150' Water Tower in the woods

[Wantagh Parent]

Also, please see the link on www.wantagh.li/ (upper right hand corner) about a survey on the water tower and participate.

The results will be sent to a list of local politicians and the media.

[ducky]

This 15 story tower will have huge negative effect on Home values in a broad area around the location in both Seaford and Wantagh. We need loads of people to come Tues. July 12 at 7pm at Wantagh High and Aug 10 at 2pm at Town Hall in Hempstead. There are other ways to improve water pressure without destroying home values.

[digitalmaciek]

The reason we bought a home in the Wantagh Woods, is because of that, its woods, its residential. We do not want to see a giant water tower from our porch or when biking around the neighborhood or when taking our children to the bus stop ! It will ruin our community, substantially lower our overall property values and substantially change the life of many people living in close proximity to the proposed area. And then, it will always tower upon us and remind us of what could have been...
Therefore we must unite and not allow this crazy eyesore to be constructed in our backyard, as a community we will fight this with ALL possible resources and make sure that our community does not suffer, only grow for the better. There can be a compromise reached with Aqua, if we work together...

Not on Demott, go to commercial land !
One simple solution for AQUA is to locate the tower on Sunrise Hwy, only 1/2 mile away. Its commercial land and I'm sure everyone would vote on that option. I hope that they will be presenting 'alternate' building sites at their meeting.

Date conspiracy ?
July and August are not a good time to hold these type of community meetings, especially such important ones which affect everyone. It seems very convenient to receive all these notices at the time when schools end and summer holidays begin. We all know that, peoples schedules change during the summer, kids are out of school, or back from school, or in summer programs, many are away on vacations and others are in transition. A lot of people do not have time to concentrate on this issue as their lives have enough turmoil during the summer holidays. This community can pride itself on a strong network based on its school and social systems. The PTA and other educational and/or township based meetings are the key to this town and its communication. During the summer months, these virtually do not exist. We cannot unite as a community until the new school year begins. We should fight to postpone these hearings until late September or October or until we, as a community, decide that we have educated everyone affected in a thorough and complete manner.

Aqua doesnot care... No more pumps:
I live across the street from the current Aqua tank and pumping station. Aqua turns their pumps on on a regular basis during the week 9-5, but also after hours and on weekends (especially Sunday eve). As a result of this, my house rumbles and vibrates. My kids and I often cannot sleep as a result, until the pumps are off.
This does not even have anything to do with the proposed additional pumping station. It is an example of how Aqua ,- does NOT care about its impact on the community. As a resolve we must propose that the pumping should only be conducted during general business hours 9am-7pm, not later ! This is a simple and quick agreement to make for everyone.

Water Quality:
As I have spoken to many peoples in and around the current tank and water purification (chemical mix) area. Our water is terrible. No one drinks unfiltered water. The stench of chlorine and other chemicals gets extremely strong on certain days and at other times is more than normal. We need to have Aqua conduct a series of water quality tests in the supply area. How is the new system going to interact with the old and what type of water quality should we expect ?
As a former resident of NYC, I think tap water should be drinkable and odor free. If I am paying for it I want to make sure that Aqua is keeping it 'clean'. Remeber, they are pumping the same groundwater into our homes which is directly being affected by fertilizers, chemical waste, sewage, highway debris and pollution and anything else which seeps into our ground here in Wantagh and Seaford. We know the extremely high rates of cancer in Long Island. In a time of organic food and green technologies we need to be concerned with our water quality!
Testing and sharing of resulting data of current and future water supply needs to be a major discussion point. If nothing but for our health and our children's health. Lets see if Aqua cares.


Landscaping:
When we bought our house, we were very impressed with the beautiful way that the Aqua waterworks land was landscaped.
The tall pines outgrow the current tank in height by at least 20 feet and camouflage it perfect. There were evergreens and bushes in front of the fence and behind it to create a 'Forest' feeling and block 'visual pollution'.
Three years later, the pines have been trimmed back and most of the evergreens have turned brown and died. They seem to dry out as no one waters or irrigates them (how ironic!).
Furthermore there has been construction, drilling and a lot of materials going into the waterworks over the last year. 18 wheelers are going in on a weekly basis. This has resulted in clearing of more trees and other foliage during construction.
Aqua has not made any effort to Landscape the area in over 2 years, I know. Another sign that they are not really involved or care about our community.




I will post more observations and topics to discuss... Please help spread the news on the war and fight against Aqua in a bid to transform Wantagh Woods into Wantagh Towers !

We can win this, but only as a community aligned together.

Thank You for your time, comments and support.

-Maciek

[Wantagh Parent]

Reminder, community meeting tomorrow night, July 12th regarding this proposed 150' tower:

Wantagh High School Auditorium

7:00

[lilly]

Did anyone go? Was there a good turn-out? Any new information?

