We're Close To Losing the Battle

Something smells in Uniondale, besides Kate Murray's grass eating goats. This entire political war of words being fought in the papers is really getting me. It brings to mind the adage from 1887 "Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely."

Kate Murray is the Town of Hempstead Supervisor, but she may as well be the Queen of Hempstead. Make no mistake, on that seven member Town Board, she reigns supreme. As Queen Kate votes, so votes the board of five Republicans and one single Democrat. She can dole out favors and paychecks at will to those that do her bidding. Until of course the public gets wind of it and starts to cry foul. Then she can back-peddle and cover up the news with something yet even more sensational.

The battle of the 150 acre parking lot has turned into a tragedy of epic proportions. It's a battle of semantics and of wills. It is Long Island politics pure and simple.

The latest attempt to stop the Lighthouse Project from ever being completed is these lease demands. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the lease with the COUNTY OF NASSAU? And as had been reported for MONTHS (repeat MONTHS!!) it has already been negotiated. Does the Town of Hempstead even HAVE any legal rights to make demands on a lease between the County and a tenant?

Or is Kate Murray just saying "Hey! Tom! I don't think you're doing your job! So I'm going to make it look like ONLY I, Queen Kate, can adequately protect our subjects!" Yes, the Republican Town Supervisor once again subjecting the Democrat County Executive to criticism.

Our time of “certainty” looms large, so Queen Kate is pulling out all the stops to make sure this thing goes down the drain. Along with it will go thousands of jobs, millions in tax revenue and of course, our only major sports franchise. Thanks Kate. Great job.

Hey, by the way, has anyone mentioned that the FINAL environmental study is due to be filed by September 18th? Yeah, it seems that legally it needs to be filed no later than 45 days after the hearing. Wasn’t that hearing on August 4th? Yeah, I remember it well. Nice march. Well get your calendars out. And it’s the lead agency’s responsibility (that would be the Town of Hempstead as she has so CLEARLY stated for years.) to file. Now, maybe the date can be extended, but I’m sure it would have to be by mutual consent. HA! Yeah, let’s drag this out a little longer. The little invoice dispute saga with F.P. Clarke too was a nice touch in the papers. After speaking with sources yesterday, the dates that F.P. Clarke claim to have stopped wor

king after invoices were questioned is also questionable. Was it actually 8/4 or was it actually later? Did they actually STOP working?

Can I just throw in a side note here…. F.P. Clarke invoices go through the Town of Hempstead, not directly to the Lighthouse developers. They have been paid about $400,000 already. Since all invoices and payments filter through the lead agency (ToH the Kingdom of Kate), wouldn’t it be easy for the Town of Hempstead accounting department to make sure that normal invoice questions and debates are somehow held up a little?

Who is pulling the strings here? Don’t you think that if the Lighthouse group was non-responsive to invoices that Ms. Murray would have LOVED to make that a HUGE deal in the papers immediately AFTER the August 4th Love Fest? But no, it comes out a month later. Timing is everything, isn’t it?

We stand at the doorstep to the beginning of the Hockey Season. The September 22nd rezoning hearing was scheduled on the same day as the exhibition game in Kansas City. Kate Murray’s camp has publically stated she didn’t give a goat’s ass about the hockey schedule. Charles Wang’s date for “certainty” (which actually translates to “HEY! What the hell are you people going to let us build here?”) is October 3rd. The Town is now attempting to force the County to meeting their lease demands BEFORE they will move forward with the rezoning process. Nice touch.

October 3rd will come and go, and with it, so will our Islanders as they are courted off the Island. Even after spending $18 million on a project that is designed as a betterment of the community and its residents, you can only push someone so far before they throw their hands up and say “I’m done.”

And when that happens, Queen Kate can smile and look out over her Kingdom and claim victory as she will have absolute power over a 150 acre parking lot.