The Village of Mineola plans to reduce the number of electrical contractors conducting inspections for the village Building Department, and will issue a request for proposals to select one or two contractors for the work.
The Mineola Village Board unanimously passed a resolution at last Wednesday night’s board meeting to implement the change. Under the new process, the village Building Department will issue a request for proposals for qualified electrical inspectors.
All contractors now operating as licensed inspectors for the village will be asked to submit requests for proposal..
Village attorney John Spellman said the change is intended to more closely control the contractors licensed to do work on the village’s behalf.
“These people are like our representatives,” Spellman said.
The village added two contractors to its list of licensed electrical inspectors in the last year, bringing the total number of contractors used by the village to four.
Spellman said the village’s new policy is also intended to head off lawsuits by contractors whose companies sought to do work for the village but were turned down.
“It’s our belief that adoption of this resolution will short-circuit any litigation,” Spellman said.
After the meeting, Spellman said the request for proposal will be issued later this month, with selection of the contractors to be completed in March.
“Our residents are definitely going to benefit. This controls it a little bit,” said Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss. “These are people who are going into your home. We need to be sure they’re vetted.”
In other business, village Department of Public Works Superintendent Thomas Rini said the village’s part of the flood mitigation project on Bruce Terrace is progressing.
A topographical survey of the area has begun, Rini said. He said the next step is to measure the height of sewer pipes in houses of Bruce Terrace residents in preparation for installation of a new interceptor pipe.
He said the interceptor pipe is intended to improve drainage in the neighborhood, which typically floods during any significant rainstorm.
Rini said letters notifying the residents of the need to conduct the inspections, expected to take 10 to 15 minutes in each house, will be sent out shortly.
“The county, I’m happy to say, has authorized its end of the project,” Rini told the board members.
The flood mitigation project is being done by the village, Nassau County and the Town of North Hempstead. The village, the county and the town are sharing equally in a $2.4 million state grant to alleviate the flooding conditions on the Mineola-Carle Place border.
Village and town officials recently blamed each other for delays in starting the project.
Village of Mineola Trustee Paul Cusato said he attended a “confrontational” meeting of the Carle Place Civic Association last week with Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman.
Kaiman, he said, told residents “We’d like to do something but Mineola is holding things up.”
Cusato said he and Village of Mineola Trustee George Durham defended the village’s position.
“We didn’t want to take any guff from the supervisor,” Cusato said.
Kaiman said Cusato’s approach “is to continuously misrepresent the town’s actions, the village’s position, the peoples’ concerns, and the history of the project.”
Durham said Kaiman “put on a show for the residents,” but added that in response to a question from Durham, Kaiman conceded that the town had not yet engaged an engineering company to work on the project.
Rini said a meeting is scheduled with town officials this week to discuss the project.
“The Town has been waiting eleven months for the village to provide the land on which the town has agreed to build a recharge basin. That being said, I appreciate that transferring this land is easier said than done. Hopefully the meeting between the mayor and myself this Friday will lead to better communications between us and together we can move the project forward in a timely fashion,” Kaiman said.
He noted that the town had originally applied for the $2.4 million state grant for the flood mitigation project, a grant that was ultimately fulfilled through the efforts of state Sen. Jack Martins.
Rini reported the DPW is close to going out for bid on a drainage project to relieve recurrent flooding in the Mineola Long Island Railroad station plaza.
He also reported that demolition will begin in 60 to 90 days on the Winthrop-University Hospital project to construct a new research center on Mineola Boulevard. It will tear down an existing community center at the corner of Mineola Boulevard and 2nd Street to make room for the new facility.
