City to Break Ground Next Week on Little Bay Park Comfort Station

The city will finally break ground on the long-awaited comfort station at Little Bay Park next week, the commissioner of the Parks Department said.

The $5 million project, which has been in the works for seven years, will finally begin next week and should be completed by fall 2014, Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski said.

“Next week’s groundbreaking will mark the much-anticipated start of construction at Little Bay Park as well as the end of our planning process for this complex coastal project,” she said.

The project will include a new public restroom, an expanded 224-car parking lot with bioswales that will clean and absorb runoff, reducing the burden on the community’s storm water drains. In the meantime, portable toilets will remain at the site until construction is completed.

Additionally, new trees and shrubs will be planted at the site.

“After years of bureaucratic delays, I am pleased that this project will finally commence next week," state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, said. "A comfort station at a great park like Little Bay Park has been long overdue and I shared in the community’s frustration regarding this long-delayed project. With construction set to begin next week, park users can take comfort in the fact that soon enough they will finally be able to utilize a comfort station at Little Bay Park.”

The project is funded through $2.3 million allocated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, $2 million in federal transportation grants and $720,000 from the City Council.

But Bay Terrace Community Alliance President Warren Schreiber, who has been one of several local leaders to have long called for the project, said he is glad that the comfort station is finally underway. But he said community residents are not pleased that the city has not given them much notice – or information – on construction plans.

“We’re all pleased that we’re finally going to have the comfort station,” he said. “But I think that after waiting eight-and-a-half years, it is totally irresponsible for the Parks Department to only provide the community with four days advance notice. We have no idea what is going on with their pest control plan, traffic mitigation, mass transit re-routings and other impacts on the surrounding residential community. They could have sat down with us before deciding to arbitrarily move ahead.”

Prior to being approved, the project was reviewed by the state’s Department of Transportation. Also, the Department of Environmental Conservation was involved in the review since the site is located on a coastal wetland and the State Historic Preservation Office looked into evidence of archeological significance in the area, which was originally inhabited by the Mantinecock tribe.

The city acquired the site, which was previously known as Clearview Park, in 1950 and renamed it as Little Bay Park in 1973. The Parks Department added a dog run to the park in 2010.