For Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro, like other local officials, the long-awaited and long-delayed completion of Operation Mainstreet was both a source of pride and relief.
“We thought this day would come before the last street fair, but we’re glad it’s happening before our next street fair,” Lofaro said Saturday, referring to the village’s annual September event.
Lofaro was joined at the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Lakeville Road to celebrate the completion of the village’s upgrade of Jericho Turnpike, a three-phase project that began in 2003.
The project included the installation of sidewalks with red brick paving stones, new lighting, street signage, benches, and a center median with rounded corners from New Hyde Park Road to Hillside Boulevard. The project was assisted by a $21.1 million state Department of Transportation project to repave Jericho Turnpike from the Queens line to Glen Cove Road in Mineola that coincided with the final phase of the project.
“It has been a very long time,” New Hyde Park Deputy Mayor Lawrence Montreuil said. “It started with a vision of seeing new brickwork. It’s a terrific milestone today. It’s exciting to see the revitalization of Jericho Turnpike.”
Willam Kuhl, chairman and senior associate of Saratoga Associates, who drafted the first construction plans and then oversaw their implementation, said the results justified the hard work and long delays,
“I love it,” Kuhl said. “It’s like seeing the tangible results of your efforts.”
Lofaro said the idea of the project, which would be funded by a federal grant secured by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, was developed in 2001 as a means of improving traffic safety on Jericho Turnpike, and making the area safer and more attractive for pedestrian shoppers.
“A vibrant business district is good for a residential community,” Lofaro said.
But he and other local officials said they could not overlook the project’s frequent delays.
“This project has had many complications,” LoFaro said. “I’ve said this had been government bureaucracy at its worst.”
.Lofaro said he regretted that former Mayor Daniel Petruccio, who presided during most of the time the village’s Operation Mainstreet was in development, wasn’t present for the ceremony.
But, he said, he understood why Petruccio declined to attend.
Lofaro said much time was spent on the “back and forth” between government agencies, but said they ultimately acted in the best interests of the village and its residents.
“Dan Petruccio said he was on this board for 12 years and he spent enough time already waiting for this to happen,” Lofaro said.
State Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) joined in the criticism of the effort needed to complete the project, adding “This was a project that was bureaucracy run amok.”
Lofaro and Martins both credited village Trustee Donald Barbieri for his work as liaison to the state Department of Transportation, which had oversight on the project, in bringing the project to completion.
“This doesn’t happen often. It happens because we care enough to knock down the bureaucracy,” Martins said.
State Assemblyman Ed Ra (R- Franklin Square) said the village deserved credit for persevering with the project over the past 12 years.
“We can talk about the delays but we can see the result from everyone coming together,” Ra said.
An emotional Barbieri recounted safely crossing Jericho Turnpike to buy milk for his mother when he was growing up in New Hyde Park before Jericho became the busy roadway it is now.
“Today it’s turned into a superhighway. We’re doing the best we can to improve traffic safety in the village,” Barbieri said. “This is government at its best. Carolyn McCarthy came through. Every branch of government came through. Everybody working together helped fund this thing and make it happen.”
McCarthy secured $1.42 million to fund the project under the community block grant program. Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) also secured a $100,000 grant from the county for the work.
Barbieri thanked business owners and residents for their patience while the project was being completed, along with his fellow trustees for tolerating his recurrent reports on the project’s halting progress.
“I want to thank my colleagues for sitting through those meetings and listening to me saying the same thing again and again,” Barbieri said.
Lofaro acknowledged critics who have questioned the addition of the center median on Jericho Turnpike, the elimination of turning lanes at some intersections and bulbouts.
“The critics will be the critics,” Lofaro said. “We wanted to created a safe environment and we hope we’ve accomplished that.”
Barbieri said after the ceremony the village administration wasn’t prepared for the paperwork it contended with at every step of the process.
“You don’t have an idea of the bureaucracy you’re facing up to,” he said. “But good things are worth doing and this is a good thing.”
Tom Savino, president of Vision Accomplished, was retained by the village trustees as a consultant on Operation Mainstreet and said the “huge sets” of state and federal rules made the paperwork challenging.
Since Jericho Turnpike is a state road, he said the state DOT administered disbursement of the federal funds as the village applied for reimbursement of the work.
The final delay in the project occurred in the last week of June, when the state Department of Transportation suspended the project after funding was halted by the Federal Highway Administration because a May 31 deadline for completion of the project had passed. Paperwork not submitted by the village on time prompted the temporary suspension, the state DOT said.
Barbieri said Bohemia-based contractor J Anthony Enterprises still has to install some benches and planters to complete the work on its $1.46 million contract. But the trustees and other elected officials cut the symbolic ribbon with representatives of the Greater New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce under clearing skies. Lofaro said the rain stopping before the ceremony began was a first good luck the trustees have had with Operation Mainstreet.
“I’m not sure many communities would have had the determination to push this thing through over 13 years. But these guys did and it’s a testimony to them,” Martins said after the ceremony concluded.
