Suffolk official defends police hangar
Phil Cardinale, left, former Riverhead supervisor, discusses the town's budget with Chris Kent, now Suffolk County's deputy county executive. Credit: Newsday/Jim Peppler
Newsday's article on the Suffolk County purchase of a hangar at Gabreski Airport for our police medevac helicopter gave the false impression that the county wasted $570,000, when in fact taxpayers were saved over a million dollars by the county's actions ["Suffolk hangar buy defended," News, April 19].
The article states, "Suffolk County spent $570,368 to construct an airplane hangar it never built at Gabreski Airport, then paid another $975,000 to buy an existing hangar there."
In reality, the county decided to buy the hangar to halt the annual lease payments of nearly $100,000, and to avoid paying nearly twice the cost to build a hangar half the size. Oddly, Comptroller Joe Sawicki was quoted citing this as a case of government inefficiency, yet in his own audit he determined the purchase of the existing hangar to be in the county's best interest.
A prior county administration had planned to build a $2.7-million hangar. When Steve Levy took office, he sought a less expensive alternative. It was determined that hundreds of thousands of dollars could be saved by constructing a 6,400-square-foot structure for $1.8 million, and the Levy administration secured a $750,000 commitment from the state. At that point, it made sense for the county to proceed with the construction.
After awarding the bid, the county received the unfortunate and unexpected news from the state that they were placing a hold on their grant funds. Rather than complete the $1.8 million project using solely county funds, the administration was able to negotiate the purchase of an existing hangar for only $975,000. Even if one were to factor in the $570,000 that was already invested in the hangar planning and construction, it was nevertheless less expensive to purchase the existing, 12,300-square-foot hangar.
Most important, and never mentioned in Newsday's article, is that the purchase of the larger hangar gave the county the opportunity to rent space for private plane storage and generate annual revenue.
Chris Kent, Hauppauge
Editor's note: The writer is chief deputy Suffolk County executive.
Sarra Sounds Off Ep 36: Champs crowned in lax and flag football On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Gregg talks with Michael Sicoli and Tess Ferguson about county champs crowned in boys and girls lacrosse, and Jared Valuzzi reports on the Long Island flag football championship.
