By Connor Adams Sheets
It’s a new neighborhood but the same issues face Vallo Transportation, a yellow bus operator that recently opened on the water’s edge in Whitestone.
The company left its former location in College Point and last month moved to a new site at 151-17 6th Road amid a chorus of complaints from College Point residents about its round-the-clock hours of operation, speeding buses coming and going through the residential neighborhood which surrounded it, and the pollution those buses emitted.
Now a group of Whitestone homeowners is saying the firm, which won the New York State Bus Contractor Association’s “Best Contractor” award in 2010, is disrupting their quality of life in similar ways, but the company says it has specific plans to reduce its impact on the community once it gets used to its new location.
Vallo President Linda DeSabato said the private outfit plans to take a range of actions, including paving some of the property’s surfaces and otherwise working to reduce dust, reminding her drivers to be quiet during off-hours, and advising them not to idle the buses, as the practice annoys residents, pollutes the environment and wastes gas.
Gene DiFolco has a beachy row-house on 7th Avenue with a second-floor deck that overlooks the water with views of both the Whitestone and Throgs Neck bridges. His view is obstructed by the slightly more than 1-acre Vallo operation, a sparse spread that includes little more than dozens of yellow buses parked in rows on a dusty lot, a small office and an unpaved driveway.
Though the operation is relatively small-scale, its negative impact has already been huge, according to DiFolco, a retiree who has lived in Whitestone for 10 years. Ever since its buses started running through his neighborhood and kicking up dust in the manufacturing-zoned lot, which was formerly home to a satellite for Grace Industries, DiFolco said he has been awakened at all hours of the night, experienced bad health effects and been unable to leave his breezy windows open due to dust clouds.
He is worried about whether he will be able to barbecue or swim in his above-ground pool this summer with neighbors including Chanda Birch and Mike Salaby.
“For a few days I had to stay at a friend’s house because I was getting bloody noses and waking up with coughing fits,” DiFolco said while gazing out over the water. “I used to come out every morning and have breakfast, and now I can’t anymore because I can’t breathe. I’m thinking about moving because between my health and the noise and the backing up and beeping all night, it’s too much.”
DiFolco, Birch, Salaby and other residents met with City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) last week and voiced their concerns about what they describe as Vallo’s disruptive practices.
“We spoke to the residents, talked to them about their concerns,” Halloran said. “Short-term things like buses coming and going and blowing their horns we can get Vallo to address.”
Chrissy Voskerichian, Halloran’s chief of staff, took those concerns Tuesday to the DeSabato, who said the company is just settling into its new home and that it has plans to address those issues in hopes of improving relations with its new neighbors.
“We are working hard to not annoy people, we really don’t want to. We are just finding our way now,” she said Tuesday. “We have a list of improvements we’re going to do and hopefully it’ll get done and everybody will be happy.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
