Asks for advice on attracting developers

Focuses on North Shore-Westchester link

Faces strong opposition locally, in Albany

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We will fightthis proposal

relentlessly as itwould diminishproperty valuesand couldimpact thehealth, safetyand well-beingof ourneighborhoods”

— Joseph Saladino

We are takinganother step

to advance anambitiousproject thatwould reducetraffic on the ...congested LongIslandExpressway”— Gov. Andrew Cuomo

JAMES T.MADOREBYjames.madore@newsday.com

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ispushing forward with plansfor a Long Island Sound tun-nel despite strong oppositionlocally and in Albany.

On Friday, he announcedthe next steps toward seekingproposals to develop a tunnelbetween the North Shore andWestchester County.

A Sound crossing hasbeen debated on the Islandsince 1938, with multipleplans scuttled by fierce com-munity opposition.

“Today, we are taking an-other step to advance an am-bitious project that would re-duce traffic on the impossiblycongested Long Island Ex-pressway, improve connectiv-ity, and help ensure the re-gion’s future economic com-petitiveness,” Cuomo said ina statement.

His announcement comesafter the release this monthof an 87-page study that esti-mated a Sound tunnelwould cost between $31.5 bil-lion and $55.4 billion tobuild, depending on locationand whether there are oneor two tubes.

The study’s authors esti-mated between 74,300 and86,400 vehicles would use atunnel to Westchester perday.

Together, drivers wouldpay more than $500 millionin tolls per year, if the feewere $20 to $25 per trip.

The study, conducted bythe Montreal consulting firmWSP, concluded that a Soundcrossing is only viable fromOyster Bay Town in NassauCounty or Kings Park in Suf-folk County.

The authors examinednine proposals, finding thatfive merit further considera-tion by the state: a tunnel,or tunnel/bridge combina-

tion, between Oyster Bayand the Westchester commu-nities of Rye and PortChester; a bridge linkingKings Park to Bridgeport,Connecticut; and a bridge/-tunnel combination betweenKings Park and Bridgeportor Devon, Connecticut.

Friday’s announcementdoes not mention a potentiallink to Connecticut.

DOT looking for ideasThe state Department of

Transportation is “asking in-terested parties to share theirideas on engineering, environ-mental, operations and finan-cial considerations that will

be used to inform the futuredevelopment of a request forproposals,” departmentspokesman Joseph Morrisseysaid Friday.

It was unclear whetherstate officials have dismisseda Sound crossing to Connecti-cut and using a bridge.

“We believe the Long Is-land-to-Westchester option ismost feasible based on our re-cent study, but we are still inthe early stages of theprocess,” Morrissey said.

Cuomo, in his State of theState speech this month, onlymentioned a tunnel when hesaid a Sound crossing shouldbe pursued.

] Proposal to link NorthShore with Westchester

] Local, state officialsremain opposed to plan

JOHNHILDEBRANDBYjohn.hildebrand@newsday.com

A state-appointed adviser tothe Hempstead school district, inhis first quarterly report, ex-presses cautious optimism aboutprospects for a turnaround of thetroubled system but warns of po-tential risks ahead, including thepossibility of incurring “extraor-dinary” legal expenses.

Jack Bierwirth, a former Her-ricks school superintendentnamed to examine the district,notes in the report dated Jan. 25on Hempstead’s web-site that the often-di-vided school boardhas recently agreedon several key issues.

As an example, Bier-wirth states that theboard trusteeswill fol-low his recommenda-tion toundergoprofes-sional training pro-vided by the NewYork State SchoolBoards Association.The first training ses-sion is to begin at 7 p.m. Mondayin the district’smain office.

Bierwirth had called for train-ing earlier this month after con-cluding that the 8,000-studentdistrict’s greatest problem was alack of leadership. This, he said,was demonstrated by squabblesamong the school board, whichconsistently splits 3-2 in votes oncrucial questions.

“I remain optimistic about theprospects for significant im-provement,” Bierwirth says inthe quarterly report.

On a less positive note, Bier-wirth notes that the Hempsteadboard’s majority now is locked ina legal battle with the district’ssuperintendent, ShimonWaronker, whom it put on admin-istrative leave with pay on Jan. 9.

Waronker, in a lawsuit filed infederal court, contends the actionviolated his constitutional rightsto free speech and due process —aposition rejected by the board.

Bierwirth expresses concernthat the way Hempstead con-ducts its affairs “often results inextraordinary legal expenses” —money that he said could be usedfor students’ benefit.

To underscore the point, thespecial adviser references an “ac-tion plan” that he drew up earlierthat cited millions of dollars in

fees charged in the past by twolaw firms recently rehired by thedistrict when its current boardmajority took control. Thoseagencies are the Chandler firm,located in Valley Stream, and theScher firm in Carle Place.

Bierwirth says his primary pur-pose was not taking the two legalfirms to task, because legal costsare determined by decisionstaken by district administrations.Rather, he said, the intent was toillustrate the potential high costsof further litigation.

Monte Chandler, founder of theValley Streamfirm, ob-jected to the sugges-tion that his agency’scostswere high. Chan-dler added that whenhis firm first repre-sented Hempstead in2012, it “inherited”well over 40 cases.

“All that resulted inexcessivework, not ex-cessive fees,” he said.

