By Kathianne Boniello
Anyone with questions about a new four-story office building under construction on 42nd Avenue should come over and introduce themselves, the owner of a company that is planning to be the building’s main tenant said this week.
The environmental engineering firm of American Standard Testing Inc., which is leasing the new office site from A.J. Management in Bayside, created uneasiness in the community last week because of its use of machines with radioactive material. The machines, which test soil density for construction sites, will be stored in a concrete storage area at the 42nd Avenue building at night.
While the owners of the building insist the machines are no more dangerous “than a dental X-ray machine,” the city Buildings Department nevertheless stopped the project Friday because those in charge had failed to respond to an audit conducted by the agency, a spokesman said this week.
Alan Fortich, owner of American Standard Testing, which is now based in College Point, said in an interview Tuesday he was surprised by the Buildings Department stop order. Fortich, who said he believed the Buildings Department’s worries had been laid to resolve earlier this month, also urged anyone in the community with concerns about the machines to contact him with their questions.
“My door is open — I have nothing to hide,” he said.
Paul Wein, a spokesman for the Buildings Department, said Tuesday the agency had no record of the company’s response to concerns about the machines. Buildings issued a warning letter giving the project managers 10 days to respond, Wein said.
According to a May letter sent by the Buildings Department to Community Board 11 about the project, the agency was seeking additional information on the machines used by American Standard Testing.
“Now it’s stopped until they respond,” Wein said.
A Feb. 15 letter to the city Fire Department from American Standard Testing put the FDNY on notice that part of the new building at 214-41 42nd Ave. would store machines used by the company for testing at construction sites. According to the letter, the machines use cesium, americium and bryllium.
American Standard Testing was established in Flushing seven years ago before moving to College Point, Fortich said, and employs about 60 people.
Fortich emphasized the company follows all safety procedures for the machines.
“We have a perfect safety record,” he said. “If I was hiding anything, I wouldn’t have filed with the Fire Department.”
A spokeswoman for Humboldt Scientific Inc., a North Carolina manufacturer of the type of nuclear gauges used by American Standard Testing, said the machines pose little to no threat to human health.
“The gauge itself is perfectly safe,” said spokeswoman Tamla Warren.
Warren explained that the amounts of radioactive materials in the gauges are small and sealed in several layers of protective metal about the size of a pen cap that sits within the gauge itself.
Fortich, who said his company is regularly inspected by the state because of the machines it uses, said they would be kept in a concrete storage area in the rear of the building at night. The storage area is closest to the Long Island Rail Road tracks that run behind the building.
The new building, which was slated to be finished by the end of September, would be home to American Standard as well as some medical and professional offices, Fortich said. The building will also feature a 30-space parking lot, he said.
“We’re going to be good for the community,” he said. “Property values are going to go up and more people will be coming in to shop on Bell Boulevard. If anyone’s got a question, they should come knock on my door.”
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
