Sixth-grade class meets Valley Stream mayor

He may be their teacher in a few years, but until then, he’s just the mayor. Ed Fare visited Beth Becker’s sixth-grade class at Brooklyn Avenue School on Nov. 16, talking about his job as mayor, the role of the village and the different levels of government.

Fare, on his break as technology teacher at South High School — where most Brooklyn Avenue School sixth-graders will go next year — spent more than an hour with the class. He wanted students to understand just what services the village provides for them, their parents and their neighbors.

The mayor asked the class to identify some of the village’s departments. Once student responded “parks.” Fare explained that the village manages 105 acres of parkland. “That’s a lot of grass to cut,” he said.

Another student said recreation, another correct answer. Fare noted the many recreation programs the village offers for residents, for people of all ages, including the pool, skate park, hockey rink, miniature golf and summer concerts.

“Electric” was another guess and another correct answer. Fare said that while the village doesn’t provide electrical service to homes, it does have an electrical department that is responsible for installing and maintaining all street lights. In fact, Fare said, the second biggest complaint he gets as mayor is for burned out street lights.

The top complaint, he said, is about the condition of the roads. He said that when he gets a call for a pothole, he dispatches a repair crew to fix it that day. If a street has many potholes, that could take a little longer to fix. “When the road is really bad, we get the whole street repaved,” he said.

Student Jason Haggerty said he didn’t realize how complex the village is. “I learned that there are a bunch of different departments around Valley Stream,” he said.

Fare was asked about the new electronic sign in the Hendrickson Pool parking lot along Merrick Road. A student said he thought the scrolling text was a hazard if people stop to read it. Fare admitted this concerned him as well, and noted that the scrolling text was eliminated after the first day. Now, he said, it goes frame-by-frame.

The new electronic sign, paid for by a grant, will list community events. It will replace the signs that have been on the pool parking lot fence for years.

He talked about the other layers of government beyond the village. The Town of Hempstead, he said, primarily serves the communities without a mayor, such as North Valley Stream, South Valley Stream and Elmont. Then there is the county, state, and federal government. “We have layers of government for a reason,” he said.

However, for Valley Stream residents, Fare explained that the village should be where people turn to first. “You should see the judge and the mayor and the trustees all around,” he said. “The phrase we like to say is, ‘It’s the government closest to the people.’”

Fare then took questions. He was asked how he became the mayor, how he can be a teacher and a mayor at the same time, did he know he wanted to be the mayor when he was a kid (yes), and what he likes about the job. One student asked if he ever got tired of being in charge of the village. Of course not, Fare said. “Your parents voted me in as the mayor,” he said. “I would never want to disappoint them.”

Michael Schwartz said he was excited to have the mayor of his village come and speak to his class. He said he learned a lot, and found out that the mayor has many people help him run the village.

“I learned that Mayor Fare loves his job,” said A.J. Bellomo, who didn’t know that Fare was a teacher, but hopes to have him when he attends South High.