Pine Barrens Saga Continues by Patricia Murphy

Long Islanders know more about the earthquake fault lines in Cali­fornia than we do about the Island's glacial aquifers; in school we're taught more about the rivers and mountain ranges of other con­tinents than the bounties of nature close to home: the complex ecosys­tems of wetlands, forest and beach. Generations have grown up view­ing the Island only as a means to economic opportunity. So it's not hard to understand how our per· ception of the pine barrens could be so dry, so fuzzy, or that we could ask, "What's the fuss about?''

A Quick Overview Just two generations ago, the pine

barrens covered 250,000 acres in the Towns of Riverhead, Brook­haven and Southampton. "They ~:ot their name from the early pu)• neers." lia\'S Ka1 unonsen. who 1$

filming a documentary about the pine barrens. "It was not a term of endearment. They found rhe porous soil unsuitable for farming. But it was a misnomer because the pine barrens are teeming with life."

The pine barrens, now about 112,000 acres· about 10% of Long Island • includes the pitch pine, a variety of oaks, like the scrub oak, marshes, bogs and swamps: it is home to the greatest concentra­tion and diversity of wildlife in New York State, and has many rare and endangered species, such as the tiger salamander and buck­moth. And underneath me pine

CONTINUED ON PAGE EIGHT

COMING EVENTS &COMMENTS.

The Global Forest Summit: April 16-17, Harriman Institute at Columbia U, 420 W 118th St., NYC. The title's no exaggeration. NY Sierra Club. 212-854-8487

A Local Forest Summit is not yet planned; a step in the right direc­tion is Earth Night at Cinema Arts Centre. Film, "Earth and the American Dreamn, one show only, 7:45pm. Speaker Marilyn England is a leading LI ceo· expert & advocate (co-author of 'Warblcr,Woods' in April '90 Foghorn). Thurs. April 21.

Traditional Earth Day Gather­ing at Willy World site. Saturday, Apnl 23rd, from noon on. Bring signs or banners, bring lunch, bring friends & family, for a nice afternoon at the edge of the ww> .. h thar Will>ur Breslin wants to mall over. Hang our for a ~rcll 1 w tl\ o"'er good people, and maybe help save Ll from its big· gesr mess since Shoreham. LIE exit 68, go north on Wm FloyJ Parkway a mile and a half.

RPA Regional Assembly, from 8:45am, April 26. At NY Shcraron (7 Av/53 Sr). Regional Plan Assn. 212-980-8530. A must for all interested in the region's economy/environment. If you can afford to take a day off anJ fork over the fee, do it. You'll come away with a headful of usc· fu I ideas on all development issues- like how Ll fits into Metro-NYC.

Small Islands, Big Issues: The Fir.-t Global Conference on Sus-

I 9 9 4

Caught with their pants down! 25 -year-old plans for a jetport-plus· instant-city-plus-supermall in the Central Pine Barrens got a brief boost recently, when Maller Wilbur Breslin published a..ds claiming commitments from Fortunoff, Stems, and other anchor stores for 'Willy World'- while planner Lee Koppelman officially reported that DHL and Lufthansa were interested in air cargo operations at Calverton.

But a few phone calls revealed that Breslin & Koppelman were very far from telling the truth. These respected companies were not amused (or were only mildly amused) at having their good names used to give credibility to moribund megaprojects. A+ for chuqpah, guys, bur F for conduct. And there':.

RULKRATE U.S. POSTAGE

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a third part of Dr K's 1969 plan: a bridge lU New Haven from Wading River.

Stones insi.k: THE EMPEROR'S NEW MALL · JETPORK AI'D FERRY TALES

talnable Development of Small lslanJ Developing States, Apnl25 ro May 6 on the Caribbean island of Barbados. Ll Planners take note! More inside, on page II.

Union Member Training Pro· gram. 6 classes, Fridays 4/16-5/21 - lntro to Labor Law, Running for Union Office, e tc. $10/scssion or $50/aU 6. Assn for Union Democ­racy (718) 855-6650 for info

Ll Lake & Pond Symposium Ll has over 500 lakes and ponJs, many degraded by development, say sponsors DEC & NYS Lcg.­Comm. On Water Resource Needs on Ll. The emphasis is on manage­ment of freshwater ecosystems.

