2020 has certainly been an unprecedented year. While many of our village residents have been affected, thankfully the majority have been able to keep the lights on and keep food on their tables. For others, that is not always the case – which is why we have established the Flower Hill Food Drive.
With a helping hand from local groups and other community volunteers, the Flower Hill Food drive will support families in our area who are in need. All contributions will be donated to local food pantries (currently JCC of Roslyn and Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven).
How can you help? We have set up two drop-off locations and we are asking you, the generous residents of Flower Hill, for your help. If you wish to donate, please email FHfooddrive@gmail.com and we will arrange a safe and socially distant pick-up. In addition, you can drop items off at Village Hall between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm) or at the residences of either of the Co-Chairs (to be arranged via email):
Claire Dorfman:
129 Chestnut Road, Manhasset
Milan Doshi:
51 Reni Road, Manhasset
ITEMS NEEDED:
NON-PERISHABLE SHELF STABLE FOOD
Canned Protein (Chicken, Salmon, Sardines, Tuna)
Peanut Butter or Alternative Nut Butter
Jelly
Cooking Oil
Rice
Canned Vegetables
Canned Beans
Canned Fruit in Juice/Applesauce
Low Sodium Soups
Pasta
Cold Cereal
Hot Cereal (Cream of Wheat, Farina)
Pancake Mix
Pasta Sauce
Canned green beans
Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise
Flour
Cornmeal
PAPER GOODS, HOUSEHOLD ITEMS, CLEANING SUPPLIES
Paper Towels
Toilet Paper Rolls
Tissues
Laundry Detergent
The donations will be collected and distributed evenly to neighboring food pantries multiple times a week.
If you have any questions regarding this initiative or which to be involved, please send an email to FHfooddrive@gmail.com (preferred) or you can also call the Village of Flower Hill at 516-627-5000.
This year we ask people to remind their kids to be on the lookout for signs indicating whether homes are participating in Halloween or not due to COVID-19. We are including signs available to the community but please be on the lookout for other signs that homeowners or other community organizations have created as well.
TO LET TRICK OR TREATERS KNOW IF YOU ARE PARTICIPATING:
PRINT OUT THE RED (NO CANDY HERE) OR GREEN (WE HAVE CANDY!) TRICK OR TREATING SIGN.
ATTACH TOYOUR GARAGE DOOR OR SOME OTHER VISIBLE PLACE.
Call Village Hall 627-5000 and we will send you the sign.
If you’re handing out treats , the CDC advises that you:
Avoid direct contact with trick-or-treaters.
Distribute the treats in outdoor spaces, if possible, and set up a station with presorted, individually bagged or wrapped treats (with space between each) to limit direct contact between nonfamily members or those not in your household.
Wash your hands before handling all treats.
Wear disposable gloves
Wear a face mask — and remember that a decorative costume mask is not the same as a protective face mask.
If you’re handing out treats, the CDC advises that you:
Avoid direct contact with trick-or-treaters.
Distribute the treats in outdoor spaces, if possible, and set up a station with presorted, individually bagged or wrapped treats (with space between each) to limit direct contact between nonfamily members or those not in your household.
Wash your hands before handling all treats.
Wear disposable gloves
Wear a face mask — and remember that a decorative costume mask is not the same as a protective face mask.
If you’re trick-or-treating
Trick-or-treaters should wear a mask and stay at least six feet apart from those in different households, the CDC said.
Make a cloth mask part of the costume.
Remember, again, that a Halloween or costume mask is not the same as a protective cloth face mask.
Do not wear a costume mask over a cloth mask. It can limit air intake and make breathing more difficult.
Children under age 2 should not wear a mask.
Remember that close contact with strangers — or anyone who does not live with you — makes it more likely to get or spread COVID-19. That applies to being indoors and outside.
Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before any trick-or-treating activities — and after. Especially make sure to do so before eating treats.
Bring hand sanitizer and use it after touching any objects or after direct contact with others.
Make certain young children have correctly sanitized/cleansed their hands.
Use a hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol.
Other Ideas
STAY SOCIALLY DISTANCED FROM TRICK OR TREATERS BY:
PLACING TREATS IN INDIVIDUAL PAPER BAGS
ONLY TRICK OR TREATING WITH THOSE IN YOUR CORE GROUP
WAIT FOR OTHERS TO LEAVE A DOORWAY BEFORE GOING TO THE SAME HOUSE
SIT OUTSIDE & TOSS OUT CANDY
LINING UP INDIVIDUAL CANDY BAGS ON YOUR LAWN FOR KIDS TO TAKE
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Board of Trustees votes to admonish Trustee Hirsch after the conclusion of an independent investigation into harassment complaints by Village staff members.
