By Samuel Glasser
The Plandome Manor Village Board of Trustees approved an agreement with the Town of North Hempstead Tuesday night that will allow construction to fix a drainage problem on North Plandome Road.
The project could be underway this spring.
The road floods during heavy rains because of inadequate drainage into Leeds Pond. Cars often swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid the water and the area freezes in cold weather, village Mayor Barbara Donno said.
“It needs to be done. It’s a safety issue,” Donno said.
The Town of North Hempstead is overseeing the project, Donno said, but the village has agreed to put money toward the cost and to maintain the drains that will be installed.
The Town Board on Jan. 31 awarded a $54,610 construction contract to Roadwork Ahead Inc. of Syosset, said Vicki DiStefano, a town spokeswoman.
Work is expected to start in the spring and could “take a few weeks,” DiStefano said.
A protected species of weed that grows along a fence the town installed by Leeds Pond a few years ago forms a barrier preventing the water from draining off the road, Donno said.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation will not allow the weed to be pulled out or cut down, she said.
This project is separate from the deteriorating culvert that runs under North Plandome Road.
The culvert drains Leeds Pond into Manhasset Bay and is located several hundred feet north of the area that floods.
The town built the culvert about 60 years ago, and in the 1970s the town promised to maintain the culvert “in perpetuity,” Donno said.
The Town Board in January also awarded a contract for that project, which is expected to begin this fall, DiStefano said.
Sidney B. Bowne & Sons of Mineola will be paid $199,420 for professional engineering services for the reconstruction of the culvert, the town said.
It was also noted at Tuesday’s village Board of Trustees meeting that there is considerable new construction and home renovation work underway throughout the village, and the heavy truck traffic is taking a toll on the roads.
Donno asked if the village should consider asking contractors or homeowners involved in major projects to deposit money into a road repair fund, and asked the village attorney and building inspector to research the issue.
Also at the meeting representatives from the Plandome Park homeowners association said that National Grid was planning to refurbish gas mains in their neighborhoods this spring, and the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District was planning a similar project for the water mains later.
They asked the village to see if the utilities could coordinate their projects so the association would not have to pay twice for major repaving work.
