Architect Responds To Board

To the Editor:

We are told that in February 19, 2010, first page article, “St Paul’s Draft EIS Expected Soon” that resident William Bellmer, in response to architect Bernard Marson’s letter to The Garden City News, wanted to know what had transpired between the Village and me in regard to the Eskar proposal. Unfortunately, the reported response to that inquiry is a mountain of irrelevant and utterly mistaken information.

Last spring [Village Administrator] Robert L. Schoelle Jr. and Karen Backus requested a new letter from me outlining our proposal, slightly amended, with the clear understanding that my client was still interested. The letter was a proposal to lease the site for $200,000 per year for 99 years in accordance with our original proposal, which included:

1. Renovation of St Paul’s School in accordance with the Federal Tax Incentive Program of the Department of Interior.

2. Real estate taxes, not PILOT, will be paid to the Village.

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

4. Eskar plans to build 46 luxury rental apartments and 8 middle-income apartments within the existing space of St Paul’s School. No expansion of the building itself is planned, but our proposal does include ten new townhouses in the rear of the property.

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.

After submitting the letter, I was informed that residential use for St Paul’s was not an option. Nobody ever requested a check from me. Any information about Litas Investing Co, is irrelevant because we have replaced Litas with HRH Construction. HRH will serve as Construction Manager.

Our scheme was always much better than Avalon Bay’s proposal; it is infinitely better than demolition. I hope to present our full proposal in a public forum shortly and request the support of interested residents.

Bernard Marson FAIA

No Winners

To The Editor:

The headline in Newsdayt stated “Awesome, Island Kids score big again.”

Sixty-one Long Island high school students were semi-finalists in the important Intel competition.

Paul Schreiber High had four winners: John Kennedy had four students: Ward Melville generated seven winners: Jericho had five winners, etc., etc.

Garden City High, a “Lighthouse School,” staffed by over-paid, pampered, opportunistic people had no winners - no winners.

The great deception continues. With the support of the infatuated marionettes on the school board and a functioning propayanda machine, the disaster continues.

Superintendent Feirsen stated, “This is a year where we are going to have to make incredibly difficult choices”, etc., etc.

We can depend on him to make the right choices. He and his cronies have our interests at heart. Really?

Every year there’s a rise in the budget.

Feirsen and his crew are not interested in any frugality.

All their efforts are directed at maintaining the status quo: exorbitant salaries, extravagant health, pension and insurance benefits, great vacation time, job security.

What a great life.

Angelo DiPippo

to take home. Fine wines

Fleecing America

To the Editor:

The banks that were rescued with the TARP bail out money say that they already have or soon will pay back the government the money they were given. Just a reminder that they were “loaned” billions of dollars at 0%-1% interest rates. They then gave out lines of credit via credit card loans at 25%-30%, and made billion of dollars in profits. The reality is that the American public paid off those bank loans. Not the banks!

A grade school child could turn a huge profit under the same circumstances, and they wouldn’t be asking for millions of dollars in bonuses.

John R. Brooks

Suggestions

To the Editor:

In response to Michael Falabella’s lengthy and vitriolic political diatribe in last week’s paper entitled “Suggestions for Congress”, I have these remarks: I do not need, nor do I want, your opinion or advice on matters of government. When I do, I will consult a person who is qualified to give that advice, which assuredly is not you. By the way, Mr. Falabella, like it or not, that ‘man’ you refer to is Barack Obama, our president, and you insult more than half the voting population with your biased and disrespectful comments.

That being said, I would like to offer two suggestions to the GC News:

1) Don’t print political (or religious) opinions from residents. Each of us has our own views and don’t need to be preached to by our neighbors.

2) Although there were no St. Paul letters in this issue - please consider a moratorium on them. In the past, I have listened to and read innumerable plans and suggestions, pro and con, about this venerable relic. Neighbors and friends in other communities laugh at the “St. Paul’s mess” and the inability of the village to make a decision after more than 15 years. It’s all been said in a hundred different ways —-ENOUGH!

I do enjoy reading the GC News and catching up on local news and events. Thank you.

Virginia Messina

Lenten Project

To the Editor:

On Wednesday, February 17, we began the wonderful season of Lent. As Catholics, we are asked to engage in prayer, fasting and almsgiving. As parents, we take the season seriously and look for opportunities to also instill the value of love, compassion, generosity, service and charity in our children. I would like to invite my neighbors, friends and our community to consider participating in a Lenten project named FACE (Feed A Child on Easter). The project is sponsored by the St. John’s Kenyan Children’s Foundation. The goal of the project is to provide an Easter meal for 50 Kenyan families in need. The families of the children sponsored by the Foundation will receive large packs of food, which will be distributed during the last week of Lent. The food will be enough to feed a Kenyan family for 2 to 4 weeks. While helping a family in need, the project teaches our children to appreciate their many blessings and it gives them an opportunity to become personally involved with children in need.

The project allows families to fully engage in prayer, fasting and almsgiving as the suggested donation is $25 and families are asked to pray daily for all the orphan Kenyan children who are being affected by famine. Since this is a Lenten project, we are inviting families to “spiritually adopt” these orphan children (and their families) through daily prayer for their well being. In addition, our children have the option to write pen pal letters to the orphan children in Kenya and to receive the picture of a specific orphan. I will be happy to collect the letters, and the Foundation will mail them out.

There is also the opportunity for fasting as families may want to consider making some sacrifices during lent (e.g., give up pizza night, movies or other treats) which would enable them to save $25. Any donations received in excess of the funds needed for the food supply will be credited to the General Fund of the Foundation.

In the last three years, many Garden City families have participated in this project by choosing to “spiritually adopt” one of the Kenyan children during the Lenten season. In prior years, we had great success as we accomplished our goal of getting our children to think about the meaning of Lent and committing them to performing certain acts of love, prayer and sacrifice.

Families wishing to participate in this project, please feel free to EMAIL me at marta.waters@att.net. You may also contact Kathy Billanti at kob322@optonline.net or call her at 742-2991. Donation checks should be made payable to the St. John’s Kenyan Children’s Foundation and mailed by March 28 to P.O. Box 411 Garden City, New York, 11530. All contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Marta Waters