An Open Letter to Mayor Jean Celender
Yesterday, at around 4:30 p.m. when I exited the train station on to Barstow Road, I was greeted with the sounds of blaring horns and traffic jammed up from Welwyn Road passed the Barstow Road traffic circle on to So Station Place and, perpendicularly, on to both sides of Barstow Road.
The cause was immediately apparent. A very inconsiderate Shop Delight customer was stopped waiting for the parking spot another Shop Delight customer occupied while that customer finished loading her car; thus, effectively, all eastbound traffic was stopped .
To further complicate the situation, a delivery truck was illegally parked halfway into the fire zone and halfway jutting on to Welwyn Road. Also, there were four other illegally parked cars, two in front of the store, one in the pedestrian crosswalk and one on the westbound side of Welwyn Road.
While this is a typical scene at this location on almost any day, what made yesterday different was that a Plaza Code Enforcement officer, in an official vehicle, was stuck in this mess. Observing this dilemma, I wondered why he didn’t get out of his car and attempt to address the problem, as I assumed that is his job. I soon found out the answer.
It seems that as part of your new policy for village employees to work “smarter and harder,” as you were quoted as saying in the Great Neck News, you have decided to use a field enforcement agent to deliver mail to the post office. Since you also reported, in that same article, that the village had lost and then chose not to replace another code agent, do you really think that what’s left of the minimal code staff should be designated for messenger duties?
That agent’s first and foremost responsibility — what the taxpayers are paying him for — should have been to attempt to clear the mess and, God forbid, hand out tickets to the four violators. He should not have concluded or have been directed by your office staff that getting the mail to the post office before it closed was more important than doing his job. Mail delivery should be handled by office personnel, not field enforcement agents.
Perhaps if you don’t believe it’s below your executive level Jean, and it shouldn’t be since you’re now a full-time employee working supposedly “smarter and harder,” you would consider handling the daily mail run yourself. You might have a chance to meet some of your constituents on the way and can see first hand and be in the midst of the traffic mess that you and your mis-managers have created.
Of course, with a full time mayor’s assistant, who you apparently think is needed more than a replacement field enforcement agent, you could assign the daily mail run to him.
It’s no secret to you that I regard the approval, then the expansion, of a supermarket on a two-lane major artery, serving the train station, the Post Office, active bus traffic, to say nothing of the service that street provides to village residents, is an egregious error.
With barely any customer parking available, with no delivery dock for trucks, with trucks and cars commandeering the fire zone and the pedestrian crosswalk to park, permitting this business to operate at this location is mindless mismanagement, if not negligence, in my opinion.
While it’s probably too late to remove Shop Delight, even though its location has become a public nuisance, it’s certainly not too late for remedial action.
This location now requires full-time traffic supervision and vigilant enforcement during all business hours and the expense thereof should be assumed by Shop Delight.
Moreover, code agents must be told, directed, and ordered to issue a ticket for every violation, without exception. Enforcement will send a message to the owners of this business and their customers that the plaza has zero tolerance for the havoc that has developed and is seemingly, by all observations, being mostly ignored by code agents who are now being used to deliver mail and by trustees who seemingly, by all observations, are unwilling to redress their grievous errors of judgment.
Looking the other way, or providing mere perfunctory actions or lip service, is not a responsible response.
Alan Gray
Great Neck