{latest chem a cal wccdk i llcrs!). SUNY-Westbury. (516) 829-3368/ 444-0280

Sears Embargo. Sears fired many US workers, "hired" slave labor in Haiti. Picket every Sat, I pm in Brooklyn, or at Sea rs of your choice. For info: (718) 449-0037.

Toss-In for America's Forests this July 4th. Every week, 52 weeks a year, a Ne.,..,.IKia-y subsidiary drops 1,014,166 one-pound plas­tic-wrapped packages of news-trash on Ll's lawns & gutters. 2,000 lbs. of newsprint uses up 17 trees. That's 8,620.411 trees per u•eek. Newsday defends this devastating litter on free speech grounds. (So

we heard; they won't confirm it. It's also worth noting that Newsday has opposed trash-reduction and recy­cling laws.) Rumor has it that good Americans are saving up their news-trash for an exercise of their own First Amendment rights · to send a message to Ll's #1 litterbug. on lndependcnce Day.

7.ehn! TillS ISSUE, fOGIIORN

changes its long-standing (and tree-conserving) policy of pub­

lishing when we get around to ir. From now on, it's six times a year, rain or shine. Other changes will be announced as we know more

about them ..

~Marine Life Menaced By Motorboats~ Pleasure boats, long suspected of being prolific

polluters, have remained mysteriously immune to credible investigation for decades. Nobody, it seemed, could find the smoking gun. All that has now changed.

In his book Polluting for Pleasure (W. W. Norton & Co., 1993), Andre Mele uncovered what has been called "the largest unreported episode of environmental contamination in this decade."

Mete, a Hudson River boatbuilder whose trade led him to take water very seriously, here summarizes some of ~is findings.

by Andre Mele

B o 1994 by Focoom, Inc.

ehind the boating indusny's commercial images of sparkling waves, flying spray, and polished chrome, is an on-going, massive, sustained hydrocar­bon spall - the release of as much as 400,000,000 . gallons of toxac hydrocarbons every year, wah an impact equavalent to the emissions from all the cars, trucks, and buses in America. Imagine 40 dasasters like the Exxon Valdez every year, in a continuous assault on all our American waterways.

The 12 million registered motorboats in America are causing 35 times as much pollution nanonally as all the vehicular activity in the Lo:. Angeles basin, our most v isibly-pollured city. Th~ lJUantny of

hydrocarbons that remain waterbound for any length of time exceeds the bulk total of all world­wide tanker and barge spills for any year since 1983, and all but two out of the last fourteen years.

Usang primary sources such as the U.S. Depart· ment of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Journal of Marine Research, the South Coasr Air Quality management District, data from the two major outboard motOr manufacturers, the University of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, I produced, through statistical and comparative analysis, the first national report on oil anJ hyJrocarbon pollution from pleasure boats.

(.ONT/NliED ON PAGE Tf'.N

P.O. BOX 703, HUNTINGTON. NEW YORK 11743·0703

Staff far this edition:

Jean Schweibish editor

Van Howell art direc10r

Pat Murphy contributing ediwr Jerry Cohen

advertising Desiree Passantino

research/reporter

Contributing Writers in this edition:

Sarah DuGoode Helga Guthy Andre Mele

Many others help make this publication possible. For now, we cal\ acltnowledge only those whose work is in this particular ediriol\.

Foghorn News Bureaus are now forming throughoU! Long Island

10 maintain the presence of their communities in r:he Fog/lorn by

gathering and analyzing local news, and monitoring local government,

& 10 maintain the presence of rhe Fog/lorn in their communities by distribution & advertising sales, and

organizing community events & meetings

Interested readcs are m:ouraged 10 be tnrr of chis process. •Communities" rna, be rkfirted as 'causes' or 'issues'as well as geographical

locations. Please nore that r:he Fog/lorn's focus iSTelatively narrowandconcen­tTaced as a matter of pol~, and r:here are many worrhy subjects chat are unlikely

10 appear in r:hese pages.

m Lettrn ro rhe Ediwr are aluuys welcome

UruolicitJ!Ll conmbunions o{arricles , opinion pieces, e.uays, poerry, arrworks, phorographs, screenplays, stray cau and injured birds may not receive rl~e

respecr chat they deserve, so please call firsr. You can reach us cu:

