Village refurbishes worn-out police booth

A dilapidated police booth in front of the Gibson Long Island Rail Road station, with its chipped wooden door and white-stained, blocked-up windows, has long since seen brighter days. But that all changed earlier this month when the building and its surrounding greenery got a top-to-bottom refurbishment thanks to the efforts of the Village of Valley Stream and Chamber of Commerce through a three thousand five-hundred-dollar fund provided by PSEG Long Island’s revitalization program.

The new booth now boasts a bright-blue screened window with the Nassau County police seal insignia and lettering below that reads: “In Case of Emergencies, Dial 911.”

Mayor Edwin Fare, village dignitaries, and employees gathered along with County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder last Thursday for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the newly renovated space.

“This was all done by a partnership: the village, the Nassau County Police Department, our Valley Stream Chamber of Commerce, and generous grants by PSEG Long Island facilitated by our friends at Village Long Island,” said Mayor Fare. “Our priorities for the Gibson community are the same for all of Valley Stream – safe, prosperous, cheerful, and welcoming.”

And of course, none of this could take place without the exceptional workforce of the village and our workers.”

“With traffic increasing and people getting back to public transportation, we want them to feel safe, and having this police booth here is going to make the people in this community feel safe,” said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman

“It’s important that there be a presence of this part of the police precinct here in South Valley Stream and the Gibson area.”

“Police officers need a place to go to have their meal, fill out their reports and call them into our communications bureau, or even go to the bathroom,” said Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. “By putting these booths throughout our community years ago, this is where they would go and today, we want to bring that back. It starts here in Valley Stream, but there are over fifty booths in Nassau County we want to refurbish. Making our police presence known protects the residents of our county. ”

Village officials said other similar beautification projects are coming down the pipeline in and around Valley Stream.