Fixing Harbor Road in Stony Brook, Hempstead Town's political handouts

It’s time for Hochul to step in to fix road

It’s been a year since the Stony Brook Grist Mill dam burst and drained the pond and destroyed part of Harbor Road [“Road repair remains stalled,” Our Towns, Aug. 12]. The problem is really small potatoes compared with the flash flooding that has taken many lives and destroyed global communities. So why a year?

The importance of the pond and road does not end at municipal boundaries. Our towns and villages run together, and the Stony Brook pond and Harbor Road connect and unite our communities. A coordinated effort by the state, county, town, village, and property owner should have been formed and finished by now.

The public can’t understand why our political and community leaders appear to be helpless. From personal experience, I know they are not. Usually, they are heroes building parks, restoring power, and clearing roads from a storm.

But for reasons unknown, they cannot start to fix this.

It’s time to ask Gov. Kathy Hochul to step in to unite the different factions before another lawsuit wastes another year.

— Doug Dahlgard, Head of the Harbor

The writer is a former mayor of Head of the Harbor.

Supervisor’s free shirts are shameful

Don Clavin was not out of office as Hempstead Town supervisor for even a week when, at a wonderful town senior enrichment program, his anointed successor had town staff giving out free T-shirts with John Ferretti’s name emblazoned on the back [“New supervisor sworn in,” News, Aug. 6]. So now, at least 200 people are campaigning for Ferretti when wearing the shirts.

I had respect for Clavin’s service to the town but lost all respect for him and the system when he stepped down three months before the election so his successor could have an edge campaigning by having his name splattered across the town at our expense. I should have known better. Decency, honor, and respect for democracy has gone down the tubes.

— Michael Weinick, Merrick