By Hector Flores
"We¹ve always had ... water pooling," she said. "These water pools cause the concrete on the curbs to crack and fall apart."
Occhipinti said that she began to notice the deterioration of her street 10 years ago, when the town started doing patching in front of her home. "[The town] did some work to fix the crumbling, which originated from water erosion," she said.
According to Occhipinti, the conditions on her block worsened five years ago, when a water main broke in front of her house. "Ever since then it has just gone downhill," she said.
The Town of Hempstead has come to Occhipinti's house at least three times to do patch work on her corner. The work is intended to fix the water damage to the concrete, but to her dismay, the cracking persists. "The street has been patched a few times," she said. "The patch work is supposed to prevent the pooling of water, which gets under the concrete and lifts up the apron."
Occhipinti added that after every winter and summer the cracks continue to grow. She believes that the constant erosion has created an uneven road, on which puddles of water form after heavy rains. The work done by the town has failed to halt the deterioration of her street.
"I'm grateful for the work they¹ve done, but we need a permanent solution," she said.
Occhipinti is not alone. Her neighbor, Regina McCarthy, who moved to East Meadow three years ago, said that part of her street and driveway also floods, but she is more concerned with the conditions of her curb, and said that her children have occasionally tripped over the cracks. "I have two small children," she said. "One is 3 years old and the other is 15 months, and my 3-year-old daughter is always tripping on the sidewalk. I find that with the stroller, I have to walk into the street in order to avoid the bumpy areas on the sidewalk."
Although McCarthy fears for the safety of her children, she worries about two of her neighbors, who have disabled sons. Dolly Aulicino, who lives on Douglas Drive, has a son with muscular entropy, and said that she has to walk down the sidewalk to where it's almost flush with the street to maneuver his wheelchair into the street.
Aulicino's neighbor Nancy Stanley, whose son is also wheelchair-bound, said that the situation annoys him, because he has to go to a neighbor's driveway in order to cross the street. "The street has always been a problem," she said. "The water puddle in front of my driveway has eaten away my curb and my driveway apron. It has made it difficult for my son to go down the driveway on his wheelchair or to get out of our [wheelchair-accessible] van."
Asking the town for help
In June, Occhipinti and her neighbors brought their concerns to Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray during a community meeting held by the Community Association of Stewart Avenue. Murray was the association's featured speaker.
"It's annoying," Occhipinti said. "We had a meeting and we addressed many of the issues, including the cracked curb, and nothing has happened. It's disheartening. You try to keep your house nice, property value high and home beautiful, and here you have to deal with flooded streets and cracked curbs."
Occhipinti said that she finally contacted the Town of Hempstead in July, and received a letter from Thomas Toscano, the town¹s commissioner of highways, that read, "Please be advised, the matter will be investigated by our department. Resolution of this problem will take time, as the town is responsible for the maintenance of approximately 1200 miles of roadway and we receive many such complaints from our residents. We therefore request your patience and assure you that we will take corrective action, if necessary, as soon as possible."
Despite the letter, Occhipinti feels that nothing will be done. "The street has been repaired numerous times and it's still not fixing the problem," she said. "If the roads were properly and fully repaired, we wouldn't be in the predicament that we are in now with the damaged curbs."
Town's road improvement project
Occhipinti added that Taylor Avenue, from Beech Street to Hempstead Turnpike, has recently received a facelift. "Taylor has been done," she said. "It¹s only blocks from my house, and it has received new streets and curbs, but between here and there it's worse."
According to the town's Web site, the improvements done to Taylor Avenue are part of an ongoing Road Improvement Project currently under way in Baldwin, Uniondale, Merrick, East Meadow and Oceanside. In East Meadow, the area bounded by Fairview Avenue, Cedar Street, and portions of Beech Street and Taylor Avenue is slated for repairs.
Susan Trenkle, spokeswoman for the Town of Hempstead, explained that the Road Improvement Project is a multi-year, $100 million roadway and infrastructure improvement project. "Those who are in most need of repair will receive the highest priority," she said.
Trenkle added that each town council member receives the list of streets to review, but in the Douglas Drive case, the complaint was not received by Councilman Gary Hudes. Instead it was sent to the town's department of highways.
"They received a complaint about pooling which can only be examined during heavy rains," Trenkle said. "But since we received the other complaints about the condition of the curb, an inspector [from the highway department] was sent out today [Aug. 8]."
Trenkle added that if the inspector finds that patching would not fix the problem, it would be referred to the engineering department, and an engineer would investigate the site and determine the extend of the problem and where it would fit on the priority list.
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
