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Port North OKs ban on public urination
Grants police ability to reprimand actions
BY CAMERYN OAKES
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The Village of Port Washington North approved a bill Tuesday night that prohibits urinating and defecating in public spaces within the village.
The bill was discussed during a public hearing at the Board of Trustees’ July meeting. It was passed unanimously by Trustee Andrea Schef, Trustee Steven Cohen and Mayor Robert Weitzner – who were the only board members present Tuesday night.
Urinating and defecating is banned in public spaces, which include but is not limited to public parks, gardens, streets, sidewalks and docks – excluding public bathrooms.
The bill, which is to prohibit unsanitary conduct in public, grants local law enforcement to prohibit actions like urinating in public.
Weitzner said the Village drafted the bill in consultation with local police to enact stricter policies for what is an emerging issue.
a town-wide issue.
“This is not only our village, just so everybody understands,” Kaplan said.
He accredited the growing issue to the lack of town and village ordinances that make the actions ofendable and thus prevent police from being able to act upon the problem.
Port Washington North’s action comes in the wake of the Town of North Hempstead who passed a similar law prohibiting the public acts in April.
During the Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday night, the board also voted to apply for a New York State Environmental Protection Fund grant for a new park proposed in the village.
The nautical-themed park is proposed to be accessible for children with physical disabilities and autism. The proposal includes a walking trail and exercise stations, as well as amenities catered to children with disabilities.
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Waldbaum has a vision of where she wants to take the Sid Jacobsen JCC, including creating an overarching endowment fund to protect the center and its members in the event of a future emergency comparable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I want us to have an endowment to protect us so that the children, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren will have the opportunity to use our programs, to use our facility, to get what they need from us,” Waldbaum said. “Whether they’re cancer survivors looking for resources, special needs, whether they’re kids going to camp or preschool, we serve so many populations that need us so desperately it would be a crime for us to exist.”
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The Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center is located at 300 Forest Dr. in East Hills. (Photo courtesy of the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center)
Other goals Waldbaum has include renovations to the JCC building, appropriate security for member safety, strengthening commitment to their community needs bank and securing donors and partners.
“We really are looking to shore up all of our avenues and all of our facilities in an efort to make us strong and sustainable and ofer people the best programming that we can provide,” Waldbaum said.
Waldbaum’s position began July 1, taking over in the wake of former
Steve Kaplan, the village’s trafc safety commissioner, said urinating and defecating in public has become
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“A child who’s not handicapped or on the spectrum is not going to Continued
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