By Nick Buglione
Costing $30,000 and measuring about 21 feet wide, the gazebo will serve as the centerpiece of the Town Square and a stage for future concerts and events.
"It looks better than I ever anticipated," said James Skinner, past president of the East Meadow Chamber of Commerce, which was the driving force behind the project. "I can't wait for spring to come and see everybody in here."
With the gazebo now up, the East Meadow Town Square is all but complete, save the 500-plus personalized bricks to be laid down in the spring.
"We still have about 1,000 additional bricks for sale," Skinner said. "We'll also look to bring some decorative trash receptacles in here, and we'll dress it up for the holidays."
According to Chamber of Commerce President Warren Kalmenson, the tree-lighting ceremony scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. will be the square's first official event. Although an inaugural concert was slated to take place in July, it was canceled owing to rain.
Ground broke on the Town Square in November 2001, when Skinner was president. Since then, the chamber has pumped about $100,000 -- raised entirely from grants, donations and the sale of personalized bricks -- into the project.
The one-third acre parcel of land, located inside Veterans Memorial Park at the corners of East Meadow and Prospect avenues, was once empty.
It's now, however, completely transformed -- adorned with decorative light posts, benches and swirling concrete paths embedded with the some 160 bricks already laid down.
Gates heralding the East Meadow Town Square have also been installed. "Every year the president has taken the project and moved it forward," said Richard Bivone, past president of the chamber.
Although work began under Skinner and finished under Kalmenson, the concept of the Town Square originated with East Meadow attorney Patrick Curry.
"It's a beautiful stretch of land," said Curry, who was chamber president in 1996. "This is the site of the old Noon Inn, which was the center of the town of East Meadow in the 19th century. That was the impetus. We wanted to make this the center again."
Town of Hempstead Councilman Gary Hudes (R-Levittown) was also influential in pushing the project forward.
"This has been the greatest example of partnership between community and government," Hudes said. "The Town of Hempstead has worked very hard with the chamber to create what East Meadow has not had in terms of a central meeting place."
