Friday, September 29, 2017
Vol. 94, No. 2
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Chrysanthemum bridge PAGE 20 n Pizza & politics PAGE 24
Firms hired as St. Paul’s recreation facility plan moves ahead
READY FOR SCHOOL
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
The children of the Community Church Nursery School were excited to meet new friends when the school opened for the year. See page 44 Photo by Suzie Alvey
Handicapped spaces for 7th Street rejected BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
On Thursday, September 21st the Garden City Traffic Commission decided to deny a proposal to add three handicapped parking spaces on Seventh, put forward by the village’s Mobility Impaired Committee (MIC) and its chairman, Gerry Kelly, who is also the WPOA’s president. The Traffic Commission’s vote was 3-0 after Trustee Robert Bolebruch said “I can’t believe I am doing this” and with regrets, made the motion for the proposal to be denied. Among the four Commission members who voted against
the proposal, including Bolebruch, Commission Chair Trustee Mark Hyer, and Deputy Mayor John DeMaro, all expressed their sentiments to try to accommodate handicapped parking in the village shopping hub. Meanwhile Deputy Mayor Theresa Trouvé decided to abstain from the Commission’s controversial roll-call vote. Kelly and other MIC members were very disturbed as they listened to a detailed presentation on the conditions impacting the proposal and the impracticality of changing Seventh Street, in a PowerPoint delivered at the
September 21 Commission meeting by Daniel Winkelman, transportation systems team leader of VHB Engineering’s Hauppauge office. Winkelman, who is from Greenlawn, was also recently elected as the Long Island branch president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He joined VHC in 2007 and according to the firm, Winkelman has experience in traffic, drainage, roadway, and parking lot improvement plans, and design of pedestrian facilities for public and private clients. A key premise Winkelman informed the Commission of is See page 49
After months of speculation that Garden City will demolish most or significant parts of the former St. Paul’s School, the Board of Trustees approved contracts for conceptual work with two prestigious New York architecture firms: Beyer, Blinder, Belle (BBB) of Broadway and Thornton Thomasetti of Madison Avenue. As the two firms wrestle with designs of a reimagined St. Paul’s, the Board of Trustees set up the rules as “no holds barred,” to the dismay of the Garden City Historical Society. Just before the vote to hire the firms last week, in front of 40 residents at the Board of Trustees’ September 21 meeting Brian Pinnola, past president of the Historical Society, posed a question on contract terms with hopes of legal protection for the historic structural components of the building. As noted in the meeting agenda, the two specialized architectural, design and construction firms were hired for a sum of $60,000, which was moved by the Board from the village’s Contingent fund to the 2017-2018 budget year’s Capital Projects allocation. Their scope of work is to provide preliminary drawings, proofs of concept, construction plan outlines and related material aimed at developing the St. Paul’s school building and grounds – including the cottages behind it and the surroundings into a recreation facility that includes indoor synthetic turf fields and “other amenities.” Pinnola, who spoke in front of the Board at the podium at their July meeting and reviewed unique materials inside St. Paul’s, dating to its construction from 1879 to 1883, wanted to know if with the firms’ contracts a restrictive covenant or stipulation on the structural renderings and planning for St. Paul’s existed, so that its status on the National Register of Historic Places would be preserved. Mayor Brian Daughney calmly told him “no” and that there will be only the plan for a recreational facility “in play” for St. Paul’s. Some residents were surprised the trustees had taken an immovable position. Back at the Board’s July 20 meeting, Pinnola suggested that the Historical Society submit a list of historic architecture firms for the village to consider hiring, people he and others know were aware of St. Paul’s its visibility to historians and related preservation associations across the country. But on September 21 Pinnola praised the stellar reputations of BBB and Thornton Thomasetti, saying the choices are internationally renowned firms, before asking about any rules governing their proposals for the village. As he stood at the podium, Pinnola and Trustee Louis Minuto disagree about the interior conditions of the St. Paul’s building, as Minuto tried to explain that “the building is very sick” he felt Pinnola would See page 49
Trojans crush Bellmore JFK in 55-7 rout PAGE 66 GCHS Girls Soccer finding its groove PAGE 64