By Legislator Viviana L. Russell
At all levels, one of government’s core functions is to build, modernize, and maintain the water, sewer treatment, and transportation infrastructure that we all rely upon throughout our daily lives. For far too long, however, Nassau County has shirked a critical component of that responsibility as it pertains to sidewalks on County roads, and a recent media report illustrated the urgent need for dramatic change.
Last month, News 12 Long Island interviewed Bellmore resident David Kay, who said that poorly maintained sidewalks on Newbridge Road force him and the motorized wheelchair he relies upon into traffic. The section of Newbridge Road with those damaged sidewalks are owned and maintained by Nassau County – but County code places the burden of sidewalk repairs upon the owners of adjacent properties.
Nassau County’s response to News 12’s reporting was to state that they would contact property owners, direct them to make the repairs, and that if they didn’t, the County would do it themselves and send the property owners the bill.
This is an onerous burden for those property owners, as in many cases they have absolutely no control over the infrastructure that Nassau County installed. Moreover, such an approach may quell the problem for the short term, but it glosses over fundamental flaws in governance that must be corrected in the interest of both public safety and fairness.
Conversations with my colleagues have demonstrated that this issue is not restricted to any one ZIP code in our County. In one particularly egregious example, property owners were being pressured to repair sidewalks at the rear of their homes, sidewalks that they had no access to and derived no benefit from.
In response to this outrageous demand, my colleague proposed a local law that would have placed the burden where it belongs – upon Nassau – to maintain sidewalks at the rear of homes abutting County roads. However, the current County administration has repeatedly cited New York State law as an impenetrable barrier to doing so. I have working with Minority Caucus counsel to fully investigate the veracity of that claim.
Whether or not this is in fact the case is something that we are fully investigating and will settle, but in the meantime, the frequency with which this is occurring demonstrates the critical importance of a new approach in which Nassau County takes responsibility for the condition of sidewalks on its own roadways.
On March 26, I wrote to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to formally request that the County embark upon a comprehensive infrastructure audit and analysis. This exercise would inventory all County infrastructure assets, including roadways, sewer and drainage systems, and traffic control devices, and evaluate them based on age, condition, and overall performance.
If we added maintenance of all County road sidewalks to our maintenance portfolio, an infrastructure audit would be critically important, as it would equip us to prioritize repairs and upgrades. Such an approach has proven to be effective, during my time as a North Hempstead Town Councilmember, we undertook a roadway assessment that positioned the Town to proactively identify which roads required repaving, repair, or full reconstruction, and deliver the improvements strictly upon merit and without partisan consideration.
Completing an audit will also ensure that projects are coordinated and ensure taxpayer dollars are used efficiently, such as by preventing a recently repaved road from being torn up to address a water or sewer project. Moreover, a clear, data-driven approach to how and where we invest taxpayer dollars would strengthen public trust, something that we all would benefit from doing our part to rebuild at a time when chaos at the federal level fuels skepticism and distrust at all levels of government.
While I have not received a response to this request from County Executive Blakeman’s Administration regarding such an audit, I have received verbal responses from Department of Public Works officials regarding several of my outstanding inquiries regarding infrastructure, traffic studies, and safety concerns, and am awaiting a formal written report.
With the Legislature’s July 27 vote to approve a new capital plan, one which I am grateful to note includes tens of millions of dollars in new commitments to improvements throughout the communities of District 2, it is more critical than ever for Nassau County to recommit itself to an equitable, data-driven approach to managing its infrastructure.
Viviana L. Russell, of Westbury, represents Nassau County’s Second Legislative District.