Community Watchdog

Maybe we're all too impatient.

We got a call from a woman in Lake Ronkonkoma who complained that for the past two years, a manhole cover at Barbara Road and David Lane in the Town of Brookhaven was set into the road too low. Passing cars kept hitting it like it was a pothole.

Our caller contacted the Town of Brookhaven highway department several times but was getting any response. Finally, last week, workers came and fixed the problem. Two years later.

Is that a reasonable response time? Maybe there were emergency situations that kept workers away for that long. Maybe two years is considered a short time period for municipal responses. What do you think?

A reader who saw that the Town of Islip town board recently passed restrictions on when garbage cans and how long they can stay at the curb, wrote this comment:

"No one listens to the Town of Hempstead codes...no full trash cans at the curb before 7pm the day before...cans must be removed no more than 3 hrs after being collected."

it's about enforcement. The towns can have all the codes they want, but if their not enforced, what good are they? Of course, it's a double-edged sword. We all want enforcement because they're directly related to our quality of life. But it's the same with traffic laws - there are so many drivers who violate them because there isn't enough personnel to enforce them.

Long Island has changed over the years and so have the people. There was a time when people were considerate of their neighbors, when they didn't throw garbage from their car windows, when they didn't run stop signs and red lights. It seems that many "newcomers" have changed the rules.

Better enforcement might help. But adding more personnel on the state, county or town level to make a real difference almost always means higher taxes.

The state Department of Transportation agrees with Frank Stocks that this Yield sign has to go.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

I’ve been trying to get this problem solved since 2006. A YIELD sign in the right turn lane on Sound Avenue at the intersection of Route 25A in Wading River should be changed to a “Stop Here on Red” or “No Turn on Red” because cars ignore the red light and coast through the turn, creating a dangerous traffic situation. The state Department of Transportation investigated my request and agreed with me. I was sent a letter saying the problem would be rectified. That was Feb. 21, 2007. Nothing’s happened since then.
— Frank Stocks, Calverton

You’ll get no argument from the DOT, Mr. Stocks.

But while the DOT’s Regional Traffic Engineer Frank Pearson penned a letter to you more than a year ago to tell you about the work that would be done based on your complaint, he apparently didn’t mean the work would be done quickly.

As Pearson’s letter states, the project will include a painted STOP line, removal of the YIELD sign and a new Stop Here on Red sign. DOT spokeswoman Eileen Peters said the work will be completed this fall.

Asked why it takes so long to get work done after it’s been investigated and approved, Peters said, “Our requests far exceed our resources. Everything is scheduled as soon as we have the resources available...We’ve made it clear to the contractor that this is a priority location. The work should not take that long after it gets started.”

Christine Frie says the overgrown front lawn of a neighbor who shares her driveway should be mowed so it doesn't breed mosquitoes and other pests.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

Our home is one of four that share the same driveway. My neighbor has not cut her lawn for two years. The Town of Brookhaven has refused to do anything about the problem. The neighbor says it is a natural buffer, but it looks like an uncut mess of weeds. We know there is a state law that says the lawn may not be more than 10 inches high. We are concerned about pests, ticks and mosquitoes that breed in tall grass and weeds.
--Christine Frie, Ridge

One person’s weeds are another person’s meadow.

Apparently, the neighbor likes to leave things natural, and she can do that as long as the area in question isn't immediately adjacent to the house, town spokesman Tom Burke said.

Building Department chief Art Gerhauser said town code states “all lawns, common areas and recreation areas shall be maintained in a clean and neat condition and grass shall be cut periodically to restrict growth in excess of 12 inches.”

Proximity matters: The area next to the house is important to maintain “to prohibit the spread of fire and the harborage of vermin,” he said.

However, Gerhauser said, “There’s nothing to say you may not let your yard...go natural.”

Debris, including appliances, furniture or other garbage, is a different story.

“If it’s trash or litter we’ll pick it up, charge them for it and charge them a penalty,” Burke said.

Residents who have a complaint about a neighbor’s yard can call 631 451- 8696.

