Friday, January 17, 2020
Vol. 96, No.17
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Bid for stabilization of St. Paul’s rejected due to high cost
GCHS SWIMMERS & DIVERS
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Members of the Garden City High School swim team take a break between races. The team has multiple members who have qualified for county and state competitions. See pages 58-59
Protective bollards coming to 7th Street BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Garden City has plans to add minor infrastructure to the streetscape, but it’s a major step towards protecting the general public, businesses, their customers and employees and anyone out and about in the village’s “downtown.” Village Deputy Mayor Robert Bolebruch noted at a December 12 Board work session featuring an overview of safety issues that measures could be taken
to protect the public along the 7th Street business district from traffic accidents. The first step is a physical barrier to bear the brunt of a vehicle that goes outof-control and into a place where people sit, walk, or move around. The Board asked Village staff to look into ideas for barriers. Garden City Department of Public Works Superintendent Joseph DiFrancisco said the village has bollards currently in storage and more will be ordered to fulfill safety precautions
right outside of Leo’s Midway Restaurant & Bar (190 7th Street) and The French Workshop (191 7th) two corner hotspots for diners and pedestrians at the busy corner of 7th and Franklin. “We have bollards in stock in the village and we’ve installed them in other areas along Franklin Avenue. We are prepared to install them to protect citizens along that corner of 7th and Franklin and any outdoor ‘al fresco’ diners at Leo’s and See page 50
Getting a good price for stabilization work on St. Paul’s is the latest conundrum facing the Garden City Village Board of Trustees. Although the Board was able to approve some of the work planned for the building, the Board had to reject the sole bid on one of the major components because it came in well over the projected budget. The Board had planned on beginning a “preschematic, temporary protection and stabilization” phase aimed at protecting the building and preventing further deterioration in the near future, but at its meeting on January 9th village staff recommended that the Board reject a bid by Westar Construction Group of Syosset for “St. Paul’s school building stabilization” as it came in $356,500 over the budgeted amount. Superintendent of Public Works Joseph DiFrancisco explained, “I am requesting to reject the bid for the stabilization project as we only received one bid for this project and it came in this amount over budget. We will regroup with our (consultants) construction management firm CNY Group and we will try rewording and retooling the bid, resubmit and rebid this project,” he said. Last September Trustees authorized the first one million dollars to be spent after CNY gave the village its $984,000 estimate for the “Immediate Action Plan.” Cardoso of BBB called the first stage of stabilization “cocooning the building” which can include some shoring of patches and spot abatement. Speaking at a November 5, 2019 trustees’ work session dedicated to early efforts and investment for the iconic, historic 1883 St. Paul’s building (as reported in The Garden City News on November 8) Village Treasurer Irene Woo explained aspects of the municipal competitive bid process and the typical four to six week turnaround period to achieve an award of bid appearing on a Board agenda for approval. “CNY is putting together specialized bid specs for these four specialized stabilization work. Once the specs are received by the village we will perform due diligence as with all bid specs. The parties with the village will look at the bid documents. There will be much back-and-forth between village purchasing See page 51
St. Joseph CYO basketball teams finish inaugural season PAGE 57 Girls basketball has winning week in conference play PAGE 60