Mineola fire service awards approved

Jed Hendrixson
Village of Mineola Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira (left) and Mayor Scott Strauss Wednesday. (Photo by Jed Hendrixson)

Five members of the Mineola Volunteer Fire Department will receive Service Award monthly payouts to begin the new year.

Effective Jan. 1, 2019 , Thomas Behan, Kenneth Cotroneo, Michael Gayson, Gary Mazur and Jack Stagnari will begin receiving monthly payments ranging of $160 to $520 from the village’s Fire Service Award Fund as part of the Length of Service Awards Program.

The Village of Mineola Board of Trustees approved the members awards at their meeting Wednesday night.

The Length of Service Awards Program, as outlined by the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, is a program that credits firefighting services through an accumulation of points system, to be rewarded to those eligible over the course of a year.

In addition to the five receiving monthly payouts, volunteer firefighter Arthur Barnett will receive a one-time lump sum payout from the service award fund of $28,137.61.

Patricia Santosus, a long time member of the fire department’s Ladies Auxilary, will also be recognized soon for her 50 years of service in the department, Mayor Scott Strauss said.

The board also approved a payment of $8,940.23 from the Water Reserve Fund to Dvirka & Bartilucci Engineers and Architects for a project involving village water well No. 1.

The payment is another installment in a five-year plan to protect the village’s water system, signed back in December 2015. The goal of the project is to evaluate water safety, as well as maintain and modernize equipment.

Strauss and the board observed moments of the silence in remembrance of both the attacks on Pearl Harbor, 77 years ago, and the 25th anniversary of the Long Island Rail Road massacre, when Colin Ferguson killed six people, including three Mineola residents.

Trustee Paul Cusato also reminded attendees that the village’s Operation Santa was in high demand this year, and to contact the village as soon as possible if anyone was interested in having Santa Claus show up at their home before Christmas Eve. Some 150 households have already signed up, Cusato said.

The village’s next public meeting will be Wednesday, Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m.

The village will also hold a public hearing Wednesday, Dec. 12 at 6:30 p.m. to hear an application for a potential martial arts school on Jericho Turnpike, as well as vote on a proposed local law amending part of the village code entitled “peace and good order” to create a section titled “hours for construction work and repair.”

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