October 7, 2021
For those of you who could not join us at our September 28th General Membership Meeting, we hope you had a happy and healthy summer. The September 28th meeting came after what had been a rather productive couple of months for the FSCA board. We worked on several projects you may or may not have heard about.
Early in June, under the direction of board member Phil Malloy, we presented commemorative pins to medical workers from Northwell Health, the Nassau County Police Department and the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department to thank and honor them for their dedication during the pandemic.
Also with the help of Phil Malloy, we installed a 9-11 Memorial banner on a utility pole at Rath Park on Naple Avenue, near our town’s 9-11 memorial. The banner will remain up year round and its condition will be monitored carefully.
If you haven’t already seen them, we’d like to let you all know that the FSCA, together with New York State Assemblyman Ed Ra, purchased American flags that were hung on utility poles interspersed along Hempstead Turnpike in time for Independence Day. We are in the process of taking them down before the weather turns.
Also, this summer, the FSCA worked with several organizations in town to urge the Town of Hempstead to add surveillance cameras that would point to the south side of Naple Avenue at Rath Park. It was determined by the members of the FSCA, The Franklin Square Historical Society (FSHS), the VFW Post 2718 and the Franklin Square and Munson Fire Department (FSMFD) that the area would benefit greatly from having additional supervision. While there have not been a great many reports of vandalism there, in addition to the 9-11 memorial that stands in that area, the FSHS Museum is quickly filling up with valuable artifacts pertaining to our towns history and therefore the property is due the appropriate protection surveillance cameras afford. The camera went up in early August and a sign put up that the area is under 24 x 7 surveillance as a deterrent.
The Board and the “Spruce Up the Square” Committee also hopes you enjoy the seasonal cornstalks and bows which have been added to lampposts along Hempstead Turnpike recently. The FSCA also received an anonymous donation in the very generous amount of $390 to expand that project to cover more areas of Franklin Square; Franklin Avenue, New Hyde Park Road and Dogwood Avenue. We would like to offer our heartfelt gratitude and thanks for that person’s contribution to our organization and our town.
Finally, the FSCA was recently made aware that there were community members struggling with flooding when we get heavy rains. These residents were having an issue getting the appropriate municipality to respond to their requests for help. The board decided that we would assist by writing letters and garnering the support of other organizations in town. These included the Franklin Square Chamber of Commerce (FSCC), the FSMFD, the FSHS as their property backs up to the creek, and the Franklin Square Public Library (FSPL), which has had issues with their lobby flooding when we get heavy rains and this is despite the their custodial team cleaning up the storm drains that are in front of the library. As a result of this flooding, the FSPL has been required to use funds to clean up the mess that we all know are better allocated elsewhere. One of the residents reported to us that the problem seems to stem not just from clogged Town of Hempstead and Nassau County storm drains but also from the runoff areas like that near Valley Stream North (VSN) High School and, additionally, Halls Pond. FSCA Board members have noticed, as I’m sure many of you have, that there are areas on Hempstead Turnpike that flood frequently with rainwater and snow and ice because of the abysmal job done repairing the turnpike years ago. In some areas, there is no curb and I’ve noticed in some areas the storm drains are partially obscured by pavement. So, as a result of this we have written letters to the Town of Hempstead, who responded and sent someone to the aforementioned resident’s location to clean out the storm drains nearby. We have also sent a letter to NC Executive Laura Curran as well as Legislative District 8 Representative Vinny Muscarella. We heard back from their office yesterday. Basically, DPW needs everything to be itemized in order for them to take care of it. Currently, on our website, we have a submission form that any resident can use to report the location of drainage issues. We continue to monitor these submissions and are working on moving forward reporting these issues to the appropriate municipality.
We hope you can join us in November for our general membership meeting for the review and vote for our 2022 Board, and to hear from our guest speakers. We are planning to have this as our first in person meeting since the pandemic.
Sincerely,
Katherine Tarascio
President, FSCA