Peninsula Library to buy land on Central Avenue

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of September 10, 2010/ 2 Tishrei 5771

Peninsula Public Library and Temple Israel of Lawrence have signed a letter of intent for the library to buy several pieces of property from the congregation totaling a parcel large enough for a three-story, 30,000 square foot library and adequate off-street parking.

The library board and the board of the Reform temple at 140 Central Avenue made a deal after the JCC of the Greater Five Towns, which rents classroom space from Temple Israel, decided to not exercise an option to purchase a portion of the temple’s property.

“I approached the library and asked them if they would be interested in looking at part of our front lawn and at our offsite parking,” said James Rotenberg, the president of Temple Israel of Lawrence. The congregation owns several adjacent homes on Fulton Street that would be razed for parking. “It was a quick process and a friendly process and a win-win for the temple and for the library. We’re the people of the book and this is a perfect partnership.”

The temple sanctuary and other facilities would not be impacted by new construction.

The search for a bigger, better Peninsula Public Library has been underway practically since it opened its doors in 1961, said Joan Lepelstat, vice president of the library’s Board of Trustees. The current building is the smallest library in Nassau county when measured by the number of people it serves.

“The Nassau library system publishes per capita square footage per library and we are dead last in Nassau County,” she said.

It’s been 13 years since the Peninsula Public Library won approval of a bond to cover the cost of putting up a new, larger building. Since then there have been a number of delays and false starts, most recently a several-years-long flirtation with the Village of Lawrence over a piece of property it owns adjacent to the LIRR station there.

“Our board has worked very hard for a very long time and we are very excited that we finally have a site that we think can be beautiful and adequate to meet the needs of the community,” said Lepelstat.

A number of regulatory hurdles must be crossed, including an environmental review. While the library is not subject to local zoning laws, answering instead to the NYS Department of Education, Lepelstat pledged that the library would be “a good neighbor.”

The library and an architect are working on a building design to present to the public before seeking a bond issue for construction.

In an interview on Friday, Sept. 3, library president Joseph Fuller told The Jewish Star, “The fact that it’s taking place the week before Rosh Hashanah, to me it’s symbolic that we can start a new year with a big step forward and hopefully by this time next year we’ll have accomplished a lot in terms of providing a new library for this district.”