By a convincing vote of 1,149 in favor and 333 against, voters in the Village of East Hills approved a $17 million bond for a new state-of-the-art park to be constructed on the site off Harbor Hill Road where the Air National Guard station once stood.

The vote was a big win for the administration of Michael R. Koblenz and the current board of trustees; ever since the village had acquired the 50-plus acre landsite from the Air National Guard back in 2000.

Mayor Koblenz called the referendum "the largest vote by our village in its history." The results, he said, point to an "overwhelming mandate that we're doing the right thing by building a park."

The mayor added that he was glad there was both a large turnout and a large margin of victory for the bond referendum.

"We didn't want it to pass by a couple of votes," he said. The 77 percent vote in favor of the park now makes it easier for the village to proceed, Mayor Koblenz also said.

In early September, village officials announced that Wednesday, Oct. 8 would be the tentative date of the bond referendum. Prior to the vote, the village held public meetings on both Monday, Sept. 15 and Tuesday, Sept. 16. After a September BOT meeting, the village formalized Oct. 8 as the date of the vote.

Both meetings, which were held at the Roslyn Middle School, attracted large crowds and long public comment sessions. Village officials also had a slide show prepared for audience members. Anticipating the results of the vote, most residents who spoke at the meetings favored the park idea, but there were those who spoke in opposition, also.

Those who supported the park cited a need for such amenities as ball fields, but mostly, they felt the park would be a place that would bring people of all ages together, creating a greater sense of community in the village.

Park opponents claimed that the village didn't need such a park, since it is already home to numerous tennis courts, among other amenities. They also expressed concern over traffic, noise volumes, and the cost of constructing and maintaining the park.

The $17 million bond represented a decrease from the $28 million that was the village's original estimation of a bond act. Consequently, the final version of the park that voters approved was scaled-down from what the village also originally envisioned.

The Park at East Hills that the village will now begin work on will include an outdoor pool, a seniors lounge, basketball courts, ball fields, a hill for snow sledding, bicycle paths, and an amphitheater area.

With the bond act approved, the village plans to hold groundbreaking ceremonies this winter. Demolition and site preparation would begin in the spring of 2004, with basketball and tennis courts, among other facilities, to be in operation by the fall of that year. The village has set the summer of 2005 as the completion date for the entire park project.

In the past, village officials held off on a bond referendum, due mainly to Nassau County's precarious fiscal condition and to the unknown effects of the countywide property reassessment project. When announcing the Oct. 8 vote, village officials pointed to a combination of the "lowest interest rates in decades" plus the village's own high (Aa3) credit rating from Moody's, which, in part, convinced village officials to go ahead with the public meetings and the tentative referendum date.

In addition, a new county budget and the small effect reassessment had on local homeowners also convinced village officials to go ahead with the Oct. 8 vote.

On the financial side, village officials said that low interest rates would mean that the total estimated annual cost for the park for the average East Hills homeowner would be $758.62. However, with "potential 43 percent tax savings," the cost would be reduced to an estimated $432.52. Village officials have long claimed that a park will increase property values, a notion seconded by several local real estate agents.

While making their pitch to local residents for a new park, village officials also stress the need to "transform the military base," which they claim is on property that contains "asbestos-filled barracks, old Air National Guard offices and buildings, and neglected or discarded military facilities." Up to one-third of all costs related to a new park would be directed toward demolition work, plus re-grading projects on the current property.

After the Cold War ended, numerous, small-scale military bases around the country began closing down. East Hills officials were aware that the Air National Guard base could, in time, also be shut down.

If that happened, village officials were also concerned that the site might be replaced by "low-income housing, a major commercial post office processing facility, or...a drug rehabilitation center." And indeed, the Department of Housing and Urban Development did express an interest in the property as a future site for low-income housing.

Consequently, the village moved quickly to purchase the facility from the U.S. Air Force. With help from Rep. Gary Ackerman, congressional committees approved the idea of a village purchase. Eventually, the village did purchase the property for a cost of a little over $3 million. On Dec. 9, 2000, the property was officially transferred from the Air Force to the Village of East Hills.

Several years ago, when the village announced its desire to build a park on the Air National Guard site, it formed citizen committees to draw up plans and drafts for a proposed new park. Even though the scope of the project has been reduced, the work those volunteers did laid the groundwork for the park plans that East Hills residents overwhelmingly approved last Wednesday.