Equipped with a packed agenda and presiding over a packed house, the Farmingdale Village Trustees' meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16 covered a lot of ground.

Superintendent of Buildings Ron Craig recommended that each of the 36 permits applied for be approved. This included three demolition permits, 12 new one-family home permits, 13 residential additions and repair permits, six commercial permits and two renovations. One of the renovations is for the 150 Secatogue Ave. property which is currently in contract. The potential new owner would make $750,000 in renovations to bring the complex up to code.

"This is to eliminate 175 summons violations that exist at that location," Craig said.

All building permits were approved unanimously by the board, with the exception of Dr. Benjamin Giminaro who was absent from the meeting.

Farmingdale Village Mayor George Graf then skipped down the agenda to the last item. Over the years, the village has traditionally donated money to the YES Community Counseling Center based in Massapequa. This year, the board of trustees decided to double the allocation to $4,000. YES is currently involved in a gang prevention grant with Farmingdale Public Schools and runs a recreation program twice a month at Howitt Middle School. On hand to accept the check was YES Assistant Director Mark Wenzel.

"We are very grateful to the village for their support," Wenzel said.

The Runner's Edge owner Bob Cook then made a brief presentation about the Main Street Mile, which is to be held on Main Street in Farmingdale on Saturday, Sept. 3. The Main Street Mile is a one-mile race that is being held in conjunction with Cisco Systems, North Fork Bank and Champions in Courage. Champions in Courage, the brainchild of NHL Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine, builds digital playrooms in local children's hospitals. Other New York Islanders are scheduled to make an appearance as well. There will be a slap shot game set up behind The Runner's Edge.

"We can create an unrestricted pedestrian area in a portion of lot 1," Craig suggested.

The next item on the agenda dealt with reviewing the village noise ordinance and village code. According to Craig the village has been receiving an increase in noise complaints.

"In looking at the chapter that addresses the noise and the prohibition of it we found that it was originally prepared Feb. 10, 1964," Craig explained. "And since 1964 noise has evolved, there are new ways to make noise and as a result we need to address new acoustic and amplified sounds."

According to Craig, the noise ordinance needs to be updated. The village is using the recently updated Town of Oyster Bay noise ordinance as a model.

"We are going to try to update ours and use as a model all of the great work the Town of Oyster Bay has been doing," Craig said.

In addition, it was said that no significant changes have been made to the village code since 1978. Village Attorney Greg Carman is in the process of gathering a cost proposal from an upstate company, General Code, in order to see what changes need to be made.

"We are trying to take a look at what doesn't apply any more," Carman said.

Village resident Brian Healey of Sherman Road questioned if this review would address night club issues.

"This is all part of cleaning up the code and bringing it up to date," Graf responded.

Village policies were also reviewed. These included safety, drug-free workplace, sexual harassment, cell phone and automobile policies.

"The policies were all distributed and they are exactly as they were last year," Village Clerk Barbara Canonico said.

Deputy Village Mayor Joe Rachiele made a motion to amend two policies and it was approved.

The board then announced that past trustee meeting minutes are available on the village's website, www.farmingdalevillage.org. As the minutes are approved at board meetings, they will be posted on the website.

An authorization was then granted for funds to be transferred between budgets for code enforcement equipment. Recently Department of Public Works Superintendent Fred Zamparelle, Craig and Rachiele attended a government vehicle auction. They were able to purchase four 2001 and 2004 cars for $24,000. Currently the village was working with 1992 and 1993 Chevrolet Caprices with large police interceptor V-8 engines.

"Through the diligence of Deputy Mayor Rachiele we were able to purchase through the government auction medium mileage, very well maintained vehicles," Zamparelle explained. "The money that we will save in the repairs and gas will pay for the cars in a matter of years."

A discussion then commenced regarding parking issues along Grant and Van Cott Avenues. Since Howitt Middle School expanded, there have been many complaints from residents in and around the area about teachers and employees parking in front of their homes. In an effort to alleviate the problem, Craig recommended posting a no parking sign along those streets from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on school days.

"By starting at 9 a.m. we believe that residents who are parked in the street will not be inconvenienced to have to move their vehicles," Craig explained. "The intent of this is not to regulate residential parking in the street, but to regulate the overflow parking from the school."

Residents did not respond well to the thought of not being able to park in front of their own homes. One Grant Avenue resident said he applauds the village's efforts, but has five cars in his family and these restrictions would pose an inconvenience for him.

Several residents of those blocks were in favor of issuing parking stickers, allowing only village residents to park there. Others thought it wasn't fair to grant only those residents such privileges.

"The sticker situation is a bigger issue because I think it will mushroom into the rest of the village," Graf said.

The current law states that there is no parking on village streets for longer than four hours; however, "the village doesn't uniformly enforce this law" Carman said.

"When Howitt expanded they did not do traffic studies and they didn't involve the village," Carmen further explained. "They did so in their own right."

The Farmingdale Board of Education approves plans and projects and the state education department oversees them.

Mary Rogers, a village resident and Howitt employee appealed to Grant and Van Cott Avenue residents.

"This is impacting secretaries and school aides," Rogers explained. "Give us the opportunity to do our jobs and take care of the district at large."

Rogers said by the time she arrives at work all parking spots are filled except for an auxiliary lot, which she can't park in because it is locked by the time she gets out of work at 5 p.m.

Newly elected School Board Vice President Steve Wilson who was attending the meeting as a resident agreed that it was unfair to restrict taxpayers from parking in front of their own homes. He suggested contacting the school district's Superintendent Dr. Roberta Gerold and Assistant Superintendent John Lorentz.

After much heated debate, Graf assured attendees that no vote would be taken at this time.

"This is a very difficult situation we are trying to rectify," Village Trustee Tom Langon said, whose wife works at Howitt.

When the board motioned to set a hearing date to establish a floor to area ratio when constructing on land within the village's municipality, residents surrounding the Hueppe property began flooding the bench with comments. The floor to area ratio is a proportion between how much building can be completed on how much land.

Residents from surrounding blocks expressed concern over both girth and sky plane of the homes being built on this plot of land. Some are also concerned that the contractors are not adhering to the approved building plans. Rachiele offered to meet one resident the following morning at the site, as he was on vacation from work that day.

Restrictions will be discussed at a public hearing on Oct. 18 in regards to floor to area ratio and sky plane. Also slated for public hearing at the October Village Trustees' meeting will be the village taking 130 Secatogue Ave. by eminent domain.

The next trustees' meeting will be on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m. For more information log onto www.farmingdalevillage.org or call 249-0093.