By Richard Tedesco
The fate of the center remained in limbo after the hearing -- and is likely to for some time -- as the county presses its case to sell the center to an owner that would be obliged to maintain its current services for the 17 years remaining on its lease with county.
Peter Visconti, the center's associate director -- who, coincidentally, celebrated his imminent retirement that night -- explained the reason for the strong turnout: "You have to come out in bodies 'cause we don't have the power or the money."
An emotional Visconti said that the way the county handled the matter, with Legislator Jeffrey Toback (D-Oceanside) informing the center's board about the county's plan to issue a request for proposals on the property before consulting board members about it, was "four towns plus one again."
The Five Towns Jewish Community Center is the leading suitor for the Inwood community center. "They have in mind a center that is sectarian," Visconti said. "That is not the nature of a minority service center, which we are."
The county broached the idea of the JCC's using "a few rooms" at the center two months before informing board members about the RFP plans.
Community members are concerned that the diverse services provided by the center to the working poor will be lost if it is sold to the JCC, which first approached Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi's office about acquiring the property.
A parade of residents, primarily from Inwood, testified about what the center means to them and their community. Rose Harris, a member of the center's board of directors, called it a "beacon of light" to people in the Five Towns. "Tomorrow is a mystery. I pray this historical gem will be here for another 100 years," she told planning commission members.
Vaughn Sanders recounted the hours he spent after football practice at Lawrence High School playing basketball in the gym at the Inwood center -- hours he knows he might have otherwise spent on the streets. The discipline he developed as a young athlete, he said, saw him through a football career at Hofstra and enabled him to play, briefly, for the New York Jets.
"Right now, our community is not doing well because the community center is not flourishing," Sanders said.
Older residents recalled the center's origins as a trade school, where they received training in practical work skills. And they were uniformly adamant in their resistance to any diminution of the center's services. "Suozzi shouldn't be doing this to the people of Nassau County or Inwood or the Five Towns," said Frank Mari, a member of four boards at the center.
Mari said he attended the trade school at age 14, and recalled playing with kids who were "black, white, blue and pink," to approving laughter around the room.
Emly Moore, 65, of Roosevelt said, "The people in this community don't have to beg for anything. We pay state, federal and local taxes."
Planning commission members listened patiently to the center's advocates, and permitted the vocal demonstrations without comment. But the audience was asked to refrain from reacting when Carl Schroeter, the county's chief real estate negotiator, was called to speak.
Schroeter was brief, stating simply that the county considered maintaining the terms of the lease the "most important thing" about any property transfer. But when planning commission member Neal Lewis began to pose a question, Schroeter said, "I'm not answering any questions," and started to walk away.
The crowd's hoots and catcalls appeared to slow him, and he returned to the podium. When Lewis asked if the cost of maintaining the center is the central issue in the county's sale plan, Schroeter said, "You're trying to trap me into saying this is a burden."
In response to a question about use of the building being guaranteed for the remainder of the center's 50-year lease with the county, Schroeder said, "The terms of any sale could put restrictive covenants on the building."
Schroeter then readily acceded to Lewis's proposal that Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman be asked to review the lease and offer an opinion on it before the planning commission considers its recommendation on the proposed RFP.
As the subdued crowd started to leave, the room was as tense as it had been two hours earlier, when the hearing had begun. Nobody seemed to be breathing any easier. The words board member Heloise Thomas used earlier seemed to hang in the air: "The community center is our air. It is necessary to all of our survival."
Comments about this story? RTedesco@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000, ext. 204
