Trustee Lynn Pombonyo
Police Department
Great appreciation is extended to our Floral Park Fire Department, Police Department, Building Department, Department of Public Works, and Village Hall staff for their tireless efforts throughout the very serious and challenging fire at 266 Jericho Turnpike. The fire began Monday morning and continued into Tuesday, and our Village departments, together with your Board of Trustees, all turned their focus toward extinguishing the fire and ensuring public safety.
Our Floral Park Police Department, alongside Nassau County Police officers, worked long and hard to maintain the safest possible firefighting scene. The police arrived on the scene and alerted those in the smoky buildings and surrounding areas. They immediately commenced traffic control and executed the closing of Jericho Turnpike in both directions. Throughout the day, our police directed the movement of fire vehicles from more than seventeen departments at the scene, as well as the repositioning of those vehicles, especially the hook and ladder trucks, to get water on the fire. The police also supported the scores of firefighters as needed, and ensured that the crowds of onlookers remained at a safe distance. Traffic control was critical throughout the area, and our police guided and directed motorists at many key locations: Plainfield & Elizabeth, Plainfield & Jericho, Jericho & Flower, and at four very busy intersections along Lowell Avenue which were crowded with all the traffic diverted from Jericho Turnpike. Our police continued their work late into Monday night, and then again during the day on Tuesday.
All of this once again demonstrates how the Floral Park Police Department provides valuable leadership and service in all facets of Village life.
Chambers of Commerce and Our Businesses
Annually, Blank Slate Media, through its local Herald Courier newspapers, sponsors the BEST OF NASSAU Contest across a wide range of life’s activities that we all enjoy: Arts/Entertainment, Food/Restaurants, Retail/Shopping, and Sports/Recreation, to name a few. The March 31st Special Section of the Herald Courier and archive.theisland360.com/contest2023 list hundreds of nominees in all the categories. Included are our Centennial Gardens and Bird Sanctuary, 2023 nominee and winner in the 2022 Best Public Garden category, and the Floral Park Library, 2023 nominee and winner in the 2021 and 2022 Best Public Library category. Also listed are many of our great Floral Park and Stewart Manor businesses who have been nominated in a variety of categories.
Vote for all your local favorites on the website listed above by May 26th. Winners, to be announced in July.
More to follow about our BEST OF NASSAU in Floral Park and Stewart Manor!
Conservation Society
Centennial Gardens is now open daily, 12-5pm, and features a new, beautiful surprise at the main entrance. Come on down and enjoy it all!
Trustee Frank Chiara
Floral Park Fire Department
Yesterday morning, for our departing event to Chief Dodson, our Fire Department responded to a call of smoke from a basement on Jericho Turnpike. With our Dept. arriving quickly on the scene they immediately started battling a fire within two of our local business. The call quickly elevated to a mutual aid call requesting assistance from other fire depts. Our Dept., with the assistance of the mutual aid, did an excellent job containing and controlling the spread of this fire, keeping it within the boundaries of the two businesses. The mutual aid from the other depts. and the assistance from Nassau County Officials was exceptional. All the fire depts. and Nassau County Fire marshals were on the scene for the entire day and night wrapping up around 5pm the next day. The Red Cross was on scene to assist the residents that were affected by this fire. Our Village Police, Building Department and DPW were all present providing their services in and around the area of the fire scene. This unified effort from all that assisted made a bad situation much better.
I would like to especially Thank our FD, all of our Village Departments, the mutual aid from the other FD’s and all who assisted from Nassau County. A special Thanks to Author Walsh, Deputy Chief County Executive who responded, remained on the scene to coordinate and provide much needed assistance from the County. This fire could have been much worse if not for the quick response of all came out to fight this fire. A few minor injuries were reported and unfortunately extensive property damage took place within the two businesses.
THANK YOU ALL for your quick response, your hard work and professionalism putting this fire out.