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A Nor-for-f'rofir {501 (c) (3)} New York S~tue Corporation) j~l Kupferman, President

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PHOTOGRAPHERS: National Juried Photography Exhibit May 27-June 24 OU('st jurors: George Tice, George Schaub- Send SASE f<Yr Prospectus Deadline far slides/ prints: May 6

ARTISTS: With your choice of media & subject, youcandoa great deal in a 12-inch circle, even help poople stay alive. The Sea Cliff Gallery invite$ you to join

The Artist's .Plate Pr6ject: A National Travelling Juried Exhibition.

A Grant Application to Our Readers After blowing out our budget on the last big issue of the Foghorn, we discovered a fund that supportS investigative journalism. We proposed a "Project" called, Ecology, Economics, and rhe Future of Long Island. The final draft of our application stressed the need for not only an alternative to, but also a hard look at, Newsday. But the fund's board was Newsday people, as we saw on the rejection-letter stationery. So now we're turning to you. What follows is part of an early draft of that grant application,

before we narrowed down the focus, just as it turned up the other day in our computer memory. If you'd like to see that last section continue - so would we!

13ut we can't do it without you. Checlcs and ideas are equally welcome.

T H E OBSCURING OF THE BAS IC I SSUE

The relationship between ecology and economics has been obscured by destructive, Machiavellian public relations campaigns in recent years. In the Northwest, the false issue of jobs vs. spotted owls has insulted the intelligence of the public while making fools oflumber­jacks and their families; unemployment was already soaring while the automated lumber "harvest" rose to record-breaking levels. On Long Island, construction workers were urged (and coerced) to demand more shopping-mall projects after the local economy was already sunk, in fact, by overbuilding and bad loans. Like the lumber companies of the Northwest, real estate interests created a regional recession and blamed it on environmentalists. The Long Island developers' PR campaigns try to define the development-vs-preserva­tion argument in terms of jobs, and therefore in terms of class warfare- as if their efforts to pull the New York Metropolitan Area's economy out to the fringes of sub­urbia, beyond the reach of those most in need of jobs, homes, and services, were somehow an expression of their solidarity with the working masses.

THE BASIC ISSUE VIEWED IN GLOBAL & GENERAL TERMS

At the theoretical level, the relationship between ecol­ogy and economics is clear enough. Ecology is a fairly exact science, ultimately dealing with the flow of solar energy and terrestrial materials through living systems, providing close-up views of evolution and devolution. Economics is not exactly a science, but it does offer con­ceptual tools for aiding the human species in its efforts to divert the earth's energy and materials into its own systems of agriculture, industry, and commerce.

The central question facing both ecologists and econo­mists in our era is the relationship between civilization

and nature. In the past, this has been parasitic- the rel­atively harmless, sustainable, exploitation of a large sys­tem by a smaller one. ln recent centuries, and especially recent decades, the relationship has taken on more and more of the characteristics of cancer. The destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the collapse of all ocean eco­systems due to drift-netting are archetypal events in what appears to be a terminal stage of this relationship. It is as if the world (from the roots, were-old, meaning "the Age of Man") were attempting to devour the earth (from en, the ground) - like one side of schizophrenic personality trying to physically destroy the other. Our understanding of our planet and our place in it is so lim­ited that we seem unable to grasp that we must be botil animals in a biosphere and members of human society at the same time and in the same place. We need to figure out that we live on one planet, and that the laws of nature apply tO all our activities.

THE ISLAND AS A MICROCOSM OF THE PROBLEM

The destruction of Long Island's last forest and the deg­radation of its harbors and estuaries, in the name of progress and profit, differ from more notorious world­class ceo-catastrophes only in scale: this 130-mile-long island can be seen as a microcosm of the Earth, with its Pine Barrens a miniature Amazon rainforest, its bays and Sound models of the oceans. The two biggest boroughs of New York City, located on western Long Island, con­tain most of the social and economic problems found in any of the world's poorest cities ...

TH E ISLAND AS A MICROCOSM OF THE SOLUT ION

I to be continued?)

