Community

Working in Harmony with Retail Centers

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season.

While 2019 was another successful year for the Village of Lake Grove, I am very confident that 2020 will bring even more reasons for us to be proud of our community.

We are working closely with all of our retail outlets and developers to bring into the Village only those retailers that we feel will enhance our area. Meetings with Smith Haven Mall management have been very productive. The executives view this mall as one of their high-end centers and agree that we need to provide retailers that offer the best shopping experience for our diverse community.

We have been communicating with other retail centers to work in harmony to bring in quality stores that will not only provide a positive shopping experience, but also be a good reflection of our Village to those that come to Lake Grove to shop. While we do not have a true downtown area, it is important that we provide a quality perspective of our Village not only in the quality of the retailers, but also in the architecture and signage that they provide.

I, along with the Village Board and staff, continue to monitor existing retailers and developers for compliance with our local laws. We take our codes very seriously. Those that put out illegal signage and eye-catching devices that create a blight within the Village find themselves in our Village court paying fines for their transgressions and noncompliance.

I am extremely proud of how we are progressing as a Village but admit that I am only one of numerous people making it happen. We operate as a team and work together to provide the highest standard of living for our families and yours.

Please feel free to contact us with any comments and suggestions, as we are all part of the team. Many helpful suggestions have come from those attending meetings, calling Village Hall, commenting on our web page, or just through casual conversations during chance meetings.

Once again; I wish you all a very safe and wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Robert (Bob) Scottaline

Mayor

December 12, 2019 in Uncategorized

Let’s Work Together to Fight Opioid Crisis & Human Trafficking

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

Recently, the Village provided a forum in our Recreation Center for a workshop on dealing with the Opioid Crisis and Human Trafficking.  The event was sponsored by the Suffolk County Village Officials Association (SCVOA); an organization that the Village is a member of, and I am on the Executive Board.

The event was attended by an assortment of local leaders from across Suffolk County with very experienced and informed guest speakers.  We were honored to have our Suffolk County Police Commissioner, Geraldine Hart, Suffolk County District Attorney, Timothy D. Sini, and Suffolk County Sheriff, Errol Toulon Jr as the primary speakers. These three dedicated people alternately spoke and certainly opened our eyes and made us very aware of how closely the two topics are related.

Most human trafficking is a direct result of young women becoming addicted to these drugs and making them dependent on their suppliers. These women, when incarcerated, are identified more as victims than criminals.

Many young men, as we know, are also victims, believing that they will not be the ones who will become dependent on these very addictive drugs, or even worse, become a statistic.

We need to make everyone aware of the dangers of not only those drugs purchased on the streets, but also those that may be prescribed and taken legally or just sitting on the shelves in our medicine cabinets.

All those present received a vast amount of knowledge and literature on dealing with the challenges of these prevalent issues and how they are being dealt with everyday by those providing the material.

The statistics are in our favor, as the number of fatalities and incidents are decreasing with each passing year. It is my hope that the evening provided us all with the knowledge we need as village, town, fire districts, and other officials to assist in bringing these numbers down even further.

Please contact us at Village Hall if you are aware of any organization; PTA, fire district, or any other group that might want to put together a meeting to discuss these issues or simply to pick up literature at the Village.

I know that we will make a difference in Lake Grove and across Suffolk County.

Special thanks to all that attended and especially to our guest speakers who gave their time to help make us more educated on these extremely important topics. These three dedicated people are working twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.  We are very fortunate to have such qualified people working for us and with us.

Very Truly Yours,

Robert (Bob) Scottaline

October 5, 2019 in Uncategorized

Event: The Opioid Crisis & Human Trafficking – The Need for a Local Municipal Response

On THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26th the Suffolk County Village Officials Association will be hosting a special presentation on two critical issues: the opioid crisis and human trafficking.

Join us for a frank discussion that will provide you with important information on the scope and impact of these issues, as well as practical ways you can become part of the solution and help your community combat these devastating problems.

Among our distinguished presenters will be Suffolk Country District Attorney Timothy Sini and Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon.

