By:Joseph Kellard
Walking around Oceanside isn't easy for resident
Every time Rona Eimer of Oceanside walks to her neighborhood shopping centers she is faced with the possibility of another life-threatening accident.
Eimer, 45, was left disabled after a drunk driver on Hempstead Turnpike struck her car 22 years ago.
The collision put her into a coma for two months and barred her from ever operating a vehicle again. She now walks with a cane because of permanent neurological damage that impaired her equilibrium and destroyed flexibility in her right ankle. Her left eye's peripheral vision was also destroyed as a result of the accident.
I was 24-years-old and in the prime of my life when it all went down the drain,she said half-joking.
However, her disability doesn't stop her from going out and doing some of the same things she did before the accident, but sidewalks, or lack there of, do.
While she can walk without much trouble to the Kohl's shopping center around the corner from her Ocean Cove residence, getting to the Sands shopping center across the street is difficult, and dangerous. Once across Long Beach Road, Eimer is forced to walk along the narrow shoulder of the street that runs from the traffic light. Instead of a sidewalk, a narrow dirt path stretches for approximately 10 yards, which for someone like Eimer can be even more hazardous than walking on the street.
Two weeks ago Eimer and her husband, James, asked Councilman Anthony Santino (R-East Rockaway) to have this and two other areas near their Ocean Cove residence paved.
Instead of risking a fall along a 1,600 foot stretch of grass which exists between the corner of Daly Boulevard, Eimer cuts across the Waldbaum's parking lot to get to Long Beach Road.
And a narrow dirt path from the bottom of the hill on Lawson to the corner of Daly is her only alternative to the street and that's a route she was only willing to take once.
You have to pray no one hits you,she said.
In response to her and her husband's request, Eimer said, Santino told her that those areas are not town property and therefore can't be addressed by the town. Either the county or state, he said, was responsible for sidewalks along those roads.
However, Ray Ribeiro, assistant director of traffic engineering for Nassau County, said Santino faxed Nassau County a letter regarding Eimer's concerns.
Ribeiro said Nassau County's Department of Public Works is currently looking into who owns the properties and the original road plans.
Generally, he said, sidewalks are the responsibility of the property owner, and Nassau County does not usually lay sidewalks unless it performs construction that requires the previous sidewalks be torn apart.
Who ever owns that smaller stretch of property between the bus stop and Stop & Shop, whether Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead, or a private owner, we can probably take care of that, whether it's putting down asphalt or concrete,Riberio said.
Laying sidewalks on the longer stretches of property, he indicated, would be a job Nassau County would be less likely to perform. We will have to look into all of this further,he said.
