This probably comes as a surprise to many of you but the Village does not own Main Street, Nassau County does. I don’t know how that came to pass, but it is a fact. They have approached the Village many times over the years asking to divest itself of the road and the responsibilities associated with that ownership. The prior proposals never seemed to be to our advantage.
The Board and I believe the latest proposal returns Main Street to excellent condition correcting the flooding issues in numerous locations, creating new curbs and aprons north of the RR tracks and the remainder of brick and concrete walks will be replaced. This would complete a large portion of our “Streetscapes” project.
Owning Main Street allows us local control of the heart of our Village. With our soon to be released updated Master Plan the Board will be considering some parking changes, traffic calming, and other traffic measures to make Main Street safer for car traffic and pedestrians alike.
We would have been required to “Ask Permission” for even the simplest request. That is one of the reasons we never painted stalls after the relating work two years ago. The County requires 23’ stalls when we wanted 18’ ones. We would have lost a significant number of parking spaces if we did what the County required.
I personally want to thank Legislator Joe Belisi and County Executive Ed Mangano for this latest proposal. We will keep you informed after we get the final plans and details.
Mayor George “Butch” Starkie
Village of Farmingdale