Manhasset, NY (September 1, 2020) Today, the Board of Trustees of the Village of Flower Hill voted to admonish Trustee Kate Hirsch for inappropriate conduct after the conclusion of an independent investigation carried out by the law firm of Berkman, Henoch, Peterson, Peddy & Fenchel, PC into two separate complaints of workplace harassment filed against her by village staff members as required by law. The workplace harassment complaints were filed with the Village after an incident in Village Hall that took place in front of several staff members this past February and a second separate incident weeks later. The independent investigation was delayed by the COVID-19 shutdown and was focused on violations of Title VII and the NYS Human Rights Law.
“I am saddened that last night our Village Board had to take actions to reprimand a member of our Board of Trustees for inappropriate and offensive comments to our staff. After receiving the report by the independent investigators, it was clear that the statements and actions Trustee Hirsch was accused of did take place and that the behavior was inappropriate. Our staff and residents can be assured that our Village has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to acts of bias, discrimination and harassment. We are truly sorry to anyone that has been offended by Trustee Hirsch’s comments and we will redouble our efforts to ensure this type of behavior does not have a home in Flower Hill” Mayor Brian Herrington said on behalf of the Board of Trustees.
The Board passed a resolution that not only admonished Trustee Hirsch for her statements to the staff but also requires her to attend an anti-discrimination training class to be assigned by the Village. The Village will also review its discrimination and harassment policy and education programs for staff, Trustees, and other Village Board Members.
I know concerns have circulated the community about St. Francis Hospital’s plans for future expansion and acquisition of properties on Oaktree Lane. I reached out to the President of the hospital recently asking for an update on their plans and wanted to share his response with you (below).
If we are made aware of any further actions by the hospital, I will inform you all.
Very truly yours,
Mayor Brian Herrington
St. Francis Hospital, The Heart Center®
Catholic Health Services
At the heart of health
July 28, 2020
Dear Mayor Herrington,
Thank you for your recent letter and for your kind words regarding St. Francis Hospital’s efforts in battling the COVID-19 pandemic. St. Francis Hospital is a nationally respected medical facility that is known for overall excellence and an unwavering commitment to delivering the highest level of medical care to the community. We are happy to serve Long Islanders. While we beat back the first wave of this often deadly virus, we remain vigilant should it reemerge. Our continued goal is to provide first-class quality care to all who need it.
I understand from your letter that Village residents have questions concerning the hospital’s future plans. As you know, St. Francis Hospital is located in a fully developed area, which has limited our ability to expand to meet the increasing need for enhanced services. As we consider how to best serve Long Islanders in the future, we must study ways to grow to continue delivering the superior medical care that our patients and their families expect. We have explored purchasing adjacent property, as any responsible organization in similar circumstances would do.
As we were contemplating how best to respond to our community’s needs, 90 Oaktree Lane located on the northern border of the St, Francis Hospital campus and at the Southwest comer of Oaktree Lane and Port Washington Boulevard was publicly listed for sale. In August of 2019, an agent for St. Francis Hospital was able to acquire the property. A few months later, an agent for the hospital was able to acquire 39 Oaktree Lane, which is currently being used as housing for religious sisters who are employed and work at St Francis Hospital. These two properties are the only ones that have been obtained to date.
The two acquisitions on Oaktree Lane allowed us to consider the possibility of other options that would enable the hospital to better serve the residents of Flower Hill and the broader community. In December, we made fair and generous offers to eight other property owners on Oaktree Lane. Although these proposals have expired, many of those property owners have expressed continued interest in possibly selling their properties. While St. Francis remains open to purchasing these Oaktree Lane properties, we have to reassess financial considerations in a post-COVID-19 world.
We will continue to explore options, but still have much more work to do before presenting any projects to either the community or the Village of Flower Hill. When appropriate, we would be happy to have further discussions with stakeholders in the community.
Thank you for reaching out to me and for your continuing service to the Village of Flower Hill.
Sincerely,
Charles L. Lucore, MD, MBA
President
A Member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island
Founded by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
100 Port Washington Boulevard, Roslyn, New York 11576-1348 Telephone: 516/562-6000
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Governor Cuomo cancelled March 18 Village Elections due to the pandemic and has authorized all New York State Village to hold their local elections on September 15.
