Thursday, October 1, 2026
For decades, Glen Head resident Fritz Trinklein has watched cars line the shoulder of State Route 106 as crowds flock to the historic Jericho Cider Mill each fall. To Trinklein, the scene isn’t simply one of seasonal congestion. It is a dangerous pattern that nearly cost his family dearly.
“My brother was almost killed,” Trinklein said. “He was in the hospital a long time.”
Fritz’s then 25-year-old brother Hans was driving from his home to the family Thanksgiving gathering in Brookville in 1984 when a vehicle leaving the cider mill broadsided him. After recovering from the accident, Hans left his accounting job to become a Lutheran pastor and professor, and now works at a ministry in Indiana. Fritz, 71, is an entrepreneur.
In the decades since the accident, Fritz said, nothing has been done to make parking in the area safer.
“We always go by there, especially around Thanksgiving, very nervous, because of all those cars all along the road there, and moms are pushing baby buggies and old people are walking,” he said. “Meanwhile, cars are going 60 miles an hour past them.”
The mix of speeding traffic on the route no available off-road parking and crowded pedestrian crossings has made the attraction a longstanding safety concern for the community.
Muttontown Mayor James Ligouri, who was one of the elected officials Trinklein has reached out to in an effort to address the problem, acknowledged the chronic traffic problems in the area, especially around the holidays.
“It’s just the parking for it is right on 106 during busy times like now — at Thanksgiving and Halloween you just have enormous traffic, and there’s not adequate parking,” Ligouri said of the cider mill, which is known for 200 years of local apple and cider production. “It’s right on 106, so it’s always a safety issue.”
Trinklein said he believes there is a solution. For more than a year, he has pushed local and state officials to support the creation of a dedicated parking area on a preserve of county-owned land adjacent to the cider mill. The land, he noted, is unused and currently inaccessible to the public.
“The preserve there doesn’t have any parking, so the public really even can’t get to the preserve,” he said. “There’s no parking area for the preserve.”
Trinklein said he took the concept to county and state representatives, including Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, State Sen. Jack Martins, members of the Assembly, county staff members and Muttontown village officials. Trinklein added that he was told by Deputy County Executive Joe Muscarella that the county has committed to the project. Blakeman’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The proposed parking area, Trinklein explained, would allow visitors to enter and exit at an existing traffic light that serves Jericho High School, eliminating the need for pedestrians to traverse Route 106.
County officials, he said, told him the project would require clearing brush and leveling a small rise on the preserved property. The parking surface would consist of grass pavers similar to those in another section of the Muttontown Preserve.
“There’s another parking area that was put into another part of the preserve,” Trinklein said. “They put these pavers in — if you’ve seen them, grass kind of grows between the pavers. It’s a similar concept.”
State officials have warned that they may need to ban parking on the shoulder entirely because Route 106 is a state road. Trinklein said that such a decision would be devastating.
“They’re going to clamp down and not let anybody park on that shoulder because it’s so dangerous,” he said. “But that would be really deleterious to the cider mill, because there’s no parking. I didn’t want to advocate for closing down the cider mill for public safety.”
In conversations with residents and officials, Trinklein has countered that his proposal would not intrude deep into the nearby protected woods. He added that the lack of existing public access to the preserve undermines its purpose.
He also emphasized that although the project would use public funds in support of a private business, everyone stands to benefit by making parking nearby safer.
“The parking area is to serve the public if it’s in close proximity to the cider mill,” he said. “Really, what we’re trying to do is save lives.”
The safety issue, he stressed, is visible daily. He has used drone footage to show the extent of the traffic buildup, and during a recent visit to the site, he pointed out drivers darting across lanes to reach available shoulder space.
“See that guy, how he just came out and cut over to there?” he said. “That is a very dangerous move,” he said.
Trinklein said he never expected to lead a public safety initiative, but he firmly believes in preserving the cider mill. “We love the cider mill,” he said. “We want them to survive and to excel and grow. But there’s an impediment here, and there’s a solution to the impediment. And that’s why I got involved.”
