Sinkholes, police station repairs in $220M Nassau spending plan

Repairs to sinkholes on two major Nassau County thoroughfares, along with funding for a police station that was heavily damaged in a fire last fall, are in a $220 million capital budget approved by Nassau legislative committees Monday.

The budget that cleared the county’s public works, finances and rules committees includes borrowing for infrastructure projects such as sewer line repairs, construction of a new police precinct, upgrades at the county jail and a new Family & Matrimonial Court building.

The 19-member county legislature is expected to consider the borrowing plan at its next meeting Aug. 7. The Nassau Interim Finance Authority also must approve it.

The committees approved $15 million for sewer repairs after sinkholes on Lido Boulevard in Lido Beach and Grand Avenue in Baldwin.

On June 29, a sinkhole developed in Baldwin after a 42-inch sewer main at the intersection of Grand and Lorenz avenues corroded and developed cracks. That caused sand to get into the pipe, creating a space between the road and the pipe’s exterior.

Legis. Debra Mulé (D-Freeport) said Monday that work on the Baldwin sinkhole has been completed, and the roads are expected to be repaved and reopened this month. Sewage seeped into the Brookside Preserve creek and the backyards of several nearby homeowners as a result.

“This is a call to arms for us here in the county with our aging infrastructure, that this needs to be addressed sooner, rather than later, because this is not going to be the last time we’re going to face this situation,” she said.

A 20-foot-deep sinkhole that developed in Lido Beach on May 31 was repaired two weeks later, County Executive Bruce Blakeman said in June.

The county’s budget plan also includes $33.6 million to rebuild Nassau’s Second Police Precinct in Woodbury after a fire destroyed the structure in November.

In November, Blakeman said the building was “not salvageable” after a fast-moving fire that started in the kitchen spread through precinct offices.

Legislators approved a $1.8 million design contract with The LiRo Group, which has designed other county precincts in recent years, according to Ken Arnold, the county’s public works commissioner

Nassau is in the process of searching for a company to build the structure, Arnold said.

“The design is completed,” Arnold said.

Legislators also approved an additional $17 million to build a new Family & Matrimonial Court, which has been hampered by long delays and is over budget by tens of millions of dollars. It would replace the existing court in Westbury.

A $12 million master plan to improve the county’s jail was also in the approved capital plan.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.