Two homeowners who live up against LIRR tracks in Albertson say their yards are filled with mosquitoes, ticks and dead branches. They believe the way the MTA maintains trees near the tracks is to blame.
Homeowners and neighbors David Chang and Desmond Kehoe live across the street from each other and on the other side of an MTA fence separating a treeline and train tracks from the residential neighborhood. Both said they have consistently contacted the MTA over the past year with concerns about the agency leaving debris from the trees they cut on the ground. The homeowners believe the buildup of natural waste is resulting in an increased level of mosquitoes near their homes.
“The mosquitoes have been terrible because [the MTA] comes in and just drops debris down,” Kehoe said. He said he used to be able to sit outside and do homework as a child, but because the trees and the debris have grown in recent years, he isn’t able to do so anymore out of fear of being bitten, despite taking measures to repel the mosquitoes.
The homeowners also said they are concerned about the integrity of the trees on the track-side of the fence ever since one they believed was long dead fell from behind the fence directly in front of Kehoe’s home about a year ago.
An MTA spokesperson told Schneps Media LI that LIRR representatives had visited the home location in Albertson after the issues were raised to assess conditions and potential resolutions, and determined that no hazards were present.
But Chang and Kehoe said they remain concerned, particularly because they said the MTA told them it was not liable for damages when the tree fell a year ago. Kehoe said MTA representatives called the tree falling “an act of God.”
The town removed the tree after it fell, though the dead tree stump remains standing.
“We opened a safety report, saying if any of the other trees fell, they would come into one of our houses,” Chang said. “[The MTA] said they would send an arborist out to see if the trees were dead. I asked for a copy of that report four or five times…they never sent a copy of the report.”
Chang and Kehoe said the MTA has told them that the narrow strip of land where the trees stand between the tracks and the fence is the Town of North Hempstead’s property. However, Town Council Member Ed Scott, with whom the neighbors have been in touch about their concerns, said the town believes it is the MTA’s property.
Both said they remain concerned about additional trees falling on their homes, something neither said they were ever worried about prior to the tree falling in Kehoe’s yard last year.
“All of this stuff that is falling directly from the trees, vines, leaves and branches, is dead,” Chang said. “They’re snapped off and fallen, which in itself is kind of concerning, because it tells me the trees are not necessarily healthy.”
Chang said that though the agency does respond when he files complaints, it does not provide him with updates to those complaints and instead closes the cases, forcing him to file new complaints to get updates on his previous ones, which he finds frustrating.
The homeowners have been in touch with both Scott and Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips about the issues they are facing. Phillips said she is particularly invested in the issue because she has recently been involved with related MTA matters, including accounting the Nassau taxes that go to the MTA and conducting passenger surveys about LIRR station maintenance in Nassau.
Phillips and Scott both called the MTA a “bad neighbor” when it comes to maintaining the tracks near Chang and Kehoe’s homes.
The homeowners said they plan to continue reaching out to the MTA as concerns arise.
