Saving Nassau University Medical Center, ensuring children's safety, propane-fueled buses, slashing on LIRR

Saving NUMC is an urgent matter

As a retired health care worker and elected official for nearly 25 years, I know our county and community need Nassau University Medical Center [“Time to remake NUMC’s board,” Editorial, March 13].

When it comes to navigating this critical moment, NUMC’s board needs to take a lesson from its heroic health and hospital workers, put politics aside, and work together to serve the community.

While I’m sure everyone who serves on a hospital board has good intentions, in the past decade, some NUMC board members have been focused more on politics than patient care. That has to end if NUMC is to survive.

NUMC needs to work with New York State and Gov. Kathy Hochul so it can continue to serve our community. We are lucky that Hochul sees the urgency of the situation and is willing to provide the resources that the medical center so desperately needs.

Hospital leadership must address the valid concerns that the state has with bailing out NUMC and work immediately to collaborate. In short, you can’t expect the state to invest in NUMC if it’s simply business as usual.

Let’s be clear: The consequences of losing the medical center are very real, and so is the urgency to save it.

Whether it be a first-class trauma center or providing mental health and emergency services, each day that NUMC is open, it saves lives mainly because of the workers providing round-the-clock care.

It’s time we follow NUMC’s lead and put patients before politics.

— Dorothy L. Goosby, Hempstead

The writer is Town of Hempstead deputy supervisor.

It’s crazy that the people running NUMC are not professional hospital management. This is a specialized field. How did it become a reward for big donors? The editorial says it’s time for a change. The administration needs to be overhauled. Only professional hospital administrators should be running it. If not, we can call NUMC “The Bruce Blakeman Hospital.”

— Susan Weisman, East Meadow

We must make sure our children are safe

We are at a critical inflection point in our regional dialogue about child sexual abuse. The verdict in the Herricks Union Free School District case illustrates the difficulty of navigating this moment [“Herricks found not negligent,” News, March 16].

It is worth reiterating here what is not in dispute: Both the plaintiff and the school district agree that psychologist Vincent Festa repeatedly sexually abused the student when he was a child. The verdict is solely about who bears responsibility for that abuse.

Many readers will draw different conclusions from this verdict. Advocates will likely be outraged. The school district and community will be relieved they don’t have to find the $14 million in potential damages. Many more will hope we can stop talking about child abuse.

Discussions of child abuse are overwhelming. It is threatening to our sense of our children’s safety that individuals who would do harm to children can place themselves in these organizations and prey upon the most vulnerable. It is also hard to understand why, when presented with reports of abuse, some school personnel choose to look away.

While it is difficult, it is vital that we take this opportunity to shift the conversation to a discussion of the practical steps we can take to ensure the safety of our children and our community.

This is achieved by empowering individuals and communities with education and support.

— Joshua Hanson, Bethpage

The writer is executive director of The Safe Center, which serves victims of domestic abuse and child abuse.

Propane proponents stall kids' cleaner air

I was surprised to see the guest essay “Propane can help school bus transition” [Opinion, March 18] by Bill Overbaugh, executive director of the New York Propane Gas Association, because it read like an ad for the propane gas industry.

The industry apparently is hoping that casting doubt about New York’s mandated shift to electric school buses will provide an opportunity to stall progress toward cleaner, healthier air for children and communities and create a business opportunity.

Propane is not massively filthy diesel, but it’s still a fossil fuel, emitting particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane into the atmosphere and people’s lungs. Electric school buses are a short-term financial hit, but they are a sensible long-term investment, with fewer maintenance costs. Zero tailpipe emissions mean a quiet, safe ride and fewer respiratory illnesses affecting student attendance and learning.

The propane industry’s stalling efforts are too blatant to take seriously.

Gov. Kathy Hochul should stand firm against these attempts to chip away at her efforts to improve our lives and communities.

— Star Anthony, Port Washington

As a school bus driver for the North Shore school district, I am against mandating an electric bus fleet. I lived through Superstorm Sandy, and it was a disaster. I shudder to think if emergency vehicles were solely electric during the recovery.

Gasoline-powered engines are true and proven machinery. Do not mandate electric buses until they have been fully vetted and road-tested through all conditions.

— Philip Kirk, Sea Cliff

Slashing on LIRR reason for concern

I am quite concerned after reading “LIRR passenger slashed with box cutter” [News, March 20]. Two terrible things happened here.

First was the alleged assault by a man with a box cutter on a passenger trying to board a Long Island Rail Road car.

Second, a judge released the suspect without bail. If ever there was an example of why bail reform needs to be reformed, this is it. Why is it OK to let loose a person who seems a danger to society and a menace to the riding public?

Is the judge at fault? Or is it the state’s approach to these situations?

Either way, this is not a mere jaywalking case, and substantial bail should have been set. The victim is likely to face the rest of his life with a scar on his face. Who’s next, with this guy on the loose?

— Ted D. Gluckman, Rockville Centre