Daily News from New York, New York • 275

Sears a England Thruway into the village." That sand filled in working sewers along Basse tt and DeReimer Aves. and the drainfield at Still well and DeReimer Aves. In addition, the village was beset by severe flooding problems because of the runoff from the filled-in land at Co-Op City. Moreover, the fill itself raised the water table of the area, which is fed by many underground springs. And finally, illegal dumping on the west side of the New England Thruway had covered the village's other drain-field.

The 36-inch pipe, now buried under 20 feet of fill, had been installed without the land's being surveyed, it turned out, and city engineers couldn't find it. "We told them where it was, but they wouldn't believe us," Alex said. That situation continued for two years." Ihere were several public meet eted. They appeared in the 1975 capital budget as SE 295 and SE 290, but were rescinded by Mayor Beame because of the fiscal crisis. Today the villagers are politically aware and on the lookout for trouble.

A year ago, for instance, one nonresident property owner put up a sign requesting a variance to build a gas station. One woman saw the sign going up and immediately went over to read it. The villagers successfully protested. The application claimed the homes there had little value and were mostly shacks. The villagers submitted pictures of their beautiful homes.

There's a cute trick of posting a sign just to be legal, then an hour later someone comes by and conveniently tears it down, one resident said. "Sure enough, an hour after the woman went out to check the sign, it was gone." Despite their problems and the loss of so many features that made their community a beautiful place to Jive, residents feel very positive about its future and have no intentions of moving anywhere else. "Once the sewer project goes through, well be in the clear," says Politzer. There's a trend on the part of young people to settle outside the village, and there have been a few home sales by the very elderly or by survivors of residents who have died. A few families of ethnic groups newer to the city, such as Puerto Ricans, have started buying homes.

But integration of new ethnic groups has gone very smoothly, mainly because the villagers possess a smalltown cordiality, and because the new residents are middle-income and share similar life-styles with the older inhabitants. Planning Board Chairman (Gallagher sees "nothing but happiness" ahead for Baychester now that the major problem of its continued existence has been settled. "I think the city should be deeply ashamed of what it tried to do to such a lovely community," she says. "At first it had plans to condemn the entire village, but Planning Board 12 stopped that. I found out quite by accident, while attending a meeting of all city departments, to discuss the building of Co-Op City.

Someone at the meeting mentioned that they'd have to get out all those condemnation notices. "What condemnation notices?" I asked. "If we hadn't found out by chance, who knows, they might have gotten away with it." ings at the church and, as a result of the villagers efforts, they were allowed to vote on two alternative solutions to their problems: Installation of sanitary and storm sewers, plus either sloped streets or streets brought up to grade. In that case the city would de-map Bassett which 10 homes straddle, and which was to be included in a planned extension of Erskine Place from Co-Op City out to the New England Thruway. One village home would have to be condemned to make way for the Erskine Place extension." Prohibition against sewers, in which case the city would condemn the 10 homes and build not only the Erskine Place extension but a wide esplanade alongside it and a paved Bassett Ave.

The sewer solution was carried by a wide margin. Virginia Gallagher, chairman of Community Planning Board 12, called the vote a "historic first wherein a community (of New York City) will determine what happens to it." The villagers got a boost for their objectives when the Penn Central Railroad successfully tied the sale to the city of a small parcel of land, needed for the Erskine Place extension, to the city's agreeing to remove the illegally dumped debris and sand and to find the lost 36-inch pipe. Flooding conditions were so dangerous at the time that a 10-mile-per-hour speed limit was imposed by the railroad on all trains going through the Baychester area. After many meetings with city agencies, the road and sewer projects were approved and budg- NEW YORK SUNDAY NEWS JANUARY 2. 1977 Sears Photographer's on duty 5 day only Jan.

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