As people around the globe say good-bye to 1999 to usher in a brand new millennium, in Farmingdale's little corner of the world, folks can remember the past year as one filled with several memorable local events.

The approval of a $38.5 million Farmingdale School District bond issue in October is an occurrence which will likely have the most significant lasting impact on the community. The measure funds a major overhaul of the district's buildings, including new classrooms and re-wiring for technology that will help prepare students for the information age. It will also fund the addition of space for new programs, such as full-day kindergarten and the move of the sixth graders from the elementary schools to the middle school.

Also during the past year, local civic associations put up a fight against development plans for Republic Airport, which were outlined in the 1999 Draft Master Plan Update, released by airport administration in November. The plan includes runway changes and taxiway widening projects aimed at better accommodating larger business jets. It also recommends upgrading the aircraft design category of Republic, from II to III, to better accommodate the jets. Civic leaders fear the changes would bring a flurry of more and larger jets to the airport, but administrators assert the plans would only make the facility safer for the planes that already use it. A public input hearing on the issue was scheduled for Dec. 9, but was canceled, and is pending for the year 2000.

In November elections, Democrats took control of the historically Republican-dominated Nassau County Legislature and made inroads into many town boards that were also traditionally GOP-held. This happened after public backlash about the county's budget deficit, which had ballooned to over $300 million and related tax hikes came across loud and clear. Although local Republican incumbent legislators Salvatore Pontillo (14th district) and Edward Mangano (17th district) were re-elected, the balance of power in the Legislature changed from 15:4 with Republicans in the majority, to 10:9 with Democrats in the majority. Also, Farmingdale's own Anthony Macagnone was one of two Democrats newly elected to the Oyster Bay Town Council.

A local teenager helped rescue several children from a Main Street apartment fire in January. Four children ranging in age from infancy to 2 years old, as well as three women - two of them pregnant - escaped virtually unscathed with the help of passerby Rudy Castro, 17. The Farmingdale High School student climbed a fence and onto an outdoor refrigerator to help them down to safety. Local firefighters arrived within minutes and extinguished the fire.

A group of residents from Linwood Avenue and Arthur Street in Farmingdale Village were left knee-high in puddles from flooding that took place in January. Due to heavy rains and overburdened street drains, three and a half feet of water could be seen in the middle of Linwood Avenue and Arthur Street, causing as much as four to six inches of water to seep into nearby residents' basements.

After Cablevision started operating helicopters at its new corporate headquarters on the former Grumman property in Bethpage, in September surrounding residents came out in fierce opposition, and the Town of Oyster Bay became entrenched in a heated legal battle to try to stop the use of copters. The attorney for Cablevision claims the operation is a grandfathered use of the site, because Grumman formerly manufactured and tested small aircraft there. The town and residents insist the helicopters are not allowed by zoning and threaten the suburban quality of life.

Mid-Island Hospital, Bethpage, the community hospital serving much of eastern Nassau County, including Farmingdale and Bethpage, was taken over by a joint venture sponsorship of Winthrop South Nassau University Health System and Catholic Health Services of Long Island. The facility was renamed New Island Hospital, and Paul Seale was named its new chief executive officer. The hospital also underwent renovations and broke ground for the construction of two additional wings.

The Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society and Farmingdale Village in June hosted a communitywide celebration of the centennial anniversary of Mile-A-Minute Murphy. In 1899, Charles M. Murphy broke a world record in cycling, when he rode his bicycle an entire mile in 57.8 seconds behind a LIRR train in Farmingdale.

The State University of New York (SUNY) at Farmingdale sought and received permission from the state to lease land for the construction of a privately operated 70,000 square-foot pharmaceutical research facility, as part of plans for a bioscience research and development park. The college in November broke ground for the facility, which is expected to employ 300 high technology staff members. It will neighbor a 50,000 square foot facility to host emerging biotechnology companies as tenants, which is also under construction as part of the bioscience research and development park, which will be known as Broad Hollow Bioscience Park.

In July, record temperatures caused power outages throughout Long Island, and one Farmingdale neighborhood was without electricity for a total of 37 hours. With temperatures in the triple digits, the lights went out in a group of about a dozen homes on Alexander Avenue on Monday, July 5, at 7:40 p.m., and after intermittent service, was not fully restored again until 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 7. In addition to being without lights, refrigerators, air conditioners and fans, residents had no hot water. The root of the ordeal lay in an old transformer at the top of a pole on the street, which was eventually replaced.

#1: Farmingdale School Bond Issue Passes

#2: Community Opposition to Development Plans for Airport

#3: County Budget Deficit Spurs Historic Election Sweep

#4: Babies Saved from Main Street Blaze

#5: Residents "Fed Up" With Flooding

#6: Uproar Over Cablevision Heliport

#7: New Ownership of Community Hospital

#8: Farmingdale Celebrates Mile-A-Minute Murphy Centennial

#9: Bioscience Park Construction Under Way at SUNY Farmingdale

#10: Record Heat Leaves Residents Without Power for Days