Politics & Government

New Mineola Village Board Honors Sen. Martins

Mayor Strauss and trustees present statue in honor of Martins' years of service.

Mineola wasted no time in making his first official act after being in recognizing one of the men who had preceded him in the village board’s center chair – .

Currently a New York state senator, Martins had served as trustee for one year before becoming Mayor in 2003.

“As mayor, he demonstrated that he is a man of vision and that being Mineola’s future, a man of courage in tackling head on the many challenges facing the village, and a man of concern who listened to and spoke with the community,” Strauss said. “It would take me a great deal of time to list the many contributions made to our village by Jack Martins.”

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The actual ceremony had been pushed back towards the end of the inauguration ceremony – Strauss had also thanked Martins in his speech – since the senator was not present at that time, having driven from Albany that afternoon.

Martins had arrived at the end of the swearing in of Trustees Lawrence Werther and George Durham and stood in the back of the gymnasium until Strauss announced that he would be honoring a “special resident.”

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The new five-member board presented Martins a bronze statuette in the shape of a soaring bald eagle on behalf of the trustees, village staff and residents.

“Mineola is a much better village in so many dimensions because of Jack Martins,” Strauss said.

Martins appeared surprised at the presentation, and did not make any remarks at the inauguration ceremony.

In a statement, Martins said that he was “truly humbled to receive this honor. The residents of the Village of Mineola are my friends and neighbors. It will always be home and I am so thankful that the residents allowed me to serve as mayor for eight years.”

Calling Strauss “a dear friend,” Martins said that the village is in “great hands” with Strauss and the current board, and thanked each of them “for this honor.”


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