By Jeff Lipton
Following a public hearing, the council voted 5-0 to OK the capital improvement plan.
The roads that will be revamped are California Street from Park to Beech streets, the 500 block of State Street, the 500 block of East Market Street, Cleveland Street, the 600 block of West Chester Street and the 600 block of West Walnut Street. The roads have been identified as some of the worst in the city, and will cost roughly $2.45 million to reconstruct, said City Manager Charles Theofan.
Theofan said the targeted streets frequently flood during heavy rains and are some of the choppiest and most deteriorated in the city. “This is definitely long overdue,” he said. “The condition of the streets are pretty bad, and these are the streets that are in the worst condition.
“We collected data from all departments, everything to do with the particular street,” Theofan added. “We rated the condition of the roadbed, the sewer lines, water mains, electrical service and gas service. And we determined which ones are in the most dire need.”
The complete reconstruction of Cleveland Street, between East Walnut Street and Broadway, and the 500 block of State Street, between Franklin and Neptune boulevards, is scheduled to begin after Labor Day.
Allen Industries of Amityville will take on the project, which includes the removal and replacement of the roadbeds and the installation of a new sanitary sewer, water mains and a new storm drain system. Sidewalks, driveway aprons and curbs will be upgraded, and new landscaping and improved lighting will be installed. The project is expected to be completed in about five months.
Work on the four remaining streets will start next spring and be finished by the end of the summer, Theofan said. Residents will be notified when roads are closed or utilities disrupted, city officials said. The design work on the road reconstruction was done by the city, at a cost of $100,000, which will save some money, Theofan said. Reconstruction of sewer and water pipes under the roads will cost $1.7 million, city officials said.
The bond will also include the rehabilitation of the New York Avenue pumping station, at a cost of $2.5 million. The station pumps sewage from lower to higher elevations and to the city’s sewage treatment facility. “One of our three pumping stations, which have been in service since 1950, will be totally reconstructed,” Theofan explained.
The bond also includes bulkhead repair at a cost of $1 million, and construction of pedestrian crosswalks at four intersections, at $250,000. Lawrence Benowitz, who was one of a handful of residents who spoke at the Aug. 19 public hearing on the bond, said that when he ran for City Council last year, he proposed $60 million in infrastructure improvements spread over 12 years. “The money has to be spent,” Benowitz said. “It’s time, it’s overdue time. The infrastructure needs a major overhaul. It has to be done. Look at the bumps in the street.”
Benowitz said that if the streets had been repaired in 2004-05, when they should have been, the project would not have been as costly to taxpayers.
Al Symons, a resident who also spoke, said, “My personal feeling is that any bond issue improving, repairing or replacing the infrastructure of a 128-year-old city like ours is long overdue. How we’ve been doing things is that after something breaks or is in the process of breaking, we do emergency repairs.”
Symons said he is in favor of a bond to improve the infrastructure, but he questioned whether the project would be done satisfactorily, and whether taxpayers would get what they pay for. “My problem is with oversight,” said Symons. “We don’t have the oversight that we need. Somebody has to make sure that what we’re paying for is what we’re getting.”
The city will have about 20 years to pay off the bond for the infrastructure project. Symons asked the council whether any previous bonds would be retired, because if they are not, the city’s debt service would escalate, hitting taxpayers even harder. “I agree with the bond, but not the way they are getting there,” he said. “By not retiring any of the bonds, they are just backing it up.”
Resident Mark Jackson said the council is “keeping the people in the dark. We don’t know what is involved. They are doing it surreptitiously and we are paying for it.
“The way they are doing it is very unprofessional,” Jackson added. “They have to give us an idea what it will cost the taxpayers. There has to be full disclosure — there’s no other way.”
Comments about this story? JLipton @liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
