Colonel Sanders has set his sights on the Southeast corner of Jericho Turnpike and Willis Avenue, property owned by William Asher, as the ideal spot to open up a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Mineola.

Before this can happen KFC must win the approval of the Mineola board of trustees, so attorney Thomas Pantelis appeared before the board along with a number of experts, in order to convince the board that KFC would fit in the Mineola community.

The plan for the KFC calls for the demolition of the existing building, home of Nuevo Jack's, and the construction of a 2,612 square foot, one story structure measuring 16,624 square feet.

This change in size prompted the owner of the adjacent property to have his attorney, John Ryan, appear before the board and communicate his client's concern.

Furthermore, Ryan said that his client feels that if this proposal is approved and given the green light to sell food, then that right should be extended to his property, currently home to half a dozen vacant stores that are looking for tenants.

The KFC proposal calls for the new building to be decked out in the red and white colors of the KFC, complete with a 23 foot tower adorned with a nine foot caricature of Colonel Sanders.

"It looks like a big circus tent," said Trustee Lou Santosus.

Along with questions on its aesthetics, there was question as to whether the restaurant's appearance complied with village code. Code compliance was an issue that arose several times during the meeting, as did questions about the effect the restaurant would have on traffic.

Any changes to the Nuevo Jacks which was constructed in 1967 at a time where there were no parking and seating requirements, according to the applicants, would be made to comply with existing codes, such as handicap accessibility, and for business reasons, such as an increase in kitchen size.

Rob Peppleman, Construction Manager for Tricon, representing Kentucky Fried Chicken, explained some of the characteristics of a typical KFC, to begin with just what is going in that expanded kitchen.

A KFC kitchen uses microwaves, convection ovens, pressure cookers and fryers. With the cooking methods comes the issue of odors and according to Peppleman the issue has already been addressed, "We will install a bank of filters that will virtually eliminate all odors."

The company owned store would employ 15 full-time workers and 10 part-time workers, the staff numbering three, working seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and serving about 60 customers an hour.

During the busiest hours of operation, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. or dinner time, the KFC representative figured the amount of customers would double to 120 an hour and there would be five employees on site as shifts overlapped.

This prompted Mayor John P. Colbert to ask about parking which led to an important point. Previous to this meeting the applicants had appeared before the Planning Board which made several suggestions including requiring refrigerated garbage, restricting smoke and odor, outside lighting for the parking lot, limiting hours and allowing use of the parking lot for KFC employees and customers only.

The planning board also found that the plans would need to be amended because they did not provide enough parking for restaurant employees. Pantelis told the mayor and the board of trustees that the plans could be amended so that there would be 45 seats, instead of the originally proposed 46, and then the application would comply with the village's law on seat to parking space ratio.

However, according to Mineola Village codes, the restaurant would require yet another additional employee parking space if it were to have the proposed five people working at any one time.

By the end of the hearing this issue had not been resolved.

Further questioning revealed, that there would be four deliveries a week, two of which will be for chicken which is delivered separately, and they will be unloaded on site somewhere between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., before the store is open each day for business.

Also appearing on behalf of the applicant was Robert Eschbacher, traffic engineer, who spoke about changes to the property that would be made in order to control the flow of traffic.

Proposals included the prohibiting of left turns onto Jericho Turnpike as well as left turns onto Washington Avenue and the inclusion of a re-entry lane that would allow for cars to get to either entrance without disturbing drive through traffic. A raised channel island and signs would further guide the vehicular traffic.

However, despite this, a number of residents expressed concern as to what the effect on traffic would be. Resident Scott Fairgrieve requested information including a traffic survey, which the applicants did have, and a report on the number of accidents that have occurred at that intersection.

Eschbacher said that through his research he had not found a case where the traffic from the existing restaurant had caused an accident.

Traffic poses an issue especially in this case as the proposed KFC has a drive through window, something that does already exist at Nuevo Jacks. In fact Peppleman stated that the applicants would not been interested in the site if they were not allowed to have a drive through window.

The hearing closed with the record being kept open for 10 days and a decision on the hearing to be forthcoming.