The New Hyde Park Village Board of Trustees reserved decision Tuesday on a special-use application by a company seeking to establish a swimming school in a vacant commercial building at 1 Jericho Turnpike in New Hyde Park.
“This is a basic instruction [prrogram] to get kids water safe, to prevent drowning,” said Kenneth Hazen, district manager of Saf-T-Swim on Long Island.
After a public hearing on the application, Hazen said the company planned to build a 58-foot by 21-foot pool at the former site of a automobile dealership, at a cost of approximately $750,000.
Hazen said Saf-T-Swim schools, which specialize in giving introductory swimming lessons to children five years old and younger, would offer programs of six weekly half-hour classes.
“There’s a big need,” Hazen said.
He said customers from the New Hyde Park area and Queens currently take their children for lessons at Saf-T-Swim facilities in East Meadow, Bellmore and Westbury.
During the hearing, Hazen said Saf-T-Swim would provide both one-on-one instruction and group classes in a heated pool that is able to hold as many as 55 people. He said the school employs high school and college students to provide one-on-on instruction and expected to hire 15 to 17 instructors for the New Hyde Park business – all of whom would undergo training.
Hours of operation would be 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays on Sundays.
Hazen said the school would also play host to birthday parties at no extra charge at 3:30 p.m. on the weekends.
Trustees agreed to refer Saf-T-Swim’s plans to the county planning commission for review before the board renders a decision.
Saf-T-Swim must also appear before the village Board of Zoning Appeals to determine if there is sufficient parking for the school.
The board also reserved decision on the proposed relocation of the Step By Step dance school from its current location at 613 Jericho Turnpike to a building across the street at 800B Jericho Turnpike.
“It’s just a nicer spot. That’s why we’re moving,” said co-owner Nicole Guerriero.
Guerriero said the school has been operating in the village for 14 years.
“Step By Step” must also appear before the village Board of Zoning Appeals to review available parking at the new location.
Guerriero said the new location offers the school more space to accommodate the 200 students the school draws for jazz, tap and ballet lessons.
In other developments:
• Village Trustee Donald Barbieri said there’s “a real Rube Goldberg going on” with the final phase of the village’s Operation Mainstreet project to upgrade the Jericho Turnpike business district.
He said the village has been waiting for three weeks for state Department of Transportation contractor Tully Construction to finish repaving side streets along Jericho Turnpike before the village’s contractor, J Anthony Enterprises, can engage a surveyor and get started on the Operation Work along Jericho Turnpike. The repaving of the side streets is the final part of the DOT’s project to repave Jericho Turnpike.
Tom Gannon, superintendent of the village Department of Public Works, said utility companies are currently marking the position of power and water lines along Jericho Turnpike in preparation for work on the final phase of Operation Mainstreet.
• Village Trustee Donna Squicciarino said the village finished the fiscal year at the end of May 2013 with a $600,000 surplus.
Squicciarino attributed most of the surplus to the $586,671 received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse the village for costs related to Hurricane Sandy last fall. She said the village also spent $150,000 less than what had been budgeted for roadwork repairs, playground repairs, refuse and garbage service, and medical costs.
• Barbieri said he is seeking clarification on a recent federal court ruling directing commercial helicopter traffic on Long Island to take a east-west route over Long Island Sound one mile off the North Shore coast. He said staff members he contacted at Rep. Carolyn McCarthy’s office said they would contact the Federal Aviation Authority for clarification of the ruling.
But, Barbieri said, the FAA office has been closed due to the federal government shutdown.
• Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro said village trustees recently met with representatives of Dvirka & Bartolucci Consulting Engineers to plan the village’s 2014 road repairs. He said the board was awaiting a proposal from Dvirka & Bartolucci to repair as much as two miles of village roads. He said the village planned to seek bids on the work during the winter.
