Garden city news 08052016

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Friday, August 5, 2016

Vol. 92, No. 50

FOUNDED 1923

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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED

A team dominates PAGE 56 n Scholarship bridge PAGE 25

Coach files complaint of age discrimination after firing

NATIONAL NIGHT OUT

BY RIKKI N. MASSAND An attorney for Rich Smith, the 44-year head high school baseball coach in Garden City who was fired unceremoniously recently, said the coach has filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the EEOC) claiming his civil rights were violated on the basis of age discrimination by the school district. Smith’s complaint, which he signed on July 29, states that age discrimination against him occurred during this past high school baseball season, starting April 22 and lasting until the day of his last meeting with Athletics Director Dawn Cerrone, June 29. He wrote “throughout the course of 44 years of continuous service, I added substantial value to the Garden City Union Free District Operations until my illegal, age-based termination on June 29, 2016.” Several school board meetings have been held with comments on Smith’s “not coming back” and the board’s Wednesday, July 6 re-organization meeting turned into a tumultuous evening of probing into Smith’s last season and the district’s handling of him by 40 distraught community members, including current and former players and GCHS alumni seeking justice for a coach they adore. Stated in Smith’s complaint is his outlook now “at age 74, having no chance to ever coach again.” Schools have been and will be looking See page 14

On August 2nd, the Garden City Police Department along with staff from the Garden City Pool conducted a community program called “National Night Out” at which the police department shared safety tips. Above, Det. Richard Pedone greets pool patrons. See page XX

Parks Dept. to review pool memberships BY RIKKI N. MASSAND With year one of Garden City Recreation and Parks Department’s five-year Strategic Plan under way, scrutiny of plans, investments and upgrades such as the pool bathhouse and new alcohol sales at the pool created many ways for the village to consider dividends and any needed adjustments. At the Board of Trustees’ meeting on Thursday, July 21, Kevin Ocker, the village’s department head of

Recreation and Parks, spoke about preliminary totals for a hot topic: 2016 pool memberships. “We generally like to start by comparing the family category of memberships as it makes up 70 percent of our revenues at the pool. We have many categories of memberships but we currently have 1,500 family memberships, including regular prices and those that signed up taking advantages of discounts, easy-pay plans

Despite efforts, Stewart-era home demolished BY RIKKI N. MASSAND

or school district families. We are 20 family memberships ahead of last year (as of mid-July). For the 2016-‘17 budget, we had an aggressive revenue projection of 1,550 family memberships to challenge ourselves through all our marketing efforts. That translates to revenues, year over year, that are ahead by $61,000 but current, actual revenue in just memberships now is $77,000 below what our aggressive budget esti-

The historic home at 104 Sixth Street in Garden City, built in 1883 and one of more than three dozen homes in the village listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was unable to be saved, despite an effort by Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano to preserve the structure and move it less than three miles to the Mitchel Field athletic complex. It was demolished and plans for a new home to replace it were approved by the village’s Architectural Design Review Board (ADRB) two months ago, are in full swing. The Boychuk family which purchased the property last November for $1 million, will continue to rent a home in Garden City while their new home will be built. In an interview with The Garden City News this week the Boychuks’ architect, T.J. Costello of Manhasset-based Hierarchy Architecture + Design, PLLC, described Mangano as almost “a white knight” coming to the house’s rescue although plans eventually fell through. The house’s last

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See page 18

Swim Team B does it again PAGES 48-49 Sort of roughing it with Mark Twain PAGE 36-37


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