Gore in the Balance it's been depressing to see what our President and Vice· President arc delivering, after those majestic promises that pushed so many of us out to vote. Many actually voted for AI Gore, rather than Clinton. I know I did, having heard Gore speak at a program set up by ex-Con­gressman Tom Downey. This wa~ a few months before Clinton picked Gore as his running mate. I went expect· ing very little out of the mouth of a politician. I came away with a great deal of respect for Mr. Gore and his knowledge. At last here wa~ someone who could "make a difference" because he understood so much of our en vi· ronmental problems· dang it, he even wrote a book (Earth in the Balance) on the environment! Alas, busi­ness seems to be as usual in the White House. I couldn't

help thinking, as the months ticked by and nothing Gore stood for seemed destined to manifest, that, in another time and place after such shame and humiliation he would have committed hari kari. But one society's idea of shame is another's honor· so-called pragmatism is praised in Washington. Perhaps Gore is better insulated than the rest of us against the daily forces that drive some to kill themselves or others, or perhaps he's too numb to care. What this all comes down to is that our political system doesn't allow for people with principles, it is a narrow track run largely by corporate lobbyists and if we think one lone politician is going to change the status quo, we'd better think again. And we'd better realize- we're out here on our own.

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No Justice fOr Judges l By Sarah DuGoode

seems odd that we Americans, who pride ourselves on being truly independent, are so willing to abdicate our most basic right, (the VQte), to a political system controlled by an ever shrinking inner circle of men with ques­tionable motives: political bosses.

A perfect example is the system by which we elect the members of our judiciary. Judicial candidates for the family, district, county, state supreme and the surrogate courts are supposed to be selected based on a set of criteria includ­ing knowledge of the law, legal training, tem­perament and other such qualifications. The Suffolk County Bar Association has a commit­tee which screens potential judicial candidates and issues a rating of either qualified or unqualified. That process sounds reasonable until you explore the facts behind this fiction.

The SCBA judicial review committee is comprised of 12 lawyers, some of whom, no doubt, have political aspirations. lf a candi­date's name is proposed for consideration by one of the major party political bosses, it is likely that candidate will receive a "quallfied" rating. If a candidate is attempting· a primary challenge without one of the political bosses' blessing, it is highly unlikely that candidate will be found qualified by the review committee.

Consider the most recent case of three sit­ting judges who decided to take on Suffolk County Republican Party chairman, Howard DeMartini's handpicked candidates in a pri­mary during the 1992 elections.

District Court Judges Rockwell Colaneri and Louis Ohlig were to be denied the nomi­nations for a seat on the County Court, while Family Court Justice Joseph Klein was told he w.:>uld not be given the nod for a District eoun judgesh ip. Mr. DeMartini had o ther designs on the three open seats which these gentlemen were hoping to move up into on the judicial ladder.

Mr. DeMartini had worked out a very cozy cross-endorsement deal with his Democratic Party boss counterpart Dominic Barenello. The backroom deal consisted of cross-endorse­ments for three Republican judges and three Democratic judges, effectively eliminating any real choice for the people on Election Day.

One might make the argument that if all the six judicial candidates selected by the party bosses were the best ones for the job there was no harm done. However, some of the bosses' picks were based solely on their political con­nections with little regard towards judicial qualifications. In the balance, when it·became

We all rise when they enter the courtroom, but judges get no respect

in the back rooms where political bosses make deals. The best judges

seem most likely to get chewed up and spat out by the political machines.

Why does this go on?

Justice isn't blind, voters are, says Sarah DuGoode.

HONORE DAUM lEFt

clear that the three disenfranchised judges would not go away quietly like good political soldiers, the bosses saw fit to try and impugn their judicial credibility.

ln the case of]ustice Ohlig, the Bar Associ­ation screening committee found him "unqualified" to serve in the county court although he'd been found to be qualified on three previous occasions, one of which was for the state supreme court. For no apparent rea­son Ohlig, with many years on the bench, was found unqualified. Curiously enough, the com­mittee found former Babylon Supervisor Arthur Pitts qualified despite the fact that. Mr. Pitts hadn't practiced law in five years and had almost no criminal law training. In fact, Mr. Pitts was ini tially found unqualified by this same august committee just two days preceding his qualified rating. Upon review of his "quali­fications" and testimony from four state supreme court justices who appeared before the committee on his behalf, the SCBA reversed its ruling and found Mr. Pim quali­fied. At the time Judge Ohlig charged that "undue political influence" had been placed on certain members of the committee to change the ruling.

