Town of North Hempstead officials held an official ground-breaking ceremony on a flood relief project last Thursday afternoon aimed to remedy recurrent flooding of homes on the border of Mineola and Carle Place.
The town is collaborating with the Village of Mineola and Nassau County on the project, and village and county officials attended the groundbreaking. The town is responsible for installing new catch basins and drainage pipes on three or four streets adjacent to the Mineola-Carle Place border. It will also construct a catch basin on Mineola land at the Old Motor Parkway property north of Westbury Avenue.
“It’s a long time coming,” said Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman. “It’s going to make a difference to the residents in the area.”
Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello said he hoped the project would be completed in time for the spring rainy season.
“We’re talking about a problem that’s decades old,” he said. “We’ve had different levels of government working here.”
The county’s portion of the project, which also involves the Town of North Hempstead, 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.
“Without the cooperation of these three entities, this project would not have gotten done,” said Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss.
Strauss said the village had already begun preparatory work on its part of the project on Westbury Avenue. The village’s work will include installation of two new drainage manholes, four new catch basins and removal of approximately 300 feet of existing 18-inch-drainage pipe to be replaced with a new 30-inch drainage pipe on Bruce Terrace. The village’s part of the project will also address flooding in the village’s commercial district along 2nd Street.
“Seeing is believing,” Strauss said, as earth-moving equipment could be seen on the site of the groundbreaking at the intersection of Westbury and Park Avenues.
The catch basin at that site is intended to collect water runoff from residential properties in Carle Place to prevent flooding of properties in Mineola.
The town and the village had been at a stalemate for a few months, with village officials accusing town officials of dragging their feet on the project. Town officials insisted they needed an agreement with the village permitting it to have access to land belonging to the village before it could begin its work. Mineola provided an agreement that the town board ratified last February.
The project was initiated when the Town of North Hempstead secured a $2.4 million grant through former state Sen. Craig Johnson. When Johnson lost his seat to Jack Martins (R-Mineola) in 2010, the grant was among approximately $10 million in grants secured by Johnson that were left in limbo by the Democratic majority in the state Senate.
Martins succeeded in restoring the grant, with the funds being equally divided between the town, the village and the county.
“It’s a very complicated project. And we know how long its taken,” said Martins, the former mayor of Mineola. “For those who have lived through this, hope is in sight.”
For Mineola resident Tom Festa, whose property borders the drainage basin on the Old Motor Parkway, the project offers welcome relief. The first floor of his house flooded two years ago and after he had the ground floor rebuilt, it flooded again.
“This is amazing,” sadi Festa, a resident since 1986. “When you hear it’s going to rain, it scares you.”
The $2.4 million grant won’t cover the entire cost of the project. Kaiman said the town is hoping to finish its part of the project with the $800,000 it’s been allotted, but will draw on contingency capital funds if more money is needed to finish the job.
Mineola’s part of the project will cost an estimated $1.7 million. Strauss said “nothing is set in stone yet” on how it will fund the balance for its work.
The county’s part of the project is estimated at $1.1 million.
Dvirka & Bartolucci has been retained as the engineering contractor on the project.
