She wants a traffic light at Island Trees school
Assistant Principal Cathleen Potorski wants a traffic light to help students cross Wantagh Avenue.
I am the assistant principal at Island Trees Memorial Middle School in Levittown and for 25 years I have been writing to legislators regarding the unsafe traffic conditions in front of our school on Wantagh Avenue near Hempstead Turnpike.
It’s dangerous. The speed limit is 30 and the traffic moves much faster. It is nearly impossible for students to cross the street. Sometimes, the cars often do not even stop for the crossing guard who has been struck twice.
We need a flashing yellow light in front of our school with a push button for pedestrians to turn the light red, but we’ve been told it would cost $100,000 and there is no funding for it.
Wantagh Avenue is a busy four-lane street as we saw on a recent weekday. Some drivers were reluctant to stop for crossing guard Theresa Joseph and beeped at her as she stood in front of them with her hand up, or drove around her.
But whether or not assistant principal Potorski is successful in her quarter-century quest for a traffic light depends on Nassau County, which controls all traffic devices between Queens and Suffolk.
Deputy County Executive Ian Siegel, who oversees parks and public works, said based on the last traffic study in 2000, the county decided a traffic light wasn’t needed. However, Siegel said a new survey will be done before the end of the school year. “We’re going to restudy it," he said, and the county will base its decision on traffic volume, accident rates in the area and pedestrian traffic.
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