Although Garden City proved victorious earlier this month when news spread that IGA Food Basket wasn't leaving the village after 19 years of providing quality service to its customers, trustee Jon Mauk believes this time the village "dodged a bullet."

Mauk questioned the village's current zoning codes, urging that the board examine them as soon as possible, particularly since Edmund's Showcase restaurant is no longer calling Franklin Avenue its home, as trustee John Watras noted. Specific reasons why the restaurant left were not immediately available at press time, however the Garden City Life did discover that Edmund's relocated to West Hempstead and is continuing to do business from a location there.

"My concern is what are we going to do now since we have dodged a bullet ... I think something will come up again and I think we need to look at our zoning codes and see if modifications can be made. We don't want to be subjected to this again," Mauk said.

"I don't think 'there's not much we can do about this' is acceptable. We should have further discussions about this and look at how other communities handle these kinds of situations." Watras added, "It looks like we dodged this bullet but there's another one now [with Edmund's]."

Village Administrator Robert Schoelle, Jr., who met with Josh Goldberg, a principal of Stone Crest Management, IGA's and Edmund's landlord, said village staff did discuss the issue with village counsel and planning consultants. "We did look at a number of scenarios and avenues available to the village," he said, "and there's not an awful lot available that doesn't have a tail on it, which might prohibit a desirable use." While he shares Mauk's concerns, Schoelle added, "I don't want anyone to think the village didn't take a proactive stance."

Village Counsel Gary Fishberg told Mayor Barbara Miller and the board that he's willing to discuss the issue further in private. "We did come up with recommendations. But as indicated, those recommendations may have some down sides," Fishberg explained. "We have to decide what goal we wish to accomplish and make sure that, if we do go forward with these recommendations, that we're not precluding some use that you may not wish to preclude."

Trustee Robert Rothschild, liaison to the business community, publicly congratulated the village, particularly its residents and the Chamber of Commerce, in "stepping up to the plate" and fighting for what they wanted. "The chamber wants to be cooperative with the board," he said. "We need to work with them ... They also have a hit list they want to work on ... "

Mauk said he's not "pointing the finger at anyone" but feels the village, as a whole, needs to be more "imaginative" in handling these situations. Mayor Miller reiterated that the board intends to meet regularly with the Chamber of Commerce and will have to "certainly include their views." She also told Mauk his comments were "well taken."