Speed camera opponents share rage at coalition's Jericho meeting

As the school auditorium filled, members of the audience began to compare notes.

"I got one."

"I got two."

They were the lucky ones.

The topic was school speed camera tickets, specifically those made possible by the camera at the school where the meeting was held, Cantiague Elementary School in Jericho. The Thursday night meeting, pulled together by a group with the title Cantiague Rock Road Speed Camera Fairness Coalition, began with a question:

Show your hands: Who has received a ticket from the speed camera on Cantiague Rock Road?

Hands went up all around us.

Multiple tickets?

Again, a sea of hands.

Five or more?

Fewer hands, though still a sizable number in an auditorium with few empty seats.

One of the coalition's coordinators, Gary Strauss, then made the case for getting rid of the camera, part of Nassau County's school speed camera program, to officials seated on the auditorium stage.

The school zone is safe. The group could find no records of accidents. No children walk to school. Buses pull into a traffic circle, so children exit far from the road. No pedestrian crosswalk exists because there's no reason to cross the road.

When the invited officials spoke -- John Marks, executive director of the county's Traffic and Parking Violations Agency; Assemb. Charles Lavine, and County Legis. Judith Jacobs -- audience members shouted out in anger. Strauss warned one man that the next outburst would lead to a police escort out of the building.

Residents then lined up to speak, some citing inadequate and confusing signs: The 25 mph school zone speed limit sign is at the edge of the school zone, so drivers entering from nearby Saratoga Road never see it. The first sign they see advises 30 mph for a curve ahead.

Marks said placement of the school zone sign meets the requirements of state law; and the 30 mph warning sign is necessary during nonschool hours to advise drivers to slow down.

The audience wasn't pleased. "Do you want to meet the state requirement or do what's appropriate?" one man asked. "All you have to do is put up a sign on Saratoga" advising of the school speed limit.

We asked Oyster Bay Town about prospects for such a sign.

"After hearing some concerns of residents in the area, the supervisor [John Venditto] has requested that clearer signage" be installed, town spokeswoman Marta Kane said.

"Our highway crew went out and checked it out," she said, and a new sign was expected to be in place Monday morning.

Strauss termed the sign "a step in the right direction but certainly not the only thing we're looking to accomplish." The goal, he said, is to "get rid of the camera. There's not a reason to have it."

"What we really want is to take down the camera," said another meeting organizer, Ellen Meister. "The camera has nothing to do with safety, everything to do with money."

The meeting ended with shouts of "We want our money back" and "When are we getting our money back?" Strauss said the group will press for a refund of all fines for tickets issued at the site.

Drivers have reported they're rerouting their daily lives to avoid the cameras.

One location they're bypassing is South Oyster Bay Road in Hicksville, where a speed camera is operating at Our Lady of Mercy elementary school. Some drivers say they can't manage to slow down fast enough when the speed limit drops to 25 from 40 mph.

Here's a report from two:

Steven Carpio, East Northport: "I haven't had a speeding ticket in 15 years. Now I have three in the span of a week and a half. This is not right.

"I'm a professor at Briarcliffe College [in Bethpage]. I've been going that way to get to work for three years . . . I tried to slow down, but it didn't work.

"Normally I would take the Northern State to South Oyster Bay Road," past Our Lady of Mercy on the way south to Stewart Avenue. "Now I'm taking the Expressway, then taking Route 135 south, going all the way around just to avoid that camera. I'm not going anywhere near that place."

Marie Marolda, Bethpage: "We're seniors -- I'm 86 -- and we drive pretty careful. But what's going on with Our Lady of Mercy? All of a sudden, I got a ticket for 80 dollars.

"That's not a school where students cross the road. The buses are in the parking lot, next to the school. We do go slow at a school in Hicksville where kids cross the road to get to the buses. [But] I was never thinking they would have it [a speed camera] at a school on a busy street like this." The ticket cited a speed of 36, one mile faster than allowed in the 25 mph zone with a 10 mph grace.

"I'm not traveling that way any more. I'll be going all the way around. I can't afford these tickets. This is not right."

To avoid the camera at Our Lady of Mercy, she and her husband plan to attend daily Mass at St. Paul's in Bethpage instead.