Bruce Terrace Sump Taking Shape

Months after breaking ground, the new sump along Westbury Avenue in Mineola that will provide flood relief to residents on Bruce Terrace and other nearby areas is progressing, with new green plantings taking hold in the sloping soils.

According to Mineola Superintendent of Public Works Tom Rini, four pipes will be coming in from Liberty Avenue, East Second Street, Bruce Terrace and now Sheridan Boulevard. The village’s contractor on the project has also installed the 15-ft. deep drop manhole to which the county contractor will connect its portion of the work. Each of the village’s pipes requires outwalls and slabs to be put down so they do not wash out according to Rini. Additional concrete repairs are pending on Bruce Terrace and there are a few manholes on Liberty Avenue that need to be raised.

Rini stated that he met with the contractor before the village board meeting on May 15 who will expedite the repaving of Liberty Avenue and Bruce Terrace since the start of the pool season is rapidly approaching. The repaving will probably begin on May 28 before the contractor moves onto Dow Avenue. The county is moving on their portion of the project through after receiving NIFA approval on the Sheridan Boulevard interceptor.

A manhole has been installed by village in the parking lot next to historical society at Wilson Park and within two weeks will be dug up again by Pratt Brothers, the county contractors.

“(They) have to meet that manhole so that’ll be the first place that they’ll be starting since that’ll be the low end of the pipe and then they’ll work their way up Sheridan Boulevard,” Rini said, believing the parking lot to be disrupted during the beginning of the pool season.

The Town of North Hempstead is also working on northern side of Westbury Avenue, completing headwalls and has placed seed down to avoid erosion. Rini said that they are installing fencing and curbing at the base.

“They’re in the final stages of completion on that portion,” he said.

A bush screening will go up on access to north side of Westbury Avenue along property line on west side to screen the recharge basin from motorists and residents.

Village crews are also dealing with damages to bushes in Memorial Park around the 9/11 memorial and playground area and Rini stated that would begin work in the pool area the week of May 20.

“All the trees on the south property line of the pool on Liberty Avenue were devastated and removed,” Rini said. “Most of them were down on the ground at the end of the storm.”

The village is planting a total of 25 screening-type bushes to screen the area. They are also looking at safety surfaces for the playground areas, which have been worn away through usage.

When it starts to wear a little then they start to pull on it, there are a couple of exposed areas,” Rini said of the children who use the area. “The problem there is that safety surface was installed when that was originally put in and it is starting to fail so I’m looking at different options, the option most likely to be is to come back to the board and to do the same thing we had done at Wilson Park in going with the natural safety surface.... the double and triple-ground mulch.”

The work would be done in the fall, but Rini said that the village would only look to repair the area so it is safe for the summer months.

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