Lynbrook Board of Education approves water main easement amid outcry from residents

“We love Lynbrook, we hate the water though,” Mike Viglielta, who lives at the end of Abrams Street, told the Lynbrook Board of Education on June 14, minutes before the board was set to vote on a resolution to grant New York American Water an easement to replace a water main in the area. The resolution was unanimously approved.

“Tomorrow you can hound the water company and tell them they’re good to go,” William Belmont, the president of the Board of Education, told Viglielta.

The easement enables New York American Water to extend a water main under Abrams Street. The water main that is currently in place was installed in 1922, and ends where the street ends. This dead-end pipe does not allow water to flow through the pipe system, which has caused a lot of problems for the Viglieltas and their neighbors.

At the meeting, Viglielta held up a damaged basketball jersey and a two-week old filter that was completely rusted. “This is a brand new filter, so this is a serious issue,” he said.

Rust water that comes out of the Viglielta’s pipes has also damaged their other items. “Most people replace a washing machine or a dishwasher and don’t have to [replace] it for another 10 years,” Dianna Viglielta, Mike’s wife, told the Herald earlier this month. “I’ve lived here for 15 years, I’ve been through about six washing machines and about five dishwashers.”

To fix the problem, the Viglieltas and their neighbors asked NYAW to extend the water main. “The whole issue is, right now, we don’t want a dead end main because in another five, 10 years we’ll be back to the same problem with sediment build up,” Mike said.

The dream of getting the situation fixed started to come true on June 7, when contractors for the utility began work to replace the old dead end water main with a new one that would extend from Abrams Street to the Bowler Avenue pipe. It would also connect to Waverly Avenue and Scranton Avenue, before it splits at Atlantic and Union Avenues.

But before NYAW could extend the pipe, it needed to get an easement from the Lynbrook Board of Education. According to Paul Lynch, the assistant superintendent for finance, operations and information systems for Lynbrook Public Schools, an easement was necessary because two pieces of the school district’s property are needed to connect the pipes.

Lynch said that because NYAW is a publicly traded company, the public needed to vote to allow the board to negotiate an easement. The option was put out as a proposition during the school district’s budget vote and was approved 1,148 to 221 on May 16.

Now that the easement has been granted, representatives from NYAW said that the extension could begin as soon as the schools let out for the summer on June 23. The water main replacement will not cost taxpayers because NYAW is paying for it. Since part of the pipe runs underneath the track at Marion Street, some work will have to be done there as well. Lynch said that due to advances in technology, the district does not expect for there to be any impact on the track. If any damage is done to the track, however, NYAW will pay for it, he said.