Trustee Lynn Pombonyo

Fire Department
This week, our Fire Department and Village honored Ex-Captain Donald Gorman of Reliance Company on the north side. Captain Gorman served FPFD for fifty years, in addition to working in our DPW. Honors included a FPFD service and a firetruck flag salute at his funeral.

This week, FDNY, FPFD, FPPD and our Village are honoring FDNY Chief Joseph McKie, a long time, devoted local resident who, with his wife, raised four amazing children who attended our schools and enthusiastically participated in all that our Village has to offer. Chief McKie passed away following a 9/11 related illness.

We thank these two courageous firefighters for their years of service, and will keep the Gorman and McKie families in our hearts and prayers.

With their ongoing commitment to training, the Fire Department has completed two nights of intensive firefighting at the Nassau County Fire Service Academy in Bethpage. There our companies, including Rescue, have executed interior attacks on fires in a six story building and a two story, L-shaped garden apartment building. In both experiences, our firefighters had to climb smoke-filled staircases in full bunker gear, carrying hoses. Once there, they tackled multiple fires on multiple floors in hot, smoky blackout conditions. They bravely extinguished two sets of staged fires each night, and received instruction and feedback from the officers, chiefs and expert NCFSA leaders. The focus has been important fire attack strategies, including the complexities and challenges of hose operations, especially when multiple lines are in use. Our Rescue company is there to provide important support for all.

We thank our FPFD for keeping us safe and continually training to remain at their best. Two additional NCFSA training evenings are scheduled for September.

Department of Public Works
The fall months are busy for our DPW. At the corner of Plainfield and Magnolia, you will see beautification and accessibility enhancements with colorful flowers, flowering bushes and small trees, and an accessible sidewalk path connecting the parking lot and sidewalk on Plainfield.

With our road construction projects, Spooner Street is well under way. The roadway will be removed next. The Spooner parking lot will be the last phase of the project, in mid to late October.

Other road repairs and storm drain cleanout will both continue in the fall. Thank you Superintendent Kevin Ginnane and DPW for making our Village safe and beautiful.

Conservation Society (FPCS)
We are all in love with Centennial Gardens, so all fans out there are invited to our FPCS monthly weed-outs. Bring your family, friends and neighborhood for a few fun-filled hours of beautifying our Gardens. Meet our FPCS volunteers, and find out how you can become active in our BEST PUBLIC GARDEN OF NASSAU COUNTY treasure. Next weed-out: Saturday, October 1st at 9am. Save the date!

Chambers of Commerce and Our Businesses
All of our Floral Park and Stewart Manor business people are invited to a Floral Park Chamber networking event on Thursday, October 6th, 6pm at Jameson’s Courtyard. Learn about our Tulip Avenue, Jericho Turnpike and Covert Avenue businesses and develop new partnerships and friendships.

And we’re counting the days to the Covert Avenue Chamber of Commerce Street Fair – 25 days until October 15th. Join the browsing, shopping and dining fun in Floral Park and Stewart Manor, and have a great time!

Congratulations!
The Village Board extends our congratulations to Girl Scout Troop 1622’s Gold Award recipients. This is the highest award in the Girl Scout organization. Floral Park Memorial Seniors Ella Iannitti, Tulah Chatterton and Emerson Lucatorto wowed our community and their high school peers with their impressive Gold Award projects including promoting inclusion and special needs-friendly communities and businesses; guiding teens to teach the younger tweens about Internet safety; and preparing students to prepare themselves for employment. All three Gold Award recipients incorporated technology in their projects in highly innovative ways. Our future is in great hands!

Trustee Frank Chiara

Police Department
On Monday, Sept. 12, 2022, Commission McAllister, Lt. Will Doherty and school resource Officer Kelly Murphy made a presentation to the Floral Park Bellerose School District Board of Education on the services our school resource officers and police department will be offering to our schools this year. Topics range from school safety, internet safety and public safety and methodologies. The presentation was well received and the new superintendent, Ms. Ruiz, noted how fortunate we are here in Floral Park to have our own Police Department who are so engaging with the schools and our community. Our school resource Officers are the liaisons between our children, law enforcement, teachers and school staff, families and the community. They have become a welcomed presence in our schools and provide a valuable service to all of the students.

Thank You to Commissioner McAllister, Officer Murphy, and Lt. Doherty for sharing this information on the services our school resource Officers are performing and for all that you do to keep our community safe.

