Thank you for your reporting on the Plandome Manor Referendum issue. There are many things that occurred outside of public view that explain the vote.

Many residents don’t know that until the late 1980s, the village clerk was required to be a resident of the village and use a room in their home for village business. At the time the village purchased the Circle Drive property, the clerk lived on Janssen Drive, within view of the property. In the late 1980s the village clerk lived on Circle Drive on a property that was subdivided a few years ago and now has two large homes.

In a letter dated Feb. 9, 1944, Clarence B. Maguire, Esq. (31 Circle Drive), asked the village clerk about the village’s intentions regarding the property the village was in the process of purchasing. The clerk wrote that it was intended for a village building. Village residents have been arguing about this property for 78 years.

For years, the village office was located in the Science Museum. In minutes from a BOT meeting on Sept. 21, 1999, Mayor Manganillo reported that they were continuing to seek alternative solutions to relocate the village office. At the time, the office did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was upstairs and the museum had no elevator. Furthermore, the office was too small and not solely for use by the village.

On July 31, 2001, Mayor Manganillo reported that he was trying to get permission to have a hall on the museum’s property.

At the same time, the board created a committee to look into other options. One was the purchase of 225 Stonytown Road. It was a perfect solution. It was next to the village parking lot at the train, and it would have solved two problems at once…the need for a village hall and meet the demands of some residents for more commuter parking. It wasn’t done because no one wanted to spend the money. Architectural drawings exist for the proposed project.

Drawings also exist for another option. That option would have put a village hall on the north side of the village lot with 16 parking spaces on the south side. Neither option was accepted by the Board.

At the BOT meeting on Oct. 16, 2001, Trustee LaManna expressed her concerns about leasing an office with undefined market rent. She said, “The board would be acting in its best fiduciary responsibility in providing the Village residents with a low-cost home in perpetuity.”

Here we are, 20 years later, still looking for a home.

At this time, there are only four residents of Circle Drive who have served on any of the village boards. The longest serving is current Trustee Pat O’Neill. Before being a trustee, Pat served on the DRB. She has served, as all board members do, without compensation on a volunteer basis. I consider myself lucky to count Pat as a friend.

Most of the people who acted behind the scenes to defeat the referendum have not served the village in any way. Emails were sent to select residents from a group representing the Circle Drive neighborhood. One of the pictures of children at the village property was taken on Oct. 20, 2002. The Circle Civic Association hosted a pumpkin party for the neighborhood children. Those children are all grown up now.

Although I was not on the list of recipients, one email was forwarded to me. It was dated Jan. 18 and came from Dawn Ader. She complained that “it seems underhanded” that the BOT meeting was on the following Tuesday and the village had sent out a notice of the agenda on Friday afternoon. It was MLK weekend and she didn’t think she had enough advance notice. She went on to say “the takeaway is that they plan to move forward regardless of what residents think.”

The evidence of the reporting in the local newspapers disproves that claim. Ms. Ader also wrote “it seems they are providing false information.” The petition at the end of her email demanded to know when the lot was purchased, from whom, and for what purpose. The purpose was clearly stated in the clerk’s letter to Mr. Maguire in 1944.

Another email from “maintainourneighborhood” dated Jan. 17 claimed: “And the Village has already done the following: Presumably spent an unknown amount of public funds…Presumably retained engineers, architects, attorneys and/or accountants.” The writer claimed that the village had done something and then admitted that they were presuming the village had done something. They continued to repeat their presumptions as fact.

Two candidates conducted a write-in campaign for the position of trustee in the March election. Terry Gangaram wrote: “Seeing that unchecked powers within our village office has deemed that a house is worth more than the people who live here…taking away our quality of life and our open space…for their sole benefit!” Whose sole benefit is he talking about?

For anyone clamoring for more open space, why aren’t you demanding changes to the zoning laws of the village to limit the size of homes being built. Smaller homes leave more green space around each home. And why do some Circle Drive residents think they are entitled to a park in their neighborhood? If such an entitlement exists, why aren’t more Manhasset residents demanding parks in their neighborhood? I wonder how many Circle Drive residents spent a great deal of money on a home just so their children can play near the railroad tracks. Why can’t they play in their own green space, in the safety and privacy of their back gardens?

Circle Drive residents complain that a village hall would bring extra traffic to our neighborhood. An open secret in this village is that some of our Circle Drive neighbors allow commuters to park in their driveways. Then they clutter our narrow roads with their own cars. How are these commuters different intrusions to our neighborhood than visitors to Village Hall would be?

Circle Drive residents defeated the referendum and ensured that a small house that has been in this neighborhood for a century is no longer acceptable. What the people who are celebrating this defeat don’t realize is that the problem of village hall has not been solved. As Mr. Gargaram told NBC News, he thought the village needed to find another place for village hall. Did he offer any suggestions of where it should be or how to finance it? No, he did not.

The obvious way to finance a purchase of an existing house for village hall would be to sell the property to a developer. Then another large home would be built, far larger than the Richardson house, and all residents would lose easy access to the LIRR platform. How many of the people who voted to defeat the referendum are looking forward to walking on Stonytown Road on an icy winter’s night?

The most appalling thing that occurred during these past few months was Trustee O’Neill received an email from someone who wrote: “you and (thug Ed) decided you would like to force your personal agenda on the community. Putting your ego and the potential ill-gotten gains above all of your neighbors”…”you were sneaky, underhanded and deceptive.”

I was a trustee of the village when Mr. Butt was hired to be our Building Inspector. He does his job well, is knowledgeable, and honest. Both Ed and Pat have given their professional time and skills to this village for the betterment of the village. No one who has attacked them can say the same for themselves.

Shame on the people who hid behind made-up email addresses and posed as representatives of the neighborhood. Unfortunately, they chose to put their energies into the destruction of reputations rather than finding a solution to the village’s problem.

Jean Kuskowski
Plandome Manor