TRR photo by Tom Kane Turner representative Steve Lundgren updates the school board about the construction site. (Click for larger image)

No pollution found at new high school site

By TOM KANE

JEFFERSONVILLE — “The Leeward Company has cleared over 50 percent of the site now and they‘ve found absolutely no evidence of any pollution of any kind,” said Turner Construction Company’s field representative Steve Lundgren at the meeting of the Sullivan West School Board last Thursday.

Opponents of the site in Lake Huntington have repeatedly warned of possible pollution caused by the old hotel that once stood there over 20 years ago.

“Fifteen years ago, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) spent over two weeks trying to clear the site of pollution,” said Tony Wayne, a parent and a staunch opponent of the site. Wayne did not present any evidence to back up his claim.

“We are not aware of any action of that kind by the DEC,” said school superintendent Michael Johndrow.

This recent finding by the excavation company, Leeward Construction of Honesdale, PA, together with the site tests by Turner’s environmental consultants, plus the results of a detailed Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) conducted by the DEC and tests conducted by the environmental engineering company, O’Brien and Gere, in accordance with the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR). all point to the same conclusion that there is no contamination on the site, Lundgren said.

“Copies of all the documents may be obtained at the district office through the Freedom of Information Law,” Johndrow said.

The public will get a chance to tour the site at an “open house” to be held at the site on Route 52 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 20.

“You won’t believe how good the site looks,” Lundgren said.

If all goes as planned, bids for the Narrowsburg renovation will be awarded on November 1, said Turner representative Luiz Rodriguez. If the bids come in within budget, work will begin in the late fall of this year, with completion by September of 2002, he said.

Bids for the Jeffersonville and Delaware Valley campuses are expected to be awarded in April and work to begin during the summer of 2002. Renovations should be completed in both buildings by fall of 2003, he said.

As to the high school, bids are expected to be awarded as early as January of 2002. Construction completion date is now fall of 2003.