Village, county prepare for LIRR strike

With Sunday’s Long Island Rail Road strike looking more and more likely, commuters and municipalities alike are doing what they can to prepare — and many are finding out there’s not much they can do.

As of press time on Tuesday, there was still no deal between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the LIRR’s eight unions to avert a strike. Union members have worked without a new contract since 2010.

Keith Spadaro, Rockville Centre’s village administrator, said that there isn’t much the village can do to help residents if the strike occurs. “We’re assuming people are going to meet [other] people here and maybe leave cars, and things like that,” Spadaro said. “But as for a hard and fast plan, we don’t know what the effects are going to be. We don’t really have much we can do.”

Spadaro said that there is a possibility that the MTA could use the Rockville Centre train station as a park-and-ride location and bus commuters from RVC to subway stops in Queens. But that plan hasn’t been finalized yet.

The village’s main concern, he said, is traffic on Sunrise Highway. According to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, the county is working with New York City to adjust traffic lights on Sunrise and Merrick Road so that green lights would last longer, enabling east-west traffic to move more smoothly in the event of a strike.

Elizabeth Daitz, a Rockville Centre resident and commuter, said that a strike could raise safety concerns for New York City residents. “By striking, they’re not just inconveniencing 300,000 commuters for the sake of a 17 percent raise … they’re actually jeopardizing the health and safety of every single New Yorker who relies on police, fire and emergency personnel who use the LIRR to get to their commands and their companies every day,” Daitz told the Herald while riding a train. “The same police, fire and emergency personnel who are working without a contract because they care more about the city and its safety than they care about politics. They should get back to the table, get to work, and maybe even attempt to be on time when it rains again.”

The county plans to offer free wireless Internet access and work cubicles in a 20,000-square-foot office in Bethpage’s industrial park if there is a strike. To make the space available, the county is partnering with the nonprofit Long Island Forum for Technology and the Applied Science Foundation for Homeland Security, which owns the 90,000-square-foot Morrelly Center. The structure’s first floor is rented by the county’s Office of Emergency Management, and served as OEM’s command center during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“An LIRR strike will be disastrous, as it will cause severe disruption for residents seeking to commute to their jobs,” Mangano said. “For residents unable to work from home in the event of an LIRR strike, the Morrelly Homeland Security Center is a great option for telecommuting.”

The office was rented by Grumman until recently, but has been vacant since the company moved its staff out of state. Mangano said that the Morrelly Center, at 510 Grumman Road West, would be a good option for staffs that want to gather in an office rather than at colleagues’ homes. It also would provide a quiet work space in a professional setting.

The office has 100 desks and a large theater, and has the capacity for roughly 200 people. To reserve a space, call (516) 573-9792 weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Spaces are being offered to Nassau County residents on a first-come, first-served basis.