By Nick Buglione
Schumer has joined a group of elected officials, including Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who have voiced their opposition to the Department of Defense's plan to sell the complexes.
"If the Pentagon moves forward to sell the Mitchel Field property, [the families who live there] will be forced to move," Schumer said in the letter. "While government officials have indicated that these families would receive an 'appropriate military stipend' to ensure that they are able to find substitute housing, this is a dubious prospect given the wildly expensive housing market on Long Island."
Schumer's letter came just weeks after Clinton, McCarthy and Reps. Tim Bishop, Steve Israel and Peter King sent similar correspondence to Rumsfeld.
"Vague federal pronouncements are clearly not enough to reassure these families that they will have places to live if the Defense Department's plans go forward," Schumer said.
Long Island's congressional delegation also plans to meet with Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field residents and the Navy, which owns and runs the housing complexes, in the near future, said Edward Aulman, director of the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency.
"I expect a high-level meeting to occur in December or January with the secretary of the Navy's representative and the Long Island congressional delegation to discuss possible changes to the Navy's plan," Aulman said.
East Meadow Civic Association President Robert Zafonte said he is also working on setting up a meeting of the Navy and federal elected officials to allay community leaders' concerns about what will happen to the property once it is sold.
"As a civic leader, I want to have a say on what's going to happen to this property," said Zafonte, who is against the sale. "My main thing is to try and get the Navy to reverse their decision."
Last September, the Herald revealed the Department of Defense's intention to sell the 49-acre Mitchel Manor in East Meadow and the nearby 48-acre Mitchel Field, which nearly 1,200 military members and their dependents call home.
Though the Navy operates the 510 houses at those locations, members of all branches of the U.S. military stationed locally live there.
The sale is part of a region-wide Department of Defense initiative, according to Lt. Commander Joe Carpenter, a Navy spokesman. Under the initiative, the federal government is looking to turn over all Navy-operated housing in the northeast region to a private developer.
The developer would be charged with the responsibility of refurbishing some of the military houses that the Department of Defense intends to keep and selling off those deemed no longer necessary, such as Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field.
Three potential developers have already been selected to submit proposals, Carpenter said. By mid-January, the Navy will chose one developer from the three, and exclusive negotiations will begin, he said.
After the Navy conducted a housing-market analysis last year, officials determined there there is a sufficient number of homes on the open market to satisfy the needs of Long Island's military families.
While Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field should be sold by October 2004, residents would be able to stay there for two more years before having to find their own homes.
Although servicemen and women will receive a housing allowance in addition to their salaries to help pay rent, at a Nov. 6 meeting with Navy officials, many angrily said that the allowance will still not be enough to support a family on Long Island.
Once the complexes are sold, the new owner and zoning restrictions will determine future use of the Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field property, Carpenter said.
"The property over there is zoned residence B; that's one-family homes," Zafonte said. "Any change has to go before the [Town of Hempstead Zoning Board of Appeals]. The developer that gets that property can't simply put up whatever they want."
