The Town That Time Forgot

From Jurassic Park to Town Hall Plaza
Measuring Time At Hempstead Town Hall ~ Years, Decades, Eons

The following, excerpted from recent testimony before the Hempstead Town Board, chronicles one community's ongoing endeavor to move the Town to action:

Town time, as we all know, can rarely be measured chronologically. It must be viewed as Anthropological, spanning the epochs, change no more visible to the naked eye than the melting of the glaciers.

I take you back some 500 million years, to about the time the first vertebrates appeared on Earth, and West Hempsteaders first asked Town officials to take action to close the Courtesy Hotel.

Fast forward to 367 Million years ago, about the time of a mass extinction during the Devonian Period, roughly coinciding with the appearance of Scott Banks and Dorothy Goosby on the Town Board.

We move on – a mere 250 million years ago - at the dawn of the Triassic Period, roughly when then-Councilman Joseph Kearney told West Hempsteaders that “the closure of the Courtesy is imminent.”

And it was only some 2 million years ago, with the rise of Homo Habilis and the adoption of the Wooly Mammoth as Town Mascot, that Joe Ra, who had evolved into the post of Town Attorney, postulated that a Condemnation Proceeding to close the Courtesy was out of the question - A theory which, by the way, until only recently, had been accepted and adopted by every Town Supervisor, including Ms. Murray. Indeed, as late as June of this year - AFTER the Supreme Court ruled in the Eminent Domain case that “buoyed” Town officials - Ms. Murray, citing “adverse tax consequences,” told residents, “the option (of Condemnation) would not be welcomed in West Hempstead.”

Obviously, we’ve come a long way – full circle, some might say. While Creationists may differ on the timeline I’ve presented here this evening, suffice it to say that it has been far too long – whatever the measure of time – for the Town to act, and act responsibly – in bringing closure to a community’s continuing nightmare...
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Time, of course, is relative -- most of those relatives being employed by the Town of Hempstead.

Newsday ponders whether times have changed from, say, 50 years ago, when you had to be a registered Republican in order to get a job with the Town of Hempstead. [SEE Hempstead's Preferred Party?]. Sure times have changed -- now you not only have to be a registered Republican, you have to be a Republican Committeeman (or a former Nassau County Comptroller, who lost at the ballot box, but still has the support of every TOH taxpayer).

Time is on our side? Ah, not really. . .