Mayor’s Message: Successful Street Fair, Homecoming and Emory Road Park

The following are the opening remarks of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss made during the public meeting of the Mineola Village Board on October 2, 2013:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. A few weeks ago, we held our annual September 11th remembrance ceremony; it was well attended and showed how Mineola will always honor and never forget those who were affected by that cowardly attack. Everyone involved did a tremendous job in putting the night together.

The chamber of commerce did an outstanding job in making the street fair a hugely successful event yet again. It was crowded, we had great weather, great entertainment and overall was a great day. We also thank our DPW staff and the members of our auxiliary police department for ensuring our safety throughout the day. If you missed it this year, please keep an eye out for it next year, you won’t be disappointed.

With the weather threatening, the Mineola High School homecoming parade went on as planned. We had a huge amount of liquid sunshine, but the parade went quick and we proved again that it takes more than rain to stop Mineola. I hope the football team has a fun and successful season.

The Kiwanis Club in conjunction with Mineola Bicycle held their annual bike safety day. It was well attended by young and old alike. Everyone had an enjoyable time. The fire department was on hand as was the auxiliary police department with McGruff the crime fighting dog. Former senator Al D’Amato and his family also came and enjoyed the day.

Yesterday, Sen. Martins and I along with our village clerk Joe Scalero and DPW superintendent Tom Rini had a positive and productive meeting with the New York State Department of Transportation to discuss a number of topics, including parking, street light timing and the traffic pattern at the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Mineola Boulevard. All are works in progress and there will be some more to come.

The construction projects in the village are moving along quickly. I want to thank the building department for their efforts and especially all of our residents for your patience and understanding as we continue to move the master plan for our community forward.

Next Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. we will be having a public hearing on a proposed gas station and convenience store on the vacant property at Jericho Turnpike between Latham Road and White Road. I encourage everyone to come down, listen to the presentation and participate in the hearing. Again, it’s next Wednesday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m.right here in village hall.

The new park on Emory Road just south of Wilson Boulevard is open and being enjoyed by all. We still have some tweaking to do with the swing heights, but it’s a great addition to the entire area.

Lastly, although it’s a few weeks away, I want to remind everyone of our children’s Halloween party which will be held here at the community center on Friday, October 25, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Please come down in costume and enjoy the fun.

Mr. Urianek, Mr. Vaz and Mr. Scardino, three of our veterans here from Mineola, were honored at a Yankee game a couple of weeks ago; they were the guests of All-State Insurance, I believe it was, as well as the Yankees and they were brought on the field and they were acknowledged not only for their service to the country but their continued service to the wounded veterans that have come home with egregious wounds and their collecting of cans and the donations that they’ve gotten from the generosity of our Mineola residents that donated money to our veterans here that’s desperately needed and it was nice to see that they were acknowledged for their hard efforts and continued efforts and something to see on TV.

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