Residents expressed concern at Tuesday night’s New Hyde Park Village Board meeting about potential traffic problems resulting from a repair facility a taxi cab company is seeking to establish at Covert and 2nd Avenues in New Hyde Park.
“It’s going to increase the traffic there,” said Sal Bartalotta, speaking on behalf of his father, Faro, whose house is adjacent to the site. “Whatever it’s going to be, it’s going to be worse than it was with Verizon.”
Bartalotta comments came during a public hearing on Station Plaza LLC’s special-permit application to repair its taxi cabs on the site at 125 Covert Ave. The use is similar to what Verizon had formerly done at the site for the previous 26 years – repairing its service vehicles there.
Station Plaza operates a fleet of 200 taxi cabs in 14 communities on Long Island, operating under the names of All-Island Taxi and Ollie’s Taxi.
“It’s a very congested area,” said resident Kathleen Montreuil. “It would be appreciated by the rest of the community if they keep Covert Avenue clean and safe.”
Station Plaza co-owner Lawrence Blessinger said the facility would be used to prepare new vehicles for the taxi cab company and to perform maintenance on its vehicles. He said there would be no more than 35 cars on the site, approximately half the number of vehicles Verizon typically had on the site.
“This facility will be prepping new vehicles that we bring there,” Blessinger said. “Mostly maintenance is what we’ll do.”
Blessinger said the company has another repair facility in West Hempstead and a body repair shop in Franklin Square.
Reid Sakowich, owner of nearby Sakowich Plumbing & Heating, referred to the “flying trucks” that typified Verizon’s repair operation at the site, but said his concerns about the proposed use were settled in a conversation with Blessinger and his attorney, Christopher Gomaka, prior to the hearing.
“It’s a business coming to our community,” Sakowich said. “This is what we need to have going forward.”
At the outset of the hearing, Gomaka said Station Plaza made the application after buying the Verizon property and discovering that Verizon did not have the requisite permits to do vehicle repairs on the site. Gomaka said the facility would operate 12 to 14 hours daily and would welcome applications from New Hyde Park residents interested in working at the facility.
Village of New Hyde Park Deputy Mayor Robert Lofaro said the prospective use of the property was not a prohibited use under village code for the area.
“This is a permitted use with a special permit,” Lofaro said.
Don Dryer, former director of the Nassau County Office for the Physically Handicapped, said Station Plaza has given “tremendous support” to disabled residents of Long Island through its taxi services.
“There is no finer of group of people running a business than the people at All-Island Taxi,” he said.
Blessinger sought to reassure residents that Station Plaza would not be parking vehicles on the street in front of the site.
“Storing vehicles is not my business. Rolling wheels is my business,” he said.
He said he would confer with concerned residents after the hearing and provide them with his contact information to enable them to communicate any problems that might arise at the site.
The board voted unanimously to reserve decision on the application until it had received the county planning commission’s review of the application.
During the regular meeting that followed the hearing, Trustee Donald Baribieri reported on the recent meeting of the inter-municipal committee on aircraft noise abatement, where he had addressed the issue of low-flying commercial helicopters over New Hyde Park.
The issue of noise created by the helicopters – which frequently fly over the village at a height of 1,000 feet – centers on the east-west routes the helicopters traverse. Flights over New Hyde Park necessarily fly low because of heavily used landing routes for jet airliners approaching JFK Airport.
The aircraft use routes over populated areas of Nassau County in preference to flying over Long Island Sound or the Atlantic Ocean to conserve fuel, according to Baribieri.
“The pilot wants to save on fuel and we pay for it,” Barbieri said.
Kurt Langjahr, the New Hyde Park representative on the noise abatement committee, said he has unsuccessfully tried to convince Eastern Regional Helicopters to use the water routes
“It’s going to head to the FAA,” said Langjahr, explaining that the Federal Aviation Authority would ultimately have to impose guidelines on the flights to remedy the situation.
In other developments:
• The board approved loading zones on south 4th Street, encompassing 133 feet along the north side of 4th Street and 262 feet along the south side of the street, respectively.
The loading zones are primarily being used by Gross Construction and Hall Flooring, both located at the west end of south 4th Street. The board action makes the existing use on south 4th Street part of the village code.
• Lofaro said the village administration recently ordered a new dump truck for the village Department of Public Works, the first piece of equipment he said the village had purchased in two years.
• Barbieri said the last New Hyde Park Memorial Park concert of the summer season would feature Asbury Park, a Bruce Springsteen tribute band, on Aug. 25 at 7 p.m.
• Lofaro said 67 village businesses are committed to participating in the 16th annual New Hyde Park Street Fair on Sept. 17. This year’s fair will feature an area for bowling with regulation-sized bowling lanes for youngsters. Lofaro said the fair also will feature a classic car show for the second straight year.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204
