Friday, August 16, 2019
Vol. 95, No.46
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Cathedral Seedlings PAGES 30-31 n Gold Awards PAGE 32
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Schools to be tested for vapor intrusion from Superfund site
BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
like having a freight train in your living room. Their houses shook with the constant roar from a work train that wasn’t doing any work at all. It was just parked there with the engines roaring. This caused a sleepless Saturday night (July 27) for our residents.” The designated in-village “Third Track Project Ambassador” who works as a liaison with Garden City prop-
Out of an abundance of caution, on August 13th the Garden City Board of Education authorized additional “Vapor Intrusion Testing” for two schools in the district, Locust School and Stewart School, due to their proximity to the old Roosevelt Field Superfund site (a contaminated groundwater area, south of Old Country Road). In 2000 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the area a Superfund site and in early 2018 a plan to rid the groundwater of contaminants trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was announced. The estimated cleanup cost presented early last year was $13.14 million. No new detection of harmful materials or chemicals present in or around school grounds prompted this round of Vapor Intrusion testing. School Board President Angela Heineman explained that although school district officials are not worried, they chose to “be extremely cautious” in safeguarding schoolchildren. The school board approved a resolution for the testing, although it was a late addendum to the August 13 meeting agenda, and copies of the resolution and testing agreement were not made available. The vote was 4-0 as School Board Trustee William Holub was absent from the meeting. The district’s environmental consultant AKRF, Inc. were initially hired by the district on December 11, 2018. At that time of board approval, rates were stated as a total $15,975, and broken down: hourly rates of the firm’s team is $245 for principal, $220 for the project director, $180 apiece for the senior project manager, environmental engineer and hydrogeologist, plus $145 per hour for CADD operation and figure generation. Superintendent Sinha said the district has a goal of having the vapor intrusion testing done before school starts, ahead of Labor Day weekend. But she told the Board of Education that the time frame could shift into early September. Once testing is completed the Board and community will hear a report on environmental conditions at a fall board meeting. The August 13 agreement approved by the Board was connected to prior discussions, as the Board’s June meeting featured a presentation by AKRF. School Board Trustee Michael Cassaro confirmed with Dr. Sinha that the district is entirely confident in the report presented in June. She said the district advised the consultants to take steps to be ‘overly cautious.’ “We wanted to really look into the reports and review them to see
See page 42
See page 42
Face painters did some pretty great work on these three “butterflies” at the August 9th Promenade on Seventh Street. Tonight’s theme is “Mardi Gras, Garden City Style”. See page 34
West POA ‘keeps track’ of LIRR issues BY RIKKI N. MASSAND Residents who live near the Long Island Railroad have recently expressed their frustrations with LIRR work trains idling along tracks near their homes, prompting the Western Property Owners Association to seek an open line of communication with LIRR officials about problems and progress of the controversial Third Track expansion project. In an email to The
Garden City News days after Greenridge Avenue residents reported LIRR work trains idling overnight in late July, WPOA President RoseAnn Vernice responded with the following comments: “Residents are unhappy with the lack of any notification. All those affected described the sound of the 300-foot-long LIRR work train idling on the tracks behind their homes for nine hours (12:00 am - 9:00 am) was
Friends of Music Outstanding Achievement Awards PAGES 36-37 Parents concerned over primary grades class sizes PAGE 3