[Michael Soethout]

Hello Lilly,
Quick overview;
The tunrnout was good plently of Wantagh and Seaford residents, my best guess is about 175-200 in attendance.

There were many Politicians in attendance, Dennis Dunne, Dave Dennenberg, TOH Attorney has there as well. Some Press was there, I think Fios (but not sure) and the Patch that I noticed.

The Aqua representative Matt Synder, decent guy, poor case the mocked up photos to the Water Tower was hideous, like a blue-green mushroom cloud. I thought it was just horrifing to think that thing will be up the block from me. Aqua states it is need to balance their water system on our side of town and the want a tower equal to the one in Merrick (which is 147 ft tall) and holds 500,000 gallons of water. After the meeting I was wondering how that is balancing the system if the 20 ft tank at the site holds 1,000,000 gallons of water? Aqua may have a concern about the water pressure but there are other alternatives to them. This tank came across as the easiest sollution for Aqua, but the downside is the tower will be an eyesore and have grossly negative effect on the surrounding home values. 2 of the homeowners on Temple Drive (friends of mine) were there and I was at loss for words for them, considering the prospect of this thing being in lbasically in their backyards.

Also the mocked photos were of summer scenes with leaves on the surrounding trees, it will look even worse in the winter.

Below I copied a email recap from Pamela Naughton, it has the contact info for the Board of Zoning. TOH attorney said so far the have received about 200 letters mostly against the tower. I suggest and encourage more people to do the same and voice their opposition to this project.

Sincerely,
Michael Soethout


"Voice opposition at www.toh.li/content/bz/formba.html CASE NUMBER 1460 and applicant is AQUA.

Mailing address is TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/One Washington St/Hempstead, NY 11550 Case number 1460


What can we say? Firstly, the proposed water tower was worse than any we imagined. I don't know what Aqua was thinking with that display board and the 150 foot hideous gigantic ball on top. That they think this is acceptable is terrible. Hopefully their attitude to work with us is sincere.

Secondly, the Wantagh community came through last night and it was terrific! Thank you to all who came and to those who could not make it, thank you for voicing your opposition to the TOH! There is strength in numbers. The Town Board is hearing our message loud and clear!

DATES TO REMEMBER: AUG 10 BZA HEARING- very impt to attend. We are making every effort to get Aqua to postpone the date but as of now it still stands.Details will be forthcoming

Sen. Shumer has issued a press release requesting Aqua to withdraw its opposition! Will forward it soon.

Once again, Thank you for making last night successful!"

[chili19]

Please take this survey and send the link to everyone you know in the area. The goal is to gather some statistics in prepartion for the 8/10 zong board hearing.

www.surveymonkey.com/s/P6CQ8M7

[Chris_Wendt]

I work in a large 7-story, 300,000 square foot building in Queens. We have two small booster pumps in the basement to provide supplemental pressure to bring water to the upper floors. The pumps alternate, one running on odd-days, the other running on even days, and if either pump fails, the other automatically takes over. The two pumps take up a space approximately 10 feet by 6 feet, about two feet high.

We also have a large "jockey pump" in the sub-basement to increase water pressure in the sprinkler system in the event of a fire causing the sprinkler system to 'dump'. This pump is about 4 feet by 3 feet by 4 feet high.

I am wondering why Aqua could not build several small pumping stations in those areas where water pressure is (a) known to be low, and (b) critical to operations, such as fire fighting? In other words, upon my taking the survey I realized that Aqua is taking a very generalized approach to an somewhat isolated and occasional problem, and whichever of the two alternatives are selected, the cost will be much greater than "zero" ($0). I am not in favor of Aqua spending large sums of capital money, some of it paid by me, to improve lawn watering throughout the Aqua service area.

Just thinking out loud. I mean we have 1 MILLION gallons of water sitting there on DeMott Avenue already. We need a MILLION AND A HALF GALLONS, or TWO MILLION GALLONS to fix this problem?

Nah, I'm not buying this entire ""problem"" being posed by Aqua..

Cynical over the water company,

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

Thanks for the update Mike. I've heard accounts from neighbors all of whom are vehemently opposed to the tower. The pictures were awful according to them.

[Wantagh Parent]

Please be aware that the ToH zoning board hearing will be postponed until October. Aqua is considering options e.g., pump instead of a tower, tower after opposition in the July town meeting.

We will keep everyone posted as we hear updates since strong attendance is very important.

[lilly]

Great news.

wantagh.patch.com/articles/aqua-expected-to-withdraw-water-tower-application

[lilly]

Just saw the press conference on DeMott. Water tower definitely off but other alternatives under consideration. The president of Aqua asked that everyone adhere to the odd/even number days watering and no watering between 10-4 to allow the tanks to re-accumulate water.

Kate Murray, Angie Cullen, Fuschillo, Dunne, Parola, etc. all there as well as news outlets. Also, it was in Newsday today.