LI water conservation, police malpractice insurance, Nassau courts in disrepair, and environmentalists

Water quantity, not quality, is big threat

Both Nassau and Suffolk counties have experienced water shortages and are dependent on a finite source of drinking water — a federally designated sole-source aquifer [“Move the needle on water conservation,” Opinion, Aug. 22].

Yet neither county nor the 13 townships, through their planning and zoning boards, have enacted regulations to require the use of native species in submitted landscaping designs, or required the implementation of zeroscape — landscapes made up of dirt or gravel — basically with zero plants. It’s an island surrounded by saltwater!

Where will you get more drinking water when this finite resource is constantly wasted?

New York City has its own critical shortage and should have already built a fourth reservoir.

Suffolk and Nassau counties need to cap their future population growth or start building expensive desalination plants across the island.

And since well fields are, for the most part, not interconnected, a massive piping system will also have to be constructed to connect desalination plants to the various well fields.

These costs will dwarf forever chemicals and nitrogen treatment concerns that recently have been highlighted by the media.

While water quality is a definite concern, quantity is the more serious threat.

— George Proios, Rutledge, Tennessee

The writer, a former executive director of the Long Island Water Commission, also held several Suffolk County water-related positions.

Cops’ ‘malpractice insurance’ needed

I would have liked to have seen more emphasis placed on the misbehavior — and background criminality — of these various suspects allegedly mistreated by police officers [“Lazo verdict must bring change,” Editorial, Aug. 20]. Don’t you think these suspects put up a fight, necessitating violent restraint? They were not going to go quietly.

And do you really think that the man beaten up by then-Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke is entitled to much more money than he could ever earn in his lifetime? Steal from a cop — or anyone, actually — and you should suffer the consequences.

And Kenny Lazo didn’t sound like a Sunday school teacher, either. The editorial’s sympathy is misplaced.

What kind of shortsighted, liberal jurors are involved here? After hearing all the heart-tugging stories about what choirboys these arrested guys were, the jurors then award ridiculous amounts of money, coming from their fellow taxpayers, no less.

Isn’t there some sort of insurance for this, just like malpractice insurance for doctors?

— Joe Cesare, Copiague

Lack of concern for courthouses appalling

The current matrimonial and family courthouse has been crumbling for years [“New courthouse behind schedule, over budget,” News, Aug. 20]. A loading ramp was condemned and removed, and we have been trying to resolve this issue since July 2021.

The members of the Court Officers Benevolent Association of Nassau County load all supplies from a storage container into a van where the ramp was. They then drive around the building and block the handicapped spots to unload everything using the public entrance ramp and elevator. We’ve been told the county will not pay to replace the ramp due to cost.

All Nassau courts have fallen into disrepair. The county court is renovating the original doors. This process shows little movement, if any. Sheds were erected over every entrance to protect the public from the falling façade.

The courtroom’s windows are cracked or missing glass, and the solution was to put up a plexiglass wall, and the windows no longer operate. The concrete surrounding the building was torn up and the cement walkway was replaced with poured asphalt.

The apparent lack of concern for our courthouses is appalling.

— Peter A. Piciulo, Carle Place

The writer is president of the Court Officers Benevolent Association of Nassau County.

Environmentalists win, or do they?

I had an assignment about 20 years ago, when I was with the Nassau County Police Department, at a gas station in Westbury. Young environmental activists were at the station, protesting what they felt was the harm to the planet caused by Big Oil. I explained to them that they could protest peacefully but not on the gas station’s property.

I did ask them how they had arrived at the station. They all said that they drove cars there. I thought that was amusing.

I’m pretty confident that in Montana, neither District Court Judge Kathy Seeley nor the young environmental activists get to where they are going on bicycles [“Montana judge rules for youth in climate trial,” News, Aug. 15].

— John Fallon, Kings Park