At last week's meeting of the Village of Mineola Board of Trustees, Mayor Jack M. Martins and the community-planning committee headed by former Mayor Bob Hinck unveiled the village's master plan, a 70-page document for suggestions and guidelines for creating a better, more vibrant Mineola.

The plan, which is six years in the making and made possible through a grant from Senator Michael Balboni, is broken up into four chapters - an introduction, a chapter on neighborhoods and community design, a chapter on corridors and transportation and a chapter on downtown. For chapters two through four, there is a section on existing conditions and a section on recommendations.

For each of the areas of the village, recommendations range from general to specific. For neighborhoods and community, recommendations include continuing to provide a variety of recreational amenities and community services, improving the pedestrian experience, protecting against intrusions since certain blocks are confronting commercial encroachments, addressing on-street parking problems and providing a variety of housing types in appropriate locations.

The suggestions for each of the categories such as continuing to provide a variety of recreational amenities and community services include enhancing the village's parks, protecting private open spaces and increasing coordination with the Mineola schools.

Some of the master plan in the area of protecting against intrusions is commiserate with zoning such as modifying zoning in most areas to control out-of-scale development and character.

Some of the suggestions in the master plan included specific courses of action such as targeting the Jackson Steel site at Herricks Road and First Street for senior citizen apartments and adopting a simple village-wide policy to address on-street parking problems.

Mayor Martins said the master plan will be available for all members of the public to view in the near future. A copy will be available at the library and at the village clerk's office in village hall. The mayor and the village board will also schedule future hearings on the plan to get public input on the various suggestions contained within it.

Congratulations to Mayor Jack Martins and his wife Paula on the birth of their baby daughter. Emma Sophia Martins was born on Friday, Oct. 28. Sisters Kaitlyn, 8, and Vanessa, 5, welcomed their baby sister to the world. Congratulations to the Martins family on this wonderful blessing.

The village received some sad news as community members Tony Bernardo and Ruth Pkorney passed away. Bernardo was a gentleman who answered his country's call in World War II, serving in England, France, Germany and Austria. Bernardo was involved in Mineola's veterans' organizations, American Legion Post #349 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Private Adolph Block Post #1305.

Ruth Pokorny was a longtime resident of Mineola. She was married to Bill Pokorny, who has been a member of the Mineola Fire Department for over 50 years. Ruth was active in the ladies auxiliary of the fire department and the Meals on Wheels Program. Village trustee Paul Cusato, who is also a member of the Mineola Fire Department, described Ruth as "a wonderful woman who stepped forward to make a difference."

Banners commemorating the village's 100th anniversary in 2006 are scheduled to be put up in January along the village's major arteries. The costs for the banners, the mounting hardware and the installation will be put out to bid. The village will be reimbursed by the Mineola Centennial Committee. Businesses will have the opportunity to personalize the banners with the name of the business on the bottom of the banner to help offset the cost. The centennial committee is also raising money through ads for the 100th anniversary journal. Any group is welcome to take out a journal ad including residents on a given street. Last Wednesday, the village board adopted policies for cell phone usage by village employees, use of village vehicles by employees, computer use policy by employees, a fraud policy, an investment policy, a procurement policy and a fixed asset policy.