By:Scott Brinton
Hempstead Town Councilman Gary Hudes (R-Levittown) is looking into residents' traffic concerns at the Brookside School in North Merrick, after a couple raised them during last month's Central School District meeting.
Linda and John Taft of North Merrick told the Central Board of Education that accidents and near-misses outside the Brookside School, which lies across from their home, have posed a danger for years. The trouble is that cars speeding over the bridge just to the north fail to see the school in time to slow down.
The couple got fed up with the traffic hazard when two cars recently collided at the Brookside School's north entrance/exit, sending one vehicle into the Taft's front yard, smashing two family cars. No injuries were reported.
Hudes has sent the matter to the Town of Hempstead Traffic Department. Meadowbrook Road, where Brookside is, belongs to the town.
Hudes, however, said Nassau County might get involved in the matter, because schools are the county's jurisdiction. Right now, the town Traffic Department is trying to determine whether Brookside is, in fact, considered a school. It houses Central administrative offices, as well as offices for community groups and a day-care and senior center. School programs for students from throughout Bellmore-Merrick are regularly held at Brookside, though.
Hudes believes Brookside will be labeled a school, meaning Nassau County will conduct the traffic study there. Signage may be needed to warn approaching motorists of the school, he said. There are no signs now. Hudes also said that Brookside's north exit might need to be closed.
No matter who conducts the traffic study, the Town of Hempstead must carry out its recommendations, Hudes said.
Linda Taft said she would stay on the issue until action is taken. "We really are not going to let this go," she told the Central School Board during a meeting May 2.
Dr. Thomas Caramore, Central superintendent, said he wanted to clarify remarks he made at the April school-board meeting. He had said he was unaware of any accidents outside the Brookside School. This month, he said he was addressing only the accident called into question by the Tafts. Caramore said he knew of two accidents outside Brookside over the years.
Because the street falls outside the Central district's purview, he said district officials are not aware of what goes on in the street outside Brookside unless an accident occurs involving a district student.
In fact, Caramore said he did not know about the accident Linda Taft spoke of until she raised it at the school-board meeting. "I was not aware of what you were even talking about at the time," he told Taft last week. The accident, he said, did not involve Central students, but elementary-district children.
