The planned group home for Roslyn Estates is set to become a reality. The residence, which is located at 5 The Pines and is being operated by the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (AHRC), will be home for six mentally retarded middle-aged women.

Much work still needs to be done on the house. And so the new residents won't move in until January 2004 at the earliest, said Michael Mascari, executive director of AHRC.

Last June, Mascari, executive director of AHRC, met the Roslyn Estates public at a hearing held at the Roslyn Middle School. After that meeting, which was attended by well over 100 local residents, the Roslyn Estates board of trustees asked Mascari to consider an alternative site for the home, one located at 58 Mineola Avenue. Mascari agreed to consider the site.

In time, AHRC personnel did an evaluation of the site, but in the end, they preferred the location at 5 The Pines. According to Mascari, AHRC personnel wrote a letter to the Roslyn Estates board of trustees, explaining their position.

Executives from AHRC also met with the immediate residents of their planned new home. The AHRC people agreed to a landscaping plan that would take place between the house at 5 The Pines and adjoining properties. The AHRC also addressed resident concerns about who their new neighbors will be. "We want to continue to work with the neighbors," Mascari said of local residents.

Mascari also said that there would be no changes to the exterior of the house. However, much architectural work on the interior needs to be completed. In addition, the AHRC still needs to secure more state funding.

The group home debate started when the previous owners of the property at 5 The Pines sold their house to another couple. That couple, as it turned out, were parents of a mentally retarded daughter. The new owners planned to give the house at 5 The Pines to the AHRC as a gift, one designed to be a group home.

AHRC executives surveyed the property and found it acceptable as the site for a group home. Even though there was opposition to the group home idea from Roslyn Estates residents, the AHRC people had New York State law on their side while pursuing their plans.

Back in the 1970s, the state assembly passed its "Padavan Law," one named for the state senator from Queens County. That law mandates that any municipality cannot stop such a group home from being operated simply because they don't want it in their village.

The only recourse for a municipality that has misgivings about a group home is to offer an alternative site, one that must be considered "superior" to the group home company's location.

During the June meeting, Herbert Balin, an attorney for the Concerned Citizens of Roslyn Estates, offered the residence at 58 Mineola Avenue as the alternate site. Balin said he had a petition signed by 330 Roslyn Estates residents that expressed their concerns about the site at 5 The Pines.

Balin said that he and presumably, the petitioners, were not against what the AHRC does or stands for. He did, however, believe that AHRC had made a "poor" site selection when they choose 5 The Pines as a place for a new group home. Balin claimed that the site at 58 Mineola Avenue was superior because it was closer to local shopping and dining establishments.

Opposition to the group home from Roslyn Estates residents was based on traffic concerns, parking for staff members, the status of the live-in caretakers, the legal status of the home, and whether such a multifunctional home would function in a residential village.

Also at the June meeting, Michael Mascari explained how AHRC operates a group home and what kind of people live at them. He said that AHRC houses no more than six people in any of its homes, which they prefer to be located in suburban residential neighborhoods.

The middle-aged ladies who will be living at 5 The Pines would not, he said, be spending their weekdays in Roslyn, but rather would be traveling to Great Neck during daytime hours to do volunteer work and other activities. Staff members would be present at the home during daytime and evening hours. The residents' parents would also make regular visits to the home.

Among the afflictions group home residents suffer from are Down's Syndrome and occasionally seizures. Mascari urged local residents to keep an open mind about their new neighbors, to meet them just to see "what kind of people they are." He said that despite their handicaps, they can interact with other people in a variety of ways. "Socially and emotionally, they have a lot to offer," Mascari concluded.