Friday, December 22, 2017
Vol. 94, No.14
FOUNDED 1923
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"Kindness Rocks"
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
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Celebrate 12th Night PAGE 23
School district to survey safety, work with GC Police
MERRY CHRISTMAS
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
A snowfall Friday night may have cut attendance at the annual Holiday Spectacular on Seventh Street, but it couldn't keep Santa from making an appearance along with his helpers. The event is run by the Chamber of Commerce and the Village of Garden City. See pages 52-53.
Village selects new water tower design BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
As the year comes to an end, the wait over new waterworks for Garden City is officially over. The Tuesday, December 19 meeting of the Board of Trustees delivered a swift pick for one of the village’s most expensive infrastructure investments. The Board unanimously made its choice for approving a new one-million gallon water tank to replace the 84-year-old tank atop the tower on Old Country Road. A new, all-steel pedestal spheroid tank will cost the Village of Garden City $6.738 million in principal as it will feature
enhanced paint, so as to reduce some of the long-term maintenance (repainting and caulking) costs. The vendor is Caldwell Tanks, Inc., which was the low bidder for both of the two tank styles Garden City selected from, as the bid for a third - a glass-fused to steel design tank - did not meet the village’s bid specifications. The Board accepted the all-steel tank design at cost from Caldwell, while rejecting a bid from Statewide Aquastore for its $6.444 million glass-fused to steel composite tank, as was determined ahead of the December 7 trustees’ meeting.
The new tank is expected to last 100 years, and visual appeal – a ‘golf ball on a tee’ look – was part of the Board of Trustees’ decision on Tuesday evening. Longevity and durability were the driving factors, however. Mayor Brian Daughney said he was intent on avoiding two things: structural problems associated with a concrete base for a new tank and also the shadow cast by a bigger structure in place on the Old Country Road area. Picking up from his thoughts mentioned at the December 7 meeting, this week Trustee See page 44
At the Garden City School Board regular meeting held at Hemlock School on Wednesday, December 13, the board approved a contract for a comprehensive school safety audit that will look at security procedures throughout the district. The board agreed to a contract with Covert Investigations & Security Inc. of Suffolk County, at a total cost of $6,400. Dr. Alan Groveman, Interim Garden City Superintendent of Schools, spoke about his prior consulting work with Covert Investigations, which occurred once he retired from his previous position as a superintendent and administrator in the Connetquot Central School District (Islip). At the time of his hire last summer Groveman’s bio and resume were made public, including his work with Covert and overall, serving as an education and administrative consultant to other school districts plus government agencies. He told the audience last week that school security is his career background, however he did not make any recommendation to the board of education regarding the security audit. He says he left it to the board of education to make its independent judgment and the board members reviewed the candidates firms for the security audit. “This (audit) entails a review of district security procedures, programs, services, equipment and technology we have in the schools. The group doing the audit (Covert Inc.) is one of two groups that has won a BOCES RFP (request for proposals) in order to provide their services to school districts. There are no secrets across the Garden City school district and so everybody is aware, while I was happily retired for a couple of years I consulted with a couple of firms since security is my background. I consulted (worked) with this group, the other group that had the BOCES RFP and I’ve consulted with most architectural firms and energy conservation firms while I kept busy in retirement. The school board did made its judgment on the RFP for this issue without my recommendation since I had personal familiarity involved with both the firms,” he said last week. School Board President Angela Heineman announced that the audit agenda item had an additional sentence, a late addendum not printed in time for the December 13 meeting agendas, so she read it aloud: “be it resolved that the Board of Education accepts the proposal from Covert Investigations & Security Inc. to conduct a safety and security audit for the Garden City See page 44
Garden City Fencers medal at Brentwood tournament CSEA attorney says "stalemate" in labor talks PAGE 3
PAGES 50-51