Mark your calendar for Saturday, Sept. 29, as it will be a very festive day in our village marked by the Chamber of Commerce's 28th 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 7-S and the Stewart Avenue entrances to Parking Field 7-N. 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.

The village board of trustees encourages residents to attend its meetings. While the schedule varies somewhat, the board typically meets at Village Hall in the board room at 8 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

The meeting dates are posted on the village website, but the next regularly scheduled meetings are Oct. 4, Oct. 18, Nov. 1, Nov. 15, Dec. 6 and Dec. 20. Special meetings can also be held at any time if deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees. If you have any further questions regarding the meetings, please feel free to call my office at Village Hall at 465-4051.

Deputy Mayor Mauk represented the board of trustees and attended the village Employee Recognition Program. This is an annual event where employees who have marked their 20th, 25th, 30th and 35th 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 18 employees who were honored was 415! We are both pleased and proud that these employees have chosen to spend their career in Garden City and we recognize that our village is a better place because they are here.

The program also recognizes these 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 116 employees achieved this mark - representing 38 percent of the workforce. My compliments and thanks to all.

While the Incorporated Village of Garden City subscribes to an emergency weather service and carefully monitors regional storm activity, in preparation for implementing its storm emergency plan, there is a lot that residents can and should do to make preparations for the upcoming hurricane season. In this, my second column I will share additional information so that you can be prepared in the event that a major storm hits Long Island.

The following are just a few important ways we can all prepare for a hurricane:

Plan Ahead for the possibility of becoming separated from your family and friends.

Designate an individual outside the potentially affected area that each family or household member will call or email to check in with should a hurricane occur. Your selected contact should live far enough away that they would be unlikely to be directly affected by the same event and they should know they are the chosen contact.

Know that phone lines (and email) may be out of service or overloaded after a disaster, so it's often easier to call out of the area. You may also have to be patient and try again later. Make sure your contact person has all family emergency phone numbers and contact information.

Make sure all of your loved ones have the contact person's phone number, as well as each other's phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Loved ones should agree to call the out-of-town contact to report their whereabouts and welfare. Consider having a laminated, wallet-sized card made to carry with you at all times.

Practice the communication plan and update as necessary.

Use the American Red Cross "Safe and Well" website, available at www.redcross.org, as a secure, free location to post messages to loved ones worried about your well-being.

Have all family members stay in contact with the designated individual if you are evacuated to let them know your whereabouts and well-being.

I encourage residents to periodically utilize the village's website for information regarding the village's operations, as well as items of seasonal and special interest. The address is www.gardencityny.net. Also please be aware that I have a village email address and would be delighted to hear from village residents about their concerns- it is as follows: MayorPBee@gardencityny.net.