Centereach man wants closure to hole in school fence
The Middle County Central School District moved quickly to repair a hole in a fence after Community Watchdog called about Dennis Fiorentino's complaint.Photo by James Carbone
I need help with a situation on Harriet Street in Centereach, a dead-end street that borders the playing fields of Oxhead Road Elementary School. For the last six months, teenagers have started entering the fields through a hole in the chain-link fence and have been harassing residents and vandalizing property. The police suggest that having the school repair the fence should eliminate the problem. For two months now, I’ve been told a work order is in to fix it, but nothing has been done.
-- Dennis Fiorentino, Centereach
Within 24 hours of our call, Middle Country Central School District sent workers to temporarily rejoin the broken fence using metal ties until fence contractors can make a more permanent fix.
District officials and Fiorentio have sharply different views on the fence repairs. Fiorentino said the hole had not been repaired once since he moved to Harriet Street six years ago, but Frank Fiorino, director of building and grounds, said that same hole had been fixed at least 30 times in the last four years.
There are parents who liked the hole because it offered easy access to school grounds.“Some mothers were disappointed I was going to fix it again,” said Fiorino, “About five families walked their kids to that spot and then watched them go the rest of the way to school.”
However, Fiorentino said those parents are in the minority and noted his problem is not with elementary-age kids but with teens who have damaged property.
“I’ll fix it one more time,” Fiorino said. “But if the fence is snipped and peeled back again, we’ll have to get more creative.”
MICHAEL R. EBERT