Babylon Town Assessor Michael J. Bernard holds an information booklet from the state's Office of Real Property Services designed to help homeowners with assessment challenges.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

Suffolk residents who feel their property taxes are too high because their homes have been assessed at a higher value than what they're actually worth, especially in this soft housing market, have until May 20 to challenge their assessments.

In Nassau, homeowners had until March to grieve their assessments with the county's Board of Assessment Review. In Suffolk, each of the 10 towns has its own Board of Assessment Review that approves or denies the applications. The applications are the same for everyone statewide.

There's nothing to lose by filing an application, said Michael J. Bernard, Babylon Town Assessor and president of the Suffolk County Assessors Association. "Either the assessment stays the way it is or it gets lowered," he said. "It can't be raised as a result" of the homeowner's request. [Bernard explains the application in the video.]

Success is most often determined by whether homeowners can show the board that their assessment is wrong and that their house isn't worth what the assessor says it's worth. "The law requires the property owner to prove that the market value of their home is less than what the market value is as determined by the assessor," Bernard said.

Proving that entails finding comparable homes in your area through town assessor record or real estate records. Those homes can be either ones that have been sold around July 1, 2007 (the date the boards will be using to compare market values) or comparable homes in your area that have lower assessments. Comparable means they're about the same size, are on the same size lot, have the same number of bathrooms and bedrooms, and so forth. Most town assessors have employees who will try to help homeowners find the records they need, but be sure to do your homework and supply the exact addresses of the homes you're comparing.

There are various reasons assessments are lowered. For instance, if the assessor's "inventory" of rooms and taxable amenities of your home are incorrect, that can help your case. If town records show you have two bathrooms but you have only one or a deck and there is none that could mean a lower assessment.

But Bernard warns that property owners should be prepared for a town inspection to confirm their claims. "If they don't want us in their house, they shouldn't file a grievance," he said. And if your home is assessed for $500,000, but you recently purchased it for $400,000, Bernard calls that a "no brainer" in your favor.

In describing your home (page one, question 5) be sure to include any negatives about the property - excessive traffic, abuts industrial property - anything that might take away from the value of your home.

Bernard expects about 5,000 of the town's 60,000 homeowners to file assessment challenges this year. In Suffolk's largest town, Brookhaven Town Assessor Jim Ryan is expecting 25,000 to 27,000 requests for assessment changes, up from an average of 20,000 challenges a year because of the housing market.

The town has about 110,000 residential properties on the tax roll. "I anticipate that many more people than in the past will file, and there's no downside to it, so why not?" Ryan said.

Homeowners don't need an attorney or professional company to represent them and if they're not satisfied with the decision on their case, they can take it to the small claims assessment review where a judicial hearing officer makes the ultimate decision, Ryan said.

Probably the most important question is No. 7 on page one of the four-page application, he said. The question reads: "Property owner's estimate of current full market value of property." Even though the form says "current market value," both Ryan and Bernard said the review boards will be looking for the market value of the home as of July 1, 2007.

That means, whether you're comparing your homes to others that have sold in the area or homes that are comparable but are assessed for less, that date has to be the basis of your comparison. For instance, you wouldn't use a house sold in January as evidence in your application.

Ryan's office will have extended hours Friday, May 9 from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday May 17, from 7-11 a.m. to help Brookhaven town residents with information. Call your town assessor's office for hours of operation. If you plan to challenge your assessment in person instead of by mail, call to find out the hours the Board of Assessment Review will meet on May 20.

Applications must be postmarked by May 20. Click the links on the left for information about your town assessor.

Duane Koncelik and his neighbors have been trying to get the state DEC to force the removal of tons of dirt and debris dumped illegally near their East Patchogue homes.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

A tenant of the industrial property bordering our homes in East Patchogue brought in hundreds of loads of dirt and construction debris from Queens in tractor trailers, creating mounds of dirt, rocks and cement over three stories high. Now, every time it rains, this mountain is eroding onto Strong Lane and Strong Road and seeping into the bordering wetlands. We have been reporting this to the Town of Brookhaven, police and state Department of Environmental Conservation for over a year. The mud and potholes are taking a toll on our cars and homes. It is truly a nightmare and extremely sad that the DEC and town are ignoring the problem, especially the environmental destruction.

