Envision makes its mark on Valley Stream

Envision Valley Stream is still in its infancy compared to other community groups, but many say it is already making an impact in the community.

David Sabatino, 24, who grew up in the village, founded the organization with friend Joseph Marchione. The group officially launched last August and Sabatino said he has been doing a lot of outreach, meeting with village, school, religious and business leaders, and representatives from other community organizations.

The goal of Envision Valley Stream will be to create a visioning plan, which could help guide future growth based on the community’s wants and needs. Sabatino said he will be distributing a community assessment survey over the next few months to identify the top priorities of Valley Stream residents.

He hopes to get a good representation of Valley Stream residents, business owners and other stakeholders. “There’s about 55,000 people in the greater Valley Stream area so we’d like to see a strong return of these surveys,” he said. “There’s no magic number.”

Sabatino said Envision Valley Stream will be at the train station, outside supermarkets, at the library and other key places to get the community’s input. He hopes to have surveys back by July 1 to begin analyzing the results.

“We want the community to take this as an opportunity to write what they feel, to share their ideas,’” he said. “No ideas are stupid. The possibilities are endless.”

When the results do come in, Sabatino said Envision Valley Stream members will look for recurring responses and find out just what are the community’s top priorities. He said members will then research how other communities have handled those issues.

Already, Envision Valley Stream has hosted a food drive and two clean-up days at the state park. On the horizon is Art in the Park, which Sabatino said will be the group’s “coming out party.” It will be held on June 12 at the Village Green and feature local artists, musical acts and craft vendors.