Roundup: Oyster Bay board adds $2.5M to Laser Industries deal
The Oyster Bay Town Board last week increased a contract with Laser Industries Inc. by $2.5 million.
The town originally awarded a one-year contract to the company for $2.5 million of general reconstruction services after a competitive bid in 2012, Deputy Town Supervisor Leonard Genova said. The contract included options to extend it by one year as many as four times, which the town did in 2013 and 2014. Genova said the board can authorize additional work to an existing contract.
“Depending upon the amount of work that we need to get done in a given year, the original authorized amount, you may see it increased,” Genova said.
The additions to the contract were requested by the town highway department for roadwork on the Lake Avenue Highway Yard in Oyster Bay, Townsend Street in Glen Head, and Nome and Seward drives in Woodbury. The additions include concrete work, storm drainage, excavation and paving, planting sod and manhole maintenance.
In January 2013, the town board approved using the same contract for reconstruction related to superstorm Sandy. In August 2012, the town board approved using the same contract for work requested by the parks department. Genova said the town has protocols that it followed to use the contract for different purposes, such as the superstorm Sandy work.
Genova said Tuesday the contract had been increased previously but he would need several days to determine when and by how much.
Ridge-based Laser Industries performs civil and site construction work.
— TED PHILLIPS
LONG BEACH
Film festival begins today; until Monday
The third annual Long Beach film festival is scheduled to run from Wednesday through Monday in Long Beach, Lido Beach and Rockville Centre.
The opening night premiere is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. with the William and Daniel Baldwin film, “The Wisdom to Know the Difference.”
A drive-in movie showing of “Grease” is planned Thursday at Nickerson Beach.
A free red carpet ceremony is scheduled Friday in Long Beach in front of the Allegria Hotel, followed by a short film series shown on the beach.
Movies will be shown Saturday and Sunday at the Madison Theatre in Rockville Centre. Tickets can be purchased at longbeachfilm.com. — JOHN ASBURY
STONY BROOK
University gets funds for kidney research
Stony Brook University has received a donation of $750,000 from Dialysis Clinic Inc. to establish a permanent endowed professorship in nephrology research.
“We’ve been working with the DCI company over the last year to come to an agreement” on how much to give, Dr. Vincent Yang, Simons Chair of Stony Brook Medicine, said of the Tennessee-based company.
The school will use the money to recruit a researcher to lead an effort studying how to better treat and prevent kidney disease, he said.
“Kidney disease is rampant in our country -- afflicting more than 26 million Americans and deeply affecting their families as well,” said Samuel Stanley Jr., president of Stony Brook University. “This generous gift from DCI will allow Stony Brook to conduct the kind of research that will produce more effective methods of treatment for those who suffer with this deadly disease.”
Stony Brook Medicine also will provide matching funds for the new research faculty salary and up to $500,000 in one-time startup funds for the professorship, according to a news release.
The receiver of the endowed professorship will collaborate with a team of three or four physicians at Stony Brook Medicine already conducting nephrology research, according to the release.
Leonard Arbeit, co-medical director at DCI’s East Setauket clinic, said the company has funded about $2 million in research at Stony Brook Medicine over the past several years.
The school is to fill the professorship by Jan. 1 for a spring semester start, officials said. — PRISCILA KORB
NORTH HEMPSTEAD
311 call center now takes online requests
North Hempstead’s 311 nonemergency call center is now taking complaints and questions online.
The town opened the nonemergency municipal call center in 2005. Operators log complaints and direct callers to the proper department or agency. The call center has received nearly 1.2 million calls since opening and is staffed by a rotation of 20 operators, town officials said.
The online service launched July 1.
The site contains sections for residents to make various requests, from removing a bee nest to reporting litter and graffiti.
The site can be accessed at https://NorthHempstead-p1csrprodcwi.motorolasolutions.com/Home.mvc/Index. — SCOTT EIDLER
AMITYVILLE
School summer food location change
Amityville school district’s summer feeding program will stop serving at Northwest Elementary School after lunch Thursday, district officials announced.
Edmund W. Miles Middle School will then serve breakfast from 7:30 to 8 a.m. and lunch from 10:45 a.m. to noon until Aug. 15, according to the district website.
The summer feeding program offers free breakfast and lunch to all children between the ages of 2 and 18. There is no application process, and the program is free and open to the public. This is the program’s seventh year.
For the 2012-2013 school year, 69 percent of the district’s 2,936 students were described as “economically disadvantaged” by the New York State Education Department, meaning they or their families participated in federal economic assistance programs. — NICHOLAS SPANGLER
PATCHOGUE
Trustees OK zoning change for storage
The Patchogue Village board of trustees unanimously approved rezoning a 2-acre Riverside Avenue property that a family-owned business wants to use to build a self-storage operation.
The decision on Monday allows Pinelake Properties LLC to switch from business, industrial and residential to business zoning.
Village attorney Brian Egan said the action needed to be adopted before the municipal planning board could authorize an environmental impact study and site review, which it is expected to do.
Ralph Fuccillo, a partner with Pinelake, said the company hopes to tear down one of the two homes on the 114 Riverside Ave. property and build a 32,000-square-foot self-storage structure. Fuccillo said his family has owned the property for decades.
Residents at the meeting said they were concerned about increased traffic, but trustees said the change of zone use would have minimal impact.
— DEON J. HAMPTON