Jonathan Scher, apartner in the CarlePlace firm, said that

his agency between 2012 and 2016won about 60 cases on behalf ofthe Hempstead district, while los-ing only two. Scher added that thefirm also represented the districtin 135 negotiating sessions withfive employee unions and reachedsettlementswith three of the units.

Scher also said his firm’s feeswere offset by money saved bythe district in settlement costs.That, Scher said, was during a pe-riod when Hempstead con-cluded that it did not want to beused as a “lottery ticket” by liti-gants trying to collect simply byfiling lawsuits.

Bierwirth was named to hisspecial consulting post — “distin-guished educator” is the title —in September by state EducationCommissioner MaryEllen Elia..

One of the veteran administra-tor’s tasks, in addition to servingas the state’s liaison within theHempstead district, is to issuequarterly reports detailing actionstaken to deal with problems, in-cludingpolitical divisions, deterio-rated school buildings, gang fight-ing and low graduation rates.

Bierwirth’s quarterly reportalso says Feb. 15 has been set as atarget date for Hempstead admin-istrators to submit a revampedbudget proposal for 2018-19, alongwith a five-year building plan.

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Some optimismin school report

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Potential route

Long Island Sound

Servicetunnel

Servicetunnel

Cars and trucksoutbound from

Long Island

Cars and trucksoutbound from

Long Island

Cars and trucksinbound toLong Island

Cars and trucksinbound toLong Island

Light railservice

Light railservice

Port Chester

Rye

Long IslandSound

OysterBay

Nassau

Oyster Bay officials said Fri-day they remain opposed to alink with Westchester, regard-less of whether it’s a tunnel ora bridge.

“New York State shouldnot be wasting taxpayermoney on studies in a loca-tion that is clearly inappropri-ate,” said Oyster Bay TownSupervisor Joseph Saladino.“We will fight this proposalrelentlessly as it would dimin-ish property values and couldimpact the health, safety andwell-being of our neighbor-hoods and environment.”

The earlier study was paidfor with $5 million securedby Cuomo in the 2016-17 state

budget.Community opposition has

twice helped to scuttle anOyster Bay-Rye bridge, pro-posed in 1965 by the state’sthen-master builder RobertMoses, and reintroduced in1972.

More recently, a Syosset-Rye tunnel, proposed by thelate developer Vincent Poli-meni, failed because it lackedstate support, though then-Gov. David A. Paterson wasin favor.

Top Republican opposedThe state’s top Republican

is opposed to a Sound tunnelregardless of the destination.

State Senate MajorityLeader John Flanagan (R-EastNorthport) said, “I’m notgoing to support a tunnel.. . . We have so many otherthings that we need to do” interms of state spending ontransportation, he told a Jan.12 meeting of the Long IslandAssociation, the region’slargest business group.

The LIA has lobbied Al-bany to study both bridgesand tunnels to either West-chester or Connecticut.

LIA President Kevin Lawsaid Friday, “The state shouldcontinue gathering all thefacts, all the costs and all thebenefits of a tunnel or bridge

and then we should have apublic discussion on theirfindings.”

The DOT plans to do justthat.

Acting DOT CommissionerPaul A. Karas said, “Now thatour study is complete, we willconduct additional engineer-ing, environmental and finan-cial analysis on the project,while assessing impacts onlocal communities.”

Experts have until April 2to respond to DOT’s invita-tion to help craft a requestfor proposals.

The RFP would then go topotential developers of atunnel.

TOPSTORIES

MICHAEL GORMLEYBYmichael.gormley@newsday.com

ALBANY — The attorneysgeneral of NewYork andMinne-sota on Friday announced thatthey are suing theTrump admin-istration for what the state offi-cials say is “a cruel and reckless”cut of $1 billion for a health careplan for the poor.

New York Attorney GeneralEric T. Schneiderman said thefederal cut would leave 700,000low-income New Yorkers with-out health coverage under theprogram called the EssentialPlan. Another 100,000 Min-nesotans would lose coverageunder the action by the federalDepartment of Health andHuman Services, the state offi-cials said. The Essential Planwas created by the AffordableCare Act under PresidentBarack Obama.

“The abrupt decision to cutthese vital funds is a cruel andreckless assault on New York’sfamilies — and we will notallow it,” Schneiderman said.

There was no immediatecomment from the Departmentof Health and Human Services.The suit seeks to have the $1 bil-lion restored to the health careplan.

President Donald Trump hassought to end and alter thehealth care plan known as Oba-macare because he said it hasbeen ineffective, inefficient andtoo expensive for Americans.The federal government hassought to allow more flexibilityfor customers and limit federalsubsidies of health care forlower-income Americans.

Schneiderman said the fed-eral action cuts 25 percent ofthe funding of the health careprogram, worth about $1 bil-lion.

The states have submittedproposals to the federal govern-ment to restore the funding,but said those requests were re-jected, Schneiderman said.

The Essential Plan providedhealth care to low-income fami-lies for no more than $20 permonth. A family of four couldearn as much as $49,200 andqualify for the coverage. Theplan covers visits to physiciansincluding specialists, tests, pre-scriptions and inpatient andoutpatient care at hospitals.

AHEAD ON A TUNNEL

This rendering shows a 16-mile tunnel from Oyster Bay Town to Rye proposed 10 years ago by thelate developer Vincent Polimeni. It would have included a third tube for train service.

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