Great Neck Village Issues 400 Snow Shoveling Summonses

Great Neck Village residents are staring down fines of up to $350 after the village issued roughly 400 summonses this winter for failure to shovel sidewalks. At maximum, that exposure totals $140,000 in potential revenue from a single enforcement sweep.

Residents were angry enough that, before the Village Board of Trustees even called its March 10 meeting to order, a crowd had already gathered to challenge the tickets. Seven residents formally addressed the board. More had coordinated their attendance through a WhatsApp group chat, according to one attendee who described the organizing effort to trustees.

“This wasn’t fair,” one resident told Mayor Pedram Bral directly. “This was a money grab.”

Bral pushed back on that characterization. The village code requires residents to clear sidewalks within 24 hours of snow stopping, and Bral said he had already directed inspectors to extend that window by an additional 24 hours before writing tickets. He said the village stood to collect only “a couple of thousand dollars” from the enforcement action.

Trustee Anne Mendelson challenged that math on the spot. With 400 summonses and a $350 maximum penalty, she noted, the potential take is $140,000. Clerk/Treasurer Abraham Cohan acknowledged the gap, saying many summonses would likely be dismissed or carry reduced fines.

Building Superintendent Michael Sweeney defended the enforcement approach, saying inspectors prioritized high-traffic areas first and then responded to resident complaints. He also noted that Great Neck shares county and town roads with Nassau County and the Town of North Hempstead, both of which require residents to clear sidewalks.

“A lot of people didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” Sweeney said, attributing the violations partly to complacency. “They got into a false lull because we have not had a winter like this in probably five to seven years.”

At least two board members were not immune. Deputy Mayor Barton Sobel and Trustee Eli Kashi both told the board they received summonses themselves.

One resident told the board she could not finish shoveling because of extreme cold that turned the accumulated snow and ice into what she described as stone. Bral directed her and other residents with valid disputes to bring their cases before the village justice at scheduled hearings.

“This is not Iran,” Bral said, assuring residents the process would be fair. Sobel added his own comparison: “It’s not Iran, and it’s not Kings Point.”

The fairness argument cuts both ways. Taxpayers who did shovel their sidewalks on time have reason to want the code enforced. Uncleared sidewalks force pedestrians into the street and create liability exposure for the village. But a mass enforcement action that sweeps up nearly 400 property owners, including two sitting trustees, raises legitimate questions about whether the village communicated expectations clearly before sending out inspectors.

What the village has not made public is the full breakdown of where those summonses were concentrated, how many have already been dismissed, and what the actual projected revenue looks like now that hearings are underway. Taxpayer advocates consistently argue that this kind of transparency belongs in a public report, not buried in a clerk’s office.

The board moved on to other business after the snow discussion. Trustees unanimously approved a building permit extension for Northshore Millbrook LLC, which is constructing a multi-family housing development at 240-250 Middle Neck Road. That project received its initial approval in August 2018 and has faced repeated delays tied to building plan revisions and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board also unanimously approved demolition of two structures on a property at 157 Steamboat Road, recently acquired by the Iranian American Jewish Foundation. One of the structures is a single-family home described as being in disrepair.

For now, residents with tickets are being told to make their case individually before the village justice. That process will determine whether the $140,000 ceiling comes anywhere close to reality. The village should be prepared to release that final accounting publicly when the hearings conclude.