Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender is insistent upon routing station-bound buses up Welwyn Road, past the stores at 4 Welwyn Road, and making them turn around in front of the post office to head back toward the station.
The turn often takes two or three swings for the buses to negotiate the circle.
This part of Welwyn Road is filled with shoppers, pedestrians, bicyclists, trucks and many cars that use the street for access to Thomaston, Community Drive and Northern Boulevard.
There are often three buses at once trying to traverse the street, that is if they can get past the constantly double parked cars in front of Shop Delight, to which the village closes its eyes.
There are frequent accidents; there is always gridlock.
As you can see in the attached photo taken on July 20, the police were at the scene because the center bus of the three collided with a car.
The accident, as well as the three buses, put traffic at a standstill, backing it up on the south side of the station to Middle Neck Road.
The noise from the horns was deafening. Chaos reigned.
Residents, shoppers, pedestrians, shop owners and even the bus company have asked Celender countless times to re-route the buses off Welwyn Road, which could easily be done, but our mayor has closed her eyes and ears to the multitude of requests and has insisted that the buses remain on Welwyn Road.
Several years ago, the MTA came to Celender with money and a plan to build a bus terminal on the north side of the station to help alleviate the chaos. She refused the offer.
The MTA was happy to give its money to another municipality. Celender didn’t care.
Now, Celender has received a grant to beautify the Welwyn Road area and build a park in front of the post office.
The plan is to build out the grassy area in front of the post office and narrow the existing street.
We don’t need a park. There are already two parks within a block or two. And who would want to sit among the fumes, horns and trash that will undoubtedly fill the park?
What we need is more parking and a safe street without buses. Celender doesn’t care.
Wearing her blinders, she will be credited with beautifying the area instead of making it functional. Stay tuned for the photo op.
Celender almost never responds to constituents’ letters or concerns.
It seems that if she doesn’t receive “credit” from some organization or get her photo in the paper, everything else is not worth her time.
Your “Our Views” headline —“Biz district burns, G.N. officials fiddle”— in the July 15 Great Neck News, hit the nail on the head.
Jean Celender surely must own a Stradivarius.
Muriel Pfeifer
Village of Neck Plaza
(We want our “Great” back!)
