Friday, December 25, 2020
Vol. 98, No.18
FOUNDED 1923
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Happy Holid ays from My Hom e to Yours
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Art of Christmas
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12th Night PAGE 16
© 2020 DOUGLAS ELLI 110 WALT WHITMAN MAN REAL ESTATE. EQUAL HOUSING ROAD, HUNTINGTON OPPO STATION, NY 11746. RTUNITY. 631.549.7401.
Pandemic has cost village $600K in surprise expenses
SNOW DAY!
“STILL IN THE BLACK” ASSURES DEPUTY MAYOR BY RIKKI N. MASSAND Through October 2020 -- seven full months into the pandemic -- the Village of Garden City has endured approximately $600,000 in unanticipated, unbudgeted pandemic-related losses of revenues. But Deputy Mayor Robert Bolebruch reassured residents the Village is “still in the black” for the fiscal year.
Revenues up, offsets extra costs
Children at the Garden City Nursery School were all bundled up and ready to play in the mid-week snowfall last week. See photos of more Nursery School good times on page 44.
Uncertainty over proposed gas line route BY RIKKI N. MASSAND Residents of Arthur Street asked the Garden City Board of Trustees to advocate for the Garden City Board of Trustees to go to bat for them with National Grid as the utility finalizes the route for its Northwest Nassau Natural Gas Integrity Project. The natural gas transmission line will carry gas from the north shore to a facility on Stewart Avenue in Uniondale, but the exact route through Garden City is still undeter-
mined and the Village of Garden City has not been notified of the proposed route. Although National Grid made a presentation at the Board of Trustee’s meeting two years ago, there still is no confirmation as of late December for what exact route in Garden City the project could end up taking. At the Board of Trustees meeting on December 10th, Trustee Delaney commented, “First they proposed to have the transmission line underground beneath Roslyn Road,
through to Old Country Road, with making a left turn at Fair Court, going across from there to Lefferts Road and Wetherill Road (cutting across the heart of the East in the Mott Section). It would leave about one mile and a half of putting this transmission line through the major portions of the eastern POA. Transmission lines are something we have very little control over as distinguished from energy distribution lines National Grid uses. Trustee Hyer and I, Village Administrator Ralph See page 55
At the Board of Trustees’ final meeting of the year, held December 10, Village Treasurer Irene Woo stated that Garden City has received 91% of its anticipated (budgeted) municipal revenues for fiscal year 2020-’21. This represents a 5% increase from the 86% of village revenues received through the same period one year ago, Woo said. Woo noted that her data is for three quarters of the calendar year, but the municipality’s fiscal year runs from June 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021. “The Building Department received unbudgeted revenues due to two large projects and these revenues serve to offset the losses due to Covid-19 through October, estimated around $600,000. Those are mostly losses due to lower revenue from fees, fines and less amounts of tickets issued as well as a result of the village selling less Long Island Rail Road parking permits. The Garden City Pool had heavy financial losses this year due to Covid-19 and the reduced operating season (which began in mid-July). The Tennis Fund did see closure over the summer and that resulted in some losses of revenues there, though during October tennis was catching up a bit on the revenues,” Woo said.
Covid-19 costs
Costs for the village related to the pandemic include purchases of personal protective equipment (PPE) and various safety measures such as plexiglass barriers, and technology as operations moved online for most departments. According to Woo, through October the expenditures were in line with the budgeted amounts from prior years with the exception of such Covid-related costs -- which were estimated at about $175,000 See page 54
Winterfest: A time for healing & hope PAGE 8 GCHS students make a difference PAGE 12