The Village of East Williston has issued 50 summonses to people who have violated a recently enacted village law aimed at teenagers gatherings after dusk in the Long Island Railroad station plaza, on the Village Green and at Devlin Field.
“I don’t think the parents know it’s not okay,” said East Williston Trustee Michael Braito at Monday night’s village board meeting.
Braito said the summonses, which require an appearance at village court in East Williston, were issued by Nassau County Police officers of the 3rd Precinct following the village board’s approval of the law at its July 11 board meeting.
“The intention is not to prosecute these kids,” Braito said.
But Village of East Williston Mayor David Tanner said fines could be levied when the offenders appear in village court on Sept. 13.
The law was specifically enacted to address the issue of teenagers gathering in the three public areas. The village has since hired a security company to furnish a guard parked in a marked car in the station plaza from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights to discourage teens from occupying the plaza.
“We thought it was appropriate for a private security company to come in,” Tanner said.
Resident Connie Leonick called the security guard “an expensive baby sitter” who would effectively be shifting the teens in the station plaza to other areas.
“Why chase them to the sump or the ball field?” Leonick asked. She also questioned the expense involved.
Trustee Bonnie Parente said the cost of the security guard was $37 per hour.
Tanner said the village board had discussed publishing an open letter in a local newspaper “to let [people] know this is not a place to hang out.”
The mayor said the board also is discussing the formation of what he called a teen-safety committee composed of teenagers and adults from the community to generate ideas on how to deal with the situation.
Parente expressed her support for that idea, saying, “There’s a lot more we can do in this community and we should do it together.”
A video shown at the July 11 meeting was screened again on Monday night, showing a teenager climbing on the roof of the shelter at the north end of the station plaza, removing the East Williston sign and dropping it off the roof as other teens took pictures of the vandalism.
Braito pointed out that the village would be liable if any of those teenagers had been injured during the incident.
The station shelter incident and other acts of vandalism, including wax graffiti on the village green’s war memorial and damage to the fence at Toddler Park behind village hall, prompted the board to enact the ordinance prohibiting people from those areas after dusk.
Residents expressed divergent views about the law.
“Technically, my wife and I can’t sit on High Street after dark,” East Williston resident John D’Angelo said.
Resident Michael Guglielmo said he was “torn” over the issuing, adding, “If my kid wants to hang out here, they couldn’t.”
In response to a question from Guglielmo about the efficacy of the new law, Tanner said he thought there had been a noticeable decline in night-time activity since it was enacted.
But resident Nancy Kirk said, “These kids are hanging out in the street daring people to hit them. Why would anybody want their kid hanging out in the train station all night? Where is the parental supervision?”
One resident said her daughter had been approached in the late afternoon by someone dealing drugs. Another resident said her son had been chased by other boys on bicycle who he did not recognize as being from the village.
Braito said he has heard the parents are not permitting their children to go to the station plaza because teens from other towns are coming into East Williston. He suggested that part of the problem is ease of access to the public areas.
“If you go to any other communities, they lock the gates to the parks,” he said.
In an issue related to teens populating the station plaza, the village board enacted a new ordinance on Monday night limiting the speed limit on Upper Sagamore Road through the length of the plaza to 25 miles per hour.
Tanner said the board has become increasingly concerned with teenagers standing and chatting in the middle of the thoroughfare.
On another, unrelated legal front, the board passed an ordinance formalizing a schedule of fines for parking violations that originally had been set by former village justice Alan Reardon.
“Tonight, we’re looking to make them more formal,” Tanner said.
The schedule of fines includes a $100 fine for parking on village streets without a registration, parking without proper vehicle registration or parking between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Fines of $200 were endorsed by the board for parking in a fire zone or too near a fire hydrant, blocking a driveway or improperly parking in a designated handicapped zone. All other parking fines are $100.
