Field Is Needed

To the Editor:

I think it is important to mention that the Cherry Valley fields are being used by nearly 500 boys and girls in the Garden City South Little League. The league has existed for over 50 years. In the past two letters to the editor, the two men failed to mention the children who will lose out. If they have any real concern for children, in general, they wouldn't think about doing this to a whole little league. They make it sound like it is used by towns from all over, but it is the only field the GCSLL has ever had. The children in GCSLL will have nowhere to play. Is that nice? no! Is that fair? no! No matter what way you word it, Garden City will always have more fields than Garden City South which only has one.

Cheryl Kelly

Garden City South Resident

Response To "Kids Need Fields"

To the Editor:

To understate, I am extremely disappointed to read the letter written to the editor by Scott Kiley in the May 25 edition of the Garden City News. It is quite unfortunate how an individual can draw on the emotions and paternal instincts of our good neighbors of Garden City, distort or omit critical facts pertaining to the field situation of Garden City, or perhaps this is simply a lack of information.

I am writing as a concerned parent of four children and member of the Garden City South Little League for the past 12 years. The Garden City South Little League has operated out of the field on Cherry Valley Road for the past 54 years, for this we are extremely thankful to Garden City. However, please understand, we do not have any other fields available to us. To repeat none, not one other, this is it. This field only consists of one softball, one minor league level baseball and one tee-ball field. The overall sizes of the fields are small. It would not be uncommon for a game to be interrupted by a ball hit over the fence at one field landing on another. Fortunately for the residents of Garden City there are a number of beautiful fields available to them. These include the fields at the Garden City Pool complex, Edgemere Park, Grove Park, Stewart Little League Park, Hemlock Park, Nassau Haven Park, Tullamore Park and St. Paul's, and does not even include the potential use of the school fields of Garden City as our League has resorted to use. I'm sorry but this does not make for what Mr. Kiley referred to as "scarce". Our League has grown to all time highs this current year. We too have problems with rain-outs. Unfortunately, it is something every league has to deal with. Time management is our only alternative.

Contrary to what Mr. Kiley states, the majority of the attendees at the REC meetings do support the continued leasing of the fields to the Town of Hempstead and subsequently to our League. A significant number of politicians both state and local are aware and understand our plight and support our needs.

The failure to renew the lease will result in the demise of the Garden City South Little League. As a result, 460 children of whom 50% are residents of Garden City South will be forced to seek other alternatives. This will include the possibility of the district directing the Garden City Little League to absorb the members of our League. Should this be the end result, how would this rectify the needs that Mr. Kiley is recommending.

Due to the lease situation, the Garden City South Little League has only been able to develop this field through the support of state grants as well as our local sponsorships and families that volunteer to maintain and improve your field. Recent expenses incurred for these improvements are in excess of $ 100,000.

Regarding the petitions, upon advisement, our local politicians have recommended that we use this non-confrontational means to communicate to the residents of Garden City the true situation regarding this field. Unfortunately Mr. Kiley only views us as "out of town". This reference makes it appear that the children who play on these fields travel great distances to use them. These "out of towners" are Garden City South residents and as my family North Franklin Square residents, who patronize Garden City businesses, use Garden City schools and doctors. These residents also worship in Garden City churches; in fact some of our parents teach your children religion education. We are neighbors and would like to enjoy co-existing in a respectful and harmonious way.

Finally, I ask Mr. Kiley to clarify the statement of the GCAA code of conduct which states "Treat players of the other teams as members of our community first and as opponents secondarily. Refrain from actions or words that undercut the self-esteem of players on the other teams." How does this apply to the attempts to take away the only field the Garden City South Little League has available?

On the behalf of our children and their families, thank you Garden City for allowing us to use your field for all these years. We ask you our good neighbors of Garden City to continue to support our plight and contact your trustees and tell them that you support our League and its continued use of the small field on Cherry Valley Road. Support our request for a five year lease, so that we may remove the yearly fear we have about our future. Please ask the members of the Recreation to make better use of the number of fields that they have available.

Rob Brusca

Support Crisis Pregnancies

To the Editor:

Several weeks ago - on Mother's Day - St. Joseph's Parish introduced a special project to help support crisis pregnancy centers here on Long Island. On that Sunday, brightly colored, plastic Baby Bottles were distributed after all the Masses. Parishioners and visitors were asked to take the Baby Bottles home with them and to fill the bottles with spare change until Father's Day when the filled Baby Bottles would be collected. The response was most heartening, as many Baby Bottles were taken back to homes here in our village of Garden City.

With Father's Day being celebrated this Sunday, we remind everyone to please return their Baby Bottles to St. Joseph's. There will be volunteers collecting the Baby Bottle Banks at the doors of the Church and Auditorium for all Saturday and Sunday Masses.

For Garden City residents who may have missed picking up a Baby Bottle Bank on Mother's Day and would like to make a contribution, we invite you to make your donation at the doors of the Church and Auditorium. 100% of all the monies collected will be presented to the Life Center of Long Island which assists mothers and fathers experiencing crisis pregnancies.

We thank all for their most generous support of our parish's efforts to help the babies and their parents. Please continue to pray for them daily.

Please see in this issue of The Garden City News a photo and short article on our Mother's Day - Father's Day Baby Bottle Bank Project.

Art O'Brien

St. Joseph's Respect

Life Society

Concerns

To The Editor:

After living in Garden City since 1956 and enjoying it immensely in my semi-retirement, my principal concern after taxes and a government that takes years to make important decisions e.g. St. Paul's, is our water and sewer system.

