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Overcast and Breezy Oceanside stores making a comeback
Work has begun on the rebuilding of stores on Long Beach Road in Oceanside that were destroyed by a fire on April 25.
The blaze began at the D&D convenience store, at 3122 Long Beach Road. Eight fire departments were called out that morning. Seven businesses were damaged, and the 60 people who lived in upstairs apartments were left homeless.
The remains of the building housing the convenience store have been torn down. The reconstruction of the neighboring John’s Clothing Shop has begun, and an architect is drawing up new plans for Ocean Chemist, on the other side of the fire site.
“Because of the drugs, the Town of Hempstead made us clean everything out — everything had to be up to code,” said Richard Tafuri, who, along with his father, Joseph, owns the building that housed the pharmacy. “Now it’s all ripped out. Our permits are all filed. We have an architect drawing up new plans, which we will submit to the town. We want to build back, and we want the pharmacy back. They’re great tenants; they’ve been there for 60 years. The haircut shop and the bar are back in because they had less damage.”
Tafuri said he was enthusiastic about the project. “We’re putting this together as fast as we can,” he said. “We would like to have Ocean Chemist back in a few months.”
Linda Ohlsen, the pharmacy manager said “We couldn’t start our rebuild until the building was down — it took the town a while to get it down,” she said. “Ocean Chemist has temporarily relocated to 3332 Long Beach Road in Oceanside, and has two phone numbers, (516) 764-9600, and a new number, (516) 442-7425. We’ve had problems with the phone numbers. When we moved, Verizon was on strike, so one number is Verizon and the other is Cablevision. They don’t ring over.”
John’s Clothing Shop is in the process of rebuilding. Owners John and Concetta Ricciardi say they are looking forward to returning. The shop temporarily relocated to 3342 Long Beach Road.
“This shop over here is too small — we don’t have all the equipment that we need,” Concetta said. Her contractor told her the original location would be ready to open by November. “We were there 13 years.”
“We had two tenants, both worked at the hospital. One was there for nine years. She and her husband lived in the front — nice people. The tenant that lived in the back, they call us [and say], ‘When are we going to go back?’ They want to go back. I want to go back, too.”
Nancy Wang, an employee of the May King Chinese restaurant, at 3110 Long Beach Road, said that the restaurant was not damaged. She said the owner of the building lives in Pennsylvania, and was not there at the time. May King was the first business to reopen.
