Poles deemed safety hazard are removed

I am having a difficult time getting two broken utility poles in front of the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library in Setauket removed. Both poles are dangerously fractured and look to be holding on by splinters. This is of course a safety concern -- we are next door to an elementary school and the sidewalk is used by students.

I have contacted all of the utilities that I can think of. In each case, I get the runaround and finger-pointing that it's the "other guy's problem." I'm not sure where else I can turn.

-- Ted Gutmann, director, Emma S. Clark Memorial Library

There's good news on Main Street: "The poles are gone!" Gutmann wrote Friday.

Watchdog contacted LIPA Tuesday, and on Wednesday, spokesman Mark Gross reported the poles "no longer have LIPA facilities attached." LIPA had contacted Verizon and Cablevision, he said, and the next steps would be theirs.

Cablevision's Sarah Chaikin reported Thursday that "our equipment is no longer on the pole." Minutes later, Verizon's John Bonomo said Cablevision's action "will allow us to move our facilities onto the new poles, and remove the two damaged poles."

Indeed, the akimbo poles are gone, thanks to the "other guys" talking to one another.

Montauk Highway project on hiatus

Attention Montauk Highway drivers: The resurfacing project in Copiague and Lindenhurst isn't finished. It's just taking a winter break.

Drivers have been asking about that stretch of road because the work -- ordered because the original resurfacing was deemed unsatisfactory -- came to a sudden stop.

As it turns out, paving season ended with the arrival of winter. Hot-mix asphalt, the type used in road paving, requires warm weather.

State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Eileen Peters said that before work ended, the road was smoothed out "to help make it more bearable during the winter months."

"This unacceptable section will be repaired in conformance with NYSDOT's specification requirements as soon as weather conditions permit" at the start of the spring construction season, she said.

In November, in response to a Watchdog query, the state said the work had not met contract specification standards and the contractor would do the repair at no additional cost.

One driver, David Ball of Lindenhurst, said the current surface is indeed smoother, though not necessarily better. "The road is a series of grooved and un-grooved patches," he wrote in an email. "As you drive along, your car can actually sway as your tires hit the grooves in the road." Another reason to hurry, spring.

Keep license plates visible

Take a moment to look at your license plate.

Watchdog has been hearing about traffic tickets issued because frames on the plates are encroaching on the words "Empire State."

"Anything you put over a plate that obscures the lettering . . . is considered an obscured plate," a violation of state vehicle and traffic law, said Det. Vincent Garcia of the Nassau Police Department Public Information Office.

How many such tickets have been issued? It's hard to say, because they're in a category that includes missing plates and plates with plastic coverings. The category accounted for 628 summonses in seven Nassau precincts last year, Garcia said (numbers for the eighth weren't available), and 3,169 issued by Suffolk County police.

And he said license plate frames with colored lights (white is OK) and brake light tints are also violations.

We've been warned.

Patrol to slow Kings Park speeders

I often put my young grandson on the school bus on Old Dock Road in Kings Park. On occasion I signal drivers who are speeding past to slow down. The situation is especially horrific in summer, with all the cars and motorcycles on the road.-- Patricia Magnan, Kings Park

Increased enforcement is on the way, Mrs. Magnan.

Insp. James Rhoads, commanding officer of Suffolk County Police's Fourth Precinct, visited Old Dock Road last month after our call to assess the situation. He said he would boost patrols as well as deploy a digital speed-readout.

And he agreed that speeding is more problematic in summer. "During the summer it picks up a lot simply because of the fact that it [Old Dock Road] ends at the dock and boat ramp -- and Long Island is a great place for boating," Rhoads said.

Though five accidents were reported on Old Dock Road in 2011, none were directly attributable to speed, he said. Causes ranged from a deer to a driver using a cellphone, he said.

Fourth Precinct residents with speeding or other traffic concerns can call the bureau at 631-854-8400.