The-Leader_1981-12-17

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Ottleial
Newspaper
Village of
Free port
•- Freeport
School District
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Baldwin
School District
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FREEPOax liEJJOaiALLIERARy
W MERRICK RD
TRPr m 11520
FREEPORT. NEW YORK. DECEMBER 17.1981
46th YEAR. No. 34
PRICE 2 5 * PER COPY
StOe Of Grains Clears Last Hurdle
Guloffa Sponsored Resolution
Okayed By County Boatxl
M X I V i n , 5 ° l * i f •= ^ ^ long^losed Grants stotTon S u S
» ^ § ^ ^ ^ .'"'^ I*"'* *°^ The Freeport MaU. The County A s s e ^
had agreed to a reducHoncf taxes on the property back i n 7 a n l S ^
TINSEL AND BAUBLES AND GLITTERY ORNAMENTS have created a Holiday Wonderland (n
the Freeport Post Office and the young Brownies of Freeport Girl Scout Troop #2263 are responsible.
Troop Leader Susan Smith had arranged with Postmaster Major Simmons for the decorating to take
place after business hours on'Saturday afternoon, Deceniber 5. Since most of the troop of 25 and
several chaperones showed up, the lob was efficiently accomplished. The girls, all first graders had
created the ornaments at their weekly Thursday afternoon troop meetings. Resting, In between the
decorating, are (top, I. to r.) Troop Leader Susan Smith, Linda Olson, LiMie White, Annie Jones,
Audrey Rutlura, Tammi Bryant, Adelaide Cohen, Gloria Carroll and "Scott McVey; (middle row,
I. to r.) Colleen Olson, Constance White, Johanna Trager, Quanick Hargrove, Kimberly Cohen,
Jewel Middleton, Oebra Kallnowski, Nicole Volante, Maura Montgomery, KrIstI Bothe, Karin
' Stelngruebner, and Allison Sboto; and (bottom row, I. to r.) Julie McVey, Lauren' McVey, Allison
- WatsonrKaryn-Hrooclct>^Nlcole--firacchy.JDenjse_ DIckerson, Nicole Ruttura, Gina Terzulli and
KImberly Carrol.
Baldwin School Board OK's
$5.75 Million Bond Issue
. by Joan Delaney
BALDWIN - School district voters can anticipate going to the polls
this coming spring to vote on a $5,755,230 bond issue. The Baldwin
Board of Education approved this amount at their December 9th
meeting, in a four to one vote, with Victor Rohe voting "no." The bond
was prepared by Administration following lengthy direction by the
Board at previous meetings, and
Free HolldoY
festlvalAf
RecCenier
input by two different architec­tural
firms, the BEA comitiittees
and SCUF (Superintendent's
Committee on the Use of Facili­ties).
The bond issue highlights
energy conservation (roofs and
heating), secondary level site
imprxjvements and fire and safety
renovations, many of which are
mandated-
Robe vociferously opposed
the sum, noting the importance
of doing only what is necessary
versus the non-necessary of
"frills." This use of the term
"frill" appeared to be a semantic
trigger which prompted o«her
Board members to philosophize
on the importance of total
program. Rohe's point, however,
w^ that the bond should only
include the absolute necessary
and that other items wtiich were
not of a critical nature should be
spread out and completed by
district personnel.
The other four School Board
members pointed oat their many
concerns in opposition to his
point. They noted tftat if the
district itself addressed the
other items, no state aid would
be received. They also stressed
the importance of accepting
qualified professional advice
rather than attempting to project
needs in areas with which they
were unfamiliar. Board member
Benurd Pittitisky said that
"jcensible management tells me
if you hire a pnifessional. you
(Cont. on Page 8)
FREEPORT - The annual free
Holiday Fest, sponsored by the
Freeport Chaihber of Commerce
and the Freeport Recreation
Department, will be held this
Saturday, December 19, 12:30-
5 pm. at the Freeport Recreation
Center.
