Letter: Don't dissolve sanitation district
Laura Mallay, the executive director of the organization Residents for Efficient Special Districts stands with a sign in front of the Town of Hempstead's Sanitation District #2 offices on Grand Avenue in Baldwin. Credit: Kevin P Coughlin, 2011
Two special interest groups have completed a campaign of misinformation and submitted the number of petition signatures required to force a referendum on the dissolution of Sanitation District 2 ["Move to end sanitation district," News, July 24]. Their effort to solicit local support was based on faulty premises and flawed suppositions.
For example, the idea that Civil Service Employees Association members working for the district will not lose their jobs upon its dissolution, but will be absorbed into the Hempstead workforce, reveals an ignorance of the facts.
Why? The town employs hundreds of part-time workers with a contractual right to assume full-time capacity when such positions become available. So it is unlikely that the displaced sanitation district workers would move to the front of that rather lengthy line.
These are some of the complex concerns blissfully neglected by the simplistic approach to financial prudence favored by the groups that want to dissolve the district. We are confident voters will decide to maintain the sanitation district when they consider the facts presented here.
Ronald W. King, Commack
Editor's note: The writer is the director of the Long Island Region CSEA.
