Friday, February 10, 2017
Vol. 93, No.23
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
Water talk PAGE 16 n Super Sunday PAGE 9
Village approves site plan, permit for Ring Road hotel
RETURN TO GLORY
BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
The Garden City High School Boys Fencing squad became 2017 Nassau County champions, bringing home the championship for the first time in ten years. See page 50
Parking rates rise, other municipal costs adjusted BY RIKKI N. MASSAND At its February 2 meeting the Village Board of Trustees approved increases to annual parking fees, as follows: Nonresidential railroad parking will increase to $400 from $300; Adelphi University paring will go up to $200 from $150, and employee parking in the village also increases to $200 from $150. Not listed with these rates on the February 2 meeting agenda was the residents’ parking fee for LIRR, as it sees no change from the $150 set price. Resident Bob Orosz suggested that every parking rate be printed together for a better visual comparison. Mayor Nicholas Episcopia
acknowledged that the agenda could have listed residents’ cost with no change. The board transferred a sum of $28,650 into a contractual services account for Safety Inspections, coming out of the allocation of “Safety Inspections – Regular” from the village’s 2016-’17 budget. Superintendent of Building Ausberto Huertas said on February 2 that this covers funds for a consultant who worked when there was a staff vacancy (assistant superintendent of building) over the last months of 2016. “It was allocated while we had a vacancy and (inspections) were being covered by the consultant while the vacancy existed, and
now that the vacancy is filled we are transferring the amount over to the appropriate account,” Huertas explained after a question from Orosz. With another transfer of funds by the Board of Trustees $120,000 was taken from the contingency account and put into “Street Lighting – Electricity” to fund an unexpected budget shortfall. This month the village is still awaiting credits from PSE & G for its extensive LED lighting project that covered thousands of streetlamps (2,654) as reported by The Garden City News last year, beginning with a $618,375 purchase of the new lamps from Best LED of Hauppauge and an instalSee page 46
The Garden City Village Board of Trustees unanimously approved the site plan for a 163-room Residence Inn by Marriott hotel on Ring Road. The Board also approved a special use permit for the hotel during its meeting on February 2nd. Back on November 17 the Board approved the required first step; a zoning change for the CR (commercial-residential) zone. At that meeting and in October, developers were on hand to talk about the proposal and listen to multiple residents’ contentions. This time, with its last hearing before the Village Board postponed to February 2 from January 12, the project was laid out clearly with several visual aids of the 5.29-acre parcel of land, shown in print copies for each trustSee page 46
Retiring village employee leaves with large payouts BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
Members of the Garden City Board of Trustees responded to questions during the February 2nd meeting about a large payout that the village will be making to two retiring Village employees. A total of $279, 513 was approved by the Board through a termination reserve, appropriated from the “reserve for compensated absences” fund to termination payouts to two retired employees – one being the highly visible former Director of Public Works Robert C. Mangan, who served on the village’s executive staff for the past 25 years. His separation payment of $275,000 was confirmed by Mayor Nicholas Episcopia minutes after the February 2 meeting began, with unused sick and vacation time having built up. A question about the village’s management of disability and sick leave back payments, ‘unused days’ for the two retirees was raised by Leo Stimmler of Huntington Road. Stimmler first thanked the fiscal prudency of Deputy Mayor Richard Silver, who has in the past commented on management over See page 48
GCHS wins big on “Senior Night” at Carey “First Edition” takes the stage March 24-26
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