Tough task to get abandoned car moved

Just what does it take to get an abandoned car moved? Watchdog decided to find out after a Bellmore commuter told her about a black Honda Accord parked at the train station since December.

As tickets accumulated, the car became a source of some amusement -- it led to wagers about when it would disappear -- and also concern. In this see-something-say-something age, commuter Larry Rubinstein alerted Nassau police about the car's continuing presence at the Bellmore train station.

As days passed, and then weeks, new tickets continued to show up under the windshield wipers. Nassau police slapped a sticker on the driver-side window advising that the vehicle may be "towed, at your expense . . . "

But still, no movement. And in a phone call a few weeks ago, Rubinstein told Watchdog, "We've been trying for a month and a half to get rid of the car."

Last week, the car was towed away. And we would love nothing more than to take some credit. But while our calls may have helped speed things up -- "We will ensure that the car is towed today, one way or another," Hempstead Town spokesman Michael Deery said Monday in response to Watchdog's inquiry -- its removal was already "in the pipeline," Deery said.

So let's use the episode to look at what is necessary before government can step in.

In this case, removal was the town's responsibility because the Bellmore parking lot belongs to the town. But first, Deery said, it was up to police to track down the owner.

An officer who spoke on background to explain the process said a 96-hour waiting period was necessary before police can fill out an abandoned-car form, including details such as why it's considered abandoned (in this case, missing license plates). Police then used the car's vehicle identification number to identify the most recent registered owner. A notice was sent by certified mail, advising that the car would be disposed of if it's not removed.

The next step came when the letter was returned to police, unopened, a move that satisfied the requirement for owner notification. So police gave the town authorization to tow the car -- Deery said town records indicate notification was received Feb. 9 -- and "we in turn called our [tow-truck] vendor on the same date."

But though the necessary steps had been taken, the car remained for more than two more weeks until, hours after Deery's assurance -- some time between Rubinstein's commute home Monday and his return to the station early Tuesday morning -- the Honda made its exit.

Rubinstein didn't win the wager. He had chosen Feb. 15 -- "we all thought it was going to go faster" than it did, he said.

The winner picked the less-optimistic March 1.

Catch basin overflows next to Oakdale resident's house

Light rainfall on a recent Friday barely required an umbrella, so Watchdog wasn't expecting complaints about flooding. Then Oakdale resident Dick Wolfe called.

He advised there was no reason to rush to see the water standing on his street because "it's not going anywhere."

By early afternoon, on a day when rainfall would total less than a quarter-inch, water covered the area where front yards meet the pavement of Waterford Road.

The catch basin was installed at the edge of his yard when the house was constructed in 1960, Wolfe said, and it worked well for a couple of decades.

But starting many years ago, the basin has overflowed, leaving the ground saturated even in dry weather.

Wolfe had sought Watchdog's assistance earlier, after years of taking his concerns to the Town of Islip. The town has sent crews to clean out the basin, he said, but that didn't stop the flooding and he had been unable to persuade the town to install a new one.

Aware that mosquito season is approaching -- the months when it's important to eliminate standing water to help prevent the spread of the West Nile virus -- he sought Watchdog's assistance. There's reason to be optimistic that a fix is on the way.

The town will install not one but two new basins "in the next couple of weeks," town spokesman Christopher Arlotta said last week. The second will be on the opposite side of Wolfe's driveway.

The town's Department of Public Works drainage coordinator has examined the site, Arlotta said, and the next step will be "utility markouts" -- street surface markings to designate the presence of underground utility lines. After that, installation can get under way.

The town has a new administration, which Arlotta said was unaware of the drainage problem.

Wolfe appears to have had good timing.