The-Leader_1981-08-20

              BALDWIN NEWS ..Pages
Waterfront Leader,„Page 7W
FREEPORT KEliO.^IAL LIBRARY
W MERRICK ROAD
FREEFORT II V 11520 29
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NEWSPAPER
46th YEAR. No. 17 FREEPORT. NEW YORK. AUGUST 20.1981 PRICE 2 5 * PER COPY
Grant Store Sale Hits Snag
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IT WAS WORTH THE PADDLE. Looking tired, but happy, some of the victorious paddlers in the re­cently-
held Freeport Canoe Races were on hand^ at the Awards Dinner to receive their trophies and
medals. The catered allair included accolades lo winners ol the various heats, best-tlmes-of-day and
Sportsmanship Trophy, A list ol winners w£is published in last week's Issue of THE LEADER (August
13. 1981). A complete roster of p&rticipants and sponsors, as released by the race committee, is
printed in this week's Issue.
Baldwin School Board Looks
At Goolidge School Sale
by Joan Delaney
BALDWIN - The sale of the dwlidge School property, a presentation
<f ilif i-i.crj-y bond surAcy and a look at future reorganization possibil-itiis
ailing with regular monthly agenda items were the highlights of
ilie August 23 Baldwin Board of Education meeting. In addition to
Cliiarii. the proposed buyer of ihe Ciwlidge School property, and Ralph
Mignone, Paul DeStmone and Ira
Meefing To Sign Contract
Is Temporarily Cancelled
FREEPORT - The sale of the large, vacant store at the north end of
the Freeport Mall has apparently hit another roadblock. After more
than a year-spent ironing out what former Freeport Business Diiectoi
Martin S'Uberg called "the most complicated deal" he has ever worked
on, the sale of the property by South Nassau Communities Hospital to
Jerry Binder, of JuA Kahn Music
Studios, has hit a snag.
The property, whidi on official
documents is said to be located at
the comer cS Sunrise Highway
. and Henry Street, was tiie former
location of a W.T. Grants Store.
It has been vacant ince 1974.
when the national ch^n dedared
bankruptcy.
Development of die property,
which tbcusands of east and west­bound
cars pass by daily, has
been considered by many local
businessmen and realtors to
be the key to the survival of the
Freeport Mall. Binder, consider­ed
an imaginative and agressive
businessman, has continually
expressed great faith in Free-port's
economic future and has
"Pooper-Scooper"
Campaign Started
Bereson, representatives of
Mignone Associates, approxi­mately
40 community residents
were in attendance. The meeting
proceeded in several distinct seg­ments
which were concluded by
brief periods of intermission. In
addition executive sessions pre­ceded
and concluded the open
portion of the meeting.
Ralph Chiaro was mtroduced to
the-community and ^hool Board
President Amonld Lurie outlined
Chiaro's 24 year residency in
Baldwin and his excellent profes­sional
reputation. Lurie pointed
out that this reputation gave the
Board reasons to feel "reasonably .
confident and content" that
Chiaro's intent as seen in his pro­posed
plans would not change
even after the requested zoning
variance to build apartments was
granted. He said that although a
builder may legally change-aspects
of a proposed plan after a
variance approval. Chiaro's repu­tation
in Baldwin eliminated any
such concern on the part of the
Board.
Three Tear
Redoctioa of Taxes
The approved resolution con­cerning
the property was amend­ed
to indicate that the monies
received from the sale of Coolidge
FREEPORT - Walking Rover
without a -"pooper-scooper" or
another appropriate device is lia-bile
to be expensive in the Village
of Freeport, as several "dog
walkers^* recentiy found out.
Spotted not adhering to hree-poert's
"pooper-scooper" law by
a Village Special Police Officer,
five "dog walkers" were given
summonses. Four have pleaded
guilty in Freeport Village Court
(one on August 10, three on Aug­ust
17) and the fifth, who had to
property would be used to pay off • be out. of town, sent a guilty plea
the S28,000 outstanding debt on in by mail.
the building. The rest of the mon­ey
would be used over a three
year period to bring about a
reduction of real property taxes.
