By JOSEPH KELLARD
The demolition came after the motel was gutted in early October and the asbestos-laden roof was torn out two weeks ago, seventeen months after the Town of Hempstead condemned the property. On Monday, when the first bulldozer struck the ³Oceanside Motel² sign and a small sign reading ³Water Beds,² a band of neighbors and other Oceanside citizens cheered and applauded.
³We¹re here to mark the end of the Oceanside Motel¹s reign of terror in this community,² Supervisor Kate Murray told the crowd, thanking the community for working together toward a common goal: ³the well-being of a great and vibrant community.²
³I can¹t believe this day is here, because it took so long,² said Nancy Pintabona, who since 1956 has lived on Academy Street, a road neighboring the motel. ³We¹ve lived through this and it¹s been an absolute disgrace, considering the element that came in here day in and day out.²
For several years, Pintabona and other neighbors had sought to get the motel shut down because of various crimes and problems they claimed to have had with the owners and the lodge¹s patrons.
Asked what her greatest concern was with the motel, Lori Ann Reilly, a resident of Harrison Avenue, said, ³The drug activity and the fights that spilled down to in front of your house.² For seven years, Reilly said, she had called the town regularly, trying to get the motel shut down, and in recent years she and other neighbors got the schools and PTAs involved in calling for its closure.
³Everyone said it couldn¹t be done,² said Paula Bandini, Reilly¹s neighbor. ³And with the help of Kate Murray and Anthony Santino, it¹s done. They followed through and took all of our allegations seriously and they believed us. And they saw for themselves what was going on here. It was very detrimental to the community and for the young people coming here, buying their drugs here.²
Julia Nasso, who did not attend the demolition but was on hand at previous gatherings at the motel as well as town hearings regarding its fate, had perhaps the greatest gripes with the motel. Nasso lived directly behind it, and tried to prevent it from being built over 40 years ago. In addition to loud noise, Nasso said, the problems she dealt with ranged from having garbage ‹ including soiled diapers, used condoms, empty liquor bottles and syringes ‹ dumped on her property to having her home burglarized by patrons.
³Most importantly,² said Councilman Santino, addressing the crowd, ³the mothers and fathers of Oceanside can breath easy, because this motel is out of business, and the kind of business that it brought to this neighborhood is done for.²
In May 2004, the Town of Hempstead board used eminent domain law to condemn the motel property, based on a series of drug-related arrests made on the premises. The arrests followed residents¹ complaints about criminal activities at the motel, from drug use to underage drinking to prostitution. Their more recent concerns centered on convicted sex offenders residing there. Among the more outlandish occurrences was the discovery of a dead body in a room in the late 1980s, and a SWAT team that surrounded the motel in response to a call about a hostage situation that turned out to be bogus.
State Supreme Court Justice Edward McCabe signed an order of condemnation against motel owners Barat Bhatt and Arvind Joshi last May. After legal procedures such as environmental studies were conducted, the town officially claimed title to the motel property, and awaited a judge¹s setting of a fair market price.
Under eminent domain law, the town is required to put the property to public use, with the option of either converting it into a park or a parking lot. It is choosing the latter, considering its location on Long Beach Road. While Bhatt claimed to have had the property appraised for about $3.5 million, the town had it appraised for $1.5 million. The town estimated a cost of $300,000 to $400,000 for the demolition and parking lot construction, and bonded up to $3.5 million for the project, which the board authorized in June 2004.
On Sept. 8, the town served Bhatt a check for $1.5 million, the price McCabe decided on, after which Bhatt handed over his keys to the municipality. The following day, the lodge was boarded up and cordoned off with yellow caution tape. The Oceanside-based B & A Demolition finished the work on Monday.
Murray said that the parking lot would be built in a few months on the newly cleared site, and would include, in addition to new asphalt, brick-paved walkways and ornamental street lamps. The cost in taxes for Oceanside property owners will be between $10 and $12 a house per year for 10 years, according to Murray.
³Already we are having all kinds of developers and commercial entities interested in that property across the street [the vacant supermarket and neighboring stores] because the motel is down,² Santino said.
Neither Bhatt nor Joshi could be reached for comment.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
