.. SERVICE REQUEST
Do you have a specific problem that needs attention of a Village department?
If so, please use this Service Request form to bring it to the attention of your Village
administration. It will be acknowledged and given to the appropriate department head for
action.
We recommend that you include your name and address. It will not be disclosed to any
third party, but it will enable us to let you know what was done or why it couldn't be done.
You may conveniently send your Service Request to Village Hall by including it in the
same envelope with your Electric Bill payment. • """
TO:
Mayor William H. White
Municipal Building, Freeport, N.Y. 11520
Action Requested or Nature of Problem
Address or Location (Please be specific)
For Referral to:
D Sanitation
D Code Enforce
D Sewer
D Police
D Sign Shop
D Highway
D Electric
D Parking"Meler8~" ~
D Fire
D Recreation and Parks
D Other
D Narcotics Guidance
O Building Dept.
-D" Water"''
D Parking Fields
O Stadium
Your Name-
Address .
Phone _
REFERENCE ONLY
AUGUST 1983
Village
News A Public In
of The Village
46 North Ocean Avenue
Telephone FReeport 8-4000
William H. White, Mayor
Public Meetings on the 1st. and 3rd. Mondays of the Month, at 8:00 P.M.
The Freeport Municipal Stadium
The Freeport Board of Trustees has decided it will
not renew the contract between the Village and
Freeport Speedway, Inc. which expires,.rn January,
1984. The existing contract, originally signed 10
years ago, and renewed five years ago, allowed
Freeport Speedway Inc. to conduct stock car races
at the municipally-owned stadium.
The 13-acre stadium property was purchased,
and solely developed, through Village tax monies
beginning.in 1926. It remains wholly-owned by the
Village of Freeport and, as such, has generated no
taxes for the relief of taxpayers in the Village over
the past five decades.
At the time of the land purchases, the Village
Board of Trustees resolved that these lands were
being acquired for park purposes (with Village taxes
raised on real property.)
Thorough investigation of the records show that,
despite current rumors, the land was not pur-chased
with a "grandfather clause" or under any
99-year lease. The land was bought outright from
private parties.
; Under any interpretation, the stadium and its
land belongs to Freeport. Neither the state nor the
federal government has any jurisdiction in the
matter of the renewal of the contract between the
Village and Freeport Speedway. Indeed, it was the
intent of the Village Board of Trustees in office in
1977-78 not-to renew the lease at its expiration.in •' -
1984.
An island-wide advertising campaign on the
part of Freeport Speedway Inc. (followed up by a
direct mail campaign including two 50% discount
tickets to the stadium) resulted in turning a recent
public meeting of the Board of Trustees into a plat-form
for Freeport Speedway. The majority, but not
-all,-of the speakers at -that: session, and signers of
petitions presented at that meeting, were from non-residents
— some from as-far..away as Brooklyn,
Queens, Suffolk, New Jersey and even California.
Truth In Dollars
1. Over the past seven years, the contractual
operation of the stadium caused a loss to Freeport
taxpayers a little in excess of $700 per year for six of
those years, a total of $4,200. Last year there was a
profit of a little over $3,000. This does not reduce
taxes by a cent.
2. The stadium and its land, as it stands'today,
would be assessed at $181,050 if it were in private
ownership rather than municipal property. As such
it would generate, this fiscal year, $76,041 in total
(Village, County, School District) taxes. Of that sum,
$23,600 would benefit the Village's municipal bud-get.
This is without any new buildup on the site.
(The current total tax rate is $42 per $100 of as-sessed
valuation of which $13.06 is retained by the
Village.)
3. Two five-story office buildings with a basement
parking garage, a total of. 316,710 square feet,
exist elsewhere in the 'County on half the acreage
of the stadium property and generates $770,721 in
total taxes. With that size building on half the
acreage of the stadium, the Village would benefit
by $239.650. Total tax savings for the year for the
average homeowner would be about $85.
• 4:~~The~ stadium was builf in the 1930's. Major
and very costly capital improvements would be
needed to be accomplished now at the Freeport
taxpayers' expense if the stadium were to continue
to be used. Use of federal community development
funds for such improvement is prohibited by federal
law. The cost, to Freeport taxpayers, would be
hundreds of thousands of dollars, if the Village con-tinued
to allow the operation of the stadium-rather
than have it developed commercially.
