The Mineola Village Board secured the final piece of New York state-owned land that’s been subject to the long, drawn out Long Island Rail Road Grade Crossing Elimination Project encompassing Roslyn Road last week. The rail road had earmarked pieces of land near train tracks on Roslyn Road for usage prior to its raising.
The village board had announced a plan in 2013 to begin plans to acquire land pledged by the State Department of Transportation.
“This has been a long time coming,” Mayor Scott Strauss said. “We did this once before. I have to commend and thank Senator [Jack] Martins, who’s been championing our cause and [village clerk] Joseph Scalero, as well as the [village] attorney’s office.”
The last piece of property sits at the southwest corner of Second Street and Roslyn Road across from The Black Sheep. Village officials said the plot would be converted into metered parking.
“The state had promised to dedicate certain lands to us,” village attorney John Gibbons said. “I know it’s taken a long time, but we now have the final piece of the puzzle.”
The DOT also offered a parking lot located behind Fox’s department store on Main Street, south of the railroad tracks. A third parcel includes the northwest and southwest corners of Roslyn Road and Front Street.
“We’re committed to the parking lot [near The Black Sheep],” Strauss said. “We’re going to maximize the use of the property.”
A fourth parcel, including part of Hinck Way, which was constructed as part of the project, runs east and west between Willis Avenue and Roslyn Road just north of the raised railroad trestle.
The final property is South Station Road, which is west of the Mineola Boulevard bridge and runs from All Island Taxi to Third Street.
“We’ve had control of most of these properties, with the exception of the lot [near The Black Sheep] and we’ve been doggedly trying to get it, certainly since I came into office and I’m assuming before,” Strauss said.
Grade-crossing elimination throughout Nassau County had been nothing short of controversial. The Herricks Road crossing on the west end of Mineola has been debated dating back to 1982. Nine teenagers had been killed when their van was struck by a train at the now defunct rail road crossing, after the van’s driver went around lowered gates. That crossing, which had once been named the most dangerous in the country by the National Transportation Safety Board, prompted the LIRR to raise the track in 1994.
