Calling for code enforcement in Elmont

Walking along Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont earlier this year, Brian McHale counted more than 50 ads for businesses and services hung from utility poles and street signs — against Town of Hempstead code — in the quarter-mile between the Cross Island Parkway exit and Plainfield Avenue.

So McHale posted photos of the signs — which advertise real estate firms, SAT tutors, boxing classes, junk-removal services — and the damage that have done to street signs on an Elmont community Facebook page, calling the thoroughfare a “complete littered mess,” with Nassau County and Elmont signs “crooked and covered in graffiti” and the sign for Belmont Park showing “signs of fire damage from years ago.”

“It’s just shameful,” McHale, of Floral Park, told the Herald, noting that he had contacted Hempstead officials about the problem for years, but nothing had been done under the past three administrations.

“I don’t think they fine anyone,” McHale said, with Virginia Amato, of Elmont, adding that she was “constantly picking up” the half-eaten food and dog feces that people leave on Biltmore Avenue.

Now, the two are again calling on town officials to do more to enforce town code, which states that it is illegal to litter or hang solicitations on “fences, trees, utility poles, or similar supporting devices or to vacant or unoccupied structures.”

Anyone who litters in the town can face a $500 fine or 15 days of jail for each offense, both of which can be repeated every day that the violation continue, and the town can levy a $250 fine from any business owner or individual found responsible for illegal signs, if their identities can be determined, under the town’s Signs of the Time Law.

The law was passed in 2012 to “combat signs from overtaking utility poles and ultimately littering our streets,” according to town spokesman Michael Caputo, but he noted that the state is responsible for maintenance of Hempstead Turnpike because it’s a state road.

The Town of Hempstead, though, is responsible for signs hung on the utility poles, and Caputo said highway crews are removing them while town officials work with 5th Precinct police officers “to help stop offenders from placing these illegal signs.”

Many of the signs include phone numbers and addresses for the businesses and services that they advertise, McHale said, so it should be easy to contact those responsible for them.

But there have been no recent complaints about the signs on Hempstead Turnpike, Caputo said, though Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages did send an email to Town Supervisor Donald Clavin about the general lack of code enforcement in the area in January, after he saw McHale’s Facebook post.

Solages, a Democrat from Lawrence who represents Elmont, said he and his constituents have observed “an excessive amount of litter, garbage and debris” along Hempstead Turnpike sidewalks, and hoped to work with town officials to address the issue, which, he said, he has complained to them about since 2016.

The litter, he explained, can affect how prospective home and business owners view the neighborhood, and the illegal signs can pose a hazard to pedestrians and drivers who may have their views blocked.

“We’re simply asking the Town of Hempstead to enforce the good law they passed . . . and collect the fines from those violating the law, which will absolutely lead to a decline in follow-up violations,” Solages said at a news conference about the issue in 2016, when he urged then Supervisor Anthony Santino to increase code enforcement on the Nassau County-Queens border.

“If we’re going to be committed to revitalizing our versions of Main Street like Hempstead Turnpike, then we must make real change by sending the message that it is no longer business as usual and that the town will enforce important quality-of-life laws.”

The town will begin its street sweeping program over the next few months.