Village of Russell Gardens trustees said last Thursday that they will more properly notify village residents about the status of meetings during storms after some people said they could not find out whether January’s meeting was canceled.
The January meeting took place the day of the “bomb cyclone,” which poured at least 10 inches of snow onto the North Shore and prompted state officials to declare a state of emergency for Long Island and issue travel warnings. During that meeting, the village passed its annual budget.
Mayor Steven Kirschner said some residents had tried to reach people in Village Hall to figure out whether they were holding a meeting, but were not able to get an affirmative answer.
“I said [to them] clearly we had the meeting and that it should fall on me that what we’re going to do in the future is that if in fact we have a situation because of weather or anything else … we will send out an email blast to all the residents that a meeting is or is not going to go on,” Kirschner said in a later interview.
“I said they were right and I should have done it,” Kirschner added.
In another matter, Kirschner said trustees will act in their capacity as a planning board to make a decision on a subdivision on a resident’s property in March.
The annual April meeting will likely feature the swearing-in of whoever wins election in March and the Board of Trustees fielding any questions from residents.
Trustees David Miller and Matthew Ellis are currently uncontested for re-election, barring a write-in campaign or people filing campaign petitions to run by Feb. 13.
In other business, Kirschner said the village is still trying to fix the local tennis courts.
