Village to break ground on new headquarters

$1.5 million project held up by bidding process, design changes

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As village officials continue working from a temporary trailer-type structure next to Island Park’s Long Island Rail Road station, residents called for an update on the progress of a new Village Hall at the board meeting on Jan. 19.

The old headquarters, damaged during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, was boarded up for more than two years before being demolished in 2015. Before it was razed, the village board passed a $1.5 million bond to construct a new building — based on an architect’s estimate — which the board said would include a small police substation and an office of emergency services.

Island Park Mayor Michael McGinty told the Herald that Hauppauge-based Axis Construction and Cameron Engineering, from Woodbury — which were chosen for the project about six months ago — have completed the design phase, and that he is hopeful that work will begin on the site shortly.

“We believe that within the month we’ll be breaking ground,” McGinty said.

It took a few years to finalize a reasonable cost estimate for the building, which lengthened the bidding process, according to McGinty. Quotes for a larger, 5,000-square-foot project reached $2.2 million at one point, he added, but most recent estimates project that the roughly 3,000-square-foot building will cost $1.5 million — matching the value of the bond, which has an interest rate of less than 1 percent.

The village — which did not have flood insurance for the old Village Hall — is slated to receive more than $600,000 in reimbursement funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an amount that was doubled from $300,000 about a year ago with the help of U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, McGinty explained. The village spent roughly $70,000 of FEMA funds, he added, for the temporary trailer.

Along with the long bidding process, progress was delayed on the project when a change in the building code forced Axis Construction and Cameron Engineering to redesign parts of the foundation. Those designs have been implemented, according to McGinty.

When complete, the building — to be raised two feet above base flood elevation — will serve as an administrative center, an emergency management area and a courtroom, McGinty said, and will include a separate area for the village’s Building Department.

But some residents have urged the village to move into an empty building to save money. Harbor Isle resident Jan Rothman, a member of the Island Park Chamber of Commerce, said that the village should “use their imagination,” citing many vacant properties that the village could retrofit for its needs.

Rothman added that a small village such as Island Park — with a population of less than 5,000 — does not need an expensive village hall, which is why some residents are critical of the project.

“It’s just frustrating to see that thing every day, and nothing is happening,” Rothman said of the fenced-in land. “It’s ugly. Take another building, build a little park there … and let’s move forward.”

But McGinty said the village has explored using an existing building, and deemed that it would not be cost-effective after calculating the costs of raising the structure and renovating it to fit the village’s needs.

Patti Ambrosia, former president and current board member of the Island Park Civic Association, suggested that the vacant Bank of America building on Long Beach Road would be a good space for a new Village Hall.

But McGinty said at the Jan. 19 meeting that plans for that building, which was donated to the village — to be made official at the end of February — are “in flux,” and will be decided after the State Dormitory Authority completes a transit-oriented planning study, which will help plan for downtown improvements to aid businesses on Long Beach Road.

He stressed, though, that the Bank of America building would not be used as village headquarters, despite residents’ rumors on social media. To receive the earmarked FEMA funds, the village must build where the old hall once stood, McGinty said.

“They keep [saying] that they’re going to build, that they’re not going to build, that they’ve got to send it out for a new contract,” Ambrosia said. “Then it was going to be a modular building. I mean, they’ve just been all over the place for these last couple of years, and I just think if you’re getting a building for nothing, utilize it.”

The village’s new headquarters, once construction begins, are expected to take about nine months to complete, according to McGinty.

“The Village Hall in and of itself is a symbol of the Village of Island Park and its renaissance going forward,” McGinty said. “That’s the key.”