Just two days before the coming of 2001, Long Island was hit with a major snowstorm, which dropped about 15 inches on Mineola. The village Department of Public Works was out at 6 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30 and Sunday, Dec. 31 to clear the streets. At a public meeting of the village board last Wednesday, Mineola Mayor John P. Colbert and the trustees complimented the work of DPW Superintendent Tom Rini and his staff for the job done.

For Rini, it was the first snowfall during his tenure as Superintendent of Public Works and the most significant snowfall since 1996. "The word that I have gotten back from the residents is that they're happy. The roads were handled. I don't have any ice on my roads," Mayor Colbert said. "One of the concerns we had was of us passing through the streets and putting the snow in people's driveways but we had to keep the streets open as best we could without hurting the people that were shoveling."

Although Mineola may have survived the season's first significant snow accumulation, some residents did not escape the ordeal without receiving a violation. At 9 a.m. on Dec. 30, Mayor Colbert issued a Snow Emergency in the village. Under the edict, all vehicles had to be removed from the streets until after the snow stopped falling and streets had been plowed from curb to curb. Village laws states that the mayor can issue a snow emergency after two inches of snow has fallen. "Most people had forgotten that," the mayor said. "We'd been very fortunate over the past four years that we have not gotten a significant snowfall where I had to call a snow emergency and call the people out to give tickets to cars."

Those who didn't comply with snow emergency regulations were issued tickets from the village's parking regulation enforcement officials. However, before tickets were issued, the Mineola Auxiliary Police went out, announcing to residents to get their cars off the streets. At about noon on Saturday, officials went out to ticket cars left on the street. "If you notice the areas where there were no cars parked on the street and compare them to the areas that had cars parked on the street, there is a significant difference on the street," Mayor Colbert said.

The mayor stated that keeping the streets clear is not only important in plowing snow, but also so emergency vehicles such as an ambulance or fire truck can get through if needed. "The cars have to get off the streets," he added. "I don't like having to issue an order to give out tickets to anybody."

An estimated 300 violations were issued for cars left on the streets. In addition, businesses that did not shovel the front of their stores by Wednesday were issued summonses. "I don't have any happy people there who got those summonses but I have to protect the pedestrians. I can't have them walking out on the roads because they don't want to slip and fall," Mayor Colbert said.

However, the mayor was still satisfied with the job the village did in clearing the streets. "Every piece of equipment we had that was for snow removal was out there," Mayor Colbert said. "We had people from our parks department. We brought people in from sanitation. The supervisors were out there doing a great job."

Superintendent Rini said approximately 16 trucks were out clearing the snow, with 12 belonging to the village and the others belonging to private contractors.

Mayor Colbert said he wanted to thank the Mineola Auxiliary Police. He also thanked the village laborers for a great response and the citizens of the village for their cooperation. Mayor Colbert also wanted to thank the Mineola Fire Department for manning the fire houses during the snow emergency and the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps for standing by in case of an emergency. "We had everything covered," he said.