Dr. Neal Gittleman, who lives in the neighborhood near Autumn Road, Lakewood, sees the potential danger for people traveling on foot or bicycle on North Lake Drive and Case Road where the guard rail curves. At that juncture, there are no sidewalks, and both the bicycle path and the jogging path end abruptly, making it extremely dangerous as cars maneuver the turn, trying to avoid pedestrians, kids on bicycles, and people pushing baby strollers. 

Dr. Gittleman says, “There’s no sidewalk there so people don’t really have a place to walk besides in the street, which with all the curves is not the safest place to walk.”

Miriam Weinstein, who walks on North Lake Drive as part of her exercise regimen, agrees.  “It’s a very dangerous stretch as it now stands. That particular stretch has absolutely no sidewalks along North Lake Drive so you have to walk in the street. It is totally dangerous.”

Work to repair this area should begin this week, advised Lakewood Mayor Langert. With no cost to local taxpayers, Mayor Langert and the Lakewood Township Committee will be able to use $80,000 of Recovery Funds, granted to Lakewood Township from The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.) and the Community Development Block Grant Recovery program (CDBG-R) for projects such as this one.

According to Mayor Langert, the township engineer has proposed a “boardwalk” concept that would result in a pathway next to the roadway with the guardrail as protection in case of a car accident. The project should take about three weeks to complete.

Weinstein says, “If I can speak on behalf of the entire Oak Knoll neighborhood, we are all very, very grateful to the Mayor for supporting this. It’s a beautiful area for the children to ride their bicycles, roller blade; and for adults to be able to walk. Right now there’s a sidewalk on one side of the street. It ends right before that intersection of Autumn. 

“A block down, the sidewalk picks up again on the other side of the street so children, when they are riding their bicycles, have to cross the street on North Lake Drive, which is extremely, extremely dangerous as it stands now. This will make everything that much safer and all the residents are grateful to the Mayor for pushing this through.”

Mayor Langert says, “I am very happy to find a way to solve a problem for the residents of that area without having to use local tax dollars to accomplish it.”