Message From The Mayor On The Stadium
Dear Freeporters:
Thus far I've been dealing mainly with non-resi-dents
on the matter of the future of our municipal
stadium. It is now time to'present all the facts to
the taxpayers of Freeport. We have tried to set them
forth in the accompanying article.
As stated, the stadium and its property is clearly
owned by the Village of Freepoft. The future lies
in our hands. To that end I have appointed a citi-zens
advisory committee made up of the Planning
Board, a member of the Park Commission, the Pres-
(Continued on next page)
Trustees: Dorothy Storm, Alfred Sirlin, James Clark, Vincent DiCostanzo
Village Clerk: Thomas DeVincenzo; Attorney: Harrison J. Edwards, Jr.; Treasurer: Thomas M. Molloy
'Mayor's Message
idem of I he Freeport Chamber of Commerce and
represeniaiivcs of the civic associations. Planning
Board Chairman John DiGrazia will also chair this
group.
The charge of the committee is to become know-ledgeable
about_the stadium and to .investigate
proposals for its future development. The govern-ment
will supply all information and files upon
request and will consider proposals from the com-mittee
that the services of Village departments or
outside consultants (i.e. architects, engineers)
be sought. The committee will also look into what
zoning uses would be legally applicable and desir-able.
All recommendations from the committee will be
considered by the Board of Trustees and reasons will
be given for the acceptance or rejection of those
recommendations. This advisory committee has al-ready
begun to meet.
I am personally on record that I will not cast my
vote on the Board of Trustees for heavy industry
usage on the site. 1 also cannot now envision a
residential use there that I would find feasible.
If there is a substantiated proposal for the use of
the stadium for'the purposes of family entertain-ment
—- by a private developer who would purchase
and improve the site and take the burden off the tax-payers
— I would urge the Board's immediate
investigation and action. Proposals for light com-mercial
use should also be carefully considered.
As a lifelong Freeporter, I recognize that the
matter of our stadium is not all dollars and "sense."
Many of us remember it as it was. As your Mayor,
I must also recognize, it as it is today. We have not
seen three-nights-a-week racing there in years. It
is being used only seasonally and only four hours a
week: Only relatively recently has the Freeport
High School football team returned there to play
four games a season. The Freeport Fire Department
found the cost of mounting the Fourth of July. Fire-manic
and Fireworks Show at the stadium pro-hibitive
in cost several years ago. Our one experi-ence
in hosting a "concert" event at the stadium
was not a happy one for our community. Knowing
this background, and the financial situation, it was
the intent of the Board of Trustees as far back as
(Continued from proceeding page)
1977 not to renew the present contract when it ex-pires.
The position still holds. The average Free-port
taxpayers has for too long subsidized, by their
taxes, a stadium they can only gain entrance into by
paying admission to a private enterprise.
Nonresidents have claimed that Freeport busi-nesses
derive income from the race fans attending
the Saturday night races from May through Septem-ber.
Outside of one recently established business-man,
no other merchant or business person in
the Village I have asked has indicated that this is
the case. Other non-residents claim, "the only
reason people come to Freeport is the stadium."
They are obviously not among the millions who
travel to our waterfront and do spend money here.
They say we must have other land to sell in order to
derive taxes. Not so. The stadium property is the
last sizeable piece of municipal land which can be
developed.
Much has been made of the fact that the land was
designated for recreational use 50 years ago. The
Boards of Trustees from the 20's to the 60's were
trying to guide the orderly development of a sud-denly
flourishing village. Their fear, I assume,
was that so much land would be developed, none
would be left for the recreational needs of Free-porters.
The 13-acre stadium site was acquired.
The Boards of those days could not have known that
subsequent Village government leaders, as well as
those of the Town of Hempstead and Nassau Coun-ty,
would save far more acreage in the Village
for recreational use — all land off the tax rolls along
with the stadium; all land, in effect, subsidized by
the owners of taxable property in the Village. This
land includes five major parks, smaller passive ones,
the County's Cow Meadow Park and the Town of
Hempstead Guy Lombardo Marina.
It, the future of our stadium, is recognizably a
sensitive issue. It is being addressed as such. It
is also strictly a Freeport issue.
Very truly yours,
All summer plans to the Recre-ation
.Center's Health Wing
expire . as of Labor Day. Fall
plans, good until January .9,
1984, may be purchased.for $85s
for a family, $40 for an individual
and $20 for a senior citizen.
