Proposal On Table

To the Editor:

Bill Bellmer writes that no credible plan for the development of St Paul’s has been received.

However, for years I’ve been trying to bring the following proposal to the attention of the village board and residents.

As the architect for Eskar Ltd of London, I proposed in our 2007 response to a Garden City RFP, to create 46 luxury rental apartments and 8 middle income apartments in St Paul’s school and 10 new townhouses on site. We agreed to pay $250,000 annually as a ground lease as well as full real estate taxes, which we estimate to be $420,000 per year.

1. We do not require any subsidy from the Village.

2. The important spaces of the South Wing on the first floor and the chapel are to be renovated and designated for Community use.

3. We will renovate St Paul’s School in accordance with the Federal Tax Incentive Program.

4. The middle-income apartments (for Village employees) were planned as an inducement for the Village; a Senior Center or Village administrative offices can easily be substituted if the Village prefers that use.

5. 75% of the rental apartments will be marketed for people over 55 without school-age children.

6. All the required parking is underground, except for Townhouse parking, which will be enclosed within the individual townhouses.

7. We plan to use geo-thermal energy instead of fossil fuel to save annual costs and limit pollution. A well-known Mechanical Engineer has been engaged for this work.

8. We have engaged one of the world’s leading lighting consultants to assure a creative and tasteful interior and exterior lighting plan.

9. We have engaged a Landscape Architect to assure creative site planning.

This surely is a better alternative than demolition and I would greatly appreciate email support.

Bernard Marson

AIA Architect

Alternative To

Demolition

To the Editor:

Bill Bellmer writes that no credible plan for the development of St Paul’s has been received.

However, for years I’ve been trying to bring the following proposal to the attention of the village board and residents.

As the architect for Eskar Ltd of London, I proposed in our 2007 response to a Garden City RFP, to create 46 luxury rental apartments within the building and 8 middle income apartments in St Paul’s school and 10 new townhouses on site. We agreed to pay $250,000 annually as a ground lease as well as full real estate taxes which we estimate to be $420,000 per year.

1. We do not require any subsidy from the Village.

2. The important spaces of the South Wing on the first floor and the chapel are to be renovated and designated for Community use.

3. We will renovate St Paul’s School in accordance with the Federal Tax Incentive Program.

4. The middle-income apartments (for Village employees) were planned as an inducement for the Village; a Senior Center or Village administrative offices can easily be substituted if the Village prefers that use.

5. 75% of the rental apartments will be marketed for people over 55 without school-age children.

6. All the required parking is underground, except for Townhouse parking, which will be enclosed within the individual townhouses.

7. We plan to use geo-thermal energy instead of fossil fuel to save annual costs and limit pollution. A well-known Mechanical Engineer has been engaged for this work.

8. We have engaged one of the world’s leading lighting consultants to assure a creative and tasteful interior and exterior lighting plan.

9. We have engaged a Landscape Architect to assure creative site planning.

This surely is a better alternative than demolition and I would greatly appreciate email support.

Bernard Marson,

AIA Architect

Private Use Not Allowed

To the Editor:

While the intention behind the letter writer’s lawsuit on St. Paul’s might have been against denser land use, the mechanism of the lawsuit itself was against private use of the property by stating it was a public trust. The subsequent opposition by others to proposals for private uses always centered more on the public trust issue than an increased footprint. I never heard the opposition to Avalon Bay say their proposal would be acceptable if only it could be done without an added building in the rear. It was “no private use” in any form. The plaintiffs in 1999 might not have guessed that the baby could be getting thrown out with the bath water.

Any lack of asbestos in the building is more than offset by the recently discovered lead contamination.

Bill Bellmer

Building In Deterioration

To the Editor:

I must “assume” from our names that Mr. Kenny and I are both Christians. I will also assume; that his description of the removal of the Chapel in one of the proposals made over these long years is somewhat sacred to him. I am not Episcopalian. I am a Roman Catholic; I have been for just short of eighty years. I am sure when Garden City bought this property “many years” ago that chapel was de-consecrated by the Episcopal Church.

In some of my previous letters on this problem I have made a statement on St. Cecilia, the Catholic Grammar School I went to in Brooklyn, NY. Last year St. Cecilia Grammar School closed for lack of new students. Within the past week I have learned St. Cecilia, the church itself will cease to exist. The “Dioceses of Brooklyn” is closing the church down for lack of attendance. And I must add support.

