NHP hits Mainstreet ‘roadblock’

Richard Tedesco

Village of New Hyde Park Trustee Donald Barbieri said Tuesday night that the final phase of the village project to upgrade the business district along Jericho Turnpike has been put on hold pending an agreement with Verizon and Keyspan to move utility lines.

Barbieri said the state Department of Transportation will give Operation Mainstreet the green light when the agreements are in place. The village, Barbieri said, has already reached an agreement with National Grid.

“We’ve run into a sort of a roadblock,” Barbieri said. “We’re working hard to get past this.”

Barbieri said the agreements are “the last piece of the puzzle” before the village board can solicits bids on the project. He said that in the first stage of the construction the DOT will install new countdown traffic lights for pedestrian safety and  the village will redo sidewalks in preparation to the DOT repaving Jericho Turnpike from the Queens border to Herricks Road.

Aesthetic improvements are planned to make the area more pedestrian-friendly for shoppers. 

The plans, designed by Saratoga Associates, include bulb-outs – rounded corners that would extend slightly into the roadway – to be added at locations yet to be determined, along with installation of solid medians with plantings and access to water sources to maintain the plantings.

Benches will also be installed on sidewalks, which would be paved with the same rustic red brickwork already in place in some sections of the road near the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Lakeville Road.

Work on the project, including the road resurfacing, is expected to take four months to complete, Barbieri said. He said he hopes work can start in April or May.

The New Hyde Park project is being funded through a federal transportation appropriation of $1.425 million secured by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy under the community block grant program.

Barbieri also announced the New Hyde Park Museum will be accepting donations of photographs and artifacts for its collection at New Hyde Park Village Hall on March 11, 18 and 25 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

On Tuesday, March 26, the museum collections chairpersons, Barbara Teepe and June Nagy, also will be on hand with village historian Carol Nowakowski to accept artifacts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and following the museum group’s meeting that day from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

A ceremony to open the museum in early November was canceled after Hurricane Sandy struck. Barbieri said the objective is to make more progress on collecting vintage photos and artifacts before staging an introductory weekend at the museum on the second floor of Village Hall “in the near future.”

Interviews for the oral history the museum will include are being conducted by Neil Brogan and Christine Dichristina.

“They’ve done a number of them and they’re doing more of them now,” Barbieri said.

In other developments:

• Village of New Hyde Park Deputy Mayor Robert Lofaro said he planned to make the proposed 2013-14 village budget “available” for presentation later this month.

• Village Trustee Richard Coppola Jr. said the New Hyde Park Fire Department has inducted its first female deputy chief, Ann Mullooly, who is the department’s new 4th deputy chief.

• Coppola said the New Hyde Park Little League Parade would take place on April 4. He said Katie’s Run, the annual 5K charity run in memory of cancer victim Katie McBride, will take place on June 23.  

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