Letters To The Editor
Email: editor@ gcnews.com

Not "Too Complicated"

To the Editor:

The residents of Garden City pay a Village tax and a separate School tax. In June 2006 an article appeared in this newspaper in which the Garden City school district advised that more classroom space is needed and that GC residents will need to pay for this. When I read this I thought about the Village owned land already zoned as a school which can be legally used for school purposes at St. Paul's. I wondered why the School Board and the Village Board did not coordinate their efforts in finding a legal use for St. Paul's while assisting our school district in meeting it's needs. I let it go at the time, but thought that our tax dollars could be more efficiently used if only there was coordination between the Village of Garden City and the Garden City School Board.

At the same time the School Board realized that Garden City needed to expand its educational footprint in the Village, the Village of Garden City was paying Karen Bachus over $100,000 to find a private use for St. Paul's. A private use for St. Paul's is not authorized by the bond issue used to purchase St. Paul's. At one of the Village Board meetings in 2006 (ironically held at the Middle School because Village Hall does not have adequate meeting space for such a gathering of Village residents) Karen Bachus previewed the plan to give away St. Paul's to private developers. At that meeting I asked the Village trustees why they had not explored consolidating educational and Village functions at St. Paul's and using the sale of Village and school property to fund that effort. I was told that it was "too complicated" to consider such a plan.

It is now November 2007. On the front page of last week's issue of the Garden City News we learned two things. First, the Garden City school district needs $34 million to fix the schools and that a bond issue (a school tax) will be used to fund that expense. The second thing we learned is that the Karen Bachus/Village Board unauthorized plan to turn St. Paul's over to a private developer (AvalonBay) is running into some trouble.

It is time that Village residents who pay both Village and School taxes require the School Board and our Village trustees to meet at an emergency summit to coordinate the sensible expenditure of our tax dollars by legally using St. Paul's to benefit current and future generations of Garden City children, our school district and all Village residents. It is not "too complicated". It can be done.

David J. Sutton

Thank You, Garden City

To the Editor:

We'd like to express our heartfelt thanks to all those in the Garden City community who have reached out to us in our sorrow over our daughter Melinda's recent death.

If ever there were an example of a whole village helping to raise a child, it would certainly be Garden City. We can't possibly show our appreciation to all the wonderful teachers who gave her extra help when she had been out sick or simply was having difficulty with her work, the school guidance counselors and special ed teachers who helped her fulfill her capabilities, various community individuals such as her caring Girl Scout and religious leaders who helped her find her own special qualities, wonderful neighbors who loved her for who she was, just everyone who helped her along the way--and you know who you are.

Each of you has helped make us ever so thankful that Garden City has been our home.

Barbara and Dennis Bengels

You Know The Tree

To the Editor:

If it looks like a Christmas Tree, if it has lights like a Christmas Tree, if it has ornaments like a Christmas Tree, then it must be a Christmas Tree. Simple logic you would think. Yes I said it, ' Christmas Tree.' Is this a bad thing? I think not. It is sad as you know what it is, I know what it is, and everyone knows what it is. Then why in so many references is it not consistently identified as such? To paraphrase a Billy Joel song, " It's Still a Christmas Tree To Me." Christmas Tree and Merry Christmas, say it now, say it loud and say it proud. After all, Tis the Season.

Michael L. Ryder

Something To Gasp About?

To the Editor:

We now have a new standard to judge St. Paul's: gaspworthiness. Thanks to Frank Kiernan we now can see that the only gasps St. Paul's has elicited is from waste: waste of time, waste of taxpayer dollars and an extraordinary waste of energy. Build a few hundred apartments and a few hundred parking spaces and the corner of Rockaway and Stewart will soon resemble Queens Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway. Ah, but won't that be something to gasp about?

Nick Basile