Friends and family members of Billy Schettino are taking a grassroots and a tech savvy approach to getting a skate park built in the Blue Point resident’s honor.
Supporters will hit the streets in Blue Point this Saturday to get signatures on petitions asking county lawmakers help fulfill the dream of Schettino's to turn the abandoned Blue Point Laundry property on Park Street into a skate park.
The two-acre property, known as "The Wastelands" to skating enthusiasts, has been dormant since the county took over the land in 1998.
Schettino helped build small ramps using his own money and supplies for skateboarders to use at the site, but skateboarding is officially prohibited at the site.
Supporters are also busy planning a fundraiser at Restaurant Blue on July 1 to help raise money for the Schettino family, according to Donna Cannon, a board member and secretary of the Billy Schettino Memorial Park Project.
“We have already started the petitions, we have quite a few so far,” Cannon told Patch. “We also have an online petition at change.org which 4,700 people have signed.”
This door-to-door effort, she explained, is to make sure that all residents near the park know about the effort and support the park idea.
“We already have some, but we need to get everyone on board,” she said.
The petition states "that everyone who has signed supports the Billy Schettino Memorial Park Project and it's plan to build a safe and clean park where kids and families can meet in Blue Point, NY."
The 18-year-old Schettino was killed March 14 after his car became stranded on the Long Island Expressway near exit 59 in Ronkonkoma. He was standing outside of his car when he was struck by a Suffolk deputy sheriff's car, according to reports.
The 2011 graduate of died from his injuries at Stony Brook University Medical Center. He had been heading to class at Suffolk Community College when his 2011 Mazda became disabled in the HOV lane after it was sideswiped by another vehicle.
The fundraiser event at Blue, will feature food, music and raffles. There will be a Chinese Auction, a 50/50 raffle as well as a 60" Plasma TV, an IPAD 2 and a Kindle Fire raffle prizes. Event starts at 6 p.m., raffle drawings will begin at 9 p.m..
“It's going to be a great night,” said Cannon.
I've been following the blog comments and would like to offer our organization's help, The Blue Point Community Civic Assoc's been working on this project [A park that includes "skateable features"]. There's been meetings & will be more soon to gather input. A few facts we have found: The old Laund. parcel's owned by the County and it's not Parkland. For the parcel to become Parkland the entire Co. Legislature must vote on it. The parcel is not listed as a "Brownfield". There's a small bit of Diesel fuel contamination on the site & a small solvent plume going to the south. The onsite contamination's to be cleaned this year w/ offsite (Below the LIRR tracks.) plume's clean up to be started as well. We are told there are $'s already assigned to this project. A recent Community meeting revealed most desire a park w/ a variety of features. The reality is there's lot's of work to be done. ** Additionally there's a move for County acquisition of the 17 acres on Maple Ave. (Behind Fire House Deli), the old Kurt Wiess Greenhouses. It may be a good loc.for a County/Town park w/ ball fields, etc. This location could allow for a better/fuller Skate Park than could be done at the Laundry site. Our Civic Association continues to be ready & able to be of assistance in this matter. Please feel free to contact us: bluepointcca@aol.com Sincerely, Ed Silsbe, BPCCA Pres.
Not a biggy. The parcel is "a contaminated former industrial site" so from the dictionary point of view it could be called a Brownfield. But it's not in the NYS DEC's listings as a Brownfield. It is listed as a Spill Site within the Spills Program. The DEC Spill Id. # is 0906677 [W/ this number you can access the DEC's website for the spills data base.]. The DEC's project mg'r reports that the spills are 1. a #6 Fuel Oil spill to the west of the parcel & 2. a Stoddard Solvent spill that's close to the culverted Corey Creek. The Stoddard spill has sent a plume, to the s/e, under the LIRR tracks that seems to have not gotten into the Creek. The Fuel Oil spill should be easy to clean up and the Plume a little tougher since they can't pull out the RxR tracks to get at it. There will need to be negotiations with the LIRR/MTA on how to drill wells to remove the plume. No matter what it's called [A Brownfield or a spill site.] it is to be dealt with. The DEC's typical position is that these spills need not impede any redevelopment. The County's responsible to clean up the spills since they took the parcel with the spills & didn't hold the prior owners to a clean up (Maybe they can still sue them?). They/we can't do anything with the parcel until it's cleaned up. We're told the $'s to do the clean up, this year, have already been set aside. Send us, the BPCCA, an E Mail (See above.) & come on out to our next mtg' & we can share notes. Ed S.
Is there any way to get a SC rep at a meeting to clear up any questions or confusion about the site? Would Mazzei be available and willing? Please let Patch know if and when this can happen.
Our next public mtg' should have folks from several SC dept's & Mazzei's rep's have been @ most meetings, but this is a SC owned parcel. Certainly we anticipate Town help. We are right now planning that mtg' (No date yet), it will be announced on Patch. @ our 9-21-'11 public mtg' we had a SC Dept. of Health rep's explain the site's status. I don't want to get into a silly match over the status of the site. But we have done/assembled a lot of research, a very lose time line follows: a. Site's acquired, with many working on it, B. Foley Leg.'s push secures the site. The site's thought to be very contaminated, though not tested. b. 2006, SC res. 793 starts site review c. 2008, SC res. 889 SEQRA determination d. 2009, NYSDEC Spill Record established #: 0906677, still open e. Testing of the site's completed. 2 spills located. f. 2011, SC res. 2067/2067A seeking $'s from Brownfields program [A name for the program] Information was given to us @ the 9-21 mtg' and in my own phone calls this week. The DEC folks assure me that the term Brownfield is not really applicable here, in as much as it conjures up thoughts that it's a virtually unrecoverable situation. This seems that we are far from that & all the fears when the site was acquired. The hope most of us share is that we will end up with a wonderful community asset in the form of a pocket park w/ something for us all, young and old. Refer questions to: bluepointcca@aol.com