The-Leader_1985-10-24

              Ollicial
Newspaper
-Village of.
Freeporl
•
Freeport
School District
•
Baldwin- .
School District
THE eREEPORT MEMORIAL LIERAK^^Y.
LEADER
FREEPORT, NEW YORK. OCTOBER 24^ 1985
51st YEAR, No. 27
FREEPO.nTirE-O.niALLieHARV
» llERRICK RO
f"«fJ HY 11520
PRICE 2 5 * PER COPY
Lydia Hall Hospital Closed By Owner
State Files Complaints
Doctors/Buyers Fail In
Bid To Keep If Open
' FREEPORT - Thedoors of Lydia E. Hall Hospital have dosed. Two
uniformed watchmen/seciirity guards remain in the hospital, but the
last patient has been transferred, the emergency room receives no
more aided cases and the operating rooms are quiet.
Last week, the New York State Department of Health accepted
hospital owner Carl Neuman's
ViHoge Budget
A/leetings Set
FREEPORT - The, ViUage
Board of Trustees has set the
dates for preliminary budget-'
meetings with department heads.
The meeUiigs are open to. the
public " ' •
-The first meeting will be held
Thursday, November 7, at 7 pm,
airilUgeHall. . ..
- Mayor Dorothy Storm has
announced that she will institute
a question and answer period at
the end of each of the budget
-meetings. In past years, the
meetingis have been legislative
sessions which, while open to the -
public, involved no public partici­pation.'
Under the new system, public
comments and questions will be
solicited, but only, at the end of
each session.
, Other scheduled budget meet­ings
are Saturday, November 9,
at 9JO am; Thursday, November
14,7 pm; Tuesday, November 19,
7 pm; Saturday, November 23,
9:30 am; and Saturday, Novem­ber
30,9:30 am.
Also Thursday evening, De­cember
5, at 7 pm; Thursday,
December 12, at 7:30 pm; Satur­day,
December 14, al 9:30 am;
Thursday, December 19, at 7 pm;
and Saturday, December 21,
at 9:30 am.
During .these sessions the
Village Board meets with in­dividual
department heads to
work out the 1986-87 proposed
village budget figures.
Deadline Nears
For Loans To Rx
^orm Damage
FREEPORT - Village home­owners,
renters and owners of
smalt businesses, who experi­enced
property damage during
Hurricane Gloria, have only until
this Saturday. October 26, to
apply for low-interest loans
Another Round In
Sawyers'/Toxic Question
. .'-• ,•; byJoanOBlaney .
BALDWIN - The Baldwin School District, Industrial Arts teacher"
Robert Sawyers and the question of toxic substances will be the subject
of yet another legal encounter. On October 4, the school district was
served with a complaint by the iState Attorney General's Office. In the
complaint, which the Baldwin School District has 20 days to answer,
the district.was notified that the. " .
(Com. on Page 16)
allegations, fall into several
categories.
The first category of complaints
concerns alleged - failures to
properly respond to and process
Right to Know requests. In that
. area, the complaint focuses on the
District's alleged failure (o pro­vide
employees with information
concerning the known and sus­pected
health hazards of toxic'
substances found in the work-
-place; failure to post notices
advising employees of their right
to obtain such information; and
failure to provide education and
training in the handling, use,
dangers and available protections
against the hazardous effects of
such substances. In addition, the
complaint mentions, the law's
prohibition of discriminating
against employees who_ exercise
rights granted by the law.
In describing the complaint's
second cause of action, it is
alleged that more than one year
after the effective date of the
Right to Know Law, the school
' district "Puported to comply with
the New York Labor Law." The
complaint then outlined instances
describing alleged non-com­pliance
and describes prxxxdnres
by the District which appear (o
thwart the law.
