Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 5

Raceway Development Land deal talks began months ago This story was reported and written by Celeste Hadrick MieheUe Slatalla and Brian Donovan Well before Roosevelt owners formally announced the dosing of the historic track yesterday they were negotiating with several mqjor companies induding FortunofF and Canon USA about possible land deals But Hempstead officials say any development may be delayed because they are considering extending the building ban on the property Word of the real estate negotiations came as the owners told a packed news conference in Mineola that they had dedded to dose the money-losing track to racing and that their decision is final They refiised to give any information on their plans for the property which real estate experts say could be worth $150 million to $200 million Yesterday town sources confirmed that FortunofF wanting to protect its adjoining store property had approached racetrack owners about a portion of the 174-acre pared at the already crowded center of Nassau County Canon officials said yesterday they have been negotiating for several months to buy as many as 50 acres And town officials said several New York City real estate firms and broken began contacting them last year inquiring about the kinds of development likely to be allowed on raceway land which is zoned for industrial use Hempstead and Nassau County officials however said their first priority would be trying to keep the track open Should that foil they Baid the land would not be developed until the town -completes a master plan for the area is the downtown hub of Hemp-stead Town and Nassau County and if the track be saved it has to be developed in a rational way with minimum adverse impacts on the said Gene Turner executive assistant to Presiding HempBtead Please see RACEWAY on Page 10 Newiday Jim Prppler The owners of Roosevelt Raceway announced yesterday that they are closing the track to racing At Track a Bitter Day of them But bitter heard a lot of rumors always rumors for the last 10 years I half believed Baid Herman Carbone 68 a natty silver-haired trainer who retired this year Carbone said he saw the closing coming had to be blind not to see he said a small handful lof tracks are making money The rest are just about He had a theory about why Simulcasting lotteries all that hurt us How much money could the people have? By the time harness racing comes on at night peoplo are broke nothing left for Everybody had a theory A favorite one was that management bought the track four years ago just so it could sell the real estate some day and that the Please see TRACK on Page 10 By Anemona Ilartocollis On the surface life looked pretty normal at Roosevelt Raceway yesterday as trainers in sweaty T-shirts and helmets jogged the horses around the track in the early morning sun and grooms lugged water and hay across the pad-dock a minefield of potholes But the strain was showing trainer a young boy his owner called him and said all the horses I want to get said Connie CofFrey a groom for 18 of her 40 years already lost one John Tannuzzo a trainer said as he trundled by with a wheelbarrow full of hay read the newspaper this morning came down quick and said buy me no The grooms trainers owners and drivers trickled in as usual at 6 am on the day that raceway owners announced their intention to close the track to rac ing after 48 years They were juBt a handful of the 900 employees There was no race but the horses had to be watered fed and exercised It was payday and they filed into the Track Cede to cash their checks a service provided recognized customers only" the sign Baid They wondered how many more checks there would be and where go next got a house a said Steven Maietta a groom for 17 years and a trainer for two a person supposed to do after being a horseman for 19 he demanded fill out an employment statement your trade? I say horseman Where am I going to go? be a lot on The horsemen were bitter dazed and dejected Not angry they had been expecting this to happen for so long that all the anger had been drained out Upset Win in Teamsters Election Presser hand-picked successor defeated in 9-8 vote iY SATURDAY JULY 16 1968 filed against the hierarchy by US Attorney Rudolph Giuliani in Man--last month the top officers are accused of permitting organized crime to dominate and use the 16-million-member union Named as defendants were 26 organized-crime figures in addition to McCarthy Mathis Presser and the rest of 18-member general executive board In the suit which is scheduled for trial in Februaiy Giuliani asks for the appointment of an overseer to run the union until new elections can be held for the top 18 officers In a news conference yesterday McCarthy demonstrated an acerbic wit an undisguised hostility for the media that ho Bays have painted the Teamsters as mob- Mathis in a telephone interview said that McCarthy supporters asked for the traditional unanimous vote but were refused people who voted for me would not agree to he said feel very strongly about supporting me and would not agree to it" Asked why he didn't change his own vote Mathis said: want to be recorded as voting for He declined to explain why McCarthy 69 a native of the tough predominantly Irish-Catholic Charlestown section of Boston will be paid about $232000 a year in his new job He has been a Teamster for 52 years beginning in 1936 as an intercity truck driver at age 17 and rising to rule the New England Teamsters McCarthy has shunned the limelight until now In a civil racketeering lawsuit By Kenneth Crowe Newsday Labor Writer Washington William McCarthy of Boston yesterday won the presidency of the Teamsters union in the most openly bitter and divisive power struggle in the history of the second-largest labor union McCarthy an international vice president defeated acting President Weldon Mathis secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters and hand-picked successor of the late President Jackie Presser who died of cancer last Saturday by a 9-8 vote of the general executive board In a departure from every such election battle of the past the losing side refused to change the vote afterward to make the selection unanimous in a public gesture of solidarity CJI Please see TEAMSTERS on Page 11.