Please mark your calendar for Saturday, Oct. 29, as it will be a very festive day in our village marked by the Chamber of Commerce's 27th annual "Fall Festival Street Fair," combined with the annual High School Homecoming Day Parade and the annual Street Fair. Bring your family and enjoy the community spirit and fun.

The Chamber's Street Fair on Seventh Street and Franklin Avenue is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. and will run through mid-afternoon. Seventh Street, between Franklin and Hilton Avenues, will be closed to all traffic from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. For your convenience, please use the Hilton and Franklin Avenue entrances to Parking Field 7S and the Stewart Avenue entrances to Parking Field 7N. The high school's Homecoming Parade will step off promptly at 12:15 p.m. from the most easterly end of Seventh Street and proceed west along Seventh Street to Cathedral Avenue, north onto Stewart Avenue, west to Oxford Boulevard and north to the high school parking field. The Homecoming festivities and football game will follow the parade at the Warren King Field.

As we get our homes ready for the onset of colder weather, I encourage residents, particularly those with young children, to consider replacing the glass in their storm door inserts with safety glass.

Last summer the police department responded to a call for a medical emergency involving a young child who sustained a deep laceration from broken glass from a storm door insert that he accidentally ran into. While the New York State Building Code requires that glass in replacement storm doors be safety glass, most of our older homes do not have safety glass.

The Department of Public Works began collecting leaves Monday, Oct. 17, and will end Saturday, Dec. 3. Collections will start in the western section on a sporadic basis, depending upon the amount of leaves in the street and weather conditions. As accumulation increases, full collection will begin in the western section on a street-by-street basis and proceed easterly through the entire village. Weather conditions permitting, this route will be repeated on a two-week basis.

We ask that residents observe the following guidelines: Place only leaves in the street. Other items may damage machinery and slow down operation. Do not place leaves on medians and malls as this will kill or damage the grass. For reasons of safety, our streets are cleaned of leaves on a more frequent schedule than are the medians. Avoid parking cars over leaves as this slows our operation considerably, and is also a fire hazard. Each year a number of cars are seriously damaged or destroyed by fire as a result of their being parked on dry leaves. Please do not obscure fire hydrants by piling leaves around them. If you have a gardener, instruct him to place your leaves in the street, and not on the malls. Many gardeners find it convenient to bring leaves in from other communities in which they work for disposal by the village. This practice is prohibited and the police department will be issuing summonses.

Last fall the Street Department along with the Parks Department removed 20,000 cubic yards of leaves. These leaves were then turned into mulch and were made available cost free for use by residents and landscapers. This recycling of leaves saves the village thousands of dollars annually in disposal costs. Our combined efforts will keep our village beautiful and reduce waste. If you have any questions concerning our leaf collection schedule, please call the Department of Public Works at 465-4003 or check the village website, www.gardencityny.net, for information and updates on the leaf collection.

The Nassau County Department of Senior Citizen Affairs, in cooperation with the Nassau County Department of Health and the Nassau University Medical Center, will co-sponsor a free countywide, flu immunization program for senior citizens.

The immunization program for our area will be held at the Garden City Senior Recreation Center, located at 6 Golf Club Lane, Tuesday, Dec. 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Residents 60 years of age or older, who are interested in receiving the vaccine should call the Garden City Recreation Department at 465-4075 to make an appointment. Residents should be prepared to indicate if they wish to receive just the flu immunization or if they would like the additional protection of the pneumonia immunization, which is also free.