This beautiful gray granite building where I received my Communion and Confirmation; with its bell tower, after de-consecration, St. Cecilia will no longer be a Catholic Church. Nor will it be St. Cecilia. Just a short note; it was built about the same period as St. Paul School.

In your most recent letter to the GC News Editor you are emphatic that there is no asbestos in St. Paul School. Were you there in 1879 when it was built? I know of no building that was in public use over that period of time that did have or does not have asbestos in it. Mind you this is before fire protection (sprinkler) was conceived.

I have done some research on several articles in previous Garden City Letters to the Editor. And statements made by “our” Garden City officials in articles in the same newspaper.

The week of October 9th, 2009; “Tours Denied As St. Paul Deemed Unsafe”. The first paragraph: “The Historic Main Building St. Paul is not safe for human entry because of the presence of high levels of lead and dust in the air, announced Robert J. Rothschild at the October 1st meeting of the Garden City Board of Trustees”. Has Mr. Kenny had that dust analyzed for asbestos?

This continues to another paragraph. The Garden City Historical Society had requested the village allow public tours of the building. “Unfortunately, the air samples that we got were not good, to the point of their at a level that we cannot allow tours of the building”, the mayor said.

This article goes on about only “firefighters trained in the use of breathing apparatus can enter the building”. And to add only if life saving is involved would they have to enter the building. That article goes on about the fire sprinkler system and its water draining requirements during the winter (water freezes with no heat in the building). Mr. Kenny is welcome to go to the Garden City News’ online archive and read for himself.

On reading this article you do not have to be a rocket scientist or a physicist to understand what is going on with St. Paul’s “the” building”.

In light of these statements, I doubt very much if anyone would want to invest in this building in the first place. It is a financial drain (until it collapses & I hope no one is in the area at that time) on the Garden City taxpayer. And contrary to the Garden City Historical Society, the building is a hazard of major proportions. I would not want to see a fireman go into that building even with the proper breathing apparatus and get hurt or killed for what; to save St. Paul’s?

There are further articles in the Garden City News that Mr. Kenny can read.

1. On January 8th, 2010 the Garden City Historical

2. September 2nd, 2008 my letter.

3. September 20th, 2009 my letter.

4. October 27th, 2009 my letter. I had a suggestion on what to do with St. Paul. But it seems the powers to be have their own agenda.

5. December 10th, 2009 my letter to Mr. Kenny and his DNA

6. December 10th, 2009 my letter.

The Garden City Historical Society has even brought the Newsday press into this picture. In a Newsday article written by Mr. Bill Bleyer, it seemed like another effort to get support by the Historical Group.

After I called Bill Bleyer, he returned my call. I sent him a copy of my letter. It seems Newsday lost interest in publishing items on St. Paul.

I really do not think our elected officials read the Garden City News’ “Letters to the Editor”. It is another way for them to gauge the feelings of the people who elected them. All of this writing to our newspaper does not seem to register on them.

Tom Covino, thanks for joining this cantankerous problem. We seem to have some dedicated people in our town with one thought in mind - “SAVE St. Paul’s”. It is no longer St. Paul’s - it is a building in deterioration before our eyes.

In this time and age we cannot take this attitude. Sacrifices must be made. God forbid some youngsters get into that building and get hurt or killed. Are these same DNA people going to mourn with their families?

Michael A. Falabella

Also Hearing It

To the Editor:

This is in response to Tim Ryan’s letter “Hearing Noises.” I was quite relieved to read Mr. Ryan’s letter on Friday because prior to reading it I was the only person I knew that had heard this annoying hum. I have lived in Garden City since July of 2004 on Poplar where Boylston intersects. Just a few days after moving in I heard the noise he described and have heard it on and off since. I was hoping after upgrading my windows and siding in 2005 that I would no longer hear the hum, but unfortunately, I still do. In fact I heard it the other night starting around 11pm after I turned off the TV and continued to hear it for hours. I tried searching where the noise was originating from and I also think it’s possibly from the Hempstead Water Plant on Clinton Road. For me the noise is not only annoying but has brought on migraines that will continue into the next day. I really hope that there is some sort of resolution to the problem that we are experiencing.

