Mayoka To Offer Resolution Closing Day-Laborer Site

Town Councilman Mark Mayoka called a community meeting Wednesday to discuss an unpopular day laborer pickup site that he wants to shut down.

Mayoka said he will propose shuttering the Depot Road site at the Town Board meeting on Tuesday, May 4 at 2 p.m., one of several meetings of the town board scheduled for daytime hours when the board approved its current-year calendar in 2009. 

Most attendees agreed with Mayoka that the site should be closed.  (Editor's note: Although Mayoka is free to propose a resolution, one of the Town Board members needs to second the motion in order for a vote to take place.)

The site is funded through the Family Service League but the league gets at least some of its money from the Town of Huntington. Mayoka said that he had argued for its closure during his successful campaign for a seat on the Town Board, and continued to do so as the only Republican member of the Town Board.

Mayoka pointed out that letters, faxes, e-mails and even petitions to close the site could be sent to the Town Board to let them know prior to the Tuesday meeting what the "will of the people was" is.

Another audience member then warned that unless a copy of anything sent was also sent to Town Clerk Jo-Ann Raia, everything could be ignored.

Mayoka also tackled the subject of communicating with the public and answering their concerns. He suggested that a website be developed at www.savehuntingtonstation.com that would include a "crisis map" that would document the violence and crime in the area in and around the school and the rest of Huntington Station.

The Ushahidi platform, which will be used to create the site, allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, e-mail or Web and visualize it on a map or timeline, according to its own site.

Using the crisis mapping, Mayoka hopes to gather and provide information about the following:

1.                  Criminal activity shown by the use of "hot spots";

2.                 Homes in violation of town codes (illegal apartments);

3.                  Integrated information concerning registered sex offenders;

4.                  The Gateway Revitalization program targeting business locations in need of aid;

5.                  Identification of locations for additional police sub-stations or annexes;

6.                  Provision of resources for local businesses suffering financial hardship; and

7.                  An increase in the numbers and usages of Huntington's "Camera Awareness Program".

Mayoka was adamant in the need for "continuous constituent communication"  to deal with the crises of crime, economic depression, graffiti - which he and police say is often gang related - and the blight brought about by overpopulation due to illegal apartments created in homes purchased by absentee landlords simply as investments.

Members of the Suffolk County Police Department and the Huntington Manor Fire Department were available and answered questions from those attending. Keith Barrett, President of the Business Improvement District, spoke about cameras installed in the area of 'the Station' that his group covers which he said can be a great help in spotting illegal activities.

The rest of the meeting was taken up with comments and questions from the floor. There was a representative from Councilwoman Susan Berland,who was not present, who spoke about the efforts of Berland as well as of Councilwoman Glenda Jackson. Jackson was present at the back of the auditorium; but she did not participate in the discussions. There was also a representative from Suffolk County Legislator's Louis D'Amaro office . In both cases, these representatives presented a litany of the achievements and efforts of the politician who wasn't there or who was there but didn't participate on the discussion.

There were too many questions from the floor to enumerate, but most had to do with the police presence and whether it would continue when school ended. Also, many wanted to know why the police did not do more or why they did not utilize the neighborhood to assist as the police do in New York City. There were questions about the gangs and if the shootings and other violence was always gang related. It isn't.

As the meeting closed, one attendee thanked Mayoka for having the guts to hold an open meeting and accepting questions and comments from the floor. Some earlier meetings by other board members did not have such a spontaneous interaction among the participants. Those who wished to ask a question had to submit it in writing and the board member could choose whether or not to take that question.

The only real disappointment in the evening was the fact that everyone still tends to believe that the total lack of communication – including every effort to thwart the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act – is some sort of cosmic accident rather than the very premeditated efforts on the part of the various levels of government to keep the people ignorant. Perhaps it is just another version of, "What they don't know won't hurt us."

Prepared by:

Conservative Society for Action

csa.1776@yahoo.com

631-940-2019