Head Start, cancer bill, Nassau raises, Broadway Commons, drunken driving

Head Start funding needs closer look

Federal spending cuts to Head Start are being blamed for problems that have existed for years [“LI Head Start struggles as feds seek revamp,” News, Aug. 16]. But there is an obvious question not being asked: Where is the money already being spent?

New York nonprofits receive roughly $20,000 per child every year to provide Head Start services. That is a substantial sum and warrants scrutiny before concluding that inadequate federal funding is the problem.

Take Brentwood, for example. If it serves 78 children at about $20,000 per child, is it receiving roughly $1.5 million every year, and where does that money go? How much reaches the classroom? How much goes to administration, salaries, facilities, other overhead?

At these spending levels, waste, mismanagement or even fraud should be investigated before simply blaming funding cuts. It is easy to point the finger at Washington for reducing spending. It takes more work to determine whether the money taxpayers are already providing is being spent effectively.

— Douglas Wilder, Garden City

Cancer bill stalls for years in Congress

Sadly, far too many obstacles hold back passage of bills in Congress [“LI’s four reps pass few bills,” Long Island, Aug. 11].

Rep. Andrew Garbarino is a lead sponsor, and Reps. Nick LaLota, Tom Suozzi, and Laura Gillen are co-sponsors of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act. This bill has been sitting in Congress for eight years.

When a metastatic breast cancer patient meets disability requirements, there is a five-month waiting period for benefits to begin, and if the person is younger than 65, it’s an additional 24-month waiting period for Medicare. The average survival after a diagnosis is 36 months.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) allowed seven health policy bills to go forward to markup on July 15. Five had fewer than five co-sponsors, and two had none. This breast cancer bill, which would waive the waiting periods for those with the disease, has more than 260 bipartisan co-sponsors.

These waiting periods are cruel. One person is holding up the help these patients earned while working, including my daughter, Catherine.

— Joanne Marquardt, North Babylon

The writer is an LI field coordinator for the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Nassau has cash for raises, not drivers

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority released an analysis of a multiyear financial plan. This report indicates salaries and wages could be $65.6 million higher than the county’s adopted budget. Nassau is already paying numerous $300,000 to $400,000 salaries while looking at $129.6 million in current overtime projections. The report projects police overtime expenses ranging from $77.6 million to $92.2 million.

If Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and the County Legislature can pay generous salaries and overtime, then they can find the means to refund the greedy red light camera fees that were illegally charged [“Nassau should pay for ticket fee grab,” Editorial, Aug. 12]. Constituents deserve a fair resolution.

— Joe Campbell, Port Washington

Weather woes await open-air shoppers

Growing up in Hicksville in the 1960s, I frequented Mid-Island Plaza, the precursor to Broadway Commons, with my family [“LI mall wins key approval,” News, Aug. 12]. It was an open-air mall until 1969, when it was fully enclosed. What a blessing that was to all who shopped there. No more dodging rain, snow, or high winds when exiting one store and heading to another.

Enclosed, the air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter were wonderful. You could take your coat off as you shopped. In later years, the mall became popular for walkers just trying to get their daily exercise without having to deal with outside elements.

Now K/BTF Broadway LLC wants to return this closed mall to an open-air facility. The rendering pictured does show some cover, but since the entrances will be open-air, shopping in extreme weather conditions will be like returning to the ’60s. What a mistake! I lived through it, so here’s hoping the developer has a change of heart.

— Christine Gietschier, Westbury

Instead of the new open-air plan, the existing mall rooftops could have been covered with solar panels. Think of the energy that would have produced.

— Toni Ross, Syosset

Protect all shoppers with safer barriers

A drunken driver drove through the window of a nail salon, killing four people and injuring nine more [“Max sentence in nail salon crash,” News, Aug. 13]. Could this tragedy and similar ones be avoided?

I researched bollards for my temple parking lot.

Bollards should be required by law in all parking lots so an out-of-control vehicle could be stopped before an accident happens.

Lawmakers, are you listening?

This should be a totally bipartisan effort to protect everyone who shops.

— Lynn Geisler, Huntington