The Mineola Village Board gave conditional approval at its Wednesday night meeting last week for a new yoga and tai chi studio, Body and Brain, to open at 365 Hillside Avenue.
Joyce Peprah, a registered nurse who will be the principal instructor in the business, currently works in the intensive care unit of New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.
Peprah said her work at New York Hospital helped lead her into yoga and her new business.
“I work at an ICU. It’s a lot of wear and tear on my feet. So I decided to try yoga and see,” she said. “It inspired me to help others as well.”
The Uniondale resident said she’s been practicing yoga for the past four years and teaching part-time for nearly as long in a center in East Meadow.
“Our yoga is focused basically on teaching people to breathe properly,” Peprah said.
Peprah said she plans to offer group yoga sessions for as many as eight people in hour-long classes as well as individual yoga classes.
“If one chooses to have private sessions, I can do that with them,” she said.
Mineola residents attending the public hearing on Peprah’s site application expressed concerns over parking near the prospective Body & Brain that could adversely affect their neighborhood on Foch Boulevard.
“As a resident I’m concerned about the traffic this is bringing to a residential area,” said Jean Keeler.
Keeler said the street has numerous potholes – both open and patched.
Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss said the village Department of Public Works will address the condition of Foch Boulevard to consider resurfacing it as part of the village’s continuing road repair work.
Foch Boulevard resident Janet Faux said was also concerned about parking and said people parking on the street regularly block driveways and obstruct fire hydrants.
“No matter what store is in there, there’ll be parking issues,” Strauss said.
Village Trustee Lawrence Werther told Faux she could contact traffic controllers at Village Hall about parking problems. He said she and her neighbors could also petition the village board to impose parking restrictions on their street.
Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira said the need for as many as eight parking spaces at a time for the store’s patrons is “fairly reasonable.”
Mineola resident Dennis Walsh said there is a municipal parking lot two blocks east of the yoga studio’s location on Hillside Avenue in Williston Park. He suggested Peprah consider directing her clients to park there.
Village Trustee George Durham asked Pepra if she could publicize that on her Web site, and Peprah said would do so.
Marciano Stanco of Magnus Opus Architecture, retained by Peprah for the project, said there will be one large enclosed training room, a smaller private training room and a changing room on the premises.
Stanco said he will be increasing the capacity of the electrical panel in the location from 60 amps to 100 amps. He said the existing boiler needs to be replaced and said he also will install central air conditioning. He said the restroom would be brought up to standards for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
In other developments:
• The village board approved Electrical Inspectors Inc. at the recommendation of village Superintendent of Buildings Daniel Whalen to conduct electrical inspections for the village building department. There had previously been several inspectors approved to do inspections and one company sued the village for not being included on that list. So the village board decided several months ago to have the building department issue a request for proposals.
Pereira said residents also were “confused” by the number of companies they were referred to for inspections. He said the board’s designation of a single electrical inspector will be revisited bi-annually.