Two days after a raucous meeting at the Village of Williston Park, the Mineola School Board approved a contract to begin a traffic study on the impact of leasing the Cross Street School to the Solomon Schechter Day School at the end of a calm meeting in Mineola.
The board commissioned the traffic study to accede to requests from the Williston Park Board of Trustees during the Williston Park meeting attended by approximately 200 people earlier in the week
“We were both at the last Williston Park board of trustees meeting,” said Mineola Board of Education member William Hornberger. “We heard very loudly the need for a traffic study from Williston residents.”
After the meeting, Williston Park Mayor Erhbar said he was “elated” at the outcome.
“We need to find out what the issues are there. I’m glad they are following our request,” Ehrbar said.
Robert Eschbacher, principal of VHB engineering, surveying and Landscape Architecture, P.C. was chosen by the board to conduct the study. The firm specializes in performing traffic studies dealing with both public, private, and non profit municipalities across Nassau County.
VHB will begin the traffic study by meeting with representatives from the different schools, making assessments on the traffic situation relating to number of faculty, bus dismal time, number of students and other factors.
“That quantitative evaluation will give us an idea on how the traffic is going to change,” Eschbacher said. “We will look in terms of private vehicles, passenger vehicles, versus buses, the hours in which they would come and go and how this would interact with other things that are taking place in the immediate area.”
Eschbacher said he would also be looking at what parking conditions already exist, at the Cross Street School, going over the impact of traffic signs, and how effective the parking situation could coexist with Solomon Schechter
Mineola Board of Education President Terence Hale put an emphasis on the need for Eschbacher to study St. Aidan School parking.
Hale said the board needed to establish the information “to satisfy our neighbor village.”
The traffic study could be completed in as little as three weeks, according to Eschbacher. After the firm meets with the different schools and conducts on-site studies, it will make recommendations and present them to the Mineola Board of Education.
Some recommendations can range from the widening of roads, or the changing of a traffic light which could take from six to twelve months to complete. Other changes could include new pavement markings or changes to bus dismissal times.
Rabbi Lev Herrnson, head of Solomon Schechter Day School, said signing the lease will depend on the outcome of the traffic study.
“If the study says that its not doable, then the lease is off,” Herrnson said. “We’ve been working with the community, and we’d like to see this through.”
Herrnson also said he has been meeting with local members of the community such as the Catholic Youth Organization, Monsignor James McDonald of St. Aidans, Erhbar, and many other community members to work through the problems.
“We are interested in safety, and want to see what the results of the study will be,” Williston Park Trustee William Darmstadt said.
