The Island Now
North Hills trustees were cautious about discussing potentially converting the village’s lights to light emitting diodes, also known as LEDs, as a lawsuit is pending on the issue in another North Shore village.
North Hills Mayor Marvin Natiss said during a board discussion last Wednesday that he was considering the conversion for Village Hall lights but was concerned about Great Neck resident Judith Youngblood’s $1 million lawsuit against the village, claiming the installation of more than 800 LED streetlights across the village was “disrupting her sleep, impairing her vision and causing her severe stress,” Natiss said.
Natiss said he was in favor of switching the village’s lights to LEDs before he read about the lawsuit, but village Attorney A. Thomas Levin said the lawsuit was not a reason to abandon the idea.
“I don’t know the specifics of the lawsuit, but I don’t think it should concern you,” Levin said. “The essence of that lawsuit is somebody who’s immediately adjacent to one of the places where they’ve changed over and is claiming it’s disturbing her sleep.”
Village Administrator Marianne Lobaccaro said the maintenance costs for some of the lights in Village Hall and in its parking lot were getting costly, which was part of the reason for considering a conversion.