District 13 moving ahead with playground barrier

Two months after a car barreled through the fence at Willow Road Elementary School and into its playground on a school day — only minutes before children were supposed to be outside for recess — school and town officials are moving ahead with plans to shore up safety on school grounds and in surrounding streets.

District 13 officials said that a perimeter barrier would be installed around the playground, which will remain closed until construction is complete.

“The bottom line is that that corner has to be protected,” District 13 Board of Education President Dr. Frank Chiachiere said of the school’s border with the three-way intersection of Hewlett Street and Shelburne and Catalpa drives, where, on Jan. 2, a North High School teenager driving east with a fellow student on Shelburne lost control of the car and crashed through a stop sign before coming to a halt under the school’s swing set.

Chiachiere said that the district’s architect was asked to design a barrier, and that district officials would review the plan over the coming week. He said that construction of the barrier would take priority before playground equipment is replaced.

“The priority is far and away the protection of the children,” Chiachiere said.

On Feb. 5, District 13 Superintendent Dr. Constance Evelyn sent a letter to parents informing them that the playground would remain closed until at least the spring while reconstruction and reinforcement plans were being considered. She also reported that a replacement swing set had been ordered, and the soil underneath the playground had been tested and cleared of any contaminants.

In addition to damaging the fencing and swing set, the gas tank of the car involved in the crash ruptured. According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, roughly 15 gallons of gasoline spilled from the car, requiring crews to dig up enough soil to fill six 55-gallon drums.

In the immediate aftermath, the Town of Hempstead studied traffic on streets around the school. In a Jan. 27 letter from Town Supervisor Donald Clavin and Councilman Bruce Blakeman to 3rd Coucil District residents, the two proposed a 15-mph school zone speed limit for Willow Road, which would augment speed-limit signs on Catalpa Drive and Hewlett Street. Town officials said they expected the Town Board to vote on March 31 to schedule a public hearing on the proposed changes.

Willow Road PTA Co-President Lauren Quinlan, who has three children at the school, said she was skeptical of the town measures, saying the new signs would likely do little to stop speeding.

“Nothing in that traffic study, in my opinion, was all too helpful,” Quinlan said. “Currently the speed limit is 15, but that’s not going to do anything to stop people from not stopping at stop signs . . . It’s not going to deter people from speeding.”

Quinlan said she was also awaiting updates from District 13, and had so far not heard concrete plans to upgrade playground safety since the PTA meeting in January, roughly two weeks after the crash. “There’s been pretty much no talk,” she said.