Mayor Lawrence Montreuil and the Village of New Hyde Park board are hearing residents’ continued concerns over construction in the village as a result of the LIRR third track project Tuesday night.
“I asked them what they were doing there Sunday,” resident Michael Morrissey, of South Fifth Street, said at a board meeting Tuesday night, referring to construction workers at Covert Avenue. “They gave me an attitude … They have no respect for anybody, they’re going to do what they want to do and you can quote me when you tell them, too … They’re outrageous down there.”
Morrissey was referring to the construction occurring at the Covert Avenue Long Island Rail Road grade crossing, which will be experiencing around the clock utility rerouting work headed into the construction of the third track.
“When this thing gets going full schedule, people that are living right next to it, what is their reciprocation back from these people that are going to make all this noise and rip up the neighborhood for three years?” Morrissey asked.
“What we have as a sort of compensation is the community development fund,” Montreuil said. “It doesn’t directly benefit any individual per se, but it compensates the community for these different issues that we have to deal with.”
The village street sweeper has also been down recently, Montreuil said, and the village may need to purchase a new one in the future.
Resident Sam Khoury told the board that he thought some of the renderings uploaded to the village website were insufficient at projecting what improvements are going to be made as a result of the LIRR construction.
“Some of these photos could be uploaded online with some context,” Khoury said. “But not blocks of text. If it’s longer than 140 characters no one is going to read it.”
The board passed several resolutions unanimously, including alternate side parking changes to several streets overnight, entering into an agreement with an architectural firm that would not exceed $119,000 for road improvement bids and the advertisement for a special use public hearing for a fitness studio at 916 Jericho Turnpike.
Another resolution passed with one abstention, as Trustee Richard Pallisco abstained from voting in the appointment of his wife, Lee Anne Pallisco, as village public information officer. She also serves on the village zoning board.
The village Board of Trustees will meet again on Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. for a special use public hearing, with a regularly scheduled meeting to follow.
