Town Offers Shuttle Bus For Paumanack

By Carl Corry

ccorry@longislandergroup.com

The Town of Huntington has offered to provide a shuttle service to local shopping for residents of Paumanack Village, a low-income, senior-housing development in Greenlawn that surrounds a Waldbaum’s that is set to close Sunday.

The town proposed using one of its 12-person paratransit HART buses to bring seniors to three locations in East Northport – the Larkfield IGA Plaza, the King Kullen and the Stop & Shop.

Mary D’Agostino, Paumanack Village’s service coordinator, said she talked to residents in two of the development’s four sections on Wednesday about the idea and planned to speak to the other two on Thursday.

As of Wednesday, she was leaning with IGA as the one stopping point, since the plaza also has two restaurants, a bank, a Family Dollar, a nail salon, a beauty salon, and a card store, making it convenient for residents.

But first she wanted to get enough commitments from people at the meetings that they would use the service before starting it. There are 500 residents in the community, with an average age of 78.

“I hope to talk to HART on Friday and confirm our interest and get what date this could feasibly start,” she said.

The fare would be $3 each way and the service would run “once or two times a week, tops,” D’Agostino said.

Councilwoman Tracey Edwards, who has been working with Stephen McGloin, the town’s director of transportation and traffic safety, on the shuttle proposal, said the ideal situation is to replace Waldbaum’s with another grocery store, but even if that does occur, it won’t happen soon.

“This is a solution that provides the critical service they need,” she said of the shuttle service. “It’s great when we are able to put something together to help the people.”