Deputy Mayor Lynn Pombonyo

Police Department

Our Police Department has tallied its 2023 statistics which demonstrate the productive year that it was. Some important totals for the last year: 10,086 calls for assistance; 314 motor vehicle accidents with injuries and/or significant damages; 3,110 vehicle stops; 2,692 moving summonses (including those written for trucks by our Motor Carrier Detail); 11,781 parking summonses; and 48 arrests. Our Police Department is there for its citizens, businesses, and village visitors in numerous, significant ways.

Our FPPD has reported that, on the same January night, catalytic converters were stolen from vehicles parked in two Floral Park driveways in close proximity to each other. It’s important to note that the crimes were committed just before 4 AM, yet reported by a resident witness just before 7 AM, preventing FPPD from catching the perpetrators while or immediately after the crimes were committed. Nassau County Police coordinate with FPPD on the investigations of such crimes and the apprehension of the perpetrators. All are urged to report possible criminal activity to the FPPD immediately to effect quick starts on the investigations. Join our Police as crime stoppers. If you see something, say something…to our Police, immediately!

And have you visited our very popular FPPD Facebook page lately?

Conservation Society

The annual, international Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) takes place throughout the world and in our very own Centennial Gardens and Bird Sanctuary on Friday, February 16^th through Sunday, February 18^th. Watch for the colorful blue flyer on the VFP and Recreation Center Facebook pages, and join this fascinating event, birdwatching and listening to the stories of the birds, told by our very own ornithologist extraordinaire, Don Haug. The star of the 2022 GBBC was a magnificent red-tailed hawk, a Gardens resident, who posed for all the birdwatchers on the top of a large tree as we stood in awe.

Look for unique bird facts, photos, videos and birdwatching ideas at the birdcount.org website, and google the Audubon Society’s and Cornell University’s Great Backyard Bird Count sites, too.

More GBBC coming attractions in February!

Chambers of Commerce and Our Businesses

All are welcome at the Floral Park Chamber of Commerce’s next catered networking meeting on Thursday evening, February 1^st at 6 PM at the Methodist Church on Verbena Avenue. Visit the Chamber website for the required meeting registration at floralparkchamber.org

Coming soon will be details about our Covert Avenue Chamber of Commerce’s exciting 2024 activities. Visit covertavenuechamber.org.

And, are you keeping your New Year’s resolution to SHOP AND DINE LOCAL in Floral Park and Stewart Manor? You’ll be glad you did!

 

Trustee Frank Chiara

Library

Here are some upcoming events at our Floral Park Library:

• Friday, January 19^th, from 4 PM to 5 PM the library will be hosting Teen Party Art for teens, grades 6-12. Teens are welcome to come and create something mystical for winter with Ali from the Party Art School.
• Monday, January 22^nd, from 7 PM to 8 PM there will be a Family Pre-School Hour with, A Time for Kids, Inc. This school readiness program will focus on early literacy and fine motor skills through music, movement and other fun activities.
• Friday, January 26^th, from 3:45 PM to 5:15 PM the library is having a babysitting workshop for teens from grades 6-12. The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County will be conducting the workshop and providing useful skills to teens so they can become incredible babysitters. Space is limited so register early.
• Saturday, January 27^th, 2024 from 10 AM to 4 PM the ‘Friends of the Library’ will be hosting a bag sale in the library meeting room. For 8 dollars you can fill up a ‘Friends’ tote bag with as many books as fit. If you already have a ‘Friends’ tote bag, bring it and your cost will be only 5 dollars.  The ‘Friends of the Library’ are very supportive of our library so consider stopping over to support this event.
• Monday, January 29^th, from 4 PM to 5:15 PM you are invited to join a ‘Birding at the Gardens’ 2-session program. This program teaches the use of tools of birding, binoculars, technology, and field guide in order to identify several common, easy to find birds. The program will afford those who attend an opportunity to use these learned skills at the 26^th Annual

Backyard Bird Count will be held Friday, February 16^th through Sunday, February 18^th at Centennial Gardens.  The data collected at the bird count helps scientist document how birds respond to climate change and shifting range.

These are just a few January’s scheduled events that may be found on the Library’s website at www.floralparklibrary.org. Visit the site on how to register and attend the activities offered.

Fire Department

The department is in good standing and there is nothing new to report.

Trustee Jennifer Stewart

DPW 

Thank you to the DPW crews for the work they did during this overnight and early morning storm, including reporting to work at 1:30 AM. We appreciate their efforts to get our streets safe and ready so residents were able to get to work and school, while also picking up our garbage and maintaining Village vehicles and buildings.

A gentle reminder to all residents to not shovel snow into the street and to please make sure your sidewalk is clear. If there is a fire hydrant in front of your home, please make sure it is clear and visible. If you live on a corner, please clear the access from the street to the sidewalk.

Along with preparing for this latest storm the DPW also cleaned up after the January 13^th storm, cleaned the West End storm basins, removed all Christmas decorations, swept all Village roads, and collected 65 tons of household waste, 8 tons of paper and cardboard, 5 tons of plastics and glass as well as 11 tons of bulk rubbish. Please remember that the new sanitation schedules were mailed with the Annual Village Items and are also available on the Village website at fpvillage.org.

