For the first time in 10 years, the Village of Great Neck is expected to surpass its $45,000 snow budget, Clerk/Treasurer Abraham Cohan said at the Tuesday, Feb. 17 board of trustees meeting on Tuesday.
The village has already spent over $42,000 on snow management this year, as the Department of Public Works prepares for more snow this weekend.
Cohan said he expects the village will have to dip into its $150,000 contingency fund.
After some delay, the board once again unanimously approved Trustee Steven Hope to sign the closing documents for a former sewer plant site at 263-267 East Shore Road, which was declared surplus, and to sell the property for $7.5 million.
The village also approved amendments to the contract of sale that dispersed ownership amongst six LLCs. Kings Point Mayor Kouros Torkan is the principal owner of each of them.
“The principal is the same on all of them,” Deputy Mayor Barton Sobel said.
The closing is set for Wednesday, Feb. 18.
During public comments, seven village residents living on North Drive spoke about safety on their street.
“We are concerned about the traffic on our block and how fast people are going,” said North Drive resident Bob Mehdizadeh.
Mehdizadeh said one night, a car was speeding and hit a tree on the road in the middle of the night.
The residents said construction activity at 739 Middle Neck Road was responsible for the traffic, but board members pushed back, saying the street has long experienced speeding issues from drivers avoiding the traffic lights on Middle Neck Road.
“This is an enforcement issue,” Sobel said. “We don’t have a police force. You have to call the 6th Precinct and tell them.”
“You have to close that street,” another North Road resident said in response.
The board discussed ways the village could mitigate traffic, including putting up “one-way” signs or making the road “no entry” from Middle Neck Road.
“We will have to get in touch with the county,” Building Department Superintendent Michael Sweeney said about changing the status of the road.
“After the building is done, if that road is closed, it will help you guys significantly,” Mayor Pedram Bral said. “You just have to give us time.”
The board also unanimously approved two items regarding the new village hall that is currently under construction.
One was a change order for $3,180 from Roland’s Electric, Inc. to provide a bottom plate for the roof of a mounted generator.
“They are planning for installation, and they just realized this beam is missing,” Cohan said.
The second item was a contract addendum for Bohler Engineering NY, PLLC, for the design of outside building lighting for the hall.
Bral said the designs originally had only light posts, not lights on the building.
The board approved $2,000 for construction document revisions and $1,750 for landscape and lighting design revisions.
The cost does not include the purchase or installation of building lights.
The board unanimously approved granting amnesty to several residents with expired permits that the superintendent of buildings determined were not the homeowners’ fault.
The board voted to close the permits and issue certificates of occupancy and completion “subject to the homeowner paying all necessary permit fees.”
The board granted amnesty to 15 homeowners for 17 permits.
In January, the building department received 32 permit applications and collected over $65,000 in fees.
Department of Public Works Superintendent James Neubert gave a few updates on the DPW.
“The new trucks are in,” Neubert said about the department’s four new garbage trucks.
The village used about $1,218,000 in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and about $244,000 from its capital fund to pay for the new trucks.
Neubert said there have been a few issues with them, but nothing critical.
“They don’t turn as wide. A lot of times they’ll favor the middle of the road…but now that snow is there, they have to swing much wider,” Neubert said.
One of the new trucks also has the wrong bars to lock dumpsters in place when it lifts them, but the correct parts are expected to arrive later this week.
Bral also asked Neubert to compile a list of locations in the village for new garbage cans and benches, since Nassau County has granted about $150,000 to purchase them.
Since the Jewish holiday Purim lands on the first Tuesday of next month, when board meetings are usually held, the board decided to reschedule the meeting to Tuesday, March 10.
