William Floyd Parkway open to trucks

A trucker wants to know: Is William Floyd Parkway an actual parkway -- for cars only?

The question was posed by Jeff Ward of Medford, who said his GPS unit had informed him the parkway was off limits.

But despite the parkway label, the 17-mile roadway, also known as County Road 46, is open to all vehicles, according to Suffolk County. The Department of Public Works advises that a GPS unit designed for commercial use may be more apt to recognize that the roadway is open to trucks, spokeswoman Vanessa Baird-Streeter said.

But that wasn't borne out by Ward's experience: The GPS unit that provided the faulty information was a commercial model.

A spokesman for Garmin, the manufacturer of that model, told us that any Garmin user can report incorrect or questionable directions on a "map error report form" at my.garmin.com/mapErrors/report.faces. Similar forms are on other manufacturers' sites.

And, to digress: William Floyd was one of two signers of the Declaration of Independence whose names wound up on major roads in this area. The other? Francis Lewis.

We've heard from so many readers trying to get rid of old utility poles that we're tempted to guess there are enough to encircle the equator -- or at least stretch from the Cross Island Parkway to Montauk. Today, we can shorten the length by one more.

Here's the note that introduced us to one of the stranger-looking poles we've seen:

On Highland Street West in Massapequa, a pole was replaced about two weeks after superstorm Sandy. The problem is that the old pole is still there, with multiple cables attached. The pole is missing a three-foot section on the bottom and is bolted to a four-by-four that's holding it up. Mike Famiglietti, Massapequa

The phrase "jerry built" may be too harsh -- perhaps the assemblage was sturdier than it appeared -- but those words came to mind when Famiglietti first showed us photos of the pole on Highland Street West. His concern wasn't just the awkward appearance; if the old pole were to become unhinged and topple, he feared it would take down the wires attached to the new pole as well.

The Long Island Power Authority's wires already had been transferred to the new pole when we caught up with Famiglietti's request. We notified Verizon and Cablevision recently and sent along photos, too. Last week, we got word that the old pole, and its supporting four-by-four, were history.

Follow-up

Rockville Centre's Planning Board discussed the bright lights at an expanded car dealership on Sunrise Highway last week but postponed a vote.

Planning board members said they would make nighttime visits to the neighborhood behind the Mercedes-Benz dealership to monitor the brightness before the next board meeting, according to Julie Grilli, who handles the village's public relations. The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 19.

When the new facility was complete, nearby homes had a view of bright lights on the side and rear. Large windows on the new second floor remained bright all night, as did exterior lights shining over the fence that borders the site. The dealership recently said it has dimmed interior lights until shades can be installed and has turned off some parking lot lights until they can be outfitted with shields.