At the last Village of Williston regular board meeting, residents of Pennsylvania Avenue packed the board room to express their growing concern and anger over the ongoing acts of graffiti in the community, which residents claim began in1996.

As individual residents from Pennsylvania Avenue gave the board their accounts of the offenses to their own homes it was learned that the vandals responsible for the acts of graffiti were able to obtain access to their backyardsfrom the Long Island Rail Road platforms. Because the criminals use the LIRR to access the back of these houses, many residents believe it is the responsibility of the LIRR to enforce a curfew regarding the loitering of any young persons after 8 p.m. Residents told Mayor Doreen R. Ehrbar how many times they have tried to contact the Long Island Rail Road, and how reluctant the LIRR has been in returning their call. Trustee Ray Cross said, "You have to as a group of residents get together and write a formal letter to the president of the Long Island Railroad and ask for his help."

The residents described some of the damage to their homes. Apparently the vandals defaced the backs of their houses, their fences and their garages. For many residents, it is the third time their property has been damaged by graffiti. To remove the graffiti from their homes some residents will have to pay as much as $2,100

One couple showed the board pictures of the damage done to their house and another reported that 47 support pillars on the LIRR have also been defaced with graffiti. Another resident protested, "My insurance has gone through the roof because of all this damage. It's not fair to me, I'm being abused. Can we have an amendment to the ordinance saying that 'the owner shall not be responsible' for the damage?"

The mayor added that the village was trying to help the residents because no tickets have been issued to them when ordinarily they would have received a summons for not cleaning off the graffiti from their property.

Another resident asserted her uneasiness "Every time we clean off the graffiti we are giving these criminals a clean slate, so they can do it again. These vandals are making fools out of the residents of Pennsylvania Avenue." A resident commented, "We have talked about it and we need a workable solution..Mayor Ehrbar, we need the community to consider a Municipal Graffiti Program which would incorporate more police enforcement, more Auxiliary Police patrolling the area, educational programs in school to teach the students, and campaigns with the churches, youth groups and organizations and further the village should set up a fund for repairing the damage done to our community as a result of graffiti."

The same resident gave his opinion on how to punish the criminals. "After the little darlings are caught, we should punish them where it will hurt them the most. We have to confiscate their cell phones, beepers, skateboards - they are kids from outside our area - we need to take away their means of transportation. This is destroying our neighborhood, and our property values. We have to do something about it." Mayor Ehrbar said, "We spoke to Inspector Vincent Muscarnera who reports that the police have already started to cruise the area on patrol. He is 100 percent behind us. I am trying to arrange community service to paint the damaged houses. We will provide the service, however the residents must provide the materials."

One resident suggested searching teenagers on the platforms. "We need to call the cops whenever we see teenagers on the train platform after 8:00 p.m. The cops should search the teenager's backpacks for any spray cans in their possession. Those teenagers shouldn't be on the platform after 8:00 p.m., they have no business there. We should enforce a curfew for youths."

The Mayor agreed with the suggestion from the audience to have LIRR install a surveilance camera on the platform, however reminded the audience that it was not up to the village of Williston Park to enforce a curfew or to search children on the railroad since it is not village property and since it is up to the police to handle suspicious persons not the village.

Mayor Ehrbar invited a seargeant from the third precinct who was present to give her insight regarding the matter at hand and she said, "Don't be afraid to call 911 if you see youths at the platform station. Our operators prioritize the calls so you won't be occupying the 911 line. If you have any children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews who attend school tell them to be aware that these vandals graffiti their notebooks. They also keep a progress notebook on their past work. The good news is that the graffiti is not bias or gang-related."

Mayor Ehrbar ended the discussion by saying that the board is sensitive to the problem and will meet to try to do everything they can to resolve the problem