Page 27 - Demo

PHOENIX, Page ThreeDisputes Id e aLICH L ib ra ry h id e s b e h in d this n e w fence. p h o e n i x P h o toSays LICH Hid OKFiles Open to CPCOf CRelief of the crowded conditions at Park Slope%u2019s John Jay High School does not necessitate building on the controversial Gowanus site, Dominick Polimeni, President of the Italian-American Council says.Referring to reports of a recent meeting at the high school, Polimeni disputes Carroll Gardens resident Peter Drago%u2019s contention that the canal border between Fifth and Ninth Sts. is the only viable setting for quick building of a District 15 upper school. The people in the immediate area have rejected it, he says, and therefore he feels that possibilities for its utilization are nonexistant. The questions, anxieties and fears of the community must be appreciated, Polimeni adds,Polimeni, who lived in Carroll Gardens until recently and is now a Boerum Hill resident, advises that the Board of Education plans to utilize buildings in the downtown area for high school students. With the conversion of Sarah J. Hale H.S. to a comprehensive setup next year, relief of the John Jay situation will be sufficient, he feels.In what has been termed %u201c an amazing reversal%u201d by many local civic workers, the N.Y. State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Henry L. Diamond has revealed that the Red Hook Water Pollution Control Plant has been given Number One priority for construction, moved up from No. 20 on the state%u2019s list of recommendations to the federal government for financing aid.The Red Hook Plant, long referred to by city and state officials as a must if there is to be any improvement in the condition of the waters in the Gowanus Canal and along the Brooklyn shore of the N.Y. Harbor, would end the current practice of dumping rawsewage from city sewers into the harbor.The announcement of the change in priorities came in a communication from Diamond to N.Y.C. Water Resources Commissioner Martin Lang, which was announced Jan. 11, only two weeks before a major meeting of community groups on the canal conditions, set for Thurs., Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. Sponsored hv the Ad Hoc Committee to Clean the Gowanus Canal, the meeting is set for then l H S %u25a0 a a m w mThe Board of Ed. is looking into the possibilities of using alternative sites, says Stephan Aiello, special assistant to Dr. Lachman of the Board.Present plans are to move the current Sarah J. Hale setup into 500 Pacific St. which is now used for an alternative high school. The alternative school will probably be moved into the old Friends School and the Sarah J. Hale building will house a comprehensive school, Aiello says.Other possibilities also include the incorporation of a high school into the Atlantic Terminal project.According to Aiello, the Board of Ed%u2019s inclusion of the %u201c Gowanus%u201d school in their budgetary proposals, does not necessitate using the contested site. As a matter of fact, he adds, the Board has found after a two-year study that the Gowanus situation is fraught with a potential confrontation, which they want to avoid. %u201c Though we have concluded that the majority of the South Brooklyn community is apathetic, the vocal minorities on opposite sides could polarize the area,%u201d he feels.Carroll Park Library, Clinton and Union St.The $800 million project, which would be built on a 9-acre site in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has been on the drawing boards for )0 years. The project includes a series of interceptor sewers which will divert the raw sewage to the new plant for treatment instead of dumping it into the canal. The funding request now being made by the state is for only part of the construction %u2014 $12 million for what Lang termed %u201c the first modest initial phase to get us started.%u201dThe new priority on Red Hook by the state came as N.Y. state and other governmental agencies across the nation had been asked to give recommendations for allocation of funds remaining after 45 per cent of a nationwide $24 uimuii uppi ujjnuuvu was ordered withheld by President Nixon for implementation for the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.Over $550 million for fiscal 1972- 73 and 73-74 was pinpointed for the state by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, an aide in the N.Y. Regional Office of EPA said. However, Diamond%u2019s office had given the Red HookC o n tin u ed on P a g e 12BY CORRINE COLEMANApplication for a new 1,000-bed acute care hospital was made by Long Island Hospital, in Oct. 1971, according to members of the hospital Community Planning Committee.The CPC, a South Brooklyn coalition formed after the razing of LICH%u2019s Hoagland Laboratory last June, advises that this information was received at a meeting with officials of the Health and Hospital Planning Council of Southern New York on Jan. 9.The HHPC recommended in 1971, that the amount of beds proposed for the hossital be reduced to 557, and this reduction was approved by the State Health Commission on May 1, 1972, the CPC learned. An application by the hospital for 100 psychiatric beds was also approved on May 1.Allen J. Kone, temporary chairman of the CPC which is now recognized by the hospital, asserts that these applications submitted 13 and one-half months before LICH offered their %u201c Proposed Master Plan%u201d for discussion by the community, reveal %u201c another case of LICH deceit.