A federal court ruling last summer affirming the Federal Aviation Authority’s right to regulate commercial helicopter traffic over Long Island will not bring relief to the New Hyde Park area, Village of New Hyde Park Trustee Donald Barbieri told residents at Tuesday night’s village board meeting.
Barbieri said in a recent meeting with FAA officials he was told the court ruling did not apply to helicopter traffic that follows the main Long Island Rail Road line from New York City to eastern Long Island.
The officials, he said, also told him the helicopters can maintain altitudes of 500 feet or lower over residential areas including New Hyde Park and the surrounding area.
“Bottom line, helicopters are allowed to go down to that height to the southeast,” Barbieri said. “Not only is 500 feet legal, levels lower than 500 feet can be legal depending on the circumstances.”
FAA officials have previously told representatives of the Town and Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee that helicopters are allowed to fly at 500 feet to avoid jet aircraft landing and taking off from JFK Airport.
Barbieri said he suggested the officials find some way to keep helicopter clear of New Hyde Park, but he said he was not successful.
“Their concern was safety. Those altitudes we complain about are legal,” Barbieri said.
In 2012, the FAA established a North Shore Route over Long Island Sound between Huntington and Orient Point at the behest of Sen. Charles Schumer.
FAA officials told him, Barbieri said, that the North Shore route did not apply to the middle of Long Island.
At the meeting, several residents said Domino’s Pizza delivery vehicles were parking illegally on North 10th Street off Jericho Turnpike, and blocking traffic.
“We can’t even park on our block. And those [delivery] people are very rude,” said 10th Street resident Rosemarie Hudson.
Hudson then handed Tom Gannon, the head of the village’s Department of Public Works, a list of license plates of Domino’s delivery vehicles.
Gannon said he would have village code enforcers monitor the area.
Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro said the village could seek assistance from the Nassau County Police 3rd Precinct in issuing traffic tickets to cars violating parking laws in the neighborhood.
“Hire another code enforcer,” said a resident who declined to give his name.
“I’m a former cop in this county. You call a cop in this county, you may as well hang yourself,” he said.
In other developments:
• Lofaro said Laser Industries has been authorized to start the village’s latest annual road repair project. The village board approved a $1.45 million contract for the roadwork last month. Lofaro said he anticipated repairs scheduled for more than 1.5 miles of village roads would start on June 1.
• Barbieri expressed his appreciation for he and his sister Susan being the beneficiaries of the upcoming New Hyde Park Gladiators Fund at a May 9 dinner at the Inn at New Hyde Park. He and sister both suffer with multiple sclerosis. The Gladiators Fund helped Barbieri retrofit his house and assisted his sister in 1998 when she had a surgical procedure in Paris.
“I go every year, 18 years. I’ll go until the day I die,” Barbieri said the Gladiator Fund and its members. “They’re great guys.”
• The board approved a plan to renovate a building at 1217 Jericho Turnpike, which had been the home of the Angry Gnome pub before it was destroyed in fire in November 2012 in which two people were killed.
The owners of the building said the pub will reopen the pub under its original name.
Lofaro said the village’s approval was contingent on an outdoor area outside the pub closing at 11 p.m.
• Barbieri said a cabaret show based on the work of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme will be performed in the William Gill Theatre on the second floor of Village Hall on May 9 and 10.
A Friday performance will be at 7:30 p.m. with Saturday performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets, available at Village Hall before the performances or at the door, are $10, or $5 for seniors and children 13 and under.
