Please mark your calendar for Saturday, Sept. 27 as it will be a very festive day in our village marked by the Chamber of Commerce's 29th 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 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.

On Sept. 12, I 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, 35th, 40th and 45th 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 20 employees who were honored was 505! 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 107 employees achieved this mark - representing 38 percent of the workforce. My compliments and thanks to all.

Happy Birthday (September 19) to my wife, Marianne, who has so long supported me in my village activities!

The Recreation Department's Senior Center at the Cottages at our St. Paul's Campus provides a welcome opportunity for fellowship and hours of enjoyment for Garden City seniors, and does so with the assistance of an on-site supervising recreation attendant from the village. Please stop in and take advantage of this facility and enjoy the camaraderie. The center is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for any person aged 60 or above who is a resident of the Incorporated Village of Garden City. For further information, call 465-4075.

The following is offered: workshops, speakers, song groups, trips, and arts and crafts programs at various times of the season. All who attend enjoy lots of fun and comradeship.

The regular weekly schedule is as follows:

10 a.m.	Exercise with Felicia
11 a.m.	Bingo and friends' time in the Library Room

10 a.m.

Board games with Andrew

10 a.m.	Exercise with Felicia
11:30 a.m.	Brown bag lunch with friends - get together

10 a.m.	Games with Andrew
1 p.m.	Knitting, crafts, etc.

10 a.m.

Exercise with Felicia

On Sept. 15, the village began issuing Railroad Parking Permits for the year 2008/09. The annual fee is $100 (this equates to approximately $.40 per day).

Permits may be obtained at the Village Business Office, 351 Stewart Avenue. Residents who already possess a 2007/08 permit will receive a renewal application by mail, which may be returned to the village either by mail or in person. A photocopy of your registration must accompany your application and check. Current permits will be valid through Sept. 30.

The next regularly scheduled Board of Trustees' meeting for the month of October are as follows: Thursday, Oct. 2 and Thursday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. Correspondence addressed to the mayor and board was due Sept. 23 for the Oct. 2 meeting and for the Oct. 16 meeting correspondence must be received by Oct. 7 to be included with the Board's Communications for these meetings. 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. At this time portions of our village website are under construction, we are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause. 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.