1st Precinct lease approved

After an intense, hour-long debate among Republican and Democratic lawmakers and Baldwin residents over the controversial 1st Police Precinct lease at a session of the county Legislature Dec. 16, the measure was approved 10-9, giving David Rosen a multi-million-dollar contract to build a new police headquarters in his shopping center on Grand Avenue.

“From the first day I saw this lease, I thought it was fair,” said Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin), who has been working to secure a location for a new precinct for over five years and proposed the lease in November. Scannell cited a favorable analysis of the lease done by the county's nonpartisan Independent Office of Legislative Budget Review. “The independent budget review office said [the deal] was better than market value,” he said.

Officials from the county's real estate office and its Public Works department had testified in support of the project during a legislative session on Dec. 7, at which the lease was tabled for a week after Republicans threatened to sue the county because they had not seen the lease — which was amended the same day — seven days before the vote.

Legislator Kevan Abrahams (D-Hempstead), whose district covers northern Baldwin and who has met several times with residents on the precinct issue, said that though he sympathizes with their concerns about giving Rosen a contract to maintain an important facility, the county could not afford to delay the search for a new precinct any longer. “This [Legislature] needs to act on this item,” Abrahams said. “It's a public-safety issue as well as it's a good deal for the

county.”