A group of Williston Park residents has formed a group to lease the Cross Street School as a community center if the Mineola School District’s proposed plan to lease the school to the Solomon Schecter Day School of Glen Cove is not completed.
Calling themselves the Cross Street Alliance, the residents said they are seeking to present a viable option for the Mineola School Board to lease Cross Street School to Solomon Schecter, not to oppose it.
“If the Solomon Schechter school [deal] does not go through, we want to be prepared as a back-up,” said Michael Ciccone, president of the Williston Park Little League.
Access to the Cross Street ball fields for the village little league and Catholic Youth Organization teams is one of the primary issues that concern residents with the prospect of the private Jewish religious school leasing the property.
In a release issued by the Cross Street Alliance, the group said the uses for a community center could include activities for all members of the community – from sports to continuing education programs for adults, education programs and a theater arts appreciation program.
The group also said the lease could be financed by renting the facility to outside groups for summer camps, sports workshops and recreation programs.
Cicclone said the Alliance currently consists of “several” members and they would be holding a meeting Wednesday, April 13 at the American Legion Hall on Wills Avenue in an effort to add members.
The Mineola School District announced in December that it had reached an agreement in principal with Solomon Schecter to lease the Cross Street School as part of a school consolidation plan intended to cut district costs.
The plan had drawn little public discussion in Williston Park, where the school is located, until Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler was invited attended a recent Village of Williston Park board meeting to discuss the proposal.
Fueled by a flyer critical of the lease, more than 200 residents attended a heated meeting which many residents complained of potential traffic and safety problems as well as the possible loss of access to the school’s fields by St. Aidan’s school and the Williston Park Little League.
Nagler told residents at the village meeting that the five-year lease arrangement with the Schechter School was a “done deal.”
Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar has also expressed his opposition to the idea of the village leasing or attempting to acquire the property. But Deputy Mayor Teresa Thomann has said she wants the Mineola School Board to provide the village time to “explore some options.”
Representatives from the Schechter School assured residents at a recent Williston Park Village Board meeting that they wanted to be “good neighbors.” If the Schechter School does lease the school, it has pledged to make the playing fields available for community use on weekends and two nights during the week when school is in session.
Ciccone said former village justice Alan Reardon is giving the group advice. Reardon, who has said he would favor a plan for the village to condemn the property and then claim it for its own use, could not be reached for comment.
Ciccone said the Cross Street Alliance does not object to the Schechter school leasing the property, if the traffic study commissioned by the Mineola School Board clears up traffic safety concerns about increased bus traffic from the 36 buses that would be transporting 250 or more students daily.
“We’re not doing this to be negative towards anybody in any way,” he said.
The concept of a community center for the village has been a recurrent subject of discussion in the village over the past 30 years, according to Cross Street Alliance members.
“It could be a win-win for everybody,” Ciccone said. “If we could make it a community center, we would have access to the fields and the whole traffic issue would be solved.”
Terrence Kennedy, a member of the Alliance, said creating the organization said the group’s current members believe a traffic study will reveal problems that cannot be reconciled with Solomon Schechter’s school plans.
Citing the example of the Herricks Community Center, Kennedy said the group would seek to sustain the community center by seeking state and federal grants for various programs.
“I think there’s a large list of things we could pull money for to support the center with affecting the [tax] levy,” Kennedy said. “I think it’s a benefit for the Mineola School Board to have a plan B.”
Kennedy said he thinks Ehrbar is unaware of the “groundswell” of support for the creation of a community center. He said e-mails he has been receiving indicate that as many as 150 residents are interested in working to develop a community center, and he anticipates a crowd of 300 residents at the public meeting next Wednesday night.
“Cross Street could be another gem in the village like the pool,” said Crista Mills, a former Williston Park trustee who is among the residents seeking support for the Cross Street Alliance. “I would like to see the kids have a place to go at night.”
Mills said the increased traffic and losing the playing fields “would be too much” for the community to cope with.
Mills and Kennedy both said they’d long favored the idea of a community center in the village.
Asked why she and the other residents in the alliance had not acted sooner, she said initially she had been unaware of the Mineola School District’s plans to lease Cross Street, and when she did hear about it, she didn’t think a deal would be in place so quickly.
“Until something closes, I don’t believe it,” Mills said.
