Trustee DeMaro: We Are Moving Forward With Senior Center Project

Trustee John DeMaro assured a room full of mostly senior citizens Thursday that the board is moving forward with Golf Club Lane senior center renovations.

It was welcomed news for many who attended Thursday's village board meeting, including George Salem who told trustees he thought he was dreaming when he read the board's statement regarding plans to move forward.

"I thought it was a hoax. I had to pinch myself to prove that I was awake," he said. "But it turns out to be true and it's wonderful."

Salem, who serves as co-chair of the Garden City Retired Men's Club, has been critical of the board's delay in getting the project started. He congratulated the board on releasing the Aug. 14 press release, "which seems to grant the seniors virtually all they've requested during the last two years of debate. In fact they gave us even more than we asked for."

Leo Stimmler, who's voiced his opposition to the project, said it's nothing more than a "bridge player initiative." His opinion was met with growls from the audience. "Every person who's come to this microphone the past two months is a bridge player, with the exception of Joe Leto. Other than that, every person who's come here and advocated is a bridge player."

He refutes the argument that the center is too small, citing the number of bridge players that meet there weekly and cautioned trustees to think about the $600,000+ expenditure.

"Trustee Silver and you Mr. Mayor say how important the budget is. As Mr. Salem said earlier sounds like you've gone way beyond that $633,000. If it's true, and I hope you find out if it really is, is this really a senior initiative? I don't think so - not when you look at the senior survey from last August, not when you look at the recent recreational survey. This is an initiative of the bridge players. Given what you said about how serious and how tight the budget is and everyone to consider their budget flat I think it's very important."

Fifteenth Street resident Patricia Donnelly, who prefaced her remarks by stating she is not a bridge player, is in favor of the project. "I have been advocating for two and a half years for a bonafide senior citizen center, which every place almost in the United States has," she said. "I think its an excellent concept ... I am not a bridge player and I am supporting this initiative."

Claire Burns of Roxbury Road, in a letter to Mayor John Watras, submitted a petition signed by more than 500 senior and non-senior residents.

"There was a great many more non-seniors signing it than seniors," another resident said. "I play bridge but I don't see one non-senior in our bridge club. There are a lot of young people in there early 50s and 60s that are so happy about your comments and none of them are bridge players."

Though trustees have made no final decision on the project, they did ask the architect to increase the size of the proposed expansion by an additional 40 feet or so, and to modify the front access to the building, which would allow for a larger lounge area, a better positioning of the bathrooms, increased storage and a larger kitchen. The architect was also asked to consider an enhanced patio and outdoor barbecue setup and a built-in generator for emergency service.

"We're going through a vetting process to see how it's going to look," Mayor Watras said. "We're moving forward with it, we are just going over some of the details."

A public meeting is expected to be held in early September to field questions surrounding the renovations and scope, trustee Andrew Cavanaugh said. There will be a public presentation of the architect's plans and a full discussion about what will be decided and how it will be decided, he added.