By Jonann Brady
Jerry Wood, a Baldwin resident, purchased the 958 Church Street building from Congregacion DeMita on Nov. 15 through a limited liability corporation called Church Street Real Estate.
Wood, a partner in a Seaford-based accounting firm O'Neill and Wood, said the nursing home business will employee about 60 people. He anticipates the building renovations will be complete by Jan. 1 and the business will open soon after.
Wood was one of many residents who rallied to keep the Harlem-based Congregacion DeMita out of Baldwin.
"I was against it because of the location of where their church was and where our community is," said Wood.
Opponents of the evangelical church said that services, which were planned for four nights a week, would bring traffic snarls, parking headaches and noise to the neighborhood. They also believed that the building, which included sleeping quarters for over 60 people and kitchen facilities, would be used as dormitory-style housing.
DeMita's leaders countered that the sleeping quarters would be used only two weeks out of the year when church elders from Puerto Rico visited.
In 1996, residents brought a lawsuit against the church contending that the building plans violated a Town of Hempstead restrictive covenant, which stated the property could be used only as a warehouse.
According to Bill Bonesso, the attorney representing De Mita, a lower court had recently directed the Town of Hempstead Zoning Board to release the church from the restrictive covenant clause, but the town was appealing that decision, a process that could have taken months, if not years. Instead of continuing the five-year legal battle, the church decided to sell.
"They [DeMita] got worn out by the time," said Bonesso. "This property they bought and thought they could use quickly turned out to be anything but."
One DeMita member said the church had no hard feelings.
"We have nothing against the community," said Peter Santana. "We wanted a chance to prove ourselves. They [the community] didn't understand who we are and what we do
