Friday, January 24, 2020
Vol. 96, No.24
FOUNDED 1923
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Get to know
St. Joe’s
EARLY CHILD HOOD • ELEM ENTARY
LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
INNcarnation celebration PAGE 42 n Hoops for Hope PAGE 31
• MIDDLE SC HOOL
VISIT US T HIS SU
NDAY, JAN MASS 9 AM UARY 26 • OPEN HO USE 10 AM-1 2:30 PM
New Hyde Park Road to be closed for 7 months
FOUR IN A ROW
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Garden City High School’s Girls Varsity Basketball team won its fourth straight game in a 40-25 game against Herricks on January 18th. Above, Angelina Suau shuts down a Herricks guard.
Rec. Commission hears dog park idea BY RIKKI N. MASSAND As the 2020-’21 budget season nears, many residents are hoping decisions about Village of Garden City facilities leave some room for “Paws” and effect. The January 16th meeting of Garden City’s Board of Commissioners of Recreation & Cultural Affairs (Rec. Commission) was a festive post-holiday gathering that drew
dozens of residents to attend, as a presentation by young resident Carter Jones on creating a dog park in Garden City headlined the evening. The Commission members followed with pertinent questions and planning perspectives for Jones and residents to consider. Chairman of the Rec. Commission and Superintendent of Village Recreation and Parks Paul Blake welcomed attend-
ees and said the Commission received some previous research performed on feasibility of a Garden City dog park. He says a “terrific” consultant the village would turn to is Dr. Marilynn R. Glasser, a New Jersey-based expert in the field and author of the book “Dog Park Design, Development, and Operation.” The Commission patiently listened to Jones, a nine-year-old See page 50
Starting on Monday, February 3, New Hyde Park Road from Plaza Avenue to 4th Avenue will be completely closed for an anticipated 7-month period, into the fall of this year, due to major construction during the Long Island Rail Road Third Track project. The consortium of companies and firms representing this project, LIRR Third Track Constructors (3TC), addressed the Village of Garden City Traffic Commission on Thursday, January 9, with the latest news. Its plans to close New Hyde Park Road entirely in this stretch are aimed at advancing the work on the New Hyde Park Road station with “streamlined construction activities” taking place over 7 months instead of the 9-month period initially outlined, plus maintaining a 10-car LIRR platform instead of 6-car platform there. 3TC says the construction sequence ahead eliminates the need for frequent opening and closing of the bypass road, and the plan for early and mid-2020 can “acclimate drivers to consistent alternate routes.” 3TC presented information on making use of summer months for heavy construction at the New Hyde Park Road stretch “when traffic is lowest.”
Getting to the LIRR station
Travis Brennan of 3TC told the room of about a dozen residents, five village trustees and executive staff the NHP station and vicinity phase in the 9.8-mile Third Track project now involves a smaller work zone that originally planned, with a “lay-down area” at 115 New Hyde Park Road instead of 124 Covert Avenue; not having a grade crossing at the major thoroughfare next to the active construction site, and finally including keeping pedestrian access to the New Hyde Park Road station open from the east side of New Hyde Park Road, south of the New Hyde Park Village Hall. “We have coordinated with Garden City Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Kusum Sinha and we will do the majority of construction within summer months -- in the old schedule this would have extended through November and early December 2020. We’ll close New Hyde Park Road February 3 and re-open See page 51
Traffic Commission nixes St. Joseph’s crosswalk PAGE 3 House Tour a most magical event of season PAGE 44