Please join us with your questions and insights:

  • Thursday, September 26th
  • Lake Grove Village Hall
  • 980 Hawkins Avenue
  • Lake Grove, NY 11755
  • 6PM – 8PM

RSVP to mail@scvoa.com

July 23, 2019 in Uncategorized

We Must Never Forget

Recently, the Village received a piece of steel from the Twin Towers to place in our Village Green/Memorial Park. Through the efforts of our Village Clerk, the Mayor and a Village resident, we were fortunate to make the right contacts. We sent letters and photos of our beautiful park, which also has a Ground Zero Survivor Tree and replica of a FDNY Maltese cross that was issued to President Bush following the tragic attacks on our nation on September 11, 2001.

The steel will be mounted and installed in our park as soon as the plaque memorializing it is completed.  I encourage all to come to the park and spend a moment to reflect and remember. Let’s educate those that are too young to be able to feel the horror and sorrow of that tragic time. They need to know how we came together as a nation, and about the terrible loss of life which continues even today.

Those of us here today and generations to come must realize how important our patriotism is. We must be cognizant of what our flag symbolizes. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may continue to be a free nation. Others have been taken from us just because we are a free nation; those that left home on that ill-fated day of 9-11 to go to work not knowing what would follow. When we continue to put our hands over our hearts, remove our caps, and stand together, we pay respect to all of them.

It is obvious why others strive to come here. We are a great nation with a great history. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave.  We are the nation that put men on the moon fifty years ago. We will never give in to tyranny and only become stronger in our resolve to remain a great country when we are threatened or attacked.

God Bless America

Lake Grove Mayor Robert Scottaline

July 20, 2019 in Uncategorized

Mayor’s Note: Village Tax Increase

Yes, unfortunately, Village taxes were increased this year.  While we have been proud to keep tax increases to a minimum over the years, this year was extremely difficult due to a tremendous loss in revenue.

While we were able to absorb a ($10,000.00) ten thousand dollar loss in State Aid last year, the over ($100,000.00) one hundred thousand dollar loss in State Aid this year due to the Governor’s budget cuts hit us extremely hard.  Apparently, the Governor must believe that we have a lot of excess to cut in our budget. Nothing could be further from the truth. Where is that loss in revenue supposed to be made up? It’s obvious that little thought or consideration was put into the decision to cut State Aid pretty much across the board for Long Island. While those in Albany have retained many millions of dollars from Long Island, to make it appear that they are doing a great job with money management, we in turn look bad for having to raise taxes.

Along with the redistribution of taxes at the State level, we also had a large loss of revenue with our recycling. We now receive no proceeds for our recycling materials. Whereas we previously had a contract for years with Brookhaven to be paid for recycling, we now receive nothing due to a lack of interest from those that purchase the recycling from the Town.

Yes, we raised taxes out of necessity, but a quick look at your Village tax bill can be deceiving. Part of the increase on the bill is for garbage removal and dumping fees, which is a pass-through. That money is for garbage removal only and is used for that purpose alone and is not part of taxes to maintain services. An increase in dumping fees due to the weight of the addition of glass, which is no longer accepted for recycling in our garbage is responsible for most of the increase. Removing the garbage fees from your tax bill and then comparing the balance to last year’s bill with garbage fees removed will give an accurate picture of how much your village taxes have increased.

In an effort to keep the increase as low as possible, we had to supplement our revenue side of the budget with a significant amount of money from surplus. These dollars that we keep in surplus are reserved for such adversities like the ones that have occurred this year. It is my hope that we don’t have to dig that deep again in the years to come. You can only go to the well so many time before it runs dry.

I apologize for any possible personal hardships that these increases may have caused and we will continue to do our best to keep our budgets as reasonable as possible while maintaining service to the highest standards that we can.

Working together with other Villages and Towns, we are letting our representatives in Albany know how displeased we are with their budgetary cuts and their lack of support for their constituents that pay some of the highest taxes in the nation.

Very Truly Yours,

Robert J Scottaline, Mayor

June 11, 2019 in Uncategorized