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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Civic Association Agenda Item: Issuance of Summonses during flooding High Tides

Dan Mundy Jr. has indicated that he is attempting to arrange for the Commanding Officer of the Queens Traffic Division to attend the May 24th meeting of the Broad Channel Civic Association later this month to discuss the recent rash of parking violations issued by his staff  early on Saturday morning, May 5th, during the recent "Super Moon" high tides and accompanying street flooding.

There is a marked similarity to this recent spate of tickets being issued by Traffic Enforcement Agents to Broad Channel residents who were parked on the Cross Bay median between scheduled flooding high tides and that of August 30, 2011 when, just as we were still cleaning up from the high tides that accompanied Hurricane Irene, Police Officers from the 100th Precinct also issued several parking violations to resident vehicles similarly situated.

Fortunately, in the case of the August 2011 incident, as soon as the incident was brought to the attention of the 100th Precinct's Commanding Officer, Capt. Olexa, arrangements were made to have the summonses voided.

Unfortunately, in this most recent incident, when the situation was brought to the attention of a Traffic Enforcement supervisor, common sense did not prevailTraffic Enforcement was not willing to void the summonses even though the supervisor admitted that he was aware of a policy of not issuing summonses to Broad Channel vehicles parked on the Cross Bay median during periods of scheduled flooding tides.

Obviously what we have here is a case of the "right hand not knowing what the left hand" is doing.
Catain Olexa and his officers from the 100th Precinct have made it their business to become involved with the community of Broad Channel.  Their Community Affairs staff are routinely present at Civic Association meetings and Dan Ruscillo, President of the 100th Precinct's Community Council is keenly aware of the concerns of our town.

On the other hand, I am not sure if Traffic Enforcement even has a Community Affairs liaison because I would have to assume that we would have heard from them by now.

Anyone who received a summons for parking on the Cross Bay Boulevard median on the morning of Saturday, May 5th, between the "Super Moon" flooding high tides should make it a point to be present at the Civic Association meeting later this month on May 24th in order to ascertain what, if anything, can be done to void or otherwise dismiss these tickets.

Additionally, we can also (hopefully) use this meeting as an opportunity to involve Traffic Enforcement  management in the environmental culture of our community, especially as it pertains to tidal flooding and the requirement to relocate our vehicles on the Cross Bay median during and between flooding high tides.

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