Knapp Street Sanitation Garage Gets Extended Life

A Department of Sanitation garage on Knapp Street is getting a $3.1 million renovation, indicating a once-temporary space has a few more years in the neighborhood.

The story broke on GerritsenBeach.net, who writes:

You may be asking why do I have “temporary” in quotes. Well if you didn’t know: the community was promised that this was ONLY going to be a “temporary” location until another garage was built on Neptune Avenue.

… Despite the mayor issuing a 5% cut city wide the other day, the city just gave the Knapp Street location 3.1 million dollars for trailer renovations and berm style landscaping around the facility.

…“3.1 Million Dollar dollars means they are planning a long term stay.” Said Theresa Scavo CB 15 Chairperson. “Even if the keyspan facility was available tomorrow it would still take five years of processing to get someone going.”

The garage, located on Knapp Street across from the sewage treatment plant, was established with the understanding that a facility would soon be created at the derelict National Grid site at Coney Island Creek. The new $158-million garage would merge operations for Community Board 15 and Community Board 13, which covers Coney Island and Brighton Beach. Vehicles for Community Board 13 are presently kept on a residential block on Neptune Avenue, and following the creation of the new garage, both current lots would be vacated

But money to do the repairs at National Grid has dried up, and so minor improvements are being made to the current facilities to sustain them for a longer term.

“We anticipate that as the economy improves, funds can be restored for this important project,” Sanitation spokesman Matthew LiPani told Courier-Life.*

*Sheepshead Bites cannot confirm that LiPani was properly quoted by Courier-Life, or that a reporter spoke to him.
Given the number of inaccuracies in Courier-Life’s report, which was poached from GerritsenBeach.net,
we figure it can go either way.