Valley Stream South High School has been awarded nearly $1 million in federal funding to protect its recently-renovated athletic fields from erosion, district officials and Rep. Laura Gillen announced Monday.
District officials said over the past 10 years they have spent $1.4 million to build a new athletic field and track, and a scoreboard. But a nearby creek, which they said has doubled in size since Superstorm Sandy and spread 10 feet closer to the school, is threatening the integrity of the fields.
Sections of the fields have already been cordoned off where the ground is eroding, officials said.
“It’s a very imminent threat,” said Superintendent Wayne Loper, of the Valley Stream Central School District. “We think, possibly given one major storm, it could impact it right away.”
Gillen (D-Rockville Centre), who toured the school and greeted students Monday, secured $850,000 in congressional funding for the school district through Economic Development Initiative community projects.
The work will include securing the stream bank with a stone wall running along the side of the creek to prevent additional erosion. The funding will also pay for construction of a wall for storm drain pipes, and drainage and fencing at the school.
Loper said the district hopes to begin taking bids to start work in the fall.
Gillen said Monday, “It’s really important that we stop any more erosion there and we firm up these embankments…to keep the investment of tax dollars that have already been put in here to renovate these fields.”
School board members and elected officials, including Assemb. Michaelle Solages (D-Elmont) and Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (R-Malverne), had sent letters to Gillen advocating for funding to stabilize the shoreline.
As Hempstead Town supervisor, Gillen had worked with state officials, including then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, to complete $3.8 million in vinyl bulkheads to protect homes from flooding on Cloverfield Road, which is across the creek from the school.
The high school did not flood during Superstorm Sandy, but that storm and others in the past decade have increased the threat of erosion and flooding from the adjacent creek. The school has already lost some storage buildings, including a garage containing cultural arts materials, due to erosion, Loper said.
“It’s coming closer and closer every year,” Loper said of the creek. “We don’t have a couple of feet left any more.”
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.