The Village of Flower Hill Board of Trustees voted unanimously to schedule a public hearing next month to consider revoking the operating license of the Best Western Hotel at 1053 Northern Blvd., following complaints from neighboring businesses and residents about loitering, panhandling and the hotel’s use as housing for county social services clients.

The Monday, May 4, board meeting drew an unusually large crowd, with business owners and residents describing a deterioration in neighborhood quality since the hotel, formerly a Holiday Inn Express, began accepting placements from the Nassau County Department of Social Services.

Mayor Randall Rosenbaum opened the session by noting that the Nassau County Police Department had responded to the hotel 65 times in the past 12 months, with calls ranging from noise complaints to domestic disturbances. He said authorities believed the entire second floor had been housing DSS clients at the peak of the problem.

“When the hotel switched from Holiday Express to Best Western, they were going there a lot more frequently,” Rosenbaum said, citing a conversation with a local precinct officer.

Stephen Griglmik, general manager of the Wave Gas Station next door, told the board his employees had been subjected to aggressive confrontations over cigarettes, and that hotel guests had been found searching through employee vehicles and tow trucks.

“We’ve had hotel guests arguing with my workers about cigarettes,” Griglmik said. “If they are denied cigarettes, they’ve become aggressive and physical altercations have almost” occurred.

Hotel owner Shashi Gandhi, who attended the meeting alone, acknowledged the situation had spiraled beyond his intentions. He said the hotel began accepting a small number of Department of Social Services placements during slow winter months after switching flags from Holiday Inn Express to Best Western left his reservation system with zero bookings.

“That was my mistake,” Gandhi said. “In hindsight, that was a big mistake on my part.”

Gandhi told the board the hotel currently houses 19 Department of Social Services clients, down from approximately 28 during the winter, and that he had already stopped accepting new DSS placements. He said the remaining clients would be transferred out by July, with families whose children are enrolled in local schools remaining through the end of the academic year.

Rosenbaum pressed Gandhi on whether the hotel would return to Department of Social Services placements in the fall when bookings slow again. Gandhi said no, citing a new brand identity and a recently hired salesperson focused on wedding expos and corporate bookings. He said summer reservations were running at roughly 80% of what the hotel had generated as a Holiday Inn Express.

Source: LI Press