National Guard armory property creates tug of war

Village wants to move DPW to Babylon Turnpike

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For the past five years, the state-owned National Guard armory has been a property of interest of the Village of Freeport and for the Cedarmore Corporation. The village wants to move the Department of Public Works to the property, while the Cedarmore Corporation, a nonprofit organization operated by Zion Cathedral, would like to use the facility for educational purposes.

The armory, which closed in 2011, sits on three acres of property on Babylon Turnpike, near Lakeview and Grand avenues. Earlene Hooper, deputy speaker of the State Assembly, who represents District 18, which includes Freeport, said in June that the village has been temporarily storing its trucks and DPW equipment at the site, but Mayor Robert Kennedy said that only Nassau County has the state’s permission to use the property, not Freeport.

In legislation that Hooper has proposed that would transfer the property to the Cedarmore Corporation, she also claimed that the village has been causing environmental problems at the property, and alluded to the use of the chemical triclosan and oil spills from vehicles. To date, however, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has declined to sign the bill.

Assemblyman Brian Curran, a Republican from Lynbrook, said he believes the property should go to the village, not Cedarmore.

“I, along with the Village of Freeport, believe that the best use of this armory, for the public use, is for the armory to go back to the Village of Freeport,” Curran said.

The property, originally owned by the village, was donated to the state in 1949. Freeport officials said they believe the state should return it to the village, and that it would be best used as the DPW’s headquarters. The department is now housed in an industrial park on Albany Road in south Freeport — in a flood zone between two canals.

Mayor Robert Kennedy said the idea makes sense, because the existing DPW headquarters was flooded by seven feet of water and sustained around $10 million in damage to its structure, equipment and fuel storage tanks during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Flooding limited access to the facility, which prevented the use of equipment stored there and the refueling of emergency vehicles in the wake of the disaster.

Kennedy said that the roads in and out would not allow police or emergency vehicles to return to the garage during a flood in the low-lying area. Although the facility was rebuilt with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in the event of another serious storm, he said it would be questionable whether the village would receive the same financial support from the federal government the next time.

According to Curran, storm-proofing the facility would cost $25 million, which would mean either a large tax increase or a bond. He sided with the village in proposing that the DPW be relocated to the armory property.

All the village needs is Cuomo’s signature on documents that would approve the transfer of the property to Freeport, Kennedy said. “It’s up to the governor,” the mayor said. “Earlene Hooper has put this [bill] in on several occasions, and the governor has either pocket-vetoed it, which means he never pulled it, or he denied the approval of it.”

According to Curran, however, Cuomo will not sign the legislation into law until there is a consensus on the issue, and as of now there is not.

Neither Hooper nor a representative of the Cedarmore Corporation returned calls seeking comment.