By Samuel Schultz
The Old Westbury Board of Trustees passed two new laws Tuesday night, both of which amend already existing local law.
“The main portion of this law is increasing the fines to deter people from opening the roads”, said Mayor Marina Chimerine. “Several years ago we changed the laws on road openings so that other than an emergency you cannot open a road for five years after it’s been done”.
Chimerine added, “We spent a lot of money and taking great care in doing our roads and the utility company or homeowner comes in and all of a sudden rips apart this road that we just spent money on we might as well have thrown the money out the window”.
“Unfortunately we’ve had road openings that have been done and we did not have sufficient fines where they’re [Violators] a little more neglectful,” Chimerine said. “The goal is to increase the number of our penalties in order to deter individuals”, said Chimerine.
Although the motion to approve to the laws was approved, the specific fines were not publicly released.
In unrelated other village news, according to the police report read by Police Chief Stuart Cameron the police department’s adoption of its advanced license plate reader network has been successful.
The Old Westbury Police Department was alerted to a reported stolen vehicle operating within the village on Jan. 31, according to Cameron.
One of the department’s detectives located the vehicle, confirmed that it was stolen and arrested the operator. The vehicle had been stolen several days earlier in Suffolk County.
The individual who was arrested had numerous criminal arrest priors, including prior arrests for burglary.
Additionally, The Old Westbury Police Department received another alert from the department’s advanced license plate reader network that a stolen vehicle had entered the Village of Old Westbury on Feb. 16.
The vehicle which was reported stolen from the Village of Hempstead was located by officers who arrested the driver of the vehicle and his passenger.
The driver had an extensive criminal history, with previous arrests for robbery, assault, and grand larceny, among several other charges.
The village also approved the Old Westbury Gardens 2024 event schedule emphasizing that there will no longer be any Porsche or BMW car shows permitted in the village of Old Westbury. This comes after residents presented their concerns to the board previously.
The Village of Old Westbury Board of Trustees will meet again at 7 p.m. on March 18.
