Letters To The Editor
Email: editor@ gcnews.com

Disregarded Community

To the Editor:

I am appalled at the way the Board has totally disregarded the community feelings concerning St. Paul's. Throughout this process the Board has committed to the community that we would have input into the final decision concerning the proposals. The only proposal that we were made aware of was the one the Committee to Save St. Paul's(CSSP) and Canus Corp. provided to the public on several occasions. We were also told that the meeting to present the plans would be made public, but there was no announcement that this would occur at the Oct. 4 meeting. All we were asking is that we hear about each plan fully before a decision was made.

Instead, the Board in a blatant, condescending and arrogant manner has permanently eliminated Canus and will deal only with AvalonBay. From the little we know, AvalonBay intends to put in 99 luxury apartments which requires going outside the footprint of St Paul's. It will also require many more parking spaces than the Canus plan. I don't know how one negotiates with a company when it is the only one involved. Is this the beginning of a total lack of control of this space? AvalonBay has said it would be willing to work with the CSSP to a "limited degree" but their interest is purely profit. Canus is interested in preserving this building with only 65 apartments and ample community space. After 20 years the greatly improved building would be returned to Garden City with no strings attached and we would maintain control.

I felt the flagrant disregard toward the community in the Mauk report that said, "Unless all of us as residents can find a way to come together to remove the parkland alienation and enter into agreement with AvalonBay, we have no doubt that the BUILDING WILL COME DOWN." I felt I was being blackmailed into agreeing to the AvalonBay project. I applaud Trustee Lamberti, who was a member of the Mayor's Committee on St. Paul's, for voting against the motion presented by the committee.

Nancy Poz

Worth Any Effort

To the Editor:

Dear fellow residents I don't know if you're aware of the developments regarding Saint Paul's School. Five members of the Board of Trustees have ratified Mauk Committee recommendations as to the future development of the property. In essence the contractor of choice is Avalon Bay "as the firm the village will now focus on and work with exclusively" to develop the property.

The committee to save Saint Paul's has been working with the Canus group. The devil is in the details when it comes to any kind of development. The Canus group would stay within the original stamp of the building and maintain as much of the interior as possible which includes the glorious marquee features of the heart of the building. The clock tower would remain as would every feature of the exterior (except the most recent gym with obscures a view of the original School).

I'm not certain the Avalon group would stay within the stamp or radically change the inside of the building although I can't be absolutely certain because the village has kept the Avalon plans a secret. The village also has also made visiting the building next to impossible by the citizens of the village.

How fair is this? We the taxpayers are shut out. The Mauk committee has chosen Avalon "exclusively" although they state "This is not a commitment" to "undertake specific redevelopment".

That committee pledged "extensive community input" as well as "community dialogue". Have they done so? I don't think so.

In addition a member of the Mauk committee has suggested the "only clear alternative" to the Avalon approach is demolition.

What? Saint Paul's could stand for a hundred years without any trouble sans a little roof work. Forget about any kind of effort outside the most minute maintenance.

I suggest everyone reading this to go to Saint Paul's and take a good look at the wonder of that magnificent building. If it were in London it would be functioning as a part of Parliament. If it were in Vienna it would be part of some symphonic hall as a sublimely beautiful music conservatory. Where are all you Harry Potter fans? Are there any who would not gasp at the beauty of Saint Paul's School?

Saint Paul's is without question the most beautiful non-residential building in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Saint Paul's school belongs to the citizens of the town that once lived here, those that now live here and those who will in the future.

The founder of Garden City Alexander T. Stewart would no more dismantle or damage Saint Paul's school then he would allow a wrecking ball to destroy the village's heavenly Cathedral.

Please help do what you can to prevent the loss of Saint Paul's or its physical deformation (altering the building stamp; profoundly changing the interior structure at a loss to the building's architectural greatness). Its unaltered presence is worth any effort as it makes our village the uniquely valuable and beautiful place it is.

John Boyle

Extreme Disappointment

To the Editor:

On Thursday, October 4, 2007 I attended the village Board of Trustees meeting. Over the past 11-12 years as a director for the CPOA and now as its current president, I have attended numerous meetings but this is the first time that I walked out of village hall feeling extreme disappointment and anger at the major event of the evening. I'll summarize the event and my reasons for my reaction.

The meeting started in the usual manner but then the trustees went directly into executive session for about an hour. Those of us in attendance knew that the executive session was called to discuss the pending announcement from the St. Paul's committee, chaired by Trustee John Mauk. The meeting continued and eventually culminated to the committee report at which point Trustee Mauk made the announcement that after their review and analysis of the two remaining proposals, the committee is recommending that the village focus on AvalonBay Communities exclusively for development of the St. Paul's site. He further recommended that effective immediately all communication with The Committee to Save St. Paul's (CSSP)/Canus (the other proposal) should cease because the Canus proposal does not warrant further consideration. This major recommendation for the community was made without any public announcement in the Garden City News or on the village website and was not even listed as an agenda item. A vote was taken to ratify Trustee Mauk's motion for the committees' recommendations and the vote passed 5-3. This major decision was made without any input from or discussion with the residents of Garden City, who by way, own that property.