Kristina Dalton-Vafeades

March For Life

To The Editor:

On January 22, 2010, forty-one members of the St. Joseph and St.Thomas the Apostle Respect Life groups traveled down to Washington, D.C. to participate in the annual March for Life. This was the 39 th March witnessing to the truth that life begins at conception and that the unborn child is entitled to the right to life. The marchers also protest against the United States Supreme Court’s infamous January 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which overruled the vast majority of state laws concerning abortion and held that a woman’s “right to privacy” was more important than another individual’s right to life.

Over 350,000 faithful and dedicated individuals traveled from all parts of the country to participate in the March for Life. This was the biggest turnout in the history of the March. Many individuals came from as far away as Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin, Alabama and Texas. Our group made the trip in one day, attending Mass at 5:30 a.m. and returning at 11:00 p.m.

After the March, we visited various legislators to express our pro-life views. As is typical for Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, her staff would meet with us only while the March was going on. Her contempt for the pro-life movement is beyond dispute. The additional objection we have with Congresswoman McCarthy is that she pretends to be pro-life. She is not. She has consistently voted to expand abortion at every opportunity.

We will continue our struggle for however long it takes to end abortion in this country. We will win because for us it is a matter of life and death whereas for those who support abortion, it’s a matter of convenience and “privacy.”

Robert L. Dougherty

Trial Should Be At Guantanamo

To the Editor:

During the 16 years I proudly served as Mayor of the Village of Hempstead (1989-2005) I always governed based on the needs and wants of those I was elected to represent. Apparently that’s a virtue no longer practiced by many of today’s political leaders. Recently, Senator Charles Schumer asked the Obama administration to budget $400 million to reimburse New York City for the security cost associated with the trials for the 9/11 terrorists. My question is why is it necessary to spend even one penny, let alone $400 million when the trials could be held at Guantanamo Bay instead? And, at no extra cost to the taxpayers or with any additional threat to the security of NYC residents or surrounding communities as well?

Other than Congressman Peter King, the rest of our local delegation either supports the Obama administration’s position of moving ahead with the trials or has remained eerily silent. This is just another example of our leaders not listening to the wishes of the majority of their constituency. Had they been listening, they would know the vast majority don’t want the trials held here or anywhere on our homeland. Taxpayers already paid for a courthouse to be built at Guantanamo Bay. That’s where the trials should be held. Not only that, but the terrorists should be tried under a military tribunal instead of through our civilian criminal courts. Should it go that route, I predict the terrorists will attempt to make a mockery of our court system just like “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui tried to do during his civilian trial in 2006.

Perhaps the recent election of Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts will serve as a wake-up call in Washington D.C. for those not listening to do what the people want concerning the terrorist trials and other important issues for that matter. If not, I am confident the voters will make sure their voices are heard loud and clear by electing leaders that are ready to represent the people’s interests 10 months from now in November.

James A. Garner,

Former Mayor,

Village of Hempstead

Commends Adelphi

To the Editor:

By simply glancing at the morning newspaper or flipping on the TV, one can gain a sense of how the current climate of our economy is impacting the personal finances of Long Islanders.

But how is the recession and the present dynamic of society affecting our mental health? And once the recession fades, will the scars left upon us both as a society and as individuals dissipate as well?

Through its recent study, “Vital Signs 2009: Measuring Long Island’s Social Health,” Adelphi University examines and illuminates these important inquiries, holistically analyzing our community’s welfare.

The report breaks down 23 social indicator categories and analyzes each community based on age, race, gender and ethnicity. According to the study, the greatest blame for the most dramatic results was the recession.

During this dismal economic climate, the immense pressure of providing food, shelter and medical care for a family often takes a heavy toll on one’s mental and physical health. As the increase in suicide rates and child abuse reports suggest, social health on Long Island is indeed a growing problem.

While a portion of the study’s conclusions suggest some improvements on Long Island, such as a decrease in heart disease mortality rates and a decrease in the rate of breast cancer among women in the region, these few positive findings are shamefully overshadowed by the adverse social health trends. Such trends include significant increases in personal bankruptcy filings, an increase in youths arrested for property crimes and a decrease in the amount of women utilizing early prenatal care.

A problem which is not identified cannot be addressed, nor subsequently remedied. Thus, I commend Adelphi University for its efforts in highlighting this pertinent issue. As a result of reviewing these findings, it is crucial that state and local officials along with health experts and community leaders work together to create long-term solutions.

Therefore, I welcome more open dialogue and research regarding Long Island’s social health and look forward to joining my colleagues in developing and championing real solutions.

Kemp Hannon,

Senator, 6th District -

New York

Ranking Member of the Senate Health Committee