Bayville has plan to beautify its entryway

Bayville looks tired.

The waterfront village's prime entryway, with faded crosswalks, rough roadways and unadorned or misaligned sidewalks, isn't sending the message leaders would like.

"You want to get the feeling you're entering into something," said Mayor Doug Watson.

With that goal, village officials plan to start a $1-million streetscape improvement project through an eight-block radius around Bayville and Ludlam avenues, north of Bayville Bridge. The work, recently put out for bid, includes planting trees, installing new benches, and building new sidewalks and a bricked median for a still-unchosen outdoor sculpture.

The project's centerpiece is to be colorful inlaid crosswalks surrounding a compass and rose design built into the Bayville/Ludlam intersection. Working with Manhattan-based Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, the village adopted the idea from similar efforts in downtown Patchogue.

"It will lend itself to the idea that you should be walking here," Watson said.

Nassau to help fund project

The village borrowed $985,000 for the project, supplementing it with a $40,000 Nassau County landscaping grant. Officials expect the work to take four to six months.

Simultaneously, the county will remove its old police booth at the northern corner of the project area and build a new one closer to the drawbridge. The new structure will have stone work mimicking that of the iconic bridge from Mill Neck.

The county expects to spend $210,000 to destroy the existing police booth, clean the site and build the new structure.

"The work may be a little bit of an imposition, but it's worth it in the long run," said Jean Mansueto, a real estate agent whose office sits on the corner of Bayville and Ludlam avenues. "The aesthetics will be wonderful."

Bayville's work continues a streetscaping trend among Long Island's villages and hamlets. Last year, Oyster Bay committed $3 million to street improvements in central Hicksville and later this spring will spend almost $6 million repairing the road leading into Syosset's transit district.

Mineola devotes a $200,000 grant each year to new street lighting, paving and planting, as it hones what smart-growth advocates have called a model of downtown redevelopment.

Adding value to businesses

"Those types of place-making enhancements add value to the commercial strip," Eric Alexander, Vision Long Island's executive director, said of Bayville's project. "It's not like there's vacant property they can redevelop in an aggressive manner, but they're doing what they should be doing."

The work will complement a 1999 project that converted an old gas station on the southeastern corner of Bayville and Ludlam avenues into a brick pedestrian mall with benches and a lamppost clock. On a recent afternoon, that's where longtime resident Aileen Potter encountered Watson.

She expressed surprise that the sidewalks, from the early 1980s, would be replaced.

"You don't think they're in good shape?" Potter asked.

"Well, there's a little more to it than that," the mayor replied.

Later, Potter said she understands the motivation to make the area more attractive.

"There really aren't many pedestrians here," she said.

While most of the nearby storefronts are occupied -- including a luncheonette, real estate office and deli -- getting around between them is difficult. Watson joked that, on one side of the street, "you hang on for dear life."