The Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) testing on Juniper Boulevard North adjacent to Juniper Valley Park continues after several months of persistent pressure to remove the testing from the busy park area. You will recall we met with officials from the DMV last October after an unpleasant incident with one of the DMV employees.

At that time we were assured that there would be oversight from the DMV in an effort to encourage professional behavior from their employees. Very importantly also, we left the meeting with the understanding that a more suitable site for the testing would be pursued because of the increasing inappropriateness of the Juniper Valley Park area.

As I write this article several months later nothing has occurred to improve the situation.

DMV employees are rude and uncooperative with passersby, applicants' cars are idling for hours spewing their fumes into the park area and the noise from the many car alarms that are being triggered due to carelessness from the DMV applicants has become unbearable.

DMV employees continue to inundate 62nd Avenue in Middle Village with the applicants and there is an endless steam of cars U-turning and parallel parking on that street. Also, applicants are grouping together, blocking sidewalks next to the park and they can be seen throwing garbage on the streets from their lunch bags. As applicants line up on Juniper Blvd. North, they U-turn constantly and many times their cars can be seen facing the wrong way. Understand that Juniper Blvd. North is a recognized speedway by the DOT and is currently undergoing surveillance in an attempt to solve the many problems associated with that street. The DMV just aggravates the whole dangerous scenario.

A related problem from the testing is the many cars practicing on the local streets. Driving schools continue to bring their clients to the test streets despite the fact that it is illegal to practice in a test area. These drivers tend to be nervous and having a tree hit or garbage cans knocked over is a common occurrence.

DMV testing next to a busy park area is totally wrong and downright dangerous for everyone. We here in Middle Village have had the testing since the early 1960's, and in the spirit of cooperation and fairness another area should be located stat.

We are asking our elected state officials, State Senator Serf Maltese and Assemblyman Michael Cohen to step up and get this job done for us, now.