Friday, December 28, 2018
Vol. 95, No.14
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
The Garden Within PAGE 6 n New restaurant PAGE 8
New lights, crosswalks planned near Garden City High School
A THRILLER GAME
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
ern Queens’ Cunningham Park the Vanderbilt Parkway is preserved as a bike path and walking trail in a forested setting. The Parkway was originally built in 1908 as a racecourse by the railroad mogul and financier William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., the great grandson of railroad developer Cornelius Vanderbilt. One hundred years ago in the World War I era the 48-mile parkway was used primarily by Manhattan-based socialites travelling to their summer estates on
Nassau County is proposing a new configuration to curb traffic at county roads Rockaway Avenue and Merillon Avenue in Garden City. The project concept presented in December would assist students and staff members to walk safely to and from the high school. Although the earliest a project in front of GCHS could start is believed to be two years away, the first step taken by the county was meeting with village and school district officials to gain pertinent feedback. On Tuesday November 20, Garden City Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kusum Sinha announced that the Nassau County Department of Public Works had a preliminary engineering concept for the reconfiguration of the Rockaway Avenue/Merillon Avenue intersection. She told the board of education about a meeting with Nassau County Legislator Laura Schaefer and engineers from the Nassau County Department of Public Works planned for Monday, December 10. A day after that meeting, the topic came up during the board of education meeting at Garden City Middle School December 11. Sinha explained the concepts during her superintendent’s report: “(Assistant Superintendent for Business) Dana DiCapua and I met with Legislator Schaefer and the Nassau County Department of Public Works, along with village executive staff, to look at the intersection for Rockaway and Merillon Avenue. The county is proposing two traffic lights along Rockaway with two pedestrian crosswalks -- really the purpose is slowing down the traffic in the vicinity of the high school,” she explained. The purpose of the meeting was to get some initial perspectives from stakeholders with the village government and the school district administration in the same room. Sinha said the county was eager to simply “show the plans and gain input from us.” She outlines a next step for Nassau County to seek residents’ and businesses’ input for the project, although the planning remains in a very preliminary stage. “We looked at simulations of what the two traffic lights and crosswalks on Rockaway Avenue would look like. Really the purpose is to slow down traffic by the high school. This is still in the preliminary planning stages and although they have shown us their plans they will be having meetings
See page 10
See page 10
On December 22nd GC High School played a thrilling game in a rematch of last year's County final, which Garden City had won. In this game, Floral Park scored at the buzzer to win 50-49. See page 32.
Parking solutions discussed by Board BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Garden City will alleviate some residents’ and sports’ families parking woes for accessing Stewart Field through a new two-stage agreement with Nassau County, authorized by the Village Board of Trustees at their December 6 meeting. Village Administrator Ralph Suozzi said for a long time Garden City has been seeking a formal agreement with Nassau County for accessory overflow parking use in the area north of Stewart Field, adjacent to Stewart School
in the easternmost section of the village. Mayor Brian Daughney explained that additional parking for about 45 cars will be created north of Stewart, as will a unique opportunity to promote and celebrate Garden City’s history with the stretch of the historic Vanderbilt Motor Parkway (also known as the Long Island Motor Parkway) which 110 years ago ran west/east from Queens to eastern Long Island, and was the first designated highway in America. In east-
Calling all Garden City HS basketball alumni PAGE 33 Adelphi donates baby hats to NICUs abroad PAGE 14