The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to [email protected].

Question:

Hi, When will Vermont Ave be opened from RT 70 to chestnut st? It’s almost a year already since all town officials made the groundbreaking there.

Dear mayor, we need it ASAP please.

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good morning,

I agree with you. Our hope was that construction would have begun already, but as is often the case, things are being held up waiting for final permits to be issued by the state. We are working on it & still hope to have it done this year.

Ray

Question:

Dear Mr. Mayor;

I appreciate your effort with helping alleviate problems in our town. It reminds me of Mayor Giuliani’s radio show, where he helped out countless citizens of NYC, by providing access to high level solutions.

My concern is regarding the intersection of Route 9 and Spruce St. based on the current traffic pattern, if someone on Spruce St wants to make a left hand turn onto Route 9 South, it can create a large backup. One solution can be to have a dedicated right turn lane, to allow cars to make a right turn onto Route 9 North. Another solution would be restrict turns at that intersection to right turn only for certain hours of the day (i.e. 8am-10:30am, 2pm-5pm).

Thank you in advance.

Response from Mayor Coles:

I know that intersection all too well. Help is on the way though. Next spring the state is going to come in & makes some improvements to several intersections, from the lake to Toms River border. I twill include paving the road and realigning that intersection.

Thanks for reaching out.

Ray

Question:

Good afternoon Mr. Mayor. A couple of months ago, I requested assistance with two issues in my neighborhood. The first being the constant flooding of the street on Finchley Blvd, due to insufficient drainage. The second was the issue of cars parked on either side of the street and traffic coming to a standstill at some points during the day. I appreciated the mayor’s prompt response to my letter, however, I have not seen any changes implemented at all. I am wondering if you can be so kind as to update me on the situation and whether any changes are planned in the near future. I would also like to address another point that was not mentioned in the last letter. As you know, River Avenue is a very busy road, and at many point in the day, it is very difficult for pedestrians to cross without a traffic light. Are there any plans for a traffic light to be installed at any point near my home off Finchley Blvd.?

Thank you for having this forum available for our questions and comment,

Sincerely,

Goldie

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good morning,

This is similar to a letter I answered a few days ago, so please excuse the similarities if you have seen that one.

Regarding the flooding issue, our engineers contacted the developer several times to address this situation. Since the developer has not responded nor taken care of the issues, the engineering department will file a claim with the bonding company to get the work taken care of.

As far as the light at Finchley & Rt 9, when we were at the DOT a few weeks ago, we saw the finalized the plans to install a traffic light at Evergreen & Rt 9, as well as aligning the intersection across the street. Initially they did not want to put another light at Oak and 9 but we got them to agree to that as well. Because of the proximity to Evergreen, they would not agree a light at Finchley & 9 right now. They did agree to allow us to install the conduit at the intersection so that we could revisit the light there at some point down then road.

Thanks

Ray

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Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to [email protected]

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