East Rockaway officials amend Marion St. traffic rules

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After more than 100 people signed an online petition urging East Rockaway village officials to make Marion Street a one-way road during school days, village employees recently installed a restricted turn sign at the intersection of Waverly Avenue and Marion.

Though the street is in the Lynbrook School District, it is under East Rockaway’s jurisdiction.

“They came through for us, so we’re really grateful,” said Ivy Reilly, a mother of students at Marion Street School. Reilly serves on the school’s Compact Committee, which directs traffic in the morning when students are entering the building.

At those times, she said, many parents drop their young children off from the left lane, forcing them to cross the two-way street to get to class, which Reilly said was a potential safety hazard. She added that members of the Compact Committee have tried to tell people to stop making their children cross, but said, “People find it very difficult to follow the rules.”

She went on to say that although she signed the petition to make the street one way between Irving Place and Waverly Avenue from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, MaryBeth Stalter convinced her that installing a no-turn sign for those times on Waverly Avenue would be more feasible.

“The thought of the one-way — that word was scary for everybody,” Stalter said. “Anything they could do to reduce traffic on the block made sense to me.”

East Rockaway officials said they also concluded that it would be safer for the students to have a limited turn sign on Waverly Avenue than it would be to make the street one way. Trustee Rich Bilello, who monitored the school’s pickup and drop-off routine in November, explained that even if all of the traffic flowed in one direction, parents could still pull over to the left lane to drop their children off, and the children would still have to cross the street without a crossing guard.

“If we made it one way, then cars could drive on the left-hand side of Marion,” Bilello said, “and we may still have the same problem of kids jumping out into traffic.”

But since the sign has been installed, Principal Theresa Macchia said, the Compact Committee has been better able to limit the flow of traffic. “Therefore, our children’s safety is better accounted for,” she said, adding that she hoped that once commuters become accustomed to the changed traffic flow, “they will realize that they play a critical role in ensuring the safety of our young children.”

The petition for change, created in June, urged East Rockaway officials to amend the regulations near the school. “This would prevent cars from turning from Waverly Avenue onto Marion Street, thus decreasing the incidence of accident or injury,” the petition reads.

The petition appeared one year after the village board of trustees turned down a written request from school officials to change the regulations on the street. This year, school administrators have signed in support of the change, and there were also electronic signatures from dozens of parents online.

In a letter to the Herald in July, East Rockaway Mayor Bruno Romano said it could take some time for a decision to be reached, and he invited concerned residents to come to the July 12 board meeting to discuss it. “The public is welcome to take part in the discussion,” he wrote. “My village board colleagues and I seek people’s opinions and thoughts. We will consider every viewpoint. Under state law, a traffic study must be conducted before any changes are made.”

Romano said over the summer that a traffic study several years ago concluded that it would not be feasible to make Marion Street a one-way, which eventually led to the board’s decision to amend the turning rules rather than create a one-way street.