IP Mayor adds departments

The Village of Island Park will have a building department, after a vote by the village board on Jan.15. Mayor Michael McGinty said that by formalizing the department, the village will be better able to serve its residents, investigate abandoned and derelict houses left from Sandy, and interface with other governments. McGinty explained that the village couldn’t just knock down or board up property that belongs to others; there are protocols that must be followed. Until now the Village only had an inspector, not a department. The Village also hired a public relations and media consultant.

In addition the Village is waiting for monies to come down from the State, grants, the county and FEMA to fix the crumbling roads. McGinty explained that the cost of fixing one road alone would be more than the village takes in from property taxes.

The Village will be taking complaints on village assessments, and hold an unpaid tax sale on Feb. 17.

He added the Village is working to get the Long Island Railroad to fix the parking and clean up the area around the tracks, but is getting little response.

The Mayor said the Department of Environmental Conservation has been contacted about the chemicals found in the soil and water at the former site of Swan Fay cleaners. In addition they did check the waters around Barnum Isle and found the fish there had died from rapid changes in temperature, not from the PSE&G oil spill. That oil spill is now down to less than 2 ounces per day now, and all the oil on the water has been cleaned up according to information sent to McGinty.

While the Village waits for monies to fix its troubled drainage system, the Department of Public Works has been vacuuming out the storm drains McGinty said.