Lindenhurst board delays vote on selling Edward W. Bower Elementary School

A planned school board vote on whether to sell a shuttered elementary school in Lindenhurst to a Garden City developer was postponed Wednesday night after community uproar when another developer unexpectedly showed up asking to make a presentation and was denied.

The Lindenhurst school board had scheduled a vote on whether to sell Edward W. Bower Elementary School to Garden City-based Engel Burman Group, which wants to buy the land for $8.25 million and build 150 senior condominiums. The board voted last month to sell the property but failed to get a majority vote for any of the three potential developers who had made offers, including Engel Burman and Simply Self Storage, of Orlando, Florida, which offered $5 million to build a 200,000-square-foot facility with 1,400 units.

The school on Montauk Highway was closed in 2011 because of the building's age and declining enrollment, and costs the district more than $100,000 a year to maintain.

During a community forum before the planned vote Wednesday, representatives from Simply Self Storage came to the podium and asked to make a presentation on a new proposal that they said would rival that from Engel Burman.

Board president Donna Hochman refused, saying it was inappropriate and noting that the four board members who had voted for Simply Self Storage on Oct. 21 had "changed their minds."

"How can you vote on something when you never looked at the other plan?" resident and former board member Julie Bartolomeo asked. "I don't understand why the board of ed is not going to do their due diligence and look into this."

"I believe we've done our due diligence already," Hochman answered.

But several of the dozens of residents in attendance loudly protested, questioning whether the board members had already made up their minds.

"Unless you've already voted in a closed session and it's a done deal, then why can't we hear what they're saying?" one resident asked.

Hochman asserted there had been no private vote, and members quickly called for an executive session. When the members returned, Hochman said that Simply Self Storage could make a presentation Dec. 2 during a business meeting.

The vote on a developer, she said, would take place in a newly created community forum on Dec. 16.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.