Community Watchdog: Dead tree limb poses danger

At the corner of Miller Avenue and Hughes Lane in North Babylon, there's a dead tree limb that's splintered and hanging over the sidewalk where children from a nearby elementary school walk. It needs to be removed before it injures someone. Also, at the stop line on Hughes, there is a dip in the road where a large amount of water collects after it rains because the road is lower than the storm drain. If it's not fixed, someone is going to get hurt or killed because when the water freezes, cars and buses skid through the intersection. It's dangerous for the children and the crossing guard there. I've been talking to the Town of Babylon for a year, but nothing's been done.

-Tom Germano, North Babylon

Shortly after we called, the dead limb was taken down by the town's Department of Public Works. It was on private property, but workers got permission to remove the hazard.

On Friday, the town's Highway Department inspected the dip in the road and determined that the road does need repair, town spokesman Tim Ruggeri said.

Unfortunately, that won't happen immediately.

"What they have to do is cut into the road and repatch it to an acceptable height to allow the water to flow away from it, so there's really no quick fix for that," he said.

According to Ruggeiro, the work will be done during the upcoming construction season, which runs from late spring to early fall.

I have been living for more than three years with a broken Utility pole in front of my house. It snapped and LIPA and Cablevision came and moved their wires to a new pole right next to the old one. But no one wants to be responsible for the broken pole that is leaning on the new pole. I had spoken to Cablevision and LIPA in the past, but no one is taking responsibility to remove the pole.

-Michael Comparetto, Bethpage

Presto, pole's gone. When LIPA and Verizon work together, it's like magic and broken poles disappear.

The old pole was there for so long because Verizon's lines were still attached to it. After we called LIPA, spokesman Mark Gross reached out to Verizon spokesman John Bonomo, who apparently got things moving quickly.

On Friday, Verizon workers transferred their lines to the new LIPA pole and took the old pole away. Mr. Comparetto called to say the crew completed the work in about 45 minutes.

The general rule between LIPA and Verizon is that the last one to move its lines to the new pole removes the old pole.

Cablevision, which owns Newsday, does not remove utility poles, so calls to the company about old poles won't get them removed.

Anyone with questions about an old utility pole should call LIPA's customer service at 800-490-0025 or Verizon at 800-VERIZON.

I live across the street from the Deer Park Post Office. My back gate is directly across the street from their exit driveway. The snow removal service used by the post office plows snow from the parking lot across the street and piles it all up against my backyard fence. The mounds of packed snow completely block my backyard gate so I am unable to put my garbage cans out for pickup. (The other houses on the block face the street, so our garbage gets picked up with theirs.) This snow removal problem has occurred for several years, but it has been especially bad this year with the recent heavy snowfall. Repeated calls to the Deer Park postmaster have produced no results.

-Gerald N. King, Deer Park

We paid a visit to Postmaster Harry J. Di Dio to tell him about the problem and he agreed that snow from the post office parking lot shouldn't shouldn't end up against Mr. King's back gate and fence. After talking with Mr. and Mrs. King a few times about their concerns, he said, he contacted the company that does the landscaping and snow plowing for the facility. From now, he said, any snow plowed in the post office parking lot should be piled on postal property because the facility has enough non-parking areas where it can be left to melt.

Within an hour after we talked with Postmaster Di Dio, Mr. King called us to say snow had been cleared from his gate.