Response to Newsday Article

I would like to correct a few mischaracterizations of the events surrounding the building of a Commerce Bank branch on a parcel of land that the Lake Ronkonkoma community had earmarked for a 9/11 memorial during its visioning process in 2004.

The response from bank spokeswoman Rebecca Acevedo was patently untrue, unless, of course, you consider the bank's intransigent refusal to consider other suitable properties in the immediate area to be "closely" working with the community.

Your article fails to portray this point accurately, particularly in light of the fact that the bank could easily have utilized, and improved, any of several currently blighted parcels of land within a few steps of the current site that the civic organization recommended to bank representatives. They just didn't want to play nice.

Secondly, your inclusion of the response of Councilman Tim Mazzei that "the bank project was approved in accordance with local laws", without further qualification, creates the impression that we were attempting to infringe on the right of the bank to develop this property. We were requesting that they consider the proposition of being "good neighbors" and conforming to the vision that the inhabitants have expressed for the development of their community. Instead of fostering good will and good feelings about their new enterprise, this corporation stubbornly refused to make any attempt to fit in to the community vision.

Third, the unqualified inclusion of the remarks of construction worker Armando Bermudez leaves the reader with the impression that the community is opposed to progress at any cost. The jobs created by the appearance in our midst of this additional bank are temporary, in terms of the construction jobs, and of minimal impact upon the local economy, in terms of permanent positions with the bank. However, any benefit to the community would still be realized if Commerce Bank had agreed to observe and conform to the vision of the community and locate their business a few hundred yards away from the current physical site.

Surely, no one would disagree with Mr. Mazzei that the Commerce Bank organization has the right to develop any plot of land that its Board of Directors sees fit, conforming at a minimum to existing zoning laws. I submit that Mr. Mazzei knows full well that this issue goes deeper than the right of Commerce Bank to do as it pleases. It concerns the "rightness" of this corporation's actions, and the impact upon the community from which it hopes to draw prospective customers.

Thalia Bouklas
Director, Lake Ronkonkoma Civic Organization