July 4th Fireworks Plans Finalized At Village Board Meeting

The big news out of this week's Massapequa Park village board meeting was the confirmation that the sky will indeed be filled with majestic fireworks this Fourth of July weekend.

Massapequa Park's annual fireworks show, recently due to budgetary reasons yet saved at the last minute via sponsorship by the

The board announced the show is on and is scheduled for 9 p.m. on  Friday July 1st at located at the West end of Walker Street.

In addition, several village business matters were covered at this week's board meeting, the first on the agenda being the establishment of a standard work day for elected and appointed officials as per new guidelines established by New York State to determine reportable days worked as they relate to the Retirement System.

Also, the Town of Oyster Bay's no-fee "Geesepeace" Program was authorized to be used on village property again this year. According to mayor James Altadonna, Geesepeace is a safe way to deal with Massapequa Park's ever-growing goose population.

"It's a program where they actually try to humanely move the geese along," he said. "They use dogs, and they try and chase the geese away. Geese have somewhat of a memory, and if you agitate them enough, they just move on."

Also, the Geesepease operatives engage in another practice known as egg oiling, which helps to control the size of the goose population.

"When you oil the eggs, it starves the eggs of oxygen," Altadonna said. "The goose doesn't know the egg is starved, so it will continue to sit on that egg, and therefore not lay anymore eggs. If you just take the egg, it'll lay more."

In other Village business, a stop sign for the intersection of Broadway and Pennsylvania Avenue and the intersection of Park Boulevard and Monroe Street were referred to the Planning Commission for study.

The Village Administrator was also authorized to hire a new Motor Equipment Operator, Grade 11, at a starting salary of $26,895, effective June 29.

"The position is part of the staff here at Village Hall," Altadonna said. "He works in the garage and does a variety of jobs, and can drive the bigger trucks and help us out in the snow."

The Village also authorized the clean-up of the property located at 250 Cartwright Boulevard, a house that local residents had previously complained about regarding uncut lawn grass and stagnant, bug-infested water issues. Clean-up costs will be charged to the owner of said property.

The next regularly-scheduled meeting of the Massapequa Park village board is on Monday, July 11, at 8 p.m.