DOUGLAS
Friday, February 8, 2019
Vol. 95, No.20
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Klondike Derby PAGE 26 n Women's networking PAGE 18
Board considering fees for resident parking in part of Field 7N
FENCERS FINALS
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Members of the Garden City High School's fencing teams were honored at the Nassau County Championships last week. Both the men's and women's teams won their quarterfinal matches and will be heading to the final four on Sunday, at home at GCHS at 9 a.m.
Board gears up for budget development BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
At its work session on Tuesday night February 5, Garden City Union Free Public Schools took a preliminary look at the 2019-2020 academic year budget as the community vote in May approaches. Before the feature presentation by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kusum Sinha, School Board President Angela Heineman said the budget deliberations will last for the next two and a half months before a
final budget is arrived at to ultimately place before the Garden City voters in May. “Over the course of our next four to five meetings, a piece of each and the work sessions will be devoted to review of a portion of the 2019-2020 budget. We essentially look at the annual budget in pieces, starting tonight with an overview and focus on the revenue side of our budget,” Heineman said. The coming stages of budget discussions at Board of
Education meetings was outlined as non-instructional components; capital plans and administrative budget allocations; two sessions on the instructional/program-related parts of the annual budget, plus the final “wrap-up session.” Tuesday night April 16 is set for board of education adoption of the 2019-2020 budget. Questions and comments from the public are permitted at each coming meeting and work session. See page 38
At its January meeting the Village Board of Trustees attempted to address the long-time issues of railroad commuter parking and difficulties faced by residents and businesses in the parking lots behind the village’s main shopping district. In particular, the board looked at parking in Lot 7N (behind Key Food and Dunkin’ Donuts) the smaller Lot 7S (next to the Long Island Rail Road tracks on the south side of Seventh Street). Ultimately the trustees’ decided to advertise its plan to offer permit parking to 7th street apartment dwellers, and seek data on the precise number of spaces to designate in a western quadrant of Lot 7N. Village Attorney Peter Bee set the stage for the discussion on potential parking permits and fees for municipal lots like 7N. “The village is empowered under New York State law to regulate its municipal parking lots. That includes the power to issue resident permit parking or to otherwise segregate the lot into reasonable and rational categories. The Board has a wide range of options however they all would need to be embodied in Village Code in some form,” Bee said. Mayor Brian Daughney explained the scrutiny of municipal parking lots with their layouts, organization and enforcement of rules by the Garden City Police Department. The mayor said uses for residential parking, commercial enterprises and other parking led to a notion for permanent, permit-parking spaces to be created by segregating a portion of Lot 7N, “much like the village does for the LIRR stations with a permit fee.” He added that this might open up more parking spots for the commercial uses and customers of 7th Street stores, “as they require more flow.” The audience at Village Hall on January 17 was presented with an aerial view of Lot 7N and the layout behind 7th Street, but without the signage of existing regulations in the lot. Police Commissioner Kenneth Jackson said there was a clear plan to create the permit parking behind Key Food and in Lot 7N’s western area, behind the apartment buildings such as Hilton Hall. He says accommodating residents of those apartments in that section of Lot 7N would mean less pedestrians going through a busy parking lot, a safety benefit. Although Jackson there’s issues See page 48
The Harlem Wizards take on Garden City teachers PAGE 47 GCHS Basketball wins 8th straight in conference PAGES 60-61