--Duane Koncelik, East Patchogue

What a mess. But DEC officials say the problems involving the commercial property on Orchard Road will be gone before the summer is over.

As Koncelik said, his neighborhood has been plagued for a while. The DEC documented illegal dumping of construction and demolition debris, known to waste management types as C&D, at this site in Sept. 2006.

Two months later, the DEC noted that soil erosion from the illegal dumping had entered the freshwater wetlands on Strong Road.

DEC spokesman Bill Fonda said that during 2007, the agency spent time trying to determine which tenant on the property was doing the dumping.

Nothing happened until March 27, this year, when a DEC consent order was signed, triggering the formal start of the cleanup process that will take a few months to complete, Fonda said.

In the consent order, the DEC ordered the property owner to stop the illegal dumping and assessed a penalty of $10,500. The owners were also ordered to bring the land back to acceptable environmental conditions.

That won’t happen overnight.

Time-consuming steps that need to be completed include soil sampling by a certified lab and the DEC analysis of the results. Then the owner has to present a plan for DEC approval to grade the area so the dirt doesn’t continue to wash onto the residential streets and wetlands.

And more DEC approvals are needed for the owner’s planting plan to restore native species to the wetlands. Then the owner has to prepare a cleanup plan that also needs a green light from the DEC to bring the property back to its pre-dumping condition.

In addition, the owner must show the DEC tracking records of where the C&D was sent and also remove any unauthorized wastes that were washed into the wetlands.

Fonda said that based on the required timeline for submissions and approvals, cleanup of the property should begin towards the end of July, or sooner if things move smoothly. The owners have already started using bales of hay and fencing to prevent the dirt from washing onto the roadway, he said.

Anyone who wants to report a violation to the DEC can call the toll-free hotline at 800 847-7332. It’s a statewide number, so be sure to specify the location of the violation. All calls are confidential, Fonda said.

Related sites to this topic:

I've been exchanging comments with readers about our frustrations with the litter problem on Long Island and this weekend, I heard about the Town of Brookhaven scheduling it's community cleanup dates.

The town's looking for volunteers to take part in it's Keep America Clean/Keep Brookhaven Beautiful campaign.

It's likely that at least some of the other 12 townships on Long Island will be holding the same kind of clean-up days.

To all the volunteers who put in the effort to keep your communities litter-free, nice going.

Years ago, the Town of Brookhaven named a preserve in Ridge after Capt. Jonathan Bruce Bednarek, who died in the Vietnam War.

Bednarek had lived in Greenlawn, in the Town of Huntington, so it was unclear why a memorial to him was located Ridge. The passive park had been named for Bednarek so many years ago that officials didn’t have information on how it came about. The issue was revisted in the Sunday Community Watchdog column because the sign for the preserve with Bednarek's name went missing sometime between late last year and early this year.

Friends of the Bednarek family say that the captain’s parents lived in Leisure Village, which is adjacent to the preserve. One friend who worked with Bednarek’s father John at Chemical Bank wrote in an email, “John has since passed on, so on his behalf, I would like to offer whatever support is needed to insure that his son’s name is once again perpetually honored by displaying his name properly at the Town of Brookhaven preserve.”

The writer, said, “John Bednarek grieved the loss of his son and Captain Bednarek’s ultimate sacrifice for our country in the Vietnam war must never fade from our memory.”

UPDATE
Thanks to Ken and others who have sent us information about Capt. Bednarek. A short update is scheduled to be published Sunday in the LI Life section of Newsday.

In January we wrote about a Ridge resident who was upset because the garden club of the Leisure Village retirement community excluded non-members from using part of the Town of Brookhaven preserve. The 50-acre park was named after U.S. Air Force Capt. Jonathan Bruce Bednarek who died in Vietnam during the war.

