The-Helm_1974-11-13; Lynbrook Helm Independent Review

              Vol. 14 No. 24 Entered a s Second—Class Matter
P o s t Office, l^jmbrook, N.Y. LY 3-1300 THE FAMILY NEWSPAPER Wednesday, November 13,1974 '
Lynbrook Residents Voice
Rent Control Displeasure
At Village Board Meeting
State Increases
Are Outrageous
A packed board room of irate
Lynbrook residents let Mayor
Francis X. Becker and the
Lynbrook Board of Trustees
know last week just how they felt
about the necessity of "rent
control" or some sort of or-dinance-
regulating rents in the
seven large apartment houses in
the Village of Lynbrook. The
voice of John Q. Public was heard
in no uncertain terms as they
were given a chance to take the
floor and explain the poor con-dition
of their buildings, the
hardship of a sudden 25 percent
or even 40 percent rent raises
without any prior notice the fact
that they number approximately
3,000 among the local population
and enjoy suburban living
(especially Lynbrook) but many
may not be able to stay if the rent
situations and 'other things'
continue to escalate.
Lynbrook Mayor Francis X.
Becker stated he had held three
meetings with at least six of the
major apartment landlords to
discuss their side of the problem
and that most of the people
present had been notified to come
down to the meeting to see and
hear if some 'meeting of the
minds' could be worked out
either by a tenant's committee or
a joint landlords and tenants
committee.
Many tenants were heard from
and one, Leroy Fitzgerald
abruptly left the meeting in 'open
disgust' after stating that "he
was wasting his time." He is a
resident of the 210 Atlantic Ave.
building.
PETITION SUBMITTED
Louis Kessler of 30 Daley Place
handed a very lengthy petition to
Mayor Becker and explained that
as a 43 year resident and former
home owner he had been active a
few years ago when the problem
of rent control had come up and
knew what the problems were
from every point of view.
Richard Levey of 2 Fowler
Ave. said that as a former lan-dlord
and in a similiar situation
to that of the apartment house
owners (vesent he was aware of
their difficulties such as in-creased
costs, but he could not
understand why they "could not
increase the rent on a gradual
scale so that families would have
a chance to budget and prepare
for the increased rental costs."
As various speakers held the
floor it became apparent that
there were many inequities in the
rental fees charged for similar
size and locat^ apartments.
This was explained as due to the
various tenants who had signed
leases at different times. One
resident. Jack Leventhal of 200
Atlantic Ave., said his building
was so changed and run down
that it now, "houses drug addicts,
homosexuals, lesbians and
welfare receipients and contains
a very bad drainage problem and
that crimes such as burglaries
and other disturbances, he had
never known in the past year
when police have to be con-tacted."
Another resident said
when he first met Mayor Becker,
prior to a previous election,
conditions were much different
and he hoped that his building
would show a continued main-tenance
and improvement but
'sadly' this had not been the case.
The meeting with the Mayor
had been the first and last time
their building recreation room
had been used or opened to
tenants.
William Fine of The Noble
House Apartments spoke, as did
Mrs. Patricia Carr of 20 Daley
Place. They discussed at great
length the Daley Place and
Fowler Ave. buildings because
the three landlords of these
buildings were present and read
an explanatory report of their
costs including real estate taxes,
fuel oil, roof repairing and
mortgage payments and stated
that they had not realized even a
fair return of any kind on their
No 'Prior Notice'
Angers Tenants
ownership and rentals of the
buildings and that all apartments
would gradually be brought into
the same rent caitegory as the
leases were renewed. Becker
asked Levey to chair a tenants
committee but he declined
preferring to be nominated from
the floor. The mayor later
suggested that tenants leave and
continue their discussion
elsewhere as it was already 11:00
P.M. and there was a 24 item
agenda to be discussed at the
regular board of trustees
meeting.
NOT RENT CONTROLLED
In a subsequent interview with
Richard Levey, of 2 Fowler Ave.,
the Helm - Review has learned
that it is not a "rent control" act
[Continued on page 8]
Malverne School District
Concludes Meeting Series
The Malverne School District,
which encompasses a portion of
that Village as well as areas of
Lynbrook, Rockville Centre and
West Hempstead, has completed
a series of four community
meetings at which the status of
elementary schools was ex-tensively
discussed.
Robert L. Fraissinet, president
of the Board of Education,
presided at each of the meetings
held on consecutive Tuesdays
from September 24, through
October 15, at the Davison
Avenue and Lindner Place
schools. A total of between 200
and 300 people attended the
meetings and heard reported
deficiencies and problems of the
existent elementary schools.
Complaints ranged from
inadequate wiring to sub-standard
structures, and in-cluded
painting, maintenance
and renovation suggestions.
Solutions offered from the
community encompassed those
in favor of making only im-mediate
repairs needed, while
other recommendations called
for the eventual closing of the two
existent structures and the
building of a new facility, or the
re-opening of the Woodfield Road
School. (This is a District
elementary building which was
closed in 1968 under the Allen
Plan and is presently rented to
Nassau County for Day Care and
Day Care office space.
APPARENT SUPPORT
The majority of the comments
appeared to support a planned
refurbishing program, with a
certain number of dollars
allocated each year for repair,
maintenance and improvements.
The precise range of "ac-ceptable"
expenditures in this
area, was vague, and that is the
reason the Malverne Board has
decided to heed the advice of a
number of District residents and
poll the community, according to
Fraissinet. Several times during
the meetings, he reminded the
audience that Propositions for
this type of expenditure had been
voted down by the District in two
successive years.
In the official survey, which
should be in the hands of District
residents by the middle of this
month, as many of the
suggestions as possible made at
these meetings are to be
presented for further community
reaction, and" the questionnaire
will also provide space for ad-ditional
comments. (Malverne
District residents are reminded
that additional copies are
available at the Administration
Building behind the High School
on Ocean Avenue in Malverne in
the event that one is not received
in the mail).
According to Fraissinet, if the
optimum were to be attained and
both elementary schools were put
into "perfect operational order,"
there would still be no firm
guarantee that additional monies
would not have to be expended.
As he explained, "both buildings
are very old, and every authority
we have consulted - including
Ewell Finley, our own Trustee
who is a professional structural
engineer - warns us that the age
factor must be a major con-sideration.
That's why we want to
know the wishes of the District
voters before we make specific
recommendations.''
VOICED DISPLEASURE
In May of 1973, the voters of the
District turned down by a wide
margin a Referendum for the
building of a new Elementary
School which would have cost
approximately $4.4 million.
Fraissinet reported "We feel a bit
frustrated; we know the com-munity
said 'no' to a new school
and we had two propositions for
improvements to the present
[Continued on page 8]