Malverne village gets another makeover

While walking on Malverne’s Hempstead Avenue on a summer afternoon, you observe the familiar routines of village residents: Commuters wait at the recently renovated Long Island Rail Road train station while people head into Connolly Station for a late lunch, and others shuffle in and out of Astoria Bank or walk their dogs.

In a village that measures one square mile, the hustle and bustle of everyday life for nearly 9,000 residents takes its toll on the infrastructure that gives Malverne its quaint charm. Fixtures such as streetlights, sidewalks and signs are worn down by use and the passage of time.

To combat their further degradation, Mayor Patricia McDonald, along with Village Clerk Teresa Emmel and Trustee Michael Bailey, decided to request funds from local legislators to repair the walkways on Hempstead Avenue that had become cracked and worn. McDonald also hoped to replace the signs and streetlights, which had become weathered over the years.

She approached several lawmakers, and in 2006 she was granted funding by State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre). Using that money, the village completed the first phase of the Downtown Restoration Project on a small section of Hempstead Avenue. Now that the village has received additional funding, it has launched Phase Two of the project.

“The first phase went smoothly,” Emmel said, noting that it included the restoration of the area in front of a local deli and drug store near the corner of Park Boulevard and Hempstead Avenue. Phase One also involved renovating the village’s heavily used LIRR station. “The siding on the station was falling apart, and the concrete was cracked,” Emmel explained. “We didn’t just fix it, we kept the same basic structure that everyone in the town knows. I think it came out great.”

When the first phase of the project was completed about four years ago, Emmel began working with McDonald, Bailey and other legislators to allocate funds for the second phase, in which the streets and streetlights along Hempstead Avenue, from Nassau Boulevard to Dogwood Avenue, will be refurbished. This funding, unlike that for Phase One, was not as readily available: Requested from U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), it is federal earmark money. “The amount of rules and regulations involved with getting these funds was mind-boggling,” Emmel said.

“When it was all said and done, it was three years of prep for a 90-day construction project,” Bailey said of the frustrating process. He explained that McCarthy was able to earmark $355,000 for the project, 20 percent of which will comprise village tax receipts.

If getting the funding wasn’t enough of a battle, a heated bidding war broke out between construction companies after the village sent the project out for bids. In the end, the village chose J. Anthony Enterprises of Bohemia to do the work. Cameron Engineering, which created the plans for the first phase, was also brought back to participate in the second phase of the project, which is expected to begin on Aug. 8.

Village officials expect the construction work to be as nonintrusive as it was during the first phase. “There won’t be any paving in front of residences, so as not to obstruct homeowners,” Bailey said.

A number of Malverne business owners were supportive of the restoration project from the start. “It didn’t affect my business at all,” said Doug DeNardo of Nordon’s Superdrugs. “They set up walkways for customers so that even when they were doing work outside the store, there was always a way to get in.”

McDonald credits local merchants for putting up with the construction and supporting the project — which, she said, is, after all, a benefit to the entire village, businesses and residents alike. “It’s been a couple of years now, so to see everything finally come to fruition is exciting,” she said. “[Phase Two] will help make the village unified in its appearance, and more beautiful than it already is.”

Visit the village website, malvernevillage.org, for updates on the second phase of the project.