Flanagan's bar and restaurant on Deer Park Avenue in Babylon Village has applied for permission to reopen after it appears efforts to sell off that large piece of property for housing or other uses have not gone very far. It's never easy when an establishment such as a bar or restaurant abuts residential property as this one does, to reach a compromise between the rights of the commercial property owner and the homeowners.

Questions and concerns were raised by both sides at a recent Village meeting and the Village board now has to decide,like King Solomon, if and how the operation should move forward. It should be thorough and progressive in its review, and it should put into place comprehensive assurances that strike a balance as best as humanly possible between the needs of the commercial owners and their residential neighbors. No easy task, we know.