LIGHTHOUSE UPDATE

I would like to thank the Trustees, Village Administrator, Property Owners’ Association reps, residents and consultants who joined me at the Lighthouse Zoning Hearing on Tuesday. This was an all-day event and I believe we presented our concerns regarding this project very well to Kate Murray and The Town of Hempstead Board. I would also like to thank the residents that e-mailed their comments to The Board for submission to the record of the meeting.

FIRE PREVENTION WEEK

All residents and friends are invited to attend the Annual Inspection and Open House on Sunday, October 4th at 12:30 p.m. The program will be conducted at Fire Headquarters and in the employee parking field, located on the west side of Village Hall on Stewart Avenue. Light refreshments will be served. The 13th annual observance of Fire Prevention Week in Garden City will be October 4 through October 11, 2009.

Your Fire Department does an outstanding job to protect our lives and homes. Please stop by to show your support for them. I’m sure that your entire family will enjoy the program.

EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION

Due to a prior commitment, I was unable to attend the Village Employee Recognition Program last Friday. Trustees Mauk, Episcopia and Donnelly represented the Board of Trustees. This is an annual event where employees who have marked their 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th, and 40th years of service with the Village of Garden City are recognized and presented with service pins and certificates. The cumulative years of service among the 32 employees who were honored was 770! We are both pleased and proud that these employees have chosen to spend their career in Garden City and we recognize that our Village is a better place because they are here.

The program also recognizes the employees who have demonstrated that extra effort to come to work each day or tour and in doing so achieved 100% attendance in the past year. I am pleased to report that 102 employees achieved this mark - representing 38% of the workforce. My compliments and thanks to all.

SAFELY YIELD TO VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS WHO ARE RESPONDING TO EMERGENCIES

A chronic problem involving motorists in the Village is the failure to safely yield the right of way to volunteer firefighters who are responding to a fire alarm.

Under State Law, volunteer firefighters are permitted to display a flashing blue light in their vehicles as they are responding to fire emergencies. While this flashing blue light does not entitle the driver to violate any of the speed limits, traffic controls, etc., it does signify that the driver is responding to an emergency. All motorists seeing an approaching vehicle displaying this flashing light are encouraged to safely yield the right of way as they would were it an emergency vehicle displaying red flashing lights.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ MEETING SCHEDULE

The next regularly scheduled Board of Trustees’ meeting for the month of October are as follows: Thursday, October 1 and Thursday, October 15 at 8:00 p.m.

VILLAGE’S WEB SITE

I encourage residents to periodically utilize the Village’s website for information regarding the Village’s operations, as well as items of seasonal and special interest. The address is www.gardencityny.net. Listed under the Administrator’s Page is a direct link regarding Water Billing information.