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In their ongoing quest to find more parking in Patchogue Village, village officials this week took possession of a Church Street house that will soon be razed for parking stalls.
The village will borrow $500,000 to pay for the land and clearing work, with the money being paid back from parking meter revenues. The meters were installed last year.
The property itself cost $425,000 and the village will take possession of it in about 45 days.
“This really is a culmination of two years of work with the parking meters and really indicates that what we said we were going to do, we do,” Patchogue Trustee Jack Krieger said at a Monday night meeting in Village Hall. “As someone told me today, it’s promises kept. We promised we would take the money from the parking meters and purchase properties for parking.”
Mayor Paul Pontieri said there are five families in the building, and that the village is working with them to help secure alternative housing before any action is taken to remove the building.
“It’s not one of those things where we start to bulldoze and ask if anybody’s left in there,” Pontieri assured.
The news comes just days after the village demolished a neighboring bank drive-thru for additional parking along Church Street.
Ultimately, village officials envision extending the Church Street parking lot further south, where five residential buildings exist now. The lot would then stretch from South Ocean Avenue to Railroad Avenue, with Church Street more a roadway for the parking lot.
Krieger said the village is hoping to get the building cleared earlier next year.
