Local union vs. AvalonBay at Rockville Centre

Rockville Centre commuters may have recently been handed a flier from the General Building Laborers’ union Local 66, alleging the construction at the AvalonBay site is unsafe, among other things.

“The inflammatory leaflet being distributed is the work of union organizers who are involved in a dispute with AvalonBay, the developers of this property,” said Rockville Centre Mayor Mary Bossart at the village’s last meeting on May 25. “The union’s dispute with AvalonBay has nothing whatever to do with the Village of Rockville Centre, and we will not be drawn into it.”

The flier makes many accusations, one of which is that AvalonBay won’t be paying taxes on the 349-unit apartment complex it is building.

While technically true, AvalonBay will be making Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs). The PILOT payments to the state, county and town will be less than what the taxes on the property would otherwise be. However, through an agreement with Rockville Centre known as the Village Services Assistance Payment (VSAP), AvalonBay will be paying the village the full amount of what the taxes on the property

would be.

Another claim in the flier is that AvalonBay began construction on the site, a state-designated brownfield, before contaminants on the site had been cleaned up. There was contamination from a dry cleaning chemical known as PERC found on the south side of the site. What is not mentioned in the flier is that construction on the site is phased, starting now on the north side of the property—which is not contaminated—while remediation work continues on the south side of the Banks Avenue site.

“There will be no construction on that side until we are authorized by the [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation], and ultimately the village. That’s it. It’s as frank as that,” said Scott Kinter, AvalonBay’s vice president of construction for the northeast. “And to get that approval from the DEC, there’s a number of hurdles we need to jump, one of which would be the filing of a wrap, which would be a final remediation plan.”

There was concern caused by the flier that the contamination may have spread from the AvalonBay site to nearby Reverend Morgan Days Park. This, however, is also not true.

“The village’s environmental consultants, H2M Associates, took 10 soil samples and tested them for 34 volatile organic chemical compounds, including PERC,” said Bossart. “There is no evidence that this or any other dangerous chemical is present on or below the baseball field at Reverend Days Park.”

Local 66’s main concern is the labor that AvalonBay is using to do the work on the site. AvalonBay is contracting some of the construction work to out-of-state companies, something that the union objects to.

“Why are they bringing in companies from outside Rockville Centre when we have people right here in Rockville Centre that are unemployed?” said Salvatore Speziale, the business agent for Local 66. “AvalonBay is... undermining the Nassau County economy and working families here on Long Island.”

AvalonBay refutes that claim..

“There are going to be a lot of local workers,” said Kinter. “In fact, the company that we hired from the outset to do the environmental and the demolition and the abatement work was an out-of-state contractor, but they used labor out of Local 138 and Local 66, respectively, the operating engineers and the laborers. So the same union that was passing out the leaflets at the train station had their union members working on the site.”

Comments about this story? ACostello@liherald.com or (516)569-4000 ext. 207.