Town Board approves school bus camera fines

BY RIKKI MASSAND

During the Town of Oyster Bay Board meeting on June 27, the Board approved a resolution for a Local Law concerning drivers’ failure to stop for school buses. The resolution amended the Oyster Bay Town Code by adding Chapter 116, in accordance with Section 1174-A of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, “governing drivers who illegal- ly overtake or pass a school bus that has been stopped to receive or discharge passengers,” Town Clerk Richard LaMarca explained. A public hearing on the new Local Law was held at the Town Board May 9 meeting.

In the Town of Oyster Bay’s communities school buses can now be equipped with cameras to record drivers who illegally pass after their “stop” signs are extend-

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Missed opportunity

To the Editor:

After seeing that 80 Jericho Turnpike, a 6-acre property is likely to turn into a parking lot for trucks, I can’t help but think the Town of Oyster Bay has failed its residents.

This site used to be a mobile home park and residents were forced to move off the property. When the development was bought, there were plans to build 61 affordable units for seniors and 44 luxury units, with almost 27,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

The town board never allowed the zone change for this to take place, telling the developer, “it’s not going to happen.” This would have been a prime example of mixed use development that would have mitigated the loss of seniors and young people who continue to leave Long Island in droves due to the lack of affordable housing.

We saw local elected officials stomping their feet and screaming about the need for local control when the governor was proposing housing reform on the state level. Well it’s time for municipalities to step up and build the needed housing. If truck parking lots continue to get approved over needed housing projects, I don’t have faith in municipalities to handle the housing crisis.