Bayport Residents: We Don't Need QuickChek Market/Gas Store in Town

The feedback from Bayport residents Tuesday night at a civic meeting following a presentation on a proposed convenience store and gas station for the corner of Snedecor Avenue and Montauk Highway was loud and clear: We don’t need it, we don’t want it and we will fight it.

The presentation by representatives of QuickChek, a family-owned NY-NJ metro-based gas station-food market chain, included a video about store operations and community involvement and talking points from the company’s Long Island real estate broker, a lawyer, an engineer and a traffic safety expert.

Each spoke on various aspects of the proposal, which is the subject of a public hearing before the Town of Islip Planning Board on December 5.

QuickChek is proposing a 6,500-square-foot convenience store and an eight-bay fuel station (16 pump handles) on the two-acre plus parcel that now houses Bayport Transmission, an auto sales dealership and a residential structure.

The store would operate 24 hours a day with one entrance located off Montauk Highway, as west as possible from the intersection according to QuickChek, and two curb cut entrances on Snedecor. 

The presentation included images of what the structure would look like on the site, stressed that QuickChek is a big community supporter and that the store is much more than just a gas station and convenience retailer.

“We are a community-minded company and this would be a marked improvement over what’s there now. This is really going to be a home run for the community,” Keith Brown, a Long Island lawyer representing QuickChek on the proposal, told the crowd of 70-plus attending the civic meeting at the Bayport Methodist Church. “This is a company coming in with a lot of money.”

QuickChek estimates he project would cost between $3 million and $5 million to build.

But residents were emphatic about their concerns during a question and answer segment, stating the store would force locally-owned small businesses to shutter their doors, pose a safety issue to both students and drivers traveling on Snedecor Avenue and noted that QuickChek does not offer anything new to the business area or community.

“You may be family-owned, but you’re not owned by a resident in this town like many of the business this will hurt,” noted one resident. 

"We don’t need any more gas pumps and big box stores have already hurt local stores,” said another, citing that Bayport’s longtime pharmacy Galen Drugs and Sayville’s longtime pharmacy Ehrenburghs were driven out of business when CVS and Walgreens stores moved into the area.

“You’re not giving us anything we need. We already have enough,” said another resident, noting that there are already three to four gas stations in the local area as well as a Hess convenience store and a 7-Eleven location.

In response to QuickChek reps’ comments regarding job generation, another resident noted that working in such a store does not present a high-level career path. 

Another resident noted that there are already three abandoned gas stations between Bayport and Blue Point and that Quickchek could possibly force the closure of another, Aladdin, a longtime Bayport gas operation.

“It would break my heart to see them go out of business,” said the resident.

Following the question and answer segment, Bayport Civic President Bob Draffin asked for a show of hands regarding support for the project. Just two hands went up in the audience.

"Given all the concerns voiced here by the residents tonight and the fact that only two people in a room of 100 were in favor of this, the Bayport Civic cannot endorse this proposal moving forward,” he told Patch after the meeting.