Politics & Government

Mineola Village Board Notebook: August 14

Other news from the August 14 village board meeting.

The Mineola Village Board of Trustees held a meeting on Wednesday, August 14. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

Natural Gas Contract

  • The board awarded a contract for natural gas services as lead participant of the Long Island Municipal Cooperative Purchasing Group to Utility Expense Reduction, pursuant to a request for proposals.
  • About 3 years ago, the village was approached by the Nassau County Village Officials Association and asked to issue a cooperative bid for gas pricing alternatives, which was being done throughout the county in which all member villages could participate and which would provide an opportunity for residents and businesses to receive lower cost natural gas from individual dealers delivered through National Grid or Keyspan.
  • Many Mineola residents opted into the resulting bid and had considerable savings.
  • The village officials association had since contacted mayor Scott Strauss, notifying the village that the one-year contract had expired, but the company was still honoring the existing pricing structure.
  • However, due to the economy, the company sent notice that without a new contract they may not be able to offer the same pricing for much longer without renegotiation.
  • The Village Official’s Association asked Mineola to issue the bid again since it took the lead with the original bid.
  • The village received only two responses to that initial rebid earlier in 2013 and neither represented any significant savings and were rejected. Utility Expense Reduction was one of three bidders in the subsequent rebid and represented a savings.
  • Village clerk Joseph Scalero noted that all of the three bidders utilized a variable pricing structure as opposed to a set price structure utilized under the previous contract. “They’ve all said that they can’t because of the fluctuation in natural gas prices because it’s a commodity that’s traded,” Scalero said, noting it would be the NYMEX exchange rate plus 7 percent.
  • Individual residential customers would have to reach out to the company and see if there could be a savings for them based on gas usage.

Personnel

  • Biatta Arnold was hired as the village auditor, replacing a full-time and outside contract auditors. The salary is $55,000 per year plus three weeks vacation.

Contracts

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  • The village retained Standard Valuation Services and Michael Haberman Associates, Inc. to adjust and update the 2013 Village Assessment Roll at a cost of $32,000.
  • The village awarded a bid for improvements to the packed tower aeration system at well No. 4 to Phillip Ross Industries for $570,000.
  • A tree planting contract with Louis Barbato Landscaping was extended for one year for the 2013 planting season. All current pricing will remain in effect for the extension. The village is planning on spending $50,000 to replace trees brought down by Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy.
  • The village will purchase three new 2014 GMC Sierra 3500 HD four-wheel drive work trucks with plows, 1,500 lbs. tail-lifts, bed liners and emergency lighting from a Nassau BOCES contract from Van Buren Truck Sales at a cost per vehicle of $38,940.34 or a total cost of $116,821.02. Funding for the purchases would come from the street maintenance equipment line and building department permit fees.
  • The village declared several vehicles as obsolete and designated them to be sold for scrap including a 1993 mobil sweeper, a 1993 International Dump truck, a 1989 mobil sweeper and a 1977 GMC Basin Truck. Superintendent of public works Tom Rini said that all of the vehicles have been cannibalized for parts and are “basically a chassis and a cab.”
  • The board authorized participation in the National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA) and the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Alliance (NIPA) purchasing cooperatives for participating in federal contracts for apparatus, materials, supplies and equipment. The general municipal agreement of the State of New York permits municipalities to purchase items and services from county and state contracts but was amended last year to also provide purchasing from federal contracts to obtain savings.

The next meeting of the Mineola Village Board will be on Wednesday, September 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the village hall.

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