It's official: The Nassau County legislature, by a unanimous 19-0 vote, approved a $2.56 million bond act to be used for renovation on the Roslyn Grist Mill.

The vote took place Thursday night, Oct. 29 at the legislative chambers in Mineola. A pleased Roslyn Mayor Janet Galante was in attendance. Grist Mill renovation has been a major priority of the current administration.

In a letter to Roslyn residents, the mayor claimed that the mill "will now be restored to its original charm and will be a jewel in the center of our historic downtown." The mayor thanked two powers in Nassau County politics, Supervisor Thomas R. Gulotta and the county legislator's presiding officer Bruce Blakeman for helping to secure passage of the bond act. Mayor Galante also noted that the legislation was co-sponsored by legislators from different parties, Barbara Johnson, a Democrat and John Canning, a Republican. This bipartisan support contributed to the unanimous vote.

Passage of the bond act was the top priority for a renovation project that, considering the age of the mill, had reached a critical juncture. Originally, members of the 1701 Grist Mill Committee were hoping for $1.2 million in bond money, so the amount of the final numbers also had to be especially pleasing to committee members and other Grist Mill supporters.

On Friday, Oct. 8, members of the Grist Mill Committee, along with local and county dignitaries, gathered at the mill on Old Northern Boulevard to celebrate what was the imminent passage of the bond act.

The most pressing renovation on the mill is to lift the structure to the same level of the road in order to protect it from the water. Other exterior work, namely a stabilization of the building was begun a few months before the bond act was finally passed, thanks mostly to a $50,000 grant secured by State Senator Michael Balboni.

Complete renovation is still a few years down the road. It has yet to be determined what the function of the mill will be once renovation is done. But the bond act was always essential to any restoration.