By JOSEPH KELLARD
The library was ready to tear down the house, at 43 Fairview Ave., to expand its backyard brick-paved garden out to the sidewalk on Fairview, until neighbors learned of the project from a note that a demolition company posted on the house, according to John Paupa, a Fairview Avenue resident. He and other neighbors claimed they were not notified of the decision, and met with the library's Board of Trustees to ask that they halt the project so residents could voice their concerns.
"Originally, the library wanted to take down the house and put in a park, but that is unacceptable to us, and we still want to have a house on the property," said Paupa, who subsequently helped form the Fairview Avenue Residents Committee with other neighbors. "We don't want the west end of our block to have a commercial look and end up like Long Island City."
"We thought we were doing the nice thing," said Angela Iovino, president of the library board. "The neighbors didn't like the idea, which I can fully understand, it being a residential block."
After meeting with the residents' committee, the library board has agreed to demolish the house and build another structure that is at least 75 percent of its size. The facade on Fairview Avenue will look like a house, but the structure will be a shell, and serve as an auxiliary storage space for the library.
"We wanted the condition of at least 75 percent in size because we didn't want to see them put up a shed or something small like that," Paupa explained.
The library purchased the house in anticipation of its building expansion 10 years ago, and used it for storage and offices as the new library was being constructed. The library subsequently had problems getting permission to use it for other purposes, Iovino said. She claimed that the house had already been in disrepair when the library obtained it, and in recent years something had to be done with it, particularly after neighbors complained that it was an eyesore, as the library had stripped shingles off its sides and rear.
"The neighbors thought a new roof and some aluminum siding would make the house last 40 years, and that's not going to happen," Iovino said. "We agreed that putting money into the house was not feasible, so we re-looked into what the library could do if it is going to invest money to actually make it a usable space." Iovino explained that the board believes that by using the structure as storage, the library can free up space for patrons to use in the library.
Dan Faust, the board trustee who heads the library's buildings and grounds committee, is working with an architect to complete the plans for the new structure to present at the board's regular meeting next week. While the board will be unable to put a price on the cost of building the structure until plans are completed and approved, Iovino said that demolition of the house alone will cost approximately $17,000. The library was set to go ahead with the demolition, but the residents' committee first wanted to see and be satisfied with the permits for this half of the project.
Meanwhile, at residents' request, the board has agreed to replace the existing wooden stockade fence surrounding the parking lot on the west side of the library, which extends out to the sidewalk on Fairview Avenue, with a modern plastic white fence.
"They put a stockade fence up, and it looks like hell on our side of the fence," said resident John Knapp. "They just maintain their side of the fence." Paupa said there were problems with overgrown grass and litter, but that the area has since been better maintained and that residents are pleased that a new, attractive fence will be installed.
"We worked it out with the fencing company to go ahead with that project," Iovino said.
The library had owned another Fairview Avenue house, but tore it down to create the rear area of the parking lot. Some residents claimed that when the library planned to rebuild the current building about 10 years ago, the board showed an interest in purchasing other houses directly behind its property. Residents suspect the library is still pursuing this goal, and is doing so incrementally, one house at a time.
"Eventually, I think their goal is to buy up all the houses," Knapp said. "... They're going to make those homeowners an offer, and take their houses down and make it look like a big commercial area instead of a residential street. They're taking the taxpayers' money and they're buying up this property when they don't need it. You know, the library is huge now."
Iovino denied that there are any such plans. "I could see their point," she continued, "in that doing that would make a continuation of the parking lot, so you wouldn't have to make a U-turn in either of our lots and you can go in one side and out the other side. But the board has no such plans now. That would be pretty ambitious."
Knapp questions the library's decision to expand the west-side parking lot when there is a spacious Town of Hempstead lot across the street. "We had to make that parking lot for the expansion," Iovino said, "because for however many square feet you have in a building, you have to have a certain number of parking spots. You can't use the town-owned lot across the street with plenty of space just because it's there. You can't assume it's yours."
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