County Legislator Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) raised concerns last week about moves to ban flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products.
At a “meet and greet” candidates night sponsored by the Lakeville Estates Civic Association at a Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department firehouse, he said, “Every time we engage in prohibition, it results in unintended consequences.”
New York has moved to ban flavored e-cigarettes in an attempt to curtail their use by teenagers. The ban was approved last month and enforcement is to begin on Oct. 4.
Nicolello, the presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, said that outlawing the products may result in children turning to street level vaping products, comparing the situation to bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition era.
“The concern here is, maybe it’s not going to go away except you will not get these commercial products. You will have these bootleg, undervalue street products,” Nicolello said.
For the first half of the evening, Nicolello was the only speaker because his Democratic opponent, Mal Nathan, did not attend.
Nicolello said that Republicans and Democrats are working together on making the county more affordable, saying “there are areas of agreement, but areas of disagreement.”
In regard to airplane noise on the North Shore, Nicolello said the issue has gotten “exponentially worse” and that it will ultimately have to be a battle between Long Island politicians and the federal government.
Members of the civic group raised concerns over political signs being put up throughout the neighborhood and illegal advertisements being placed on the back of stop signs and telephone poles. Nicolello said that state law prohibits residents from taking down political signs, but a 1994 county ordinance deems signs on telephone polls to be illegal and they can be pulled down by residents.
The second half of the evening was dedicated to the candidates for the 2nd District council member’s seat in North Hempstead with incumbent Councilman Peter Zuckerman facing off against his Republican opponent, Ragini Srivastava, who said she is committed to “holding the line on town taxes.”
The candidates were also joined by their Green Party opponent, Cassandra Lems, who voiced dissatisfaction with the two-party system and said that sidewalks in the area are not meeting requirements set by the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Bill Cutrone, president of the civic group, said the sidewalk department is the only part of the Town of North Hempstead that will not provide a service request number if someone calls 311. Cutrone said when you call, no one is there to answer the phone and voice messages are not returned.
“It is the only department in the Town of North Hempstead, that I know, that goes directly to the department but there is never a follow-up,” he said.
Cutrone said he knows a resident who has been waiting for two years for sidewalk work to be completed by the town. He said he would be submitting his concerns in writing to the town and said he has spoken with North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth about the sidewalk department.
Cutrone said in an earlier interview that the organization represents areas in New Hyde Park not represented by a village.
“When you live in a village, you have direct access,” he said, noting that in areas the association represents, there is no one to call about a problem. But Cutrone also said, “It was nobody’s fault” since different jurisdictions have different priorities.
Zuckerman said in response, “Everything is a case by case situation,” and he urged Cutrone to reach out to his office highlighting specific issues so that he is aware of them.
‘When my office is advised of something … we act on it,” Zuckerman said. “We have to know about it in order to take care of it.”
