A Word From Mayor John Watras

Annual Fall Festival Street Fair and Homecoming Parade: Tomorrow will be a very festive day in our village marked by the Chamber of Commerce’s 34th annual Fall Festival Street Fair, combined with the annual High School Homecoming Day parade.

There will be lots of activities for the children including two trackless kiddy trains carrying youngsters 12 years of age and younger up and down Seventh Street, an inflatable “bouncy” house, the ever-popular money cube (kids catching flying money) and returning for 2013 to liven up the street will be “Fivestone,” a contemporary rock band. There will be face painters, young dancers from Broadway Bound of Garden City, sidewalk sales and lots of good food. I hope that you are planning to come to this fun day in the village and I hope to see you all there to enjoy the community spirit and fun.

The chamber's street fair on Seventh Street and Franklin Avenue is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and will run through to 3 p.m. Seventh Street, between Franklin and Hilton avenues, will be closed to all traffic from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m.

For your convenience, please use the Hilton and Franklin Avenue entrances to Parking Field 7S and the Stewart Avenue entrances to Parking Field 7N. The High School's Homecoming parade will step off promptly at 1 p.m. from the most easterly end of Seventh Street and proceed west along Seventh Street to Cathedral Avenue, north onto Stewart Avenue, west to Oxford Boulevard and north to the High School parking field. The Homecoming festivities and football game will follow the Parade at the Warren King Field.

Huddle Trailer to Visit Garden City: For the first time the Super Bowl will be played on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014 at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. During the next few months an organization known as “The Super Bowl Host Committee” will be promoting the upcoming Super Bowl XLVIII by exhibiting a traveling “Join the Huddle” shuttle to communities throughout the metropolitan area.

The state-of-the-art trailer will be parked in the easterly end of Village Parking Field 7N from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday. It will feature a 10'x10' stage, flat screen monitor with video programming and an audio system.

While you are attending the Garden City Chamber of Commerce’s street fair, please stop by and join the activities.

Garden City Library 40th Anniversary Celebration: On Sunday, Oct. 20, I was in attendance for the celebration of the 40th anniversary reception of the Garden City Library public building. It was a pleasure to be there to celebrate this milestone with the members of the Library Board as well as the residents of the Village of Garden City.

Happy Halloween: Please let us all have a happy and safe Halloween.  Remember that our young people will be out “trick or treating” not just during the day, but at night as well. Please exercise care when driving and drive slow as many young people will be crossing our village streets when it is dark.

Texting While Driving: According to AAA statistics, texting while driving has even surpassed drinking as the number one perceived threat to personal safety.  Please educate yourselves and your teen drivers that texting while driving can kill. Ask your teen drivers, is a text more important than a life.

Automatic Water Sprinklers: As a reminder, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 result in two consecutive odd days. All residents with automatic sprinklers should remember to reset their clocks at this time to comply with the village lawn watering regulations. Lawn watering is permitted between the hours of 5 and 10 a.m. and 6 and 10 p.m.

Continue to Shop and Dine in Garden City: The residents of Garden City are very fortunate to have viable retail businesses on Seventh Street, Franklin Avenue and New Hyde Park Road where there is a good variety of quality merchandise and family dining experiences available to be enjoyed.

Please support these businesses and enjoy the products, variety and outstanding customer service. Keep in mind that these merchants save you from traveling outside the Village for your needs. Consider the harsh reality if we did not have these businesses here to service our needs. I look forward to seeing everyone in town.

Board of Trustees' Meeting Schedule: The next regularly scheduled Board of Trustees’ meetings for the month of November are Nov. 7 and Nov. 21. I encourage all residents to attend Board of Trustees meetings so as to be thoroughly informed of village issues from a first-hand perspective.

I would also like to let you know that if you have any concerns or suggestions with regard to the village, please feel free to contact my office at 465-4051 or via e-mail at mayor@gardencityny.net.