Although this account was widely publicized back then, the end result was that the six party-backed candidates won handily. The challengers were able to run on the Conserva­tive line but, lacking a major party endorse­ment, stood little chance of winning. Voters were faced with the handpicked judges of Mr.

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DeMartini and Mr. Barenello, judges ~ho ~ow owe-their comfortable $90,000 plus a-year Jobs to the political bosses and a political syste~ that some feel encourages lying, cheating and chicanery in the pursuit of controlling the out­come of public elections.

lt would seem that such mischief might have made the party bosses lay low for a while, fear­ing some public backlash to these dealings but such was not the case. Not long after this coup Mr. DeMartini struck again in the form of dish­ing out a district court judgeship to one Robert Oliver. Mr. Oliver's link to the Republican Party first came to light during his reign as the Town of Islip's Ethics Committee chairman several years ago. He was tapped to fill out the term of another judge who was given a county court judgeship. After serving a short time as an incumbent county court judge, Mr. Oliver, as planned by the bosses, won his first full tenn in last year's election.

At the time a controversy was brewing over whether or not the Supervisor of that town, Frank Jones, had paid to have· his personal income tax returns prepared by the accounting firm that had received a lucrative contract from the town for auditing services. Charges raised during the Supervisor's race that year would not go away and forced Mr. Jones to tum to the ethics board for a ruling on his alleged misconduct. Within days the chairman of the ethics board, Mr. Oliver, issued a letter stating that Mr. Jones had been formally cleared of any wrong doing in connection with his personal tax return preparation. At the time, Mr. )ol_les maintained that he did pay for the service but at first refused to provide evidence to that fact and later claimed that his wife had mistakenly thrown out the cancelled check that would have proven he paid for tax preparation ser­vices.

Mr. Oliver based his findings on the "fact" that he was informed by a member of the Supervisor's staff that Mr. Jones had paid for the service. Based on that "fact" Mr. Oliver did not question the matter further and gave Mr. Jones the much publicly touted letter of abso­lution just weeks before the election. Mr. Oliver also failed to examine the issue of resi­dency regarding the town attorney at the time, Robert Cimino. Political opponents of Mr. Jones had pointed out for years that Mr. Cimino did not reside within the Town of Islip as required by municipal law. Mr. Cimino's address was listed in the phone directory as a residence in the posh community of Old Field.

CONTINUED ON BACK PAGE

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A LOOK AT THE FUTURE OF BROOKHAVEN

from lnlroduction bJ Master of Ctremonies: ... 1992 really wasn't the greatest

year we ever had but hopefully we're coming out of it. Tonight we're going to hear from Felix Grucci, who is councilman for the Town of Brookhaven, along with Tony Aloisio, our commissioner from Brookhaven,

and very special thanks to Tony Aloisio and the Brooklyn Indus­trial Development Agency for hosting our cocktail party tonight (explosive laughter punctuates en­thusiastic applause, call from crowd: Are we in Brookhaven yet?)

Of course. Oh Brookhaven is that where we are? Let me try it again ...

Thanks to the Brookhaven In­dustrial Development Agency (for tonight's cocktail party] ...

from the Introduction bJ Felix Grucct ... We do have a lot of things hap­pening in the town of Brookhaven and one of those things is to help the planning, to help the develop­ment, because I do believe that this next decade a lot of activity will be taking place, I think that we're go­ing to see a resurgence in our econ­omy and I hope we see a lot of that in the town of Brookhaven, and to help us foster those plans and to brew those thoughts to reality, to do it with planning and to do it with foresight, our supervisor, John LaMura, reached out, convincing the town board that we need to bring aboard somebody like Lee Koppelman co help us ..

Tony Aloi~o speaks: ... a couple of transportation-re­

lated developments that I think are going to break ground, are going to define the town a little bit more, define where we're going in the area of land-use and hopefully pro· vide not short-term but long-term incentives, and a long-term direc­tion to our future growth pattern. Probably the first project that many of you are aware of now, and I'll give you an update on the status of each of these as I go along, the first project is the National Aviation and Transportation Center which of course is part of Dowling Col­lege1.