Floral Park Public Library
The Library Front Entrance Project is now complete. The new steps and ramp are open, however, the ADA compliant doors have not been installed or received yet due to supplier delays. Updates on the installation of the new doors will be shared once received. Our DPW workers have completed the landscaping on the library grounds and the entrance now looks fantastic. Thank you to DPW ,especially Larry, for making the grounds look so good.
A few of the Library’s upcoming programs are: 4/19/23 Unclaimed Funds Workshop – New York State may have money in your name? So, find out if you’re one of them. Learn about: what kinds of funds are held; how to claim your money; and estate items; 4/21/23 Teen Cuisine Chefs of d’Future Earth Day – Offered to children of grades 6-12. Come celebrate Earth Day, by creating a special “Cake of the World” using a wide variety of unusual decorations; 4/22/23 Mah Jongg for Beginners. Brush up on your skills, and/or learn some new ones playing Mah Jongg. For all of these events, register online (floralparklibrary.org), at the Reference Desk, or call 516-326-6330.
The Library continues to celebrate its 100-year anniversary. What would be a better way to help celebrate than having the Library recognized for the third year in a row as the Best of Nassau County. Our Library is most deserving of this recognition, so please consider taking a moment to vote for our Library as being the best in Nassau County by going to the library’s website www.floralparklibrary.org to register your vote. You can vote daily, now thru May 26. Let’s make it happen again!!! Thank You!
Trustee Jennifer Stewart
I would like to take this opportunity to echo the sentiments of my fellow board members and send my thanks and gratitude to the members of the FPFD for their tireless, professional efforts at the scene of the Jericho Turnpike fire. Additionally, a debt of gratitude must go out to the more than a dozen neighboring fire departments that arrived on scene and have come to provide coverage to make sure our residents are safe.
Four Village Studio (4VS)
I am excited to start my tenure as the liaison for 4VS. I look forward to getting more acquainted with Jim Green and his staff, as well as the way production works. At the April 6th Cable Committee Meeting the following updates were provided: Eight studio computers have been addressed in varying ways to secure their operational future. Jim thanked Mayor Fitzgerald and South Floral Park’s Mayor Nyakya Brown for their efforts in keeping their respective Mayor’s programs in production. Additionally, it was noted that the total number of new productions in 2023 is currently out-pacing amounts from the previous three years and approaching production status from pre-pandemic years.
Department of Public Works (DPW)
The Cherry trees planted along Jericho Turnpike have bloomed and they are beautiful! In recent weeks, the highway department has watered all new trees on Jericho Turnpike daily, hauled all trash, yard waste and street sweepings to the dumps and performed road repairs on Pansy and Pine Streets. Our DPW Parks Department has cut lawns and maintained park properties, sanitation has collected 80 tons of household waste and 15 tons of recycling, the maintenance department cleaned all Village buildings and reinforced all courtroom pews, and our mechanics have repaired various repairs to vehicles and completed NYS Inspections on several Police Department vehicles.
Sections of the Spooner Parking lot are being redone as they were not completed to the Village’s satisfaction originally, the lot will be re-opened on Thursday.
As we prepare for street renovations this spring on Hinsdale and Clayton, trees are being examined for possible removal. The Village takes the removal of trees very seriously, we employ the assistance of a certified Arborist and only remove trees when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately for some street reconstruction projects, more trees have to come down than we would like. This is done for the safety of residents, as well as the success of the project. Additionally, once these projects are complete, new road-friendly trees are planted.
MTA/LIRR
It is my pleasure to continue to serve as the Village’s liaison to the MTA/LIRR. Yesterday, along with Village Administrator Gerry Bambrick, Mayor Fitzgerald and Superintendent of Buildings Renee Marcus, I met with LIRR President Catherine Rinaldi and members of her engineering staff at the Tunnel Street site. What I will say about this meeting is that I feel hopeful. During our short onsite visit, almost a dozen people of all ages came through the tunnel, highlighting the tremendous need for safety measures there. Ms. Rinaldi appeared open to the Mayor’s request for removable bollards which would require a truck driver to stop, get out of the truck, and remove the bollard. This would slow the driver down and create a visual for both the driver and residents using the tunnel.
