Timing is everything and now is the time to come to the aid of Hicksville and speak up. The parking garage on the southwest corner of Newbridge Road and Duffy Avenue is going to be replaced. Or, are we going to get a larger garage? Why do we need 1,400 cars on Duffy Avenue every day? Hicksville residents have endured the traffic congestion and the air pollution associated with the garage for 37 years. Now is the time for Hicksville to get a break. Now is the time for the town and the Long Island Rail Road to work together and open Landia Station in Syosset, allowing the Syosset residents to park their cars in their home hamlet, Syosset.

The closed landfill in back of the Town of Oyster Bay's Department of Public Works is easily accessible from the L.I.E. and is large enough to park close to 3,000 cars-doubling the 1,400 car capacity available in Hicksville. The taxpayers would not have to foot the bill to build a parking garage at either location. The air pollution from the number of cars coming to the Hicksville railroad station is nothing to laugh at. Reducing the number of cars would be a blessing to Hicksville residents considering they still must deal with the thousands of cars, buses and trucks passing along Broadway and/or Newbridge Road every day.

Please contact your elected representatives. Senator Carl Marcellino's phone number is 922-1811 or write to him at 250 Townsend Square, Oyster Bay, NY 11771. He is Hicksville's state senator and if he wants to help us get out from under 1,400 or more cars, we need to tell him to open Landia Station in all due haste. It is permissible to park cars on top of a closed landfill. Since the landfill has been closed more than 25 years, more might be possible.

Please contact Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto at Town Hall, 54 Audrey Avenue, Oyster Bay, NY 11771 or contact any of the six councilmen/councilwoman. Call them at 624-6498, tell them we do not need a new garage, especially a larger one, and ask them to assist Senator Carl Marcellino in opening Landia Station in Syosset.

Tom Clark

Tom Clark is a retired Oyster Bay Town Councilman