The-Leader_1972-07-27

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37tli Year, No.l4 FREEPORT. NEW YORK, JULY 27, 1972 PRICE: TEN CENTS PER COPY
Some of Freeport's North Main Sfreel area, but not all,
is again rezoned under the Village Board's decision reached
Monday night. Although not mentioned in the official
press announcement, it is fell Trustee Lloyd Orr continued
to oppose the plan. The new reioning plans differs from
that approved May 15 in that the east side of North Mil in
running from Seaman Avenue north to the Village line
will remain with a ''Business B" designation for six
months. According to Mayor Robert Sweeney^ the area
was eliminated temporarily from the overall plan to meet
the prt«clpai obiectipns of f esyldents and smaU busine^inen
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SIX MONTHS GRACE. The east side of North Main Street from Seaman Avenue to the Village line re­mains
unaffected under the just approved PUD rezoning of the area. Mayor Sweeney is to appoint an
ad hoc committee to come up with a feasible plan for the strip within six months.
Board Presidency Discussed
|iy Yanover and Mendes
"Mr and Mrs. Television-
Watcher of Freeport sit home and
gripe about taxes and their
children's education but they
can't he twthered to come out one
night a year to pull a lever much
less come to a once-a-monlh
School Board meeting to find out
what the heck's going on unless
there's a riot at the schools."
The above is the summation of
comments gleaned from an
exclusinve LEADER interview
with "conservative" (as vs
•liberal") members of the
present Freeport Board of
Education, John Mendes and
Larry Yanover.
Provoked by the "liberal
faction's" (Harold Levine and
Joseph McAndrews) move at a
Julys Reorganization Meeting to
amend Uie Board By-Laws to
allow Levine a third two-year
term as President "without due
notification and discussion,"
Mendes and Yanover, who total
five years Board service between
them, stated "all segments of this
community will not see thenn-iMlves
repr^ented through the
Board Presidency until enough
interest is shown to demand the
type of rotation of Board mem­bers
in the job as demonstrated
by the majority of other school
districts, not only on Long Island,
but throughout the state and
indeed the nation."
Leo Giblyn was School Board
President for many, many years,
Yanover and Mendes pointed out.
Upon his death, it became the
policy of the Board that no
member would serve in the top
post more than two consecutive
terms. "So strong was the feeling
that in 1961 it was finally written
into the Bylaws."
As is the routine, all matters to
be taken up at the July 5
Reorganization Meeting were
discussed at ajirlor workshop
meeting. At the onset of the open
meeting, however, Yanover and
Mendes report that Board
member McAndrews moved that
the agenda be dispensed with to
allow a vote on a change in the
By-Laws - an item not covered
during the Workshop. Taken
unaware. Yanover and Mendes
objected and the meeting was
temporarily adjourneo to al low for
a private session al which the
step to allow the present
President a third term was first
heard of not only by Mendes and
Yanover. but also by the fifth,
and only black, member of the
Board. Rev Frank Emmanuel.
No decision was reached that
evening with Yanover tabling the
notion to await advise of counsel
(At a later meeting the Schools'
attorney stated it was legal to
vote in a change to the By-Laws
at a special called for that sole
purpose and Levine was reap­pointed
for a 3(Nlay interim
period. >
Asked by THE LEADER if
their objection to a third term
Levine was based on their own
desire to have either of them­selves
in the spot, both Yanover
and Mendes indicated they would
indeed take on the job but the
likelihood under the present 3 to 2
(Continued on Page 10)
which brought about the second hearing and the new vote
on the rezoning. The Mayor has been authorized by the
Board of Trustees to .ippoint an ad hoc comnirftee of re­sidents
to study possible zoning changes on the east side
and come back with recommcndation.s (<J the Village
Board in six months.
The Planned Unit Development district will run, m\
the west side of North Main Street, for the entire length
from the railroad to the Roosevelt line and on the east
side from the railroad U) Seaman Avenue. The new um-ing
will allow for four-story apartment building.s ami
town houses neighborhood stores, medical and dental
clinics, office buildings, hotels and motels, private and
semi-private clubs and senior citizen.s' public housing.
Other minor changes in the plan concern the number and
utilization of parking spaces and area.s as recommended by
the Nassau County Planning Commission.
At the public hearing the Freeport Human Relations
Commission had suggested thai the Village Board incor
porate an anti-harassment clause in the ordinance, to pre­vent
landlords from forcing tenants out of buildings for
quick sale to developers. Village Counsel Oakley Gentry
reported to the Village Board, however, that the State
law fully covers such situations and the Village cannot
supercede the State statutes.
It was also announced that the Board had considered
and rejected an alternate reioning plan offered by the
Atlantic South Civic Association which had been sub­mitted
to the Board after the plan's unveiling at a press
conference last Thursday night at the home of TASCA Pre­sident
Jomer Rand. The TASCA plan, dubbed "Selected
Site Improvement was called an alternative to the Vill
age's plan "to sacrifice 90% of North Main Street be­cause
10% is lighted," The plan proposed that six par
eels in the North Main Street area be purchased with
federal and state monies and be land backed by the Vill­age
until private developers are found to build "cluster
townhouse/rowhouse plans in the larger sites and 'Mom
and Pop' retail stores, vest pocket parks and recreational
areas." The plan calls for a maxiinum height of 32 feel or
two and a half stories, and a density figure of 16 dwell­ing
units per acre as opposed to the 44 PUD density
figure.
(Continued on P a g e 10)