Last August, village trustees voted in favor of entering into an agreement with Cathedral Nursery School to temporarily lease the cottages on the St. Paul's property. With not much said since then, residents who attended the Aug. 21 board meeting discovered that the nursery school is slated to open at the cottages Sept. 9 for the academic year.

Bill Bellmer, who noticed workers painting and renovating the cottages when he stopped by to see how the new driveway at St. Paul's was coming along, asked the board if he missed something.

"The last I had heard about the cottages and the nursery school was I think back last winter when the village had offered them a contract and they weren't happy with the possibility of the village taking it back on short notice," Bellmer said. "I haven't for one heard anything since then. I'm wondering whether I missed something."

Mayor Barbara Miller, who told Bellmer he did in fact "miss" something, looked to Village Counsel Gary Fishberg to fill in the holes. "An agreement was firmed up around February," he said, "and the school is expected to use five cottages."

The three-year license includes $1,000 per month in lease fees to be paid to the village. Cathedral Nursery School will pay for its own utilities and provide $20 million in insurance. "The school is doing the work at the cottages at their own expense to make them suitable for their purpose," Fishberg said.

All building codes have been approved, with extensive painting and interior work going on now. According to Village Administrator Robert Schoelle, Jr., the school is in the process of working out the driveway situation. "The access to the school is currently up in the air," Schoelle said, adding that he believes the only way the children would enter is through the gated entrance. As of press time, these details were being ironed out.

For quite some time, the nursery school had been looking for a temporary place to serve its students until it either found a new location by way of building or renting on a permanent basis.

Rev. James Cardone, dean of the Cathedral, said the Cathedral house is no longer a viable building and no longer safe for children and school staff. Out of the 230 people the Cathedral Nursery School serves, 175 are Village of Garden City residents, according to Cardone, who requested nothing more than a place to continue to serve students until a permanent home was found.

Fishberg noted at the Aug. 21 meeting that there's still a revision to terminate the lease agreement at the end of the school year. "The nursery school actually agreed to a news release that would make everybody feel comfortable in the event that the license was terminated early with a knowledge and understanding that this could happen," he said.

A Jefferson Street mother with three children, two of whom graduated from Cathedral Nursery School and another starting this month, was perturbed with the board's delay in moving forward last year. Voicing this concern to former mayor Robert Lewis and village trustees last August, she said, "Our children need a nursery school...The cottages are their only place to go. The cottages have been empty and if the Cathedral Nursery School is willing to put money into them [to renovate] and pay to lease them, what does the village have to lose?" she asked.

Cardone, who noted Cathedral Nursery School is "quite aware of the risk" in doing this, told the board that in the end, Garden City would benefit greatly. "Much more than we would because after we invest our money and vacate, the village will not be left with deteriorating cottages but with half of their cottages brought up to code," he said.