Community Divided Over Need for High School Sports Field

Fred Heisman, a Long Beach resident for more than 50 years, fears that an athletics field proposed for Long Beach High School will force him and many of his neighbors to move.  

"I had no social security increase this year, my pension does not increase, but my school taxes keep increasing," Heisman, a retiree, told the Long Beach Board of Education at their Sept. 14 meeting.

Out of 30 residents who addressed the board on this issue, with about 200 people in attendance, during the three-hour-long meeting, Heisman's message seemed to stick with board President Dr. Dennis Ryan. "That man has a right to stay here," Ryan said.

While the community voted to approve a $98 million bond to upgrade district-wide buildings in May 2009, including the proposed high school field, by a vote of 1,579 to 1,136, the intention of that project, dubbed the "preservation plan," is now being hotly debated.

Among residents' concerns are the finances of this capital project, especially during tough economic times.

Resident Darlene Haut questioned whether the promised tax increase of $228 per year to the average home owner is accurate, given maintenance costs for the new sports facility, and whether that cost would just cover only the interest on the bond.

Other residents expressed concern about how the promised $38 million of state aid, to help the district finance the bond, would be provided, considering that the state's financial crisis may lead to the loss of those funds.

Meanwhile, the community remains divided about whether there was adequate notice about project, which they call a "stadium," and whether athletics should be the board's primary focus over academics. Past board member Lynn Gergen admitted feeling badly that the board she at on at the time did not specifically invite to meetings the Lido community directly impacted by this project.

"The field and the lights [would be] in these people's back yards," Gergen said. "I wouldn't want it in mine."

Resident Johanna Suffield countered that the board did an exceptional job in informing the public about the project, and called on people to "proactively engage" rather than complain at the last moment.

Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg maintains that the preservation plan has been an evolutionary process that started in March 2008, when the board held an Envisioning Day and established a Facilities Advisory Committee that included residents. 

The project includes building a new synthetic field, bleachers with 1,200 seats and 270 parking spaces, more than 25 than presently exist, on the area where tennis courts and the Blackheath Pre-Kindergarten portables are located, just west of the high school building.  

Most residents insist that the community was invited to provide input along the way and had ample opportunity to express concerns. The Lido residents disagreed.

Martin Safer asked how it was possible that the entire Lido community was unaware of the project, and said that he felt deceived.

"If I knew about it, where were you," Lido resident Michelle Brown asked her neighbors.

During the meeting, one area of consensus seemed to emerge. While residents appeared unite on the need for a field – Long Beach is among just a few Long Island high schools without a sports field – they challenged the proposed number of seats.

Increased traffic, too, is an overriding concern, and some residents even brought pictures of existing congestion problems to prove their point.