Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman said Tuesday town officials recently met with Manouchehr Malekan, the owner of the Roslyn Country Club, to discuss the purchase of the 10-acre property in Roslyn Heights, but declined to offer details of the meeting.
Kaiman made the announcement at the outset of a scheduled hearing to discuss the town’s proposed takeover of the property, which the town intends to convert into a town park that would include a pool and tennis courts.
The property also includes a catering hall operated by Malekan.
Kaiman called the meeting “positive” and said discussion with Malekan would continue.
“We want to find some middle ground where we keep the pool and he keeps the catering hall,” Kaiman said.
The town’s primary objective is to preserve the open space and let the catering hall remain in private hands, Kaiman said. The town plans to charge membership fees for the pool and enclose the tennis courts that he said would be available to all residents.
The town board decided to postpone the hearing scheduled for Tuesday until August 23 in light of the negotiations, but agreed to go ahead with public comment from residents that filled the meeting hall.
Clarifying what he called “misinformation” circulating about the plan, Kaiman said that Roslyn Country Club is a housing development built by Levitt & Sons in the late 1940s which included a pool and tennis courts as amenities for the use of its residents.
Anonymously authored flyers have been circulating since last month’s meeting when the town proposed condemning the property and taking it over under eminent domain. The flyers said that taxpayers would foot the bill for the town to operate a country club.
Kaiman said membership fees, likely $1,000 per family, would cover the cost of operating the facility.
“There’s a feeling you’re leaving the community out of this,” said North Hills resident Steve Morris. “Many people feel this is unconstitutional. We think the thing to do is to let the town decide, let the town vote.”
That drew applause from some people in the packed town board meeting, which was frequently interrupted by spontaneous crowd reactions to the speakers.
Jim McHugh, president of New Hyde Park Civic Association, said based on his estimate of $25 million to replace the pool, a bond would require the town to pay $750,000 in annual interest. He added that even if most of the Roslyn Country Club residents joined the pool, membership fees would not cover the interest.
Kaiman replied that the facility would open to all town residents and said inquiries the town had received from residents from other municipalities indicated that it would have 600 members ready to sign up for memberships.
“There’s an indication that there are people from beyond Roslyn Country Club who would be willing to join,” Kaiman said. “Preserving open space has a value to the larger community.”
Kaiman said the town is also concerned about preserving tax revenues, so it would want the catering facility to remain in place.
McHugh said conversations he’d had with residents outside of Roslyn Heights indicated that most people don’t believe the town-owned facility would be “revenue-neutral.”
“I don’t have any numbers,” McHugh said.
“Before we make a decision, you will have plenty of time to review the numbers,” said Town of North Hempstead Councilman Thomas Dwyer, who questioned McHugh’s cost estimate.
Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, assistant superintendent of business for the East Williston School District, said the school district is concerned about preserving the tax revenues it receives from the catering facility and asked what the town planned to do “to protect our taxes.”
Kaiman said either Manekan would retain ownership of the catering facility, or it would be leased out if it was included in the town’s proposed purchase.
“Every time we meet, there seems to be a new wrinkle,” said Roslyn Country Club resident Loyd Gelb. “This is all pie in the sky.”
He called for the town to do a traffic study to gauge the impact of a town membership facility on the area and suggested a demographic analysis of the town to project potential membership interest.
Todd Zarin, a member of the board of directors of the Roslyn Country Club Civic Association, said he supported the town’s initiative to take over pool and tennis courts. Zarin said the issue was being “politicized” by opponents circulating flyers with inaccurate information.
“The disinformation that’s been circulating has been most disheartening,” Zarin said.
Robert Hersh, who said his house borders the property expressed confidence in the town board’s judgment.
“You have the expertise in running parks and recreation facilities. I think it would be a very good addition to the assets of this town,” he said.
Roslyn Heights resident Heather Schwartz thanked the board for its commitment to “open space” and presented a folder of letters from town residents supporting the town’s takeover move. She said she has submitted hundreds of such letters to the town since the first public hearing last month.
Reacting to critics of the initiative near the end of the hearing, Kaiman said, “We don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘Let’s screw some town today’. We try to do the best for everybody.”
