Governor announces reconstruction projects for I. P. and Oceanside

The Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) announced the first two projects, for Island Park and Oceanside, totaling over $20 million, to be implemented through the New York Rising Community Reconstruction (NYRCR) Program — a grassroots undertaking that empowers localities to increase their physical, social and economic resilience following impacts from Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

The projects will be executed through “subrecipients.” A subrecipient or subcontractor is a third party that receives monies in order to carry out an externally funded program. Nassau County will act for Barnum Island, the Village of Island Park and Harbor Isle. The Town of Hempstead will act for Oceanside.

Under the program, communities established citizen panels to study and recommend necessary local projects. Those recommendations were unveiled to Governor Cuomo at the 2014 NYRCR conference last spring.

Long Island communities have been allotted $249.1 million in total for the initial 26 island wide NYRCR projects.

The signing of the agreements is the first official step in bringing those projects to fruition—with the State offering additional resources.

(The program) “is providing the financial and engineering impetus that will permit the incorporated Village of Island Park to rehabilitate its drainage system,” said Mayor Michael McGinty.

The NYRCR Program will provide the subrecipients with project coordinators, who will offer technical assistance that focuses on federal rules and regulations. The program will also fund and carry out the federal and state environmental reviews on all projects as well as provide staffing support to subrecipients.

The first two projects are drainage improvements on Barnum Island, the Village of Island Park and Harbor Isle at an estimated cost of $9,910,000, and drainage improvements for Oceanside at an estimated cost of $10,320,000.