Mineola Village Board Notebook: June 20

The Mineola  held a meeting on Wednesday, June 20. Here are some of the things you may have missed.

Keyspan Building Hearing Postponed

• A hearing on the at 250 Old Country Road has been pushed back to August 8.
• The applicant had hoped to return on June 20 based on but delivered a letter to the board the morning of June 20 requesting the adjournment to a later date.
• The developer did submit an overhead view of the project as well as an elevation drawing, site plan and comparison chart between what was originally proposed several years ago, what was recently proposed and what is now being proposed.

Getty Gas Station Property

• The board approved a correction agreement in the form of a boundary line agreement and a temporary access for the property on the south side of Jericho Turnpike between Latham Road and White Road, which is the former site of a Getty gas station which burned down several years ago.
• Getty is planning to but had encountered some problems with the property lines in order to obtain clear title for the development.
• The village had rechecked the survey and tax department, confirming it was taxing the property on a 200x100 property line. The county property map shows the line going through parked cars.
• “We’ve been collecting money on the area where some of the cars are parked,” village attorney John Spellman said, noting the official county tax map indicates the property as 200x100.
• In 1959 that property and the parking lot were owned by the same person, Robert Schwartz, who made an application to build a gas station and offered to dedicate to the village the property south of the proposed station of 45 ft. on Latham Road and White Road of 65 ft. to use for parking.
• “For some reason we’ve encroached,” Spellman said.
• Getty personnel would have to come onto village property in order to restore lines and repave and restripe areas of the parking lot.
• There is no cost to the village as Getty is taking care of the whole area at its own cost and also adding guardrails.

2012 Mineola Street Fair

• A request was approved from the to move the date of the annual street fair to Sunday, September 30 with a of Sunday, October 14.
• September 30 had been the prior raindate, but the first raindate proposed does fall on Columbus Day weekend.
• Village clerk Joseph Scalero noted that the proposed raindate of October 7 fell on Columbus Day weekend and that the reason the chamber was moving was due to a specific set of circumstances and that they would revert back to the previous plans in the future.

Use Requests

• The Mineola Golden Age Club requested the use of the auditorium on Thursdays from September 6 to June 20, 2013 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for their regular meetings, a general purpose room for line dancing instruction and an exercise program on Mondays from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and a general purpose room for arts and crafts on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. These are all annual requests.
• The Mineola Youth & Family Services will make use of the community center auditorium and a general purpose room for their after school program on Monday’s and Friday’s beginning September 10 through June 21, 2013 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Budget Transfers

• A transfer of funds in the amount of $6,008.31 was made from fiscal year 2011/12 from the capital projects fund to the general fund, referencing the 2007 village bonds.
• A second transfer of $2,702.63 was made from from fiscal year 2011/12 from the capital projects fund to the water fund, referencing the 2007 village bonds.
• “This bond anticipation note has been completed, it has been paid and these are funds which we do not need to purchase department of public works equipment,” village treasurer Giacomo Ciccone said, noting the same was true of the water fund bond.

Other Board News

• Thomas R. Behan, Christopher DeStefano, Michael McCabe and Justin Sandler were approved as new members of the Company No. 2; Kevyn Bustamonte and Michael J. Fernandes were approved as new members of the Mineola Fire Department Company No. 3 and one, respectively. Five of the six members are from the department’s juniors program.
• A request for a $1 per hour stipend for certified pool operators Michael Palumbo and Sean McCrave were approved effective June 1 through September 15, was approved. According to Scalero, this is an annual stipend the employees receive for carrying the certifications at the request of the village and are also on call throughout the entire pool season.
• The board approved a list of additional seasonal employees for the summer camp, pool and water department. “Some of the kids who had been previously been hired by the board later declined the jobs or for whatever reason cannot work and these are the ones off the standby list that we’ve approved,” Scalero said.
• Scalero will attended the Cornell Municipal Clerks Institute at Cornell University in Ithaca from July 8-12. This is the second year he has attended the program. The event was separate from the NYCOM training school and Scalero was selected for the 3 year certification workshop program. Only two other clerks on Long Island have the certification. Last year Scalero was also selected for several scholarships to cover the cost of the program and has done so again this year.
• An amendment to the village purchase and procurement policy was adopted. New York State has increased the threshold limit for purchase contracts from $10,000 to $20,000 and its public works contracts from $20,000 to $35,000. Although the village is looking to adhere to the state limits, any purchase or spending over $1,000 would still be approved by the village board.