Oyster Bay board OKs $1.6M Syosset improvement plan

The Oyster Bay Town Board last Tuesday approved plans for a $1.6 million Syosset Streetscape and Walkability Improvements program.

The work, to be paid for by a state grant, will be done on the northern half of the business district on Jackson Avenue, north of the Long Island Rail Road tracks and along Cold Spring Harbor Road. It will provide improved sidewalks, curbing, crosswalks, lighting, landscaping, benches, new signs and center islands to aid pedestrians in safely crossing the street and "bumpouts" along the sidewalks to slow traffic.

Deputy Public Works Commissioner Linda Maccarone said the contract could probably be awarded by July and the project completed by January if the weather cooperates.

Laura Schultz, president of Citizens for a More Beautiful Syosset, told the board that the plan developed over five years "includes all the things that we had wished for, so we are ecstatic. Five years ago this looked like it would never happen," Supervisor John Venditto said.

"It will really transform that downtown," Schultz said.