When I opened the Letters to the Editor page of the Record Pilot (Aug. 4), I was expecting to read letters regarding the mass destruction in the area of the firehouse. Wow! Not one printed word about this from any resident of this city! While I have heard about this road for many months, I had no idea it was going to ravage so much of the beautiful park, pond and adjacent areas, not to mention the wildlife and wetland habitats.

I certainly hope that the end of this is a positive one and not just a treeless road to a waterfront with expensive condominiums or townhouses. Very few people I speak with think that this is a good thing for our city. I hope we are all mistaken.

Ruth DiChiara

Are we property owners and voters missing something or what?

Do we as property owning taxpayers become helpless victims of a very clever local school board, their attorneys and our Glen Cove School's professional education administrators, acting in consort with one another, to deceive us?

What is there about the fact the Glen Cove School District's 2005-2006 budget was defeated that the local school board, their attorneys and our Glen Cove School's professional education administrator don't understand?

What is there further about the fact the Glen Cove School District's 2005-2006 budget was defeated that authorizes the local school board, their attorneys and our Glen Cove School's professional administrators to subsequently plot the creation of a 4 percent or so increase in the school taxes of property owners beyond the 3.24 percent mandated by the state?

Let it suffice to say I am a strong proponent of good education, but that is not the point. The majority of the property-owner voters of Glen Cove made a decision that they had every reason to believe did not include such a substantial raise in their school taxes. Rather than succumb to a state of anomie, many property-owning taxpayers are now undergoing a highly negative taxpaying experience that doesn't come close to meeting their reasonable expectation of fair and equitable taxation. As a result a serious question has surfaced.

The basic question now involves whether our current professional Glen Cove school administrators, members of the school board and their legal counsel did, in fact, manipulate our 2005-2006 school budget and concomitant tax increases in a manner full consistent with existing NYS laws, rules, regulations, guidelines, et.seq?

Summarizing my thoughts: There are serious problems of honesty, integrity and ethics among the Glen Cove school administrators, members of the school board and their legal counsel as per the tax increases in the 2005-2006 school budgets. Perhaps it is incumbent upon them to now explain in clear, concise and convincing language as to how and why this school tax increase came about against the wishes of voters.

Robert N. Pemberton Sr.