Prior to the vote there were additional comments from Trustee Mauk, criticizing the Canus proposal and the CSSP, however there was no real explanation for the selection of the AvalonBay plan. In fact, it was stated repeatedly that if the Avalon plan did not work out, the only option would be the complete demolition of St. Paul's. Mind you none of us at the meeting knew any details of the Avalon proposal, we didn't know the criteria used for its selection AND yet we were being told in this same meeting that it might not work out and demolition would be the only alternative. The Board of Trustees, or the majority of them, reneged on a commitment to include the community in the process. During the past year, there has been no information about the RFP, who responded, the nature of the plans, who was eliminated or dropped out along the way and at the end of the day when the committee made its decision, our input was not even a consideration. The final irony of Thursday's meeting was that Trustee Mauk failed to invite Senator Kemp Hannon into the process during the past year and did not even comment on that fact. It is as if they made a decision in a vacuum without any regard to the fact that Senator Hannon's involvement is essential to propose the Home Rule Legislation to the NY State Legislature.

The rejection of the CSSP/Canus proposal was very disappointing to me. I support the very essence of the plan which maintains ownership of the property by the village and combines preservation with a development plan for the interior within the existing foot-print for private and public use at a relatively minimal cost to the community. I know that many people in Garden City agree with this concept and many do not. As of now, it is no longer a choice. Several reasons for rejecting the Canus plan were mentioned at the meeting but what it all seemed to boil down to is that the committee felt the level of risk was unacceptable. What I don't understand is why the committee did not contact CSSP because they would have responded immediately to address any issues or concerns about potential risk. The last official contact CSSP/Canus had with the committee was in May 2007 when they were asked to respond to questions of a somewhat generic nature from Karen Backus, the consulting firm hired by the village to assist the St. Paul's committee.

Communication from the executive committee of CSSP has been an integral component of their plan. They conducted formal presentations for the community at the middle school, at the casino and at the historical society as well as numerous informal discussions in private homes, on the soccer fields and at the Belmont Parade. They established a website that provided all kinds of information about the proposal and included a historical perspective for new residents giving them a timeline of events over the past 10-12 years. The goal was to engage the community in the process by laying out the plan, answering questions and hopefully gaining their support. In addition to the community, CSSP has had ongoing conversations with Senator Kemp Hannon. The reasons were twofold. First it was important that Senator Hannon understood every aspect of the proposal. Second, he requires assurance that any plan to develop St. Paul's has community support so that if he is asked to submit the Home Rule Legislation, he is doing it for all the right reasons as our New York State Representative. This is a very serious issue and one that Senator Hannon has not taken lightly. Unfortunately, there has been no communication from the village or the committee until last Thursday evening and that was not a public announcement because the general public didn't know about it. CSSP was notified indirectly and advised its supporters that an announcement was to be made and they tried to get the word out to as many residents as possible before the meeting.

I feel it my responsibility to point out that I am not personally attacking the individuals on the St. Paul's committee. I give them a great deal of credit for their hard work and for their time commitment. However, the process was seriously flawed because a final decision was made without any input from the community. I am not the only person who feels that way. In fact, the 3 dissenting votes from Trustee Lamberti, Trustee Brudie and Trustee Watras were for that reason. I applaud these three gentlemen for standing behind their convictions.

There were a few comments made by Trustee Mauk that were particularly upsetting but I will share only one of them. Basically he said that if those of us in attendance at this meeting don't support the AvalonBay proposal, we will be the "spoilers" implying or I inferred that if it doesn't work out and we end up demolishing St Paul's it would be the fault of the "spoilers."

Well, I for one do not want my legacy to be known as the "spoiler." So I will try to learn as much as I can about the AvalonBay proposal. I cannot guarantee my support but I am not willing to settle for demolition. What little I know about the AvalonBay project is that it is bigger in scope in terms of the number of residential units and that the parking to accommodate these units may involve a dual level structure. A public meeting is supposed to take place later this month. If you care about St. Paul's and if you care about what takes place in village hall, I urge you to attend not only the St Paul's meeting, but more importantly, the Board of Trustees meetings as well. Generally, they occur on the first and third Thursday of the month. You never know what might happen!!! If you cannot attend the BOT meetings but want to voice your concern, send a letter to Mayor Peter Bee and contact your respective Property Owners Association (POA) for representation on your behalf. You can call village hall for the names and numbers of the current POA presidents.

Pat DiMattia

Resident and CPOA President

Lack of Information

To the Editor:

Garden City has been my home for twenty-five years. As a long-time resident, I have kept current with the issues concerning our community. As such, I attended the Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, October 4th, and was disheartened at the lack of infor-mation disseminated at that meeting. In my opinion the Trustees have failed to keep the Garden City residents apprised of their progress with regard to the issues concerning the St. Paul's property as was promised to us.

