Friday, May 18, 2018
Vol. 94, No.34
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Fair plans PAGE 24 n Too much trash? PAGE 2
Final hearing set for new apartment development
A WINNING SEASON
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Garden City High School's Boys Lacrosse team beat Southside 5-13 on May 14th. Garden City leads its conference to finish the season with 9 wins and 1 loss. Photo courtesy Bill McGarr
Lawsuit against GCPD settled BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
The Village of Garden City and a former Nassau County Corrections officer and Army veteran, Ronald Lanier, have agreed to a $150,000 settlement for a 2017 claim Lanier brought against the village and the Garden City Police. Lanier alleged that on November 30, 2016, members of the police force beat him, threw him on
the ground and verbally abused him as they went through the Western Beef supermarket in Mineola “recklessly arresting the first black male they spotted inside the supermarket.” Lanier had been shopping for groceries to make a dinner with his kids, but he claims that GCPD officers racially profiled him and used excessive force in wrongfully arresting him as they were searching for an
African American male suspect in a petty larceny who had shoplifted a purse/handbag from the Lord & Taylor store on Franklin Avenue in Garden City. In the court settlement the Village of Garden City, its police department and the officers and police leadership named in the suit do not admit damages or wrongdoing against Lanier in the incident or thereafter. See page 52
The final public hearing for the 555 Stewart Avenue proposal, a 150- unit apartment complex, which would include 10% affordable housing units, have been set for Thursday, June 7. During earlier hearings, the Board of Trustees has heard significant public outcry against the project. The application also is at a standstill for the next few weeks pending some additional information that the Board of Trustees has said it needs to make its environmental impact determination on the development, as well the zoning change required. Special municipal zoning counsel for Garden City A. Tom Levin says the process of gathering the necessary data for the Board of Trustees to make its environmental review determination, using the long-form SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) was not complete by May 10. The Board voted to appoint itself as the lead agency for this application’s SEQRA process. “Our consultants at H2M asked the applicant to provide additional information and the applicant has been doing that. But he needs some information from the Village of Garden City in order to finish that as well. Essentially what we are looking for are documentation that indicates, as the applicant claims, this project would not have any substantial fiscal impact on the village for services that are going to be provided,” Levin said last Thursday. Walsh later explained the current delay. “Historically there is an issue around SEQRA as it relates to just gathering the appropriate information. We have a planner (VHB Engineering) and the village has a planner, H2M Engineering, and on April 17 we had submitted what we thought of as the proper responses and what we considered sufficient data per H2M’s request to study impacts on the village,” he said. Second, the Village of Garden City is awaiting the necessary recommendation from the Nassau County Planning Commission that would allow the Board of Trustees to conclude its processes and take a vote on the application. “That is part of the function of the data we are trying to get and the fact that the County Planning Commission meets on a rather sparse schedule,” Levin said. Mayor Brian Daughney asked if Garden City’s representation (Levin and Peter Bee) could contact the Nassau County Planning See page 53
School budget passes, new board member elected PAGE 3 "Brooklyn Boy" an outstanding hit at GCHS PAGES 58-59