Mineola Department of Public Works Superintendent Thomas Rini reported continuing progress on the village’s portion of the Bruce Terrace flood relief project at last week’s village board workshop session on Wednesday night.
New drainage pipelines are in place along Bruce Terrace and Sheridan Boulevard, according Rini, who said Roadwork Ahead, the village contractor on the project, has installed a 15-foot deep manhole that the county contractor will connect to.
“We do still have a few concrete repairs that need to be done on Bruce Terrace so we don’t have any standing water on the block once work is completed there,” Rini said.
With the pool season approaching, Rini said the contractor would “expedite” the resurfacing of Bruce Terrace and Liberty Avenue, beginning that work on May 28.
Then, he said, work would proceed on flood mitigation along Dow Avenue.
He said Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss told him Nassau County “seems to be moving along” on approving a contract with its contractor, Pratt Bros., for its part of the $4.5 million three-pronged project involving the village, the county and the Town of North Hempstead to correct recurrent flooding problems on the Mineola-Carle Place border.
Rini said the Nassau Interim Finance Authority has approved the county contract.
Rini said the county contractor told him paperwork has been submitted to the county on materials needed for the work. He said he expected the county’s contractor would begin work on a new interceptor drainage line on Sheridan Boulevard to connect with a drainage basin in Mineola in three weeks.
In response to a question from village Trustee George Durham about conditions on East 2nd Street after a recent rainfall, Rini said he said he drove through the area, didn’t see any flooding and noticed the new drainage basins on Union Street were “taking a lot of water.”
“That system appears to be working, but we’ll keep an eye on it, that’s for sure,” Rini said.
He said the town contractor is in the final stages of completing construction of a drainage basin on the site Old Motor Parkway on Westbury Avenue.
He said a line of bushes will be placed near Mineola residents’ houses near the drainage basin to obscure the basin from view on their properties.
We’ve been able to cooperate with the town to move the bushes near our property line so [the residents] won’t have to see the basin,” he said.
Village Trustee Dennis Walsh said he drove through the area during two downpours on the previous Saturday and said “all the water [went] down the drains.” He said he spoke with a couple residents who “were pretty happy about it.”
“Long time coming. It’s working,” Walsh said.
The village’s $1.7 million portion of the work includes installation of two new drainage manholes, four new catch basins and removal of approximately 300 feet of existing 18-inch-drainage pipe now replaced with a new 30-inch drainage pipe on Bruce Terrace.
In addition to the nearly complete drainage basin north of the Old Motor Parkway property, the town’s $1.1 million part of the project includes installing new catch basins and drainage pipes on three or four streets adjacent to the Mineola-Carle Place border.
The county’s $1.7 million portion of the project includes installation of 1,715 feet of 36-inch or 48-inch interceptor pipe on Sheridan Boulevard from Raff Avenue, crossing Westbury Avenue and entering the Mineola catch basin.
In other developments:
• Rini reported repair work will be made on damage to Mineola Memorial Park from Hurricane Sandy, with bushes to be replanted around the war memorial. He said repairs have been made to the benches in the park’s playground area. Flowers are being planted in the park to prepare for Memorial Day, he said.
