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Minutes of the General Membership Meeting of the Westmoreland Association

Minutes of the May16, 2016

Officers Present
President – Walter Mugdan
Vice President - Victor Dadras
Treasurer – Gary Savage
Secretary – Charles Manna

Board Members Present
Peter Reinharz
John Duane
David Diaz
Phil Toscano

Officials Present
John Erdman, NYPD Community Affairs Officer, 111th Precinct

Old Business –
President Walter Mugdan called the meeting to order at 8:05 P.M. A motion was made, seconded and unanimously adopted to waive reading of the minutes. (Mr. Mugdan noted that the minutes were available for review on the Westmoreland website.)

Gary Savage provided the Treasurer’s Report indicating that the balance-on-hand was $20,084.63 as of March 21, 2016. A motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s report. The motion was seconded and the report was unanimously approved.

New Business –

Officer Erdman of the NYPD reported to our Association on the current status of crime in our area.
    • Major Crimes – there are very few incidents in our precinct. There was a lap top computer stolen at the local McDonalds Restaurant.
    • Anyone who wants to check out the local crime statistics can go to the COMSTAT 2.0 web site. It gives precinct-level information.
    • Grand Larceny – 70% of the crimes are credit fraud plus ID theft.
    • A gas station on Frances Lewis Blvd was the location of a card reader that was illegally attached to the ATM. It enabled the thief to capture the ID and password of a victim.
    • Last October, in the Westmoreland area, a car tire was slashed during Halloween.

Walter Mugdan said that there were two major concerns in our neighborhood:
1. There are too many massage parlors that seem to defy police efforts to close them down. They seem to attract non-resident men who hang around the street at night. The Captain said that there have been 80 arrests in the past year in connection with prostitution activities. So far, the operation located at Northern Blvd and 254 Street in Little Neck was shuttered. Four more are due to close soon.
2. There is too much noise emanating from the roof-top garden/bar/restaurant at Il Bacco. The captain stated that the noise is within legal limits, and that the owner has been responsive to complaints.

There were question from the membership.
    • Q: How can we be more effective in reducing prostitution?
    • A: Go after the landlords. Use the Abatement of Nuisance law to bring landlords to justice.

    • Q: Will the NYPD be installing cameras along Northern Blvd?
    • A: None planned at present

We thanked Officer Erdman for attending our meeting and sharing this information.

There was a report on the Participatory Budget process completed a few weeks earlier. The voting was concluded; there were five winners: the Bayside High School music program was the biggest winner; projects at Jr. HS 194, PS 194 and PS 79 were also successful. There was money budgeted to upgrade some pedestrian sidewalks. The improvement project at the Douglaston/Little Neck Public Library was not a winner, but it did get a promise from Councilman Paul Vallone that money would be found from his discretionary budget to fund Shelving and Computer Station upgrades.

Old Business

Development: Last month, it was reported that a corner lot on Glenwood and 41st Drive was recently purchased. The new owner purportedly has stated that she intends to split the lot and build two new houses on them. The lot is not big enough to do this legally. It violates both the Westmoreland covenants and the NYC zoning law (it is zoned R2A). The current property is comprised of four Rickert-Finlay lots; the covenants require a minimum of three such lots for a corner house and two are required for an interior lot. Also, the City's R2A zoning requires a minimum of 40' frontage for each house. The property in question is 75 x 100, therefore not large enough to support two houses. On March 25 Walter Mugdan wrote to, and offered to meet with the new owner. The letter brought to her attention the Westmoreland covenants and informed her that a split cannot happen. Association Vice President Victor Dadras subsequently met and spoke with the architect, Edward Lu, who advised that the owner is planning to build only one house there. Plans for the house were late shared with the Association, and it appears the construction will conform with our covenants and city zoning rules. (The house was demolished and removed around September 15th. We will keep an eye on it.)

The house at the corner of Little Neck Parkway and 39th Ave. built two fences that are in violation of the covenants. The owner has been notified that the violating portions of the fences must be removed. (The fences were removed around September 16.)

Apparently another property on 39th Avenue may be operating a business by leasing expanded driveway space to commuters for parking. The expanded driveway may also exceed City limits for impervious surface coverage on the property. 311 will be called to report the possible violation(s). (The call was subsequently made.)

40-20 Westmoreland Street is apparently a Mother/Daughter configuration.

41-32 Morgan Street is for sale. There appears to be an illegal apartment in the basement.

41-21 Morgan has a commercial vehicle parked on the front lawn. That is also in violation of City rules.

(Several calls to 3-1-1 were subsequently made to report these potential violations.)

The schedule for the remaining year’s meetings will be September 19 and November 21, 2016.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Charles Manna, Secretary

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