A few weeks after the item was published, the large gray sign with Bednarek’s name went missing from the preserve.

So many years have passed since the passive park was dedicated that officials are unsure how it came to be named after Bednarek, a Greenlawn resident known as Bruce to friends. According to information on the Virtual Wall Web site, Bednarek, a Purple Heart recipient, was downed and declared missing in North Vietnam after taking off from Da Nang Air Base. In December 1988, his remains were returned to the U.S. and buried in Calverton National Cemetery.

“We’ll be replacing the sign and move it closer to the road so it’ll be in more public view,” town spokesman Tom Burke said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a history of how the park got named after him, but for all those who gave their lives for this country, the town thinks it’s appropriate, whether he came from Huntington or Brookhaven, Islip or another town — the sacrifice the captain and other men like him have made — certainly the least we can do is to remember people like him.”

Robert Henck wants the Town of Brookhaven to replant the areas where trees were leveled.

A few months ago, Brookhaven Town leveled two acres of oak trees on Sunset Drive in North Shirley for Calabro Airport use. It looks like a war zone. People are using it as a drag strip, garbage dump, etc. Where you had the trees as a buffer from William Floyd Parkway to cut traffic noise, you now have an amplifier. The town should have planted small trees or hedges and other landscaping and grass.

The town had no choice about leveling the trees, town spokesman Tom Burke said. It was done to meet the Federal Aviation Administration’s requirements regarding trees and how high they can be in relation to airports.

The town program is on-going, Burke said. More trees will come down, but when the program is completed, there’s a stabilization plan to plant grass or other groundcover. Burke said the town would have to explore whether the FAA would approve planting anything more extensive.

Readers are still offering opinions about the traffic signal changes made by the Town of Brookhaven at the corner of Hawkins and Boyle Roads in Selden, with most saying they favor the green arrow/green light left turn rather than the red/yellow/green arrow. Some, however, agree with Nicholas Caracappa, who led the opposition when he called us to complain about the changes.

Here’s what some have to say. Some of the responses have been edited for space and content. (See yesterday’s blog for additional comments.)

“The change has made the intersection much safer. I drive past there every day coming home from work and it is much less conjested [sic]. The traffic flows. I feel the change should stay as is.”

Nicholas Caracappa wants traffic signals on the corner where he lives changed

I reside at the busy intersection of Hawkins and Boyle Roads. This past year, the Town of Brookhaven increased the danger-level significantly by replacing the red-yellow-green left-turn arrows on the four-way traffic signals to green arrow/green light. That allows cars to make left turns into oncoming traffic because they have a continuous green light. There have been over a dozen accidents. That’s more incidents than the past 20 years combined. We have contacted the town several times. We have a petition. Still nothing.
-- Nicholas J. Caracappa, Selden

Town officials are steadfast: The changes have made the intersection safer, they say.

“The restriction of...the red arrow, with that volume of traffic, causes people to do dumb things,” like trying to beat the light, town spokesman Tom Burke said. A safer option, he said, is to give drivers “a safe turn with the green arrow and then an optional safe turn with the solid green light.”

Based on statistics culled from police reports and state reports, town traffic safety officials said the intersection averaged five accidents a year before the changes in March last year. After the changes, they said no accidents occurred at the intersection.

However, Sixth Precinct Commander Insp. Frank Stallone said department statistics for Hawkins and Boyle indicate 11 accidents in 2006 and 13 last year.
“I don’t see much difference” in the accident rate, he said.

Town and police numbers don’t match, Burke said, because the town’s traffic safety experts dissect the police accident reports and count only the ones that occurred directly at the intersection.

Stallone said officers generally indicate the nearest intersection where an accident occurs on police reports, including those that happen a short distance away. He described the intersection as “busy and complicated,” one that requires two school crossing guards.

Police defer to the town’s traffic experts, but Stallone called for a review of the changes because of resident complaints. The town “reviewed it and came back with the same result.” he said. “I’m not sure you can do anything safety-wise that will change that one way or another."

