Residents call for town to shut down Powerhouse Mason Supply

Residents and business owners in North Hempstead called Monday for town officials to shut down a Roslyn Heights paving stone business that they say operates loud, heavy machinery and fills the air with “hazardous dust.”

About 10 people attended a protest outside the business, Powerhouse Mason Supply, which is located on Powerhouse Road -- a Long Island Expressway service road.

The protest was organized by homeowner Shah Giashuddin, 48, whose house sits on a hill overlooking the business.

“I’m protesting the location and the business and their activity,” Giashuddin said.

Giashuddin, a pathologist at New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, said stones are cut night and day in a back area of the business, generating dust. “This is supposed to be a residential area,” he said, adding that some of it is zoned for commercial use but not industrial use.

The attorney for the business, Bruce Migatz of Garden City, said he had no comment except to say that all the facts will be presented at a public hearing on Wednesday.

An employee at the company who asked not to be identified said the company sells products but is not a manufacturing business.

North Hempstead Town spokeswoman Carole Trottere said the town is “actively prosecuting the business operator” for not complying with a previous zoning decision and for “expanding the masonry business into the residential zone.”

“The health, safety and welfare of our residents is critically important to the Town, which is why we have initiated legal action against the operator, Powerhouse Supply, LLC for violation of the Town code,” Trottere said in a statement.

The business has filed an application with the Board of Zoning and Appeals, Trottere’s statement went on to say, “and the matter has been scheduled for a public hearing.”

The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Town Hall, 220 Plandome Rd., Manhasset.