North New Hyde Park Islamic center construction allowed to resume
Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan, president of the Hillside Islamic Center, at the construction site in North New Hyde Park Monday, Sept. 22, 2014. Credit: Barry Sloan
Construction has resumed on the Hillside Islamic Center in North New Hyde Park after the Town of North Hempstead hired a special engineer to oversee the $1.4 million project.
The town board, at its Oct. 21 meeting, hired Cashin Associates of Hauppauge to monitor work at the Hillside Avenue center, where construction that started last year was halted a second time last month because of problems with the installation of the steel beams and foundation.
Center president Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan said the hiring was discriminatory because the town had not retained specialists to monitor non-Muslim projects.
Spokeswoman Carole Trottere said last week that the town had hired an outside engineer twice in recent years to monitor non-Muslim private construction projects. The town retained Cashin Associates in 2008 in a contract to pay as much as $338,800 for inspection services, plan review and approval of amendments and other related documents for the Amsterdam senior housing project in Port Washington.
In 2007, the town hired Future Tech Consultants of New York Inc. to perform and analyze soil borings on two properties in New Cassel. The maximum to be paid to the Mineola firm was $68,000.
Cashin Associates will receive as much as $20,000 for the Islamic Center assignment.
Construction resumed on Thursday. It was stopped on Oct. 3 after work resumed in September, following its initial suspension in October 2013.
After learning of the town's previous use of special engineers, Abdul said, "As long as we aren't paying for it, the more eyes looking at the project the better."
Trottere said construction of the Hillside Islamic Center had started under another contractor's supervision, and "there were concerns that some aspects of the building deviated from the building plans. This caused safety concerns."
Cashin was hired to make sure that the work going forward is consistent with the plans as well as state and town codes, she said.
Trottere said Cashin will analyze test results, conduct field inspections and provide other services, including analyses of concrete, steel and other structural components.
"The building department does not have any structural engineers on staff, and these services require an expert in those areas," Trottere said.
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