valentine Titus Off-Board Dorothea Cappadona (Dr.) 2013 Can Be A Very Good Year! On January 1 st, our Federal government avoided going over the fiscal cliff. On January 14 th, Governor Cuomo signed into law the strictest gun control law in our country. Also on January 14 th, the House of Representatives approved funding for disaster relief from Sandy; and on January 28 th, the Senate approved the bill. Things seem to be moving in the right direction. Our league is also looking forward to a wonderful year. In November, our board set a January 28 th date for our program on Human Trafficking; and the following month, President Obama proclaimed January as Human Trafficking and Slavery Prevention Month. I wish to thank JoAnn Alario-Paulsen and her committee, Brenda Reiss and Pat Fuchs, for the successful Human Trafficking program (see page 3). Once again, our board is not only hard working but lucky in choosing timely programs. As noted on our cover, LWV of Huntington is completing plans for Running and Winning on April 24 th. Although this program has been done by other leagues, this will be the first for the LWV of Huntington. Our youth committee is indeed very busy. We had more students apply for Students Inside Albany this year than ever before. At the time I am writing this article, members of the youth committee are evaluating the excellent essays that were submitted and faced with the difficult challenge of selecting the students to attend SIA in April. The winning students will be contacted the first week of February, and their names will appear in the April Voter. As you read this voter, you can learn more about our other upcoming programs, as well as what is happening in Huntington and other important Long Island issues can be a very good year for our country, our state, our county, town and our league. Immigration reform, women s rights, voters rights, gun control, climate change, health care, affordable housing are all important issues that the league supports and that will be central issues. Our government works best when we all are engaged. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Become involved! Judie Gorenstein, Co-president The Huntington Voter Page 2 Feb. Mar. 2013

3 Running and Winning by Eileen Coblens We're looking forward with much anticipation to our first Running and Winning program, which will take place in partnership with the Girls Scouts of Suffolk County on April 24 th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Girl Scout Center in Commack. The Girl Scouts will be recruiting high school girls who will join with a group of elected officials in what promises to be an enlightening and meaningful evening for all involved. We owe a great vote of thanks to the Girl Scouts, who will also be supplying the food and doing our photocopying. Meanwhile, we are thinking ahead to LWVH will soon be applying for a grant from the Women's Fund of Long Island so that we can move ahead with plans to run the program with several Huntington Township high schools in the spring of next year. Val Titus, JoAnn Alario-Paulsen and Barbara Jo Kingsley will be spearheading this effort. PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION: JANUARY IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION MONTH NO ONE WILLING CHOOSES THE YOKE OF SLAVERY On Monday, January 28 th, the Huntington LWV presented: Human Trafficking in Our Own Backyard in the Harborfields Library. The presenters were Joann Antun, Development Coordinator, LifeWay Network; Sister Joan Dawber, Executive Director, Lifeway Network; and Detective John Birbiglia, Nassau County Police Department, Human Trafficking. They described a billion dollar industry so vast that most people do not realize that the victims are among us Hidden in Plain Sight. They can be in sweatshops, agricultural settings, hotels, restaurants, nail salons, construction sites, sex industries, etc. This involuntary servitude also known as modern slavery recruits people in other countries and in our own United States through the use of fraud, coercion and abuse. They lose all control over their lives and fear for their physical safety. Detective Birbiglia also gave personal accounts of his work with victims and how the traffickers operate. They described how to recognize a trafficked person and provided us with a hotline to report anything questionable without jeopardizing one s safety /7. Lifeways provides safety and recovery to victims. For more information about Human Trafficking, contact Lifeways at: Community Conversations The Libraries in the Town of Huntington have initiated a forum for dialogue called Community Conversations. The mission of this group is to have civil discussion about problems facing the residents of our Town, and providing experts to inform and enlighten us all. Huntington LWV is on the planning board with members of Leadership Huntington and Head Librarians. The first meeting was held in October at South Huntington Library to discuss Suburban America: Future Uncertain, moderated by Joye Brown of Newsday. It was well attended. The next meeting will be held at Harborfields Library on March 12 th. The topic will be Growing Community: Who Are We? This meeting will include many interesting facts and statistics and graphics to demonstrate our misconceptions about residents and businesses and community groups who make up our Town. It is guaranteed to have lively discussion. The Huntington Voter Page 3 Feb. Mar. 2013

