New Hyde Park Village Mayor Robert Lofaro gave a local laundromat until Wednesday, Oct. 15 to appear in village court to address property issues, mainly appearance and a lack of signage, or face arrest.
A final letter was sent to the tenant, Lofaro said.
“There’s a laundromat that used to be on South 10th Street and Jericho Turnpike,” Lofaro said. “For many years, they operated and there’s a remininsce of what used to be a sign. They’ve never purchased a new sign and when you have businesses along that strip that spend a lot of money…we’ve been asking [the laundromat] to remedy that.”
The laundromat at 1211 Jericho Tpke. was issued summonses for unmaintained parts of the property “on numerous occasions,” most recently on Sept. 17. The property, owned by Mark Sommer, is a stone’s throw from 1215 Jericho Tpke., the space where an Asian fusion restaurant will be built, which he also owns.
Sommer said it was the first time he heard of the issue with the laundromat. Calls to the laundromat were not returned.
“I with two other partners own 1201 to 1215 Jericho Turnpike,” Sommer said. “In the past, when there was a problem at Empire Billiards at 1215 Jericho, I received a copy of the summons. I knew what was going on. This time, I wasn’t. I like to know what’s going on.”
Mayor Lofaro indicated the village usually deals with the business proprietor when it comes to individual summonses.
“We summonses the business and not the property owner,” Lofaro said. “In certain cases, we’d then go to the owner as well.”
