Public Employee Press

Parks ignores warnings, huge pipe falls

Early Tuesday morning, Oct. 26, in a Parks Dept. worksite hidden beneath the 79th St. Boat Basin restaurant, Assistant Gardener Gizella Meszaros-Goto was gathering work tools. Before she could head out to her job in Riverside Park, she heard a terrible crash.

A huge overhead pipe, over 100 feet long and six inches in diameter, had fallen, smashing a city truck. The union and the state Labor Dept. had notified management that supports for overhead pipes were weak, but no action had been taken.

Ms. Meszaros-Goto, a member of Gardeners Local 1507, was concerned for a co-worker: “I knew that Bobby Hopkins, the graffiti-removal person, had been headed for a storeroom in the area,” she said. “If I had been there five minutes before, I could have been crushed,” said Mr. Hopkins, a City Parks Worker in Local 1505. “My truck was hit!” Mr. Hopkins was walking in through the tunnel when the pipe fell. “I heard a loud bang. I ran inside and there it was.”

Another Local 1505 member, Lionel Valentine was also in the vicinity. “We’re lucky no one was injured,” he said. “We cordoned it off, filed an incident report, and called the union.”

Walking down the winding paths of Riverside Park, or gazing out on the scenic Hudson River from the restaurant, few people have any inkling that city workers beneath the scenic spot face danger daily. Local 1505 President Michael Hood called the working conditions “deplorable.” He said employees risk “the possibility of getting hurt or killed on the job.”

In June 2003, Blue Collar Division Council Rep Bob Gervasi requested an inspection of the site. Guille Mejia of the DC 37 Safety and Health Dept. documented the conditions, including fragile support systems for the overhead pipes and concrete, in an extensive report. The hazards are plain to the workers: “It’s sort of a disaster area under here. There’s lots of loose stuff, because there’s so much drilling on the highway overhead. The bars that are holding the pipes get loose, and traffic makes it worse every day,” said Bobby Hopkins.

Russell Johnson of the Safety and Health Dept. inspected after the accident: “The pipe that came down probably weighed 500 pounds,” he said. There are other longstanding conditions that need to be remedied, but the most immediate danger is the pipes and concrete over the workers’ heads.

Uniformed Park Supervisors Local 1508 President Gary Cutler is well aware of the problems. “I used to work at Riverside,” he said. “I know that the agency’s funds are limited, but that pipe could have fallen and killed somebody!”

DC 37 and the locals are pressing the Parks Dept. to take action quickly to prevent serious injuries or death.