I am beginning to suspect the credibility of our elected Trustees. Is this Board truly committed to representing the residents or our village and the future of our community, or might it be that the Board has its own agenda which has not been made public? Only time will tell.

J. A. Cerny

A Drama

To the Editor:

For any one who is craving some drama in their life, I strongly urge them to attend some Board of Trustee Meetings. There one can find deceit and disguise, good and evil, and schoolroom bullying all played out beautifully on the dais at Village Hall. After attending these meeting sporadically over the last two years, I can say last week's performance really took the house down. I'm sure most residents bothering to read this letter have followed to some the degree the journey taken by the Committee to Save St. Paul's in trying to preserve the building for the highest and best municipal use without expanding outside of the footprint.

As a member of the Families for St. Paul's, I probably asked you at some point to sign on to our effort. Over 1000 of you did and your petitions were received by Senator Kemp Hannon as promised. Unfortunately it seems that the Committee to Save St. Paul's is far more reliable in keeping its promises than is our Village Board of Trustees. On last Thursday evening, 5 of your 8 elected Trustees, including your Mayor, voted to chop the head off the Committee to Save St. Paul's Proposal- without due process, without fair warning and without giving residents a chance to judge them against the competition in public. Yep, they picked Avalon Bay to expansively develop the property without ever showing the residents of our Village a single detail of either plan. We know nothing of the Avalon Bay Plan except that according to Mr. Mauk, "it's Avalon Bay or demolition."

Now here comes the bullying..... Mr. Mauk made clear that unless the Committee to Save St. Paul's gets their sup-porters behind the Avalon Bay Plan, it will no doubt fail to gain the necessary removal of the parkland designa-tion.....and yes the sordid, tragic twist...the bloody fall of St. Paul's will be on the hands of all of us who tried so gallantly to save it. Wouldn't this make a melodramatic "tragedy" for performance on the community stage in the renovated and restored chapel at St. Paul's?

Rachel Cashwell

Arrogant Governor

To the Editor,

In an appalling display of personal arrogance, Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer has chosen to compromise the safety of all Americans by granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. He has done this in spite of a recent NY Supreme Court ruling upholding the right of the New York DMV to require documentation that applicants reside here legally. The DMV's right to do so, the court wrote this past June, was "undisputed." It's hard to understand why any responsible American official would seek to make their citizens potentially more vulnerable to harm, especially when current regulations have the backing of the courts.

Ignoring the obvious national security concerns of his edict, Spitzer argues that he will not " pretend they (illegals) do not exist" nor " permit DMV to become a surrogate for the INS." What a pity that his personal umbrage is not directed at the illegals who broke our laws in coming here, and are therefore entitled to no particular accommodation. Being of unknown identity and intent, they may intend American citizens grave harm. Recall that the 9/11 hijackers had multiple I.D.'s among them. Terrorist Mohammed Atta alone reportedly had eight.

Spitzer claims he wants illegals to step out of the shadows. Yet, lack of a drivers license clearly does not prevent a person from driving. Recently in Suffolk County a controversy ensued when it was shown that 77% of those arrested for driving without a license were illegal Latinos. However, a lack of a license may prevent a person from obtaining a bank account, boarding a plane or illegally registering to vote. This is a strong reason to continue to deny a drivers license to those who do not qualify for one. A government issued document like this lends a person legitimacy they may not have.

Mr. Spitzer is so anxious to bring illegals into the fold that he has declared that the more than 150,000 people turned down for licenses under the old rules, will actually be "notified that they can re-apply." In fact it is estimated that close to a million illegals will be eligible for a New York license under Spitzer's new rules.

Republican James Sensenbrenner, in supporting the concept of the Real ID Act, once said," American citizens have the right to know who is in their country, that people are who they say they are, and that the name on a driver's license is the holder's real name, not some alias." Spitzer's new rules strips away this security, and make all Americans more vulnerable.

Former NY DMV Commissioner Ray Martinez once found that 100,000 New Yorkers had their social security number fraudulently used to obtain a drivers license. Clearly this is a system ripe for abuse of all sorts. The only one who gains in the new Spitzer scenario is Mr. Spitzer himself, and the illegals for whom this change makes their living "underground" easier.

As someone whose husband was murdered on 9/11, I question Mr. Spitzer's motivations in handing out an important piece of identification like so many peanuts. Clearly he is pandering to the Hispanic vote. But he will never have my vote, as I believe he that what he is doing will only add to the potential that a terrorist can harm us again. True, it may not be possible to prevent all attacks. The question is , why make it easier for them?

I hope that all New Yorkers will let Mr. Spitzer hear their feelings on this issue. He needs to be reminded he is a governor, not an emperor. Unfortunately, since 9/11, Americans must ac-cept the fact that we live in a very dangerous world with people who would kill us all if they could. Pretending otherwise is not only foolish, but potentially deadly.

Contact Gov. Spitzer at 518-474-8390 or http://161.11.121.121/govemail

Leslie Dimmling