031210 Queens Villagers Cry Fowl At Live Poultry Shop

About 100 Queens Villagers are protesting against a nearly completed live poultry store on Springfield Boulevard that they fear will produce unacceptable smells and pose a health risk to a nearby day care facility by attracting rodents.

But time is limited.

For residents in Queens Village, preventing the building of a live poultry market means beating the owner in his race to construct his business fast enough to obtain his certificate of occupancy.

"With the turnout that we have here today, it's very encouraging," Community Board 13 Chairman Richard Hellenbrecht said to the crowd of nearly 100 neighbors who gathered at Bethlehem Missionary Church for an emergency meeting held by state Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village) on Sunday.

The church at 98th Avenue houses the day care facility, which is steps away from the poultry store.

They met to plan a protest in the hopes of giving the owner, Sheik Anis, a citizen's eviction. Anis is a Queens Village resident.

Anis could not be reached to respond to the group's allegations.

"Everybody likes fresh meat," Clark said. "It has nothing to do with not wanting to kill animals. Think about the businesses that may leave. Think about the property value around here."

But she did not have to encourage the residents to demonstrate against the poultry store.

"This is one of the highest cancer districts in the city. Why are they going to add another thing that's harmful to our health?" Lois Menyweather asked. "We care about our community. This is not a transit community; we own our homes here."

Kenton Fraser, the block association president for the neighborhood where the poultry store will be built at 98-04 Springfield Blvd., said the area around the store has been steadily improving over the past few years.

"It came a long way," he said. "A lot of people aren't selling their houses over here because the area is picking up."

Fraser is a detective who not only lives in the area but also patrols the block for a living.

"My concern is the day care center with the kids," he said. "The rats are going to be here."

In order to make a formal stand against the new business, the residents and community leaders plan to protest on Friday at 3 p.m. and again on Saturday at 3 p.m. outside the construction site.

But unless the business owner bends to their pressure, their efforts will be futile.

"Unfortunately you've got to live with the zoning and what the city's stringent rules are," Hellenbrecht said. "If zoning changes when he's in there, he's grandfathered in. Basically (the protesting neighbors) have to get him out of there voluntarily."

Clark mentioned outlawing live poultry stores from the city and state altogether as one option.

On Jamaica Avenue, there are two other stores like this one, which residents say smell badly and violate city health regulations.

Sulpice Chamberlin, a Democratic district leader in 33rd Assembly District, said he has seen stores package only parts of the animal, which is illegal. Instead, he said stores are supposed to sell the dead livestock in its entirety, he said.

"People in this community, they can't afford to buy a whole goat," he said.

A petition in protest circulated through Queens Village, initiated by neighborhood resident Rosa Augustine. She said it was signed by about 500 other neighbors against the opening of the shop.

But she said the business owner told her that he had a petition of supporters, which he would use to refute the residents' protest.

Clark left the meeting house hopeful, and with a few angry residents she stopped at the construction site to see if they were working on Sunday, which they were.

She said she is confident that this weekend's protests will effectively end the construction of the business.

"Other communities have spoken with their feet, spoken with their bodies," Clark said.

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