Town Board Authorizes Appraisal Of Gittelman School Property (VIDEO)
Town reached out to school trustees
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The Clarkstown Town Board voted unanimously on Tuesday night to authorize the town attorney to get an appraisal of the Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School property. On January 10, the school’s board of trustees announced to staff and parents that the school would close because of decreasing enrollment. Trustees indicated there were ongoing discussions with potential buyers.
Town Councilwoman Stephanie Hausner, who introduced the resolution to obtain the appraisal, said town representatives have spoken with members of Gittelman’s board. She expects the appraisal to be completed soon.
“I think they’re looking to move fairly quickly,” she said. “We just want to get the appraisal done so we know if it’s even a reality for us to be interested in.”
The 43,000 square foot building sits on 10.1 acres along New Hempstead Road in New City. The building was constructed in two phases. The main section was completed in 1992 and the middle school was added about 10 years ago.
Hausner said one possible use of the building and property could be as a recreation center, an idea put forward by Town Supervisor Alex Gromack last week. Town board members George Hoehmann and Frank Borelli said they were very interested in the possibility of acquiring the property for Clarkstown.
The Conservative Jewish day school was founded 40 years ago as the Solomon Schechter School of Rockland County. It first held classes in Spring Valley and when it outgrew that location moved to the current building in New City. The last day of classes at the school for the 150 pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students is June 20.
With the pending closure of the county's only non-Orthodox Jewish day school, organizers have been working on a proposed Jewish day school called the Rockland Jewish Academy. The Academy would be supervised by the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester and would be located at the Rockland Jewish Community Campus in West Nyack.
Mike Hirsch
8:24 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
This is a good idea, but there is no reason that the town should have to go much out of pocket on this. Buy a new recreational building and get rid of an old one. It's just good business.
clrkstwnresident
8:37 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I was just wondering. Did theTown Board ever get an appraisal for Hillcrest Elementary school? If they didn't, why not?
GWashington
8:46 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The town has no need for more recreational centers. This type of business should be private enterprise; the town shoots itself in the financial foot by taking over businesses that would provide such services, thereby reducing tax revenue.
stephany
9:58 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
It is imperative that these so called ongoing discussions with potential buyers be made public. It seems there are always ongoing discussions with potential buyers. Clarkstown just bought the property next to Germonds park for 900K plus costs. this property was also supposedly in discussions with potential buyers. Ask yourself, would you buy an old house to either live in or develop with 9.7 acres to maintain that was zoned residential and had taxes of $21,000 with a stream running through it next to Germonds, park a miniature golf course and 4 or 5 baseball fields with lights no less . The answer has to be no. unless of course these are imaginary discussions and are made up to cause a sense of urgency and for the town,who has right of first refusal [to match or beat highest bid], to lumber in with an inflated price and quick sale for the owner.
I want to know all about these discussions before we cut another check. Are they legitimate or are they imaginary or worse yet a conspiracy to foster a sale to a town that has no problem paying top dollar for parcels that more than likely are problematic sales at best.
this property is valued at $3,692,200.00 and pays less than $10,000 in town taxes and no school taxes because it is a school I guess. If soemthing other than a school is replacing it what will the tax bill be then.
Who are the discussions with
who want to buy it and for what purpose
GWashington
1:02 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
When did Clarkstown buy the property/house on Germonds? There was NEVER a FOR SALE sign there.
This was an under the table deal somewhere, somehow. What is going to go there, multiple dwelling buildings like the monstrosity on West Nyack Road?
This is Gromack's way to pay back West Nyack for spurning his revitalization plans for the little village.
stephany
1:44 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/887lzz4
there was never a sign because it was never really up for sale. the owner supposedly knew Clarkstown would buy it so all they had to do was get someone or say they got someone to offer what they wanted to sell it for and clarkstown would match it or beat it.guaranteed
GWashington
1:48 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thanks for the link and the update. What a fool Traphagen was.
Scott
10:01 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Spend , spend , spend. Raise taxes. Thats just what we need.
Moving soon
10:16 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
We need to purchase Hillcrest School ASAP. Protect our Western Front.
Marc Fromowitz
4:39 pm on Thursday, January 26, 2012
It seems that the only reason folks are pushing for the town to purchase the property is because of their fear of the Orthodox community moving in. Let's put aside this clearly hate filled reason for a moment and focus on the tax ramifications and the implications to all taxpayers.
The Town has no money - the town confiscates money through a scheme known as taxation. In order to finance the acquisition of this property, the town would need to raise the capital to do so. How? By taxing each taxpayer. But this only addresses the immediate purchase of the property. Now the town must maintain the property, staff it , insure it... Where will the funds come from? A tax increase.
Why does the private sale of the property offend the delicate sensibilities of the vociferous anti-semites, who are also allegedly members of some taxpayers union. They should cheer a free market solution rather than advocate a government whimsy funded by the taxpayers.
SHAME ON THE TOWN OF CLARKSTOWN FOR EVEN CONSIDERING PURCHASING THIS PROPERTY.
SHAME ON THOSE ANTI_SEMITES WHO PUSH THE TOWN TO BUY THE PROPERTY TO KEEP THE ORTHODOX AT ARMS LENGTH.
Mike Hirsch
5:25 pm on Thursday, January 26, 2012
Marc, this has nothing to do with anti-semitism. People like our community the way it is. If there was a group of purple martians who controlled the town next to ours and they wanted to expand their community by moving into our town, most people would be opposed to that.
Marc Fromowitz
9:07 am on Friday, January 27, 2012
Mike - You are mistaken. This is not our community. It is the private property of RGHDS Trustees to dispose of in a way that they will maximize their return. If the purple martians will pay the highest price then they should be the buyer of the property. If the Orthodox community will pay the highest price they should be the buyer of the property. If the government of our town will pay the highest price, we have all been screwed and will pay the price every year ad infinitum.
Your claim that this is not motivated by anti-semitism is absurd. The only motivator is a palpable dislike of the Jews of the Orthodox variety. While you and others may tolerate or even like Jews as long as they don't wear black hats, the fact is we are all Jews nonetheless. Within the more liberal cohort there is a great anti-semitism toward the Orthodox. And within the Orthodox cohort there is a great anti-semitism toward the liberalized Jew. This is reality. But, to say we have to keep them out of our community exposes the bias - whether bias toward Orthodox Jews or Purple Martians.
In 100 years there will be only Jews in black hats. That is the whole point behind the failure of our community to sustain a Jewish Day School.
Mike L
11:05 am on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Let's be clear. There is a difference between "orthodox" and the extremists that occupy New Square and certain parts of Israel. Every day you open a jewish newspaper and read about (a) child abuse, (b) spitting on children, (c) crime and corruption, (d) abuse of welfare and on and on. So no, all faiths should not want these extremists in our community. They are a cancerous destructive force to any community they enter.