4 The LWV of Huntington is so pleased to be a co-sponsor of this program with the help from the NY Council of the Humanities. James Coll is not only an adjunct associate professor of American and Constitutional history at Nassau Community College and a decorated detective with the NYC Police Department, but he is an excellent and knowledgeable speaker. This is the third program he is presenting for our league. Everyone is encouraged to attend. On February 14 th, join us in the celebration of the 93rd birthday of LWVUS. We start the day at 10:30 a.m. with a private tour of the Joseph Lloyd Manor House (pictured above) in Lloyd Harbor. Afterwards, our celebration continues with lunch at ALMARCO, 13 Wall Street, Huntington. Cost of tour is $5 per person. Price fixed lunch including tax and gratuity is $20. Hope you can join us. If interested in attending part or whole program, contact JoAnn Alario-Paulsen at Forever Free: Lincoln, Civil War, and the American March to Emancipation a Lecture by James Coll South Huntington Public Library Tuesday, February 19, 7 p.m. Few events in history have been as consequential in defining American identity as the Civil War and its corresponding march to freedom. With the 150 anniversary of the war upon us, Professor James L. Coll reflects on the enduring legacy of the deadly conflict regarding the legal and political struggle towards the abolition of slavery. The discussion will focus on President Abraham Lincoln s Emancipation Proclamation, as well as wartime legislative developments dealing with the peculiar institution. While securing freedom presented one set of issues in the South in the 1860 s, defining equality introduced even more complications throughout the nation. Naturalization Ceremonies: A Wonderful Opportunity to Volunteer by Eileen Coblens April may seem a long way off, but the LWV of Huntington is responsible for naturalization on the 5 Mondays in April. Because the groups have been very large, it works more smoothly to have 3 people there. The specific dates are all Mondays: April 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. We need to be there by 8:45 a.m., and the ceremony is usually finished by 10:30 a.m. (if you need to leave earlier, it s not a problem-- the actual swearing-in usually begins by around 10 a.m.) We hope you're interested in participating again in this gratifying and heartwarming experience. If so, please let me know as soon as possible which dates you are available. Huntington Housing Coalition This year the Huntington Housing Coalition, of which several of our league members are directors, has decided that the goal is to increase the availability of affordable housing. The League of Women Voters has supported this issue for many years. One of the steps to this goal is to return to the original auxiliary apartments law passed in 1991, which was less restrictive while still protecting the integrity of our neighborhoods. The newer law enacted in 2002 only exacerbated the shortage of affordable housing and drove most of these auxiliary apartments underground, making it almost impossible for the town to enforce the code and to eliminate the illegal housing in Huntington. The Huntington Voter Page 4 Feb. Mar. 2013

5 Today in Huntington, as in all parts of Long Island, available, affordable housing for young adults, young families and seniors is in crisis. The children that our tax money went to educate, the young families that keep the infrastructure humming, and the seniors who have lived here for most of their adult lives have no choice and are moving out of Huntington and, indeed, off Long Island to other areas in the country, causing severe brain drain and loss of sales taxes and jobs that fulfill the needs of these populations. We applaud the Coalition and continue to support their noble endeavors. Brenda Reiss, Co-president Spencer-Bosworth Hearings Water Security III Solutions Forum on 12/5/12 by Dorothy Cappadona Dorothy Cappadona at Podium Legislator Spencer explained the purpose of this meeting to move to solutions and to give Long Island control over its own resources. He and Legislator Bosworth intend to put legislation on the table. Since government officials from all levels of government and both parties were present at the meeting, the legislators expected to get a comprehensive, regional plan, based on models which already exist, passed quickly on this non-partisan issue of aquifer protection. recognized officials: These were the Chad Lupinacci, NYS Assemblyman-elect Mark Mayoka, Huntington Town Councilman Kara Hahn, SC Environmental Committee Chair Doug Watson, Mayor of Bayville and the representatives from Carl Marcellino, NYS Senator; Steve Stern, SC Legislator; and Gene Cook, Huntington Town Councilman Sara Lansdale of the Suffolk County Planning Dept. Jim Kelly of St. Joseph s College. Some of the solutions specifically called for an end to partisanship, such as the partisan actions which were directly responsible for the Bay Park Sewage Treatment failure during Frankenstorm Sandy. Aqua Vectors, a private company, proposed a private-public partnership using its method of combining electricity, chemistry and physics to reduce the level of nitrogen/nitrates/nitrites in wastewater. Sarah Meyland, of Water for Long Island, suggested a detailed plan, based on other compacts, for an aquifer management system, which would be comprehensive, integrated, up to date, and effective. In NYS, 94% of the population has water management compacts to manage their water resources. LI has nothing. We need a compact. (For more information on how these compacts work, you can Google the Delaware River Basin Compact). Pesticides need to be banned; open space has to be kept whenever possible; best practices based on proven techniques from other areas need to be adopted; new standards for pollutants need to be adopted; incentives for conservation and habitat preservation need to be adopted; 19 th Century methods of operation have to be abandoned in favor of 21 st Century methods; the tax for superfund sites from the original Clean Water Act needs to be reinstated. A compact would address all of these suggestions in a comprehensive way, which The Huntington Voter Page 5 Feb. Mar. 2013

