1966-01-13

              .- n O
feni Farmingdale. Public Library
l » S ^ Y. 11735
AN OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF FARMINGDALE
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SERVING GREATER FARMINGDALE. BETHPAGE A MELVU_ LE
Vol. 2 No. 21 Second Class Postaae has been paid at Farmingdale, N. Y. 11735 Thursday, January 13, 1966
Officials Study Conklin
Street Traffic Lights
Farmingdale Village Trustees Norman Krasnow,
Willis B. Carman and John O. Wagner Jr., along
with Superintendent of Public Works Newman and
Village Clerk James McKenna met with A. Clen-aghan
and an engineer from the New York State
Department of Public Works last Wednesday to
discuss the problems of the traffic signals located
at the Clinton Street intersection with Conklin
Street. Lt. John Blenn of the Nassau County Police
Department Traffic Bureau was also on hand.
It was discovered that the tripper on Clinton
Street was malfunctioning and it was necessary
to advise motorists waiting in line for the light
to function that they should proceed onto Conklin
Street with caution* „£ lenaghan indicated th£*. the
contract for installation had as yet not been approved
by his office and was therefore the responsibility
of the contractor to periodically inspect the instal­lation.
He agreed also that a " No Left Turn"
sign should be suspended from the signals as
the same curbside sign is difficult to see from the
outside lane of traffic. It was pointed out to him
also that ft was practically impossible for some:
residents in that area to enter their driveways
because parked cars blocked the driveways while
awaiting the light to change. He promised to in­vestigate
the condition.
School Redisricting Poses
No Opposition Page 7
Traveling eastward on Conklin
Street, there is a green arrow
provided for a protected left
turn onto Clinton Street and while
the arrow is thus shown, motor­ists
can safely make such left
turn as traffic going westerly is
stopped by a red signal. However,
when the arrow is not showing,
it means that westbound traffic
on Conklin Street has a green
light to proceed and anyone wish­ing
to make a left turn on to
Clinton Street must do so with
care, being sure to have direct­ional
signals on their car in
operation to warn oncoming dri­vers
of their intent. Clenaghan
indicated that no change is con­templated
in this signal arrange­ment
and the driving public must
educate themselves to the fun­ctional
use of this signal.
Also discussed was the problem
of pedestrians crossing this
area by reason of continuous
flow of traffic easterly on Conk­lin
Su- eet, *. nd Clenaghun noted
that at the time such traffic con­trols
were in the engineering
stage, several surveys were
made in die area to determine
the pedestrian count, and during
such surveys, no more than an
average of eight persons at­tempted
to cross this highway
in an eight hour period. Con­versely,
at least two thousand
cars were clocked on an aver­age
during the same periods. The
New York State Department of
Public Works reasoned that the
light cycles at Fulton and Conk­lin
Streets provided die average
number of pedestrians sufficient
opportunity to cross this street
at any given time of the day with­out
undue danger, as visibility at
this point is excellent in both
directions.
The Village officials again
brought up the matter of pro­viding
left turn signals from
Fulton Street east and west onto
Merritt Road north and south.
It was the opinion of the engineer
that such was now possible in
view of the new black top pav­ing
which could be painted to
provide lanes for the left turns.
This will be investigated and re­commendations
made. There is a
possibility also that parking of
vehicles along the north side of
Fulton Street, from Conklin
Street intersection westerly to
Merritt Road may be prohibited
from three to six p. m. to pro­vide
a three lane artery for
westbound traffic. This will most
likely be discussed by the Board
of Trustees and die residents in
the area in t\ e near future.
Pay Tribute To Jesse Merritt
The late Jesse Merritt, of 20
Merritt Road, Farmingdale,
former Nassau County Historian,
was honored this past week by
the Nassau County Historical So­ciety
when a recently painted
oil portrait of Merritt was put
on display in the reference room
of the Nassau County Historical
Museum at Salisbury.
Mrs. Pat Sowecke of Glen Cove,
painted the oil portrait, which
will grace the Merritt Memorial
Library where the Nassau County
Historical Society's books are
housed. The collection of books
and documents was named
in honor of Merritt.
Merritt served as County His­torian
from 1937 till the time
of his death in 1957. He served
as the only Nassau County His­torian
and upon his death, his
functions were turned over to
the Nassau County Historical
Museum's staff.
At one time Merritt served
as Clerk. to the Nassau County
Board of Supervisors.
He was responsible for re­activating
the Nassau County His­torical
Society and served as
Town of Oyster Bay Historian
and Village of Farmingdale His­torian.
His daughter, Mrs. Andre Hub­bard,
is a charter member and
one of the officers of the newly
chartered Farmingdale- Beth-page
Historical Society.
Farmingdale Village officials are pictured as they met on,
Wednesday of last week with County, State and Police officials
regarding the traffic light regulations on Conklin Street.
Nicholas Myer, ( left), President Nassau County Historical
Society presents a portrait of the late Jesse Merritt, Nassau
County Historian from 1937 to 1957, to Edward J. Smits, Cur­ator
of the Nassau County Historical Museum, to be hung with
the Jesse Merritt memorial collection in the Museum's library.