Imagine being forced out of your home due to the smell of chicken seeping through your windows from a supermarket located a mere 10 feet from your property line.

For three families on Hahn Avenue in Bethpage on the night of June 19 it was a reality, according to Tony Camporeale, 56, one of the complainants.

"The odors and noises have elevated to the point that they have changed our lifestyles," Camporeale said.

Camporeale, along with the Blotta and Garced families, say the incident was not the first problem they have had with Pathmark Supermarket, located at 3901 Hempstead Tpke. in Bethpage, on the border of Levittown, since its opening on Jan. 23, 2003.

According to the families, all they are asking for is that the supermarket, which is located behind the families' homes, and the Town of Hempstead restore their quality of life; something Town Councilman Gary Hudes and Bethpage Pathmark General Store Manager Pat Larkin say they are in the process of doing.

"I can't imagine how [the families'] quality of life hasn't improved since Pathmark has been open, said Larkin. "The lot was once abandoned and less controlled then it is now."

Joey Blotta, 39, of Hahn Avenue said the problems with Pathmark and the town started when residents were not notified of the early renovating stages of the building in September of 2003, which led to odor, noise and lighting problems when the store opened. Blotta added that there was a list of concerns which had been met by the town and Pathmark, but their quality of life has still not been restored.

According to Hudes the finishing touch in restoring the families' quality of life will be in place in four to six weeks in the form of a Smog Hog, which reduces the food-related and other odors emitted from the building.

"Currently our biggest problem is the odor of cooking chicken and the smells escaping from the compactor located behind Mr. Garced's home," said Camporeale.

In hopes of remedying the problems Camporeale said he has contacted Hudes, the police and managers of Pathmark over 350 times in the past two years. "And we have yet to see anything change," Camporeale said.

Larkin said the reason for the delayed installation of the Smog Hog, which was to be in place by April or May, as stated in a Feb. 2005 letter from Hudes to the families, is simple. The original plans were drawn in a way that the sounds from the unit would inconvenience the neighbors, Larkin said. Hudes added that the air dissolution system, which costs $50,000, was also held up because it had to be approved by the fire marshal's office.

Camporeale said he will not believe it until he sees it. Ricky Garced, also of Hahn Avenue, said that Pathmark and the Town have lied to him once before in regards to the odors from the supermarket.

"At a meeting early on, I asked what the compactor located behind my house was to be used for and I was told it was for cardboard only," he said. "It was just not the truth. They dump produce and seafood in that compactor."

Such an action is impossible Larkin said, since every piece of cardboard from Pathmark is put into a bailer and sent back to the warehouse to be recycled.

"There are never any times that seafood is dumped in the compactors," he said. "It is company policy that we freeze the remains and it is picked up by the same company that picks up the fat and bones from our meats."

Aside from the smells these families feel seep into their homes, they say the noises coming from the supermarket and its parking lot are beyond annoying.

"There are times they put on the dehumidifying unit and it sounds like a helicopter is landing in our backyard," said Blotta, of the units located on the roof at the back of the Pathmark building.

Larkin said unfortunately that is something that cannot be changed due to the fact that the building has already been built and that if there were faults in the plan that the architect and building department would not have allowed for the construction.

While the Blottas and Garceds are plagued by the noises from the units on top of Pathmark's roof, the Camporeale family said they continually hear the hum of truck engines all through the night.

"There have been times when trucks were making deliveries at 5 a.m.," Camporeale said. "And I personally called Gary Hudes myself to come down here."

Hudes said during those times the drivers had been reprimanded with proper citations, but Larkin added that it must be remembered that the parking lot is open to the public and there have been times in which trucks for other businesses have sat idle in the lot.

The lighting situation of Pathmark's parking lot is the last part of the concerns the families of Hahn Avenue would like to see fixed. Camporeale said the dozens of lights situated in the parking lot reflect into his home during the hours when most people are trying to sleep.

"In the summertime it is not nearly as bad," he said, "but in the winter when all of the greenery of the sump is gone the lights shine right into my bedroom."

According to a community update letter from Hudes in Feb. 2005, he stated that Pergament Properties, which owns the property Pathmark resides on, has invested $6,000 in light shields to reduce the lights reflecting into neighbor's yards. Hudes said the business, in hopes of bettering the neighbors, has spent over $300,000 to address the issues that are not even required by government jurisdiction. Seventy thousand dollars was spent on the purchase and installation of sound barriers, while $40,000 was spent on white vinyl fencing lining the neighbors' property, according to the community update.

"I wish all corporations were as cooperative as Pathmark in meeting the needs of the neighbors," Hudes said. "This business has gone above and beyond what was called of them."

Christine Blotta feels all of the problems the families have faced could have been avoided from the beginning. "If the town would have put the taxpayers as a priority we wouldn't have had all these problems. It's simple we were never considered," she said.

Larkin said for now he is sending associates out to clean up any litter in the parking lot or surrounding the store and that having the compactor emptied every seven days instead of the mandatory 10 days, in the summer, will reduce the odors until the issues are resolved within the next month.

"Whether it is Pathmark or if you live near any other commercial area it is most likely that the businesses want to be good neighbors," Hudes said, " and if you find that that is not the case the first step is to let the store manager know."