Rockville Centre mayor looks ahead to 2012

When Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray learned that the village’s Harmon Discount Health & Beauty store would be closing at the end of its lease in December, he called Bed Bath & Beyond, the corporate owners of the Harmon chain, to see if anything could be done.

“The decision was made probably six months ago,” the mayor said he learned. “They are taking their pharmacies and putting them inside the Bed, Bath & Beyond stores. They are consolidating.”

The mayor added that he was disappointed that the store, a mainstay of the downtown business district, was leaving the village, but he said he could not tell it how to run its business. “They were a great asset to the village because so many of our residents shopped there,” Murray said.

“But if they want to consolidate, that’s what they’ll do.”

He added that he was already in talks with other drug store chains that might be interested in the space.

Plans for the new year

In an interview with the Herald on Monday, the mayor discussed a few of his plans for the village in 2012, emphasizing the effort being made to continually improve the community.

According to Murray, parking fields will be equipped with “smart” meters in the next few months, which, among other features, will take credit or debit cards.

Village officials, the mayor said, are also in discussions with Fire Department officials about the construction of a new firehouse. And Murray said that there would be an announcement next month about improving the village’s playing fields.

He also said that 20 trees, donated anonymously, would be planted in the Greystone business district this month. And at the suggestion of the Chamber of Commerce, Electric Department workers strung festive lights — which will be kept on all year — along Front Street, from Clinton to Park Avenue, last weekend. Murray said that there are plans for similar lighting along Park Avenue.

“It generates a warm feeling,” he said. “It enhances the feeling of people who come to the village to shop and eat.”

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