Community Board 10’s unofficial truck stop is back.
Area residents concerned about safe travel along I-95 again raised their ire over the dozen 18-wheelers and large trucks illegally parked over the weekend of Saturday March 16 and Sunday, March 17 on Bruckner Boulevard alongside Pelham Bay Park.
Bruckner Boulevard between Middletown Road and Wilkinson Avenue has been turned into an unofficial truck stop at times, with truckers parking their rigs and trailers overnight and sometimes for days on end, the residents have said.
Councilman Mark Gjonaj said that he was alerted to the situation, and in response asked the NYPD to ticket illegally parked trucks.
“We are going to stay on top of this problem with law enforcement,” said Gjonaj.
About 11 illegally parked commercial trucks were observed adjacent to Pelham Bay Park last weekend, said George Havranek, Spencer Estate Civic Association vice president.
Matt Cruz, CB 10 district manager, said it is a parking violation for commercial trucks to park on any street in the board service area after 9 p.m., and urged the public to report the offenders to his office or 311.
“Not a day goes by when this office is not contacting the precinct to ticket (illegally parked) tractor trailers, and for the most part, the precinct has been great in getting to it,” said Cruz.
The district manager said there are federal regulations that restrict the number of hours truckers can drive in one day, and that this may be contributing to the problem.
However he knows, as does Havranek, that many trucks are being stored on the street by truckers that live in the area.
Havranek said it is a long-standing issue that seems to flare up on weekends in locations where it’s easy to get on and off the interstate highways.
“It is a storage issue. It is not that we are trying to prevent truckers from getting (their required) rest, and no one really wants to be punitive with them,” said Havranek.
He added that the illegal parking on the Bruckner service road seems to take place in every season except when the park is being used – in the summer, and usually flares up from Thursdays to Tuesdays.
“There are certain things in certain areas that just don’t mix, and this is one of them,” he said.
Eddie Malave of Country Club said that he noticed about a dozen trucks over the weekend when he walked his dog through Pelham Bay Park, and said that his neighbors contacted the precinct and urged a ticket blitz.
“A sector car needs to come by after 9 p.m. and issue them tickets,” he said.
Malave said that he believes that the trucks are from truckers who live nearby, and also included the service road at Mac Donough and Connell places as a location where the activity was also occurring.
At Connell Place specifically, a municipal garbage truck with New Jersey plates was parked for weeks, he said.
The Country Club Civic Association’s president, Arlene Grauer, said that homeowners nearby, especially those on Kearney Avenue, are having to contend with large trucks stored for days just beyond their backyards.
