FEMA provides $1.2 million for Tully Park repairs

James Galloway

The Town of North Hempstead will receive $1.2 million in federal funding to repair the damage to the Michael J. Tully Park parking lot during Superstorm Sandy, senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced Monday.

The funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for repairs to the asphalt, curbing and gutters for the parking lot located in New Hyde Park, according to a joint press release from the senators.  

In the aftermath of Sandy, the county used the parking lot as one of five debris staging areas, and the wear and tear from the use of heavy machinery left the parking lot damaged, the release said.

“Superstorm Sandy ravaged communities in the Town of North Hempstead, and the Tully Park parking lot was smartly used as a debris staging area to hold everything that had been cleaned up,” Schumer said. “This federal funding will reimburse the Town of North Hempstead for the much-needed repairs to the Michael J. Tully Park parking lot so that local taxpayers are not entirely on the hook for these dollars.”

The parking lot held vegetative debris between December 2012 and January 2013, and the heavy machinery used to move it caused most of the damage, the release said.

“As we continue to rebuild from the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy, this funding will help repair the Tully parking lot which was used to hold debris caused by the storm,” Gillibrand said. “This FEMA funding will help ensure North Hempstead taxpayers are not stuck footing the bill alone for these repairs.”

Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth called the funding “critical” to the town’s continuing recovery from Sandy.

“Following the hurricane when the Town of North Hempstead collected and disposed of tons of trees and construction material at Michael J. Tully Park’s parking lot, much damage resulted,” she said. “With this site now declared a hazardous debris mitigation site, this funding will enable us to provide a new, stronger foundation to build more resiliency into the parking lot structure.”

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