It was feh that the use of tbe mon­ies
to reduce taxes in one year
would create an artificially high
jump the following year. A grad­ual
approach over three years was
considered more acceptable.
' Lurie also indicated that the
community would have "as much
opportunity as possible to meet
with the purchaser and the
Board." He said the proposed
conversion would be "a fine addi-
. uon to the town and an upgrading
-.of property."
The Coolidge School referen­dum
will take place on Wednes­day.
October 21. 7 am-10 pm.
(Coot, on Page 5)
In all four cases in the Village
Court, Justice Ralph Franco
ordered the violators to be back in
his Court in two weeks, bringing
with them a device which they
should purchase and which they
should use when walking their
pets. He reminded them that he
could impose a maximum fine of
S250 or IS days in jail, but said it
could be less if they followed his
instructions.
The Special Police Officer be­gan
a daily four hour graffiti and
litter reduction enforcement tour
of duty on July 23. by order of Vil-lage
Mayor V/illiam White. As of
August 3. the officer had issued
the fi\e summonses and also
some 100 warnings to dog walk­ers.
In addition to the warnings.
(Common Page Tl)
publicly stated tiiat he would
develop the property to bring
quality enterprises into the vil­lage
Silberg. who left the village
several weeks ago but has been
called back on a retainer to work
on the present problem, is credit­ed
by both Binder's attorney and
village government sources, for
having cleared away much otthe
red tape that earlier blocked a
sale. Siensitive and lengthy
negotiations with several govern­mental
bodies, ranging from the
SUte to New York City, had to
be successfully concluded; ease­ments
bad to be secured; tax
problems worked out. But finally.
N^seemed all was completed and a
date set for signing the contract.
It was scheduled for Thursday.
August 20. But THE-LEADER
learned on Tuesday, August 18,
that the date had been called off,
postponed. "Cancelled" said a
secretary at the office of Binder's
attorney, who was reportedly
out-of-town, as was his-dient.
While all side apparently still
have hopes of setting another
date, successful conclusion of the
matter now seems to rest with the
Nassau County Board of Super­visors.
After all the red tape. - legal
mumbo-jumbo and tax negotia­tions
were worked out. it ap-parentiy
is only the Board of
Supervisors' approval of the
County Board of ' Assessors'
agreement for a reduction of
taxes on the property that is
needed.
Although several sources ac­knowledge
that the agreement to
reduce taxes on the property
(about one-third) had been work­ed
out as far back as February
of this year-, the formal-recom­mendation
of the Board of As­sessors
went to the Board of
Supervisors on Augut 11. By that
time, the Board of Supervisors
had apparentiy agreed upon a
policy of not finalizing any certior^
ari matters until full value assess­ment
had been put into action and
all problems relating to it'worked
out.
When will that be? Tliat ap-
-pears tobe-anybody^-gues»rOne—
attorney involved in the matter
agreed it could take anywhere
from six months to six years, a
long time to keep such a property
sale deal ''bat."" Another source,
in the Board of Supervisors' of­fice,
said the matter really rests
witii the New York State Legisla-ture.^.
when will they solve the
knotty problem of fall value
assessment. Apparentiy the mat­ter
is due to come up before the
Sute Legislature on October 30.
The only certainties, it appears,
is that the contract dat? has been
called off — at least for now —
and the Board of Supervisors
is practicing a policy, at least
since sometime this spring, of not
settiing any certiorari daims.
About 3iS of these claims are
being held up and no one in the
Board of Assessor's office, the
Board of Supervisors' office or
the County Attorneys' office
would venture an opinion whether
or not the Board would be willing
to take a "chance" and settie
one individual claim. Everyone
spoke pretty much off the reconf,
biecause the matter of settiing
certiorari claims in the county is
a "Matter under litigation."
But while one source seemed to
feel settiement of one of the 35
claims could set « precedent for
the others, another source point­ed
out that the recommendation
to settie the tax question of the
Grant's property was made back
in February, prior to the Board of
Supervisors' establishing their
(Cent, on Page 6]
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