City Council Highlights: Hurricane Irene Workers Honored

The council honored the city's public workers, first responders and volunteers at Tuesday's for their work during and after Hurricane Irene.

"These were people who were working around the clock to keep the city safe," said Mayor Ralph Suozzi. "Of course, they had their own families and homes to tend to, but they all exhibited serious dedication to the city and we're all thankful for that."

City Mourns Stephan Mueller

The city mourned the recent loss of Public Works employee Stephan Mueller, 47, who passed away while on the job. Mueller’s brother, Daniel, accepted a citation for his brother’s service to the city.

“Stephan was the first employee I hired as mayor,” said Suozzi. “He will be missed dearly.”

Golf Course Cart Storage Facility

The Glen Cove City Council adopted a resolution awarding a contract to the lowest bidder, Metro Group of Long Island, for the replacement of the Cart Storage Facility.

“The old facility’s roof collapsed last year during the record snowfall, fortunately nobody was injured,” said Suozzi. “We had bids as high as $250,000, but we were able to work the price down to $133,150.”

Garvies Point Museum

During public discussion, resident Glenn Howard expressed concern over rumors that would be closed down by the county due to financial issues.

“If you close down all of the informational and recreational facilities, people won’t have a place to go,” said Howard.

Mayor Suozzi said he believed that the county would work to keep the facility open.

“Government is tough in good times. It’s very tough in bad times," explained Suozzi. "I’m sure the County Executive is reviewing the budget and going through what is profitable, and what isn’t. It’s a tough issue.”

Shared Police Service with Sea Cliff

Resident and 2011 Republican mayoral candidate Paul Meli brought up the potential shared-service agreement with Sea Cliff.

“The Sea Cliff Village Board approved up to $7,000 towards a feasibility study worth $40,000, leaving the remaining $33,000 on the table, did we pay for that?” asked Meli. “I’ve looked at every agenda from the past few months, and it’s been left off the agenda, and we’ve never heard about it.”

Mayor Ralph Suozzi explained that the study was covered under existing contracts.

“I told the mayor of Sea Cliff, if he was serious about it, to put it in writing so we could go forward,” said Suozzi. “The contract was covered under existing professional service contracts which we deal with every day.”