By Andrew Coen
A road-raising and drain-installation project two decades in the making is under way for the waterfront community, next to Jamaica Basin, which county officials hope will solve many of the flooding problems that have plagued the community during rain storms and high tides.
"It is definitely needed," Zerbe said following an April 28 informational meeting on the project. "I love it." The meeting, held at the Meadowmere Park Fire Department headquarters, covered what residents can expect from the project, which officially began Monday.
The long-awaited project, which has been in the planning stages since 1985, will raise the roads 6 1/2 inches and include the installation of street and yard drains, all of which officials hope will be completed in a year. Currently, the community has valves at East and West avenues and West and Meyer avenues, which, residents complained, have sprung leaks over the years.
The start of the project comes four years after the Nassau County Legislature approved a map showing the real property and working easements the county would need to acquire to raise the roads in the community. The county had allocated around $7 million for the undertaking.
Joanne Waters, who has lived in Meadowmere Park for 32 years, said she was relieved to finally see the road-raising project become a reality after spending some of her own money to contain the flooding when storms have done major flood damage to her property. "We've been waiting 20 years for this to happen," said Waters. "Everyone [has felt] insecure."
The first phase of the year-long project features the installation of a concrete pipe and structures along East Avenue, Bayview to West avenues, and along West Avenue and Baker Avenue.
During this phase, which officials estimate will take four to six weeks to complete, West Avenue traffic will be detoured at Baker, with two-way traffic continuing on East Avenue. While work is being done, from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, residents will have to move their cars to other parts of Meadowmere Park or leave them in the large parking lots along Rockaway Turnpike, officials said.
The second phase of the road-raising project will feature work on the roadways, starting on West Avenue and South Street, with additional street work from West Avenue to Bayview, Bayview to East Avenue and East Avenue to Russo Avenue, project officials said.
Those officials, who spoke at the meeting before a standing-room-only crowd, said they would make sure adequate notice was given to residents about when crews would be working, to avoid confusion. "There will not be a situation where, at 7 in the morning, we will knock on your door," said John Mangino, the chief inspector for the project.
Project officials stressed that at some point, all residents would be inconvenienced, but they would try to minimize it as much as possible. "We'll try to limit [the inconvenience], but it can't be completely avoided," said Mangino.
Nassau County recently completed a similar road-raising project in the Bay Park section of East Rockaway, which, according to Mangino, has been a success thus far. "The flooding is gone and it's a much better situation," he said.
Some residents expressed concern about the county's installing yard drains on their property, claiming that they live in an area of Meadowmere Park not affected as much by flooding. However, officials at the meeting urged residents not to reject the drains, since the county would not be responsible for any damages that were to occur if the drains weren't installed. The drains would become the lowest point on each property, according to officials, with around 76 new structures in a community of about 90 homes.
Once the road-raising project is complete, all roads in Meadowmere Park would be under the jurisdiction of the Town of Hempstead. Currently, East and West avenues are controlled by Nassau County. Longtime Meadowmere Park resident Eric Galati said he has no problem with the project, but expressed concerns in a phone interview about what would happen once the Town of Hempstead took control of all the roads in the community. "One wants to make sure that the town government is just as responsible as the county," said Galati.
Once the project is completed, the Town of Hempstead will maintain all regular street drains, but the yard drains will be the homeowners' responsibility, officials said.
Officials hope to finish the project in a year, but have until October 2006 to complete it.
Comments about this story? ACoen@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
