In an effort to spruce up Mineola businesses, Mayor Scott Strauss and the Mineola Chamber of Commerce have partnered in a joint venture dubbed Keep Mineola Beautiful. Chamber reps and Strauss plan to hand out fliers, making storefronts aware of the initiative.
“We’re looking to walk the village, walk the businesses on Saturdays or any day,” Strauss said. “We’re looking to talk to the businesses and say ‘this is the plan. Help us.’ There are stores that maintain the property but others don’t. Rather than come out [combative] we’re trying to do a softer, beneficial approach.”
In 2014, village officials canvassed Mineola’s business community with fliers, notifying them of store upkeep. Rather than summons them, they wanted to enforce the impetus of responsibility.
“I’ve had the building department go past each store with fliers saying ‘you have to clean up your store,” Strauss said. “The weeds [in front of stores drive me insane].”
The chamber sees this project as a community-minded initiative, rather than a “gotcha”-type move.
“What we as a chamber want to do is look to go past just responsibilities as business owners,” Chamber Vice President Tony Lubrano said. “We’re looking for like when a homeowner redoes their front yard and their neighbor sees that and does the same thing. Before you know it, everyone does it.”
Lisa Dalfonso, chair of the village’s recently-created beautification committee, will coordinate with the group to canvass Mineola. Dalfonso covered the downtown area, installing 28 planters near the Long Island Rail Road station last year in advance of the Mineola Street Fair. She’s hoping to extend this idea past Station Plaza.
“Scott asked me last year to get involved in thinking about different things we can do to make Mineola attractive,” Dalfonso said. “Spring is the best time we can get people involved.”
The Mineola Diner on the corner of Jericho Turnpike and Willis Avenue will serve as the group’s first business to be beautified. While the diner possesses an aesthetically pleasing decor, the Mineola mainstay is deserving of the facelift slated for mid-April.
“This is a cooperative venture,” Lubrano said. “The diner looks great. We just need a place to start and they were on board as soon as we mentioned it.”
Venezia’s Garden Center and Granath Color Works, along with other businesses, will work in the program offering discounted rates on garden plantings as well as paint and finishing work.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Granath President Tom Granath said. “We have to make this a program of attraction. I don’t think it’s so much threatening them with violation of code as much as getting a sense of pride.”
Committee reps feel the diner, a prominent business in a visible area, will bode well for the program.
“I think it’s a great location,” Frank Venezia said. “They’re excited. It’s a good spot to start.”
Willis Hobbies owner and past chamber president Steve Ford feels the diner serves as a linchpin in Mineola.
“One of the things I say when I give directions to my store is ‘do you know where the diner is?’” Ford said. “It’s perfect.”
Lubrano stressed that this effort is not only a push for businesses to light up their brand, but for the community to spread the word when storefronts gentrify.
“This is not just for the chamber to do or just the village,” Lubrano said. “This is something for the community to do. It has to be a joint effort. We’re not asking this because the village or the chamber is telling them to. They’ll do this because it’s good for them.”