6 would preserve local control as well as our precious aquifer. Compacts make decisions based on scientific knowledge and study. Legislator Spencer plans to reconvene in six months to report on the progress made towards protecting our aquifer. Long Island Clean Energy Forum 100% renewable is 100% possible by Barbara Jo Kingsley On December 4, 2012, the Sierra Club sponsored the Long Island Clean Energy Forum at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock. Keynote speaker, Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, gave a rousing speech on the need to change our energy sources from carbon to renewable, and the potential hazards of turning to natural gas with fracking technology. Panelist Gordian Raacke, Executive Director of Renewable Energy Long Island, pointed out that humanity has the technology to convert 100% to renewable energy by 2020 in the residential sector and by 2030 including both residential and industrial use. The cost to do this would be approximately 12% increase over what we are paying now till 2020 and about 8% more by This increase in energy costs would be less if the cost of natural gas goes up. However, this increase in cost is minor compared to the increased benefits to the economy and public health if we don t change. Raake pointed out that if we continue our use of carbon based fuels, the U.S. will put 90 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 35 years. The EU is planning to reduce their emissions 80-95% by Peter Olmstead from Vote Solar Initiative said that 80% of our energy needs can come from solar. The price is dropping dramatically and increased competition will reduce it further. New York State is being very cautious compared to other states. We would need a 7 square mile area of solar cells to power Long Island; however, most of the area would be over parking lots and on rooftops. Tim Daniels from Deepwater Wind, a private company, said that other states are moving much faster than NY. Governor Chris Christi of NJ has the most generous wind plan. He believes that NY could generate 40,000 MW of wind energy by 2020, and New England could generate 150,000 MW by This would create 40,000 jobs. Large, deep water wind farms need 5 to 8 years of development time. The benefits include being located close to demand, no visual impact, high capacity, local jobs, and fuel diversity. I asked him if a storm like Sandy would damage these wind turbines and he said No. He explained that there have been deep water wind farms in northern Europe since 1991; and although they often experience many wind storms equivalent to Hurricane Sandy, they have never been damaged. LIPA needs to cut at least $200 million from their budget next year due to Hurricane Sandy expenses of about $800 million and, therefore, may be cutting incentives to install solar panels. The LIPA board is made up of ordinary citizens appointed by the Governor and State legislature. Maybe it is time to promote appointees who are knowledgeable and interested in seeing Long Island become 100% renewable! The bottom line is that switching to renewable energy is an environmental necessity, is achievable and affordable, provides a hedge fund for fossil fuel costs, and provides economic development opportunities. Membership Report by Irene Ferrand We welcome one new member this month: Robert Fonti Let's all invite our friends and neighbors to the interesting and important programs that our League is sponsoring in the next few months. The Huntington Voter Page 6 Feb. Mar. 2013

