As the final weeks of summer come to a close, many residents still found time to attend the August Garden City Board of Trustees’ meeting at Village Hall to lend support for a proposal to turn St. Paul’s Boys School into a possible village recreation center.
On July 21, Trustees John DeMaro and Brian Daughney jointly proposed a motion for the village to hire a consultant to evaluate the feasibility of turning the building into a recreation center at the St. Paul’s site. After a lengthy discussion, many trustees expressed concern about spending village funds to conduct the study. Subsequently, the trustees agreed to further define the proposal and presented a revised motion last week.
DeMaro said he recognized that there is a concern in spending additional village funds for consultants. “The issue to us is whether a recreational center at St. Paul’s is fiscally and structurally viable. What we now propose is that the board of trustees direct the village attorney and the village staff to draft a request for information (RFI),” he said.
The RFI would request expressions of interest, information and comments from business corporations, not-for-profits, community groups and other interested parties regarding the construction and operation of a recreation center at the site, according to DeMaro. He maintained that the RFI would be issued solely for information and planning purposes and would not constitute a solicitation or offer to form a contract. In addition, DeMaro said the RFI would include the priorities and objectives in the endeavor and the responses could provide the board with information to issue a request for proposal at a later date.
“Understand this is just to continue a discussion to see if it is feasible to have a recreation site at the property. Now it might be the case that somebody answering the RFI would come forward and say that they will, with their own funds, develop and construct the site at the property and that they would operate it.
“That might happen. It might also happen that the numbers that come back could be completely out of what we would ever decide to spend on the project. But at this point, we just don’t know,” DeMaro said.
As part of the request, DeMaro asked that the board form a new committee that would include residents from each property owners’ association to provide input as to what they would like to see at a recreation site.
Trustee Daughney said he doesn’t see any reason why the board should not move forward and consider the idea of building a recreation center. “It doesn’t mean we are going to do it…maybe the numbers don’t work. Maybe the structure of the building doesn’t work. We just think that we’ve heard enough from people that they want this idea considered; they want us to analyze it and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Daughney said.
The board approved the motion in a vote of 7-1, with Deputy Mayor Watras being the only Nay vote.
Residents in favor of the proposal offered reasons to support the idea. William Slatterly, president of the Estates Property Owners’ Association told the board that the Daughney-Demaro proposal is a long-term range goal that he fully supports.
“I believe that St. Paul’s should become the epicenter of entertainment for every Garden City resident by becoming a multiuse recreational center.”
Eastern Property Owners’ Association (EPOA) President Judy Courtney commended Trustees DeMaro and Daughney for putting the issue on the table. “The fact that we haven’t discussed it [St. Paul’s] in months is a waste of a couple of months that we could’ve moved forward on this,” she said.
Walter McKenna, former EPOA president, supports a feasibility study. “Why shouldn’t we consider this? I think it is a great idea,” he said.
Peter Negri, president of the Committee to Save St. Paul’s applauded Daughney-Demaro’s plan and will present the CSSP’s own proposal to board in the coming weeks.
“We need to start somewhere. A big part of we’ve done to show that there is support for this plan is in the area of fundraising. And to date, we have firm pledges exceeding $900,000. I am very confident that we will surpass the million dollar mark,” Negri said.
He also stressed the importance of not overreaching with a plan. “If we try to shoot for the moon, we may get disappointed…so by starting with something that’s doable, affordable and can be done soon in the here and now, I think it just makes a great deal more sense,” he added.
While the majority of residents supported exploring the feasibility study for a recreation center, others offered comments to the contrary. Mayor Donald Brudie was first to speak out against the idea. “There’s an undermining overtone to this suggestion at this point in time. I think that it’s premature to juxtapose this idea with the Committee to Save St. Paul’s idea. The CSSP was the group that saved St. Paul’s at the referendum,” Brudie said.
The mayor suggested that the trustees should put this proposal on hold right now and let the CSSP come forward with their plan. “A number of members on this very board were in support of demolishing the building. Now those people are coming forward with this wonderful idea at the 11th hour when you had the CSSP work so diligently on coming forward with their plan and their financing. To do this at this time, it’s undermining,” Brudie said.
Deputy Mayor Watras concurred with the mayor. “I personally think we ought to wait and see what happens with the Committee to Save St. Paul’s,” Watras said.
Trustee Dennis Donnelly said the board is not in a hurry to come up with a solution. “I don’t see how this proposal to take a look and ask the residents what they would like to see at the site is undermining in any sense,” he said.
