The Village of Manorhaven is being dragged back kicking and screaming 35 years.
The 11/14 Board of Zoning Appeals meeting was packed with people, hard working, sincerely concerned residents, knowledgeable speaking out against a massive DeJana Industries proposed salt shed facility being built in their backyards.
They spoke of how this 28-foot-high, 56-by-40 foot domed structure would change the face of their little seaside village, how the road salt it contained should not be allowed 300 feet from their shoreline to run off and pollute its waterways and groundwater, how this structure violated their new villages codes.
Their concern for their village, their environment and their codes basically fell on deaf ears.
Residents showed the E1 zone it is in clearly doesn’t allow this salt shed.
Residents proved the massive dome is 2 times higher than anything now allowed in the village.
Residents cited current environmental concerns about clean water and the effect of toxic chemicals on their families. Dejana company attorneys said, too bad, it’s grandfathered in.
They then asked their BZA to listen to them and it’s chair, Patrick Gibson, told them over and over and over again, too bad. Our concern is not that, only to vote on the company’s roof.
They then asked their elected officials to listen to them.
Mayor Avena and his Board of Trustees, once again, over and over they were told, it’s not their boards jurisdiction. Too bad..
So while the world and its people hold their elected officials accountable to move forward making water cleaner, eliminating toxic chemicals, preserving the land and making the welfare of the many more important than the profits of a few.
Manorhaven and its residents have been told to move three and a half decades backwards and to shut up, sit down and accept it. Too bad!
Lucretia Steele
Port Washington
