At the last meeting of the New Hyde Park Village Board, Mayor Warren Tackenberg submitted a proposal to the board that would authorize submitting a request for a grant to the state, for receiving monies to study the feasibility of building a new library in New Hyde Park.

Tackenberg said that $433 million has been set aside in the state for this program which is known as the Community Enhancement Facilities Program and he said he felt that money could be filtered down from that program. As of now, it appears that any new library would cost about $3 million.

The grant, to be drafted by School Board Trustee Curtis Axelsen, would be submitted in conjunction with both the New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School Board and the Hillside Library with the village acting as the lead agency. However, the grant must be submitted by Nov. 15, so time is of the essence.

The mayor explained that if, after an extensive study, this plan should ever come to fruition, the village would incorporate its library into the new one and the Hillside Library would be moved.

The mayor also said that the village would be willing to either donate Marcus Christ Hall for the library, demolish it and build a new library on that site or build a new library on the parking lot across from the village hall, where there would be room enough for not only a new library, but parking as well. Then the village would perhaps demolish Marcus Christ and use that area for parking since there would be a meeting room in the new library for organizations currently using the Marcus Christ Hall.

Mayor Tackenberg described it as a "win, win, win" situation since there is no room for expansion at the present site of the Hillside Library that is housed in the Manor Oaks School. The school really needs the room; New Hyde Park Library, housed in the lower level of village hall, is too small and the residents would have a brand new state-of-the art facility and if approved it may not cost the community very much money.

Therefore, the school board held a hasty meeting, in public the next night, prior to a work session, and passed a proposal to go forward with preparing the grant by approving and signing the proposal, as did the village officials.

However, the members of the library board, present at the school board meeting, were not in agreement. First of all, Maura Rossi was quite visibly upset and protested that the library board had not been notified of the meeting and only heard of it by accident. However, several of the school board trustees stated that they had been notified at the last minute, also, since the grant needs to be submitted by the middle of November.

Secondly, the library attorney, Frank Englert, was quite negative about applying for the grant, stating that perhaps it was not as much money as was thought for a feasibility study and alluded to the fact that the village would reap the benefits of any such study and eventual building.

Maura Rossi also stated that the library board has been meeting with architects and looking at various locations suitable for relocation and she felt the library should still have the option to do that.

New Hyde Park Village Trustee Florence Lisanti said that she had not planned to speak, but when Mr. Englert was so very negative about the proposal she said, "I feel like I am sitting back here 30 years ago because if you recall Mr. Englert, because you and I have the white hair, we went through this when the school district library was formed and there was that feeling down at the other end of town that now we were going to have two libraries. Now, we have all grown up. We have not only grown older but we have grown wiser. And, truly, while you might think we would be saving money for the village, we would really be giving ourselves a great school district library. Something we really need. We cannot depend on utilizing the space of a school any longer. We cannot ask the parents of this school not to have a school library available for their children during the day. It is important to have this."

Lisanti continued, "More importantly, this is only a study and as far as not wanting to get money from the state, Frank Englert, I can't believe you are talking like that. Frank Englert talked like this 35 years ago. He always did. But, this is my tax money up in Albany and I don't see anything wrong with getting this money for a feasibility study. Plus, don't think it is us (the village) and it would be the Union Free School District No. 5 Library and it would appear on our school district taxes, as it does now, and everybody would be proud."

Mayor Tackenberg said, "Mr. Montreuil (Vice President Lawrence Montreuil was chairing the meeting because President Suzanne Wenz was absent.) just presume, for argument's sake, that this collaborative agreement doesn't fly. What would the school board or library board do? You can't apply for a grant because you have to collaborate with someone. You would have to spend your own tax money. You'd have to get plans, buy your own property, which is a cost to the taxpayers. I didn't realize that there would be this kind of feeling here tonight. This is just a study and you won't have to pay a cent for it. And, it may turn out that this is not in the best interest of the community, then you can throw all of the papers away and continue to do what you were going to do. But, I feel State Senator Michael Balboni would be very happy to do whatever he could do if he saw that the village and school district were partners."

The mayor continued, "What you will have do to ultimately is stop using the library anyway, because it does not meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the village library does. Plus, you have to be aware that there are 3,000 homes in the village; 500 in the Elmont School District and 2,500 in the New Hyde Park/Garden City Park School District. Yes, you are right, Mr. Englert, the village would be one of the benefactors, but the bottom line is that we would be moving the Hillside Library and moving it from A to B. We would disband the village library, because we think it is in the best interest of the community to do that and your board would continue to run the school district library."

Maura Rossi said that the library board has a problem with the grant because it is not what it seems to be and she said that the library would like to pursue all of its options.

The meeting then closed with both the village and school board signing the resolution to go forward with the grant and the library board will meet, discuss the proposal and then get back to the school board, keeping in mind that there is a deadline in applying for the grant.