Oyster Bay Town Councilman Tony Macagnone is leading by example. Instead of complaining about the parking problems in the hamlet of Oyster Bay, he is doing something about it. He is parking at Firemen's Field during the day, and not using his parking space. "It's a couple of hundred yards, big deal," he said.

Still it is part of a solution. For years people have been asking town hall employees to park in Firemen's Field to leave the stalls behind town hall open for shoppers. It hasn't been responded to positively, still, the councilman has decided to do it himself. "I don't ask anyone to do anything I wouldn't do," he said.

When you try to decide who is at fault about the parking it is hard to pinpoint the problem. For many years merchants have complained about town employees parking in the lot behind town hall and at the same time town employees have pointed their fingers back at the commercial entities saying they too park on the streets, often in front of their businesses.

"Every day, there's a Skybird, a white Volkswagen that is always parked in the street and the owner works in one of the shops," he said.

In the meantime, there is another space freed up in the lot behind town hall. "The board members' spaces are marked "B1-4. So B-4 is open for whoever gets there first," he said.

During the night he will park in his space behind town hall. "At night it's not usually crowded," he said.

When Mr. Macagnone heard that the stripes in the town hall parking lot are faded and hard to see, he said he will send off a letter to the board about them. Nothing has been done in the lot for more than 15 years, although the town had plans to change the configuration of the parking spaces several years ago.

That should be part of the Hamlet Plan. "I hope it will soon be approved. It was open for a 30-day comment period," said the councilman.