School buses, outdoor dining top civic meeting

The Guardian Bus Company depot on Long Beach Road in Island Park has been causing its neighbors problems, from a lack of parking spaces to diesel fumes, but now the Town of Hempstead is taking action.

At the Jan. 12 meeting of the Island Park Civic Association, residents representing Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana avenues complained that bus drivers arrive at 6:30 a.m., park their cars on the streets, sometimes blocking driveways, and often leave them there until after 7:30 p.m. The homeowners said that only the center of the street gets plowed or cleaned, because the cars never move. In addition, they said, the bus drivers empty their garbage and ash trays on the streets.

The buses idle for long periods in the morning, residents say, and the prevailing winds blow the fumes toward the residential area. Homeowners further complain that a fuel truck comes to the bus parking lot and refuels the vehicles there. In addition, temporary bathrooms on the lot were supposed to be replaced by permanent ones almost two years ago, according to the civic association.

Aphrodite Montalvo, of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s communications office, said, “According to DEC regulations, heavy-duty vehicles may not idle longer than five consecutive minutes. There are, however, exemptions to this regulation, including allowing vehicles to idle for longer periods of time if the ambient air temperature is below 25 degrees.”

“Hempstead town has been working diligently on the issues associated with this bus storage facility,” said Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky, press secretary for the Town of Hempstead, where the depot is located. “We began issuing summonses to the business as far back as 2014, and remain in court with the owners.” The next court date is scheduled for Jan. 28. “Among the issues we have been addressing with this business is that it has not obtained the proper permits to operate there,” Trenkle-Pokalsky added. “While part of the property is an ‘as of right’ use, they still need to obtain a permit for bus storage.”