By Kathianne Boniello
If all goes as planned over the next several months, the city''s long- awaited acquisition of Fort Totten in Bayside could be complete by this fall, Borough President Claire Shulman said in an interview with the TimesLedger last week.
Fort Totten was decommissioned by the U.S. Army in 1995 during a wave of base closures around the country. In 1996 the city Fire Department agreed to take over the property and develop the majority of it as parkland. Shulman said it has taken several years to transfer the land from the federal government to the city.
“It''s well on its way to being owned by the city,” Shulman said in an interview Friday about the Civil War-era fort. “It''s been a labor of love.”
Shulman said she and her staff were also working to call a meeting of the Fort Totten Redevelopment Authority, or FTRA, to oversee the transfer but had yet to set a date for the session. The FTRA was commissioned in the mid-''90s to develop a use plan for the fort during its transfer from the federal government to the city.
The borough president said the subject of the Fort Totten land transfer could go before Community Boards 7 and 11 in early June. Each community board borders the fort.
Irving Poy, Shulman''s associate director of planning and development, said the city could be ready to take over the deed to the property in November.
The majority of the fort has been under the control of the Army while another 10-acre portion is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard.
The transfer of Fort Totten to the city has been in the works for four to five years, Shulman said, with about two-thirds of the property to be used for city parkland under the jurisdiction of the city Parks Department and one third to be used by the city Fire Department as a training facility.
Several acres of Totten will be retained by the Army. The Old Fort, a large complex on the western edge of Fort Totten featuring the historic battlements that would have offered protection to the city in case of invasion during the Civil War, is in the process of being rehabilitated.
Several groups now occupy buildings on the Army portion of the fort or use sports fields there, including the Bayside Historical Society, the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association, the Queens Women''s Center and little leagues and soccer teams.
Non-profit and community groups were allowed to establish operations at the fort to help maintain it, Poy said, because there were no utilities such as heat and water at Totten. The majority of the groups now using space at Totten would be permitted to stay after the city takes over the deed, he said.
The Parks Department will be in charge of granting space to groups that want to set up shop at the fort after the city takes over the property, Poy said.
While plans for the Fire Department''s training academy have been in the works since 1996, the agency caused a panic in Queens in December when it announced plans for a $44 million training facility on Randall''s Island. According to a 1996 reuse plan, the Fire Department was expected to finance its plans for Fort Totten by selling Randall''s Island.
The December announcement led some to believe the FDNY was ready to abandon its plans at Totten.
The Fire Department Training Academy and Life Safety Campus were expected to be built on 10 acres in the northeast corner of Fort Totten and include training that simulated controlled fires.
The Fire Department has since indicated that its plans for Fort Totten were underway as planned and Poy said the portion of the fort dedicated for controlled fires would now be used for driver training of ambulances and fire trucks. The FDNY controlled fire training unit was expected to be built on Randall''s Island.
While Shulman''s office has been working to move forward the transfer of Fort Totten from the federal government to the city, two other groups have been meeting to discuss environmental concerns at the former Army base.
Mercury was discovered at the Civil War-era fort in 1985 in a drainpipe of Building 615 by the Coast Guard, which shared the base with the Army. Army Corps officials said the metal was present after years of repairs to mercury-filled torpedo guidance systems, which were maintained at the fort.
The Army, which vacated the base in 1995, agreed to remediate the mercury in May 1998 but has since reneged on that promise pending the availability of funding for the cleanup and the severity of the contamination.
Poy said once the deed is transferred from the federal government, the city was expected to have an opportunity to conduct further investigation of environmental contamination at the fort and request cleanup help from the feds.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
