The Floral Park village board unanimously approved a $481,000 bid from TurfTek for the renovation of Tiny Town during Tuesday’s meeting.
The project will remove playground equipment, add a new entrance sign, install new gutters and leaders, and add rubber curbing and pavers instead of concrete.
The project will also add a drinking fountain, which the village playground did not have before.
Tiny Town, located by the corner of Bergen Street and Fuller Avenue, has not been renovated in nearly two decades.
Village officials first set out to renovate it earlier this year, but bids were rejected a few months ago for coming in at a higher cost than anticipated.
Mayor Dominick Longobardi said he hopes the project is completed in the next few months.
During the meeting the board also unanimously voted to set a public hearing on a law to consider the placement of hookah bars and vape shops in the village.
The law would amend village code to restrict the placement of such establishments to the “Adult Uses” zoning district.
The hearing will be held during the next board meeting on Sept. 18.
In unrelated business, the board honored two men for their service to the village: John Michon and former Mayor Tom Tweedy.
(Photo by Rebecca Klar)
The board unveiled Tweedy’s portrait, which now hangs among those of his 25 predecessors.
Longobardi said Tweedy will go down as one of the village’s greatest mayors.
The Tweedy family is always around to help neighbors, and Tom Tweedy is the “embodiment of that,” Longobardi said.
Throughout his tenure as mayor, Tweedy endured hardships such as superstorm Sandy, Longobardi said.
“Tom was out on the street as soon as it hit,” Longobardi said. “That’s the kind of person he is.”
Tweedy said Floral Park is fortunate to have talented men and women committed to serving the public.
“I’m happy to be part of that legacy of those who came forward,” Tweedy said.
Michon was honored for receiving the New York Conference of Mayors Years of Service Award based on his 35 years of service to the community.
Michon is the senior recreation leader in Floral Park.
He is responsible for creating many of the village recreation programs, and to this day helps to run them, Longobardi said.
In unrelated businesses, several village residents on Tuesday expressed concern about the village’s handling of a Locust Street repavement project that resulted in cutting down hundreds of trees.
Others clapped in support as their neighbors spoke out.
Joan Donnelly returned for the fourth time to tell the board she was not happy with the cutting down of the trees on her block and the village’s short notice.
Longobardi said the project had been on the drawing board for three years, noting that the village does not take this matter lightly.
“If it was going on for three years … maybe it’s a good idea to let residents know more than a week before,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly told board members they don’t have blood on their hands – they have sap.
Mike O’Connor, an Iris Avenue resident, asked the board if this will become a precedent for road reconstruction projects.
“If it is, I’m out of here,” O’Connor said. “If you take these trees down all the time … it’s going to look like postwar Levittown.”
O’Connor said he doesn’t think it is worth removing “2,000 trees in two weeks” to have new asphalt and curbs.
Longobardi said the village does not take down any trees unless it is necessary.
The village gets calls asking to remove trees “all the time” and denies about 90 percent of them, Longobardi said.
He added that he cannot predict any future projects or tree removals, because each poses a unique set of needs.
Another resident asked if the board would reconsider making Locust Street a one-way street, now that it is thinner due to new curbing.
The resident also said cars are going faster now that there are no potholes to slow them down, noting that it is not safe for the “moms in minivans” and children walking to school.
Longobardi said the village will take a look at it, and he’s “not saying no to anything yet.”
