By Andrew Coen
The school board approved an easement for the library to construct a 12-foot-wide driveway on the adjacent former Number One School property that will extend to the back of the property, at 280 Central Ave. in Lawrence. Officials said this would not affect the sale or lease of the former school property.
The current library, built in the early 1960s, operates with one narrow driveway, on the east side of the building, where cars both enter and exit, creating the potential for serious accidents, according to library officials.
District officials said they were able to provide the library with the land after learning about a Lawrence village building code that requires a side-yard setback for the former Number One School property. This means nothing could be built in the area where the driveway would be constructed. The district is working with a number of brokers to determine the best use for the property, which officials say is worth more than $15 million, according to an appraisal.
Library president Joseph Fuller thanked the school board for its approval at the meeting. However, the next day he said that while the driveway would address safety concerns, library officials would continue to push for a new building. "This is just the beginning," said Fuller. "This is not the end of our quest for a new library."
In addition to years of fighting for a safer driveway, library officials have more recently expressed interest in either expanding onto the Number One School property or constructing a new facility at Zion Park in Lawrence.
Fuller said that library officials plan to meet with the village's engineering firm, Cameron Engineering, to work on plans, with hopes to break ground on the new driveway in about a month. Fuller added that he hoped the new driveway would allow the library to retain - and possibly add - as many parking spaces as possible.
Library officials have tried for years to expand their building, which is owned by the school district, but have hit roadblocks because of a State Education Department law that prohibited the Number One School from losing any playground space. Since the school was closed by the school board in June 2004 as part of a consolidation plan to save the district money, library officials have lobbied for expansion but have been unsuccessful because of the projected high value of the 3.79-acre property. The school district, which is operating under its third consecutive contingency budget, is in need of as much money as possible, school officials said.
Voters defeated a 1997 referendum to build a new library on Rockaway Turnpike in Cedarhurst.
In March the school board granted an easement for the library to construct a separate 12-foot-wide driveway on the west side of the facility that would stretch to the end of the building, but library officials rejected the offer, because they wanted the driveway to extend to the end of the property for safety reasons.
Ronald Goldman, founder of the Community Action Committee for the library, recently proposed building a brand new facility, more than double the size of the current building, at Zion Park, next to the Lawrence train station. "Any time the school board addresses the issue and recognizes that the library is an asset that needs to be improved is much appreciated by the community," said Goldman.
The effort to build a new driveway has been joined by a number of elected officials, including Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach), Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Inwood Republican Leader Jesse Mistero. "It's in everybody's best interest," said Weisenberg of the new plan.
The Lawrence Association and other civic groups in the Five Towns that are part of Goldman's Community Action group also took an interest in seeing a new driveway installed, and have expressed support for a new library facility, according to Goldman.
"I hope this [new driveway] is merely a temporary solution, and I hope the school board and [Lawrence] village trustees will look seriously at Zion Park for a new library," said Lawrence Association President Myrna Breitman.
"At least now the safety issue will be addressed," said Rabbi Rafael Saffra, who aggressively pressed the school board to grant the library a driveway when he served as Lawrence Association president in 2003-04. "I don't know why it took the school board so long to act."
Goldman added that he feels that getting a new library for the district will help bring people together, since the entire community would benefit from an improved facility. "There are still a few of us who still see this as a community where we support one another and we're cooperative and we're amenable and just want to make things great for everybody," he said. "This is a [communal] asset shared by every kid in the district and everybody who lives in the district."
Comments about this story? ACoen@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
