The-Helm_1966-06-16; Lynbrook Helm Independent Review

              East Rockaway • Lynbrook Malverne
Vol. 5, No. 40 New York, Thursday, June 16, 1966 LY 3-1300 10<;i P e r Copy
THE FIGHT IS ON ScriT^ 450 people attended a
met^i:ing held last Woinesday,
June 8th, ai Hewlett High School
to hear legislators, public offic-ials
and community leaders speak
in opposition to the Nassau County
Department of Public Works'plan
for an eighty-foot acquisition a-long
East Rockaway Road/Main
Street from Broadway in Hewlett
to Atlantic Avenue in East Rocka-way.
The acquisition map, which
has journeyed between County en-gineers
and attorneys but has yet
to be made public in news form,
calls for widening of the road to
a uniform width of four 12-foot
traveling lanes immediately, with
a total acquisition by the County
of eighty feet so that at a later
date the road wiJl contain four
traveling lanes, two parking lanes
and two paved walking areas (the
additional 32 feet).
The meeting was presided
over by the East Rockaway Civic
Association President, Mr. Hal
U. Fisher. Groups from East
Rockaway, Hewlett Harbor and
the Unincorporated Areas of He-wlett
that had fought the plan
earlier this year are now working
as one individual, coordinated
group under the auspices of the
East Rockaway Civic Association
since it was the only duly con-stituted
organization involved th-at
could handle the finances for
the coming battle.
East Rockaway Village Trus-tee
Edward O. Lerner, speaking
firs t so that he could join his
fellow village officials for an ex-ecutive
board meeting, spoke for
the Mayor and the Board of Trus-tees
saying they were against any
widening of the raod in East Rock-away
and are on record by reso-lution
in opposition. He said they
were satisfied with the flow of
traffic along Main Street. He add-ed
that those who thought they
were not directly involved be-cause
they do not live on the road
should be made aware that they
ARE directly involved in the tax
structure of the village and a r e -
sult of any widening will be dras-tic
reduction in the property val-ues
of the many fine homes along
the road.
Although Supervisor Francis
T. Purcell was unable to attend
the meeting, he sent word that:
he was in constant touch with
Assemblyman Blakeman and Sen-ator
Lent, any acquisition map
presented by the DPW must go on
the Town calendar for a full pub-lic
hearing, and he felt the road
should be kept in a rural atmos-phere
but not in a hazardous con-dition
(reference, obviously, to
the 22-foot wide strip of road at
Meadowview Avenue in Hewlett
where serious skidding condit-ions
finally resulted in a fatal
accident last fall).
Mr. Fisher then introduced
Senator Norman F. Lent as a man
who had helped "to support us at
every turn of the road," which
brought a light touch into the oth-erwise
serious tones of the even-ing.
Senator Lent advised all those
present that they were witnessing
at the meeting one of the high-est
traditions of democracy - a
catalyst for public opinion against
due encroachment against their
community. He complimented the
various groups who have unified
to face " a long fight." "We never
know what the other side is doing
...in October of '65 Judy Finger
was killed and as a result people
asked elimination of the hazard on
the road. The County announced
plans and on December 6th we
were treated to the only public
airing of what the County had in
mind ... people were shocked at
what they heard!" He noted that
"Frank Purcell hasn't seen any
plans, so he cannot speak on them
- we are fighting 'shadows' - ru-mors
of plans, there is nothing
recent to go on. He told the peo-ple
that they must remain vigilant
keep their lists together and be
ready to fight. Speaking of the re-cent
successful battles against
the County's Nassau Expressway
and the State's Atlantic Express-way,
he said this widening was
closer to home - and he would
fight not just as a public official
but as the father of three small
children living less than 100
yards from East Rockaway Road.
" I 'm in the fight to stay, I wel-come
your support and am proud
to give you may support,"
Assemblyman Blakeman then
spoke, remarking that it seemed
today people are always confron-ted
with experts who have a par-ticular
knowledge in a particular
field, pundits in a little office,
who are unable to see any farther
than a basic problem and they
have named this one "traffic
movement." With grandiose i-deas
that every highway must be
made wider and little considera-tion
of esthetics, "the problem of
families, neighborhood, commu-nities
means nothing!" He said
statistics prove that widening and
adding lanes does not speed the
flow of traffic, to the contrary
a wider highway eventually brings
Continued on Page 3
We Have Moved
THE HELM-REVIEW offices
are now located at
34 F O R E S T AVE.
(Next to Parking Field)
Lynbrook