By Brian Zanzonico
, town and county officials announced plans July 31 to chip in $40,000 to hire two consulting firms to create a plan to improve Hempstead Turnpike from Belmont Raceway to the Franklin Square border.
The $80,000 in combined grants will pay Sustainable Long Island, a not-for-profit economic and environmental group, and White Plains-based Saccardi & Schiff to develop a blueprint for the nearly three-mile stretch of Hempstead Turnpike. Possibilities for the plan, which County Executive Tom Suozzi said will be created with the future in mind, include housing for seniors and young people, a supermarket, more establishments that evoke Elmont's downtown of yesteryear - a blight study of the theater is under way, with an eye toward redeveloping it - and less of the 99-cent-type stores that now dot the area, like the one on Hempstead Turnpike and Elmont Road where the theater used to be.
Officials urged the residents who were on hand to spread the word to their neighbors that community input into the plan can be offered at education workshops on Sept. 5, 10 and 18 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Elmont Memorial Library. The firms' vision will be presented to the Elmont community in October.
"We've got a team to try to develop a long-term vision for Elmont," Suozzi said. "Elmont has assets, people from different backgrounds and cultures, people who have been here five generations and five years who don't want more fast food or drug stores that cause more traffic. These are two firms to shepherd us through the process and lay out a vision everyone can agree on."
Patrick Nicolosi, president of the East End Civic Club, said that if the county and town are going to invest in Elmont, they must do more to protect that investment. "If we don't beef up code and law enforcement, park benches, street lamp posts and other beautification projects will be money wasted," Nicolosi said. "Just look at Meacham Avenue. What a waste of money. Why clean up an area and then watch it slowly deteriorate?"
Joyce Stowe, president of the Elmont Community Coalition Council, said residents should take advantage of the opportunity to help create the type of community they imagined it would be when they moved here. "I have quite a bit of interest in this, and I'm going to see to it that it goes forward," Stowe said.
After years of talk about the county and town committing to improving Elmont's business district, Town Supervisor Kate Murray called the announcement "an historic occasion," one that, coupled with its being named last year one of the state's Empire Zones, which offer tax incentives to new and expanding businesses, marks the beginning of a new life for the 32,000-resident neighborhood.
"This is where the rubber hits the road," Murray told the Herald.
In addition to Elmont, the town and county will each contribute $40,000 in economic grants to Baldwin, Roosevelt and Inwood.
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