Long Beach Motor Inn now in county’s hands

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After a six-year legal battle, Nassau County Supreme Court Condemnation Justice Thomas Adams signed an order to turn the Long Beach Motor Inn on Austin Boulevard over to Nassau County on May 28, ending the effort by Island Park residents and the Island Park Civic Association to close the motel.

According to Brian Nevin, senior policy advisor and communications director for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, the county will be able to take over the motel for $750,000.

Legislator Denise Ford said the county wants to repurpose the building as senior citizen housing. Ford said the county is working on a request for proposal to find someone to develop the property. As soon as the RFP is complete the county will put the project out to bid. She said the first thing she has called on the county to do is hire a specialized team to clean the building. “Who knows what is inside,” she said, “Sandy damage, mold, rodents, insects. I don’t want to jeopardize anyone’s health cleaning the building.”

Protests began in 2009 when members of the community found out the county was placing felons and possibly sex offenders in the motel, located just a few blocks from the Lincoln Orens Middle School.

According to John Imhof, commissioner of the Nassau County Department of Social Services, the county paid the Motor Inn $75 per room per night to house homeless families and convicts. Imhof pointed out, however, that the county does not choose residences for sex offenders. He noted in an email to the Herald that the county does not place sex offenders anywhere; they are required to find their own shelter and notify their parole or probation officer and the police department of their location.

The Civic Association’s action took on urgency in 2011 when, in January, Alphonso Barnes was arrested and charged with the rape and violent assault of a woman in Long Beach. Barnes, while not a registered sex offender, was a homeless parolee whom the county was housing at the Motor Inn. He had previously been arrested on charges of manslaughter, rape, burglary and robbery. Police records show that there was a homicide at the Motor Inn on Oct. 7, 2010, as well as a rape on Nov. 23, 2010.

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