From the Desk of the Mayor

The following is Mayor Jack Martins' Organization Night address, delivered April 4, 2005:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and thank you for being with us this evening. I wish to begin by congratulating Trustee Werther on his re-election and Trustee DaVanzo on his election. Welcome back John.

It was just two short years ago, April 7, 2003, when I stood before you for the first time as Mayor and told you of our vision for a new, more open and more fiscally responsible Village government. I made a commitment to you then and, with the village board and staff, dedicated myself to making that commitment a reality.

For the first time, we opened up the process through open meetings, bi-monthly newsletters, a Village web site, and televised village meetings and hearings.

For the first time, we held residential and commercial community forums to hear first hand your concerns and suggestions. We streamlined Village government, cut wasteful spending, Enacted the village's first debt management plan, Paid down over $3 million in debt and, last year, had The first budget surplus in 10 years.

This year, I am pleased to announce, we will Once again have another surplus.

Through the last two years we were true to our commitment to you and, through this election, you showed that you recognized and supported our Efforts, a fact for which I am humbled and grateful.

Today, we stand at the doorway of a new Century in our village's history, a unique Opportunity to not only reflect on our village's proud history, but to look forward to the next one hundred years.

All too often I find that we are woefully Unversed in our own great history. Just a week Ago I received a copy of an article about women in Aviation in which it was pointed out that the first Solo flight by a woman in the country was in 1910 By Bessica Raiche, a Mineola resident. I wasn't Aware of that fact and am quite sure that I am not alone. I am working, and will continue to work, with the historical society to ensure that our Rich history is not forgotten.

As we look forward, I am struck by the endless Challenges and opportunities we have before us.

In the short term, we have the elimination of The Roslyn road grade crossing and the Construction of the intermodal center, two Projects that will alleviate traffic and parking Congestion in our downtown and offer our Residents and businesses some much-needed relief.

But looking farther, we have an opportunity to adopt a comprehensive master plan to take stock of where we are today and to determine for ourselves where we will be as a village twenty and more years from now.

Over the next year, I encourage all of you to actively participate in the village's centennial celebrations. We truly have much to celebrate, past, present and future.

We must look for ways to optimize and revitalize our tax base and look for ways to bring much needed additional non-property tax based revenue into our village. To this end, I will work with our town councilman and our state representatives to see that Mineola receives its fair share of sales tax revenue. It is simply unfair that our share of sales tax revenue goes to the Town while the cost of maintaining our downtown falls to Mineola's property owners and taxpayers.

I look forward to working with my fellow Board members in crafting solutions to the issues facing our village. We may not always agree, but therein lies the strength of any board – the ability to gather various perspectives and fashion viable solutions.

The key to this is that each board member actively participates and offers suggestions and alternatives.

I assure you that all of our decisions will be firmly grounded on what is best for Mineola.

To this end, I want to make it clear from the outset that my door is always open to anyone wishing to discuss any issues affecting our village. I invite and encourage everyone to participate in the process.

We are required to adopt a budget for the next fiscal year before May 1 st . This week we will have budget work sessions starting tomorrow and continuing Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

The work sessions will be held in the board Meeting room at 7 pm. I invite and encourage all of you to come to these meetings and watch your elected officials at work. There is no single more important issue that we address each year than our budget. Please come.

To those of you who helped me throughout those frigid six weeks, please accept my deepest appreciation. Your commitment and hard work to the campaign was, and continues to be, an Inspiration to me. I will not forget.

To my wife, Paula, I can't thank you enough. Paula kept me centered throughout the campaign. Her patience and support kept me moving forward.

To the residents of Mineola, I thank you for the honor of re-electing me mayor and allowing me the opportunity to serve you. We will not let you down.