Residents in the Village of Mineola will be seeing a new village Web site within the next few months that will be more interactive and allow access to new features.
“The new website will allow for residents to sign up for e-mail subscriptions notifying them of snow removal ordinances, garbage removal days, ability to download documentation needed for building permits and much more,” Village of Mineola Clerk Joseph Scalero said at a workshop meeting last week
The Village of Mineola board of trustees approved contract with Virtual Town Hall Holding, LLC to design and host the new village Web site.
“After reviewing other municipalities’ Web sites and narrowing the list to 13, I believe this is the only company that will truly meets our needs,” Scalero said.
Scalero said the current Web site was more than seven years old. He said it would be better to simply “scrap” the old Web site and create a new one.
Earlier in the year Virtual Town Hall Holding, LLC presented a demonstration of their Web site capabilities at the New York State conferences of mayors and municipal officials.
“At the NYCOM conference we realized we needed a new Web site and were very impressed with their presentation,” Village of Mineola trustee Paul Pereira said.
Scalero said that once the Web site is finished, it will be “completely customizable,” and will include a full service package that will allow the clerk’s office to make modifications whenever needed.
Currently if a change is needed to the Web site, Scalero must call up an outside vendor and relay what needs to be changed.
“It is designed so the average employee can use it,” Scalero said. “If problems do arise there will be no hourly rate charged to us by the company. We will be able to include any parts of the old Web site we wish to keep and incorporate with the new one, and the Web site will also have the capacity to accept credit card payments.”
The new Web site will be estimated to be completed in 12 weeks, and the initial setup fee for the website will cost $4,995 for the first year, Scalero said. Each subsequent year will cost $3,995. In addition, the company will offer training courses to help facilitate employees.
Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss thanked Scalero for his diligence.
“This will make for a more user-friendly Web site with the features that we need,” Strauss said.
In other developments, board officials authorized a second 180-day building permit extension for Verizon to replace six antennas at their cell tower located at the intersection of Betty Lane and Jericho Turnpike. A stipulation was added that the work must begin by Dec. 1.
The new extension was granted after the board expressed concern about the delay in the project’s completion. The first 180-day extension was granted in February.
“You had an entire year to complete this,” Strauss said. “Why is this not done yet?”
Verizon representative attorney Eric Helman said Verizon ran into problems with the station when it was apparent that wrong antennas had been installed.
“The contractors made a mistake when they installed the original antennas at the station,” Helman said. “Verizon did not realize until early spring of 2011 that they had installed the wrong antennas.”
Helman said that LIPA needed to power down the station first before the antennas could be replaced, and was told it would be done in October.
Verizon will be taking down six antennas and replacing them with them with six new ones.
“LIPA has to power down the tower and it’s a lengthy authorization process,” Helman said. “They told us the tower was connected to a grid, so they wanted to wait till the power usage in the village was low before powering down the tower and the area around it.”
Mineola trustee Paul Cusato said he could not figure out why the problem took so long to discover.
“I can’t believe the engineers couldn’t figure out on day one that there was a problem.” Cusato said. “It just boggles my mind.”
Pereira said that Verizon needs to be up front with the village when they are issued a permit.
“We expect them to start work when we issue a permit,” Pereira said. “We understand things come up and that is why we issue extensions, but Verizon has come to us again and again, and for me, this doesn’t pass the sniff test. Not that we’re trying to be difficult, but just make sure you are doing what we permitted you to do.”
Pereira added, “We’ll be watching Verizon.”
Reach reporter Timothy Meyer by e-mail at meyerj.tim@gmail.com.
