The Farmingdale Unit of Nassau County Police Activity League (PAL) is saying goodbye to its old clubhouse on North Front Street, and will soon have a new one in its place.

As of press time Wednesday, the building was slated for demolition within a few days, and construction of a new clubhouse was set to begin on the same site soon thereafter. The new clubhouse is expected to be operational sometime between the end of December and February, according to Farmingdale PAL President Gary DiApice.

In an interview at the site Monday, DiApice noted that the project, which will yield a larger building, was prompted by a need for more space. "We've come to the point now where we've outgrown this building. We've put through, in all our programs, probably about 2000 kids total throughout the entire year," he said.

The two-story old building consisted of a meeting room downstairs, and a bathroom and two small storage rooms upstairs. The meeting room was the site of regular coaches meetings, and with programs such as basketball consisting of upwards of 15 coaches, room was often at a premium, according to DiApice. "We barely had enough room to have my normal meetings," he said. Storing uniforms and equipment for 2000 youngsters in the small storage rooms was also a challenge, he noted.

The Farmingdale PAL unit began working to obtain a larger building two years ago, according to DiApice. The group, which is funded by Nassau County PAL headquarters, had explored the option of acquiring a larger plot of land to construct a new building, but this was not viable, he added. Ultimately, the Farmingdale Unit and headquarters agreed to take down the building and erect a new one on its site. Dormer Giants of Bethpage was awarded the building contract. Demolition and rebuilding was favored over adding a dormer, DiApice noted, because the building was "tired."

"It's sitting on locust poles and cinder block and brick," he said. "We would have had to redo the foundation to secure the building, to put any type of extra structure on it, we were told."

Reputedly, the old building dates to the 1850s, and was once the home of Elias Mathews, who was appointed Farmingdale's postmaster by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. During Mathews' tenure, local people picked up and dropped of off their mail at this early post office. The building had undergone several architectural changes since then.

Like the old clubhouse, the new one will be two stories tall. It will be about five feet smaller in width, but almost double the size in length. "Obviously, we're going to double our storage space immediately, which is what we really need," said DiApice, adding that the meeting room will also be maximized. He added that the building will be a house, and therefore, will conform to the suburban character of the neighborhood. Because it meets all zoning specifications set by Farmingdale Village code, it will not require any zoning variances.

The Farmingdale unit of PAL was started in 1957, with Police Officer Walter Scholl as its first Nassau County police liaison. At the time, it was called Police Boys Club (PBC) and offered boxing, baseball and basketball to about 200 children. The name was eventually changed to Police Athletic League, and then to Police Activity League. In 1973, The Farmingdale unit acquired the clubhouse on South Front Street through the assistance of the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at a cost of $2,500. Police Officer Frank Darcey was the liaison instrumental in making that happen, according to DiApice.

"The whole idea of it is to give the kids something to do, to keep them off the streets - to build a community relationship between the children of the community and the police officers. That's the whole intent of it. That was the intent of PAL," DiApice said. "That's why we still have police officers in charge of each unit."

Today, Farmingdale PAL offers an array of sports - basketball, bowling, karate, kick-line, twirling, lacrosse, track, baseball, and track - as well as a new youth leadership program to children in kindergarten through twelfth grade. The sports are played in school gymnasiums, as well as on school and community fields, and the leadership program meets in the clubhouse. Basketball is by far the largest program, followed by baseball and lacrosse, according to DiApice, who noted that all of the sports activities are in high demand. "We have waiting lines to get into our programs the first night of registration. We usually close out at least two or three divisions in the first night. That's how chaotic it gets," he said. "And that's because we're limited to the amount of gyms that we have. We can only grow so much based upon what the community has to offer us. We only have so many gyms and so many schools. We've only got so many fields that we can play baseball on and lacrosse on, so we can try to juggle and make everything fit and mix as close as possible, but sometimes we just run out of space."

He added that if the programs had more playing space, he would be able to register many more children. For example, he said, with more gymnasium space, the basketball program could grow by another 200 players. "That's how many kids want to play." This high demand for athletic programs, he observed, is reflective of the high demand throughout all sports leagues in Farmingdale, due to the community's high level of interest in sports.

During the construction period, all meetings that regularly take place in the clubhouse will be held at Farmingdale's Howitt School. Also during the interim, the club's equipment will be stored in the basement of Port Jefferson Sports.

DiApice is hopeful that with the new clubhouse, Farmingdale PAL will enjoy continued growth and community involvement. "If there are people who have ideas for programs, we'd love to hear them. We meet the first Wednesday of every month at around 8 o'clock," he said.