Grand Island Town Board OKs radiological assessments in Veterans Park

By Senior Contributing Writer Alice Gerard

The Grand Island Town Board voted Monday to give New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and the federal Environmental Protection Agency access to Veterans Park to do radiological assessments.

Assessments could begin within a few days at the site that was identified by the DEC as a “location of interest,” said Patrick Concannon, DEC engineering geologist who presented the information to the Town Board on Aug. 3.

“As far as I am aware, it’s the only municipal property on Grand Island that we’d like to have access to,” Concannon said. “The purpose is to come (to the Town Board meeting) and explain what we are looking to do and answer any questions you might have relative to that.

“Basically, we saw one point on a map in Veterans Park. That doesn’t indicate that there’s a problem. It’s simply a location of interest that we’d like to access with our boots on the ground. We may see things that could relate to understood manmade features. We’ve seen granite curbing, decorative rocks and boulders. Materials that are naturally occurring. Bedrock, soils. There’s a natural radiological aspect to everything. We just want to see what is there, how it relates to the information that we have, and see if we have to do any follow-up. Hopefully, we can just say that this is pretty easy to determine whether we do or do not need to have any follow up.”

When asked when results of the radiological assessment would be available, Concannon explained, “We want to make sure we don’t send results out without them being thoroughly analyzed and digested by our health physics folks. We have staff from all of our agencies taking a look at these things. I think that, right now, we’re looking at a time frame of a couple of weeks.”

When asked if utility vehicles are necessary to complete the assessments, Concannon explained that such vehicles would not be necessary.

“(Utility vehicle usage) allows us to access larger properties a little more easily,” he said. “We’re very understanding that sometimes that’s not acceptable to the property owner or the municipality. We don’t want to rut up your field. We don’t want to take liberties with ballfields. We’ll certainly be conscientious of the paths and whatnot. If we have to do it by hand, we’ll do it by hand.”

When asked if the work could be done after Little League completes its season, Concannon said, “Whatever you need, we will work with you. We are working seven days a week and we can accommodate schedules. We will work around your schedules, your limits, whatever concerns you have.

“We’re continuing to deal with an increasing number of requests (for assessments). Not so much on Grand Island. More in Niagara County.”

Residents who have questions about the ongoing radiological assessments can call 518-712-8279, a dedicated phone line for the Niagara and Erie County radiological assessment.