New Hyde Park Village Restricts Parking on Herkomer Street

Residents on Herkomer Street will be seeing a lot fewer cars parked along their roadway after the New Hyde Park Village Board approved a change in the parking regulations to restrict parking during the week.

At the November 20 meeting, the village board acknowledged receipt of a letter with 10 signatures from nine of the 17 homes of the street petitioning a change in the regulations from the current no parking 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Saturdays, to no parking between 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday to Friday and from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturdays. The 4-hour parking rule on all village streets would still apply after those stated hours. There are similar traffic restrictions on adjacent blocks.

One of the concerns of the board was the effect the change in regulations would have on the residents, but during the December 5 meeting of the board at the village hall, resident Joseph Bonura said that “everybody on Herkomer has big driveways” and it would not affect them. “We’ve all got enough room.”

Bonura stated that there were only about two households on the block of 17 who he could not get to be agreeable to the changes.

“If we make the change, I didn’t want to come to another meeting and find there’s three residents who didn’t come tonight,” mayor Daniel Petruccio said.

“We’re not against changing the regulations, we’re just trying to figure out what’s the right regulation so that it doesn’t impact the residents and what we’re trying to accomplish,” deputy mayor Robert Lofaro added.

Stating that residents were mostly concerned about the weekday hours, Bonura said that the board could leave the Saturday hours alone as it wished.

“Making a change is not an issue if it seems to be the consensus of the block,” Petruccio said. “If we find that after 6 months it’s not working for you or for us or if there are other incurred problems we didn’t anticipate, then we’ll revisit it. We want to try and solve this problem as best we can.”

The board voted to restrict parking during the weekday hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, leaving the Saturday hourly regulations unchanged. The restrictions will go into effect once new street signs are posted.

Bonura pointed to 1300 Plaza Ave., the site of Satco Casting Services as the source of the problem, not commuter traffic relating to those who ride the Long Island Railroad

“Those people got it down pat,” he said. “The cop that does the tickets, I mean, they park their cars, he marks their tires, they come out about 10 minutes before the 4 hours, they roll a half a foot this way, they beat the law. It’s the same people; they park in our driveways. You go across the street and say ‘can you please move your car’ and they all go ‘we may not have the car, I don’t know if I have the car,’ so it’s just that the same people park there and it’s just getting annoying.”

Dan Weissfeld, one of Bonura’s neighbors who was also in attendance along with his wife Carolyn and another neighbor, Christopher Podbielshi, agreed, saying “they put their cars up to the lip of the driveway. It’s amazing that we haven’t had accidents of cars hitting each other just getting in or out. And something has to be done about the easement of the driveways, something along those lines as well.”

Mrs. Weissfeld added that “ours is the only little area where no one has to pay for parking. After four hours they move the cars this way or they switch spots. It’s, to me, unfair.”

Mr. Weissfeld continued, saying “it’s a pain for all of us. If it snows, I have a pickup truck, it’s almost impossible to get out of the driveway, impossible. My cab is a crew cab pickup and I’ve got to do 14 turns not to hit anybody.

Bonura also complained about car owners eating lunch in their vehicles then leaving the refuse on the curb.

“If you sit down there 10 minutes before 10 o’clock, you’ll see them; they’re lined up like a parade sitting in the car waiting because the cop does do his job,” he said.

“The reason you say 10 is because that’s the current regulation,” Lofaro said. “So if it were changed to 10 to 3, you’re going to have a problem perhaps maybe from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. The only concern I have for Saturday is more for the north end of the block if the church and the hall want to have dance lessons, AA meetings they used to have there, things like that I don’t, those are somewhat evening oriented.”

The board was also concerned about the impact the changes would have on the New Hope Community Church on the corner of Jericho Turnpike and it’s congregation. reportedly does not hold services or activities during the weekdays. However, it was reported that the church primarily conducts activities in the evening hours during the week.

“The church may come to us if there’s issues that they have and certainly 1300 Plaza Ave. will be the first to come here and ask why did we change the regulations, we’ve impacted them, where do their employees park?” Lofaro said.

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