Jean Davis from Nassau County Head Start came to the High Street Community Center on Tuesday, Feb. 10, to address a group of Manhasset-Great Neck Head Start parents and, she said, "to calm the waters." She was not successful.

Present at the meeting were Manhasset-Great Neck Head Start Director Stephanie Chennault, officers of the Manhasset-Great Neck Head Start board, Head Start staff members, parents and members of the Manhasset-Great Neck EOC (Economic Opportunity Council) board of directors as well as other members of the community. The Manhasset-Great Neck EOC Board of Directors is currently suing the Nassau County EOC for what it claims was the wrongful transfer of 65 High Street from the local to the county EOC.

The meeting opened with a regular business meeting of the Manhasset-Great Neck Head Start. A camera crew from Channel 12 was also present but Ms. Davis asked them to leave before she began her remarks. When this reporter attempted to take her picture and a picture of those in attendance, Ms. Davis objected. She did not, however, ask me to leave although she clearly would have preferred it.

She began by telling the parents of the wonderful opportunity that had recently been made available to the children of Head Start through computers that had been installed. "We (Nassau County EOC) have managed and administered Head Start in Manhasset for 30 years," she said. "It is our intent to administer the program in this community." She went on to say that there are problems with 65 High Street. "It is an old facility. We intend to find a new home for Head Start that will accommodate more children, younger children. If we expand we will need space. We would like families in this community to find a new facility. Until we do we'll stay here," she said.

She held out the possibility of new federal money becoming available to build a new facility for the Head Start program, but conceded that there is no assurance that the money will be allocated to the local program and that no application for federal funds has been made.

After her remarks Ms. Davis entertained questions from the floor. The first questioner stated that money, if it becomes available, should be put into the existing building. "Who's in charge of the money," he asked. Ms. Davis replied that Nassau EOC had put thousands of dollars in the building to maintain it. "At some point it's good money going after bad," she said.

Another questioner asked her how unsafe the building is. "I'm not suggesting it's unsafe," she replied, "It's a licensed facility."

Asked by Sylvester Johnson, vice president of the local Manhasset/Great Neck EOC board of directors why the Nassau County EOC had chosen the present time to consider closing the building, she replied, "Why not now? Head Start has money and authorization to purchase property." Mr. Johnson asked when the memo concerning the federal money would be made public and Ms. Davis said that it was a letter from the federal government and she would need authority to make it public.

Another person asked why the money could not be used to renovate 65 High Street and once again Ms. Davis said that she did not know whether it would be cost effective. "It was closed as a school for many reasons," she said. (In fact, the Valley School was closed when the courts stated that the school was "de facto segregated" and hence illegally operated. When it was closed the children were divided up between Munsey Park School and the Plandome Road School, later Shelter Rock.

Another member of the audience told Ms. Davis that there is no property in the immediate area to build another facility and again asked why the money could not be used to fix High Street. Ms. Davis said that in Westbury they found property.

The meeting continued with these exchanges becoming repetitious. After the meeting Mr. Johnson spoke with this reporter and Channel 12. He called Ms. Davis' remarks "a smoke screen, made because of the lawsuit. Mr. Johnson also said that the reason previous attempts to improve the condition of 65 High Street were not successful were because Nassau EOC insisted on using its own contractors who performed shoddy work.

On Wednesday evening, after this paper went to press, a community action rally was held at 65 High Street. Jerome Blocker, chairman of the board of Manhasset-Great Neck EOC said the purpose of the rally was "to protest the action of the EOC of Nassau County in attempting to dismantle the activities of this 70-year-old community center and jeopardize vital youth and family programs." Mr. Blocker said that residents are furious at the EOC of Nassau County's attempt to relocate the Head Start Program which currently serves 60 families and has been housed in the High Street center for more than 25 years. He added that other valuable programs threatened are the Adventures in Learning After-School Tutorial Program, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Planned Parenthood Teen Workshops, recreational programs, a summer program which enrolled 80 children last summer and emergency food and emergency housing services.

"Members of the local EOC Board of Directors and residents in the community consider the county's action to be retaliatory because of the lawsuit filed by the Manhasset-Great Neck EOC against the EOC of Nassau County regarding the fraudulent transfer of Title of Property from the Manhasset-Great Neck EOC to the EOC of Nassau County," Mr. Blocker said. He added that "While controversy has existed for years between the Manhasset-Great Neck EOC, led by a board of community activists, and the EOC of Nassau County headed by John Kearse over repairs to the building, it wasn't until the local residents recently discovered that the deed to their building was transferred without their knowledge to the EOC of Nassau County in 1992 that legal action was undertaken."

On Feb. 20 a hearing will take place in the New York State Supreme Court in Mineola for an injunction preventing the closing of the building and the termination of its staff pending the outcome of the lawsuit. For further information, call Jerome Blocker, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Manhasset-Great Neck Economic Opportunity Council at (516) 487-2081. The Nassau County EOC has declined to discuss the issue with this paper.