Board Debates Turning Historic Building into Village Recreation Center
This past April, Garden City residents voted overwhelmingly against floating a $3.75 million bond to demolish St. Paul’s Boys School, but questions still remain as to what will ultimately be done with the village landmark.
At a July 21 board of trustees meeting, Mayor Donald Brudie announced the appointment of a three-person committee comprising of Chairman Andrew Cavanaugh, Deputy Mayor John Watras and Deputy Mayor Nicholas Episcopia.
The mayor said the purpose of the Committee is “to review any new proposals received for the use of St. Paul’s Main Building, including the proposal from the Committee to Save St. Paul’s (CSSP).”
The discussion regarding St. Paul’s future continued when Trustees John DeMaro and Brian Daughney jointly proposed a motion to hire a consultant to evaluate the possibility of turning the building into a village recreation center. “Since the bond vote, Trustee Daughney and I have been party to many conversations regarding the future of St. Paul’s Main Building… and most of the people that we speak to want to have a recreation center at the site,” DeMaro said.
In order to further evaluate the idea of erecting a recreation center on the property, DeMaro suggested that the board explore three options. “The first being that a restoration of the front portion of the Main Building and a destruction of the other part and creation of a recreation center behind the main front part,” he said.
According to DeMaro, the second option would be a plan to keep all of the existing buildings and transform them as best as possible into a recreation center and the third option would consist of a plan to demolish all of the existing buildings and create a new recreation center.
DeMaro indicated that a recreation center would need to include some basic elements such as an indoor pool, an area for children and parties for kids as well as fitness and dance classes, an exercise facility, an indoor track, an indoor turf field, as well as an outdoor ice or roller skating rink.
“What I am proposing is to engage a consultant to give us cost estimates and feasibility opinions in connection with having a recreation center at that St. Paul’s site,” DeMaro added.
The mayor questioned how many residents DeMaro actually spoke to about this idea in a village of more than 22,000 residents. “I did speak to a significant number of people at our POA meetings since this bond vote,” DeMaro said.
The mayor offered his feedback on the motion. “The things you are talking about is a project of $50 to $100 million,” Brudie said, adding, “Who would pay for these things? Who would be the people that would go to these things? Would it be an enterprise?”
“I think that’s a possibility but I think we have to analyze whether it’s even feasible,” DeMaro retorted.
“Well, right now we have a problem with the pool. The pool is an enterprise and we’re lucky if we break even every year with the pool. We are going to have a project that is going to run in the neighborhood of $50 to $100 million,” Brudie added.
Trustee Dennis Donnelly said there was not enough material to support hiring a consultant at this point. “I don’t believe that a rec center will fit into St. Paul’s either. I don’t think the building is configured correctly to be able to do that, but if there is a large enough group of people who think that that is a possibility then we ought to let the parties explore their thoughts on the issue and you know, we’ll see where it goes,” he said.
After continued discussion, DeMaro requested to defer the motion until the August board meeting to give a more detailed proposal for a recreation center.
Garden City resident Peter Negri, president from Committee to Save St. Paul’s, was on hand to present an update for the request for proposal (RFP) for possible renovation and restoration of the building.
Negri estimated the impact of the project on the average taxpayer would be approximately $100 per year. He said the CSSP would like to reduce that cost by exploring upcoming grant opportunities, including one from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund.
Reducing costs would also be achieved through private fundraising, according to Negri. “To date, we have firm pledges amounting to over $600,000 that would be destined for this project. That amount alone, and we’re not done yet, would reduce the cost to the average taxpayer,” he said.
