Two public hearings scheduled for the Village of Flower Hill’s board of trustees meeting Monday were canceled after officials learned that legal notices describing the hearings were not published in all three of the village’s official newspapers.
Village Administrator Ronnie Shatzkamer said Tuesday that after learning that notices for the hearings, one for a law banning skateboarding on village roads and another to review a proposal to subdivide a commercial property, were only published in the Roslyn News, the hearings were postponed.
The notices, she said, were sent to the department at Anton News that handles the publication of those documents, but they were not also printed in the Manhasset Press and Port Washington News, the village’s other official newspapers.
Anton, which publishes the Roslyn News, Manhasset Press and Port Washington News among its 18 weekly community newspapers, published a two-week edition for Dec. 24, 2014 through Jan. 6, 2015.
The Village of Flower Hill covers portions of Roslyn, Manhasset and Port Washington.
State law requires legal notices describing public hearings to be published in a municipality’s official newspaper at least one week prior to the hearing date, as well as at designated public locations at least 72 hours before a hearing date.
“After talking with our village attorney, we said there was no way we could go forward,” Shatzkamer said.
Efforts to reach Anton News representatives for comment were unavailing.
The proposed skateboard law would grant the board of trustees the authority to ban skateboarding and longboarding – a form of skateboarding that utilizes a longer board and larger wheels for increased speed and sharper turns, but with limited potential for tricks – on roadways where such activity would threaten public safety.
A first-time violation of the law would carry a maximum $250 fine, while each violation after that would hold a maximum $500 fine.
Residents said the law would not be strict enough, as it would not ban all skateboarding from Colony Lane.
Shatzkamer said the board planned to approve the law Monday.
She said she spoke with officials at the Uniondale law firm Farrell Fritz, who represent Arhaus Furniture, the party seeking to divide the property at 15-25 Port Washington Blvd., about contacting residents about the hearing’s cancelation.
Residents who appeared at Monday’s meeting said they were not notified by Farrell Fritz about the cancelation, and complained during a public comment that Arhaus illegally removed trees from several properties and dug up residential land.
James Gilhooly, the village’s building inspector, said the village was not properly informed that Arhaus was doing construction to the property and issued a stop work order against the excavation of additional ground.
He was later told the county requested Arhaus’ engineers explore a drain line that extended beyond the property line. A revised site plan was later submitted to the village and the stop work order was lifted.
Arhaus representatives were not in attendance Monday. The store’s attorney, Anthony S. Guardino, did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
Trustees said they were unaware the trees were removed and could not determine whether photographs purportedly showing the trees prior to their removal would warrant a tree-removal permit.
“In this village, you cannot cut down a live tree without a permit, and the only way you’re going to get a permit is with approval from a certified arborist, and even if it’s dead we have to look at it and review it,” Village of Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Phillips said. “We are green in this villager and we are protective of the environment in this village…We don’t know what they did.”
In other developments:
• The village board approved the site plan of an application to convert a residential property at 24-32 Middle Neck Road, part of the Flower Hill Apartments complex, to an AllState office on the condition that ongoing drainage improvements and landscaping measures are completed by the springtime and that steps are taken to ensure commercial vehicles would no longer be parked on site.
• The board set the Flower Hill Village Hall as its official polling place in the March 18 election.
The election will take place from noon to 9 p.m.
Three trustee positions, each for two-year terms, will be up for election.
Those positions are currently occupied by trustees Jay Beber, Brian Herrington and Deputy Mayor Robert McNamara.
Officials said the names and addresses of candidates and the village board positions they seek will be published in the village’s official newspapers and posted publicly in the village.
The board also set two official election inspectors and two alternates.
