By JOSEPH KELLARD
A recycler of construction and demolition debris, Rieco has applied for a variance to the Town of Hempstead Zoning Board of Appeals to build a plant on Hampton Road, near the intersection of Lawson and Daly boulevards. At issue is whether the materials Rieco will recycle may be "noxious" and "offensive."
At the first hearing on Feb. 5, Toback requested that it be adjourned to allow the opposition to hire an environmental engineer to testify on its behalf. At the meeting last Tuesday, Toback informed the crowd that he met with an engineer who might take their case at a cost of about $2,500, and that residents of Oceanside Cove, a co-op complex on Daly Boulevard, were considering hiring a lawyer for the case.
Within a mile or so of the Ocean Cove complex are five other similar recycling companies, including Stoney Creek Industries, Gator Transport Corp., Cousins Metal Industries, Fantozzi Brothers Construction and Liotta & Sons, the last of which would be Rieco's next-door neighbor if it builds its facility. Residents of Ocean Cove, Ocean Harbor (west of Lawson Boulevard) and Ocean Lea (east of Lawson) complain that excessive noise, dust and smell (likened to rotten eggs) come from some or most of these businesses.
"We really, in my opinion, have more than our share of these recycling facilities," Toback told the crowd as he pointed each one out on an enlarged aerial photograph of the area.
Toback urged residents who have personally experienced such problems with these business to attend the next zoning board hearing in April. If residents cannot attend, he said, they should contact the zoning board and local newspaper, radio and TV outlets with their concerns.
In addition to their worries that Reico would add to these problems, residents also expressed their desire that environmental-impact studies be conducted. They voiced their concern that Reico would considerably increase truck traffic in the area and that potential harmful materials might escape the trucks carrying recycled material to and from the facility.
Toback said that residents should not stress to the zoning board the potential traffic problems Reico may cause as fundamental to their opposition, but rather that there are already too many of these facilities in the area.
When Toback informed the residents that asbestos would be among the materials Rieco would pulverize, some said that fact alone was reason enough not to allow Rieco to move in, even though existing recyclers also deal with that material.
"Scare them with the asbestos and you've got them," said one resident.
Anthony Lombardo, a resident of Lexington Avenue, told the crowd, "The one thing we can all do together as a community up until the next hearing is knock on our neighbors' doors who don't know about this and tell them about it. There's strength in numbers."
Resident Stu Gubenko, who belonged to the Committee to Learn, Organize and Save the Environment (CLOSE), an organization that worked to get the Oceanside dump shut down, warned the crowd that they needed to be organized if they wanted to be successful in keeping Rieco from opening. "The fact is, if you go to the zoning board and each resident who testifies says something different, conflicting things, the board is going to laugh you out of there," he said.
Following the first hearing in February, Lawrence Schillinger, an environmental attorney for Rieco, told the Herald that the business would demonstrate that its facility would have no adverse impacts, that most of its operations would be indoors and have a dust-suppression system, and that there would be no more trucks coming out of the facility than were used by the petroleum company that formerly owned the property.
"What's going to happen after the meeting is, we [will], as best as we can, take everyone's concerns and direct them where they need to go," Toback said. "We will e-mail people and send letters to residents to keep everyone posted. This is really the action committee on this issue, and everyone will have input."
The next zoning board hearing on the Rieco case will be on Wednesday, April 9.
