School Parents Step Up Fight Against New Nursing Home, Saying State Ignored Its Own Rules
JACKSON CHEN
P.S. 163’s main entrance, seen from the currently unused lot proposed as the site of JHL’s 20-story nursing home.
BY JACKSON CHEN
S
even parents on the Upper West Side filed a lawsuit on January 15 arguing that a nursing home development must completely redo its environmental review because the New York State Department of Health failed to fol-
low proper procedures. The lawsuit comes on the heels of a December 9 decision by State Supreme Court Judge Joan B. Lobis. According to the judge’s decision, DOH and Jewish Home Lifecare (JHL) didn’t take the “requisite hard look” at the impact of noise and hazardous materials in
their environmental review of the construction of a 20-story nursing home on West 97th Street. With the choice of appealing the judge’s decision or completing an amended environmental impact statement, JHL decided to appeal Lobis’ decision on December 30, according to court documents. Two weeks into JHL’s notice of appeal, parents of P.S. 163 students fired back with a request for a cross-appeal and another motion that seeks a complete redo of the environmental impact review. The parents’ motion to reargue claims that the DOH violated State Environmental Quality Review Act procedures. Lobis had ruled that while the DOH followed proper procedures, an amended environmental impact statement was required. According to the lawsuit, the state DOH failed to respond, comment, or analyze a proposal for central air conditioning at P.S. 163 as a key mitigation measure during its environmental review of the nursing home development. “DOH could have addressed and was required to analyze the issue,” the suit stated, “but intentionally ignored P.S. 163’s public comments relating to central air conditioning.” T o combat the noise created from construction, the par ents argued that noise-attenuating windows should be installed
Manhattan Veteran Treatment Court to Lend Hand to Ex-GIs Running Afoul of the Law BY JACKSON CHEN
M
anhattan will be getting its own Veteran Treatment Court within the State Supreme Court in Lower Manhattan beginning February 19, Manhattan Express has learned. Joining existing branches in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, Manhattan’s Veteran Treatment Court (VTC) will be an incarceration-diversion court program tailored for veterans who end up with felony convictions related to psychological fallout from their military service. Judge A. Kirke Bartley, a veteran who currently serves in the criminal branch of the Manhattan Supreme Court, will head the VTC at 100
6
Centre Street Downtown, according to the Unified Court System’s resource coordinator, Brandon Partnow. Veterans who are convicted of felonies would have to consent to entering the VTC and also gain approval from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, according to Partnow. The centerpiece of the veteran court, he said, is a mentorship system that pairs veterans with someone who acts as a support resource and checks in with them frequently. “What makes the Veteran Treatment Court different from regular treatment courts is the mentoring initiative,” Partnow said. “The initiative is basically to find other veterans who know what people go through when people come back
and would have to remain shut throughout the construction process. The city’s construction code requires 15 cubic feet per minute of fresh air for classrooms and, as a remedy, Robert Lee, an acoustical engineering expert hired by the plaintiffs, submitted public comments that central air conditioning was the only way to provide the legally required and necessary fresh air for the school children with the windows being closed for at least three academic school years because of the construction. According to the parents’ suit, the central air conditioning proposal was only addressed after the final environmental impact statement was issued and the public review process was closed. “The problem is they failed to mention it at all in the final environmental impact statement,” said Rene Kathawala, the Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe attorney representing the suing parents. “You can read all 500 pages of the [final environmental impact statement], they never even mentioned central air conditioning or analyzed it.” The suit stated JHL’s counsel “slipped into the record the emails” between them and the New York City School Construction Authority relating to the costs of central air conditioning after the public record was closed. As reflected in the DOH’s
c
JHL, continued on p.16
from being in service.” According to Partnow, the veterans can be partnered up with a mentor as soon as their first day in court and would subsequently meet with them at least once a week. Along with offering a reliable human connection, mentors are expected to keep their vets out of trouble and on top of their assigned medical and/ or psychological treatment program. “It’s someone there that’s been through it all also,” Partnow said of the mentors. “We found that other veterans are able to connect with veterans in a way that nonveterans really can’t.” The Manhattan VTC branch is currently looking for mentoring volunteers in advance of its February debut. While the VTC prefers to have veterans serve as mentors, it’s not an ironclad requirement. According to the volunteer application, “veterans are better served by having a support system that includes veterans who understand
c
VETERANS, continued on p.16
January 28 - February 10, 2016 | ManhattanExpressNews.nyc