The phrase "open space preservation" conjures up images of vast vistas of farmland on the East End. But the Town of Brookhaven has acted to preserve a tiny farm in highly developed Centereach, an area well known for its array of strip malls.That may sound odd at first, but the special circumstances make it a wise move.

The town has voted to buy the development rights to most of the 11-acre Hobbs Farm, which is owned by Bethel AME Church in Setauket. Alfred Hobbs died in 1996 and left his farm to his church. But Bethel, a small church with very limited resources, couldn't really afford to keep it running. So, in recent years, the land was an overgrown eyesore. More recently, though, volunteers have been farming part of the land and growing vegetables that they donate to food pantries.

Those volunteers deserve immense credit for refusing to allow this farm to die. And the town -- including Councilwoman Kathleen Walsh, who represents the area -- has earned a round of applause for noticing the work of the volunteers and making it possible to keep this land a farm forever.

You know, it just shouldn’t be this hard. Long Island should be the best place in the world to build a museum for our favorite Rough Rider, Teddy Roosevelt. But alas, we’re talking about Oyster Bay here, and the museum has been controversial from the start. One of the sticking points: The site picked by the Theodore Roosevelt Association is where local firefighters perform their drills.

While the association, which has already scaled back the museum’s footprint, had said it would preserve the paved strip at Firemen’s Field for the maneuvers, new plans absorb that space, pushing the firefighters out.

To his credit, Supervisor John Venditto has said the new proposal is fine, “very impressive” even, and a good fit with the hamlet — so long as a suitable replacement site for the firefighters can be found. How hard can that be?

Anybody with a paved strip suitable for firematic activities, please come forward...

Up until now, the Town of Babylon has been focusing heavily on making sure that new homes get built to use as little energy as possible -- through adapting a green building code, for example, and taking steps to build a demonstration "zero energy" home in Wyandanch.

Now Supervisor Steve Bellone wants the town to get into the business of helping residents of existing homes to make their dwellings more energy-efficient. This $2 million initiative can't get started until the town amends its code to allow the program to use the solid waste management fund for this purpose. Once that's done, Babylon will make low-interest, 12-year loans for energy-saving improvements.

The more our towns work on changing their ordinances to make homes and workplaces greener, the better we'll be able to afford rising energy costs.

Photo: asaphouse.com

People who are following the negotiations over Hudson Yards on Manhattan's West Side say the $1 billion deal can still be salvaged, despite reports that it has fallen apart. Six weeks ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority chose developer Tishman Speyer to build a complex of office towers, apartment buildings and parks over the Penn Station railyards. Until yesterday, the parties were working out the details.

Then the MTA issued a press release yesterday afternoon saying the deal was at an impasse. Tishman Speyer is asking that its construction plan be contingent on a successful rezoning, and let's face it, the western yards rezoning will meet a lot of neighborhood opposition because of the large scale of the commercial construction. Tishman Speyer wants to transfer the risk of a failure to the MTA, which the agency apparently finds unacceptable.

However, the MTA spoke yesterday before alerting City Hall, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg today hinted that the developer's request is reasonable. The result may be just what company chief Jerry Speyer wants -- for the mayor and Gov. David Paterson to step in and keep the MTA bureaucrats in line. Whether this ultimately happens remains to be seen. Stay tuned.