Container Ships Are Exciting, But They Sure Don’t Go Vroom Like A NASCAR Track

Staten Island goes from maybe getting an exciting new NASCAR track to a boring old shipping port:

International Speedway Corp. has selected a buyer for its former NASCAR site in Bloomfield, where plans for an 82,500-seat race track hit a dead-end late last year.

ISC is expected in the next few weeks to name the purchaser — one of three top bidders for the 676-acre property located next to the Goethals Bridge.

Potential buyers included two large real estate development companies and an international shipping firm, with bids for the barren, industrial waterfront property ranging from $90 and $110 million, one source said.

The likely pick is a development firm that will use the land for warehousing and water-related uses in line with the site’s manufacturing zoning.

. . .

In recent months, the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has marketed the property in privately circulated materials as an ideal spot for warehousing and distribution, calling it the “Staten Island Logistics Center, Port of New York” and “largest contiguous waterfront and port related distribution site in the New York Metropolitan area.”

“All three [bidders] are focused on the port aspect of the property,” one source said recently.

. . .

Almost 100 million tons of cargo flowed into New York and New Jersey shipping terminals in 2004, a 27 percent spike from 2000. The industry here employs thousands and generates close to $1 billion to the local economy, experts have said.

And most agree that building homes would be nearly impossible on the former NASCAR site, where ISC is still cleaning up toxic soil from the oil tank farm that was once there.

Throw Away Your Nextel

Not only is having a work cellphone intrusive but it could actually cost you your job:

A 21-year employee of the school system could lose his job after officials accused him of repeatedly leaving early – and stunned the worker with data it got by tracking his movements with a city-issued cellphone, The Post has learned.

In a precedent-setting case, administrative trial judge Tynia Richard recommended the firing of John Halpin, a veteran supervisor of carpenters, for cutting out before the end of his shift on as many as 83 occasions between March 2 and Aug. 9, 2006.

The evidence against Halpin, whose base pay is $300 a day, included time cards that suspiciously appeared stamped on the same machine, even though his duties placed him in different locations each day.

But there was a clincher: data gathered through the GPS system on Halpin’s cellphone, which he accepted in 2005 without being told it might be used to trace his every move.

On March 8, for example, supervisors determined that Halpin was last in Manhattan at 1:31 p.m. and was home in Levittown, L.I., at 2:40 p.m. On March 29, Halpin was found at home at 2:38 p.m.

The earliest he was caught in Levittown was 1:40 p.m. on June 22.

But his shift wasn’t supposed to end until 3:30 p.m.

Some workers refused the free-phone offer, saying they preferred to use their own cells.

Richard said the unsuspecting Halpin “admitted he took the phone because he liked the walkie-talkie and other functions it has.”

And a good reminder why it’s always better to start late than end early:

Halpin questioned the reliability of the data and argued that his privacy was invaded, since officials tracked him when he wasn’t at work.

In fact, the data found Halpin on numerous occasions turned up early for his job, sometimes at 6 a.m. His shift started at 8 a.m.

Despite the extra hours Halpin put in without pay, Richard ruled that it didn’t mitigate his early departures and recommended he be fired.

Fantasy Internal Memo Dated Today: “Adjust Equivocal Wording Of ‘Believe’ And ‘Goal’ In ‘Throughout URS We Believe That Accidents Are Preventable, And Our Goal Is Zero Workplace Incidents’ To Something A Little More Unambiguous . . . Like Now”

Gives added meaning to the concept of damage control:

A construction firm involved in the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building is the same company that assured Minnesota officials a highway bridge was safe before it collapsed this summer.

The firm, URS, which stands for United Research Services, was hired to investigate the stability of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis in 2003. After finding numerous weaknesses, URS engineers told Minnesota transportation officials in January it would be able to find cracks and fix them before they became dangerous, according to news reports.

The eight-lane bridge collapsed seven months later, taking with it about 50 cars and killing at least 12 people.

Cab Gat-Away (Hi-De Hi-De That Ammo!)

Apparently the weapon was in plain view*:

A Port Richmond man who had the bad luck to be riding in a cab pulled over for a traffic violation near Journeay Street landed in some hot water of his own when he tried to ditch the gun he was carrying Tuesday night, cops allege.

Brian Burel, 21, of the 200 block of Charles Avenue, took the gun, a loaded .45 semiautomatic Ruger, out of his waistband and tried to place it on the floor of the cab, according to court papers.

Cops said they spotted Burel in the act, and charged him with second- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and possession of pistol or revolver ammunition.

*Because otherwise, police aren’t allowed to search a passenger in a cab, right? Where are the Fourth Amendment scholars out there?

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

The attorney had to rewrite his client’s sentencing statement upon hearing news of the gentleman’s untimely arrest:

Apparently, Russell Farriola still hasn’t learned write from wrong.

Police say the 20-year-old West Brighton man was up to his old tricks again yesterday evening, defacing a Sunnyside corner with the borough’s most notorious graffiti tag — “Aloe.”

Remarkably, Farriola — who law enforcement officials dubbed Public Enemy No. 1 for his previous quality-of-life crimes against the North Shore — is expected to be sentenced today to 60 days in jail and three years’ probation in exchange for pleading guilty on June 18 to one misdemeanor charge of making graffiti. He was originally charged with 48 graffiti incidents.

“I guess they’re going to have to renegotiate that deal,” quipped a cop source.

According to the source, a little after 6 p.m. yesterday, a patrolling Anti-Crime Unit from the North Shore’s 120th Precinct spied Farriola scrawling his moniker with a pink marker on a bus stop sign on Victory Boulevard, not far from the Clove Lake Book Store.

Police Officers Joel Six and Jeff Desio, as well as Lt. Kevin Meurer, made a U-turn to grab Farriola when he bolted onto a St. George-bound city bus.