On Thursday, June 9 at 7 p.m. there will be a special meeting at village hall with the village merchants and residents to address village parking needs as they affect municipal parking lots and parking on Main Street and Conklin. This meeting is in response to various requests by merchants and residents. The village board would like to receive input from business owners, residents and Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce members to determine if parking times and regulations should be changed. There has been a lot of discussion regarding the village parking. It's a delicate situation that involves everyone who lives in or visits our fair village. We hope that this open discussion and sharing of ideas will help all who attend get a better idea of the issues at hand. I look forward to an open discussion that will enable the board to understand concerns of our merchants and residents so that we may proceed with parking regulations that are as equitable and fair as possible to residents, shoppers, and village businesses.

On a separate note, I would like to thank the Farmingdale Fire Department and the Veterans of Foreign Wars for presenting another tremendous Memorial Day Parade. The parade was one of the best attended in years. I would also like to thank all the marchers and the High School and Howitt Middle School Marching Bands for their wonderful performances. I was also pleased to see that after the bands stopped playing and people stopped marching, that many people stayed at the Village Green to attend the touching memorial ceremony. We can be proud of our village and our town and community leaders for properly honoring those who served our country.