Lavena Sipes, the mother of , and Mark Mancini, owner of Mancini Architecture, , took to Main Street to discuss design plans and how to keep pedestrians safe.
“It is a pedestrian place, what’s missing is the pedestrian-friendly part,” Sipes said.
Mancini, who posted Main Street renovation plans on his company website, said a detailed renovation plan for the roadway is needed.
“Every time I see something done in this town it’s done in a fast-paced manner that’s not really well thought out as a comprehensive master plan for the whole town,” he said. “What really needs to be done is a well thought out, well engineered plan and it’s going to take several agencies – it’s going to take the town, it’s going to take the state, and it’s going to take the citizens of Smithtown together to come up with a plan that works that will support these businesses in town … it’s going to support the pedestrians to cross safely and it’s going to also improve the traffic pattern by enabling the cars to get through here smoothly.”
Main Street was the site of an accident on . Two other fatal accidents occurred within 15 months of each other on this same roadway – in November 2009, , who was high on heroin at the time of the accident and later sentenced to up to 12 years in jail. And in February, was struck and killed when a car hit him after leaving Napper Tandy's. He had been celebrating his 33rd birthday at the bar.
