The Village of Roslyn Board of Trustees has voted to "discontinue" the Landing Road/Bedell's Landing roadway, handing over the maintenance of the road to Forest City Daly, the firm that hopes to build senior housing in the village. The official transfer is scheduled to take place Tuesday, Aug. 15.

The roadway in question amounts to 12,862 sq. ft. in size. Forest City Daly will have access to 9,000 sq. ft. of the road. The cost to the firm is estimated at twelve dollars per square foot. The road currently has access to the tennis facility off Skillman Street in downtown Roslyn. The roadway will also have access to the senior housing development once it is built. Forest City hopes to build 265 senior housing units on the site. The company only needs approval from the Historic District Board before construction can begin.

According to village law, the BOT can discontinue a road that is deemed not necessary for public use. Village Attorney John Spellman said such a sale is in the best interests of the village since, among other things, it relieves the village's insurance company of any liabilities that may occur on the site.

The road is not being abandoned. It will simply not serve any public use. The village is selling the road so it may have permanent access to the private property sites located along the road.

Since the village is no longer owner of the road, they are not responsible for either any liabilities or maintenance of the roadway. Forest City must submit an application with the village for any easement work they may want to make on the property. Since Landing will now be a private road, car owners must avail themselves of procedures to deal with parking complaints, Mr. Spellman said. The village will continue to enforce all parking violations. A lawyer for Forest City said his firm would "take care" of cars blocking traffic on Landing.

In other news, the BOT approved an application by Metricom, a Harrison, NJ-based company to install low power wireless Internet network at various points in the village.

At previous meetings, the BOT had approved in principle, a right of way agreement based on a location both parties could agree to. That has been done and the BOT voted unanimously to have three such boxes installed in the village. The boxes allow local residents to have wireless access to the Internet. It entails no cable "entrenchments" and Metricom representatives agreed that if any radio frequency disturbances occur, it is their responsibility to address it.

Recently, the Village of Sea Cliff Board of Trustees rejected a similar proposal by Metricom for their village. The Sea Cliff BOT claimed their village had no pressing need for the services Metricom was willing to offer. Plus, they added, no residents spoke out in favor of the plan. BOT members did agree that the Metricom plan posed no health risk to village residents.