“It’s an awful idea,” said Gina Piskin, president of the Merrick Board of Education, at the board’s May 13 meeting at Lakeside. She acknowledged concerns about the safety of children who may cross the street from the school to a convenience store, and she commented that 7-Eleven delivery trucks cause traffic jams at nearby 7-Elevens.

Randy Shotland, president of the Merrick Chamber of Commerce, was no less angry.

“I think Town of Hempstead has a lot of … nerve to give them a permit,” Shotland said. “It’s across the street from an elementary school. They’re going to have trucks, a 24-7 location … It’s not going to bring any business but the wrong business into this town. Kids are going to go on their bicycles across the street.”

No building permit yet

The Town of Hempstead has not yet granted Mann’s company, AJM RE Holdings V, LLC, a permit to build a convenience store, but it seems likely that it will. Mann’s contractor, Chris Tartaglia, of High Point Engineering, applied to the town’s Building Department for the permit on March 17 (Mann also signed the application). Michael Deery, a town spokesman, said the application will not come before the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals because the site plans do not call for any variances from town code. He and Bonesso both categorized it as an “as-of-right” application.

Town Councilwoman Angie Cullin, whose district includes Merrick, said in a statement released through the town’s press office that “this matter will not come before the town board as the convenience store, as proposed, complies with all business zoning laws.”

“I share serious concerns with neighbors on this planned convenience store,” Cullin said in the statement. “Accordingly, I have directed the town’s building department to make certain that the business owner conforms with all applicable restrictions and zoning regulations.”

Local law permits a 24-hour business to operate at 150 Merrick Road.

7-Eleven’s franchising website indicates that the planned store would sell beer. The possibility of alcohol and tobacco sales directly across the street from Levy-Lakeside School drew the ire of the Merrick Board of Education.