East Williston is continuing work on a project to make its streets safer.
The village wants to install a sidewalk from North Side Elementary School on the south side of East Williston Avenue to Roslyn Road and a crosswalk near the village green to allow people to walk between it and Devlin Field more easily.
East Williston Mayor Bonnie Parente said the motivation behind both projects is to create a safer walking commute for residents, especially young school children and their parents.
“As a resident myself, I’ve been looking at these two issues for probably 20 years, since I first moved in,” Parente said. She said installing a sidewalk near the school is something that would support students.
“We want to make that a secure walking commute across Roslyn Road, so that children and their parents are safe,” Parente said.
She added that implementing a crosswalk near the village green was important for people to walk across the busy street in that part of the village safely. There’s currently a long stretch of road without any crosswalks, and, in some cases, if a person were to walk to the nearest one, they would be forced to walk along a stretch of road with no sidewalk.
Implementing one, however. will require state approval.
“We had always been told there were obstacles as to where a crosswalk could be placed. We continue to revisit it every few years,” Parente said. “The obstacle has always been that we’ve been told by New York State and other entities like the Long Island Railroad that we could not have a crosswalk so close to the railroad crossing.”
More recently, she said the village found it may be possible to work around state-imposed obstacles to create a crosswalk, which would, in turn, create a safer environment for those looking to cross to or away from the Devlin Field pickleball, baseball, and softball courts.
Parente said the village remains in the planning process for the project and hopes it will be underway by 2026.