We continue to push the MTA to hold up their end of the MOU and provide landscaping and other punch list items previously discussed and agreed upon. As always, we encourage residents to reach out directly to the MTA with questions and concerns, as we have found this the most effective way of residents communicating with them. The MTA can be reached at contact.mta.info/customer-feedback or by phone at 516-203-4955 – this is an automated response, but you can ask for “more options” and then ask for “Comments and concerns” to speak to a person.
Trustee Michael Longobardi
Building Department
A huge thank you to our Building Superintendent Renee Marcus and her entire staff for all the hard work and around the clock efforts the past 40 hours with the building fire on Jericho Turnpike. There were and still are many issues to be addressed and they have been focused on it from the start.
Status update on several projects: The work with the Village-wide Energy Performance project is ongoing. The sports field lighting will be completed and commissioned within the next two weeks. The Library ramp is substantially completed and is just waiting delivery of the new handicap accessible entry doors. The Covert Avenue Project drawings have been submitted to the County for approval which is pending. Demolition of the existing foundations will begin on or about Monday, April 24th. Centennial Hall developers are working on progressing their engineering drawings to be submitted to the County and the changes as requested by the Village Architectural Review Board.
Pool and Recreation
As I mentioned above, the lighting is just about complete at the Recreation Center. It is a great upgrade that I am sure will be appreciated by all the sports leagues. The resurface of field two is done and ready for the start of Little League. This Saturday, April 22nd is the Little League Parade and Festival day to kick off the start of the spring baseball season. Come out and see our teams march through town and spend the day at the park celebrating baseball and family. We look forward to seeing everyone out there.
Pool registration has begun. Our pool will open the first weekend of June. We are still looking for summer help. Please check the village website or contact the Recreation Center at 516-326-6336 for more information.
Thank you to all our Village departments for all their hard work over the last 48 hours.
Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald
The Floral Park Fire Department did a tremendous job yesterday (Monday, April 17) responding to the fire on Jericho Turnpike. To witness the response of all Village Departments (Fire, Police, Building and Public Works), the commitment of the volunteers in our Fire Department and 17 Fire Departments across Nassau County was amazing and humbling. Thanks to Fire Chief Jep Dodson and all of the fire chiefs for coordinating shift changes throughout the night covering this fire. To see these same volunteers going to work on the LIRR the next day is a testament to the dedication of the selflessness and care of these brave individuals. Thank you to Floral Park’s own Nassau County Chief Deputy County Executive Arthur Walsh for coordinating resources from Nassau County and for being on the scene assisting Floral Park. County Executive Bruce Blakeman in response to a loss of volunteer firefighters (down to 6,000 county-wide from 10,000 in 2001) has recently enacted a tax break incentive for volunteer firefighters from 5 years to 2 years to attract more candidates and is very much needed in the County. The Village of Floral Park is truly grateful to County Executive Blakeman, Arthur Walsh, all of the volunteer fire departments that provided mutual aide, to NYU Langone, Nassau County and Floral Park Rescue Ambulance teams and to the American Red Cross for responding and providing assistance to our residents and businesses during this very difficult time. Thank you to the Floral Park Fire Department and all of the volunteers and staff in Floral Park for their tireless efforts!
As a follow-up to Trustee Stewart’s report on the MTA/LIRR, I am hopeful that after the site visit by LIRR President Catherine Rinaldi this past week who saw first-hand the safety issues at the Tunnel Street Gate, that a positive solution can be achieved. A number of other letters are going out to the MTA/LIRR to follow-up on the punch list items related to the conclusion of the LIRR Expansion Project including landscaping and street restoration to name a few.
On a positive note, the new Grand Central Madison terminal had its millionth rider this week. The new train schedules have been very beneficial to Floral Park commuters as there are more frequent and faster trips into NYC, especially through the former Jamaica Station sprawl. That is good news for Floral Park.
Thank you to Brandon Duffy from Blank Slate Media for attending the meeting tonight. Thank you and my deepest gratitude is extended to the Floral Park Fire Department.