“I’d love to say, ‘Let’s do this tomorrow,’ but we aren’t a private industry,” said Ford. “I’m pushing for 
September, at the latest, for the study to start.”
The county has yet to post a request for proposal, which companies would have about four weeks to respond to with bids for the project, which was earmarked for $500,000. The study is needed to survey the traffic on the road so officials from the Nassau County Department of Public Works can determine the traffic flow patterns and how to improve the roadway.
Senior deputy commissioner for the county’s Department of Public Works, Raymond Stefanowicz, said the county would likely post the job before the end of May. Once a bid is chosen, it could take two or three months for the legislature to vote to approve a contract for hire.
The $500,000 reserved for the study also includes some preliminary design concepts, said Stefanowicz, who estimated the project – which could include medians on the nearly two mile long and seven lane wide county road – could cost about $4.5 million.
“Construction is at least a year or two away,” said Stefanowicz, who indicated the traffic study would take at least a year to complete because the road would need to be studied during all seasons – especially the summertime with heavy beach-going traffic and during the school year. “There is a lot of data to collect.”
As the study progresses, Ford and Stefanowicz said residents of Island Park will be asked to attend public hearings to discuss any proposed design concepts.
Ford said some of the businesses on Austin Boulevard may be concerned about the impact some proposed changes, like medians, could have on their customers.
“We had meetings for Lido with 200 to 300 people that wanted [medians] and once the work started, I got complaints,” said Ford. “So we have to have more public meetings for people to raise their concerns.”
Vice President of the Island Park Civic Association, Laura Hasset, also raised concerns the group had about the absence of Austin Boulevard from a preliminary county list, released in 2007, of possible sites for red-light cameras, which snap photos of a motorist’s license plate if they run a red light. The state recently gave the county authorization to install 50 cameras at high-risk intersections. Two intersections crossing Long Beach Road in Oceanside were named: Mott Street and Daly Boulevard.
“People all over die on Austin Boulevard,” said Hasset, “It doesn’t discriminate.” She said that Austin Boulevard has an accident every two and a half days and it should be taken into consideration by the county as a high-risk area.
Stefanowicz said that state criteria determine which roads are eligible for the cameras and that Austin Boulevard may be ineligible because a portion of the road falls under the jurisdiction of the Village of Island Park.
“We have to adhere to state criteria,” said Ford, who added that the list the county issued in 2007 is preliminary and subject to change. She said that she will review the criteria to determine if Austin Boulevard is eligible, however some people in the community are opposed. “I’m already getting calls from people who don’t want them,” said Ford.
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liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 269.
The three women who sit behind the long table at the front of the Island Park Public Library’s second-floor meeting room on the second Tuesday of every month appear quiet and unassuming.
Accidents are frequent occurrences on the notoriously treacherous street, and there has been more than one death over the years.