I want to thank both Village residents and our employees for their extraordinary efforts and cooperation during the last snowstorm of 2000, the region's worst in over four years. This was a particularly difficult removal operation because of the large amount of snow which fell throughout the day on Saturday and the demands on personnel and equipment to open 75 miles of Village roads and the 47 acres of municipal parking fields to enable residents to attend to medical appointments and do essential shopping.

Village Public Works crews worked around the clock on Saturday and Sunday returning at 6 a.m. on Monday morning to open streets and fields and to remove accumulations of snow to remote areas. In spite of the fact that many of our newer employees came to the Village with little or no experience in snowplowing, they performed very well and with on the job experience under their belts, will be even better prepared for future storms.

In addition to Nassau County's minimal plowing efforts, employees were hampered by residents contractors blowing snow onto Village streets. This becomes a significant problem when accumulations exceed a foot of snow. As we look ahead to future storms, please instruct your contractor to blow the snow toward the front lawns and not into the street.

As I write this column (Tuesday evening), Village Public Works personnel continue to dig out from last Saturday's snowstorm. Someone did a fast calculation and determined that the amount of snow moved, and ultimately removed, from the Village's 47 acres of parking fields was over 2,000,000 cubic feet. For purposes of comparison, were this placed inside of Sears, it would fill up the entire first and second floors. The amount of snow on 75 miles of Village roadways, only assuming two traveling lanes and two parking lanes, yields over 17,000,000 cubic feet of snow which would fill up all Sears five times over.

Special appreciation is due to neighbors at Bookspan (formerly Doubleday) for their cooperation in allowing the Village to transport snow from municipal parking fields to their southerly parking field. I also want to thank members of the Volunteer Fire Department for spending a part of the past holiday weekend on standby duty at Fire Headquarters. It is most gratifying to know that these dedicated residents are here for us during our time of need.

A reminder to residents who have a live Christmas tree or wreath to dispose of, please leave them at the curb on your regularly scheduled collection day. They will be collected by the Department of Public Works and offered to other agencies for beach erosion control or rendered at the Village Yard for use around trees and shrubs as mulch.

Please assist the Village by removing tree stands from the discarded trees and cooperate with your neighbors by disposing of them only on the scheduled recycling collection days.

The Long Island Rail Road advised today that the waiting room at the Garden City Station will be closed over the following weekends in order to remove existing flooring and to install new flooring:

Close - Jan. 12

Open - Jan. 16