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Friday, July 26, 2019
Vol. 7, No. 30
HEALTH & WELLNESS
TOWN HALTS FIREHOUSE CELL TOWER WORK
SCHNIRMAN WARNS OF CENSUS UNDERCOUNT
PAGES 27-30, 35-38
PAGE 4
PAGE 7
Pool overflow system at heart of standoff
SUMMER OF ADVOCACY
Town claims incomplete Martin pool work, contractor disputes argument BY T E R I W EST The system that kicks in when a pool gets overfilled with rain is at the center of a dispute between the Town of North Hempstead and the Clinton G. Martin pool contractor. The Town of North Hempstead provided full plans for a new overflow system in February and did not plan to pay the contractor, the now bankrupt Gramercy Group, for what Gramercy Group said would be “several hundred thousand dollars” worth of work. But the saga of the overflow system dates to December 2017, when Gramercy Group was in the midst of the pool repairs. Recent letter exchanges between the Town of North Hempstead and Gramercy Group, conversations with the contractor’s lawyer and contract documents chronicle the dispute. When Gramercy Group was retained as the pool repairs con-
tractor, the pool had an existing gravity overflow system, Gramercy Group’s attorney Michael McKenna said. “The water would overflow into a gravity drain system that would then flow out to a manhole and just go along with the storm water,” he said. The town’s original plans called for existing pipes that were part of the system to be demolished, he said, so Gramercy Group did so. In December 2017, the contractor asked the town for guidance; piping the contract wanted installed looked as if it was supposed to connect to the pipes that the contractor had demolished, McKenna said. The town then issued a change order in January 2018 asking Gramercy Group to create an overflow system that would drain to a sump, he said. In a letter dated March 1, Continued on Page 12
PHOTO COURTESY OF KATHRYN RITCHIE
Kathryn Ritchie (second from right) of Herricks High School at March for Our Lives last year. She was selected to join this year’s ACLU Summer Advocacy Institute program. See story on page 2.
Viscardi to launch center for entrepreneurship BY T E R I W EST
guiding people with disabilities toward starting a business, said People with disabilities are Viscardi Center Chief Program more likely to be self-employed Officer Colleen Crispino. So in October, the Viscardi than people without disabilities, yet very few entrepre- Center will launch its own efneurship centers specialize in fort called the National Center
for Disability Entrepreneurship. Designed for adults of all ages with any type of disability, the center will offer a 14-to-16week program to guide parContinued on Page 51
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