Do any Nassau County taxpayers care that they continue to fund the cost of paying residents of Quaker Meeting House Road in Farmingdale for the damage caused to their property by rainfalls even though the County is well aware of the problem?

Nassau County has admitted that it made mistakes the last time that it restructured Quaker Meeting House Road and that those mistakes cause the road's residences to incur flooding and damage as a result of water runoff from the road. In an Aug. 20, 2004 letter to Charles Stoll, Nassau County [Deputy County Executive for Parks and Public Works] Peter Gerbasi confirmed that the county has known of drainage problems faced by residents for 10 years. He asserted that the county had taken certain steps, including installing multiple "catch basins" on the road in an attempt to address the problem. Paradoxically, he also admitted that those very basins, which are touted as a "solution" in fact are not connected to any storm drainage system. Thus, they are just receptacles for water and debris, and when they become full (a routine occurrence), they simply overflow into the street and down our driveway (which is located at a lower grade than the street and the basin...thanks again to Nassau County's grading of the road).

On the bright side, Mr. Gerbasi's letter also stated that project was included in the county's 2005 Capital Plan to install "positive drainage system for the majority of Quaker Meeting House Road, ... with sufficient collection structures to handle a major storm." He closed by advising that he "expected" the survey and design to be done in 2005 and the construction in 2006. It is now 2007, and we are submitting our third claim (since mid-2005) to Nassau County for damage caused to our home and property by the uncontrolled runoff from the road. This typifies the waste of Nassau County taxpayers' funds that must be eliminated. Our neighbors face similar situations and likely also recoup money for their damages as well.

Quaker Meeting House Road may also sound familiar because it took four lives in two separate vehicular accidents between August 2005 and June 2006. Once again, Nassau County officials had actual and specific knowledge of the hazards posed to motorists using this road; I personally had written several letters explaining the exact nature of those hazards posed by the road, and asking for their help; Once again they did nothing. That still holds true today, in spite of a vow by State Senator Kemp Hannon to see that a traffic study be done on the road and that a stop sign be installed where Puritan Lane intersects Quaker Meeting House Road (the location of the triple fatality in June 2006). I can only assume that County officials (like the Ford officials of the 1970s with the Pinto) have decided that the potential pay-outs on any resulting wrongful death actions do not warrant spending the money to fix the road in the first place. Sounds familiar . . . and disheartening.

Would it not make more fiscal and humanitarian sense to solve the flooding and hazard problems once and for all?

Stacey Tranchina