Park to get new spark

Posted

Walking through Lister Park will soon be a more pleasant experience.

Work on the park’s pathway is scheduled to start this week. The pathway, on the west side of the park, extends from Park Avenue to the Department of Public Works building’s parking lot, on Sunrise Highway. The project will take about two months, and Deputy Village Administrator Kathleen Murray said she hoped it would be done by the end of the summer.

“That pathway is about 3 feet wide, is broken in many places — the roots are picking up much of it,” she said. “And most importantly, two people on wheelchairs or two people on bicycles could not pass each other on that path now. That’s inappropriate park preparation for today’s standards.”

A Westbury company, Roadwork Ahead, will replace the pathway with permeable pavement, which will eliminate rainwater runoff and reduce erosion, and widen it as well. A handful of trees, 40 bushes and hundreds of flowers will be planted, their variety dependent on what is available at the nursery at the Ronkonkoma-based Bohemian Garden Center at the time. Lighting and benches will be replaced, and garbage cans and bike racks will be added.

The project will cost $550,000, and will be funded by grants from the village, Nassau County and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, according to village spokeswoman Julie Scully.

The village, however, cannot work on part of the north end of the park, between Merrick Road and Sunrise Highway because it is state property, and the state must grant the village permission to work on it. “When the village does a project they try to limit the budget,” Scully wrote in an email. “If unexpected expenses come up they don’t want to be caught in an over-budget position especially when they are working with grants. The village would like for the state to give the OK to extend the walkway through their property and be able to rebuild the lookout decks. So if everything goes as planned, those are the next steps for the project.”

Page 1 / 2