The improvements were financed by a $20,000 grant secured by then Assemblyman Bob Barra and a $50,0000 grant from County Legislator Francis Becker, and by leveraging a $100,000 matching grant from the state Environmental Protection Fund, which gave priority to projects that recognized New York’s water resources. The village scored extra points on its application by highlighting New York City’s construction of an aqueduct during the Civil War under this land, which still exists today and is considered the oldest piece of infrastructure in Lynbrook. It was once a source of drinking water for New Yorkers, flowing into a series of aqueducts to the Lake Champlain region.

  The path through Greis Park is connected to the pedestrian bikeway on the north side of Sunrise Highway, from Horton Avenue east to Ocean Avenue. The section between Earle and Ocean avenues was recently improved with new lighting, benches and a wider pathway. The section on Sunrise Highway, from Peninsula Boulevard to Horton Avenue, will have new lighting by the end of the year, in an effort by Mayor Bill Hendrick to promote bicycling and exercise opportunities in the village.

 
Walking the walk

When entering from Greis Park at the end of Wright Avenue, the trail begins at the Tony Lenzo Community Gardens, a village-owned parcel of land that runs along the north side of the Long Island Rail Road tracks. It has 40 plots, each 20 by 5 feet, where, for a small fee, residents can grow and tend to their own vegetables, herbs and fruits.

The actual trail, running a quarter mile end to end, is paved and has a bright yellow line running down the center to divide walkers, joggers and bikers from left to right (hence the “yellow brick road” fantasy). It has a slight wind to it and forks into two roads about halfway in, and then converges into a single road again. The trail and the surrounding trees divide residential houses on one side and the distant-sounding hum of Sunrise Highway traffic on the other.