The American Association of
Retired People will again sponsor
safe driving courses for those
age 55 and older. Those who took
the course three years ago must
repeat it now to continue to re-ceive
a 10% insurance deduction.
Recreation News
Registration for the Kiddie
Club will be held on Thursday
and Friday, September 1 and 2,
9am to 4pm, at the Center.
Registration for the fall "pro-gramming
offered by the Recrea-tion^
Department will be held at
Safe Driving Course
Those completing the course
can also have three points elimin-ated
on their drivers' license.
The course-..* consists of two
classroom -sessions. The fee is
The next session will be
William H. White, Mayor
the Center, Saturday, Septem-ber
24, 10am to noon, and for
adults, Monday, September 26,
_7to8:30pm._
The Center's ice rink;will open-for
the season on Saturday,
October 1.
.held at the Freeport Recreation.
Center, 9 am to 1 pm, on Septem-ber
26 and 27' and again on
November 14 and 15. Those wish-ing
to register- should call, the
instructor, Bernard Eisen, after
11 am, at 546-7356.
Pedestrian Walk Signals
It is important to note that
when the pedestrian button is ac-tivated
the traffic signal does not
immediately change. The pedes-trian
"call" is stored in the signal
controller and only activates, the.
"Walk" signals when that por-tion
of the controller's "cycle"
reaches the side, or cross street;
i.e. Guy Lombardo Avenue at
West Merrick Road.
Once the "walk" interval be-gins,
the pedestrian will receive
a specific amount of time (in the
case of Merrick Road -9 seconds)
of flashing "Walk" followed by a
flashing "Don't Walk" clearance.
The "Walk" period is intended to
give the pedestrian time to step
off the curb and begin crossing.
The flashing "Don't Walk" is
the period for the pedestrian
to safely complete any crossing
started during the "Walk"
interval, but no other person
should start crossing during the
flashing "Don't Walk", conflict-ing
vehicular traffic is not re-leased
until the yellow and all red
clearances are timed out on the
associated vehicle interval.
This provides an added measure
of time to safely cross.
Code Violators Fined
The Freeport Building Depart-ment
continues to issue sum-monses
to those who allow their
residential properties to become
'overoccupied. Village Justice
Ralph Franco continues to levy
the maximum fine of $250 which
will only be reduced if all viola-tions
are corrected within the
time specified.
Franklin Duffy of 111 Liberty
Avenue was originally fined
$1,000 for maintaining his one
family house as a rooming house.
Specific summonses were for
renting one room while occupy-ing
the house himself; for main-taining
the premises with debris,
including auto parts; and for
storing six unlicensed, unreg-istered
and partially dismantled
vehicles on the property. With the
violations now corrected, Duffy's
final fine was $250.
Arthur Harris of 10 Gold Street
was conditionally fined $250 for
allowing the rental of rooms in his
one-family house. Claudia
Gatison of 162 Colonial Avenue
faces the same conditional fine
for renting a room in her house to
a husband and wife and their
family while occupying the house
herself. Carol Wade of 21 Morion
Avenue received two summonses
on which she was conditionally
fined $250 on each. She allowed
the rental of two rooms to two
persons while living in the-one-family
structure with her own
family.
Victoria Byrd of 103 Rutland
Road received a conditional fine
of $250 for creating an over-occupancy
by living in the one-family
house with her 10 children
and allowing four nephews to also
reside there. Earl Harris of
84 Willow Avenue was condition-ally
fined $500 for allowing the
occupancy of a third floor attic
without sufficient air space and
proper means of entering and
exiting. The conditional fine of
$500 levied on Elliott Howard of
21 Lee Place was for operating a
rooming house in a one-family
house while occupying it with his
own family. Arthur Henriques,
now a resident of Roosevelt,
received a conditional fine of
$250 for having rented out the
downstairs of his one-family
house at 15 Leonard Avenue
while allowing another family to
occupy the first floor.
We Want You In Freeport!
But...If you must leave
because of job transfer^
or retirement...
THE FREEPORT HOMEFINDERS SERVICE
IS "AT YOUR SERVICE" AT NO COST
List your house with the free Homefinders Service, a unique government
operation. Buyers are waiting. ~ _-—_.-,
Take advantage of this successful service which has sold hundreds
of houses by bringing together buyer and seller.
Contact today: Mrs. Ramona Crook, Director
Freeport Homefinders Service
46 North Ocean Avenue, Room 106
378-4000, Ext. 296-7 |
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