Friday March 8, 2019
Vol. 95, No.24
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Sugar in Disguise PAGE 22 n Happily Ever After PAGE 25
Village evaluating cost of cleaning up water contaminants
THE WEARING OF THE GREEN
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Irish eyes were smiling for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade which took place on March 3rd in Garden City and Mineola. See page 43 for more photos.
Town looks at historic preservation districts BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
As the four Garden City property owners’ associations, members of the Board of Trustees and consultants prepare to convene Wednesday, March 13 and discuss the future St. Paul's, the three-dozen plus Alexander Turney Stewart-era homes in the center of the village could be a step closer to being recognized as an officially designated local historic district in the Town of Hempstead. The Town’s Landmarks
Preservation Commission held its first meeting of 2019 on Tuesday, February 26, at the Old Town Hall in Hempstead village. There, Commission chairman Dr. Paul Van Wie announced a plan to engage the Town Board in talks related to local (and protected) historic district designation. “The issue has come up in recent times and from various sources in the town about the possibility of the Town of Hempstead considering formation of historic districts. Our local landmarks laws do not recognize a desig-
nation of historic districts. We might starting thinking of the idea and see what it entails. It might behove us to look at the landmarks laws in neighboring municipalities to see what they are doing with protections and to encourage distinctive areas and neighborhoods with historic values that go beyond one isolated historic building. We believe this initiative will be coming up in the next few months and years,” Dr. Van Wie said. According to the official pubSee page 49
Garden City’s Board of Trustees says it aims to be ‘ahead of the curve’ in combating contaminants of the local water supply. At their meeting on February 26th the trustees’ approved a $29,600 contract for an “emerging contaminant planning report” from H2M Architects and Engineers of Melville so that the village can address possible contaminants in the water supply. H2M will perform a village-wide evaluation of emerging contaminants, including all of the Village of Garden City drinking water supply wells, as part of the Garden City Water Department’s Emerging Contaminant Action Plan. “Emerging contaminants” are contaminants which may have only recently become known to be dangerous. Some are not yet regulated by New York State. A schedule for the consultants fieldwork and evaluation is on file with Village Clerk Karen Altman, according to the resolution approved by the Board. Trustee John Delany said the federal government and State of New York have not even set the standards for regulating contaminants in public water supply, but the village is getting ahead of the curve “by getting this in place and starting as soon as we can.” Delany says in some communities he has heard numbers of approximately $20 million to $25 million to purify the water supply because of the dioxanes. He clarified during the meeting that this action is for identifying 1,4 dioxane and other contaminants in the water supply “that the federal government has not even set standards for yet.” Last fall the Board of Trustees approved the hire of environmental consultants, a “national expert firm” Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc. “to provide advice necessary for the preparation and the execution of an Emerging Contaminant Action Plan for the village water supply.” At the February 26 Board meeting Mayor Brian Daughney commented that with the water quality in mind, the village has hired one of the premier law firms and leading engineering consultants (H2M) in the environmental field. “This item (commissioning the H2M Emerging Contaminant See page 49
Moody's rating service praises Village finances PAGE 3 Author discusses new novel at GC Library PAGE 33