After being the subject of recent controversy because of it's location adjacent to a Superfund Site, the Tutor Time daycare center on Herricks Road in Mineola will shut its doors on April 26.

In a letter written to parents and staff members, Patrick Campolo, vice president of operations for Tutor Time Learning Systems, Inc., announced the Mineola facility will close.

"Most of you are aware of the many environmental issues surrounding this location and the publicity it has brought and continues to bring. We have been informed there will be a concentrated clean up of the general area. This will result in an even more chaotic environment surrounding the center as well as the potential release of harmful toxins," the letter said.

Trouble began for the Mineola Tutor Time, located at 80 Herricks Road, next to the Jackson Steel Superfund Site, in November 2001, when the Nassau County Department of Health sampled the air at Tutor Time based on concerns raised by a parent.

The result of these tests showed a high enough level of the Volatile Organic Compound PCE to warrant the installation of a new air filtration and ventilation system. As a result, the levels of PCE at the site decreased. However, parents of children at the center continued to raise concerns since the facility had been open since 1995 and located next to the Jackson Steel site, which ceased operations in 1991 but used hazardous chemicals until 1985 that caused soil and groundwater contamination at the site.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state and county officials conducted numerous inspections at the site between 1979 and 1996. An inspection in 1981 noted that the facility's drum storage area lacked adequate spill control and containment.

Concerned parents of Tutor Time children formed the organization, In Defense of Our Children (IDOC). What continues to be puzzling to some parents is why a childcare facility was allowed to open next to a site that had been the subject of inspections that found contamination.

The EPA declared Jackson Steel a Superfund Site in October 1999. Last month, eight drums located on the Jackson Steel property containing volatile organic compounds were removed According to the EPA's own documents, these barrels were very dangerous and very likely explosive, said Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy.

"It is not just the children who now attend Tutor Time, but also those who have attended since the facility opened in 1995. We need to find the answers to our questions as much for them as anyone. There is also the question of whether or not any of the contaminant may have had an effect on the surrounding area in terms of either air or water contamination," the congresswoman said.