The Mayor’s Corner Village of Williston Park: June 26, 2012

Pool Open For 2012 Summer Season

This past weekend the Roger J. Fay Williston Park Pool officially opened for the 2012 summer season. The village staff, along with pool employees, worked extremely hard to ensure another successful opening. Paul Blake and Anne Buttafuco return as Manager and Assistant manager. A spectacular season calendar of events has been put into place. Although the “early bird special” has come to an end, a membership is an inexpensive option to keep cool.

Editorial: Always Touching Ceremonies

]As always, through the years, coming to the end of the school year is always a touching ceremony, especially the “moving up” ceremonies when the students graduate from the sixth grade to the seventh grade and to New Hyde Park Memorial High School.

From The Desk Of Superintendent Robert Katulak: June 19, 2012

String Ensembles/Art Shows Outstanding

All schools had wonderful spring concerts and art shows that were enthusiastically received by the audiences. We have completed all the New York State testing and scoring for grades three to six.

We recently witnessed the Kindergarten graduations of students at all four schools and we have completed all the plans and staff development for the summer school teachers and teacher aides.

Editorial: Herricks Retirees Honored By Board

At the last Herricks board meeting teachers  custodians, bus drivers and student representative retirees were all honored.

However, because I have, personally, spent so much time at the Herricks Community Center with the Herricks Community Players and attending school board meetings, the retiree who stands out most prominently in my mind is custodian John Meloni.

Letter: Partial Pavement Of White Avenue A Disgrace

From May 21 to May 23 White Avenue was paved from Lakeville Road to Hillside Boulevard which is a five-block stretch.

Despite six years (2006-2012) of my advocating for the paving of the entire length of White Avenue from Lakeville Road to Cherry Lane (a nine- block stretch) only the eastern section of the road was paved and the western section (Hillside Blvd to Cherry Lane) was excluded.

Editorial: Time Really Does Fly By

Just hard to believe that it’s “award” time once again. It seems like only yesterday when we were giving accolades to the Class of 2011 and now it’s accolades for the Class of 2012.

Senior Awards night has come and gone and we are quickly approaching “moving up” day. And before you know it graduation ceremonies will be taking place for both Herricks and New Hyde Park Memorial High Schools.

Covering All Bases: June 5, 2012

Gas Prices Dip: Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Once, I heard a story about a doctor who removed a splinter from the finger of a friend.  The doctor would normally have charged 50 dollars for the office visit, but his friend seemed to think that the services were performed free of charge. Perplexed, the doctor tried to determine how he could get paid for his services.

About a week later, a bill arrived in the patient’s mailbox. It requested payment for services rendered with an amount due of $4,000. Infuriated, the patient stormed to the doctor’s office and confronted the physician.

Editorial: Memorial Day Parades Bring Out The Best

It is so heart-warming every Memorial Day to see the many folks line the streets of both New Hyde Park and Williston Park in order to honor the residents who have made the ultimate sacrifice, so that we can line the streets and live in freedom.  In a word—thank you.

­–mdw

Covering All Bases: May 30, 2012

The Long Island 30

This past weekend, an American tradition, the Indianapolis 500 was held. Later that same day, NASCAR held one of its major races, the Coca Cola 600. In both events, drivers steered their vehicles at tremendous speeds while also trying to outmaneuver each other, maintain their course, and make strategic decisions such as when to make a pit stop, and whether to draft behind another race car or make a push for the lead. And they do all this while trying to avoid crashing into a wall.

I have a question for those who drove in these races. Is that all you’ve got?

Editorial: Discovering A Gem In The Midst Of New Hyde Park

Last week I had the opportunity to venture into an area in New Hyde Park that was just a little remote to this reporter.

Having traveled on, over the years, what I thought was every street in New Hyde Park, I found myself going to “Google maps” to find the exact location of Imperial Avenue.