%u201dKone considers this activity proof that %u201c LICH never had plans to enter into meaningful discussion, much less yield to community pressure.%u201dKone also connected the May 1 Health Commission approval withthe hospital's May 12 decision to raze the historic Hoagland Laboratory. %u201c This was more than just a coincidence,%u201d he says. %u201c It was not until LICH received the state%u2019s letter that they had any idea that their ambitious plans would be approved. Suddenly the hospital realized that they might have the funds to build a 12- or 13- story building on the four-story Hoagland site with the taxpayers paying the bill.%u201d Kone accuses theNew York City Recreation Commissioner Davidson will visit Carroll Park on Saturday, Jan. 27, and will continue on a tour of the area to observe the two parks on both sides of Smith and Nelson Sts., and the recreation t>iie on Fifth Ave. between Third and Fourth Sts. /Mothers of the children at the free preschool center in Carroll Park have been long demanding official rectification of the situation there. Though repairs were made after an initial demonstration at the Arsenal in Central Park, none of thp pH.The Community PlanningCommittee for Long IslandCollege Hospital will beallowed to examine the NewYork City Health Dept, filesof the hospital, according tothe CPC.Permission for thisperusal was granted by theAssociate Commissioner ofHealth for New York CityAffairs, Dr. Richard Nauen,at a meeting attended bythe CPC, the city-wide SaveOur Homes Committee, NewYork State Senator ManfredOhrenstein, Dr. Nauen, andFirst Deputy Commissionerof the New York StateDepartment of Health,Andrew C. Fleck, M.D. Inaddition, the right ofcommunity groups to checkout applications for expansion of hospitals in theirarea was confirmed by Dr.Fleck.Proposals to curb hospitalexpansion abuses wereoutlined at an earlierhossital of fabricating a fire-stairs problem as an excuse for demolishing %u201c what was the most architecturally significant building in Cobble Hill.%u201dDr. Sigmund Friedman, planning director of the HHPC (which is a semi-official nonprofit organization involved in approving hospital expansion in the New York City area), claimed, according to Kone, that it was too late to make a change in the LICH plan %u2014 thoughditional remedies promised have been forthcoming. In addition, a telephone has not been installed nor has play equipment been received, the mothers advise.The Carroll Park mothers, who believed that the city was readying a phasing out of the preschool program, have been involved in countless demonstrations and meetings to demand the services required. Along with State Sen. Carol Bellamy, State Assemblyman Michael Pesce, Carroll Gardens residents Buddy Scotto and Peter Drago, as well as mothers of children at other borough preschool centers, themeeting of the CPC, theSave Our Homes Comm ittee, Assem blym anMichael Pesce, Albert H.Blumenthal and Andrew J.Stein. It was recommendedthat the following criteria bemet before consideration offunding for the enlargementof hospitals:1. All plans would besubject to an environmentalimpact study.2. Hospitals would have todemonstrate theunavailability of alternatesites.3. Hospitals would have toprove that there had beenno harassment of tenants.4. No relocation of tenantsfor parking or staff housingwould be permitted.5. Hospitals would have tohave no violations on anypresently owned housing.6. No duplication of existingfacilities would be permitted.P ark Check O u t Set%u201c the Cobble Hill site is far from ideal.%u201d However, Friedman did recommend that the community contact the State Dept, of Health.Nevertheless, the CPC was told that LICH must still prove itself financially able to repay a state mortgage. Since the LICH application falls in the second priority group for such consideration, the financial feasibility study may still be many months away, Kone feels.Carroll Park women have a! tempted to impress upon officia the need for maintenance of t program.Although C om m ission i iDavidson has affirmed the Parkuepi. commitment iu ihe pi uk i cm. (which is the only early chihinoor setup for mothers who cannot afford the high fees of > mserv schools and yet are ineli; h i e for the city%u2019s day care prograr. > >, proof in terms of maintenanc has not been shown.However, the mr rs are hopeful that Davidso isit will convince him of the minify's interest and determ i.Hearing on Port PlanShifted to Jan. 25. 1The Board of Estimatehearing on the Red HookContainerport plan, hasbeen moved to Jan. 25,Bernard Carlsen, chairmanof the Committee to SaveRed Hook, advised.The meeting, calling forapproval of an amendedplan okayed by the CityPlanning Commission butopposed by the communitycommittee and the SouthBrooklyn DevelopmentCouncil, was originallyscheduled for Jan. 11th. Itwas postponed, however,when it was discovered thatthe required 10-daynotification fell short by oneday.The Committee to SaveRed Hook, representing 16organizations in that area,objects to the site selectedfor the containerport, and isdemanding that the old%u201cgrain area%u201d on the outeredges of Red Hook beutilized instead. There areno families or businesses atthat location, the committeestates, and trafficcongestion would beavoided as well.Priorities H elpBrooklyn C hangeBY MICHAEL ALLEN