Building Department
On Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, the Architectural Review Board (ARB) will be having the first of the split sessions for the month of September to accommodate the magnitude of the projects currently proposed in our Village. On Sept. 21, 2022, there will be a number of items on the agenda, most notable is the Covert Ave project resubmission. The second session will be on Sept. 28, 2022 and will have the Centennial Hall project along with other agenda items. Please note the change of venue for both meetings – they will take place at Fire Fighters Hall, 1 Floral Blvd at 8pm. If residents would like to submit questions on either project prior to these meetings, please do so at [email protected]. These questions will then be answered at the respective meetings.

I would like to congratulate our Village Clerk Susan Walsh for receiving the Clerk of the Year award for NYS. We here in the Village all know and recognize the fantastic job Susan does for all of us and for our Village and this is well-deserved. Congratulations Susan and we can never thank you enough for all that you do for us!!!

Trustee Jennifer Stewart

Recreation Center
We continue to see many residents at our Recreation Center daily of all ages enjoying this gem in our Village. Many thanks to long time village resident Mary Petrosino who spent many years enjoying all the Village and in particular, the Recreation Center has to offer. As she leaves our Village, she was kind enough to leave a gift of a steam cleaner for the Recreation Center. Thank you Mary and we wish you well in your new community.

We will have news regarding the Multi-Purpose rink in the coming weeks.

LIRR/MTA/3TC
Despite their representations to residents and over the objections of the Village, the MTA/Long Island Rail Road intends to install a permanent vehicle access gate at their access point on Tunnel Street. Prior to the Third Track construction project there had only been a pedestrian access gate at this location. Representatives of the MTA met with the Village at the site several times over the last two weeks, to hear the Village’s safety concerns. The Village is appreciative of the MTA’s representations that they will make modifications to their plans to address the Village’s safety concerns. However, the Village remains unconvinced that a permanent vehicle access gate at this location is needed.

As a reminder to residents, especially parents, although the Third Track Project is hopefully coming to a conclusion in the near future, it is still an active construction project. There are several construction access points for the Third Track Project in the Village and the Village Police and Department of Public Works (DPW) try to monitor these access points to make sure they are properly secured when there is no ongoing construction activity taking place. But if you notice a location where the construction fencing is not properly secured, please contact our DPW at 516-326-6320 or our Police at 516-326-6400. Thank you for your assistance with this.

As always, I urge you to log into MTA.org or please email them at [email protected] and leave a comment. You may also call the MTA at 516-203-4955, especially if you have called the Village to report a concern, let the MTA know as well.

Trustee Michael Longobardi

Floral Park Library
Friends of the Library is a great volunteer organization that raises money and supports the Library. Their support and programs are expanding and they are welcoming more kids, teens and adults to volunteer.

The Library is excited to announce they will be launching a new homepage shortly for the website. Please watch for that.

Also, the Library is currently in the top ten in circulation for Nassau County thanks to the great staff and programs they run. October 26th is Trivia Night; tickets are available. The Book Nook is now open Monday to Saturday. The Urban Explorers are looking to run a bus trip to the Botanical Gardens for the Holiday Train Show. Another defensive driving class is scheduled for October 13th. Details for these and many other events are listed on the Library website: www.floralparklibrary.org.

Four Village Studio (4VS)
4VS currently has openings for High School Students, residing in the four-village area, to join the staff as television production crew members. No experience is necessary. This is a great opportunity to learn about the technical positions and equipment used to create our programs. If interested, please contact Jim Green at 516-326-1150. Please visit www.4vs.org for the complete list of shows, dates, and times.

Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald

The Village will be finalizing it submission for the NYS Downtown Revitalization Application later this month. The public information meeting that was held on September 13, 2022 regarding the application was very well attended. There was a great exchange of ideas after my Business Project Improvement presentation. The Village also has also received tremendous feedback on the initiative with over 950 responses to the survey. The survey results reveal some really great ideas. The Village will be reviewing and incorporating the feedback into the application process. Thank you to all of the residents, businesses, Deputy Mayor Pombonyo and Building Superintendent Renee Marcus for all of their hard work on this so far. The grant would be for $10mm to improve the downtowns and the Village will continue to apply until we win!

Please share this information with your neighbors. Please attend the Civic Association Meetings which are held on Thursday nights. I recently attended the North End Civic Association meeting with Trustee Stewart and it was a good way for us to exchange information – there is a lot going on and a lot to absorb.

As I recently reported, the Village E-mail blast and online E-news are key communication channels that we are using to keep residents, businesses and the public updated on current news in the Village. Over 3,000 residents have subscribed for notifications. To sign up individuals can visit the Village website: fpvillage.org, click on Quick Links: Important Notifications. The direct link is: https://fpvillage.org/notifications/. Thank you.

The full versions of the Mayor & Trustee Board Reports are available online at www.fpvillage.org.