Residents Voice Concerns at Community Forum

East Meadow resident Anthony Castellano is fed up with the parking situation on the local streets near .

"The hospital's employees have started to park on our streets and the situation has gone from bad to worse," Castellano said at last week's community forum at the Headquarters.

The hospital recently deemed its parking garage old and unsafe, and as a result, closed the structure.

Many of its employees have been forced to find parking alternatives, which means leaving their cars lined along 1st and 2nd Streets and Roosevelt Avenue during the day.

"There are a lot of young kids on the block, and with school starting soon, its going to be a major problem for the buses getting through," said Castellano. "I'm very concerned about the situation."

Legislator Norma Gonsalves, R-East Meadow, who spearheaded the forum, said the hospital tried to fix the situation by putting in temporary stackers with attending valets, but the volume has been too much to handle.

 "The garage had parking spots for at least 1,000 of the hospital's employees," Gonsalves said. "But the stackers can only fit 200-300 cars at a time."

Gonsalves recommended residents contact the Nassau County Third Precinct if any of the cars are parked illegally or are blocking someone's driveway.

"East Meadow has no authority over zoning and restriction," Gonsalves said. "But we can make some of these people think twice about parking along those streets if they come out and find tickets on their windshields."

That was not the only issue along 1st and Roosevelt.

There have been reports of panhandlers on the block harassing people in their driveways during the day and leaving drug paraphernalia littered on the streets.

The panhandlers have also been spotted in front of on numerous occasions.

"You need to call us and we'll refer the situation to the Narcotics Bureau and they'll send a car out," said First Precinct Police Officer Arnold Rothenberg, who attended the forum with Third Precinct Officer Kevin Canahan.

Residents were also concerned with drug paraphernalia such as empty dime bags being found in and around the area of , and the damage that has been done to the roof of .

"There has been over $90,000 of damage done to the roof of Bowling Green," Legis. Gonsalves confirmed.

Officer Canahan urged residents to attend school board meetings and push for security cameras at all of the local schools.

He said it has made a huge difference in the Herricks School District, where buildings were plagued with constant graffiti and people were loitering till all hours of the night.

"It's been over a year now and we've had no issues in any of the schools," Canahan said. "But you have to get on the school board and push for the cameras because without them you are going to have problems."