Last Wednesday's Village of Mineola Board of Trustees meeting was contentious at times. The discussion mainly involved the village's financial position. It was revealed at a board meeting last month that the village closed the 2002-2003 fiscal year with a deficit in its General Fund of over $500,000. However, even with the negative fund balance in the General Fund, the village still maintained over $800,000 in its Capital Projects fund. The board, therefore, voted to transfer monies from Capital Projects into the General Fund and designate those monies to pay for debt service. FULL STORY

In an effort to raise revenues, the mayor and the board of trustees for the Village of Mineola voted to raise parking rates from $0.25 per hour to $0.25 per half hour. Meters are in the process of being reprogrammed to reflect the new rate, although meters located on the corners of some streets will remain at $0.25 per 15 minutes. FULL STORY

The Mineola High School varsity wrestling team is a young bunch this season. "We have a very young team. It's mostly sophomores and freshmen. We'll need two years to contend for our league championship," said veteran coach Dan Guido. FULL STORY

Mineola High School will honor the memory of former assistant principal Reggie Carter on Friday, Jan. 30 with a tripleheader in the high school gym. Carter, who passed away suddenly on Christmas Eve of 1999, was a former star basketball player at St. John's and played with the New York Knicks. FULL STORY