SUFFOLK OKS 'NATALIE'S LAW' TO FIGHT HEROIN USE

Suffolk lawmakers agreed last night to a bill that creates a Web site
to show heroin-related arrests by location, frequency and the age of
the culprits.

The bill, dubbed "Natalie's Law" after Massapequa teenager Natalie
Ciappa, who died from a heroin overdose in June, passed 17-1, a day
after Nassau's legislature approved a similar law that also requires
police to notify school districts of heroin arrests.

Ciappa's father, Victor Ciappa, said he never knew the extent of
heroin use among teenagers on Long Island until his daughter's death.
"We can't stand by and watch another kid die," he said at a news
conference before the vote.

Legis. Wayne Horsley (D-Babylon), the bill's sponsor, called heroin
"a scourge" that "seems to have caught people by surprise." He urged
residents to read the county's heroin Web site once it is created.
The lone dissenter, Legis. Thomas Barraga (R-West Islip), said
broadcasting the location of heroin busts will be more useful to drug
dealers and users than to parents hoping to protect their children.

"It's basically, from my perspective, a feel-good bill," Barraga
said. "That's fine. Some people have to feel that way."

Legis. John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset) said the bill will give
police and parents another tool to help keep children from illegal
drugs. "This will pull away that cloak that drug dealers crave," he said.

County Executive Steve Levy is reviewing the legislation, according
to his spokesman, Dan Aug.

In other action, legislators unanimously approved Levy's cuts to 12
capital projects to offset an added $13.1 million in funding for
county jail construction, after the lowest of three bids came in
above the facility's $120 million budget.

The move will eliminate county funding in 2009 for rebuilding parking
lots and curbs at county facilities, a building for wildlife science,
reconstruction of County Roads 3, 11 and 67, improvements to county
marinas and incubators to businesses in distressed areas.

Levy officials said the cuts will not kill the projects, but will
remain on schedule for county funds in 2010 and will also be eligible
for federal public works funding.

Also at the meeting, an attempt to override Levy's veto of a park fee
increase to fund the Vanderbilt Museum's 2009 operation fell two votes short.

Lawmakers also tabled a bill to underwrite a study consolidating the
county's independent town and village police departments into the
county's police district. Legis. Brian Beedenbender (D-Centereach),
the bill's author, said he wanted to discuss the matter more with law
enforcement officials.

Legis. Ed Romaine's proposal to govern the altitude of helicopters
taking off or landing from the county failed.

Legislators also voted to create a gaming task force to study
locations for a possible Indian casino in the county. They also
approved an enforcement action in an attempt to recoup sales tax
revenue from smoke shops on the Poospatuck Indian Reservation.