Friday, October 9, 2020
Vol. 80, No. 40
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SERVING BETHPAGE, OLD BETHPAGE, AND PLAINVIEW
‘Complete Streets’ plan still in need of funding BY GARY SIMEONE
Island Trees baseball and softball players presented $1,000 for first responders at the Wantagh-Levittown Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The money was raised by members of the Island Trees community through the sales of masks. See page 14.
Town launches 'Foodie Week' BY GARY SIMEONE
October 4th through the 11th will be officially known as Foodie Week in the Town of Oyster Bay this year. Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and Board members created the name in hopes of helping dozens of restaurants recover
from months of closure and to provide a family-fun outing for residents. The Town held a press conference last week at Butera’s of Woodbury to announce the new initiative. “This unique opportunity offers local dining establishments a chance to showcase their world-class culinary
skills highlighting the finest creations of our local chefs bakers and artisans,” said Saladino. “Restaurants are vital to our downtown and crucial to our economy. Let’s do our part by supporting them at a time when they need it the most.” See page 14
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Nassau County has laid out a $22 million “Complete Streets” plan to revitalize the downtown area of Hicksville. The plan which was developed by officials from the Town of Oyster Bay New York State Department of Transportation LIRR and local organizations is still in need of funding money to complete the project. Brian Nevin, a spokesperson for the Town, said the county’s report included eight recommendations in their initiative which totaled approximately $22 million. “The majority of these projects are for county and state roadways and are largely unfunded by the County and state at the moment,” said Nevin. “We hope they will come forward with the funding in the immediate future to help us transform the downtown into a vibrant and pedestrian-friendly destination.” The DRI plan calls for improvements to the area around the Hicksville LIRR station and pedestrian safety projects on Broadway a state roadway and Duffy Avenue a County roadway. $6 million has already been granted by the state for the LIRR improvements as part of the $10 million Hicksville downtown revitalization project. Nevin said that the Town was awarded $150 thousand from the county for streetscaping and $400 thousand in federal CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds for a pedestrian safety project on Broadway. “The Town will implement streetscaping and pedestrian safety improvements along Broadway, including beautification, benches and big belly trash cans,” said Nevin.He added that a large part of the plan is the addition of bike lanes and bicycle parking in the downtown area off of Broadway, Old Country Road and John Street. “A large part of the complete streets plan is the addition of bike lanes,” said Nevin. “The Town is not directly involved with the installation of bike lanes as we do not have funding for this and the majority of roads proposed are not Town-owned.” In a statement last week, County Executive Laura Curran said about the revitalization plan “when you’re adding apartments or housing or any kind of development, you want to make sure that you can accommodate any increased population or traffic and look at how you can make things safer. You also want to look at how you can make it more attractive.”
Town to provide free flu shots PAGE 4 Four arrests in attempted murder PAGE 3