Village Declares May 21 'Peter Schmitt Day'

This story was posted by Edward Robinson. It was reported and written by Chris Boyle.

Mayor James Altadonna is honoring the legacy of late Nassau County Legislator Peter Schmitt by declaring May 21 “Peter Schmitt Day” in the Village of Massapequa Park. 

Presenting Schmitt’s widow, Lois, with a special citation in her late husband’s memory at this Monday’s Trustee meeting, Altadonna said that this small step was just the beginning of Massapequa Park’s long-standing praise of Schmitt and the positive effect he had on the community.

“The board is still working on a more permanent tribute to Peter,” he said. “But what we wanted to do here tonight is to invite Lois in and to make sure that peter was embedded in the minutes of Massapequa Park for posterity, because he was a good friend to this village...he helped this village tremendously, and he is missed.” 

Schmitt  passed away on Oct. 3, 2012 of a heart attack at the age of 62. 

At the start of the meeting, Altadonna called for a moment of silence to honor the memory of yet another local resident- Jonathan Kaloust, a 23 year-old Navy SEAL who had tragically died in a training accident at Fort Knox, Kentucky this past Wednesday. 

Kaloust had graduated from Massapequa High School in 2007 and then attended the State University of New York at Binghamton to study Political Science, after which he joined the Navy. He was a noted wrestler on both the high school and collegiate levels. 

“He passed away in the service of this country, and we’re deeply saddened,” Altadonna said. 

Meanwhile, the Village Board awarded the bid for the 2013 Road Requirements Contract to Laser Industries of Ridge in the amount of $3,982,325. However, Altadonna said, that amount does not represent the final figure of the contract, which stands to be much lower.

“That’s just the bid...we’re not spending three or four million dollars on it,” he said. “Everyone that bids, there’s a threshold bid that you have to meet. Some of them are under the threshold on certain things that they felt that they weren’t going to get involved with, but the engineering firm’s responsibility and job is to bring everything into compliance. So, what they did was bring the sub-minimum big up the minimum bid, re-configured all the bids, and Laser still won as the lowest bid.”

“The amount here was just for the overall work or scope of work,” Altadonna continued. “We’re not planning on doing four million dollars worth of work...it just encompasses the entire bid.”