The first renderings and plans for the proposed new Great Neck Parks District office building will be shown to the public at a Dec. 11 meeting, park officials said.
Parks district Superintendent Peter Renick said the new building will be completed about a year from its start date. He also said the new office will be built in front of the existing building, so business can continue without delay while the new office is built.
The meeting will be held at 8 p.m. at the current office, located at 5 Beach Road.
The building update is part of the work covered by a 15-year, $6.5 million bond passed by the parks district commissioners last February and the Town of North Hempstead in March. The bond did not require approval from the residents of the parks district, which includes all Great Neck villages and unincorporated areas with the exception of Great Neck Estates, Harbor Hills, Lake Success, Saddle Rock and University Gardens.
Renick said the current parks district building is out of date, infested with termites and has bad heating and ventilation. He said some of the parks district staff is misplaced and working out of converted garages because the current building does not have enough space.
Some, however, don’t want to see the building be torn down.
Walter Blum, the architect who designed the original building in 1958, said demolishing the building is short-sighted.
“They claim there are termites in the building, but you don’t tear a building down because of termites,” Blum said.
Blum said even though he is retired, he has volunteered his services as an architect to figure out a way to save the building, which he said won the American Institute of Architects award in 1960.
Blum also said that it is one of the only municipal buildings in Great Neck that could be considered an historic building as well.
Renick said that the building needs an update.
“We respect [Blum], he did a lot of projects for the parks district,” Renick said. “But the building has outlived its usefulness.”
The bond also will allow for the purchase of backup generators, upgrades to village playgrounds, repairs to the Parkwood Sport Complex and repairs to Memorial Field.
Originally, artificial turf was supposed to be laid down on Memorial Field, located at 1 West Park Place, but following an NBC report on the how the material is possibly dangerous to people board members have expressed reservations. According to the report, 38 soccer players across the U.S. who had played on the artificial turf have been diagnosed with various forms of cancer, including lymphoma and leukemia.
The parks district commissioners have said that they are re-examining the issue of laying turf on the field, which would cost $800,000. The choice of turf over natural grass was the source of heated discussions leading up to the bond’s approval, with some residents saying turf could be harmful to children.
