By Scott Brinton
By night, the atmosphere at the end of Merrick Avenue often changes dramatically, particularly from spring to fall. According to residents, teenagers hang out there, blasting their radios during drinking parties. They also drag race down Merrick Avenue, starting at about Lake End Road.
Many residents said they've seen teenagers and adults having sex in their cars at the dead end. And they said they've witnessed drug deals go down there.
Now neighbors are speaking out, saying they want the Town of Hempstead to erect a gate that would prevent access to the dead end after 8 p.m., or to sell the bulkhead and the adjoining street to nearby residents, who would close the area off themselves.
John Odenwald and his fiancée, Tricia Casey, moved to Whaleneck Drive, across the canal from the bulkhead, about a year and a half ago. Ever since, the alleged goings-on across the way have bothered them, and over time, they've become more disgusted. The couple moved to south Merrick from Manhasset, believing they had found the perfect, quiet waterfront neighborhood. Now they aren't so sure.
The couple recently began a letter-writing campaign to local elected officials in hopes of resolving the issue before, they say, they're forced to move out. They also regularly call Seventh Precinct police when they see anything out of the ordinary.
Odenwald, who's in construction in New York City, said he uses his binoculars to check on what's happening across the canal. Several times, he said, he's seen people selling drugs out of their cars. "You could see them rolling the joints," he said.
Casey, a national sales manager, said she isn't sure why the town allows the bulkhead to be used as a public-access point for fishing, noting that there are no rest rooms at the dead end. So the fishermen, many of whom stay for hours at a time, often relieve themselves in the handful of bushes that line nearby homes, causing residents' backyards to smell of urine.
In fact, during the Herald's 45-minute interview with Odenwald and Casey on a recent Wednesday at around 6:30 p.m., one fisherman could be seen relieving himself in the bushes twice.
"To me, this is not a public dock," said Casey of the bulkhead. A public dock, she said, would be more like the nearby town pier at the Norman J. Levy Preserve, less than a mile west. The fishing pier is clearly marked as such and has bathrooms, she said. Casey said the fishermen should go to the Levy preserve, and not her neighborhood.
Kim McKeown, who has lived across the canal from the dead end for eight years, said, "I would love to see no parking, no fishing, no nothing" at the bulkhead.
McKeown said that when she first moved in, she complained many times to police about the loud music and drag racing at night on Merrick Avenue. Despite police intervention, the problems persisted, she said. So she eventually stopped calling police.
But she still considers the bulkhead a real problem. McKeown said she has no privacy in her backyard because it faces the dead end. With fishermen often lining the bulkhead, she sunbathed in her yard only once over the summer. McKeown also said she and her husband had their upper-level deck, which sits off their bedroom, enclosed so they wouldn't hear as much noise at night.
And McKeown worries about her two children, ages 4 and 2, who often hear teenagers cursing and yelling across the way.
Michele Caruso, also the mother of two young children, who lives next door to McKeown, shares her neighbor's concerns. She, too, worries about the language the teenagers use. Speaking of her children, Caruso said, "They hear things. There was a couple of times we were sitting out [in the backyard], and they heard the foul language."
Two weeks ago, Caruso said, several teenagers were hanging out at the bulkhead, and she called police. Seventh Precinct officers arrived quickly and detained the teenagers for over an hour, writing various summonses, she said.
Inspector Arthur Thompson, the Seventh Precinct's commanding officer, said police have adopted a "zero-tolerance" policy regarding the Merrick Avenue dead end, meaning no activities, including parking, are permitted there after 8 p.m. He noted, however, that parking is allowed during daylight hours.
Thompson said police have written open-container summonses for drinking at the bulkhead. But he said, "There's no wholesale sex or drug use going on there."
He did say, however, that it's a challenge for police to catch anyone who might be engaged in illegal activities at the dead end, because the wide-open Merrick Avenue affords a clear view to Merrick Road -- and time for people to stop whatever they're doing before being nabbed by police.
As for urinating in the bushes, Thompson said it's not necessarily considered an act of public lewdness under the law, although it can be. "Is it offensive? Probably. Given the circumstance, would it be illegal? Probably not," the inspector said.
Casey and Odenwald said they've written to and called Town of Hempstead officials, including Supervisor Kathleen Murray (R-Levittown) and Councilwoman Angelina Cullin (R-Freeport). So far, however, the town has done nothing to alleviate problems at the dead end, the couple said.
Cullin said, "I have sent the Seventh Precinct out there regularly." She added, "The town attorney is investigating what we can do and can't do. ... The town will look into what we can do that is legal and above board."
Odenwald has also attended town-hall meetings convened by Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick). Denenberg asked police to step up patrols at the dead end. The legislator has also looked into why the bulkhead is open for public fishing. He approached Hempstead officials, who said the town's deed for the property stipulates its use as a public-access point.
The legislator, however, said town officials haven't provided a copy of the deed for him, and he hasn't been able to find one at the Nassau County Clerk's Office. The property has no address, so it doesn't have a section, block and lot number, meaning the deed can't be found among county records.
One resident, who has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years and did not want to be identified, said that teenagers hanging out at the dead end have only become a problem in recent years. When he first moved in, he said, police had a "call box" by the bulkhead, a station where they were required to regularly stop and call in to precinct headquarters. He couldn't remember when the call box was removed, but the partying began at the dead end after that day, he said.
Now, the resident said, "People park there, and you see them exchanging whatever. It could be marijuana or anything else, and the cars keep coming and going."
