The members of the Great Neck Park District Board of Commissioners are bracing for an outbreak of “Affluenza” at Steppingstone Park.
After receiving a proposal from independent filmmaker Kevin Ashe to film a portion of his film “Affluenza” on the beach at Steppingstone Park, commissioners voted 2-1 during their meeting last Thursday to allow Great Neck Park District acting Superintendent Peter Renick to negotiate a fee for taping to take place at the Village of Kings Point park.
“It’s still in the works,” Renick said of the film project. “I have to get back to them and try to negotiate with them. (They) put in a request to do a couple-minute section of the movie on the beach there.”
The filming fee for sites within the Great Neck Park District is set at $325 per hour, Renick said.
“I thought originally it was going to be an all-day shoot,” he said. “They are asking for three or four hours.”
If filming is eventually approved, the shoot would begin in late July, Renick said.
“The board asked me to get a permit request from them, which they completed and also to get a description of the film,” the acting superintendent said.
Upon receiving a copy of the film’s script, Great Neck Park District Commissioner Ruth Tamarin said she was against allowing the movie to be made in Steppingstone Park. She was the lone dissenting vote against allowing Renick to negotiate fees for the project last week.
“I do not like the story and I do not think they should film it in our park,” Tamarin said. “It does not put Great Neck in a very good light.”
But park district attorney Christopher Prior said that voting against the project due based upon the content of the script would be illegal.
“I don’t see anything wrong with this,” Great Neck Park District Commissioner Dan Nachmanoff said. “‘The Great Gatsby’ is great literature. If it’s something similar that’s okay with me.”
Allowing the project to move forward would be worthwhile due to the $975 to $1,300 in fees the project would accrue for filming fees, Nachmanoff said.
Whatever it is, it’s okay,” Nachmanoff said. “Listen, if they are going to pay $325 an hour, who’s going to watch it? It’s an independent thing. Take the money and run.”
In other business, commissioners also approved a $1,600 contract for Santelli & Son to remove two trees that fell during a thunderstorm last Tuesday at Ravine Park.
“It is two trees that were blown over and leaning against each other,” Renick said.
Santelli & Son will cut down the trees, remove the wood and grind out the stumps, Renick said.
