Science Center’s tow truck has BID members seeing red

A tow truck operator hired by the Long Island Science Center to keep its private parking lot clear of illegally parked vehicles has rankled the BID Management Association board of directors.

BIDMA president Ray Pickersgill confronted Larry Oxman, a member of the Science Center board who also sits on the BID board, at the beginning of last night’s BIDMA board meeting.

Pickersgill was clearly angry as he demanded to know why the West Main Street nonprofit, which owns the building and parking lot adjacent to the Chase bank on the corner of Peconic Avenue, has been towing cars from its lot and “dumping them” in the public parking lot on the other side of Peconic Avenue.

“When people find their cars have been towed and they call the tow truck driver, he demands $200 cash and won’t give them a receipt,” Pickersgill said. “He towed the car of an elderly handicapped woman who was attending one of the Friday night concerts. He towed the town attorney’s wife’s car,” Pickersgill said. “And he’s dumping them on parking district property.”

BIDMA board members Ray Dickhoff and John Mantzapoulos said they’ve witnessed the town truck bring cars to the parking district’s lot behind their buildings on East Main Street.

“They’re taking bank customers’ cars, too, and the bank is upset,” Pickersgill said.

“I asked Michelle [Pelletier, LISC executive director] and she said you guys were responsible for it, that you hired him,” Pickersgill told Oxman. Pelletier told him more than 50 cars have been towed, he said.

“Well she knows more than I do,” Oxman said. “We have discussed enforcing the parking, but the behavior you’re describing was not our intention,” he said. “This is the first time I’m hearing this as a board member.”

Pelletier said Friday she never discussed with Pickersgill the number of cars that had been towed and did not even know the number. Pelletier also said she met with bank management on Sept. 18 and they have no issues with the towing policy because they have adequate customer parking in their own lot.

Pelletier explained and defended the Science Center’s towing policy in an editorial column published here. The policy was implemented to address health and safety issues arising from the use of the lot by people who are not visiting the Science Center, she explains.

Oxman said after the meeting he knew the Science Center board decided “several weeks ago” to tow cars illegally parked in its private parking lot.

“People parking there were leaving behind a mess to clean up. Garbage, dirty diapers…It was getting out of hand,” Oxman said. Science Center employees were also frightened by some of the people loitering in the parking lot, especially when leaving their offices late in the evening, he said.

Signs posted in the Science Center’s lot warn that “unauthorized vehicles will be towed away at owner’s expense.

BID board members focused on the town truck driver allegedly bringing towed carsto the parking district lot across the street. “I think this guy’s a little out of line how he’s conducting his business in our parking lot,” Mantzapoulos said.

“I’m not trying to defend his actions at all,” Oxman told the BIDMA board.

Kenny Darch, owner of D&K Recovery Inc., which has been handling the towing operation for the Science Center for the past few weeks, said it’s “absolutely not true” that he’s leaving cars in the public parking lot on the other side of Peconic Avenue.

“I might sit there with the car for a little while to see if I get a call,” Darth said. “But I never leave them there.” All vehicles are towed to and stored at 817 Pulaski Street, which is a secured location.

He also disputed Pickersgill’s allegation about people not getting receipts for their cash payments. “Everyone gets a receipt,” Darch said. “We do everything by the book. we are fully licensed and insured,” he said.

“I met with the town attorney and a police lieutenant yesterday to make sure that everything we’re doing is up to code,” Darch said. “And it is.”

Darch said his presence has “cleaned up” the area of the Science Center parking lot, where there had been a real problem with loitering, he said.

He said he had initially been working there as a subcontractor for Tonka Towing, but now the Science Center has signed a contract with him directly.

Darch said he’s towed “probably 30 or 40 cars” over the past approximately three weeks. He doesn’t know who was doing the towing prior to that. A Tonka Towing phone number listed on a sign at the lot was not in service this morning.

Most cars towed were parked there by customers of the laundromat, hair salon and bodega located in the building next to the lot, Darch said.

Pickersgill maintains that the tow operation has angered people visiting downtown.

“It’s just another bad thing for Riverhead. Don’t we have enough bad things?” he asked.

Correction: A previously published version of this story misstated the name of the bank on the corner of Peconic Avenue and West Main Street. It is a Chase branch, not Capital One.