BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS - The county wants to widen a portion of Sycamore Avenue before a light is installed at the Hance Avenue intersection, but some residents and council members don't think it is necessary.

After a concerned resident asked about the road widening project at the council meeting last week, Council President Therese Cahill said the council disagrees with the county's plan.

She added that the borough's business administrator is going to contact Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore about scheduling a meeting.

Cahill said, "Sometimes changing one traffic problem creates another."

But Ettore said later in the week that the county wouldn't be doing the roadwork if the engineers didn't think it was necessary for safety.

"We tried to minimize the widening," Ettore said last week. "All of the engineers that looked at it, including the borough's engineers, agree that it is not overdesigned."

Ettore presented the county's plan at the council meeting on May 2. Later that month, the county put marker stakes in the ground along Sycamore Avenue, between Hope Road and Hance Avenue, where the proposed widening would take place. Last week, the stakes were removed and placed in a pile on top of a transformer near the corner of Hope Road.

Ettore said he wasn't aware that the stakes had been removed, adding that the removal wasn't done by the county.

Councilman Brendan Tobin said there will be a second meeting.

"We all asked for a public meeting. None of us on council seemed too keen on the extent of the project. Personally, I asked for a traffic light without road improvements, to help move cars, but if we expand it as they want, we will turn that area into a race track," he said.

After doing traffic studies, sight distance research and a crash history, the county recommended that a traffic light be installed that would be timed to the Hope Road light as well as straightening the roadway west of Hance Avenue, to improve sight distance. The county also recommends widening the roadway on Sycamore, at Hance, which would involve taking a small amount of property in front of at least three houses.

Most residents are not questioning the need for a traffic light. Tinton Falls Traffic Safety Officer Sgt. David Scrivanic, said last month that he did his own study using data from 2001 to the present and found there were 200 accidents at the intersection with 167 reportable. He explained that the criteria for reportable accidents is damage of more than $500 and/or injuries.

He also said that he used not only that intersection, but related intersections like the one at Hope Road and Sycamore Avenue as well as traffic accidents on Sycamore Avenue, just west of Hance Avenue.

Scrivanic said he looked at the entire area and in his professional opinion, improvements are needed in that area.

Residents of the area are upset over the possible loss of trees and vegetation. Ettore said that most trees and shrubs would not be touched, but some would have to be cleared.

"Three properties east of Hance, on the north side between Hance and Hope, would lose significant trees. Some are large mature trees, two on the first lot, two on second lot and three on the third lot," he said.

He explained that two trees per lot are large shade trees, and the remainder are fast growing evergreen trees that are more easily replaced.

The county will replace them and would even provide more screening. He also said the county would replace the large shade trees by putting in the largest trees that it can.

"We would minimize the impact that we're possibly creating. We think it is the prudent decision," Ettore said, adding, "we always have our Monmouth County Shade Tree Commission review all of our projects to minimize damage and loss of trees.

"That's true of both the Hance/Apple [Street] construction and the Hance/Sycamore project," he said.

He added that the borough asked the county to look into how long the delays would be without the widening.

"We have prepared a computer model, but it is difficult for us to try to explain, so we are going to present it at the next meeting," he said.

The county will have to purchase the frontage that is needed to widen Sycamore Avenue and for that they need to have willing sellers.

"The county is not in the business of acquiring property, but we have to make sure we can keep traffic flowing. The offer will include fair market value and will go through a legal process," he said.

Ettore said the county is hoping for plan endorsement by the end of June, a final design phase by summer, state approval by spring of 2007, and bidding by that fall. Construction would begin in spring 2008, he said.

"We have to weigh the overall good of the public and minimize the effect on homeowners," he said last month.