In response to concerns from residents and businesses in the area, the New York State Department of Transportation has announced that they are modifying their plans for the intersection of Hempstead Turnpike and Wantagh Avenue. Now, rather than adding a right hand turn lane heading north and additional left turn lanes heading north and south, the DOT will only be adding the left turn lanes.

While the original plans called for as many as nine lanes at this intersection, the new plans include only seven lanes.

There were two main focuses to the protest against the expansion. With three pedestrian deaths on Hempstead Turnpike within a mile of the intersection in question in just over a month, pedestrian safety was a main concern. This concern was highlighted even further by the fact that Island Trees Middle School and High School are on Wantagh Avenue just south of Hempstead Turnpike, with many students having to cross that intersection each day. Also brought into question was the necessity to cut into the property of the Getty Station, Meineke Station, and the Wantagh-Levittown Ambulance Corps. which are all located just west of the intersection, on Hempstead Turnpike.

Hanna Harel, vice president of Meineke, was the leading force behind this effort. She attended an Island Trees School Board meeting this spring to make the district aware of the expansion plans, spoke to the PTAs, Chamber of Commerce, and concerned citizens about the safety concerns, as well as having constant contact with the DOT, New York State Senator Kemp Hannon, and New York State Assemblywoman Kathleen Murray, to find out exactly where the project stood and to make them aware of the concerns.

Harel; Murray; Phil Hecken, a representative for Hannon; Carl Bonsignore and Kathleen Safrey, president and vice president of the Island Trees Board of Education; Carol LoFaso, president of the Island Trees Council of PTA; Officer Lawrence Gilrain, of Nassau County Police's Eighth Precinct; and concerned citizens Raphael Fuentes and Rosemary Styne were on hand to hear the good news at a meeting held on Monday, designed to be a discussion about the Hempstead Turnpike project.

Following the announcement of the modifications Hannon released this statement, "Once the proposal was brought to my attention, I immediately questioned the need for such a large, precedent-setting project. Soon after, many residents and businesses also became concerned as well. There were many unanswered questions over the possible impact of the project, especially where safety is concerned."

Eileen Peters, a representative from the DOT's Regional Director's Office, in an interview following the announcement, stated, "As soon as concerns were raised, we met with everybody about the project to find out what their concerns were and we needed a little time to investigate what it was we could do to address those concerns." Upon studying the data they found that it would not be detrimental to the project not to include the right turning lane, but have also stated that in the future, if they find there is a safety concern because of the lack of a right turn lane, they will go back and make that addition.

"As with all of our projects, we balance their needs, residents' needs, any considerations that are brought to our attention and try to solve it as equitably and fairly as possible, with the caveat being that we are going to keep our eye on it and over the next several years, as we examine the intersection and see how it is operating, we may have to rethink this but for the time being we believe that it will not have a negative effect on the improvements," said Peters.

During the meeting on Monday, where the DOT's decision was officially announced, the topic of Wantagh Avenue and concerns about the traffic that may occur after Target is opened at that same intersection, were raised by Island Trees' representatives. Murray and Hecken listened to the concerns and told those gathered that they will discuss the issues raised with county and town officials. Wantagh Avenue is a county road, so, as state representatives, they have no control over it and the Target property is in the Town of Hempstead and therefore falls in the town's domain. Murray said that their concerns would be addressed in the future.

Also spoken about briefly, by Murray and Hecken, were the plans for the beautification of Hempstead Turnpike that all local officials have been working on with the DOT for the past year. Murray noted that now that the concerns about the expansion of the turnpike have been laid to rest and none of the businesses will lose their property, the beautification, which she described as "the fun part," can begin. Hecken noted, "When this is done it is going to be something. There will be medians with landscaping on it, it will be really special. When it gets done, we'll make sure, as best we can, that your suggestions are incorporated."

At the end of the meeting Harel stated, "I want to thank every single person at this table for their concern, for helping take care of this... This is a good community that will come together in times of need and you've all shown that." She noted that Murray and Hannon's office had been "incredible" with their expertise and help.

Hecken and Murray also commended Harel for all her work on this issue and Hecken noted that from the very beginning, they had seen that this project was too big and that nine lanes were too much. He added that this expansion to nine lanes would have set a precedent that nobody wanted.

Peters concluded, "We're very happy that we were able to work this out and balance all the different issues and we're very confident in our decision...So we hope everybody's happy with the decision. Hopefully when the project's all said and done it will be a case of all's well that ends well."