By Stephanie Mariel Petrellese

The Garden City Board of Trustees once again deferred approval of a $35,000 professional services contract with Greenman-Pedersen, Inc., an engineering and construction services firm, to coordinate the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement for the possible demolition of the Historic Main Building at St. Paul's and Ellis Hall. The vote is expected to take place at the next Board meeting on March 19th.

Five trustees voted to defer the vote at the March 5th Board meeting, and Trustees Robert Rothschild and Nicholas Episcopia opposed the delay. Deputy Mayor John Mauk was absent. The item had been deferred two times pending a staff recommendation, which had been received in time for the item to be placed on the March 5th agenda.

Mayor Peter A. Bee and Trustees Rothschild and Episcopia expressed a desire to move forward with the demolition process and approve the contract. However, Mayor Bee, realizing that he did not have enough trustees to support the move, decided to vote for deferral until the next regular meeting when Mauk would be present and the item would have a higher likelihood of passing.

Trustee John Watras has continually emphasized that he wants the buildings preserved for a public use, such as a cultural and senior center, and will vote against any demolition study. Trustee Donald Brudie questioned the need to "rush for demolition."

Brudie recommended a straw vote be taken to see if residents want to save or demolish the building. He explained that he was told by some residents that they were not aware they could vote to save the building during the Dec. 2nd POA poll. The non-binding poll contained, as recommended by the Village Board of Trustees, three options for the site which were outlined in the Mayor's Committee report: proceed with the development proposal from AvalonBay, demolish the building or mothball the building. Residents were asked to pick one.

A total of 5,002 residents voted. Demolition came in first with 2,272 votes; mothballing came in second with 1,857 votes and AvalonBay was third with 873 votes.

"We are going down the path of demolition, although we continue, right up until the present time, to take very seriously organizations that step forward and say that they have some new idea or different approach or want to examine the building," Mayor Bee said. "We have continued to do that in hopes that something might materialize. Thus far, to my knowledge, nothing has materialized which has been satisfactory."

Second Deputy Mayor Thomas Lamberti wanted the item deferred until after the March 12th BOT budget work session, where St. Paul's was expected to be a major topic of discussion. Determined to lower a current tax rate increase of 10.08 percent to the six to eight percent range, trustees were preparing to grapple with whether or not to eliminate the $171,785 allocated for maintenance of the Main Building.

The 2009-10 budget currently includes $122,483 for heating the Main Building. Village Auditor James Olivo explained to the Garden City News that the entire $171,785 can't be removed because alarm systems and system maintenance will need to be maintained.

Lamberti was the most outspoken proponent of eliminating the funds, and unsuccessfully pushed for a vote on the issue. He explained that if the Board voted to continue heating and maintaining the building, he planned to vote against the EIS.

"You have to decide what you're doing," Lamberti said. "If the goal at the end of the day is to just minimize our expenses in this horrible financial crisis and say this is where we are in terms of our path, which is demolition-that item has to be taken out of the budget."

The EIS, which is expected to take at least four to six months, will study the ramifications of taking down the buildings and include recommendations on how to mitigate any potential adverse impacts. "You don't have to find that there are no adverse impacts, but you have to at least study the project and try to mitigate as best possible any impacts that might be considered adverse," explained Village Counsel Gerard Fishberg.

Residents will eventually be asked to vote to authorize the Board to issue municipal bonds to raise the estimated $5.7 million needed to demolish the Main Building and Ellis Hall.

Resident William Bellmer suggested that those residents who do not want the buildings torn down should donate the money for continued heating and maintenance.