An ongoing struggle

Gary Levine, an Island Park resident, has been locked in a lawsuit with the village since 2009, disputing the village’s attempt to sell a piece of property adjacent to his own. And though it looks as if the village will win Levine’s third appeal of the case, there’s no immediate end to the lawsuit in sight.

Levine claims that the village is illegally trying to sell property it owns, located at 15 Pershing place. The property is a small parking lot and an old set of bathrooms from when Little Beach, the entrance of which is located at the end of Pershing Place, was the village’s public beach. Now, the property sits empty.

The village had planned to sell it to a developer who in turn wanted to build a house on the site. Levine protested, claiming that the site the village was trying to sell was actually public property and that the village did not go through the proper channels to sell it. Levine’s house is on Washington Avenue, and is directly adjacent the Pershing Place property. The proposed house would be very close to his own.

“We’re still moving forward on the appeal process,” said Levine. “It’s going to continue costing [the village] money to fight [the lawsuit], as the mayor brought up a couple of months ago… We’re going to continue fighting this to Federal Supreme Court.”

Levine is being represented by his father, former judge Samuel Levine, which is why Island Park Mayor Jim Ruzicka believes that the legal fees for the suit have not yet stopped Levine’s appeals.

However, the village is not paying much in legal fees, either. According to Ruzicka, the village’s insurance company is covering the legal fees. However, the village is still losing money.

“What it will be costing us is that the property value has gone down so much over the last couple of years,” Ruzicka explained. “We’re probably going to lose $30,000 or $40,000 or maybe even $50,000 on that. A lot of money.”

The village originally negotiated to sell the property to the buying for $280,000. But since then, property values have dropped. The lawsuit has held up the sale of the property. By the time it is over (and Ruzicka firmly believes the village will win), the village will have to reassess the property and come up with a new price. Ruzicka is not sure what the new price will be, but property values have fallen since 2009.

But Levine is just as confident as Ruzicka and isn’t afraid to fight the village as much as he can.

“The village will not be digging in that parking lot,” he said. “This will not get done.

“This lawsuit will be pursued to the highest extent of federal law to change something that’s been done for decades and needs to go away,” Levine added. “Because before you know it, we’re not going to have any of the old-time open space, where you can show pictures to your great-great-grandkids and say, ‘This is where we used to…’ No way we can lose a spot like this. There’s too much at stake.”