COMMUNITY NEWS

Summer opening planned for 7-Eleven

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A demolition crew began clearing the property at 150 Merrick Road, diagonally across from Levy-Lakeside Elementary School, to make way for a 7-Eleven store just hours after Merokeans who had protested the proposed store signaled their reluctant surrender.

Last year many Merokeans raised numerous objections to a 7-Eleven at the location in civic group, school and town government meetings and in the media. More than 100 people attended a South Merrick Community Civic Association meeting on May 27 to voice their disapproval to 7-Eleven representatives. Responding to community concerns, Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray and Merrick Schools Superintendent Dominick Palma sent letters to the state Liquor Authority, asking it not to license the store for beer and wine sales. 7-Eleven’s December target date for the store’s opening came and went without any work at the site.

But after Hempstead Town Board members said at a June 10 Town Hall meeting that they were legally powerless to block the landowner’s building permit application, many took the town’s pronouncement as the last word.

“We were told that the town … didn’t want to take any legal channels, because they were afraid they would bring up repercussions,” said Randy Shotland, a local business leader who is opposed to the store. “So, in turn, they threw us to the dogs, and they allowed the 7-Eleven to be built.”

SMCCA President Joe Baker, after leading the protest against the store, changed his mind. At a Feb. 24 association meeting about the property, he said that the project’s developer, Adam Mann of Great Neck, had convinced him that the business would be a boon to Merrick, and he encouraged the community to get on board. After the meeting, Baker said he had not invited Mann or 7-Eleven representatives to attend this time, but that he had promised Mann he would keep him abreast of community opinion.

Though the Tuesday-night meeting was advertised for weeks in advance, only a handful of people showed up. Shovels went into the ground the next morning.

Over the next few days, workers using heavy machinery tore down much of the property’s existing structure, an abandoned and crumbling former Sunoco gas station.

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