WITH

TONY ALOISIO "OUR COMMISSIONER FROM BROOKHAVEN"

In the rradition of both the Fairness Doctrine (equal time for opposing views), & Sunshine Laws (opening government meetings for public scru­

tiny) we bring you excerpts from a speech ro a meeting of the L.l. Business Development Council, held at Mario's Restaurant in Hauppauge 1/25/93. With Brookhaven Toum government very much in the news these days for its efforrs ro promcce development, it seems timely ro let the public see the Toum through their eyes. Here's a look at the Toum's future, with Tony

Aloisio. (Or is it now the past!)

This project is essentially going to be located south of exit 68 along the William Floyd Parkway past Brookhaven Calabro Airport.

Essentially, this location is at the eastern end of the town of Brook­haven, and really is going to in my view provide a real focal point for future development activities in the area.

There are several large industrial parks that are located just north of this site that in many respects are undeveloped as of now2 .•.

... it's really going ro provide a focal point for east end development ... It's already been through the envi­ronmental review process. Our Town IDA has induced the project for a $34.5 million dollar industrial revenue bond which will be assist­ing in its development. The Fed­eral government is on board, it's providing several million dollars for up front costs.3 So it's a real project, we expect to break ground sometime in the springtime and we

I. Both Racanelli :mJ Parr. with lots of real esrate in this area, arc deeply involved with Dowling (while Breslin takes care of Hofstra); their generous investmentS in higher educatio,n might pay some dividends. The Sunday Tames Ll section, whose editor attends Ll BOC meetings, ran a puff piece on Racanelli's bankruptcy, accompanied by a huge Dowling ad. 2. Such as Parr's Drookhaven R&D

Plaza, '100% tax-aba1cd' and 'environ­mentally-approved'- already po•son­ing pine barrens water sources, cooting its neighbors much money & distress. J. This was condemned as a pork barrel

project and defundcd, then lobbying restored funding. lr's th05C other places that create deficits, not us; our projects are necessary! Same deal brought back the Federal Court to Central Islip.

see it as you know just a beautiful project in terms of the educational opportunities it's going to offer, but also the general impact it's going to have on the whole Exit 68 and William Aoyd Parkway O>rridor ...

••• Also within the same lines of infrastructure improvements, although it's not infrastructure, we do have Brookhaven Town Center Mall, which is the Bres­lin project, which is now coming up on the agenda.

Although per se it is not a road, it is going to be something at Exit 68, right north of this facility, that's go­ing to help define that area, which right now docs not have, for the most part any major new or inter­esting development'*. The project right now has received, has the sup­port of the Town Supervisor and the Town Board5, it's been through the site plan approval process, it has its approval by the town, it went through the SEQRA process, and I won't get into the SEQRA roo much now, because I know it'U get too confu.~ing. It went through the SEQRA process successfully, but it was decided that it had now become a generic impacted state­ment as opposed to a site specific so we're tied up in tbat right now, but that, that environmental impact statement has been completed and we're moving forward with that6

'\. just all those scraJll!ly pine trees and mangy deer. 5. Even more support in the famous

Planning Board, whose Chair asks Bres­lin's attorney whether rhc public has a right to speak! (Oct, 1990 mtg.) 6. ~we're tied up in that" together.

We??? Willy Breslin and the Brook­haven town governmcntt?

and you know it's a project that has community support and I think we're going to see some real progress on that out at Exit 68 ....

... Also along the area of infrastruc­ture improvements, Brookhaven has been quite fortunate to have Stony Brook University and the Long Island Incubator located within the town itself. Over the past five years, we have approved several subdivisions, one in partie· ular, the Stony Brook Technology Park which is located, ah, directly adjacent to the university ...

When the New York Jobs Bond Act was introduced, one part that was sponsored by Suffolk O>unty was the connection of this park to the university sewage treatment p lant in order to relieve the high technology companies that are lo­cated there of being, of some of the burdens of having to deal with Ar­ticle 7 of Suffolk O>unty Health.

Obviously, that act, ah, was not able to go through, and the need for that sewer connection is still there. The Town IDA is working with the developer, has now resub­mitted, is in the process of moving a new gram application through the REDS program to the State of New York ...

