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.

In addition, the plan to replace meters in village municipal lots with the same parking boxes that are currently located in the parking garage near the post office and the parking garage by the hospital is also going forward.

The village parking field by the Little League Complex on Willis Avenue, the parking field on Banbury Road, behind Carlino's Pizzeria, the parking field on the west side of the Mineola Fire Department headquarters near village hall and parking field #2 in the rear of Willis Hobbies off Nassau Boulevard will all be receiving the new parking boxes.

The system used with the parking boxes is motorists park their cars, punch in their space number into the machine, then put in the money for however long they want to park. The box then produces a receipt for the spot number and the time that was paid for.

The meters from those municipal lots will then be placed on Willis Avenue, Mineola Boulevard and Jericho Turnpike.

The additional meters on Jericho Turnpike, Willis Avenue and Mineola Boulevard in addition to increasing the fees for parking could undoubtedly have an impact on local businesses. In order to ease the burden on business owners and employees who would otherwise have to keep putting money in a meter all day, the village board voted to designate a number of spaces for businesses.

Business owners can then purchase permits for their employees for $250 per year. Employees would then be entitled to park in the permit parking. The permits, which would come in the form of decals for vehicles, would not guarantee an employee of a business a parking space. However, steps are currently being taken to designate a certain amount of spaces that is believed to be adequate to fulfill the parking needs of the employees of local businesses.

Superintendent for Public Works for the Village of Mineola Tom Rini is in the process of surveying the roads and the lots to designate the business permit parking spaces. In parking field #2, for example, there are 72 usable spaces. Of the 72 spaces, approximately 22 will be designated for parking permits.

The plan calls for spaces to be designated for permit parking on Jericho Turnpike, Willis Avenue and Mineola Boulevard as well as the village parking fields. Employees of local businesses who possess a permit on their vehicle would be entitled to park in the designated spaces without either having to put money in a meter if the spot should be on the street or in the parking box if the spot should be located in a village parking lot.

The village ending its 2002-2003 fiscal year with a deficit of over $500,000 in the General Fund portion of the budget has been a major topic of conversation. The reasons for the deficit, according to the village's auditor, are that the village overspent the budget and did not receive its projected revenues. One revenue that was projected in the 2002-2003 budget was $134,500 for the sale of an access point to the MTA. However, the village never received the money.

Benjamin Truncale, an attorney for Spellman & Walsh, the village's law firm, has been trying to collect the payment. In telephone calls made to the New York State Department of Transportation on January 7 and January 8, 2004, Truncale asked that the payment be made as soon as possible.

In a letter dated Jan. 9, 2004, Truncale heard back from the DOT. The letter stated that the closing papers for the acquisition was forwarded to the [DOT's] law department on Aug. 5, 2003. The letter also states that the law department is waiting to receive some clearances concerning the property before approving it for payment.

The board of trustees and the mayor feel they have waited long enough for the payment.