School board has bigger issues
A file photo of Huntington School Board president Bill Dwyer. Credit: John Dunn
There must be something the Huntington School Board could do with the taxpayers' money that would be more educational than paying for a lawyer to oppose new senior housing. But that's what the board chose to do.
It's not unusual these days for school boards to fear children - not the ones already in their charge, but those who might show up if a proposed housing development is built. This board unfortunately played a key role in killing a 490-unit proposal by AvalonBay Communities in Huntington Station. But why fight 46 units of housing for people older than 55, especially when 600-plus seniors are on a waiting list?
The school board president, Bill Dwyer, says it wasn't about seniors, but about not setting a precedent for more density. There it is: the dread D-word. But these would have been one-bedroom units of 600 square feet, and no provision for kids. And the extra density would have given the developer revenue to rehab 30 existing units.
The district has plenty of real worries: Dealing with budget shortfalls, for example, and finding a way to reopen the closed Jack Abrams School. So, it's unproductive to spend taxpayers' money and the board's time this way. Its interference, a factor in the project's defeat, was unnecessary, wasteful and wrongheaded.
