Left-turn arrow set for New Hyde Park street

In the words of Hazel Kaufman-Pachtman of New Hyde Park, "Victory is sweet." After more than four years of lobbying for a left turn arrow so drivers on Marcus Avenue in New Hyde Park could safely turn left to head west on New Hyde Park Road, Nassau County has agreed with her assessment.

We wrote about Mrs. Pachtman's persistence in trying to get the arrow in our May 2 column. She contacted us because she felt her request was being ignored since she had received no response from the county. The arrow, she said, would help many older residents who attend Project Independence meetings at the Clinton G. Martin Park and families that use the Town of North Hempstead pool there to make the left turn safely. Though Mrs. Pachtman said she'd made repeated requests to the county, Public Works Commissioner Shila Shah-Gavnoudias told us her department didn't know about the issue until March 2009. She couldn't tell us how long it would take to do the study needed to determine whether there should be an arrow, but when we called county spokesman Mike Martino for an update recently, he gave us the good news: "A left turn arrow will be installed on Marcus Avenue," he wrote in an e-mail. "We are having this designed and anticipate the design will be completed by the end of October." The county hopes to have the arrow in place by December or January, he said.

Of course, it's not done until it's done and we've seen other projects that have been put on hold after they've been approved. But we're hoping Mrs. Pachtman and other drivers who will benefit from that arrow won't have to wait too long before it's installed. Stay tuned.