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Fulton Merchants SitTight During HolidayMail ConstructionBY LIBBY HAYMAN\it led to a $4 million lawsuit; we%u2019d like to stop the curbwork now, but everybody%u2019s begging us not to,%u201d said Arthur Roberts of Filmac Jewelers on Fulton Street as he talks about what a holiday shopping season is like in the middle of the Fulton Mall Phase 1 construction site. With the time for annual buying sprees going into its second week, merchants on Fulton are, for the most part, taking a grin and bear it approach to the situation. Last year at this time, the City%u2019s Department of Transportation ordered that sidewalk work be slopped until the New Year, but no such stoppage is anticipated this year.The Mall%u2019s general contractor, A.J. Pcgno, has been working rapidly in the last few months, with work virtually uninterrupted since late July. Pegno has said repeatedly that the job is going well now that he is free from the \ences%u201d of earlier months of the project.Concrete base for sidewalks is being completed along the south side of the project; hefty, gleaming granite curbs arc being installed; and even some high mast lightpoles are going in. But on the north side work is less advanced, though approval by the Board of Estimate of a $3b.OOO expenditure has allowed Pcgno to put boardwalks over areas where construction delays have left sidewalks unfinished.The biggest crisis so far this season happened on the fust morning of holiday shopping, Friday, Nov. 23, when Pegno began digging to repair the sewer in front of Korvettes, at Fulton and Bridge Streets. The Korvettes Store Manager, Bernard Sell wit ka had been negotiating for some time totry to avoid the excavation in the midst of the shopping season, and he reports that he had finally reached a compromise, with the agreement that digging would be delayed until after the first two days after Thanksgiving. Despite agreements between Korvettes, Department of Transportation representatives, and Pegno%u2019s foreman, even on the morning of the 23rd, Pegno began digging anyway, and Schwitka had to close off one of Korvettes two doors %u201c so that our customers would be safe.%u201d He reports that he can%u2019t say %u201c what percent%u201d business is down as a result, but \Neither Schwitka nor Roberts reports any plans to try to get work officially stopped. Assistant Commissioner of Highway Operations Henry Sloane says that even the citywide \struction work which affects sidewalks in shopping areas will not apply to Fulton, where Pegno's contract allows him to go ahead right through the season. Last year%u2019s stoppage was a major factor in Pegno%u2019s $4 million lawsuit and the six month delay it caused.The Manager of the Fulton Mall Improvement Association (FMIA) Michael Strasscr is being kept busy with calls from merchants, but he reports that FMIA is doing all it can to work with the city and the contractor. FMIA took the Mayor on a tour of the area just before the season, and the Mayor promised to help out, too.One thing which Roberts and others still hope is that buses will be back on the street while the season is still on. Strasser says, %u201c We're working on it\hopes for the return as soon as next week. \behind the return of the buses%u201d he adds.In front of Korvette's Department Store boardwalks have been installed for pedestrian traffic while the contractor in getting ready to install concrete bases for the sidewalks. (FeldmanPhoto)Golden Addresses Boerum Hill On Downtown IssuesBY LINUS GELBERIn his first-ever appearance in front of the Boerum Hill Association last Thursday, Borough President Howard Golden came out in favor of tearing down the controversial LIRR terminal at Flatbush and Atlantic Aves., and warned residents that they may soon find ihemselves living near a new prison in the Community Board Two district. In the hour he spent bandying issues about with Association members, a number of debates and statements were exchanged between the Borough President and the 50 assembled residents.Golden, who kicked off his speech congratulating the \and pride%u201d of the neighborhood in working with police and politicians to rid itself of a recent upsurge of prostitution, told ihe meeting audience that the area was filled with augurs that \the borough, but cautioned that an \dialogue%u201d would be necessary to deal with any problems that might arise. He then went into a rapid-fire delivery of one-liner summaries of his stands on a variety of local issues, including sanitation, coterminality, building seal-up, the Fulton Mall, the Long Island Railroad terminal, hotels, prisons and development sites.Debate returned most frequently on the Atlantic Avenue LIRR terminal, which the MetropolitanTransit Authority plans to tear down and embark on a program of underground track repairs. Although many local residents have protested that the building should be preserved, Golden came out for its destruction, stating that the track repairs are important and that as far as nostalgia value and preservation, he had been assured by Borough Historian Ellliot Willensky and Kent Barwick from the Landmarks Preservation Commission that the building has %u201c no historic or architectural merit.