The Mineola Board of Trustees authorized repairs on Wednesday night to the village Department of Public Works garage roof and recreational field fences damaged by during Hurricane Sandy.
Thomas Rini, superintendent of the village DPW said he had been given the green light to proceed on the repairs by the village’s insurance carrier.
“I’ve met with our insurance company and they’ve authorized us to have the work done,” Rini told the village board at its regularly scheduled meeting.
The village received an estimate of $38,000 for repairs to the garage roof from Atlas Restoration Corp. and an estimate of $48,632 for repairs to the solar panel system on the roof from Energy by Choice, the contractor that originally installed the panels, Rini said.
Rini said he had shut the solar panel system down after the hurricane as a precautionary measure.
Fencing repairs, he said, would be handled by Island Fence Company. The work would include $7,603 to repair the Little League batting cage at Wilson Park, $3,940 for repairs to a fence at John S. DeVanzo Pool, $1,950 for repair of a fence at the Wilson Park Playground and $1,821 to repair a fence at the tennis courts in Mineola Memorial Park.
Replacement of handmade gold leaf entrance signs at both municipal parks will cost $4,495 for the Wilson Park sign and $3,850 for the Memorial Park sign, Rini said.
The village board voted unanimously to authorize the repairs.
Rini also reported that the Town of North Hempstead is ready to proceed with its part of the flood relief project on the border of Mineola and Carle Place.
The town is responsible for installing new catch basins and drainage pipes on three or four streets adjacent to the Mineola-Carle Place border. It will also construct a catch basin on Mineola land at the Old Motor Parkway property north of Westbury Avenue.
The village, the town and the county are working together on the project to alleviate recurrent flooding problems during heavy rains in residential neighborhoods on the Mineola-Carle Place border. Primary funding is coming from a $2.4 million state grant equally divided between the three municipalities.
The total cost for the town’s portion of the project is $1.1 million. Kaiman has said the town may take money from its own capital resources or seek additional outside funding.
The village’s portion of the project will cost $1.7 million.
Rini has said the village’s work will include installation of two new drainage manholes, four new catch basins and removal of approximately 300 feet of existing 18-inch-drainage pipe to be replaced with a new 30-inch drainage pipe on Bruce Terrace.
Rini reported in October that a low bidder emerged from the bids on the village’s portion of the project and he has been reviewing that contractor’s qualifications to do the work.
In other developments:
• On village attorney John Spellman’s recommendations, the village board voted to vacate a covenant preventing establishment of a body shop at 380 Sagamore Ave. and to grant Louis Palumbo, owner of Gullwing Motors at 100 Windsor Ave., a special permit for a body shop on the site.
Palumbo had asked the board to remove a restrictive covenant placed on the site six years ago after the prior owner sold the property.
“Having a business in that neighborhood is much better than having a covenant,” said Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira.
Village Trustee Paul Cusato, who was on the village board when the restriction was approved, cast the sole vote against dropping the restriction on the site.
• Daniel Whalen, village superintendent of buildings, reported that Winthrop-University Hospital has complete 95 percent of the demolition work on its project to build a diabetes research center on Mineola Boulevard.
• Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss sharply criticized the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives for blocking consideration of a $60 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package last week.
“We send aid to foreign countries without batting an eye, but they refuse to help their own,”
