By Andrew Coen
According to Lawrence village trustee Martin Oliner, local elected officials have pledged support to provide funds to plant trees and possibly add lighting on Rockaway Turnpike in the village of Lawrence northward to Burnside Avenue in the un-incorporated area of North Lawrence, starting in the spring. Oliner said other plantings along Rockaway Turnpike, a state road, could be limited due to the many gas stations and commercial businesses that exist from Burnside to Rosedale, Queens, but that they will work for as many improvements as they can, such as new lighting.
"We're going to be looking at improvements all the way down the Nassau-Queens border," said Oliner. "It will be trees and any other gentrification that makes some sense."
Tom Dunham, a spokesman for State Senator Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said in the next few weeks the senator plans to meet with the State Department of Transportation and local officials to determine the scope of the project, and how the community can get involved. Dunham said the costs for the project are unknown but that Skelos is hoping a state grant could cover much of the beautification.
"It's a toilet over there," said Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) of how Rockaway Turnpike needs to be spruced up.
The improvements would also benefit the village of Cedarhurst, which is encompassed on the eastside of Rockaway Turnpike past the railroad tracks to the curb on the westside of the road. "I'd welcome any kind of beautification there," said Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise.
While much of the area of Rockaway Turnpike where the improvements would occur is in the un-incorporated section of Lawrence and village of Cedarhurst, Oliner feels as a trustee that beautifying the entire area around the village is important. "[Rockaway Turnpike] is sort of like the entrance to the village so you can't go by boundaries but you need to look at it as one big street," said Oliner. "We need to gentrify the village area as best we can."
The Rockaway Turnpike beautification plan also has the support of the Rosedale Civic Association. The Queens civic group has also worked with Lawrence village officials in an effort to institute a moratorium of large-scale construction projects on Rockaway Turnpike because of the congestion that currently exists along the highway that connects Queens and the Five Towns. Recently, village officials in conjunction with the civic group helped halt the planned construction of a new Super Stop & Shop supermarket off Brookville Blvd. in Rosedale.
"We are for appropriate development but we just don't want things done in a way that is negatively impacted," said Irnel Stephen, president of the Rosedale Civic Association. "The Rosedale Civic Association would be willing to cooperate [with the beautification of Rockaway Turnpike]."
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