The Things Learned at Nassau County Informational Meetings

Recently I attended at “informational meeting” at the East Meadow Public Library hosted by Legis. Norma Gonsalves mainly in regards to conveying accurate and up-to-date data about the restructuring and consolidation of the Nassau County Police precincts.

It appears that do to our current fiscal crisis, we must trim responsibly otherwise we will need to cut with haste. This to some is known as "evolution."

The current plans call for us to whittle eight precincts down into four and to have more P.O.P. stars (Problem Oriented Police) on the streets. Four of the current eight precincts would become Community Policing Stations and still have some officers (2) there, but would not be processing criminals. The plan as presented seemed to have more kinks, and missing details, than one would think at this stage.

Many residents were in attendance as well as local business owners, members of the police department, the PBA, the local fire department, visiting dignitaries and the press. I bet that by the time this blog is printed that the Patch and the Herald had 2 articles each about the intricacies of the plan and that the different legislative committees in Mineola had cast their initial votes.

Before, during and after the meeting I did learn some interesting tidbits about this and some other subjects that might be off this initial topic, but that still might affect our local residents, that I decided to share.

NUMC is thinking of closing 50 bed spaces to make room for an “ Outpatient Drug Program” which would increase the amount of serious drug users brought to our community seeking treatment and possibly bring them into an uncomfortable proximity to high school students leaving school and sporting events in the immediate area.

The Nassau County Jail is acting as a foster location to felony convicted Suffolk County inmates due to the Suffolk County Jail’s overcrowding issues.

One officer in attendance stated that one particular crime in one particular Nassau County Precinct rose over 230 percent in the last six months.

An unmarked Nassau County Sherriff’s car and two on duty Nassau County Motorcycle Cops delivered pizzas from Umbertos of New Hyde Park to the airport destined for the Super Bowl. Seems to others that NC Police Chief Skrynecki thinks a possible solution to the fiscal crisis is to compete with Fed Ex and UPS too.

When I moved into Nassau County we had just fewer than 4,000 law enforcement officers protecting us. That number is currently less than 2,500 and they want to decrease that current number by over one hundred before 2013.

Although high-ranking police officials seem to hate the acronyms, Nassau County Law Enforcement Programs have included P.O.P., P.E.P. (park enforcement patrols) and P.I.P. (police interaction program), but never P.U.P.

I did learn some other snippets that were non-related to the police department, cutbacks and crime. Now some readers have accused me of Jambalaya-ing my blogs, but the topic here is “The Things Learned At Nassau County Informational Meetings.”

Nassau County is considering a trolley and track system to go from Winthrop Hospital area to the NUMC area instead of a mini bus system, because too many people surveyed did not know what a Jitney was or could not pronounce it properly.

Many towns in Nassau County have a mayor, but not East Meadow.

One Pennsylvania College has placed “the morning after pill” in a campus vending machine. The cost is $25. I think that the problem here is that someone will need to have a heck of a lot of quarters.

There have been reported cases of mononucleosis amongst NFL players from kissing the Super Bowl Lombardi trophy.

A woman can be lactose intolerant and still breast-feed. Also an allergy to nuts has nothing to do with being tolerant of people with diminished mental capacity.

Originally they were called undertakers, now they are referred to as Funeral Directors. Soon we might be referring to them as “afterlife coaches.”

The only reason conjoined twins (Siamese twins) from Minnesota went to England was so that it gave the other girl a chance to drive.

A popular New Hyde Park restaurant serves goat brain masala and thrives. A popular New Hyde Park restaurant that served steak and sushi went out of business early last month.

East Hampton Village supermarkets and stores banned plastic shopping bags. I guess “going Green” means killing more trees, now.

Here it is! Almost all the updates, info, enlightenments, notes, scoops and knowledge accumulated on a variety of subjects that came to light within the walls of the packed basement of the East Meadow Public Library at the Nassau County Informational Meeting the other evening. I hope some of this helps you as much as it did me.