In last Sunday's New York Times, we learn that in Suffolk County and, to a lesser degree Nassau County, there are still cesspools and, septic tanks, both active and dormant which are starting to collapse. Almost equally disturbing is Garden City's sewer and water system. Relying on sewers and catch basins for not only water carry-off but also our water supply, is to my knowledge an early 19 th century technology that needs updating. I realize that this may be expensive. But we have been spending about $130,000 per year to maintain a relic, e.g. St. Paul's instead of updating our most important need - our water supply.

Our water supply and sewer system should be modernized. People who change their own oil in their cars have poured countless numbers of quarts of used oil down our sewers for years. Additionally, now that we have the possibility of terrorism in our midst, our water supply must be guarded more carefully.

Water is our future. Let's take care of it.!

How many abandoned cesspools and septic tanks do we have in Garden City, if any?

Some local governments on Long Island are receiving federal grants to update their systems.

Joseph A. Calamari

P.S. Recent articles in Newsday indicate that there is contaminated water in Garden City, North Hempstead and in the Village of Hempstead.

P.P.S. I am advised that the Village of Seacliff's water is not contaminated. It has had private organizations in charge of its water for years.

A Good Thing

To the Editor:

In the film classic, Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence captures Aqaba and meets with General Allenby. Allenby agrees to support Lawrence and the Arab revolt with guns, money and supplies.

Lawrence: You're a clever man.

Allenby: Not really! I just know a good thing when I see it.

Even in real life, every once in a while a good thing comes along. Such a "good thing" came along as a response to the RFP for St Paul's School. A very rich English developer, no relation to Lawrence, who loves old buildings and is looking for a home for his huge art collection has responded to the RFP with a breathtaking offer. Not only will he renovate St. Paul's into luxury apartments using the exacting standards of the Federal Preservation Tax Incentive Program, he will dedicate the major spaces, including the chapel, to not-for -profit community uses. He further proposes to build only ten new townhouses (equal to the square footage of Ellis Hall, which will be demolished), to build underground garage space for required parking for the apartments, to limit the majority of the occupancy to citizens over 55 with no school-age children (thereby limiting Village costs) and to provide some apartments at below-market rentals to Village employees.

In many ways, the RFP process is not fair. Developers have to make a living and naturally, do everything to maximize their returns. The short-listed developers have all asked for subsidies from the Village in one form or the other. Out of nowhere came Simon Karimzadeh of Eskar International Ltd, whose goals are not so material, who has vast financial resources at his disposal and requires no subsidies to fulfill his plan. On the contrary, he offers the Village a ground lease of $250,000 per year for five years with the right to buy the ground lease for $5,000,000 after five years.

How did the committee handle this situation? They rejected Karimzadeh out of hand -no interviews, no questions - because he doesn't have enough relevant local experience. Are they worried that he will get lost on the LIE? Do they really think that a powerful development corporation with world-wide interests is not capable of managing the arcane ways of Garden City? Or do they simply not know a good thing when they see one?

Bernard Marson AIA

Architect for the

Eskar Proposal

Play At St. Joseph School

To the Editor,

I have seen letters to the editor talking about the Middle School play. I have written this letter to inform everyone of the great play that St. Joseph School put on just a few months ago.

On March 30th, 2007 St. Joseph School presented an adaptation of the beloved story, Wizard of Oz, as its annual play for 2007. I am a student who attends St. Joseph School and I was in the play. It was a great experience. I love being in plays and this happened to be my favorite one.

A few days before the show we put on an in-school performance to get us ready for the big night. The night of the performance we all got together a few hours before the show and went over anything we had to fix up or go over. Our fabulous director, Miss Dicostanzo, told us how proud she was and how she knew we were all going to do a great job. In the end we did!

All the students really put out all they could that night and it showed on the stage (from what I heard). We would never have been able to do this as well if it weren't for our amazing director Miss D. She showed huge dedication throughout the entire three months we were working on the project. There were also many other mothers and fathers who helped with set decoration and choreographing the dance steps.

Of course we have to thank our great principal, Dr. Kilbride, for letting us do the play this year and for all the hard work she put in to make it possible! The recent plays St. Joseph's has put on include Annie Jr., The Music Man Jr., The Secret Garden, and the Wizard of Oz. We look forward to finding out what next year's play will be. All the students at St. Joseph's are really dedicated to what they do and we are ready for anything! No play (or schoolwork) is too difficult or challenging for the students of St. Joseph School!

Andrew Salecker

7 Grade, St. Joseph School

Bury Your Money In Concrete

To The Editor:

At the June 7 Trustees meeting I learned that the Village had entered into a new contract for street and sidewalk repairs with Newborn Construction, Inc. I asked Mr. Mangan, Director of Public Works, how the $1.187M contract compared to last year's cost. I was told that they were about the same. Now the big question is, if there is no increase to the Village for this service, then why is the Department of Public Works sending notices to Village residents that the fee for sidewalk repairs has gone up about 20% over last year? Example: last year the cost for 4" concrete was $5.75/S.F., now the cost is $7.00 (an increase of about 22%). At that rate, the $4,000 I just spent on last year's repairs (due to the lifting of the concrete flags by Village trees) could double to $8,000 in less then five years, when the tree roots grow back again. I don't know about you, but I don't have that kind of money to spend on something I will never own or have any control over. I would think that the village would at least try to ease the financial burden to its residents (especially those on fixed incomes) by providing discounted rates.

I am still advocating that the Village of Garden City adopt New York City's policy which states that, if sidewalk damage is due to city owned trees, then the city is responsible for the cost of the repairs and not the homeowner. What do you think?

Bob Orosz