WATCHDOG WEIGH-IN: Who’s right? Is the intersection better or worse since the changes? Email comments to watchdog@newsday.com. Results will be posted on newsday.com/watchdog.

Also related to this topic:

*NY Department of Motor Vehicles-Traffic Control
*Selden Civic Association:

Is your garden club or youth group looking for a piece of land to call it’s own? The Town of Brookhaven has an offer that comes close. There are already 20-25 parcels owned by the Town of Brookhaven that are tended by private not-for-profit groups. Most are developed for youth sports, but other not-for-profit organizations are invited to tend a piece of town-own land if they’re willing to take on full responsibility.

“The parties involved have to keep their end of the bargain,” said town spokesman Tom Burke. “If they’re not taking care of it in the proper fashion, certainly we’re going to revisit” the agreement. The town charges no rent and the group assumes all liability and maintenance. Agreements between the group and the town generally run 10-15 years, Burke said.

Any qualifying group that wants to improve a piece of undeveloped land should call Parks Commissioner Jim LaCarrubba at 631 451-6100, or visit the Town of Brookhaven Web site for names and numbers of other park personnel.

Residents of the Leisure Village retirement community in Ridge have taken town-owned passive parkland adjacent to their property and turned it into a members-only area for its garden club, with a fence and padlocked gate. If it’s a public park, I want to get in there. The Town of Brookhaven should kick them off the property.

-- Cliff Williams, Ridge

Sorry, Mr. Williams. Based on the town’s agreement with the garden club, its members do have exclusive use of the land they’ve been tending for more than 20 years, even though it’s located in the 50-acre Capt. Jonathan Bednarek Park.

The club is one of 20-25 organizations in the Town of Brookhaven with similar agreements, town spokesman Tom Burke said.

“In this case, it was an acre or two on an undeveloped piece of land,” Burke said of the garden club’s area. “In exchange for their investment of time and money, we allow them to control access,” he said. That means, unless Williams has permission to go into the garden club area, he’s tresspassing.

Other organizations that have exclusive use of town-owned land include the North Patchogue-Medford Youth Athletic Club, the Patchogue-Medford Youth Soccer League, Shoreham-Wading River Little League and Sachem Athletic Club.

Any not-for-profit organization can adopt a piece of unused town-owned land, Burke said. In addition to maintaining the property, the group must assume 100 percent liability for the improved area, Burke said.

“This is a huge win-win,” Burke said. “Land that would lay fallow is being developed for kids in the community…at no cost to the town. They do all the work and maintain all the liability.”

Also related to this topic:

*Town of Brookhaven field permit application form
*Town of Brookhaven field permit application form instructions

Q.I have been getting the runaround from the Town of Brookhaven Highway Department with problems facing residents of Oakwood Avenue and Glenwood Avenue in Miller Place. I have sent two petitions signed by the residents requesting the roads be repaired and have received nothing but promise after promise. This has been going on since 2004.

Jeannette A. Rogan, Miller Place

A.The good news is Oakwood Avenue is now on the town's priority list of roads slated to be repaved, Highway Superintendent John Rouse said.

The damper is that streets on the priority list can take up to two "paving seasons” before the job is done. Sometimes it takes even longer because of variables involved, Rouse said. Funding, weather, equipment breakdowns, prep work that includes tree trimming and brush clearing, the condition of driveway aprons and curbs and more all contribute to whether the road is done on schedule.

Oakwood has yet another hurdle to clear. It's one of the many roads in the area where water runoff feeds into Woodhull Landing Road, which has had major drainage issues. Those issues have to be solved before the surrounding roads get new asphalt.

Rogan's patched and repatched road isn't eye candy, but "It's not a safety issue," the highway commissioner said. While the homeowner‘s request "is not unreasonable... we will not be resurfacing those roads until all the drainage issues in the area are resolved. We do not want to resurface a road only to tear it up prematurely to repair a drainage problem,” he said.

Brookhaven residents who want their roads, driveway aprons, curbs or other highway department work done can call the town's hotline,631-451-8696.

Also related to this topic: