(Editor's Note: This letter was originally sent to Mayor George Graf and the Farmingdale Village Board of Trustees and is being reprinted here at the author's request.)

Well, as this is my third communication on the issue - imagine my continued frustration! I first contacted Public Works Superintendent Fred Zamparelle on July 30 regarding an existing drainage problem in front of our home on Prospect Street and suggested that the upcoming repaving project is the perfect time to correct a safety situation for my elderly parents. To my pleasant surprise I received both a telephone call from the superintendent, and a follow-up letter - how pleasant!

Then imagine my incredulous frustration that colleagues in attendance at the Aug. 7 village board meeting were the ones to inform me that the upcoming "pavement project" was in fact a complete redesign of Prospect Street which would involve "throating" or "bottle-necking" the road width (translation - narrowing the wide boulevard character of Prospect Street), rumble strips in front of the schools (to my knowledge there is only one "school" on Prospect Street which involves the St. Luke's Education building and preschool-K program), and traffic tables that will change the grade of the street to include inclines, tables at a higher elevation, and declinations (and just where is the grade of the sidewalks and curbs as all this grading is going on?). I learned more from the Farmingdale Observer article of Aug. 16, than I did from my gracious, but obviously useless, call from Superintendent Zamparelle or from his letter. Neither of which bothered to mention the extent of the already decided redesign project.

I promptly wrote to you on Aug. 9 asking for information to be fully shared with the local residents and concerned stakeholders, and in fact the Farmingdale Observer article quoted Trustee Christiansen as suggesting that once plans are finalized, all the residents affected receive an explanatory letter. "They should get a detailed sketch of what is going to be done," she was quoted in the Aug. 11 edition of the Observer.

So imagine my chagrin at the continued charade purporting to offer community outreach and participation with this letter signed by Village Clerk Dave Smollett, which excels only at saying nothing: "As you may have heard, the Village of Farmingdale was fortunate to have received a Traffic Calming Grant from the Federal government and administered by the New York State Department of Transportation. __The grant will enable the Village to install some of the latest traffic calming methods which are designed to slow down vehicles and help reduce cut-thru traffic problems (from Rt. 109 and Conklin St.) resulting in a safer environment for our children and residents. Plans for this exciting project are available to view here at Village Hall from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Work is expected to commence sometime this fall..."

That's it ... that's all he wrote and I certainly don't understand anything from Administrator's Smollet's letter much less it constituting the "detailed sketch of what is going to be done," suggested by Trustee Christiansen.

Well, that offer to view plans from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. just isn't realistic with my 12 hour plus work schedule getting on an early train, getting home late. So I turned to alternate sources - the village website - nope, nothing there, and the monthly village reports which, though I read them each month when they arrive in the mail, I thought I might have missed something, alas no.

So here it is, a month since my initial inquiry, and though I am no more informed than I was then, I am angered by this bogus attempt to "inform" the community. So just stop. Stop the charade; engage in a bona fide conversation. Post the plans including specific sketches of bottlenecks, traffic tables and rumble strips.

Explain to this community of walkers - adults and children who walk to school, to shops, to family, how these tables and rumble strips will be maintained through snow and ice in winter. Explain to the Farmingdale Bethpage Historical Society and its hundreds of members who care about the historical integrity of the village how this project does not represent a significant adverse change in community character for this neighborhood first laid out in a village plan at the start of the 20th century. Explain how this project is consistent with the architectural features of craftsman homes, homes with original fieldstone foundations, and homes to the original Main Street merchants and entrepreneurs including the Wolly's (Hardware) to the Rappaport's (Pharmacy), Kagan's (Men's Store), Cohen's (John's Bargain Store), and Stern's (Pickleworks) and former Village Counsel and Justice Gillies.

Explain how these bottlenecks will be located and spaced to ensure that MTA Able Para Transit buses will be able to safely collect or deliver seniors and physically disabled at their curbsides. Explain how bottlenecks and traffic tables will reduce or maintain on-street parking to which the neighborhood has become accustomed.

Explain how road bottlenecks will improve conditions that have nothing to do with traffic avoiding Rt. 109 and Conklin Street but are a reflection of the number of school children living in the neighborhood requiring bus stops for the elementary and high schools at nearly every corner, and the mini-buses and cars that deliver and collect hundreds of children at St. Luke's every day which both slow and exacerbate early morning and mid-afternoon traffic on Prospect Street every weekday, and explain the location of the bottlenecks relative to St. Luke's and bus queuing. Explain how any of this relieves or transports worshipers to the Farmingdale Christian Church and St. Luke's each Sunday. Explain to the homeowners how this design and future maintenance of Prospect Street will support or erode property values with the change in the visual vista along Prospect Street. Explain how safety for residents may be impacted by changed line-of-sight as they attempt to pull out of their driveway into a road no longer neatly aligned.

For all the claims that these road projects "have been discussed for years," I am unable to track the information from any reasonably accessible sources. So do it right - at not nearly the time or cost of the visioning process. Post the details, including drawings and all locations of street modifications on the village website. Conduct an accessible evening meeting with proper notification to the residents and concerned stakeholders.

This letter comes no longer with a request but a demand for adequate community information.

Jane E. Rubinstein