Long Beach City Council meeting had a packed agenda

The Long Beach City Council met July 5 to discuss a variety of issues regarding the community. Topics varied from electric vehicle power stations to concerns about the Empire Wind Project — per usual.

The first item on the agenda for the night consisted of a potential adoption of a tax law that would aid Long Beach’s volunteer firefighters.

“This allows for a ten-percent exemption for all volunteer firefighters who own their primary residence within the City of Long Beach,” said city tax assessor Ray Flammer. “It’s a ten-percent reduction in assessed value, and is for members in good standing that have at least two years of enrolled service.”

Flammer also explained that a lifetime exemption would apply to those with 20 or more years of service, along with firefighters’ surviving spouses. The law was voted on quickly and passed unanimously in an attempt to give back to the city’s volunteer service workers.

Another notable council decision was the unanimous authorization of the city to host a gun buy-back event that occurred this past Saturday. The event was held at the Evangel Revival Community Church on National Boulevard with aid from the Nassau County Police Department and District Attorney Anne Donnely.

“This event is an attempt to try to keep our city a safer place,” said Acting City Manager and Police Commissioner Ron Walsh. “There were calls for a gun buy-back from various segments of our community, and this is a chance for us to be as responsible as we can at no cost to the city.”

Additionally, the council unanimously voted to accept a charitable donation from Mount Sinai South Nassau, who provided $1,700 worth of T-shirts to the city’s lifeguards.

After the council adopted all 10 items on the agenda, the council opened up the hearing portion of the meeting.

“I want to understand why the City of Long Beach has no electric car charging stations,” said resident Sandy Fiedler. “We live in apartment buildings, and there’s no place to charge our cars.”

City Council President John Bendo said the city has talked to several different companies about the possibilities of placing them in areas like that of the train station.

“We’ve received many proposals, and we’ve narrowed them down to two finalists,” said Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Febrizio. “I suggest that the next step is for a work session to be held so the council can hear the two highest-rated proposals.”

Another topic of discussion was the status of the Empire Wind project and the effects that it will have on the Long Beach community. A recurring theme was the topic of usable land for the project, and the concern about the project’s cables going through city streets.

“The state makes it incredibly difficult and expensive to have the cable go through the parklands, they’ve actually made it easier to go through people,” Bendo said. “In essence, they’ve decided that the wildlife and vegetation over there are more important than people.”

Another possible option that Bendo mentioned was having the cable go through the sea via the Jones Beach Inlet and Reynolds Channel, but he reiterated that there were “a bunch of other reasons why the state can’t do that.”

Bendo and other members of the city council also added that nothing is set or finalized regarding the project, and that the city still has a say in whether the project goes through. They said denial of the project is something the city should never rule out.

“By getting parkland alienation, we now control the decision of if the project can come across our beach,” said Bendo. “This is what we wanted.”

“What is your feeling, everybody,” asked resident Anita Bachrach, referring to the wind project. “Are we going to have to fight this to the end?”

Bendo answered clear and concisely:

“We hope not.”