Petrone, Cuthbertson, Berland Participate in Hindu Temple Groundbreaking

Melville, NY – Huntington Supervisor Frank P. Petrone and Town Council Members Mark Cuthbertson and Susan A. Berland participated Sunday June 8 in the official groundbreaking for the temple the Hindu organization Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam-Northeast (BAPS) is building on Deshon Drive.

The Supervisor and Council members took part in a solemn ritual that included blessing the project and in the ceremonial placing of shovels into the ground. About 100 persons attended the event, including BAPS members.

The site was made possible by an innovative three-way agreement involving the Town, the BAPS and a developer looking to construct an affordable senior housing development. The Town purchased an eight-acre parcel a few miles away from the BAPS; that parcel is to become Sweet Hollow Park. The Town transferred the development rights for the five of those acres that will be used as passive parkland to the privately-owned 18-acre site on Deshon Drive and approved a zoning change that allowed clustering of the allowed housing on 13 of the acres. Those acres are the site of the under-construction, 261-unit community, The Club at Melville. The remaining five acres was sold to BAPS for the temple.

Supervisor Petrone, in brief remarks, traced the history of how he and Council Members Cuthbertson and Berland had worked with the BAPS to find an appropriate site and he again welcomed the BAPS to Huntington. Girish Patel, one of the BAPS leaders instrumental in the project, noted that the temple will have facilities that will be open to the entire community, including meeting rooms and a gymnasium.

Also attending the ceremony were Town Clerk Jo-Ann Raia and Assemblymen Andrew Raia and Chad Lupinacci. 

Last October, BAPS began the construction project with a ceremony laying sacred stones on the site. The stones, which were to be placed in the foundation, had been sanctified and blessed by a swami in India before being sent to Melville. Construction of the temple is expected to last 12 months.