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Village Car Service ready to roll

Taxi company given the go-ahead to park under Lynbrook LIRR

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Seven months after Village Car Service won the right from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to park its taxis under the Lynbrook Long Island Rail Road station — a spot previously held by All Island Transportation — and with a few court dates and the relocation of its office thrown into the mix, the company’s taxicab licenses were formally approved by Village Clerk John Giordano on Tuesday.

Village Car Service, which has been licensed in Lynbrook since March 2011, was granted the right by the MTA to park five taxis under the station last June. It was the first time in decades that the MTA had put the spaces up for bid, in an effort to increase revenue. Village Car Service bid just over $45,800, in comparison with All Island’s bid of just under $12,400.

“It’s been very strenuous,” David O’Neill, co-owner of Village Car Service, said of the process, “but if you keep doing the right things, good things will come back to you. You have to keep the faith.”

At its regular meeting on Monday, the village Board of Trustees voted 3-0 to allow Giordano to authorize Village CarService’s licenses. Under village code, the clerk must approve the licenses. Mayor Bill Hendrick missed the meeting due to illness, and Trustee Hilary Becker recused himself from the vote.

As reported in the Herald last year, less than a week after Village Car Service made its bid last February, the village passed a local law stipulating that a taxi stand at the LIRR station must have an office and restroom available to cab drivers and passengers, and that the office must be open 24 hours a day and must be within 500 feet of the taxicab parking spaces. The law was put in place to ensure that those who use taxicabs have a place to go at all hours of the day, and that it be close to the station, Village Attorney Peter Ledwith said.

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