The Mineola Village Board approved the purchase of approximately $30,000 in playground equipment to upgrade Emory Road Park at last Wednesday night’s board meeting.
Thomas Rini, village superintendent of public works, proposed buying a Landscape Structures playground climbing system for $26,460 and a swing set from the same company for $3,700. The board also approved a $16,573 contract for Louis Barbato Landscaping to install the playground equipment at Rini’s recommendation.
Rini said the playground system in the park is intended for use for use by children between five and 12 years old. The park currently contains a basketball court.
“This could be put together for a nice pocket park there,” Rini said.
Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss said he received a very positive response to plans to upgrade Emory Road Park in a meeting with neighborhood residents earlier in the week.
“They were on board with it,” Strauss said. “We have an unused piece of land there and to put this there would be a great asset to the area.”
Village Trustee George Durham suggested posting signs on Emory Road to alert drivers to the presence of the playground once the equipment is in place.
Rini said Nassau County is about to begin its construction work on the three-pronged $4.5 million project with the village and the Town of North Hempstead to remedy recurrent flooding problems on the border of Mineola and Carle Place.
Rini said he recently met with county contractor Pratt Brothers to review plans to extend a drainage line along Sheridan Boulevard.
“That’s going to be starting soon. All the pieces are coming together,” Rini said.
He also reported continuing progress on the Bruce Terrace flood relief project with milling and paving of Liberty Avenue and Bruce Terrace about to start.
“If the weather cooperates, both streets should be fully milled and paved next week,” Rini said.
He said the village contractor, Roadwork Ahead, is working on the walls of the drainage basin the village is building as part of its role in the three-pronged project with the Town of North Hempstead and Nassau County.
In a major construction project still on the drawing board, village Building Inspector Daniel Whalen said he will issue permits next week for Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC to begin work on the $93 million Winston and Churchill apartment complex projects. Demolition work on buildings standing on the sites of the proposed complexes will be the first step in the process.
“Those projects will be running simultaneously with each other,” Whalen said.
On the Winthrop-University Hospital project to build a research center on Mineola Boulevard in Mineola, Whalen said he had a meeting with representatives of Winthrop to discuss placement of construction cranes to start erecting the building over the next several months. He said the cranes will be placed on Mineola Boulevard and 3rd Street on Sundays to avoid disrupting weekday traffic.
In other developments:
• Strauss said the county is planning to install so-called “red-light” cameras at the intersections of Jericho Turnpike and Mineola Boulevard and at Jericho and Willis Avenue based on the frequency of auto accidents in those locations. He said he had been assured installation of the cameras, intended to detect motorists running red lights, would not compromise the recent resurfacing of Jericho Turnpike between Herricks Road and Glen Cove Road. He said electrical lines to install the cameras would be run under the Jericho roadbed without necessitating further resurfacing.
“I am concerned about the company drilling to disrupt the paving of Jericho, which is literally weeks old,” Strauss said.
• East Hills environmental activist Richard Brummel made his latest in a series of appearances before the village board, this time to question the removal of 1,035 trees the village Department of Public Works have been removed in the village since 2010. He also said the village had “cut down” 425 trees after Hurricane Sandy.
“Mr. Brummel, when you say 425 trees were cut down after Hurricane Sandy, those trees came down. They were removed from the streets,” Strauss said.
Brummel said he had obtained the information about the trees the village took down through a request under the Freedom of Information Law. He said that the streets where trees were removed were indicated, but the residential addresses were not included. Strauss said the information Brummel received was all the information the village had available.
“In any event, there’s a tremendous amount of trees that were taken down,” Brummel said.
“And there were a tremendous amount of trees that were replanted. We typically replant anywhere from 160 to 170 trees per year,” Strauss replied.
Brummel had most recently objected to the village’s removal of eight sycamore trees on Roslyn Road. Strauss said an arborist for the Long Island Power Authority deemed the trees, that were entangled with power lines, were diseased and needed to be removed.
