By:Andrew Coen
At the March 9 Lawrence school board meeting, board President Frank Parise revealed that the board is strongly considering buying land from 284-285 Central Owners Corporation to create a separate ingress and egress pathway for the library.
Buying land from the co-op is among four options the board has been considering. The others include adding 12 feet of driveway space by taking it away from the adjacent Number One School playground; paving a road behind the library to allow for an entrance onto Rockaway Turnpike through the nearby cemetery; and a combination of adding the 12 feet of driveway space and purchasing some land east of the library. According to Parise, the cemetery plan has already been eliminated.
The school district owns the property on which the library sits and has been reluctant in the past to take away any land from the Number One School.
Currently, the library has a narrow driveway, as motorists have to enter and exit through the same path. If a car is entering at the same time another is leaving, the exiting car must back up to make way for the other vehicle, creating a hazardous situation, officials said.
Parise said a roughly 18-by-250-foot parcel owned by the co-op would be available at a cost of about $100,000. He also said that Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) and state Senator Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) will be asked to help obtain funding for the purchase of the property.
Plan has its critics
The co-op plan has drawn criticism from library officials, who said they prefer purchasing 12 feet from the Number One School. I don-t think it-s an appropriate solution, Peninsula Public Library Director Joan Lepelstat said of the co-op proposal. I think that taking the 12 feet of land from the Number One School playground is a much more effective plan.
Michael Fried, president of the library board, also said he has problems with the co-op plan. I disagree with the school board-s assessment that this is a viable plan of action, said Fried in a prepared statement. I envision potential litigation from residents [of the co-op] who will be a few feet from automotive traffic. If the school board thinks this is the best plan, they are certainly free to purchase the property and improve upon it, making the land their own. They are free to do with the land as they wish.
Rabbi Rafael Saffra, president of the Lawrence Association, which has been pressing hard for a solution to the narrow library driveway, said it makes no difference whether the school board chooses the co-op plan or takes 12 feet from the Number One School as long as something gets done.
It makes no difference which side of the building the driveway will be on as long as it happens, said Saffra. The bottom line is still nothing has happened. The driveway is still in the abstract and the Lawrence Association wants to see it in the concrete.
Possible conflict of interest?
Some anonymous sources have come forward to say they feel the board may have a conflict of interest with the co-op plan, since school board member Pam Greenbaum-s husband, Steven, is on the co-op-s board of directors. Greenbaum said she is recusing herself from the process of moving forward with this plan because of her husband-s connection and would also not vote on the matter.
She made it known right from the beginning, when we had the meeting with the library when we were looking at that piece of property, said Parise. She said if that was the route that we would be going, that she would recuse herself and she would not be involved with the negotiations at all for that part of the plan.
Greenbaum said that her husband-s involvement with the co-op-s board of directors is not a conflict of interest since, according to her, he has very little power and would not stand to profit from the deal. The board of directors has to first OK it, and he-s one of seven [members], she said. It-s not like he has the power to magically make it happen. He-s one person.
Greenbaum, who was appointed by Parise to the school board-s three-member library committee, along with fellow school board members Asher Mansdorf and Rose Harris, said she disclosed her husband-s connection to the building before the appointment. She added that she came up with the option of buying the parcel of land from the Central Owners Corp. at a library committee meeting about two months ago.
I was thinking out of the box of different options, said Greenbaum. I gave my ideas at that meeting, and that was the extent of it.
Greenbaum acknowledged that the co-op idea was thought of largely because of her husband-s connection to the building, but that the relationship isn-t a problem, since she was open and upfront about it. I happened to know about it because my husband is involved, but does that make it bad? she said. I-ve been aboveboard on everything. To me, it sounds odd that people want to make an issue of something that would save money and at the same time accomplish the goal of the library, which is a safe egress from the parking lot.
Steven Greenbaum, who also holds the official title of appointed designee of holder of unsold shares for the co-op, rejected any suggestion that he might receive financial gain if the deal were hammered out. I stand to gain zero financially, he said. I don-t capitalize on this at all. I don-t get a penny of it, and it doesn-t come to me. It comes directly to the co-op corporation.
Greenbaum said that being a member of the co-op-s board of directors does not give him too much power, since other directors hold higher positions. I am not an officer, I am not a president, vice president, secretary or treasurer. I am just a director, he said. I have one vote out of seven.
Greenbaum said that if his involvement in the deal continues to be an issue, he will step away from the process. If people believe that there is a conflict, I will recuse myself from any further conversations and I will let another board member deal with it, he said.
His wife said she would support the co-op idea regardless. I-m trying to do the best thing for the community, and I-m trying to satisfy the community by doing this, she said. Whether it was my husband or anybody else, I still would have had the same idea. I am very upset that in trying to do a good thing for the community, my ethics are questioned, and they are questioned by an unnamed person ...
Co-op plan would cost less
According to Pam Greenbaum, it would cost less to buy the parcel of land from the co-op than to take 12 feet from the Number One School playground, which would mean moving the playground, regrading the land and constructing barriers to prevent cars from driving through the playground.
It-s a hell of a lot cheaper to do the 18 feet from the building as opposed to 12 feet from the school district, Greenbaum said. If you can get [the driveway issue] resolved without having a lot of people upset about it and save money, it sounds like a great thing to me.
Whether it-s a conflict of interest or not, why wouldn-t you want to spend less money? she added. To me it-s a win-win situation.
Lawrence Public Schools Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons agreed, saying, This would be a win-win for everybody. I suggested that [the school board] explore a tax abatement so no money changes hands, and they are looking into that now.
Pam Greenbaum partly attributed the accusations of conflict of interest to the fact she-s up for re-election to the school board after winning a special one-year seat last June. It-s campaign time, and it-s par for the course, she said.
