Lights back on along stretch of Route 25A

Drivers on Northern Boulevard know too well that, after darkness falls, the only illumination along some stretches of the road comes from headlights. But reader Mary Harkins of Bayville recently notified Watchdog that the road had grown even darker.

Specifically, she pointed to sections between Glen Cove Road and Route 106 that had seen brighter nights.

"I travel this road Mon.-Fri.," Harkins wrote in an email last month, "and the lighting has noticeably changed within the last few weeks. Considering the challenging road to begin with (especially during winter weather!), having no streetlights is hazardous."

A call to the state Department of Transportation seemed to be in order, as Northern Boulevard is state Route 25A. But department spokeswoman Eileen Peters said that, on Long Island, the state maintains lighting only on parkways and the Long Island Expressway. "Local jurisdictions maintain streetlights on other roads," she said.

Along that stretch, jurisdictions include the villages of Brookville, Old Brookville, Upper Brookville, Muttontown and the Towns of Oyster Bay and North Hempstead. Some, when first contacted, referred Watchdog back to the state.

But the confusion was short-lived. Oyster Bay spokeswoman Phyllis Barry concurred with the state, adding that the town had recently inspected its sections of Routes 25A and 106 and found lights to be in working order.

So Watchdog drove the stretch from 106 to Glen Cove Road the evening of Feb. 9 and managed to identify several nonworking streetlights in the darkness.

The next morning, a call to Muttontown found that the village's public works superintendent, Tony Toscano, had taken a similar drive and also saw several darkened lights between Wolver Hollow Road, across from the Old Brookville Police Department, and Mill River Road in East Norwich.

By Monday, three days after the call, all but one of the lights in Muttontown had been repaired with either new wiring, new ballast or a new lightbulb, Toscano said. The remaining lamp is not the village's responsibility, he said, and efforts are under way to find out who is responsible for its maintenance.

Toscano said the village had been unaware the lights were not working. "Usually, residents give us a call when lights are out," he said, "but we hadn't had any calls about lights on [Route] 25A."

Brookville and North Hempstead also were in the dark about nonworking lights.

"When we heard you were looking in to it [reports of nonworking street lamps], we sent our guys out one night" the week of Feb. 6, Brookville building inspector Tim Dougherty said Monday. As a result, the village is getting estimates to repair or replace the only lamp found to be nonworking, a fixture at the entrance to LIU Post/Tilles Center.

North Hempstead also has set out to repair one lamp in the hamlet of Greenvale.

"We never got complaints" that it was out, town spokesman Collin Nash said Wednesday. "We're on track to get it repaired."

Muttontown's fast action has made Harkins' drive home brighter. "What a difference in the amount of street lamps working tonight," she wrote after her Monday commute.

Pole removed in East Rockaway

I reported to LIPA, Cablevision and Verizon a telephone pole leaning on Carman Place in East Rockaway, just off the corner of Carman Avenue. Verizon came to cut off the top part of the pole. They tied the old pole to the new and left both poles sitting there. For two years I have made numerous phone calls but no one has transferred the rest of the lines from the old pole to the new one -- or removed the old pole.

-- Lewis J. Smith, East Rockaway

Like the utilities, Watchdog sometimes must catch up with old business. Smith initially emailed us about his problem in late 2010.

In late January, we called Verizon -- and are glad to report that the old pole was gone within 24 hours.

Company spokesman John Bonomo said that workers sent to the location noticed that Cablevision "had just been there to move their facilities" to the new pole. As we've reported, Cablevision, which owns Newsday, rents space on utility poles but has no authority to remove them.

So once the Cablevision lines were moved, Verizon was able to transfer its wires and remove the old pole. "We only had three drop wires on the pole, so it was done quickly," Bonomo said.

Long Islanders with similar double-pole concerns can contact Verizon at 800-837-4966. For Cablevision customer service, call these numbers: Long Island-East (Babylon, Brookhaven, East Hampton, Islip, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown, Southold, Southampton) 631-267-6900 or 631-727-6300; Long Island-West (Hempstead, Huntington, North Hempstead, Oyster Bay) 516-364-8400.