By:JOSEPH KELLARD
Residents of Harrison Avenue told the meeting's host, Hempstead Town Councilman Anthony Santino, and Fourth Precinct Inspector George Gudmundsen, that they are fed up with the unsavory to unlawful incidents that they say occur regularly at the lodge located at the end of their street and Long Beach Road.
Among the incidents, they claim are due to the motel's clientele, are solicitation for prostitution, stolen, burglarized or vandalized cars, drug sales and use, arguments, fist fights, loud parties, underage drinking, garbage dumped on properties, beer bottles smashed against homes, and drunks urinating on lawns.
The goings-on at the motel have long been a concern to residents in the area. In 1988, a woman's beaten and decomposed body was found stuffed beneath a platform bed at the motel. More recently, one resident said she once saw police officers dressed in armor surrounding the building.
"In the last three years the motel has gone from an eyesore to being like a neighborhood in East New York," said Steven Berdie, an 11-year resident of Harrison Avenue. "The quality of life in this end of Oceanside is deteriorating because the political powers that be are not doing their job."
A resident living behind the motel, who declined to give her name, claims an assortment of garbage is thrown in her backyard, and lawn chairs were taken from her yard, which she blames on the motel's clientele. Recently, she confronted the motel manager after she found a stack of newspapers dumped in her yard.
"She came to me to say newspapers were dumped in her yard, but I don't know where they are coming from," said a man who identified himself only as the motel manager.
"It's always been like this and nothing is ever done," the woman said. "But I've had it. I'm going to take matters into my own hands and take measures that will catch these people as they are doing these things."
"I don't feel the police and the town officials do anything," said Lori Ann Reilly, who lives 7 doors down from the motel. "If we lived in a incorporated village this wouldn't be happening. They think this section of Oceanside is the gutter of town. If it was Rockville Centre or Ocean Harbor, they would do something. The motel would have been shut down long ago."
Reilly said one night two men chased another man down the block from the motel and beat him with a baseball bat in front of her home. She and her husband, Steven, called the police and tended to the beaten man.
"When the cops came, they shrugged their shoulders and said, 'Another drug deal gone wrong.' They didn't do anything," she said.
"Yes, there are people and couples who stay at the hotel who have fights, but that's not my fault," the manager said.
Last year the Reillys wrote letters to various public officials and police officers, including Santino, Town Supervisor Richard Guardino, New York State Senator Dean Skelos, Deputy Commissioner of Police John Kennedy, and Nassau County Legislators Joe Scannell, Michael Zapson and Jeff Toback.
In the letter, they asked what could be done to get the motel shut down. While the Reillys received letters from the officials recognizing their concerns, little or no action was taken by any of them, she said.
They and other Harrison Avenue residents charge that even when they call police about incidents at the motel, officers can take up to a half-hour to arrive, and that they sometimes fail to get out of their cars to inspect the scene and question suspects.
"The police should at least ask the kids for their licenses to see if they are of age," Berdie said.
The motel manager said that they check IDs from everyone who checks into the motel, and no rooms are rented to minors.
At the meeting, Gudmundsen said that the police always respond to residents' calls, and that a reason the officers are sometimes delayed is due to their having to respond to other incidents throughout the areas the Fourth Precinct covers, which can be of comparatively greater priority.
He argued that there is only so much police can do "within the law," and gave as an example an incident where a couple may have an argument that spills out onto the street and disturbs the residents, but that there is nothing police can do unless they witness the incident.
"You may see someone who looks like a prostitute go into a motel room, but we can't necessarily break the door down," Gudmundsen explained. "This is still the United States of America. So, it's not always that simple to make arrests."
The residents also claim that people take up residents at the hotel for extended periods of time and keep pets. These circumstances have the residents asking whether the lodge has become a federally subsidized building or "welfare motel" and whether building codes have been violated.
"We do not make any referrals to any motels or hotels, but our clients who are given funds from our department may use them at any motel that he or she chooses," said Rita Matthews of the Nassau County Department of Social Services.
"They pay me money. They are checking out and come back to the motel," the motel manager said.
The goal of the Harrison Avenue residents is to get the motel shut down. But for that to happen, two predicate arrests -- which involve prostitution, drug use and unlawful dealing with a minor -- must be made on the premises within a 12 month period, said Town attorney Joe Ra.
"No predicate arrests have ever been made at the motel, but once one is we will notify the owners that their business will be shut down if another occurs in a year," he said.
