Smells in Floral Park are not all roses

Rosemary Cook took the opportunity at the Floral Park Community Civic Association meeting on Wednesday evening, October 18 to ask Senator Frank Padavan if anything can be done to curb smells emanating from restaurants on Hillside Avenue.
Cook, a Floral Park resident, described pungent and acrid smells, permeating from a building between 259th and 260th Streets which were so strong that children avoided leaving their homes.
Senator Padavan explained that restaurants come under the jurisdiction of the City Department of Health (DOH) and that Cook should pursue her complaint with them.
Raphaele Hartwell, the newly elected president of the association said that she had investigated these smells and discovered that they came from four or five private dwellings, not restaurants, and therefore could not be referred to the DOH.
Cook maintained, &#8220I get all the smells all the time. There is Garden World, and Burger King which I like, and now these. It's too much.”
Padavan said that it was not possible to tell people they cannot cook their own food in their own homes. He said that if the smells were injurious to health, for example, if they caused asthma, something could be done, but if not actually dangerous, it was a private matter.
He explained that offensive smells may be subject to arbitration or mediation between the neighbors. Padavan suggested Cook talk to the residents in the houses responsible for the smells, and reminded those present that civic organizations exist to solve problems like this. He also suggested Cook call 3-1-1, as they would tie her into the agency that has responsibility.
Also speaking at a meeting, Assemblymember Mark Weprin addressed the discrimination by the Metropolitan Transit Association's (MTA) Access-A-Ride program against people with disabilities who live along the border between Queens and Nassau County.
Access-A-Ride is a program for people with disabilities who are unable to take regular MTA transportation such as busses and subways. This program allows people with disabilities to pay the same fare as the subway, but ensures that they are driven in vehicles equipped for their disabilities.
Weprin said that while this was a wonderful program, the vehicles are not permitted to cross county lines so that residents of Floral Park dependent on this service found themselves at a great disadvantage.
Weprin's office became aware of the problem because several of the hospitals used by Floral Park residents, such as St. Francis, North Shore and Long Island Jewish are in Nassau County. In the past, one bus would take them to the border and deposit them, where they would then have to wait for the Nassau County bus to take them on the second leg of their ride.
&#8220This was a real problem, especially for residents with appointments to keep,” he said. &#8220Sometimes it got a little crazy with residents with disabilities having two appointments at Long Island Jewish, but on two sides of the same street.” When the street was the border, the same bus couldn't take them to both appointments.
Weprin had sponsored a bill to allow the buses to travel five miles into Nassau County which was passed by the Assembly and the Senate but vetoed by Governor Pataki. Weprin expressed confidence that it would pass both houses again next year, and with a new governor in office, he hoped the bill would become law.