By Marley Seaman
West Hempstead, too, will be making improvements.
Fifteen Malverne streets will be affected in the first round of repairs, with work scheduled on a total of 2.5 miles of roads and parts of 14 intersections. The cost is expected to come to $1.9 million, with $1.6 million spent on road repairs, $178,000 on intersection work and $140,000 on engineering. Seven streets are also being targeted for work on drainage problems.
"Right now, the engineers are putting the specs together," said Mayor Anthony Panzarella. "It's the biggest capital project we've had in Malverne since I've been mayor."
Panzarella said that engineers have evaluated all of Malverne's roads in the last year, grading their condition from A to D minus. The roads deemed to be in the worst shape will be the first ones repaired; the first 15 received grades of C or lower.
Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby said that there were two repair targets in West Hempstead: a portion of Eagle Avenue between Woodfield Road and the Southern State Parkway, and parking field No. 3, near the site of the new West Hempstead library.
Some of the funds for the repair work will come from the state's Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPs). The Town of Hempstead received $209,000 from CHIPs this year, with $86,000 of that going to Malverne. Both of those numbers increased since last year, although Malverne is getting a slightly smaller proportion of the Town of Hempstead fund in 2006.
"This year's state budget was a very successful one," said Scott Cushing, a spokesman for Assemblyman Tom Alfano (R-21st District). "We were able to increase aid on a lot of things. The more aid and the more grants funding and things like that can come down to Malverne and West Hempstead, the less has to be laid out by taxpayers through county taxes."
Panzarella said that bidding on the road repairs would begin later this month. "Hopefully, the project will start in the latter part of July and go through the fall," he said.
Malverne aims to save money
Due to a combination of the state aid, new revenues from a soon-to-be-built cell phone tower and the retirement of older bonds, Panzarella said, Malverne residents will not have to pay higher taxes to fund the repairs.
The cell phone tower will stand in Harris Field at the south end of the village. Panzarella said it would bring Malverne $7,000 in revenue per month at first, and as much as $10,000 to $12,000 in the future. The 15-year bond for a previous road project has also been repaid, and is coming off the books this year.
In addition, the village is anticipating $100,000 in funds secured by state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-9th District). Panzarella said the village would use some of its budget surplus as well, but he hopes that more aid will become available in the future. "Every $100,000 is approximately 1 percent on our tax rate," he said. "If we get more, it'll even be better."
