Civic group makes offer for Beagle Club but legislator wants ‘to cast a wider net’

(Updated: 7:16 a.m.) The Calverton Civic Association is offering to occupy and maintain the former Beagle Club property on Edwards Avenue for the community to use for meetings and passive recreation. But after approving a controversial, no-rent deal with a motorcycle club headed by the county parks superintendent, county officials are not jumping on the civic group’s offer.

“I think it’s great that the community is interested,” said Legis. Al Krupski, who sponsored the resolution authorizing the agreement with the L.I. ABATE motorcycle group. “But we’re going to cast a wider net this time.”

Krupski said he thinks the county should issue a request for proposals for the site — something that was not done prior to the county approving the ABATE agreement.

“I’d like to cast a wide net and see what the response is,” Krupski said in a phone interview Friday, “not just for the building but for the two barns as well. They are sitting there empty.”

An East Quogue hunting group has also submitted a proposal to use the site. Hunters for Deer would like to see the site “shared with all Suffolk County residents interested in exploring hunting, archery and our outdoor world,” the group said in a press release issued late last night. “HFD would like to see the property be dedicated to Long Island’s hunting heritage, as well as focusing on outdoor education and mentoring programs for children and new hunters.”

The Calverton Civic’s offer came after Krupski gave civic association members a tour of the Beagle Club facilities on June 23, which followed a contentious June 11 civic meeting attended by Krupski, Dawson and county parks superintendent Jim Barr, president of L.I. ABATE. Residents expressed loud opposition to the plan to let the motorcycle group use the site as its headquarters. They also demanded to know what county workers had been doing at the site since the ABATE deal was given a green light, because the deal had been premised on ABATE doing repairs and maintenance in exchange for its use of the facility.

Both Dawson and Barr told residents that county parks workers were doing minor work to make the facility “habitable,” citing the removal of moldy sheet rock as an example of the work being done by county workers on site, but documents obtained through a subsequent FOIL request show the work being done was far more extensive — including the installation of a new bathroom in the clubhouse basement.

Krupski accompanied civic association members, including Beagle Club neighbor Tom Farruggia, on the June 23 walk-through of the clubhouse and barns, when residents observed the bathroom under construction in the basement.

Farruggia, who lives in the subdivision across from the Beagle Club entrance, said he and other residents brought the bathroom construction to Krupski’s attention during the site visit. Farruggia was incredulous that, a week later, the legislator was reportedly surprised by documents showing county workers were building a bathroom in the clubhouse basement.

“Al didn’t want to go into the basement to see the bathroom,” Farruggia said. “We told him it was there.”

During a June 30 interview, when presented with the documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Law, Krupski expressed surprise at the extent of the work being done by the county — and particularly by the revelation that county workers were building a new bathroom in the basement. He told RiverheadLOCAL he intended to ask the parks commissioner for “a full accounting.” See prior story.

“I would like to know if the commissioner knew what they were doing there,” Krupski said June 30.

On Friday, July 4, when asked why he’d expressed surprise about the bathroom on Monday if he’d been told about it by residents the week before on June 23, Krupski said that although residents told him what they’d seen in the basement, “I didn’t see any bathroom.”

“I didn’t know how it got there,” Krupski said. “I didn’t want to assume anything. Whenever I assume things, I get into trouble,” he said.

Krupski said Friday he had written to the parks commissioner to ask for an accounting.

Records obtained in the FOIL request indicate that, for a two-month period beginning April 17, when Suffolk County parks trustees approved a plan to allow L.I. ABATE to use the Calverton parkland, county workers were on site repairing and renovating the facilities on 39 work days.

County work crews installed a new steel overhead door on a garage and even constructed a brand new bathroom in the basement of the clubhouse — though the building already has two bathrooms on its main floor.

And a new $7,000 central air-conditioning system for the clubhouse was on order until Krupski and parks officials faced irate community members during the Calverton Civic Association meeting. The parks department canceled the central air-conditioning order the very next day. Both Dawson and Barr had signed off on the purchase order in late April, records show.

The records also show the county parks department spent more than $5,100 for materials and supplies during that two-month period — in addition to paying the wages of the 12 parks department employees, whose annual salaries range from about $39,000 to more than $67,000 — hourly rates of $18.85 to $32.50, according to a Suffolk County public employee payroll database compiled by Newsday last year.

A spokesman for the county executive defended the work done by the county in advance of ABATE taking possession of the property.

“Basically what the county did is the same thing we’d always do if we’re turning over a facility or renting a facility, whether it was for a fee or not, to a nonprofit organization,” assistant deputy county executive Justin Meyers told RiverheadLOCAL June 30.

Suffolk County purchased the 150-acre Beagle Club site in 2012 for $8.9 million for preservation and “passive recreation uses.” The property, designated county parkland, has remained unused since the acquisition. Parks superintendent Barr, president of L.I. ABATE, proposed having the motorcycle group use the clubhouse as its headquarters, in exchange for improvements and repairs to the facilities, to be made at the club’s own expense. Suffolk parks trustees approved the plan April 17.  Krupski thereafter sponsored a resolution authorizing a lease or license agreement of the site with L.I. ABATE, in exchange for repairs and improvements to the side. It was approved by he legislature 14-0 on May 13 and by the county executive May 29. After the June 11 Calverton Civic Association meeting, L.I. ABATE said it would not pursue the deal. On June 17, Krupski laid a resolution on the table to rescind the May 13 resolution. He asid last week he expected it to be passed at the legislature’s next general meeting July 29.

Hunters for Deer press release July 7, 2014