Friday, April 26, 2019
Vol. 95, No.31
FOUNDED 1923
n
$1
DOUGLA S ELLIMA N LEADS TH E MARKE T
LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Rosemar y Br uno
Lic . R. E. Sa les pe rso n
O: 516.307.9
406 M: 516.38 3.9922 rosemary.bruno@ elliman.com Garden City Offi ce | 130 Sevent h Street See our ad on
elli ma n.c om
n
Perfect ten PAGE 66 n Barb’s Beer PAGE 12
Page 13
/lon gis lan d
© 2019 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTA TE. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTU NITY. 110 WALT WHITMAN ROAD, HUNTINGTON STAT ION, NY 11746. 631. 549.7401
School district reaches agreement with developer
EASTER EGG HUNT
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
On Easter morning the Cathedral of the Incarnation hosted its 3rd annual community-wide Easter Egg Hunt. Hundreds of children searched for Easter eggs, and met the Easter Bunny and a unicorn named Cornelia. See page 37 for more photos.
Garden City schools budget up 1.9% BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
At the Tuesday April 16 Garden City Board of Education meeting, the proposed school district budget for the coming school year was reviewed for the second to last time and Capital Reserve fund established with allocations for the coming school year came into focus. The district’s budget is projected to increase 1.90% year over year, up to just under $118 mil-
lion (the maximum allowable tax levy is 2.08%). The bulk of the increasing schools budget is allocated towards programs and educational opportunities which will directly impact Garden City’s students in grades kindergarten through 12. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kusum Sinha spoke about budget that the community will be before the voters on Tuesday, May 21. The annual school district budget hearing is scheduled for a week
prior, on Tuesday May 14. “When we budget we are doing so with district revenues and expenses having to match. Everything in the budget is aligned with our mission and district priorities, focusing on reading in grades K through 5 and a new program through Teachers College, Columbia University. We want to expand our Word Study program which is a foundation See page 63
Concerns raised by residents about impacts from the 150unit apartment complex planned for 555 Stewart Avenue have been temporarily quelled as the Garden City Board of Education reached an agreement with the developer to collect payments in lieu of taxes. The Board has agreed to collecting a contribution of $500,000 over the first five years of a two-decade PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program which is expected to be granted later this year by a county agency. Over the past 18 months the controversial project led to questions about increasing enrollment in the schools and a lack of fair tax contributions. A prior developer made an agreement with the Village of Garden City to pay its municipal portion of taxes in full in the future, while planning to apply for property tax relief for the schools’ portion through the Nassau County IDA (Industrial Development Agency). The developers applied for a PILOT for the school district portion as they contended at public meetings that due to the premium cost of rents set at 135 market rate units in the 150unit complex, families with children are not the likely target demographic for its customers. Representatives of the developer attended the April 10 work session at which the Board of Education first discussed the agreement reached with Southern Land Company. On Monday April 15, the Eastern Property Association emailed their official statement on the matter to The Garden City News. It stated the following: “At this meeting, President Angela Heineman opened the discussion by stating that the board has been “wrestling with their position” on a PILOT with respect to the 555 Stewart Avenue Development for the last eighteen months…. The BOE is represented in this matter by Christopher Shishko, partner at the law firm Guercio and Guercio, LLP. Mr. Shishko was present at the April 10th BOE meeting and stated that the BOE knew early on that, if the land owner obtained the zoning approval to build the proposed 150 apartment unit development, the owner would certainly seek See page 46
Community Church Car Wash, Plant Sale planned PAGE 23 Fire chiefs, department officers take oaths PAGE 48