By JOSEPH KELLARD
Toback, along with County Executive Tom Suozzi and former Legislator Michael Zapson, are the only individuals recognized by name on the plaques, having provided the initiative and finances for a project that was a long time coming.
³This is truly proof that good things come to those who wait,² Toback told a modest crowd at a ceremony celebrating the revamped triangle area at Long Beach Road and Davison and Lincoln avenues last Saturday morning.
The triangle was home to a county police booth before an errant driver destroyed the structure in May 2001. Just over seven years after that accident, and about 10 years after plans to refurbish the area were originally conceived, there now stands a 25-foot-tall lighthouse, a boat that serves as a planter, pilings, a new evergreen tree and a flag pole. ³Out of the rubble of that accident stands this monument,² Toback said.
In addition to the firefighters and government officials, the plaques honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, houses of worship, veterans and service organizations.
Bob Towers, president of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce and a lifelong Oceansider, recalled the triangle of his boyhood. ³I remember the triangle as representing the center of the community,² Towers said, noting that there was a cannon there in the 1940s.
The triangle has become something of a landmark, thanks to its central location in town and its historic ties, having been the site of trolley stop 102 in centuries past. The site was the turnaround point for a trolley line that started in Jamaica, Queens, and ran through Lynbrook and down Woods Avenue.
About a decade ago, Towers¹s wife, Kathy, and her friend, Ceil Rockefeller, chatting about how to upgrade the business district in town during a Chamber luncheon, thought of putting a trolley car, a clock or a watchtower at the triangle. But none of these seemed quite right, and Kathy wanted something that would say ³Oceanside,² something nautical and with a home-town feel.
³We all agreed that a lighthouse was appropriate for the business district,² Kathy told the crowd.
A former graphics designer, Towers drew up the original plans for the site, which is county property, though the Chamber has maintained it and held various events there over the years. But not until the accident destroyed the police booth, one of several crashes at the site, did a movement gain ground to refurbish the area.
Toback and Zapson secured about $100,000 to renovate the triangle and for a new police booth, which was built in a Town of Hempstead parking lot across from the Oceanside Library on Davison. Oceanside architect Dove Hadas volunteered his time to draw up the engineering designs.
At first, the renovations were expected to begin at the end of 2002. But in addition to delays with the engineering designs, the project was more complicated than originally imagined, with various electrical conduits underground that had to be dealt with. In recent years, the color the lighthouse would be painted also became a bone of contention.
With a solid stone base, the lighthouse was erected first, strategically located so motorists heading southbound on Long Beach Road would be more likely to notice that the road forks and thus less likely to drive into the triangle. Over the subsequent couple of years, the other features were added.
At Saturday¹s ceremony, Ray Riberio, the county¹s commissioner of public works, wearing a lighthouse lapel pin like everyone else, said, ³Projects like this never go as smoothly as we want it to go.² Riberio, joined by Deputy County Executive Peter Gerbasi, also praised Toback, calling him ³the glue that held all our efforts together. ... Without him I¹m not sure this project would have ever come about.²
Kathy Tower, who has lived in Oceanside since she was 7, briefly recounted the history of both the triangle and the Liberty Lighthouse project, mentioning the many people involved, including Linda Kass of the Oceanside Kiwanettes and Bob Transom, president of Oceanside Community Service, who turned the boat into a planter ‹ which also holds a sign that reads ³Welcome to Oceanside, Est. 1871.²
Another sign, in the form of a ship¹s helm, reads, ³Oceanside Liberty Lighthouse, Oceanside Chamber of Commerce,² and will be mounted on the lighthouse.
Chamber member Maria Heller presented a plaque in honor of Kathy Tower, ³with grateful appreciation² for her efforts in the project.
With the triangle finally refurbished, the Chamber vows to return to holding events there, often in conjunction with other organizations, including a holiday celebration with the evergreen decorated for Christmas.
Al Argo, 80, who remembers visiting his aunt and uncle in Oceanside when he was a boy, before he moved to town many years later, said, ³I thought the ceremony was better than excellent. Everything they said is true.²
³I can¹t believe it¹s been five or so years since the accident,² said Ceil Marcus, an Oceanside resident of 35 years. ³But now this triangle is very beautiful.²
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
Photos by Ron Manfredi/Herald
