Francis Wood

In the '50s, when the post-World War II building boom caused a spurt in sandmining, Francis Wood, a Newsday reporter who lived in Port Washington, wrote a series called "The Rape of Long Island.""We're being gouged, chewed, gobbled up, torn, flattened and shoveled away - in broad daylight," Wood wrote.

Large sections of Port Washington were leveled, according to geodetic surveys.
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Francis Wood in 1956 found that town ordinances to govern the sand companies were ignored and permit fees were never collected."You can't stop a man from digging a hole on his own property," then-North Hempstead Town Attorney James Dowsey Jr. told Wood.
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Wood inquired.