SanU and Mrs. Oaus will
receive visitors from 2 to 4 pm.
with gifts for youngsters to
age 10.
At 1:30 pm, the Recreation
Department's Drama Workshop
will present "Gnderella" and at
3:30 pm, the Betsy Dickerson
Performers will entertain.
Throughout the day the Freeport
High School Brass (Jnintet and
Choraleers vrill present holiday
carols in the lobby.
There will be free ice skating in
the bubble 12:30 - 2:30 pm.
Residents are urged to bring their
owrn skates as there are a limited
amount of rental skates available
at 75*.
(Cont. on Page 12)
Supervisors, concerned about
possible state legislative and
court decisions on fiiU-assess-ment
valuation, began a poIiQr of
not considerine any more such tax
redaction (oerboraij) cases.
V- Tbe resohitioo before the Boaid
of Supervisors at their Mo'nday,
December I4th meeting, was
sponsored by Hempstead Tovim
Presidmg Supervisor Tom Gulotta
and adopted at his. suggestion.
Gulotta in the past weeks had met
with a' number of influential
Freeport community people. Con­cerned
about the situation . and,
recognizing the problems exist­ing
in local business and shop­ping
centers, Gulotta had ex­pressed
an interest in helping
the village!
Village Mayor William H.
White expressed his own-plea­sure
at the passage of the County,
plicated details involving state,
against certioraris in which I am a
combatant," White told THE
LEADER; "we are gratified that
the Presiding Supervisor realized
that this was not a matter that
would benefit an individual but
all of our village and its resi­dents."
The sale of the Grant store
property by South Nassau Com­munities
Hospital to Jerry
Binder, of- Jack Kahn Music
Studios, has been in the works
for more than a year. Freeport
Business Director Martin Silberg.
who worked out many of the de­tails
involving the state, the
county and New York City
agreements and easements,
called it "the most complicated
deal" he was ever involved in.
The W.T. Grants store vacated
the site on Sunrise Highway when
the national chain declared bank­ruptcy
in 1974. Development of
the property, which is passed by •
thousands of cars each day. has
long been considered the key to
the survival of the Freeport Mall.
Sale of the property to Binder,
known for his aggressive and
imaginative marketing tech­niques
and for his continued and
publicly announced faith in the
village, has been met with much
enthusiasm by areaTfierchanis.
In a speech before the Frteport
Chamber of Commerce. ' some
month's back. Binder had'said-*^
had great faith in the village's
ecoiiomic fiiture and promised he
would develop the property to
bring quality enterprises into
Freeport. On Monday arid Tues-dajr
of this week.' Binder was un-avaiJable-'
for' 'cbininent,' biit
through his lawyer and real estate
broker, THE UEADER ascertain­ed
that tits interest in the property
was still high and a closing would
take place sometime in January,
'.'after all the necessary paper
work is completed.''
Although no one associated—
with Binder seemed able to say
exactly what use Binder would
make of the property, it was clear
that all of them were positive
that it would be in the best
interests of the village.
Certainly, the village feels the
same way. Village Hall — Sil­berg
and Mayor White — had
spent much time in seeing the
deal through to a successful con­clusion
and local businessmen
agreed. Several had previously
told THE LEADER thai they
anticipated that the development
of the site by Binder would
"prop" up the entire Central
Business IHstrict.
And that was the basis for tlje
village's argufnent for approval
of the resolution to allow the tax
break on the property. Sources
close to the village's economic
pulse had explained that a dead
or weak Central Business District,
with empty stores, would cause a
decrease of dollars into the vil­lage's
and county's tax coffers,
far in excess of the amount of
tax dollars lost by approving the
certiorari on the property.
This was the argument to which
Gulotta listened, that approval
of the certiorari was in the best
interests of and for the benefit of
the taxpayers. This was the
reason, a Board spokesman
said at Monday momings's
meeting, for the County board's
unaninraus approval.