Oaks disturbed by lumber pile

Is Baldwin making a mountain out of a molehill? Or did a large pile of debris in Coes Neck Park pose a threat to the area?

A heap of downed trees, branches and other detritus, which some residents described as more than three stories high, caused consternation in a woodsy area of Baldwin and was the subject of debate at a Civic Oaks meeting on Sept. 20. According to Jacqueline Bell, who organized the meeting, the pile was the main issue at a gathering where elections and airplane noise were also discussed. “The tree pile was really the main thing,” Bell said. “The people in the homes around that area are worried about noise, safety, mosquitoes and other things like that.”

Jack McCloy, a civic activist who was among the 30 or so people who attended the meeting, said, “This is kind of a hot-button issue right now. The homeowners on the property that abuts all this stuff are worried about what’s going to happen.”

The woodpile in question was gathered by the county Department of Public Works in order to showcase Nassau County’s problem with hurricane debris. As McCloy explained it, “When Nassau County contacted FEMA” — the Federal Emergency Management Agency — “to get federal reimbursement for hurricane damage, they were told they needed to show how much material had collected. They started stacking up the debris in three sites around the county so they could show FEMA how hard hit we’d been. The other two collection sites are fairly remote, so we haven’t heard much about them, but this one is right near a grouping of homes.”

Homeowners who attended the meeting voiced concern over several issues. They wondered why the county had decided to pile the debris where it did, and when the material would be removed, and also said they were annoyed that chainsaws, wood chippers and trucks were used to process debris starting at 6 in morning. Another concern was that the damp woodpile would breed mosquitoes.

There were no immediate answers to their questions because the DPW was represented at the meeting by a highway supervisor, Michael Davis, who said he was there only to collect questions and could not answer them directly. Shila Shah, the department’s commissioner, and Joseph Gallo, another DPW administrator, were both invited to the meeting, but did not attend.

“I was a little annoyed that Mr. Davis showed up,” said Bell. “We knew Mrs. Shah would be at a chamber meeting, but Mr. Gallo said he would be there personally. Then the meeting comes, and we ended up with Mr. Davis. He was nice, but he was out of his area of expertise.”

Whether in reaction to the concerns voiced at the meeting or in keeping with a DPW schedule, removal of the woodpile commenced the day after the meeting.

“In the beginning they started with the wood chippers at 6 a.m. and went all day,” Bell told the Herald. “Then they pushed that starting time back to 7. They’ve also been trucking stuff out of there every day, making the pile smaller and smaller.”

By last Sunday, the mound appeared much more manageable. According to Bell, who said she had been contacted over the weekend, “The whole mess should be cleared up by Monday.”

“We know this was a big storm,” Bell added, “but it would have been nice to get some warning before they built this massive pile of wood right next to some homes. We were never told this was going to happen. One day they just showed up and started piling up trees. We won’t be happy until it’s all cleared out and the grassy area is repaired, but for the moment it certainly seems they’re listening to our concerns.”