Dem district's road paving up five-fold in GOP town

Daily Point

Paving politics

Even as a potentially bumpy political season gets underway in North Hempstead, there may be one issue where the path is smoother this year.

Last summer, North Hempstead Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte sent a newsletter to constituents noting that her district — the town's District 6 — was getting shortchanged when it came to road paving. The town last year earmarked just five roads in Dalimonte's district — or 9,010 linear feet — for such work.

Questions arose last summer as to whether political games were playing a role in the road paving strategy.

Is a different political game afoot this year?

Dalimonte, a Democrat serving on a majority-Republican town board, noted that after she thought her district was shortchanged in 2025, she produced a presentation listing the roads that should've been paved.

In the end, only three of the five earmarked roads were paved, Dalimonte told The Point.

But 2026 is apparently a very different story. According to a road paving list obtained by The Point, District 6 is slated to have 16 streets — or 20,990 linear feet of roadway — paved this year, including the two that were not resurfaced last year. The new list, Dalimonte said in this year's message to constituents, includes many of the roads she had previously cited. Richards Road, for instance.

One difference between last year and this: The town hired an outside firm, called Pavement Management Group, paying them $66,780 to utilize a Pavement Condition Index that rates the roads and prepares the list.

"I'm glad that the engineer the town hired saw what I saw last year," Dalimonte told The Point. "The average eye doesn't lie."

Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena, a Democrat who runs on the Republican line and caucuses with the Republican members of the town board, said she saw this year's efforts as a follow-up to what the town did last year, when internal highway personnel assessed the roads. And she noted that the shift in which roads were highlighted this year was a natural one, as the worst roads were paved last year, allowing the ones next on the list to move up.

"By adding this third-party assessment, it's a continuation of my effort to eliminate politics from our town work," DeSena said. "And it's unfortunate that some of our council people keep trying to bring politics back in."

Even with this year's success, however, Dalimonte isn't done. She noted that some of the roads in need of repairs did not make this year's cut, either. She's seeking the engineer's report, so she can determine what the ratings were for those streets "and why they're not on the list."

Last year, Dalimonte's district had the fewest linear feet to be paved. Two districts — District 2, led by a Republican, and District 4, led by a Democrat — each had more than 75,000 linear feet of pavement slated for resurfacing, while the other three districts all had between 10,000 and 25,000 linear feet to be paved. This year, each of the six districts ranged from 8,000 to 32,000.

In total, fewer linear feet are being paved this year compared with 2025, but the total budget remains about the same. That's in part due to the types of roads being paved, and increased supply costs.

Multiple observers in the town noted that the newfound attention to District 6 comes as DeSena is running for reelection in what some expect will be a tight race, against Democrat Sean McCarthy — who lives in Port Washington, which is in the district.

But DeSena noted that last year's opponent, Dave Kerpen, also lived in Port Washington.

"The whole Town of North Hempstead is purple, and I would not have been elected or reelected twice if I were not focused on governing fairly for everyone ..." DeSena said. "I don't have the luxury of playing politics."

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Grim outcome

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Reference Point

Regulating bike use then and now

Cycling back 84 years ago this week, Long Island's municipalities were navigating how to regulate bicycling, just as they are confronting e-bikes today.

"There should be compulsory registration of all bicycles in Nassau County-and a central authority to register them," the editorial board wrote in a 1942 editorial, "Register All Bicycles."

Bicycle use had grown on Long Island in 1942 as gas was rationed, and the South Shore was under a coastal blackout amid World War II. This created "twin" problems on our roads: theft and accidents. The board noted that bikes constituted the largest single item stolen in the annual larceny statistics in Lynbrook and that many bikes lacked needed safety equipment like taillights, which made drivers "fail to see cyclists until almost on top of them."

The editorial praised Port Washington where the problems had been "appreciably checked," thanks to an ordinance that required all bicycles to be registered and a registration campaign by the police precinct there. Nearly 1,000 bikes were quickly registered, and at the time not one registered bike was reported stolen.

Bicycle registration, where a registered bike bears a license tag or plate and its make, color and serial number are documented in a police database, was not a new concept even at that time eight decades ago. A 1898 special cycling section of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle chronicled that biking had become extremely popular on Long Island, with "wheelmen" cycling on newly created side paths throughout the region. By 1907, there was a New York State law that mandated cyclists to register to use these side paths, whose registration fees paid for their maintenance.

Likewise in 1942, the editorial board was pushing for an expansion of compulsory registration by a "central authority" like the county or state. "This system would go far toward cutting down both thefts and accidents, for cycles without safety equipment would then be ruled off the road," the board wrote.

That never happened, and for several decades bike registration fell on local municipalities, until this practice was phased out because it became too cumbersome to track every bike on Long Island.

Today with the boon in electric bike use, both counties and towns are looking to regulate e-bikes to make roads safer, but conflicting laws pose a problem. In 2026, Newsday's editorial board also called for centralizing oversight like in 1942.

"State, county and local municipality leaders need to cut through the tangle of regulatory overlap to make laws that parents and kids will follow," the board concluded in April. "That will make e-bikes safer on Long Island."

— Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

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