Hewlett Harbor to "Attack" Road Issues

The board of trustees gave the go-ahead on a new proposal to fix its roads as issues come up instead of waiting for them to become bigger, saving taxpayers money, its mayor said.

"The idea now is to stop total deterioration by attacking the problem and addressing it before it becomes a bigger problem," Mayor Mark Weiss said at the board of trustees meeting on Tuesday. "It makes a lot of sense to do it this way given the cost of road construction."

The board awarded a bid to a road construction company to patch Hewlett Harbor's roads before any potholes or other road defects turn into problems that require repaving. Weiss said there are about 35 locations that need repairs. He added that the proposal is an "experiment" that other villages might want to consider trying.

"I don't think we should have perfection stand in the way of the very, very good," he said. "We're going to get the biggest issues dealt with."

Other issues discussed at the meeting:

• The trustees expressed concern that many people simply blow the stop signs in the village. "I want to put a sign on the stop sign that says, 'what part of this do you think is a suggestion?,'" Weiss joked. The trustees agreed to invite police officers to their next meeting to discuss the issue.
• The trustees said they would hold a public hearing on whether the village should interpret its law on house heights as 32 feet or 35 feet.
• The trustees debated the establishment of a village beautification committee, with Trustee Michael Yohai arguing that the board should instead focus on fixing its street signs issue. "We keep putting the street signs on the backburner," he said. "At what point do the streets signs become a priority?"
  
  Weiss said he doesn't think it's a choice between the signs or the committee. He added that money had been put aside for the signs, but that "Now we have a legislator who pulled the money from under us."

• Some residents who live on private streets have expressed interest in turning over the roads to the village government. Several trustees, including Tom Cohen, were concerned that the roads may not meet village standards. "We may be inheriting a headache," he said.
  
  But Yohai argued that the village must balance having a road that is in bad condition versus one it can maintain. Weiss said the board could vote on the issue at a future meeting when it hears from residents of the roads.