Delays expected in Nassau precinct consolidation

There will be a weeks-long delay in the next round of Nassau police precinct mergers while the department buys outside trailers for the offices of station house bosses, officials said.

Department brass had scheduled the consolidation of the Elmont-based Fifth Precinct into the Hewlett-based Fourth Precinct for Sept. 1, as part of a plan by the Mangano administration to save the cash-strapped county money.

But the consolidated precinct's mix of prisoners, officers and other staff is expected to be too crowded for the existing Hewlett building. So the department plans to install a modular building for added office space for supervisors, said First Deputy Commissioner Thomas Krumpter.

A similar trailer is expected to be installed when the First Precinct, in Baldwin, is consolidated with the Seventh, in Seaford. That consolidation is on track for Nov. 1, Krumpter said.

The modular buildings, permanent installations with foundations, cost about $150,000 each and measure about 1,300 square feet, said police department spokesman Insp. Kenneth Lack.

Equipped with air conditioning, heating and bathrooms, the trailers will be attached to the main precinct building via an enclosed vestibule.

Meanwhile, prisoner processing space is being expanded inside, Krumpter said. He said security demands would have made it unwise to put the prisoners in the trailers.

Once the consolidation plan is done, the department will have four police precincts -- half as many as before.

James Carver, president of the Nassau Police Benevolent Association, said, "It's still chaos. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. They are trying to squeeze 10 pounds of bologna into a 2-pound bag."

With Robert Brodsky