Skateboarders and Flower Hill residents living on Colony Lane clashed at a Villager of Flower Hill board of trustees meeting on Monday over the use of the street as a downhill racing area.
Teenagers from outside the village started using Colony Lane, a downhill street, as a place to skate and loiter for the past year and a half, according to several residents.
Arlene Cohen, a Flower Hill resident who lives on the street, said the skaters have become a nuisance to her and other neighbors.
“We are concerned with the quality of life because we feel as if the block has been invaded,” Cohen said.
But four teenagers who frequently skate on the street said complaints from the residents were “exaggerated” and that they have been respectful of the resident’s property while skating on village streets.
“Is it really that big of a deal” one of the teenagers told to the trustees.
The four teenagers said they set up a private Facebook group letting people know about the downhill street in the village and that they were notified about the street from a Flower Hill resident, who was not present at the meeting.
The teenagers said they came from Great Neck, Munsey Park and other areas in Manhasset.
One teenager said they picked Colony Lane, which sits between Marson Drive and Nassau Avenue, because it was conducive to “longboarding” – a type of skating that uses a skateboard about 30 inches in length to go as fast as possible downhill.
The teenagers said they use the street for up to six hours once a week during the school year and three times a week during the summer months.
But the residents claimed the skating happens almost every day and goes on from the early hours of the morning to about 10 p.m.
Tensions over the skater’s behavior came to a boiling point when Robert Rockelein, the village’s chief code enforcer, had to remove a resident who was speaking out of turn from the meeting room.
Village of Flower Hill Mayor Elaine Phillips threatened to adjourn the meeting after several residents spoke out of turn.
“I will shut this down if this continues,” Phillips said.
Several residents asked trustees to enforce a skateboarding ban similar to the one passed in the Village of Plandome last month.
Rockelein called Plandome’s law “unenforceable,” saying that a summons could not be issued unless a legal guardian was present and aware of the skateboarders actions.
Residents urged Flower Hill trustees to look into what legal action could be taken on skateboarding on village streets, calling the issue a matter of safety.
“Someone is going to get hurt,” one resident shouted from the crowd.
The teenagers disputed that claim, saying that no skaters have been injured in the time they have been skating on the street.
One of the teenagers claimed that a Flower Hill resident, who was present at the meeting, has threatened “to punch [them] in the face.”
Residents claimed they were taking the matter into their own hands but Phillips urged those in the audience not to resort to violence.
“I hope the last thing anyone does is threaten a child,” Phillips said.
Other residents claimed the skateboarders have littered several times in the village, leaving empty pizza boxes and beer cans along neighbor’s lawns and sidewalks.
The teenagers said they have only been reprimanded for littering once and that the empty beer cans did not belong to them.
Phillips, responding to resident’s concerns of empty beer cans on village streets, asked residents if they could prove the beer cans belonged to the teenagers.
“I think that’s a separate issue,” she said.
She also warned the teenagers that Rockelein would be driving past Colony Lane to check if their skating was creating a disturbance or if the teenagers were violating village or state law.
Phillips and other members of the board of trustees told residents they would look into what could be done to curb the amount of skating taking place on the street.
“You have my promise as the mayor of this village that we’re going to work on this,” Phillips said.
“There is nothing else that we can do right now,” said Robert McNamara, who was later named the village’s deputy mayor. “You’ve got to allow us to continue to work on this.”
