By:Nick Buglione
Following a meeting in Washington with Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, vocal opponents of the Navy-s intention to sell the properties, England agreed to keep 250 of the 510 units at Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field for families of servicemen and women stationed locally.
This is a big victory today for military families on Long Island, Clinton said. This decision will prevent several hundred families from being thrown out of their homes and being forced to face an already tight housing market.
Last September the Herald revealed the Navy-s intention 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 move was part of a region-wide initiative to privatize all Navy-owned and -operated housing in the Northeast.
The private partner was to run the military houses at Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field until 2006 and then sell them. After that, military families would have to find housing on their own.
Claiming, among other things, that the average serviceman and woman couldn-t afford to support a family on Long Island, residents, elected officials and civic leaders persuaded the Navy to rethink its original plan and re-evaluate the results of its housing market analysis.
Sue Gillette, who lives in Mitchel Field with her husband, a lieutenant colonel in the Army, and three children, believes the Navy made the right decision. Gillette was one of the residents who met with Clinton and McCarthy in late January to offer insight on how the sale would impact families living there.
There-s a sense of community, a sense of family, a sense security, Gillette said of living at Mitchel Field. [In the military] you move from post to post and you kind of know you-re neighbor before you get there. Everybody always watches out for each other.
The Navy was expected to sell at least a portion of the properties, since a significant amount of Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field is vacant. About 270 military families from all branches of service reside there.
While this isn-t the first time that the Navy has tried to sell the properties, Clinton is optimistic that the remaining military houses are there to stay. There is no guarantee, she said. I-m cautiously optimistic, but we have to remain vigilant.
It-s still not clear whether the 250 units to be retained will be at one site or split between the two. We will ask our private partner to develop proposals on the distribution of housing between Mitchel Field and Manor that best meets our families- needs while maximizing the potential value from the sale of excess property, said a Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Where the houses are placed was of great concern to some residents. People living at Mitchel Manor, within the East Meadow School District, have voiced concerns about moving to Mitchel Field, where children attend Uniondale schools. Meanwhile, the possibility of consolidating all the units at Mitchel Manor cast 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.
The 250 remaining houses will be privatized and receive a much-needed facelift. Whether they-re refurbished or rebuilt will be determined through exclusive negotiations between the Navy and the private partner, the Navy official said.
The Navy is in the final stages of reviewing the technical and financial proposals submitted by companies, he said, and still plans to award the project by October.
Once the Navy enters into an agreement, the rest of Mitchel Manor and Mitchel Field will be sold by October 2006. On the positive side for East Meadow residents and civic leaders, Mitchel Manor will be placed on local tax rolls, since the federal government will no longer own it.
East Meadow residents have long claimed they are unfairly burdened with school and property taxes because so much of its land can-t be taxed, including Eisenhower Park and the Nassau County jail.
What will become of the property that-s sold off, however, is cause for concern. As a community leader, I would be very concerned as to how any property is developed, said Robert Zafonte, president of the East Meadow Civic Association. To me, it has to be something suitable and acceptable to the community at large.
Once the property is sold, its future use will be up to the new owner and the area zoning. Mitchel Manor is currently zoned for single-family residences.
