You know, it just shouldn’t be this hard. Long Island should be the best place in the world to build a museum for our favorite Rough Rider, Teddy Roosevelt. But alas, we’re talking about Oyster Bay here, and the museum has been controversial from the start. One of the sticking points: The site picked by the Theodore Roosevelt Association is where local firefighters perform their drills.

While the association, which has already scaled back the museum’s footprint, had said it would preserve the paved strip at Firemen’s Field for the maneuvers, new plans absorb that space, pushing the firefighters out.

To his credit, Supervisor John Venditto has said the new proposal is fine, “very impressive” even, and a good fit with the hamlet — so long as a suitable replacement site for the firefighters can be found. How hard can that be?

Anybody with a paved strip suitable for firematic activities, please come forward...

We likely haven't heard the whole story about why a Saturday night 911 call from Hicksville was put on hold for nearly two minutes. Meena Kohli, the mother of the caller, had been fatally stabbed. Officials say that high volume is one reason callers with emergencies sometimes have to wait to speak to an operator. So it's ironic -- not to mention unfortunate -- that anyone with information about Harpal Hira, a "person of interest" in Kohli's murder, is being urged to call ... 911.

To keep that line open for emergencies, Hira-spotters can call CrimeStoppers at 800-244-TIPS instead.

Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman who relishes his job of exposing fraud and the waste of taxpayer dollars may have gotten a little too enthusiastic two weeks ago.

At a Hofstra forum entitled "Fraud Knows No Bounds" Weitzman touted a new technique his auditors were using which looked at "outliers," people who were collecting too much sick time or using too many vacation days or using too much gas. And to juice up the story he mentioned a county employee who had allegedly used a government gas card to pump $17,000 worth of gasoline in one year.

Afterwards, Newsday reporter William Murphy followed-up with Weitzman to get more details and the comptroller said situation actually was even worse. Newsday's story reported that the unnamed employee had used 17,000 gallons of gas making the possible fraud at least $51,000.

Special taxing districts apparently feel so under-siege that they have hired a pair of lobbyists, and set up a Web site, to protect their interests.

The newly formed Special District Association of New York State is being led by Arthur "Jerry" Kremer, president. Kremer is a former member of the Assembly, who chaired its Ways and Means Committee and now works as a registered lobbyist. Rich Bivone, president of the Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce, is serving as the vice president of the new association.

[Update: Jerry Kremer says he and Rich Bivone are not being paid for their work currently, but they hope to be eventually.]

Here is what their Web site has to say:

Dear Special District Official:

These are challenging times for special districts throughout New York State. Prosecutors, high elected state officials and overly energetic politicians, are jockeying for promotion by singling out the operations of special districts in an attempt to paint them as greedy, mismanaged and out of control.

One of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi’s most significant achievements has been the “No Wrong Door” approach to helping human services clients. The idea is to put those services all under one roof, to make them more compassionate for those who receive the services and smarter for those who pay the bills: Nassau taxpayers.

One of the concerns was how much the county’s employees would buy into the new way of doing business. Here’s one recent clue that the workers are accepting the spirit of the enterprise. To help clients whose primary language is not English, the county asked for volunteers to take classes in conversational Spanish.

“Since staff were taking classes on their own time, we weren’t sure we would get a full class of 20,” says Mary Curtis, deputy county executive for health and human services. “The response was overwhelming. Over 200 people responded that they wanted to take the class.” That demand far exceeded the supply, but BOCES was able to offer a second class. The county chose 40 people by lottery to take those first two classes.

From the start, No Wrong Door looked like the right idea. So it’s encouraging to see evidence that it’s moving along well.

Good thing the Nassau County Legislature, which is always looking for a salary increase, doesn't get paid by the day. They didn't do much of the county's business yesterday, spending much of their session on their very shaky connection between vaccines and autism. What does that have to do with improving the parks, eliminating wasteful spending and making sure that youth programs get funded?