New Graffiti Turns Up on Nicolls Road Trestle

Vandals have again hit the Nicolls Road train trestle near the junction of Route 25A, with a new tag turning up over the July 4 holiday weekend.

The new graffiti comes about two months after a Long Island Railroad crew cleaned up vulgar tags in May on the street-level portion of the trestle. Colorful graffiti reading "ROBO," reported the Friday before Memorial Day, still remains on both sides of the upper level of the trestle.

"It's very sporadic and intermittent throughout the precinct," Sixth Precinct sergeant Jim Kearns said of the graffiti. "There's been a history of graffiti on Long Island for years. There's no rash of it recently."

A police spokeswoman said Friday the new graffiti has been reported to the LIRR, which she said would dispatch a crew to look at the graffiti and repaint the affected area but did not give a timetable for the cleanup.

The LIRR's community spokesman did not return calls for comment.

Kara Hahn, president of the Civic Association of the Setaukets and Stony Brook, said in a recent interview that the civic association is trying to form a partnership of community groups to work with the LIRR to address and prevent graffiti on the trestle.

"Over the years the trestle has been hit before," Hahn said. "It's a problem we've been trying to deal with...We need to find a community group that is large enough to have liability insurance. It's a little more complicated than it should be, but it's all about liability."