By Bulbul Rajagopal
The Village of Floral Park Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved an outdoor dining plan that allows restaurants to set up tables in parking lots.
The decision came as Long Island has entered phase two of a four-part reopening plan during the coronavirus pandemic.
With the support of his peers and Mayor Dominick Longobardi, Trustee Archie Cheng, liaison to emergency management and the Civil Preparedness Task Force, welcomed the idea of slowly reopening the village’s restaurants.
Floral Park’s trustees said that portions of parking lots adjacent to restaurants would be cordoned off to temporarily serve as outdoor dining spaces. The resolution falls in line with the state’s classification of businesses eligible for reopening.
Longobardi said, “We are following every guideline the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the DPH [Department of Public Health] laid out,” he said. “Tables have to be set up six feet apart and masks have to be worn while people are moving about.”
The mayor said that his administration had been criticized for extending the pandemic-induced lockdown. “But I want to make sure we don’t get any spike in any area regarding our outdoor dining plan. Residents have been cooped up, and we’re giving them a chance to get out. It’s a team effort with everybody to keep tabs on what is happening,” he said.
The outdoor dining plan will operate in partnership with restaurant owners, the Police Department and the Building Department and Public Works.
Almost 5,000 people were tested for COVID-19 in Nassau County on Monday, and only 1.1% tested positive. But this percentage was higher than in the previous two days, according to New York’s virus tracker by county. Long Island showed a 0.9% rate of positive tests on Sunday. Out of the 56,611 tests conducted in New York state on the same day, 1.10% were positive.
In an attempt to quell potential fears, Longobardi said that dining in the parking lots will occur at 50% capacity. “If infections spike, we will stop and make sure to take the necessary steps,” he said. The resolution was described and passed in one minute.
The mayor drew attention to underutilized lots available in the evening, to compensate for reduced parking spaces. In a message last Friday, he cited examples such as the Long Island Rail Road train station and the Carlton lot by the Village Hall.
The majority of the board meeting was spent discussing the need to support the business districts, thanking the county’s Police Department for maintaining peace at demonstrations, and congratulating Floral Park’s high school and college graduates. Plans are underway to reopen the village pool on July 3.
