Clarkstown Approves Previous Highview Crosswalk Location

The Clarkstown Town Board approved at last night’s meeting to re-install the crosswalk connecting Highview Elementary to the new Highview Community Playground at its original location 130 feet south of the Church Street and Highview Avenue intersection.

“I believe (Wayne Ballard, Clarkstown Highway Superintendent,) will put in a temporary crosswalk before the winter and it’ll be just painted lines for now and then he will put in a permanent one with (cement curbed bump-outs) in April,” said Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack. The Highway Department cannot do any cement work in the late fall and winter time after the weather falls below a certain temperature.

After removing the previous crosswalk, the town planned on placing a new crosswalk at the intersection of Highview Avenue and Church Street. However, the school and parents opposed this plan as it was a dangerous intersection and an involving a student occurred in September.

The Highview Playground site is the school’s evacuation site as well so the crosswalk placement was crucial. In an Oct. 14 report, John Canning—P.E. of VHB Engineering, Surveying and Landscape Architecture—concluded that the “re-installation of the midblock crosswalk adjacent to the Highview Elementary School is recommended as the safest alternative for crossing pedestrians,” according to Clarkstown town board.

Recess

At the Sept 27 Nanuet School Board meeting, the topic of possibly using the playground for recess by Highview students came up. Read this to see how the discussion went.

At last week’s school board meeting, the Board decided to start recess at the new Highview Playground and leave it open to the public for those wanting to use the tot lot.

“So let’s try it with both groups and see how it works,” said Board President Anne Byrne. “We’ll have the administration come back and let us know if there are any problems. If it doesn’t work and we feel it’s a safety issue, then we’ll stop.”

"It was 2-prong; it wasn't just that the insurance company said that the playground was in disrepair, but it was the whole concept of children crossing the street," said Highview Elementary Principal Barbara Auriemma at the PTA meeting last Thursday. "If we get it cleared with the insurance company, we will be using a rotation of that playground during recess so your children will be rotating during the course of the week, probably two times, between using the new (Highview Community) Playground and the one behind the school."

Here’s a look at what board members and residents had to say about the new open recess decision:

Let’s Try It

“We have the tot area … that only the toddlers can go into. The Highview children can only go into the (school-age kids) area. So the only time they (the students) would be near kids at all would be the toddlers because everybody five and older will be in school. That’s my concern; why can’t a mother go there with her child.”

Board Member Karen Franchino

“For me, it comes down to how a community lives together. I was up there for several hours (at the Highview Playground Build) … it was very interesting when you had older children and younger children in the same space. When an older child was in there and a small child came in, those older children changed their entire demeanor. They watched the little child, they watched out for that little child. I think it teaches kids something by giving them the understanding and responsibility that when a small child comes into a space, they became more responsible. If the (tot lot) area was not entirely closed off, I would not even consider it at all, but since it is completely closed off, I think that kids, like us, need to learn how to live together, play together and be together.”

Board Member Sarah Chauncey

“Sometimes we have nursery schools that get out at 12 o’clock and sometimes they may want to come to the playground and have lunch with their child,”

Board President Anne Byrne

"As far as closing a community playground between the hours of 11 and 1:30 … you don’t bring your 2, 3 or 4 year old at 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning and then they’re normally napping at 2 o’clock in the afternoon so it basically says you can’t use it for little kids if you close it between those hours. I think that in trying, if there seems to be a problem, there may be other solutions.”

Nanuet Resident Sue Frisch and Children Committee Chair

Concerns

“(I would like to suggest) that the children at Highview (Elementary) do use the playground on a daily basis. For safety reasons, I think the hours of recess should solely be for the district. I think that to introduce other people and children while recess is taking place could pose some problems for the safety of those kids and for management.” He suggested that the playground be closed from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Superintendent Mark McNeill

Outsiders

The issue of kids from outside the district, sometimes being dropped off in busloads at the playground, was also discussed along with adult strangers.

“We don’t know necessarily who’s going to be there. It’s not necessarily Nanuet parents and toddlers. It could be people from North Rockland, other parts of the county or anywhere. Who’s going to govern how many toddlers can be there when you have 100, 150 kids running around the rest of the playground. It’s management.”

Superintendent Mark McNeill

“You do have a worry of people sitting in the tot lot without having young children. How are we going to monitor a person who’s sitting whether or not they have a young child or not? I really have to worry about people sitting there for not appropriate purposes.”

Highview Principal Barbara Auriemma

“I think that since we’re willing to try this, I think that was the idea that if we find that vagrants are sitting in the tot lot observing the children, then we’ll have to stop doing it (recess).”

Board Member Sarah Chauncey

“I have a concern, when I’m there as a parent and there’s a stranger, that’s one thing, but when I send my child to school and you’re responsible for them, how am I to know that you’re monitoring a stranger or someone that’s there with ill intent?”

Nanuet Resident Nancy MacRobbie and Volunteer Chair of the Highview Community Playground.

“We have to make sure that when our kids from Highview are there, there are also not other kids their age there too.”

Board President Anne Byrne

“In the city, they have a rule that says you can’t be an adult in a playground unless you are accompanying a child.“

Nanuet Resident Sue Frisch and Children Committee Chair

Signage

“I believe the tot lot will say ages 2-5 years old,” said Board Member Ed Dingman who is also on the Highview Community Playground’s steering committee.

“Is there a way to say that this is a Nanuet School District Community Playground in the signage for the playground?” asked Byrne.

“There’s three different signage going up in the playground,” said Playground President Michelle Mazzaro.

1. “The first one being on the fence on the Highview (Avenue) side saying welcome to the Highview Community Playground and listing the rules such as the tot lot ages 2-5 … no pets, no smoking, no barbequeing. It’ll be from dawn to dusk.
2. Then when you walk into it, there will be a donor board and we’re talking about possibly putting up some rules and regulations there.
3. Going into the entrance of the Tot Lot, there will be a sign there reiterating that the tot lot is for ages 2-5.

“Also, when you walk in, there’s a main castle, we may put something there too.”