A group formed last year to raise funds for a legal fight against a proposed entertainment club on Sunrise Highway by a North Bellmore strip club owner has made a donation of leftover funds from the effort to help students in the Wantagh School District.
The founder of “Wantagh-Seaford Protect Our Children and Preserve Our Community” donated $1,000 to the Wantagh 6-12 Association that will be used for student scholarships. Wantagh resident Kevin Milano founded the organization to gear up for a May 2011 zoning board hearing on a planned business at 3500 Sunrise Hwy. by the owner of Billy Dean’s Showtime Café in North Bellmore, which is advertised on its website as "Long Island’s No. 1 strip club." The zoning board rejected the proposal and an appeal by Billy Dean in Nassau County Supreme Court was upheld in May.
Milano presented the $1,000 check to Wantagh 6-12 Association co-presidents Liz Greco and Deborah Kaufmann at Thursday night’s school board meeting.
“We said… any donations we get that weren’t used we would donate back to our children through the PTA and that is what we have here,” said Milano during Thursday’s meeting at Wantagh High School. “We’re donating this money because the town has now taken over the legal battle.”
Milano said that while so far the efforts to prevent Dean’s proposed business that people fear will operate as an adult entertainment establishment have been successful, residents need to stay on top of the issue as it goes through the appeals process in the courts.
“You have to stay awake because if you don’t you are going to look down here on Sunrise Highway and you are going to see adult entertainment and that is now what Wantagh is about,” Milano said. “This will change Wantagh like nothing else if that opens so please don’t just sit back.”
