It’s time for transparency in the Great Neck Park District.
The Great Neck Park District’s duty is to negotiate leases for the benefit of all its
residents.
The lease for Kings Point Park is so one-sided that it permits the Village of Kings
Point to cancel the lease and take back the park after park district residents have invested
millions in rent and improvements.
A real likelihood exists that this will occur, and the commissioners did not guarantee any lasting benefit to the taxpayers other than saddling them with $15million in debt.
This lease is a blueprint for the destruction of the forested parkland and protected
wetlands in the 173-acre Kings Point Park. The park is 90% protected wetlands that cannot be built on, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The lease lists items it plans on constructing in the Park such as: synthetic turf fields, more parking areas, an athletic indoor field house, a bubble with turf fields, indoor tennis courts, a park building for onsite maintenance and recreation, and more, all of which cannot be built on protected wetlands!
The lease clearly favors the Village of Kings Point.
● Raises the yearly rent 900% (from $37,000.00 to $350,000.00)
● Adds additional $100,000 yearly rent for a parking lot at Steppingstone Park
● Obligates all taxpayers of the Great Neck Park District to obtain and pay for a
$15 million bond. Put $10 million of improvements into Kings Point Park
– How? Where? You can’t touch 90% of the park!?
And $5,000,000.00 in improvements into parks only in Kings Point. So, all of Great Neck Park District residents pay for improvements in park district properties in Kings Point and the Village of Kings Point can then refuse to renew the lease.
Also, the Village of Kings Point receives all improvements paid for by taxpayers for free if the lease is canceled in 20 years.
The park district approved the Village of Kings Point’s request to alienate (remove
from park status) 5 acres of parkland.
The Village will now seek this approval from the state Legislature in exchange for a parking lot next to Steppingstone. What land were they really thinking of alienating?
Don’t be fooled by the park district telling you it was the 5 acres of forested parkland. That land is not part of the lease so the Park District would not need to approve it.
This lease is just one example of abuse of your hard-earned tax dollars. It is also
an environmental disaster! The destruction of forests and wetlands will lead to more flooding in Kings Point and the surrounding areas as there will be nowhere for the floodwaters to go.
Residents are concerned that Kings Point parkland will be leased or sold and that
access roads will be built through the Park. The only thing holding back the construction of a large parking lot (as originally planned) behind the enormous community center/religious school being built on Steamboat Road is the green light from the village and park district.
Five-story buildings can now be built on Steamboat Road bordering the park courtesy of the new law passed by the Village of Great Neck.
And while the Village of Kings Point denies plans to build roads through the park, when emergency vehicles can’t get access due to traffic, a road or roads will most certainly be built – through the environmentally protected wetlands.
The commissioners entrusted to protect our parks and tax dollars are not working
for us, as demonstrated most recently by this poorly negotiated lease.
They are also depleting the park district reserves (just ask to see their budget), scheduling public meetings on short notice to reduce turnout (in violation of New York State Public Officers Law), ignoring resident requests to see financial documents (flouting Freedom of Information Law Requests) and spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on outdoor skating rinks to gain support days before the election.
(In 2019, approximately $400,000.00 was spent for Frank Cilluffo’s contested election and now over $30,000.00 is being spent for Tina Stellato’s contested election the weekend before the election).
The legitimacy of the recent park commissioner Elections is questioned.
In 2021 Vanessa Tamari harvested thousands of ballots. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/21/2076088/-Local-Election-Proves-How-To-for-Rightwi ngers-Laying-Steppingstones-for-Higher-Offices .
In 2022 Cilluffo collected 700 ballots in one weekend. In both elections, voters who wish to remain anonymous for fear of retribution realized that an absentee ballot was cast in their name when they never requested one.
Park district employees questioned the legitimacy of the election. The Park District immediately gave the employees a 4% raise, told them to accept the election results, asked them not to backbite others and to report those who do. Now, in 2023, the Park District has processed over 1,300 absentee ballots, and it is questioned how many are for incumbent Commissioner Tina Stellato.
Stellato’s husband, a park district employee, quadrupled his salary from 2019 to 2022 while his wife has been serving as park commissioner. www.seethroughny.net
The Great Neck Park District and its parks are the crown jewel of Great Neck, setting it
apart from all other Long Island towns. But present leadership and Commissioners seem intent on destroying them.
Act now, stop the destruction of Kings Point Park!
1. Contact state Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti
https://nyassembly.gov/mem/Gina-L-Sillitti/contact
2. and state Sen. Jack Martins
https://www.nysenate.gov/senators/jack-m-martins/conta ct
and demand that they NOT sponsor or vote for a bill to alienate ANY land in
Kings Point Park.
3. Vote out Tina Stellato as commissioner on Tuesday, Dec. 12
4. Request an investigation into the Great Neck Park District by state Comptroller
Thomas DiNapoli https://www.osc.ny.gov/investigations
5. Request an investigation into the Great Neck Park District by state Attorney
General Letitia James https://ag.ny.gov/file-complaint/corruption-wrongdoing
Carl Schweitzer
Great Neck