Residents bring quality of life questions to East Rockaway board

For the third time is as many months, concerned residents came to an East Rockaway village board meeting armed with questions for the mayor and the board that they hoped would make clear their frustration with what they described as “unacceptable” conditions on the residential streets surrounding the Lynbrook Restorative Therapy and Nursing (formerly the East Rockaway Nursing Home).

At the village’s July and August meetings, residents complained about changes that they said had come about since the new owners took over from the East Rockaway Progressive Care facility a few years ago, including less parking for residents, more traffic, loading and unloading of trucks, and trash strewn in the streets and on their properties.

“Twenty-five of us met,” the group’s spokesman, Carlos Cardoso, told Mayor Francis Lenahan and the board. “Some are angry, some are affected directly, some indirectly … we have to work on this to come to a resolution. The goal tonight is communication.”

At those meetings, dozens of residents beseeched the board to order Lynbrook Restorative to stop using the adjoining, newly purchased home at 11 Roosevelt Ave. for what they believe are commercial purposes. Residents also asked that Lynbrook Restorative not be granted an application to expand, and said they were afraid that the facility would tear down the home.

Most of the residents who attended the meetings live on the three blocks surrounding the center — Roosevelt, McKinley and Tredwell avenues. Their homes, as well as the rehab facility, are in the village of East Rockaway but have Lynbrook postal addresses, and are part of the Lynbrook school district.

“We just want to know … if you can explain the process, the deadlines — this not communicating is frustrating,” said Cardoso. “We are not the problem — the problem is not here tonight.”

Lenahan said that he could not comment, but added, “This board is not your enemy,” before deferring all questions and comments to Village Attorney John Ryan, who said that any further communications from the group should be directed to him, not to Lenahan or board members, who have been instructed not to comment because Lynbrook Restorative has “retained counsel.”