Politics & Government

Mineola Mayor's Message: Habitat for Humanity, Budget and Night on the Town

Mayor Scott Strauss welcomes trustees Pereira and Cusato back to the board.

The following are the opening remarks of made during the public meeting of the on April 4, 2012:

Good evening. Welcome back Trustees Pereira and Cusato, it’s been great working with you this past year and I’m glad it’s going to continue.

Last month I attended the , another huge success not only in raising funds but more importantly getting the residents and the community together. Congrats to honorary Chief Bill Gresalfi and ex-Chief Gary Mazur and the many other advisors and the junior firefighters themselves on a job well done.

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I’d like to thank the and for allowing me, or inviting me, to be a guest reader at their events; I had a great time at both.

The held their meet and greet for local businesses three weeks ago. It was well attended and hopefully this vibrant organization will continue to grow.

Find out what's happening in Mineolawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Last Friday deputy mayor Paul Pereira and I attended a . This event was the culmination of an incredible project where Nassau County partnered with the Habitat for Humanity and local businesses, students and dozens of other volunteers to . This family has faced many challenges in the past and unfortunately have many more challenges ahead of them. But with the help of so many giving and caring groups and individuals, their lives will be made a little bit easier. It was a truly moving event.

Sunday I attended the Portuguese Lions Club annual breakfast, it was jam packed with friends and neighbors there to give support to an organization that continually gives back to the community. If you missed it this year, it’s every Palm Sunday so put it on your calendars, it’s a great day.

On May 4 there will be an event called the “Night on the Town” held here in Mineola at the . This is an event where the local restaurants come to the Jericho Terrace and provide table after table of food, drinks and fun. It’s a private organization, the proceeds are going to go to the leukemia fund and it’s hosted, or run by Tony Lubrano from the chamber of commerce and Harry Zapiti. All of the proceeds are going to go to the leukemia foundation and this year they’re honoring former senator and a true friend of Mineola, Michael Balboni. Please come out and share a great night and support this organization.

I’ve asked the various department heads in the village as I did last year to hold the line on increases regarding our budget. I’ve asked them to do more with less as I did last year and most likely will do next year and they have. We’re facing some challenges and increases that are out of our control such as pension costs, fuel costs and some other pressures. With that being said, as of now – and it’s a tentative budget – we’re looking at . Even though we passed a law allowing us to override the 2 percent tax cap mandated on us by the state, we did our very best to keep this as low as possible. Could I have cut the budget 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent? Yeah, I could, but we’d have to let our parks deteriorate and we’d have to let our garbage pile up. I don’t want to do that to the village. I don’t want to shut the pool down, I don’t want to shut the community center down. I want to keep this community vibrant and worth living in as it is. We did the absolute best we can and although the country remains in an economic distress, the village is holding its own; it’s a solid and fiscally sound budget.

We had a local resident – one of our firefighters – actually save a life a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago. Company No. 3 firefighter Jim Carlson and he was contacted by that organization that he donates platelets to and was asked to come into Manhattan as they needed a donor. He saved a young child’s life by donating his platelets. They picked him up, rushed him into the city and it was a huge success. Firefighter Carlson has been donating blood platelets as long as I can remember; he’s well into the “gallon club” as they used to call it in the day, I don’t know what they call it now but he’s does it on a continual basis every few weeks, he donates these platelets. Congratulations Jim, thanks very much, you did Mineola proud, you certainly did the fire department proud.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here