The Village of Great Neck Plaza Board of Trustees responded to residents’ concerns last week that local massage parlors have recently become a little too relaxed with some of their business practices.
Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said during the board’s meeting at Village Hall last Wednesday that she has recently received “complaints” from residents that massage services in the village have allegedly been engaging in illegal sexual contact with clients in addition to providing massage treatments.
“We feel right now we should study it, look at it, look at where the problematic sites have been, what are some of the parameters about what makes it so,” Celender said. “Maybe it’s the layout of them. Maybe it’s other uses. Are they ancillary uses? Are they main uses?”
Trustees voted to hold a public hearing during their regular meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 15 to address the institution of an eight-month moratorium for businesses that provide massage services.
“It basically holds the status quo and we don’t have to accept applications, hear them and approve them,” Celender said of the moratorium. “It means that we won’t approve any new ones during this time until we can study what’s going on, how can we regulate them better in the future and so that we can have that opportunity to look at them and look at this type of use in more detail.”
The exact number of business that provide massage services in the village is unknown, but Celender said during the meeting that “there are probably more than a dozen.”
“We don’t know,” Village of Great Neck Plaza Deputy Mayor Ted Rosen said, “but we’re concerned.”
Celender said problems with investigating the occurrence of sexual contact at massage parlors arise from the different types of business that provide the service.
“We have many different types,” Celender said. They run the whole gamut. Some are ancillary services, to a main business that’s something else. Some are just massage places as a main business. There’s a whole host of different types of operations.”
“Many of them are associated with physical therapy and other health services,” she added. “The ones that are strictly massage, I’m concerned about them.”
The point of the moratorium will not be to investigate every business providing massages in the village, Rosen said.
“We’re not intending to (shut down) everybody,” he said. “We’re sure that there are legitimate operations. It’s just prudent that we look at this.”
Celender said she received a complaint about the occurrence of sexual favors being exchanged at massage parlors in December.
“Every so often I sporadically get comments about a location and I’ll notify the police,” the mayor said. “It’s now, as I see a couple of them still continuing to come in, I’m concerned that we have measures to control these better and to ensure that we don’t approve any that can operate in this fashion.”
One such measure Celender said she has already employed was to notify the Nassau County Police Department’s 6th Precinct, which she said has now launched an investigation. Celender said no investigation had taken place earlier because no residents had come forward to file an official complaint with the county police.
“I’ve asked the 6th to go in and send undercover (officers) to investigate them and give us a report of the findings or to shut them down if they can,” Celender said.
In addition to county police involvement, Celender said establishing an eight-month long moratorium would be a good first step toward controlling the rules at massage parlors.
“We haven’t adopted the moratorium yet, but we’re moving towards doing that,” the mayor said. “The other option would be to outright prohibit (massage parlors) and then you’d have all these existing ones that would be non-conforming.”
Many of the businesses providing massage services are not breaking any laws, but it’s the “ones that have back rooms” that the village is concerned about,” Celender said.
“You try to have your code have some relationship to what’s out there and existing,” she said. “You don’t want to set up hardships for businesses because that might affect their future ability to get capital should they need it. You take all those things in consideration and try to do something that represents good governance.”
In other business, the board approved a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the seven union workers in the village’s public works department.
“It’s very fair and equitable,” Trustee Gerald Schneiderman said of the contract. “We have very good, valued employees here.”
The collective bargaining agreement will run from March 1 until Feb. 28, 2015.
Celender said the negotiation process was positive and resulted in a fair contract for both sides.
“It’s a back and forth,” the mayor said. “It takes a few weeks give and take, with what they asked for and what we counter. That’s just the nature of the kind of negotiations that go on during these kinds of contracts.”
The terms of the contract have not been released by the village, but Celender said last week that “basically the terms of it relate to compensation.”
Village of Great Neck Plaza Clerk/Treasurer Patricia O’Byrne said during the meeting that the contract was the same as the previous one except for the salary changes.
“I think it was very well approached on the salary part,” Schneiderman said. “We have some hard working younger guys who can use the boost up and some of the senior guys who can go without that much of an increase.”
Trustee Pamela Marksheid said she was pleased that the contract was completed. She also complimented the public works employees for their work in the village.
“When we had an emergency, the micro burst or the snow from last year, they were very fabulous,” she said.
Added Celender: “The look of the village is very much reflective of our department of public works.”
The village also adopted a complete streets policy guide during last week’s meeting.
The complete streets policy guide was based upon the complete streets guide, which was approved by the Town of North Hempstead last year.
“The village … seeks to create a road system that will accommodate the needs of all users and will integrate safety improvements and sustainable practices to reduce congestion, minimize environmental impacts, promote healthier lifestyles, encourage economic growth and increase overall efficiency,” the complete streets policy guide vision statement reads.
Celender said the adoption of the policy falls in line with the village’s dedication to improving its roads over the past five years.
“I’m glad we have it,” Celender said of the guide. “I think we’ll be happy that we do and I think it will be an effective policy going forward with our grants.”
