The red tape has stalled plans to install the city’s first free public observatory in a Bronx park, and organizers now fear they may have to pull the plug on the project.
The grand opening of the dome in Jerome Park, near the Bronx High School of Science, was scheduled for this spring. But in recent months, the city unexpectedly asked the Amateur Astronomers Association, which is leading the project, to take out $5 million in general insurance coverage before it can open. The group was also recently informed that the Legal Department and the Buildings Department will have to review the project.
“We put a can that’s a little bigger than a jar on a patch of grass that no one is using,” said Bart Fried, executive vice president of the Amateur Astronomers Association. “It shouldn’t take two and a half years to get back to where we were two and a half years ago.”
Meanwhile, the association’s donors ask about the robbery.
“We are receiving more and more questions from people who have donated money. Such as: ‘What’s the status? What is happening? I gave you good money,” Fried said.
The project was originally estimated to have a price tag of $100,000, and would have accomplished a long-held goal of the association: opening the first fully public observatory facility. The 11-foot-high and 8-foot-wide metal dome stood at Nassau Community College until 2019. The structure will house a powerful Celestron Edge HD telescope capable of providing views of our solar system, including comets, asteroids, the Sun, and all planets, including the dwarf planet Pluto. The association plans to staff the observatory seven evenings a week, with a special program for Bronx Science students.
“We are working in good faith with the association to finalize an agreement and will continue to monitor the city-mandated processes that must be completed before a contract can be finalized,” wrote parks department spokesperson Gregg McQueen via email.
That was a notable change from January, when McQueen wrote to Gothamist that the agency expected construction on the project could begin in the spring, after an agreement was finalized and a contractor selected.
But in March, park staff requested information from the astronomers association about its programming and operations, which it said it submitted more than a year ago.
Earlier this month, Fried received the parks department’s 35-page draft agreement with the association that handles the operation and maintenance of the structure. According to Fried, finalizing that document will take a few months.
The agreement requires requirements that came as a surprise to Fried, including a review by the city’s attorneys. The parks department is also asking the Amateur Astronomers Association to increase insurance coverage from $1 million to $5 million. Fried said the association hopes to reach a compromise on that amount.
“We’ve never had a lawsuit in 97 years!” Fried said, adding that he had previously been told the project would be fast-tracked.
The parks department is also requesting a review from the Department of Buildings. According to the DOB’s own estimates, it takes an average of almost nine weeks for a project to be approved in the Bronx. Fried said such a revision seems unnecessary since the observatory could easily be moved.
‘It’s just held on by a few bolts. And there are no utilities. We can untie it, pick it up and take it to another location on a whim,” said Fried.
Fried said it would be a miracle if they break through in the fall. The most serious consequence of the robbery is that they cannot get any money from the project’s largest donor, the Jay Pasachoff Trust, until the deal with the parks department is finalized.
The association was frustrated, but committed to seeing the project through – even if it meant finding another location.
“I’m not going to die until this thing is built somewhere in this city,” Fried said. “Then the bus can hit me. I do not mind.”