The Village of Roslyn Board of Trustees held its first public meeting of the new year with its Zoom policy still in place. The board discussed several measures, including banning leaf blowers and paying off old fees. Residents of Davis Lane were also reassured that a pigeon coop will not mean actual pigeons escaping their confines and making noisy trips around the neighborhood.
The board approved an amendment to a local ordinance, one that would prohibit the operation of gas-powered leaf blowers. The new law, Mayor John Durkin said, would go into effect in the spring and would not apply to other leaf blowers or to lawnmowers.
Lavehim Behreez, a Davis Lane resident, zoomed into the meeting to defend the “custom-made” pigeon coop occupying his backyard. Behreez, who moved to Roslyn in 2017, said the coop had a sentimental value to him. Behreez maintained that the coop keeps alive the memory of his late mother both for him and other family members. Originally, nine pigeons settled in their new Roslyn home. Since then, one bird has indeed flown the coop, but Behreez maintains the other eight are happy in the Davis Lane residence.
Behreez added that all of his neighbors are OK with the coop. Not only that, neighbors bring their children to visit the property and admire the coop.
“All the kids look at it,” he told the board.
The issue only came up when Behreez was constructing a waterfall in his backyard. That structure, he added, did not need a building permit. During the course of the building process, a neighbor spied the pigeon coop and took photos of it. That incident Behreez said has been an exception. In response to a question from Craig Westergaard, other neighbors have filed no complaints against the coop. Durkin brought up potential noise problems and health issues, while Marshall Bernstein added that he wanted more input from local neighbors. Durkin seconded that view.
“We want letters in the affirmative,” he said. “We don’t want to offend anyone.”
Behreez emphasized the sentimental value in keeping the coop. “This is the only thing left from my mother,” he reiterated. “I won’t add anything to it.” The board will take up the issue at the February meeting.
This year is the 90th anniversary of the founding of the village. Richard Branciforte, current president of the Roslyn Chamber of Commerce, also made a video appearance to announce that the chamber has numerous events planned for the occasion, including a Founders Day event in June. He added that the Roslyn Landmark Society and the Bryant Library staff members will be assisting the chamber in celebrating the anniversary. The days when an ordinary resident of Roslyn could take the LIRR to Flushing Meadow and take in a Mets game for $2.50 a ticket has, along with a Tom Seaver hard slider, long passed. So it was with real excitement that Branciforte announced that the chamber has secured tickets for a New York Mets-Atlanta Braves ballgame sometime in June. With his other Mets fans, Branciforte hoped that Jacob DeGrom would be back and in action to toss that game.
In other business, the board approved a 2015 $3 million Public Improvement Serial Bond interest payment of $124,034, due next month. It also approved a payment of renumeration for wastewater treatment that covered the first six months of 2021, one that totaled $300,134.
