October 18, 2021
Dear Neighbors,
Welcome Autumn! School is back in session, the street fair was a great success and the Redsox beat the Yankees in the playoffs! Things really are getting back to normal. I hope you all had a fantastic summer and were able to join us at our concerts, multi-cultural celebration or movie night. We had so much fun coming together and enjoying those summer nights with each other. Special thanks go out to our Cultural committee for all their hard work as well as our talented performers and generous sponsors. Deputy Mayor Madhvi Nijjar deserves much credit for all her energy and passion in making our first annual multi-cultural event an unforgettable evening.
Our Street Fair came roaring back with another year of excellent weather and a palpable enthusiasm as we strolled the Turnpike together. This year’s block party was an enormous success due to the participation of the entire community. From vendors to local merchants to our outstanding sponsors, we thank all of them for their contributions. Many thanks to Chief Joe Papa and the New Hyde Park Fire Department for their presence at the fair and their interactive participation with the community. A huge round of applause goes to Village employee Lara Verbanac for orchestrating this year’s fair for the very first time. She did an outstanding job. As always, the work of the guys at the Department of Public Works was greatly appreciated. Thanks to their work, the setting up and subsequent clean-up of the fair was performed seamlessly.
I hope you are ready for much fun and celebrations! October 30th will be our Halloween Parade at 9:30am, which will start at Lakeville Road and finish at Village Hall with festivities for everyone. Costumes are a must for all kids, adults, and pets. November 5th at 4:30pm at Village Hall we will be celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Lights. Come join us to celebrate and learn of our new annual tradition. November 11th at 11:00am on the steps of Village Hall will be our Veterans Day commemoration. If you want to meet a true hero, come down and shake the hand of one of our many great veterans and thank them for their service. November 27th at 3:00pm at Village Hall will be our annual Holiday Tree Lighting. You are all invited to kick off the holiday season with us and a lovable and jolly man from the North Pole! Stay tuned for details for our first annual drive-in holiday movie night in December.
In addition to all that activity, the Board is also moving forward on plans for our facilities. I am pleased to announce that DPW will be starting work on the new dog park at Memorial Park within the month. This ambitious in-house undertaking is made more special since it will be named in honor of former Village Trustee Donald Barbieri and his beloved service dog, Hallie. Several other improvements will be coming to Memorial Park including a new entrance on Lincoln Avenue to appropriately honor the name of our park.
We will be upgrading the memorial area of the park with new landscaping and adding flagpoles to honor all branches of the service. The bathrooms will be getting a much-needed makeover. We are looking to install a dry well on the small ballfield to prevent the excess puddling after rain showers. A new and improved bocce ball court will be added and relocated.
Village Hall is undergoing renovations both inside and out. New bathrooms are almost completed on the first floor to be followed by new flooring in the public areas of the first floor. A new HVAC system is also due to be installed. The front ramp of Village Hall will be re-done as well as some much-needed aesthetic changes to the exterior.
Marcus Christ Hall, our community center, is long overdue for a total makeover. We want to make it a source of pride in the community. It is a total embarrassment and needs to be addressed. If anyone has any questions as to what I am talking about, hold your breath and stop in and see for yourself. I will be discussing the plans for this facility as we get closer to working on our 2022 budget. The time to address this facility is now. I believe the last time it was worked on is 1987. If not now, when?
Our 93-year-old DPW facility is ready to break ground on a new facility. We are hopefully in the last phase of finally getting the 3-million-dollar State Grant. The State has all the required paperwork. It is time for promises made to be promises kept. Save the rhetoric and show us the money! We will keep you advised of this painfully slow process. The remake of Nuzzi Field is tied to the DPW facility since it will be a staging area during construction. Upon completion of the new DPW facility, we are committed to restoring Nuzzi Field to its rightful majestic place in our community.
As for the LIRR 3rd track project, the updates are put on the website as soon as we receive them. We all have MTA and 3TC fatigue. I won’t insult your intelligence and tell you a date when they will be gone. The sooner it is done, the better it will be for all of us. Thank you for your incredible patience and understanding during these many years. The end is in sight. The hope is in 6 months. We will do our best to make that happen.
As this new administration reaches our 6th month in office, we have learned a great deal. I was told that “all the heavy lifting has been done.” Actually, there seems to be quite a bit of lifting still to be done. I believe that every challenge brings an opportunity. I also believe in the many special and outstanding people in this community. I see it when I look at all our employees, our student interns, our excellent members on the boards and committees and especially, when I interact with our residents. There is a new dawn in our community. We are coming together to make our Village the best it can be. Come join us on a board, committee, or neighborhood watch. Together we can make a difference!
Sincerely,
Christopher Devane
Mayor, Village of New Hyde Park