Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro said Tuesday village trustees were unhappy with the speed in which J Anthony Enterprises is completing the upgrade of Jericho Turnpike in the village business district and are considering taking action against the company.
“We’ve been so disappointed with J Anthony. They’re never going to work in this village again,” Lofaro said at the village board meeting. “They’re never going to finish. It’s a been a disaster from the get go.
Lofaro said the company will miss the May 15 deadline on its $1.46 million contract to complete work on Operation Mainstreet.
“We’ve read the contract carefully and there are actions we may consider taking,” Lofaro said after the meeting, declining to specify what actions it may take.
During the meeting, he said since restarting the project in mid-March, the company has yet to finish several bulbouts – rounded curbs intended to slow traffic down – at several intersections along the south side of Jericho Turnpike.
“I don’t know what they’re doing,” Lofaro said. “Our first objective is to get the job done.”
He said the company missed its first deadline of September 2013, suspended the project in January due to inclement weather and resumed in March.
An executive at J Anthony Enterprises contacted Tuesday declined to comment on the New Hyde Park project.
Lofaro and Deputy Mayor Lawrence Montreuil also criticized state Department of Transportation contractor Tully Construction for not yet replacing plants on the Jericho Turnpike medians that had died during the winter.
Montreuil said the village board is giving Tully 30 days to replant the medians.
Lofaro said Tully has said it will replace the plants within a year from when they were planted in November, as per its DOT contract. Lofaro said Tully “has to plant plants” now.
Lofaro said he has asked the state DOT by letter to amend Tully’s contract and require the contractor to replant the median by June 30.
“Whatever needs to be replaced will be replaced before June 30,” state DOT spokeswoman Eileen Peters said in an interview with the New Hyde Park Herald Courier.
Peters said Bohemia Garden Center examined the plants and reported they were “germinating slowly” because of continued cold weather.
She said no one at Tully had spoken with Lofaro about the replanting.
“Right now the planters are nothing but garbage cans,” village resident Paul DiMatina said.
“I agree,”Lofaro said, adding that Tully said the plants may still grow.
He said Rich Pallisco, village beautification committee chairman, inspected the plants and reported 75 percent of the plants are dead.
“You’ve got to pave it or brick it over. It’s a mess now,” village resident Ed Powers said.
Lofaro said he didn’t want to abandon the final plans for Operation Mainstreet after so much time was spent on them.
DiMatina also criticized “these bumpouts or whatever they are” because they slow traffic.
Another resident critized the width of the medians, saying it’s dangerous for drivers to open car doors along Jericho Turnpike.
“The whole purpose in the bulbouts and the media is protect the pedestrians. Jericho Turnpike is like a speedway,” Lofaro said.
“What they’re doing, we’re pleased with. The pace of it, we’d like to move along,” said village Trustee Donald Barbieri. “I wish they had more crews available to move this along more quickly.”
Barbieri said two crews for contractor J Anthony Enterprises were on Jericho Turnpike Monday afternoon working on the bulbouts.
“It’s all coming. Let’s see where we go until now and the end of the month,” Barbieri said. “I am anticipating we’ll get the lion’s share of the work done by that time.”
Work resumed on the project’s final phase in mid-March after the project was interrupted in January due to inclement weather.
The final phase of the project also includes the installation of rustic red brick paving stones and benches as part of the effort to make the New Hyde Park business district more pedestrian-friendly.
“We’re moving. We’re working toward getting things done by the completion date” said Rick Felippi, who is supervising the project for Bohemia-based J Anthony Enterprises.
Work on the final phase of the project began in late November after several delays, the most recent of which resulted from communication problems between the village and the state Department of Transportation in coordinating the village’s project with a state project to resurface Jericho Turnpike from the Queens County line to Glen Cove Road.
