Friday, June 22, 2018
Vol. 94, No.39
FOUNDED 1923
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School Bd. vows to fight tax break
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Gillen a guest PAGE 38 n Back to the '80s PAGE 47
THE POOL IS OPEN!
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND This week the Board of Education urged residents to remain involved in the debate over tax breaks for a proposed new apartment building at 555 Stewart Avenue. The Village of Garden City is wrapping up its public hearings for the proposed 150 apartment unit building. However some residents object to the fact that while the developer has pledged to make Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTS) to the village, to make up for possible tax breaks, he has not agreed to fully make up for lost school taxes. While the Board of Education has not commented in person during Village Board meetings, a Letter to the Editor published in The Garden City News on June 1 summarized its concerns regarding the possible number of new students that the project might add to the district’s rolls. The application was presented by the developer’s attorney, Kevin Walsh, last November 8, a short time after the school district witnessed an alarming surge in its lower grades’ enrollment in the fall of 2017. On Tuesday June 12, four days after the Board of Trustees met for to discuss the project, School Board President Angela Heineman thanked “the many parents and residents in our communiSee page 36
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Village “Handbook for Residents” to be resuscitated BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
On a hot afternoon, pals Emma O’Neill and Amelia Moran make a splash at the Garden City Pool. With Summer Vacation officially underway, families find themselves heading up to the Pool to cool, relax and hang out with friends.
At its meeting on Thursday, June 7 the Garden City Village Board of Trustees approved a resolution for the revision of a handy “Village Handbook” to be distributed to and available for residents. Mayor Brian Daughney explained that the handbook has not been edited or updated in the past 25 to 30 years. The village’s public relations consultant, Carisa Giardino, has prepared the updated version of the residents’ handbook. The book will be mailed to all new Garden City residents and also posted on the village’s website. During the hearing for 555 Stewart Avenue, one resident suggested the Board of Trustees had not been on top of municipal planning and contacting residents regularly, saying in the decade-plus he and his family have lived in Garden City they had never seen or heard of a Residents’ Handbook. The mayor inadvertently agreed with that reference to the handbook’s obscurity as he introduced the revision project to the audience on June 7: “Probably most of you have not seen this handbook in a long time. It is located at the Front Desk of Village Hall. It will all be available on the website soon. It hasn’t been re-done in 25 to 30 years and we thought it’s time to revise it. We updated large portions of it and tried to make it match all current village phone numbers, contacts, also our policies and procedures,” the mayor said. Trustee Robert Bolebruch suggested that Village Clerk Karen Altman ensure that the four village property owners’ associations are emailed attachment copies of the handbook. Altman credited Giardino with the hard work for updating the handbook. Altman says the phone numbers of the several village departments, from Recreation and Parks to Public Works and the Water Department, have been edited for list the new phone numbers for each office. Village Administrator Ralph Suozzi said that the phone lines and numbers listed were all tested prior to publishing the new version of the residents’ handbook. He said See page 36
Bobby Menges "I'm Not Done Yet" Blood Drive PAGES 40-41 A blessing for horses and jockeys before race PAGE 48