Mineola to Get Red Light Cameras

Running a red light in the Village of Mineola is about to get a lot more expensive.

During the June 5 meeting of the Mineola Village Board, mayor Scott Strauss revealed that Nassau County is planning on installing two red light cameras in the village along Jericho Turnpike at the intersections of Willis Avenue and Mineola Boulevard.

Earlier that day Strauss and village clerk Joseph Scalero met with representatives of the Nassau County Traffic Division who told the mayor that that the intersections were chosen by the county due to the number of accidents at those locations.

“We will not have control over the cameras or the tickets that are to be given out to them and we won’t receive – in accordance with the state law – no funding or no revenue that is generated by those cameras,” Strauss said, adding that statistically speaking, the installation of red light cameras are showing a 40 percent reduction in accidents at intersections at which they are installed and 30 percent reduction in rear-end collisions.

There is a $65 fine associated with a red light camera violation, consisting of a $50 violation and a $15 administration fee. There is also a $4 fee for paying the violation online via a credit card.

“I am concerned with the possibility of the county while they’re installing these red light cameras and digging up the newly-paved Jericho Turnpike, which is literally weeks old,” Strauss continued, adding that he received assurances from the county that a boring method would be used on the utility strip in between the sidewalk and curb with “minimum” impact to the surface of the newly paved roads happen within the next 90 days.

When Nassau County initially began installing red light cameras around the county, it avoided placing cameras in villages so as to not have to share revenue with local municipalities.

“During that meeting the representatives said there’s going to come a point where there’s an annual maintenance fee for these red light cameras and it’s come to the point where although the revenue will assumed to be high in the beginning, as people are aware of the cameras and aware of the locations, they’re not going to go through these intersections time and time again,” Strauss said, “so although the revenue may be high in the beginning, will lower down and there is one or two intersections they said in the county that the costs of maintaining the equipment there are actually more than the revenue generated by the cameras.”

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