Mineola Mayor Paul Pereira said in his State of the Village speech Tuesday night that he is aiming to increase the curb appeal of Mineola.
The village in recent months has more aggressively pursued property management issues with businesses in the village’s commercial areas.
Pereira said the village gave businesses a notice of a violation with time to cure the issue and an overwhelming majority of offenders avoided being given a summons. The mayor said enforcing the code is not a matter of increasing revenue but getting compliance.
“We have seen a huge improvement,” Pereira said. “We must have put up at least 100 notices and only four received violations.”
Pereira was speaking to local business owners during the Mineola Chamber of Commerce’s September meeting, held in the Morgan Parc residential complex on 2nd Street.
One year ago, Pereira announced the board was going to consider adding overlay zones, which would allow future developments in the area to exceed the maximum height of 25 feet but not go above 40 feet.
In December, the village board unanimously passed zoning changes for the strip of Jericho between Willis Avenue and Marcellus Road and downtown on Main Street, First Street and Second Street between Mineola Boulevard and Willis.
Since then, the board has approved new developments on Jericho Turnpike at the former site of Piccola Bussola and 111 2nd St., with others slated for future public hearings.
The village is also resurfacing the playgrounds at Memorial Park and the Little League field complex, which had new turf fields installed earlier this year.
Pereira said he and the board, Deputy Mayor Janine Sartori and Trustees Paul Cusato, Jeffrey Clark and Donna Solosky, have an immense sense of pride in living in Mineola.
“If you get a sense of anything from this board, it is how proud we are to live here,” Pereira said.
Speaking on downtown, Pereira said the village is making use of its share of the LIRR’s Community Benefits Fund to update parking meters and increase garbage cans in the area and considering adding arches of lights on each block of Mineola Boulevard for holiday seasons.
Pereira said the village is also looking to increase the number of events in the downtown area, similar to the Sounds on 2nd Street which features live music and outdoor seating on the block.
“I’m hoping that this becomes our legacy,” Pereira said. “A lot of people have been waiting a long time for this downtown to revitalize.”
