47.0°,
Mostly Cloudy No materials lab for East Meadow
$2.5 million test facility will be built in Hicksville or Wantagh, officials say
A building materials testing laboratory that was to be built in Eisenhower Park will now be constructed in either Hicksville or Wantagh, according to Nassau County officials.
On Aug. 9, Newsday reported that the facility, which would cost $2.5 million and be used to test and inspect asphalt, steel, concrete, rebar and other materials used for county projects, would be built in Eisenhower Park in the fall. But county spokesman Brian Nevin said on Monday that the county is now considering two other locations instead — a Department of Public Works yard near Cantiague Park, in Hicksville, and a site in Wantagh, near the Cedar Creek sewage plant.
“It is possible that the lab could be placed inside an existing rehabilitated structure at either facility,” he said.
While neither Nevin nor Mike Martino, a spokesman for the county Department of Public Works, said exactly when the change was made, Norma Gonsalves, presiding officer of the County Legislature, who lives in and represents East Meadow, said she went straight to County Executive Ed Mangano immediately after reading the Newsday article and asked that the facility be built somewhere else.
“I didn’t believe it was suitable for the park,” Gonsalves told the Herald. “We have the ice rinks, we have the Aquatic Center … the Let All The Children Play [playground]. All of those things are park uses. This did not fit into my definition of a park use.”
A request for proposals has been filed to find a builder for the 5,300-square-foot lab, which will not be used to test hazardous materials, like asbestos or mold, county officials emphasized.
The county’s previous materials lab, in East Rockaway, just outside the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy. The county is seeking funding for the new lab from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Had Eisenhower Park been the final site choice, the lab would have been built on the park’s east side, near the Hempstead Turnpike entrance, and would have been easily visible from picnic areas. “I’m very protective of the environment,” Gonsalves said. “I think Eisenhower Park is well used, and I don’t think it needs to be overused.”
