Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 17

LONG ISLAND North Shore North Hempstead Will Tend Garden By Maureen Fan In a move that will give North Hempstead the only town- botanical garden on Long Island, the town board voted yesterday to buy Clark Garden in Albertson for $1.2 million and preserve most of its 11.7 acres from development. About 25,000 people visit the garden each year to make use of its horticultural research library, hands-on workshops, three man-made ponds and various flower and vegetable gardens. But the property on I.U. Willets Road near Roslyn Road is owned by the non-profit Brooklyn Botanic Garden which has had financial difficulties. "We have known for a while that this was an inevitability," said Ellen Basile, Cops: Heist To Pay Rent By Bill Van Haintze A lone bandit, arrested by an alert police officer yesterday minutes after robbing a Bethpage bank, told police he was jobless and needed money to pay the rent, authorities said.

The man, identified later as Charles Conley of Bethpage, entered the Empire Bank at 10:40 a.m., on Stewart Avenue wearing a ski-mask and brandishing a handgun, said Eighth Squad Det. John Butler. He approached the manager, Robert Faulkner, and shouted, "Fill it plastic up and give me all the money." While the manager was collecting $4,899, the robber added: "There's a bomb in one of the wastebaskets," police said. The suspect then fled into the parking lot, but Police Officer Kim Hassell, patroling the area in her car, saw him and chased him on foot. Conley fled and hid behind a car, but subsequently approached Hassell and told her he had seen the holdup man flee in a car, she said.

Hassell said he was held after officers discovered the ski mask, gun and money in nearby bushes. Conley, 36, of 18B Albergo told police he had just been fired from his job. Butler said Conley told police he and his wife needed rent money to avoid eviction. Conley is being held on a first-degree robbery charge and will be arraigned in District Court, today. Two customers and five employees in the bank were unhurt in the robbery.

administrator of the Fanny Dwight Clark Memorial Garden. "We've had to stay within a close budget and we've always operated the garden at a deficit It has been a financial burden on the Brooklyn Botanic Supervisor John B. Kiernan said purchasing the property would be a good way to preserve open space. In an effort to prevent large-scale future development, the board passed an environmental conservation easement to ensure that the property remain a botanic garden. "The easement protects certain areas of the garden.

It doesn't preclude any development on the entire parcel," Kiernan said. The parking lot, for example, will be repaved. "It's just another level of assurance to the people who are transferring it to The area is zoned residential and, if developed, could be the site for 30 single-family homes, town officials said. Manhasset resident Cheryl Healy commended the board for its decision. "I'm just happy that land has been set aside and preserved as open space," she said afterward.

"This is an area which encourages people to plant trees which are good for the atmosphere and it's a great idea to add to the park Asked about the property's price tag, Healy said: "Considering that it will not be impeded with houses and development and construction I think that is a plus. Maybe it is worth it. The conservationists would say The garden was given in 1966 to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences the forerunner of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden by Albertson lawyer Grenville Clark in memory of his wife. Clark was a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "inner circle" and active in the formation of the United Nations, North Hempstead officials said.

He apparently used the Albertson property as his weekday retreat when he wasn't in Washington, D.C., or New York City. Now the garden is used as a learning center, teaching 2,500 schoolchildren a year about beekeeping, plants and the role of weather. Plant sales, rhododendron festivals, classical concerts and other fund-raisers have been held on the grounds, which even include a collection of beehives. Six full-time staff and five part-time employees who work at the garden will be retained. Gourmet-Shop Plan Feeds Anger of Sea Cliff Neighbors By Liz Willen Angry neighbors of a proposed retail complex in Sea Cliff are trying to prevent a developer from building a block of stores and a parking lot at the corner of Sea Cliff and Glen Cove Avenues.