To promote safe elections, anyone may request an absentee ballot if the reason for not voting in person is to avoid infection by the Corona virus. You can get an absentee ballot application by clicking on the Village Forms Tab, scroll down to Miscellaneous Permits and print out the second document, “Application for an Absentee Ballot”.
Submit the original signed application to the Village and we will mail you an absentee ballot until September 9. After September 9, you may submit the application in person at Village Hall and we will hand you an absentee ballot to be filled out and returned or completed at Village Hall.
If you are planning to vote in person, election hours are noon to 9 pm. This year we will be conducting the election in the Village Hall Garage, adjacent to the parking lot. The will enable us to keep all the garage doors open for greater air circulation and allow us to maintain appropriate distancing measures. Plenty of hand sanitizer will be available and each voter will receive a personal pen.
If you have any questions please call us at Village Hall.
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I wanted to provide status of Altice’s efforts to restore services to Long Island communities. Altice has teams deployed around the clock in your communities to restore services as quickly as possible. We have made significant progress in restoring services, with the percentage of customers on Long Island without service due to the storm falling from more than 33% immediately following the storm to less than 4% today. However we will continue working diligently to ensure all our customers have their services restored, and I will do my best to provide more granular information on the status of customers in individual communities as soon as possible.
Below is additional information for you to share with your constituents relating to our services. Specifically, below are: 1) Trouble Shooting Tips for customers on Service Restoration, 2) Ways for Customers to Contact Us to Report Service Issues, and 3) Information on how to Request Credits.
Service Restoration: Trouble Shooting Tips
Once power has been restored to your home, your Optimum services should be back up and running. If you experienced a loss of power, it is best to restart your equipment using the following steps:
Unplug your equipment from its power source.
Wait 30 seconds.
Plug your equipment back into the power source.
If your service does not return after restarting, it is possible that:
The power that feeds our network in your area comes from a different commercial power source than the power that feeds your home or business location or there is another issue relating to network power that needs to be addressed. We are coordinating with the electric companies to identify these issues and ensure prioritization of repair or restoration.
There is damage to the Optimum network, like a downed utility pole or wire break, and our crews are proactively working to rectify this type of damage to restore service.
We have created the opportunity for customers check on service status online by doing the following:
Go tooptimum.net/support/outage and sign in with Optimum ID and password. Next, under Support, located in the upper right corner, click “Service status”
Report Service Issues:
If you are experiencing a service issue, we have created four channels for you to advise us of your issue. Contacting Optimum via any of these channels will result in a trouble ticket being created that will direct a repair team to assess and address the issue:
Daniel Eichorn , P.E. President & CEO, PSEG Long Island Uniondale, NY
Dear Mr. Eichorn
I am writing to you today to express my Village’s displeasure and frustration with PSEG’s response to Tropical Storm Isaias regarding power restoration and ongoing communications failures. Currently, over half of the Village of Flower Hill is without power and estimates for restoration continue to change and be pushed back. Many residents are exasperated as this is the same experience they had after Super Storm Sandy.
The number one issue is that we need crews in our community now. It has been forty-eight hours since the storm and residents have not seen PSEG restoration personnel in the community. These PSEG customers have been abandoned. The only PSEG personnel I have spoken with in person has been assigned to keep an eye on a two day old live wire. They repeatedly tell me someone is supposed to be dispatched to turn it off at the end of their shift and then that does not happen. This is unacceptable from a safety and communications perspective.
Flower Hill is currently being under reported for the number of outages because of the communications failure during the storm. For more than twenty-four hours residents could not report outages and became so frustrated they gave up. There are entire blocks of Flower Hill you have listed as having power that do not actually have power. This is misleading and I believe impacting your response to our
community unfairly.
The communication failure has not stopped there, our residents who were able to report outages, cannot get an accurate restoration time estimate through any PSEG platform. Multiple residents have shared with me that they are getting conflicting restoration times from the telephone, text, app, and online map resources. This is continuing to increase frustration and despair in the Village.
I understand that these are challenging times but as a public serv}ce provider these issues must be addressed immediately. Due to COVID-19 customers cannot even go to a neighbor or family members home with power for shelter or support. We knew this storm was coming and you assured us multiple
times that PSEG was prepared but this is clearly not the case. Please provide assistance and address these communications failures immediately.
Brian Herrington Mayor
Village of Flower Hill
CC:
NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo NYS Senator Anna Kaplan
NYS Assemblyman Anthony D’Urso NYS Public Service Commission
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