7 Hopefully, they will become interested in joining with us and we would welcome them. League of Women Voters of NYS Response to Governor Cuomo s State of the State January 9, 2013 The League of Women Voters has been working for campaign finance reform in New York State as long or longer than any other organization. We applaud the Governor s commitment to full and prompt disclosure of political and lobbying contributions, to a public financing system for statewide and legislative offices, to lower contribution limits including to housekeeping accounts, and in particular to a new enforcement unit with greater independence. This comprehensive approach to campaign finance reform is far preferable to the incremental approach so typical of Albany reforms. We look forward to working with the Governor s office and the legislature to accomplish this goal. We are also very encouraged by the Governor s endorsement of the importance of having New York State allow its citizens the ease and convenience of voting early as well his recognition of the importance of having better designed ballots. His support for strong gun control measures, women s reproductive rights and pay equity are also in line with longstanding League positions and we will work diligently to see that they become law this year. Legislative Committee Report by Arlene Forwand The response letter from LWVNYS to the Governor s State of the State published noted above has given the committee renewed optimism that these legislative issues will be addressed and acted upon in this session. Together with representatives from E. Nassau and Smithtown leagues, we will prepare for spring conversations with our local state senators and assembly members. New members add energy. Perhaps you reside in Senator Flanagan, Senator Marcellino, Assemblyman Lupinacci or Assemblyman Raia s district and would like to participate in committee deliberations. We hold 3-4 meetings, February through May. I encourage you to contact me for more information. Voter Service Committee Report by Dianne Slavin, Ph.D. 'Tis the season for Vote18. Thanks to Judie Gorenstein and Brenda Reiss for presenting Vote18 to 125 seniors at Deer Park High School. All 125 students completed voter registration forms! More events like this one need to be scheduled in the coming weeks. Notification of the next Voter Service Committee meeting will go out very soon. News from Town Hall January 8, 2013 by JoAnn McCarthy The Elwood community had many speakers in support and opposition to the proposal to building 444 units for people over 55 years old on the Oak Tree Dairy property on Elwood Road. They want a scheduled Public Hearing. The Town Board members were in agreement about the vouchers for supper at the Mill Pond Inn restaurant, which were given out at the Board meeting to supporters of The Seasons at Elwood, to be at the very least in bad taste. The Town Board authorized the provision of youth services through the Youth Bureau for Year 2013; laboratory services with H2M Labs for Huntington Sewer District and Dix Hills Water District; R & C Formation monitoring of surface and groundwater of the East Northport landfill; amending the 2013 Budget for Cultural Arts (Public Art Initiative). The Huntington Voter Page 7 Feb. Mar. 2013

8 Be Good to Yourself! Plan to attend a WOMEN S HEALTH & INFORMATION FAIR for Adolescents to Seniors and all those In-Between SPONSORED BY: SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATOR WILLIAM R. SPENCER,, M.D. Date: Monday, March 18, 2013 Time: 3 to 8 PM Place: Dolan Family Health Center 284 Pulaski Road, Greenlawn, NY League of Women Voters of Huntington will be there! Representatives from more than 20 agencies will provide vital information to women of all ages about issues relating to health, safety, self-esteem, business, success, finance and much more! Four personal growth workshops will be offered. For more information call (631)

9 the bristal The Best of Long Island Assisted Living s Another Quality Community By The Engel Burman Group What does The Bristal mean to me? s Confidence. Lew, Resident of The Bristal When I moved to The Bristal I barely weighed 141 lbs. I was weak and out of sorts. But now I m surrounded by pros and pals! who follow my health every day, who care enough to watch over me, even when I don t. Their attention and assistance has made me stronger, and the gourmet food hasn t hurt. The gym, pool and daily activities also keep me fit. Today, this retired submarine engineer is back to 180 lbs... and I even won a Medal for Bocce at the 2012 Senior Games. How did Lew regain his stride? Tune in at thebristal.com/lifestories the bristal at east northport 760 Larkfield Road (631) pdamm@thebristal.com the bristal.com O t h e r l o c at i o n s : East Meadow Lynbrook Massapequa North Hills North Woodmere Westbury Licensed by the NYS Dept of Health. Eligible for Most Long Term Care Policies.

10 WE ENCOURAGE OUR READERS TO PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS!

11 WE ENCOURAGE OUR READERS TO PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS!

12 C A L E N D A R Date Time Subject Location Feb. 7 10:30 AM Voter Service Committee Dianne Slavin s Home Feb :30 AM Happy Birthday LWVUS Tour of Joseph Lloyd Huntington Manor House, followed by lunch at Almarco Feb. 19 7:00 PM James Coll presents Forever Free: Lincoln, Civil South Huntington Library War and the American March to Emancipation Feb. 21 1:00 PM LWV of Huntington Board Meeting Elwood Library Mar. 13 7:00 PM Community Conversations: Who Are We? Harborfields Library Mar. 18 3:00 PM 8:00 PM Women s Health and Information Fair, sponsored by Dr. Spencer. LWV of Huntington will have a table with handouts and information Dolan Family Health Center, Greenlawn Mar. 21 1:00 PM LWV of Huntington Board Meeting Elwood Library Apr. 2 7:00 PM Celebrating Women s History Month with documentary Triangle: Remembering the Fire. Panel discussion, and then reception after movie. Apr Students Inside Albany Cinema Arts Centre Apr. 24 5:30 PM 8:30 PM Running and Winning Conference Suffolk County Girl Scout Center, Commack Jun. 1-2 LWVNY Convention Albany LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF HUNTINGTON P. O. Box Huntington Station, NY 11746