Residents file state appeal

An appeal filed by a Hewlett resident and supported by a group of community members opposing a lease agreement between the Hewlett-Woodmere school district and the Five Towns Senior Center is expected to be decided by the State Education Department after the district submits its response in the case this week.

The residents oppose the senior center’s use of the historic carriage house, at 37 East Rockaway Road, on the grounds of Hewlett High School, because the center is a non-educational, private organization.

Hewlett resident Eleanor Wolff and 55 others, who call themselves the Ad Hoc Committee of Hewlett Homeowners, submitted the appeal on Aug. 25, calling for the termination of the rental contract between the school district and the senior center. The group claims that the lease violates state education law and runs counter to what the original landowner stipulated when the property was first given to the district.

“There is the possibility that additional pressure will be brought to bear by local authorities and residents for the school district to terminate the lease,” said Wolff, who added that she is adamant in her opposition, despite the fact that the contract was approved by the Hewlett-Woodmere Board of Education last December, and both parties signed the agreement in February.

The group also protested the clearing of several trees on property on the other side of Rockaway Road that is part of the Hewlett Homestead, where the senior center built a 24-stall parking lot and a shuttle bus transports users of the senior center back and forth.

The district insists that the contract between it and the senior center is legal and does not circumvent state education law. “We are aware of the appeal,” said district spokeswoman Barbara Geise, who noted that a stay order requested by Wolff and her group to keep the senior center from using the carriage house was denied on Sept. 9 by the State Education Department. “We have been up front with what we are doing,” Geise added.

The carriage house, built before World War I and part of the Hewlett family homestead, was given to the school district by Cerieses Hewlett with the stipulation that the property be used for school activities. Though the land houses the high school and the district sees annual revenue of nearly $5,000 from the lease with the senior center, Wolff’s group points to education law that states, “meetings, entertainments and occasions where admission fees are charged shall not be permitted if under the control of a private society and the said proceeds are

to be applied for the benefit of the

organization.”

The homeowners group said that other ideas had been presented in the past for the carriage house, including using it as a youth recreation center, a place for students to do landscaping work to help restore the homestead or as classroom space for elective courses for high school students at the Hewlett House, which is on the opposite side of East Rockaway Road. The Hewlett House is currently home to 1 and 9: The Long Island Breast Cancer Coalition.

“Cerieses Hewlett wanted the homestead to remain a piece of historical preservation for the entire community,” said Patricia Hayes, an East Rockaway resident and a member of the group opposed to the lease.