By Margaret Peppard-Ogara
As a resident who lives within a one block radius of Bolla Market, I say to Harry Singh and his staff, thank you and welcome to the neighborhood. Mr. Singh has revamped the area of Jericho Tpke. and White rd turning an eye sore of a vacant run down lot and turned it into a beautifully landscaped bright clean business.
The Village of Mineola is unfairly putting restrictions on this business. We no longer live in a 9to 5 Monday to Friday world. Get with the times. People need a location to go to off hours for small conveniences. He is not asking for anything that is not allowed by any other business. There are several stores on Jericho Turnpike that remain open 24 hours. Why should Bolla lose loyal customers because of an unfair sanction by the village.
The village would not be spending money on litigation if they simply did the right thing for a businessman who has improved the area. As far as your the comments in a letter in last week’s Mineola American about not caring about the neighborhood, I completely disagree. When Bolla was approved to build this new store, the village mandated that Bolla repair village property at a cost to Mr. Singh. He repaired the parking lot behind the store which is village property.
He further replaced the fence along the property line of the home owners who are adjacent to that municipal lot. Mr. Singh has donated money to the Mineola Middle School. Mr. Singh has further donated money to the local travel baseball team, the Mineola Hurricanes, he purchased them new uniforms and paid for tournaments for them to compete in.
On a very tragic occasion recently when police officer Brian Moore was killed, Mr. Singh again showed his generosity. There is a Bolla Market on the corner of the location where Officer Moores’ funeral was. Mr. Singh graciously opened the doors of his location and handed out waters and food to all the police officers and civilians who were standing outside of the church in the heat for several hours.
These are his acts of kindness and generosity that he continues to give to the neighborhoods that he does business in. I don’t know that you will find a more supportive neighbor to have. So I for one will continue to support this business and encourage all others to do the same.
