Moped Enforcement Stepping Up: Community Board

gathered for their last meeting of 2010 Wednesday night to take care of some board business and gather information from Forest Hills residents.

Two pressing issues came up during the district managers report — a dilapidated, graffiti-scrawled structure near the campus of the , and the use recently of motorized scooters for food delivery from restaurants on Austin Street.

Both issues had been discussed at past meetings, and said the board had met with representatives from the state senate, assembly, city council and the mayor's office to try and determine what to do about the structure. He promised a resolution in the near future.

The scooter issue was a hold over from November's meeting, when came to visit and discussed the prevalence of scooters on Austin Street with the board.

"As far as I'm concerned, a motorized scooter, it's close enough to a motorcycle for me, so we will do the same enforcement, which means confiscation," Tamola said last month. His concern, he said, was not with the drivers who lawfully used the scooters, but those that created a nuisance by weaving in and out of traffic, driving on the sidewalk and otherwise disobeying traffic laws.

"Some of them are agreeing, and some of them are not," Tamola said. "They're going to learn the hard way."

Gulluscio said that in the interim, the board has met with the 112th Precinct on the issue of the scooters.

"We did get the precinct on that, supposedly they met with the companies that do use mopeds for their deliveries several times, now they're in the enforcement part, we'll see what happens," he said.

After a handful of public presentations, including one from the American Lung Association advocating for a law to ban smoking in city parks, the board went into a brief executive session to discuss one personnel matter — Gulluscio's salary, who was voted a raise. Hennessy said that it was his feeling that the board was lucky to have a manager like Gulluscio. The raise was widely approved by the board.

The next board meeting will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 12.