%u201d He did, however, concur with more enthusiastic questioners that it was vital to insure that new construction will indeed be raised before ihe existing site is razed.Although \\very few actual specifics came out of his discussion, anoiher topic that picked up a concerned following, was a new prison site in the Community Board Two area, perhaps nearby the Cadman Plaza Court buildings. Such an institution will be necessary because of the pending sale of the Riker%u2019s Island penitentiary to the state prison system, which will force the city to set up smaller facilities in the boroughs. Residents all agreed that a new prison would be a necessity for Brooklyn, but balked at the concept of having such a thing built in their veritable backyards. Golden promised that he would keep in touch with community needs and feelings as the prison concept develops.On other matters, the Borough President hoped for a speedy local implementation of coterminality, promised to work on a clean-up of Brooklyn%u2019s streets, and acknowledged that the Fulton Mall had made an excavatory labyrinth out of the Fulton Street area, adding a \that you will not be discouraged from doing your holiday shopping there.%u201d He also looked favorably toward the establishment of one or more hotels in the area, and postulated a day when the Fulton Mall, the Albee Square Mall, a Downtown BaruchBY LINUS GELBERAlthough the city last month demolished a vacant Carroll Gardens building that was being eyed by neighborhood groups as a potential site for subsidized senior citizen housing, plans for such a project seem to be nonetheless moving ahead.The Carroll Gardens Association, headed by Salvatore \Scotto, and the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation had been hoping to utilize federal grants and funds to renovate the four story building that stood at Carroll and Bond Sts., but whatever headway had been made in moving things along has been set back to square one by the razing of the site.College campus, modernized LIRR station, luxury hotel and spotless streets would mesh with cultural attractions, including the upcoming Brooklyn Academy of Music National Theater Company, making this part of the borough a swirling and culturally progressive area. %u201c We%u2019re not talking about narrow concepts,%u201d he said, passing off many of the problems that have arisen with each of these modernizations. %u201c You have to look at the totality of the picture.%u201dFollowing Golden%u2019s speech and a question-and-answer session, the%u201cThat building was perfect,%u201d Scotto lamented. %u201c Now, we%u2019re taling about a whole new ball game. We had plans for a building, and now we have to make new plans for a vacant lot.%u201d He noted that the groups involved may have to scrap senior citizen housing plans in favor of some other kind of development or combination of projects, since construction costs run so high these days that the area%u2019s elderly, at whom the housing would be aimed, might find the final costs prohibitive.Scotto said that the building was torn down after a fire weakened and blackened the top two floors of one part of the structure, which is why it was torn down. \saw the city move so quickly andAssociation uuirkly elected its next year's officers, Willie Williams was chosen president. Joe Mohbat vice president, Donna Cambas secretary, and Lcn Walit treasurer. Members-at-large for the coming year will be David Ramsey, Marjorie Friedlandcr and Earl Scott. The group also voted to give $250 to the Coalition for the Alternate Plan to cover old legal expenses. Last year, the Coalition tried to press legal action for ihe re-routing of the Brooklyn-IJucens Expressway,without success.decisively in my life,%u201d he remarked. %u201c They sure as hell didn%u2019t move that fast when we asked them to seal it up, to prevent some disaster like this from happening.%u201d By the time the local groups realized what was to happen, he explained, and could give a shot at halting the demolition or even limiting it solely to the damaged areas, the site had already been crushed to rubble. %u201c It%u2019s going to be months now before we come up with solid plans,%u201d Scotto said. %u201c It%u2019s in process and we are working on it, but it%u2019s going to take a little while: all the research we did and plans we made just have to be done over again.%u201dCarroll Gardens Seeks Lot PlansDecem ber6,1979, The PHOENIX. Page 5