As the third course of action,
the complaint outlines "retalia­tion"
against Robert Sawyers for
exercising rights protected by the
Right to Know Law, including the
right to request information; the
creation of hostility toward
Sawyers among his colleagues;
the exclusion of Sawyers from a
meeting with faculty members;
the requiring of doctors' notes for
absences when .other teachers
with similar absenteeism were
not so-required; the requiring of
lawyers to see a psychiatrist; the
issuing of a teacher evaluation*
listing his performance .as un­satisfactory;
and the initiation of
proceedings to terminate his
employment.
In the -portion of the complaint
concerning "request for relief,"
the School District is directed to
abide by various procedures re­garding
employees' rights to
information about toxic sub­stances,
the posting of a notice,
informing employees that "Bald­win
will cease and deiist" from
refusing - to provide information
required to be made available and
from discriminating against-employees
who exercise their
rights under the Right 'to Know
Law.
It directs Baldwin to identify
each ' toxic substance to which
any employee at Harbor Junior
(Cont.'on Page 10)
FLASH!!
Teachers'
Contract
Approved
BALDVnN - Ak THE
LEADER goes to press, it
is learned that the Baldwin
Board of Education has of­ficially
approved the teach­ers'
contract.
The teachers }iad voted
their acceptance of the con­tract
last week.
(A complete story will be
in the next week — October
3! — issue of THE LEAD­ER.)
formal closure plaii, the last of
the final four patients was trans­ferred
and the Emergency Room,
which had continued to receive
local aided cases though not ad-milting
them - into beds in the
hospital, was officially closed.
AH that remained this week
was for Dr. Neuman to surrender
his operating certificate to the
Depiirtroent of Health's reponal
office in New Rochelle. This,
department spokesman Bill
Fagel, called a formality."
"We have formally requested
that', he (Neuman] surrender
the operating certificate," Fagel
said Tuesday October 22. "En-
' forcemcnt action'' would be taken
if Neuman did not turn the
certificate in, and this could
.include a fine personally against
the hospital owner.
.A group of some 40 doctors
had wanted to purchase Lydia E.
Hall Hospital, named by Neuman
after a nurse-teacher he had'as a
medical student. But negotiations
had reached an apparent block­ade
because Neuman allegedly
owes Dp'to S8 million to Medi­care.
The money -represents
overpayments, made by Medi­care.
Neuman is also in bank­ruptcy
court.
According to the Department of
Healthi Neuman's possession of
the operating certificate would
have no bearing on the propsect
of any sale of the hospital. It
.would not, said Fagel; make it
any easier for him to trans­fer
ownership.
New ownership of the hospital
would have to go through exten­sive
and lengthy approval pro­cedures
by the Department of
Health. This could take two years
and the hospital, n6w that it
is dosed, could not reopen .
until then.
Representatives of the doctors-who
had wished to buy the
hospital and the Department of
Health both seem to agree on
one thing: this could make
purchase of the hospital very dif­ficult,
if not impossible^ -^
The • doctors' . negotiation -
attempts to purchase the hospital
have apparently come to a close.
They had been negotiating with
the bank that holds the build­ing's
$9 million mortgage.
According to one of the doctors
• involved, the Federal Department
of Health. Education and Wel-
.fare (HEW) refused to meet with
them. At least two meetings,
arranged by Congressman
Norman F.' Lent and Senator
-Al D'Amato's offices, between
their representati cs, Neuman's
representatives, Freeport Vil­lage
officials,. Federal (HEW)
. officials, and the doctors' group,
were cancelled by HEW.
Several former Lydia E. Hall
employees attended Monday,
October 21st Village Board
meeting to ask atraut the future,
of the hospital.
"What kind of medical care
will the community have?"
questioned one.
- Deputy Mayor Jim Qark
acknowledged the problem.
Pointing to the two cancelled
meetings in Washington, he said
the Village had planned to at­tend
them, but HEW wouldn't
(Com. on Page 16)
'•hi
i
CLOSED. With Its last patient transferred, Lydia E. Hall-Hospital
(at>ove) Merrick Road In Freeporl, has closed its doors. Apparently,
negcilations by a group;o< doctors }(itx> wished to purctiase the r-ospltaj
have t>een stalemated and the future of the building is now in doubt.