Village to hold Public Hearing for Taxi Bid

A public hearing will be held on Sept. 26 regarding the Long Island Checkered Cab Corp.’s winning bid for a one-year contract for the village taxi franchise.

The Village Board voted to hold the hearing at Monday's meeting.

Checkered Cab won the bid last year over LI Yellow Cab, after a new law that reduced the length of contracts for taxi franchises from four years to one was put into place. There were many heated debates from the two companies about the new law, which also allows only one company to hold the franchise.

LI Yellow Cab failed to win the bidding war against Checkered Cab again this year. Checkered Cab won over the board last year by providing free cab service to anyone traveling within the village.

For their new bid, the company will be toning it down a bit, only giving free taxi rides to seniors as opposed to everyone within the village.

“We have to clarify what constitutes a senior because seniors are now getting a free ride. Before, everyone who lived in Massapequa Park received a free ride,” Mayor James Altadonna said. “It’s no longer the case. It’s going to just be the seniors, but we want to know what age he’s considering a senior.”

The board also agreed to table the issue of granting NextG Networks the right-of-way to begin installing antennas in the area in order to further study what type of agreement it wants to give the company, Altadonna said.

Last year the village and NextG worked out a solution to the controversial plan to install antennas in certain residential locations around Massapequa Park. The company ended up slimming down the original antennas they intended to install by about half the size.

The board also OK’d the now fully erect World Trade Center  Monument in front of Massapequa High School. The monument is made out of steel recovered from the wreckage after 9/11.

“As you know they put up a monument…and it’s very nice, I want to say aesthetically pleasing and very tasteful,” Altadonna said.

Lastly, John O’Brien, a resident of the area, who often speaks at meetings, wanted to extend his gratitude for the hard work the village workers did during the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

“This was an interesting storm, I think it rivaled ‘85 Gloria,” he said in regards to the amount of downed trees.

“I think the workers did a spectacular job, and I think the administration did an excellent job handling everything,” O’Brien said.

The next village board meeting will be held on September 26.