I think that really ties it up as far as the infrastructure projects that are on board. The only other thing I can say is that the town continues to operate its own independent IDA under the direction of Fred Braun. As many of you know, we do have probably the most extensive, extensive offerings in our real es­tate tax abatements on Long Island and we will continue to use that policy to try and complement the various development activities that we're starting to see happen, ah, within the town. 7

So basically that was my remarks, I'm happy to take any questions ...

[Afrer whicll. Mr. Rupert Hopl<ins rook the mike to give a progress rtiJOTI on rAe Olympus scam, which u.w srilllacking az the time . ... ]

7. More information on IDA-spon­sored corporate welfare schemes, including the Hanky Panky Lingeree Case, contact All-County Taxpayers Assn, Box 177 Star Rtc, Glens Falls NY 12801.

foo t notes by Foghorn

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T H E E M P E R 0 R s N E W M A L L This full-page ad appeared in Oc· tober 25 1993 L. l. Business News, claiming six anchor stores for the proposed Willy World Mall, and listing four of them by name: Fortunoff, Stern's, }.C. Penney, and Sears. Such an announcement before a mall is constructed is "eTY unusual. What makes this an· nouncement e"en more remark· able is that commitments were never made by at least three, and probably all four, of the stores named in the ad. Here are re· sponses to Foghorn inquiries.

FORTUNOFF Fortunoff unequivocally denies any involvement in the mall: "We're not going in the mall. Period. That's Willy Breslin saying that, not Fortunoff." This statement was made to a delegation of about 20 en· vi ron mentalists on December 18th 1993 by Fortunoff VP/Chief Oper· ating Officer Norman Goldberg, written down, and signed by him, outside the Fortunoff main store at 1300 Old Country Road, Westbury. Mr. Goldberg confirmed in a later telephone conversation (2:45pm, Dec 22) that Fortunoff has no in· tent1on of ever locating at the Bres· lin mall in Yaphank. This is

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consistent with opinions expressed by Alan Fortunoff in an earlier con­versation, in which he strongly ex· pressed personal reservations about malls in pine barrens.

STERN'S Contacted by on behalf of the Is­land Close-Up News Service, Stern's also unequivocally denies any plan to locate in the Yaphank mall. (Phone calls circa Dec 21st)

OR======-

ANCHORS AWAY AT WILLYWORLD

~,,,_, UAH-.., 8retllrt ltft:llt,V t. pJMNd ID IIUtJOun« tlte d~lopment of

Brookhaven Town Center A 1.600.000 ~wore fool meiOM.d ntiJ.II J.oc.tt-d at tlw g4t&aay to Long I$J11ttd"s fom~d

&au E.nd •nd NorUt Slwrw I" S~Jfolk County. Nnu YOTI<. ~by 1ix IUili.tmAII~ A:ttown dqMrllf'l#nl slons.

Nole: At a 9/17/90 Planning Board meeting, artists' renderings ol the

proposed WillyWor1d mall were shown to have little relation to Breslin's actual plan to build a military·

bunker type of structure. 3 years

later, he was selling the mall with what appear to be the same pic1ures.

St .. l<li"IIY locattd in Suffolk C...nty ,, .... IIOpo<l&nl th with alta~~ atrium"" lh< ...... W,cl. 1lw ........... wal iunct.JOt\ 01 tM WiUlua F1o)·d P•ilr.w•y 1nd lM lonsltlaAd converp oa the maD'• cort m,etttns p1~t. and lood .eoutt l':..KfteSIW"Y· Brookhaven TownCcnW'r it M ~pon.nt tddldon whtf~ .ttll~tivt' fol.mllins. pooh and plantlnJ will «t~tt 1 to LooJ bbnd'• clovtlop......_ II wiU ptOYidt • .wq.,. ttlall ......, J'lhfrinS placo. rxporitn<t and JhopJ>iaJ opportunity [ot a lat&< -tlol 0nt o( tht-« innov•bveleolw .. will bt tht .. ~ a,.• <11nmdy witllout.,r CllOij)tr.Ole lloopplnJ. Widlt"Y ""'"""'~ lndttf!'zin&INI......,.rthiowillbuaopon· ....,. t-aU dirodiotoo. --TownC..trr wlK.,.... air ptlwnnspl><t lot-.picllicllllll .. -~ •idt • clutu.tic comtaae:i.al Md bowtMt. font: tor tht &ur· In d. fall .nd. winter month~. a larp Nn'"lib lltnlc1'uft riJ ......!ins-- oiltlootthaloo6..,...activili<J["""IIot•-.n ...

