Community Watchdog

Maybe we're all too impatient.

We got a call from a woman in Lake Ronkonkoma who complained that for the past two years, a manhole cover at Barbara Road and David Lane in the Town of Brookhaven was set into the road too low. Passing cars kept hitting it like it was a pothole.

Our caller contacted the Town of Brookhaven highway department several times but was getting any response. Finally, last week, workers came and fixed the problem. Two years later.

Is that a reasonable response time? Maybe there were emergency situations that kept workers away for that long. Maybe two years is considered a short time period for municipal responses. What do you think?

Our Sunday column in Newsday focused primarily on conditions at the LIRR station in Hicksville. Judging by many of the comments posted with the story readers want to let off steam or just rag on other bloggers.

We appreciate feedback, but we''re also hoping to hear from commuters who have real issues with the LIRR station they use every day. That means we'd need your name, address and day phone number. The best way to do that is by email. Our address is watchdog@newsday.com. Let us know which station you use and what the problem is.

Thanks.

James Ryan wants to know why litter along an LIE service road in Nassau Couny is ever-present.
Newsday photo by Viorel Florescu

The westbound service road of the Long Island Expressway near Exit 41 is choked with debris. I called Nassau County numerous times last fall to get the debris removed. They cleaned up the area, but why can't the county have a crew maintain it?

--James Ryan, Oyster Bay

We got the county’s Department of Public Works to schedule a spring cleanup for the service road west of Robbins Lane.

But don’t expect the road to be maintained regularly yet. The county's contract with a California company that oversaw cleanup of the service roads expired last year and a replacement hasn't been hired, said Senior Deputy Commissioner Ray Stefanowicz.

The county’s LIE service roads had been maintained by Adopt-A-Highway Maintenance Corp. The county’s road maintenance crews have been handling grass-cutting and tree-trimming duties, but roadside debris goes uncollected “unless it gets to be outrageous,” Stefanowicz said. “We hope to have...things back to normal sometime this summer.”

To request debris cleanup for a county-owned road, call 516-571-6900

--MICHAEL R. EBERT

We're continuing to get complaints and problems by mail/email and many are about the same issues.

Old utility poles left behind after a new one has been installed is a common problem in Nassau and Suffolk.

Homeowners wonder why the street a block away has been repaved and theirs hasn't been touched. Or they want new sidewalks and curbs.

We try to vary the issues for the Sunday Watchdog column in Newsday (the issues are previewed here before they hit print), and hopefully, we'll get to your problem as soon as we can.

Please be patient. Feel free to send us a reminder email and let us know what you've done in the meantime, or whether there's been any change or improvement.