By NANCY HILER
The house of worship, at 906 Newbridge Road in North Bellmore, features two eight-foot-tall wooden crosses, one affixed to the front facade, the other planted in the ground out front. They are lit up at night, making them visible from a distance.
The sprightly 68-year-old Capriola, who took ownership of the house in 2004, says the property serves as:
The Walk in Love for Jesus Church.
The Walk in Love religious gift shop and Christian bookstore.
A weekly meeting house for mothers of preschoolers.
A prayer center.
A religious library.
Nearby homeowners' reactions to the church/bookstore are mixed. Some do not object. Others are concerned.
"This is not about fighting God," said Vincent Franco, a nearby Jeffrey Drive homeowner who worries about the building's use. Franco, a nurse, believes lighted crosses "have no place in a residential community." He considers the handful of times when there was noise and increased traffic at the location a "nuisance."
Subhed: Town, county records
Town records classify the property as a single-family residence, with a permit "to maintain a non-conforming two-family residence." The designation may have been in effect before Capriola purchased the home. A church is allowed in a residential district, according to the Town of Hempstead Building Department, so Capriola is within her legal rights to operate a church at the location.
In Nassau County, "rigorous procedures" are followed to classify a property as religious for tax purposes, according to Financial Systems Administrator Thomas Albanese of the county assessor's office. When the exemption application was first filed at the beginning of 2005 for the Walk in Love for Jesus Church, Albanese said, "We went to see that it was a bona fide organization, [and we] were satisfied."
Regarding required annual renewal of the exemption, Albanese added, "We don't have the resources right now to go out to every location every year," but increased manpower for that is "being contemplated."
Franco wonders whether the bookstore will set a precedent at that location, allowing other businesses to possibly come in if the bookstore were to fail in the future.
Subhed: Homeless shelter?
Franco and others also worry that the house of worship or another location close by in North Bellmore might become a homeless shelter. Capriola wrote on her Web site that she plans to "build a shelter for the homeless in Nassau County." If the shelter were to materialize, that might change the community's character and bring crime, according to optician Paul Heller, who lives across the street from Franco.
"I don't want [a shelter] here," he said, because "lots of children play right here, and how do I know who's going to walk through here?"
Capriola said that God told her to one day open a shelter, but, she said, "It's certainly not going to be here."
Subhed: Eight appearance tickets
A Town of Hempstead spokesperson said inspectors visited the property on a number of occasions to inspect the church. Eight court appearance tickets, including one for operating a "retail store without a permit," have been issued to Capriola, according to Town of Hempstead Building Department records. She failed to appear in 2nd District Court on April 11 and is on warrant. Further action by the town is pending an appeal of a zoning permit application.
Capriola said she corrected two of the violations for which she was issued summonses -- an overhead awning in the yard and a sign out front. When asked about the bench warrant, Capriola said she was hospitalized for pneumonia earlier that week and called the judge's office that day to say she was too sick to make it to court. She said she was told to verify her claim with a doctor's note.
Capriola lays blame on nearby neighbors for complaining to the town about her, declaring, "Instead of calling the town to complain, why don't they get on their knees and pray?"
Another Jacqueline Avenue homeowner, an attorney who declined to identify himself, said he had not registered any complaints because "everyone has a right to freedom of religion."
Subhed: Church history
Adept at putting visitors at ease, Capriola is forthcoming about her life and her religious conversion. She said that she purchased the Newbridge Road dwelling for $600,000 in February 2004 with a note held by the seller and a "no-income-check mortgage" secured by a 10 percent down payment. She had half of that amount, and the other half, she said, was given to her by an acquaintance, retired college professor Norman Wennagel. Capriola said the $30,000 was his way of paying her back for caring for his bedridden mother when she was a nurse's aide, one of several former occupations she says she held. Others include real-estate agent, luxury catering hall bartender and flea market crafts vendor.
Most recently, before starting the church, Capriola owned the Walk In Love bookstore in East Meadow. She said she opened that business in September 1996 with $8,000 borrowed on a credit card, which grew to $16,000 in debt for rent and other bills by the end of October. She was saved from closing shop and from bankruptcy, she explained, by an earlier gift from Wennagel, that time for $25,000.
Capriola is quick to describe how the holy spirit "came through" her, remarking that it was as if "a tremendous bolt of lightning hit me in the chest." She said she woke up the next day feeling "tremendous peace," cured of chronic back pain and recurring panic attacks. Ever since, Capriola said, she can hear God telling her what steps to take in her life, including opening the first Christian bookstore, the current church and, one day, the homeless shelter.
Pastor Earl Mitchell of the Gospel Lighthouse Church in Roosevelt ordained her as a minister based on her "testimony" about her conversion and her faith, not as the result of formal education, she said. The Gospel Lighthouse Church isn't listed in the phone book. But Yolanda Murray of the Long Island Council of Churches located Mitchell and the Gospel Lighthouse Assembly Church in an LICC directory, though not on its membership roster. "This usually means the church is small," Murray said, "not found in most towns."
Capriola said she lives on monthly Social Security checks and does not live at the church, but with one of her four children. She added that the gift shop/bookstore sales are insufficient to support the church. Volunteers do all the work, including accounting and building maintenance, and "everything is donated," including furniture for the prayer and meeting rooms and chapel, as well as the extensive book collection in the upstairs library.
Two homeowners directly across from the church had no objections to it. "I like the church being there," Hilda DelPonte said, "although I would prefer a family."
Lillianne Sabia said, "I have no problem with it. It's quiet. It's clean." She added that it was also "convenient because there aren't many religious stores in the area."
One resident on nearby Custom Village Court, who declined to identify himself, said the lighted crosses at the property did not really bother him, but they are "kind of an eyesore."
A closer neighbor, Bernard Pflaumer of Jeffrey Drive, who was pleased that the property was "cleaned up" and renovated a few years back before Capriola purchased it, said, "I don't see any problem. I never see anybody there. I don't see any religious services there."
Subhed: Taxes, taxes
As far as taxes are concerned, the Nassau County Department of Assessment records show the 100-by-101-foot parcel of land is categorized as "community services/religious" and benefits from "wholly exempt" status. The total real estate tax bill (general and school) is about $2,825, which would be just over $9,525 for the 2005-06 tax year without the exemption. As a church, the property receives a tax reduction of roughly $6,700. According to Albanese of the county assessor's office, the church, in the form of a nonprofit corporation, owns the real estate, while the store, a separate for-profit corporation, leases part of the premises from the church and operates the business. The store is what is taxable.
"Right now, things are somewhat dormant" at the church, said Franco, adding that he remains vigilant because he anticipates that there may be "more activity with the warm weather coming."
What is coming for certain is a June 14 public hearing on the property before the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals. Capriola is requesting two permits, for a sign and off-street parking, and a zoning conversion from two-family residential to retail/church.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
