Mineola Village Board Notebook: August 1

The Mineola  held a meeting on Wednesday, August 1. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

Lever Election Machines

• The Nassau County Village Official’s Association met on July 31 and discussed a bill which passed both houses allowing villages and school districts to use and which will be presented to for approval.
• “The programming of the computerized machines gets to be very, very problematic when you get to have 30, 40 or 50 concurrent elections,” trustee Lawrence Werther said. “The are owned by Nassau County and to program them to get them ready for the separate village elections gets to be an issue. In addition, the amount of to do that would raise the cost of holding an election here in the village remarkably.”
• added that he had sent a letter to the governor asking that he sign the bill.

Fuel Oil Contract

• About 3 years ago the village entered into a contract with Diesco, a company to supply gas at 8 percent below the price of National Grid.
• The village was recently informed that the company that they will no longer be able to honor the price.
• The original contract was for one year and was extended for an additional 2 years.
• Any resident who signed up for service will still have at least a full year under the commitment.
• The company is reportedly looking to rebid the contract and Werther requested that Mineola bid the contract since it was the village that first took action on it 3 years ago.

Bruce Terrace Project

• John Ryan of Bruce Terrace brought his concerns about the preservation of residential trees on the properties surrounding where the flood mitigation project is taking place as well as security regarding the use of the property on the north side of Westbury Avenue.
• Ryan stated that the gate to the sump in the 6-ft. high chain-link fence “has been open for 3 years” and that he had observed a man with a rifle “taking pop shots” several years ago.
• Mayor Strauss said that he “wasn’t sure” about when the would start their portion of the project, indicating that the land-license agreement had yet to be signed as of the August 1 meeting.
• The village had allowing the town’s engineers to come onto the village property to define what Mineola property the town would need for the project.
• “Once that’s defined, then we’ll be able to work out the land-license agreement,” the mayor said.

Station Plaza Project

• As of July 30, crews installed the base layer of to lock in drainage and manhole structures.
• Superintendent of public works Tom Rini said at the time that the only remaining items to be done were the concrete islands and pavers as well as bases for lighting fixtures which would be installed by the electricians, followed by the poles and then the final top layer.
• He estimated that the project would be completed by the middle of August.

Use Requests

• The WARM Association of Girl Scouts will use the auditorium for their annual bronze, silver and gold award celebration on Friday, September 7 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• The Evening Star Quilters have requested a general purpose room for a workshop session on Friday, October 5 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• The Mineola AARP Chapter 4202 requested the use of the community center for their 2012-13 general membership meetings and a general purpose room for their board of directors’ meetings on the following Wednesday dates from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.: September 26; October 24; November 28; Jan. 23, 2013, Feb. 27, 2013; March 27, 2013; April 24, 2013; May 22, 2013.
• The Mineola AARP Chapter 4202 also requested the use of a general purpose room for their arts and crafts committee on the following Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.: September 18; October 2; October 16; November 6; December 4; December 11; December 18; Jan. 8, 2013; Jan. 22, 2013; Feb. 5, 2013; Feb. 19, 2013; March 5, 2013; March 19, 2013; April 2, 2013; April 16, 2013; May 7, 2013; May 21, 2013; June 4, 2013; June 18, 2013.

July Financial Report

The financial reports for the village for the month of July is as follows:

• 27 residential permits issued for $28,520
• 14 commercial permits for $4,519
• one late rental registration permit for $1,025
• 24 plumbing permits for $5,030
• 28 electrical permits for $2,600
• 24 title searches for $2,701.25
• 45 certificates of occupancy for $1,125
• four applications for the board of zoning appeals: one for a subdivision for $3,200
• eight licenses for new businesses for $2,040
• for a subtotal of $50,760.25.
• There were court dispositions in the amount of $4,425 for a grand total of $55,185.25.

It was reported that eight new homes were under construction in the village as well as 12 dormers of various sizes and configurations, several garages and a large amount of sidewalk and concrete repair.

Engineering Contracts

• An engineering services agreement was approved with the firm of Dvirka & Bartilucci for the leak and level detection repairs and upgrades for the department of public works underground storage tanks for an estimated cost of engineering of $31,000 and an estimated project cost of $70,000 was approved.
• The village has a number of underground storage tanks at the garage including a 10,000 diesel tank and 1,000 No. 2 fuel oil tank upon which retrofits must be made and a leak and level detection system installed in 1992 must be replaced.
• A second engineering contract with Dvirka & Bartilucci was approved for the improvements to the packed tower aeration system at well No. 4 located at Eighth Avenue and Old Country Road.
• The village voluntarily after seeing a rise in the volatile organic compounds.
• The village recently finalized and submitted a design report for the repairs to the health department.
• “Basically the existing packed tower aeration system that is there, or the air stripper as they is known as, has reached its useful life for some of the contaminants that are found,” Rini said, “and in order for us to keep removing those contaminants from the water, we need to now replace that, or realistically retrofit that to take it another 13 feet higher in order to remove the compounds that we’re finding in that area.”
• The estimated engineering cost of the project is $86,000 with the estimated construction cost being $700,000.

Other Board News

• Resident Gus Ledato spoke about the grade at the storm drains on Walker Road and Garfield Avenue, asking village crews to investigate both the grade and a “collapsed” part of the concrete at the southeast drain which might cause a tripping hazard.
• Director Charles Sleefe will attend the Grant Writing USA class in Mahwah, NJ from September 6-7. According to village clerk Joseph Scalero, “this is a continuing education program” which Sleefe was asked to attend. The cost for attending – which is less than $500 – would come out of the library’s budget.
• The Homecoming Parade will take place on Saturday, September 22 at 12 p.m. (assembly at 11:30 a.m.) along the following route: east along Jericho Turnpike to Roslyn Road, south along Roslyn Road to Westbury Avenue, east along Westbury Avenue to Union Avenue, south along Union Avenue to Hampton Stadium. This is the same route as in prior years.
• It was announced that is moving up the start of by 60 days. Village building superintendent Dan Whalen stated that he hoped to have the building permit in their hands by the second week in September. Construction was originally scheduled to begin in November.