By:Nick Buglione
At a sparsely attended town hall meeting in Mitchel Field last week, a Navy official told 20 residents that the secretary was expected to determine whether the properties will be sold in two years or remain as military housing.
Hopefully, they-re going to make a final decision on the [use] of the properties, said Dave Coleman, coordinator of the Navy-s public-private venture initiative, which aims to privatize all Navy-owned and -operated housing from Maine to New Jersey. We-re really pushing them to make their mind up.
The Navy has been planning to turn over the 49-acre Mitchel Manor in East Meadow and the 48-acre Mitchel Field in Garden City to a private company in October 2004, after a study concluded that enough affordable housing existed on Long Island to sustain local military families. The company would maintain the military houses until 2006 and then sell them.
Claiming, among other things, that the average serviceman and woman couldn-t afford to support a family here, residents, elected officials and civic leaders persuaded the Navy to rethink its original plan and re-evaluate the results of its housing market analysis. While Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field will still be privatized, the sale is no longer a definite.
Depending on the secretary of the Navy-s decision, it may stay as housing permanently, Coleman said at the Feb. 4 town hall meeting.
There has been much speculation about the fate of the properties, including the possibility that one site will be sold and the other retained as military housing. It-s very possible they-ll consolidate the housing to one site, Coleman said, stressing, however, that he isn-t sure what Secretary England will ultimately decide.
The consolidation idea poses some problems. Mitchel Manor residents, who live in the East Meadow School District, have voiced concerns about moving to Mitchel Field, where children attend Uniondale schools. On the flip side, the possibility of moving everyone to Mitchel Manor casts doubt over the future of the clinic, commissary and exchange at Mitchel Field.
The clinic, commissary and exchange are where local servicemen and women, as well as some 8,000 retired military personnel, receive health care and shop for food and clothes at bargain prices.
It-s unlikely that all of Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field will be retained as military housing, considering that 21 percent of the units there are vacant. In fact, this is the third time the Navy has tried to sell the properties, said Marvin Mullins, facility director of Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field.
Mullins thinks the Navy will keep about 225 units between the properties, enough to sustain local military families, and sell off the rest. The remaining military houses would be renovated under the public-private venture agreement, Mullins said.
There are 510 houses in Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field, home to about 1,200 servicemen and women from all branches of the military and their families.
East Meadow civic leaders figure to have a keen interest in the future of any Mitchel Manor property the Navy sells, because its use would be up to the new owner and zoning determinations. That area is currently zoned for single-family residences, according to the Town of Hempstead.
A representative of U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy confirmed the the congresswoman and Sen. Hillary Clinton would be present at the Navy secretary-s meeting Feb. 11, after the Herald goes to press. He stressed, however, that it-s possible that a final decision on Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field might not be reached.
Army Reserves Col. Gordon Davis, who has lived in Mitchel Field since last September, feels that a representative of the residents should have been asked to attend the meeting. I would think it would be appropriate that somebody representing the people who live here be there to voice our concerns, Davis said.
