A Word From The Publisher

A New Proposal For

Social Services Building?

Garden City residents who were involved in the re-zoning of the Nassau County owned property at 101 County Seat Drive (the old social services building) may be surprised to learn that there is a new proposal out there to re-develop the site as the new home of the Nassau County Family Court.

Presently the building is almost vacant except for the Probation Office. The county has said it plans to sell the building for development, and over the past few years the Village of Garden City changed its zoning of the property to address the possibility that it could become a residential area. However, if the county does not sell the property, it can continue to use it for governmental services such as court buildings.

Last week the county proposed moving the 180 probation employees to trailers in the parking lot south of 400 County Seat Drive. That move is being opposed by the court officers union, which contends that the trailers would take up too much space in the overcrowded parking lots.

On Wednesday, County Executive Tom Suozzi announced that the county will rebuild the present Family Court building in Westbury, which is in very poor condition. However, according to an article in Newsday on Thursday, although Mr. Suozzi is in favor of keeping Family Court at its present location, the State Office of Court Administration and the county Bar Association may not agree. According to the article, Suozzi said he will move forward even if he is opposed, and that the funding for the new Westbury building is in his proposed budget.

We received an email on Thursday afternoon from the board of directors of the Bar Association which said the Bar Association wants the new Family Court to be built in Garden City, on the old Social Services building site. The Bar Association claims that even if both the Probation Department and a new Family Court were placed in the Garden City complex, there would still be fewer employees than there were when the building was used for social services, and that the parking lots could accommodate the additional parking. The Bar Association also contends that Family Court is no more dangerous than other courts and that the transport of juvenile criminals from the detention facility in Westbury would be "a very limited number".

This is definitely a development that bears watching...

Meg Morgan Norris

Publisher