Tho ....U wil btandtootd ~~y.;. Nti<wUy ""'""" c1tpo<t- r.. inlorMalioeaod ;.,q.;.;,..._, ,.... anilobolollco""'· -•-iododireSean..J.C.....,y.Slml•aodr..t.-11. toct......,.Roally. --P"""""""'"II&at.,._ ...........

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• 1'51ej 741-7400-151111741•7'29 , __ .... tooloO_.._

[1990 CONTACT WITH SEARS: After dozens of calls to Sears, spokesman Gordon Jones • reached at 312-875-4726 ·was finally able to confirm that Sears' Homart subsid· iary had once been

involved with part of the mall prop· erty, in a joint project under the name of Havcnbrook Associates. On October 26th 1990, Jones stated, "That's ancient history. Years ago, we did own property there. One time years ago, we had some interest there, but that was several years ago."

Howard Blankman Calted his office at 12:55 pm Dec 22nd. Howard Blank man, who han· dies most of Breslin's public rela­tions, was not responsible for this fiasco:

"LI Business News did it on their own initiative with Breslin. I re­member calling Wilbur, gave him hell. They more or less did it on their own [without my approval, contrary to terms of our deal) .... "

(Confirmed by a call to LIBN . Wendy Clark, VP Oir of Adv at LIBN, said "That information came from Darlene Anderson at Breshn, and they did okay it. Whenever we put an ad together for adient, when it doesn't go through an agency, they have to approve it.")

'------------------------_.., And no owner, either? speculation a while back about that ... " Referred to New Jersey of· ficc- 201-845-8400, at which number Lisa said Mr. Fraser is out. A Mr. Kleinman called back, saying, "Honestly, I don't know much about it but I can give you the cor· porate contact."- This was Chris DeBolt, Real Estate Manager, at 513-579· 7976 (Cincinnati, Ohio - presumably the HQ of Federated, parent co. of Stern's). Mr. DeBolt wanted to know where this informa· tion had appeared. In a very Arm and emphatic tone, he stated, "1 can tell you definitely there's NO plan to locate a Stern's store at the Yaphank [Brookhaven] Town Center.''

J.C. PENNEY

At 10:40am, Dec 22nd, called JCP office at 214-591-1000, left voice­mail message for Hank Rusman at extension #1316. He called back around noon, got more information, and called again at 2:30pm that day with a prepared statement, "We arc in the processofhaving preliminary discussions, but at {his stage any comment that we are going to be part of the [Brookhaven Town Cen· rcr mall) would be premature. We arc very interested in that location and hope the project goes forward."

SEARS

Haven brook, the name of the Homart's mall venture, with an ad· dress on the 44th floor of Sears Tower, was the owner of record of about 30 acres ofWillyWorld mall­land. Its name was sltghtly altered to Havenbrook Realty Associates and its corporate address moved to a New York law firm, which said, when called, "There must be some mistake.M ... The firm "has no direct involvement in real cstateM except for "summonses and subpoenas for Greater NY Savings Bank in fore· closure cases, etc." Subsequent fol­low-up calls to the law firm did not locate anyone, even among the top people, with any knowledge of Ha· venbrook.

Not only is this a mall adrift with no anchors; our research suggested that

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I made to Ol'der I Bob Miller, at Stem's Lake Grove store, rcphed, "I have no idea what you're talking about - where did you hear that!" After an explana­tion, he said, "I remember some

[misspelled in Breslin's ad as J.C. Penny ... Norman Goldberg of For­tunoffhad indicated that he'd heard j.C. Penney might be committed to Willy World.)

Call to Sears- 312-875-2500-around J lam on Dec 22nd. Chet Wallen, Real Estate Director, re· plied "I've heard the word Yaphank kic(sing around here [for years], but I haven't seen any· thing.'' Referred to John Hlis [sic), who was away until january 4th. Called on jan 7th, he was away again, until Jan lOth.

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