4VS

The Mayor and I were pleased to attend the Annual 4VS Staff Meeting and Awards Night, held here at Village Hall last week.  It was truly a pleasure to meet so many show hosts and volunteers who work behind the scenes to provide such quality local programming. 4VS has 42 full time, volunteer staff members. They have produced 37 shows in 2023.  Pre-pandemic, their number were in the 50s and 4VS is working back towards those numbers.  4VS ran 672 billboard messages in 2023, has created 1,624 shows over its history and has 515 shows available for viewing on its website. They have 2400 views on their website. As I recently reported, the station won 4 Nor’easter Awards. This being the 4^th year they have won 4 awards.

I would like to take a minute to congratulate the following staff members and volunteers for the awards presented to them by studio director James Greene: Francis Brandy – Student Intern of the Year, Jamie Liesner – College Crew Member of the Year, Larry King – Nor’Easter Winner, and Denon Senjalia – High School Crew Member of the Year.

MTA

We continue to engage with the MTA about the work that needs to be completed by the MTA as per our MOU. The MTA can be reached at MTA.info with questions and concerns and, as always, you can reach me at [email protected].

Trustee Michael Longobardi

Building Department

The structural repairs to 266 Jericho Turnpike fire building have started and are expected to take up to three months. Nassau County site plan approval has been received for the former Centennial Hall Property and permits have been issued. Work is expected to start shortly on the new apartment building.  Tonight, we held two public hearings.  The first is regarding a request for a pick-up window at the proposed restaurant at 99 Covert Avenue. The second is for a proposed pharmaceutical lab located at 100 Jericho Turnpike. Decisions are pending on both.

Our Building Superintendent, Renee Marcus, will be the guest speaker at the North End Civic meeting this Thursday, January 18^th and the West End Civic meeting on Thursday, February 1^st.  She will give an overview on the permitting process and answer any questions anyone may have related to the Building Department.  This is a great opportunity to learn about the process when making capital improvement to your home or commercial property. It is also a great chance to attend a civic meeting, see what the civics are about and get involved.

Pool and Recreation

There are still openings for the Session II winter/spring 2024 programs.  Please call the pool building or visit to check availability and register. As a reminder, leisure passes have expired and the new 2024 passes are now available. The hockey season has gone well and will wrap up by the end of this month.  Superintendent Kurt Meyfohrt and Building Superintendent Renee Marcus met with our HVAC company today, regarding the pool building HVAC system, which will be getting a much-needed upgrade.  Thank you both for your work on this.

Last week we held meetings with the Recreation Committee and the Pool Committee to discuss the past year.  We reviewed what is working great as well as areas that need some improvements or changes.  I would like to thank all our committee volunteers who take time to meet and provide valuable insights and ideas.  More to come on those meetings soon.

Town-Village Aircraft Safety & Noise Abatement Committee (TVASNAC)

The next meeting will be Monday, January 22^nd at the Hempstead Town Hall, One Washington Street, Hempstead. If you want to make a noise complaint regarding air traffic, you can call 1-800-225-1071. You can also go to the village website which has the links under the TVASNAC noise complaint contact information page on our home page.

 

Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald

Former Village Administrator Nancy McLoughlin

Prior to the meeting a moment of silence was held for former Village Administrator Nancy McLoughlin. Nancy and her husband Tom moved to Floral Park in 1971 where they raised their family. In 1976 Nancy started her career at the Village as a Clerk Typist. In 1981 she was promoted to Deputy Village Clerk and from 1989 to 1999 she served as the Village Administrator. I personally did not move into the Village until 1999 so I did not have the pleasure of working with or knowing her. Everything I heard from employees who have worked with her is that she was very effective Village Administrator in all aspects and Floral Park is certainly a better place because of Nancy’s service to this Village.

West End Civic Association

With regard to the West End Civic Association, Superintendent of Buildings Renee Marcus will be giving a brief overview of what we are planning to do with the new sump at Belmont Park. The funding for the sump has not been fully approved by the Federal Government just yet; however, we are moving along with the plans in hopes that the funding comes through within a reasonable time.

Trees and Tree Plantings

As it was mentioned in my Mayor’s Message at the end of 2023, a number of oak trees had a disease called oak wilt. After speaking to our arborist on a number of occasions and checking out trees that were either dying or diseased, it was determined that we had to cut down 50 dying trees including a large tree in Memorial Park. We will be replanting a more mature tree in that area as that space does permit bigger trees. Throughout this past year we have planted over 250 trees around our Village and took down less than 100 trees.

In speaking to several people and looking at old photos over 100 years ago, Floral Park had no trees or very minimal. Thankfully someone had the foresight over 100 years ago when planning this Village to plant a lot of trees, which grew large and tall. However not everything lives forever and some trees are susceptible to certain diseases. Our Tree Crew and Superintendent Ginnane do a great job to keep them as healthy as possible. In fact, they have recently learned how and when to trim oak trees to give them a longer life. We appreciate all the research they have done on that. We keep our trees as best as we can, but sometimes we have to take them down for safety reasons.