Grocer at center of Fire Island land-grab controversy
“The Fire Island resort of Saltaire wants to seize private property — using taxpayer money.
World War II vet Frank Whitney is locked in a legal battle with officials who want to take his Saltaire Market grocery by eminent domain in order to build their own updated version.
And the upscale village may increase property taxes to do it, raising as much as $2.5 million to buy and rebuild the market, which was damaged during Hurricane Sandy.
Whitney’s family says it wants to fix the store — the village’s only commercial property — and has the money to do so, but it accuses Saltaire officials of preventing them.
“Our choice was to rebuild,” Whitney, 88, says in a film his family produced to publicize their plight. “It’s not fair. What they did is not fair.”
The controversy has roiled the beach town of 400 homes, whose residents include real-estate mogul Barbara Corcoran.”
Klein, Melissa. NY Post 19 January 2014.