By Stephanie Petrellese

The Garden City Board of Trustees approved a draft scope for the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed demolition of the Main Building at St. Paul's, and set June 4th as the date for a public scoping hearing and May 15th through June 16th as the public comment period.

The vote at the May 7th Board meeting was 6 to 2: Trustees Donald Brudie and John Watras voted against approving the draft scope and setting the dates.

The public can make their comments at the June 4th hearing or submit them during the comment period of May 15 through June 16. Comments must relate only to the draft scope. "These comments are directed specifically to the scoping document," explained Village Counsel Gerard Fishberg. "These are not general comments." He said comments usually concern items that people believe should also be included in the scope.

All comments should be mailed to Village Administrator Robert L. Schoelle, Jr., 351 Stewart Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530. Copies of the draft scope, positive declaration, environmental assessment form and meeting protocol can be obtained at Village Hall or the Garden City Public Library. These materials can also be downloaded from the Village's Web site, www.gardencityny.net, under "Administration" and "Current Issues."

"The scoping session is an attempt to get input into the items that we studied in the draft EIS (DEIS)," explained Fishberg. "It's the final scope that sets out the items to be reviewed within the DEIS."

Trustee John Mauk emphasized that the Board will decide how to proceed once the EIS is completed. "This is not a commitment one way or the other regarding what's going to happen with St. Paul's. It's not a commitment to demolish anything," he said. "This is really is an exploration of various topics and items that are related to any possible demolition and an assessment of what the impact would be. I think that what we're really looking for and what everyone should be expecting at this point is that this is going to produce a lot of information that's going to be useful for the Board and for the public in assessing exactly what the impact, which is what this is all about, would be in going forward with the demolition."

Mayor Robert J. Rothschild explained that the demolition, if approved, will take place in five phases. Phase one will include the review of any historical elements found in the building and identification of any portions that are required to be preserved during preparation of the DEIS and final EIS. These elements will be removed and preserved.

In phases two and three, all asbestos-containing materials, lead paint, petroleum products and other hazardous materials will be dealt with appropriately in accordance with all county, state and federal guidelines. All non-structural recyclable materials will be removed and transported to recycling centers.

The structures will be demolished during phase four. Additional recyclable material will be salvaged if warranted and the remaining debris will be removed to disposal facilities. In phase five, the site will be appropriately graded, restored and landscaped for its intended use as open space.

Trustee Andrew Cavanuagh was pleased that a historic resource consultant will be hired to analyze the impact of demolition of St. Paul's School. Reasonable alternatives will still be considered, such as mothballing and stabilizing the building.

"I think this scope has been very fairly drawn, taking into account all the positions which still very much are a stand on the debate about St. Paul's," he said. "I think that everybody should be assured that since both the scoping stage and the final report stage invite public comment they will have the opportunity to have these issues again brought forward and discussed in an open forum."

Trustee Brudie said he would like to see at least the St. Paul's clock tower saved.

Trustees Brudie, Watras and Cavanaugh wanted e-mail comments to also be accepted, but the other trustees disagreed. Trustee Nicholas Epsicopia said it doesn't require much additional effort to send a comment via regular mail.