Mineola Village Board Notebook: October 10

The Mineola Village Board of Trustees held a meeting on Wednesday, Ocotber 10. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

Building Inspector Position

• The board approved Thomas Murphy for the civil service position of building inspector at the recommendation of building superintendent Dan Whalen at a salary of $25 per hour.
• Whalen said that Murphy “received high marks on the most recent test,” and that Murphy was on a list of 14 names provided by civil service.
• He had owned a contracting business for the past 20 years and currently lives in Port Washington.
• “He would most assuredly probably still be in that business if it weren’t for the cost of a sole proprietorship and the cost of business relative to insurance, taxes, equipment, employees,” Whalen said. “I think at this time Mr. Murphy is probably the best fit for our operation. The knowledge that Mr. Murphy brings to this job in my estimation goes well beyond what’s necessary for that concern because he’s not only mentally had to perform on staff but physically done so.”
• The position comes with a 6-month probationary term and is not a union position.
• New York State requires a minimum of 120 hours of classroom training, which is given free of charge to municipalities by the state during the course of the year, and 24 each year each subsequent year.
• It also requires membership in the Building Inspectors Association of Nassau County as well as the New York State Building Officials Committee, which gives the training throughout the year.
• Murphy would physically go out with Whalen and other department personnel for inspections, investigations, code enforcement, etc.

Use Request

The board approved a request from the American Legion Mineola Memorial Post 349 for the use of a general purpose room on the following 2013 dates from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and on the third Tuesday of each month, as needed, for executive committee meetings, subject to community center availability:

• January 8
• Wednesday, February 13
• March 12
• April 9
• May 14
• June 11
• July 9
• August 13
• September 10
• October 8
• November 12
• December 10

Other Board News

• The general village code was distributed to the trustees. “If anybody doesn’t have any comments on it at all, we’ve had it for a while, if not we can send it out for print and hold a public hearing on it in the future,” Mayor Scott Strauss said.
• Each of the trustees was wearing a pink ribbon lapel pin due to October being Breast Cancer Awareness month. “Anybody that has anybody affected in their families or friends by breast cancer, it’s certainly a tragic undertaking and certainly a stressful situation and I encourage all females – moms, sisters, daughters, grandmothers anybody that is in that area – to get checked out, it’s very, very important,” Mayor Strauss said.