Opponents of The Gateway to Sea Cliff say the complex will create more traffic and congestion in the residential neighborhood surrounding the village. Luciano Ricondo, a spokesman for the neighbors, said they may go to State Supreme Court in Mineola to appeal the Sea Cliff Zoning Board of Appeals approval of the Gateway plan, which calls for a complex of four gourmet shops and includes the renovation of an existing two-story building into offices. Ricondo said the neighbors feel betrayed by last month's zoning board decision, which also would allow Manhattan developers Paul and Konrad Wos to build a parking lot in a residential area next to the complex. "Right now, our only other option is to go before the planning board and continue to fight," Ricondo said. "We are afraid this will change the character of the The planning board, which has the final say, may hear the proposal next month, but no date has been scheduled.

Although its neighbors are fighting the Gateway project, some residents and area businessmen say the complex would provide much needed off-street parking and additional shopping in the village. More than 80 residents signed a petition in favor of the plan at the request of Konrad Wos, who was reared in Sea Cliff. Ricondo said neighbors objected most strongly to the zone change from residential to commercial that will allow the firm, Wos and Wos, to build a paved commercial parking lot as part of the project. "The board totally ignored our concerns," said Ricondo, who fears the 26-space parking lot would attract loiterers. Douglas Barnaby, chairman of the zoning board, said the plan was approved "only after it had been scaled down considerably," by decreasing the number of parking spaces and the size of the stores.

"They are putting in planters, upgrading the sidewalks and putting in a buffer near the parking lot," said Barnaby, who called the project "a plus for business" that will enhance property values in the area. Barnaby said the board carefully considered the concerns of neighbors. Konrad Wos, who must now await approval from both the planning board and the architectural review board, said he would like to begin construction on the project this spring. He is speaking with prospective tenants in the meantime, he said. "This will fit into the architectural context of Sea Cliff," Wos said.

"It will provide a neighborhood shopping area within walking distance of the John Packard, who is renovating several buildings in Sea Cliff and wants to open an ice-cream parlor on Sea Cliff Avenue, said he hopes Wos' project will help the business community. "This is a self-sufficient village, and we should provide services to meet the needs of people in the business district," Packard said. Residents to Vote on Library Ex Expansion By Monte R. Young When Janet Votapka parades a group of 4-year-olds through the heart of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Library for story time in the community room, she can see those trying to study cringe when one or two of the youngsters makes a distracting noise. Now, Votapka and library officials are hoping that residents will pass a referendum today that will give them more than $900,000 to expand the library and give users the "quiet space they need." The polls are open from 7 a.m.

to 10 p.m., with voters deciding whether they want to pay $25 a year during the next five years to meet the cost of the library expansion. "We are pinched in," said Votapka, who heads the children's library section. "We sometimes have to turn children away from programs because of space and that should not be. We have to go through the adult reading section and with 20 to 30 kids and even with some parents on their best behavior, creates distractions." But not everyone believes the library trustees have used their current facilities as well as they should. "I use the library and so does my family," said Richard H.

MacDougall, who lives nearby. "I'm not against the library. But I think the library should address problems they can handle now. They have a lot of old and useless reference books that are out of date and should be thrown away to make room for other books." While MacDougall hasn't led a community effort against the proposed referendum, he's been the most vocal in communicating with library board members. "Property taxes have driven out people and young people can't afford to buy here," MacDougall said.

"The school board will have to make capital improvements that could cost in the millions. I think things are getting out of hand and we ought to be more careful." For residents of East Norwich, talk of expansion and the relocation of the library has been tossed around for years. But public sentiment in the past has nipped any serious consideration of moving the library from its current historic home to a more modern facility. The present library on East Main Street was built in 1901 and Theodore Roosevelt, then the governor of New York, laid the cornerstone. In 1949, with the financial help of his friends throughout the world, the library was remodeled and renovated in the memory of Brig.

Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. During the years there have been some internal changes, but decades later, the building remains exactly as it was. Changing that historical structure by moving is something that Elizabeth Hauser, chairwoman of the library board, said she was cautioned not to even think about. "Ten years ago there was talk and plans were drawn up to build a more modern facility," Hauser said.

"But that was quickly changed because people didn't like that Most of the expansion will be in the area of the library used for children. The Bishop House, a separate structure connected by a walkway, currently holds the children's books and administrative offices. But that space, library officials said, lacks, among other things, an elevator to transport large volumes of books for cataloging..