Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the Village Employee Recognition Program. This is an annual event where employees, who have marked 20th, 25th, 30th and 35th plus years of service with the Village of Garden City, are recognized and presented with service pins and certificates. The accumulative years of service among the 14 employees who were honored were 350! We are both pleased and proud that these employees have chosen to spend their careers in Garden City and we recognize that our Village is a better place because they are here.

The program also recognizes those employees who have demonstrated that extra effort to come to work each day or tour and, in doing so, achieved 100 percent attendance in the past year. I am pleased to report that 86 employees achieved this mark - representing 28 percent of the workforce. My compliments and thanks to all!

Due to the observance of Columbus Day there was no garbage or recycling pickup on Monday, Oct. 9. Residences west of Rockaway Avenue will have their garbage collected on Tuesday and Friday and those east of Rockaway Avenue will be collected on Wednesday and Saturday. Rubbish will be collected on Thursday. Those residents scheduled for recycling pickup on Monday, Oct. 9 should place recyclables out on Monday, Oct. 16. All other recycling days remain the same.