Had you been walking around our nation's capitol last week, you might have noticed a couple of familiar faces. On March 2, Mayor Ralph V. Suozzi and Community Development Director Cara Longworth were joined by Glen Cove government affairs consultants to visit federal decision-makers in Washington, DC in order to build support for a number of community initiatives that they say will create jobs and economic opportunity, preserve public safety and improve the environment in Glen Cove. They met with the legislative staffs of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Charles Schumer, the legislative director for Representative Peter King, the Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Brownfields Cleanup and Redevelopment and senior headquarters officials for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The initiatives include:

The Waterfront Revitalization, including the dredging of the remainder of Glen Cove Creek, the ongoing construction of the Glen Cove connector road to the end of Garvies Point, the construction of a commuter ferry terminal, and a number of other waterfront revitalization activities that will, working in cooperation with the Town of North Hempstead, help restore the Hempstead Harbor shoreline and ecosystem;

a Downtown Streetscape Revitalization on Glen Street and School Street to improve aesthetics, parking and walkability in our downtown business corridor;

a Law Enforcement Technology initiative that will use state-of-the-art digital technologies to facilitate crime prevention, investigation, and public safety; and

a series of Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrades designed to maintain cost-effective operations and protect water quality in the Long Island Sound.

The City of Glen Cove is seeking multiple sources of funding to support these initiatives, including federal, congressional and agency funds. These federal officials have voiced strong support for Glen Cove's projects and indicated that these projects are consistent with the national policies that the New York congressional delegation is seeking to promote. Glen Cove has also collaborated with the district directors for Representative King, Senator Clinton, and Senator Schumer on these projects.

In the past few weeks, the City of Glen Cove submitted a number of specific federal funding requests to the NY Congressional delegation, including funding from the Department of Transportation, the Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Justice.

Glen Cove and its government affairs consultants will continue to pursue funding through the congressional appropriations and federal grant process during the spring, summer and fall. While domestic federal spending remains difficult to obtain, Glen Cove is optimistic that its projects are well crafted, widely supported and worthy of federal support.

Earlier in the week, on Monday, Feb. 27, just days prior to his trip to Washington, Mayor Suozzi was in Albany attending the 2006 Legislative Session of the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM). The first speaker on Monday's agenda was NY State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi. During a break between speakers, Mayor Suozzi took the opportunity to thank Mr. Hevesi for responding positively to his Jan. 1 request for a full financial and operational audit of the City of Glen Cove. As a follow-up to his initial request, Mayor Suozzi was visited by three representatives of the State Comptroller's Hauppauge office on Feb. 2 and assured that an audit will commence sometime this spring. The mayor and his staff are currently making preparations for a successful audit by documenting and preparing information and documentation for the audit team prior to its arrival in Glen Cove.

At press time, Mayor Suozzi was on his way to Manhattan for a meeting with George Pavlou, a director with the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Mayor Suozzi will provide complete information on this meeting in next week's "Mayor's Column" in this newspaper.