Town Of Hempstead Board Meeting Roundup: Meeting Calendar, Roadways, Animal Shelter Draw Comments

HEMPSTEAD, NY. — The Hempstead Town Board held its first meeting of 2026 Tuesday, addressing an agenda with just one item: The schedule of the board meetings for the rest of the year. Additionally, the board heard public comments regarding the meeting schedule, the repaving of town roadways and policies in place at the town animal shelter.

Meeting Schedule

According to the resolution approved Tuesday, the Town Board will meet in the Nathan L. H. Bennett Town Meeting Pavilion at 1 Washington Street in Hempstead. Meetings will take place at the following dates and times:

January 13 at 10:30 a.m.

January 27 at 7 p.m.

February 10 at 10:30 a.m.

February 24 at 7 p.m.

March 10 at 10:30 a.m.

March 24 at 7 p.m.

April 14 at 10:30 a.m.

April 28 at 10:30 a.m.

May 12 at 10:30 a.m.

May 27 at 10:30 a.m.

June 9 at 10:30 a.m.

June 23 at 10:30 a.m.

July 7 at 10:30 a.m.

August 4 at 10:30 a.m.

September 9 at 10:30 a.m.

October 5 at 10:30 a.m.

October 15 at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. (listed as “Budget Hearing only” on the resolution)

November 12 at 10:30 a.m.

December 8 at 10:30 a.m.

Giving public comment on the meeting schedule was Hempstead resident Chris Jacobs, who urged the board to add an evening meeting in September, calling it, “the least traveled time of year” for Hempstead residents and saying the evening meeting would allow more residents of the town to attend. The board did not say if they would be adding an evening meeting for that month Tuesday, and approved the meeting schedule unanimously.

Roadway Paving

The town board heard comment from Hempstead resident Pearl Jacobs after the meeting adjourned, with Jacobs addressing a prior board announcement that the town had reached 100 miles of repaved roadways in 2025.

“I have, here, pictures of Bedford Avenue [and] Bedford Court [in] Uniondale. The PTA called me, I was at a meeting, parents surrounded me and asked me to help them, because this is what the streets in front of California Avenue Elementary School look like,” Jacobs said. “It’s dangerous, they’re craters — they’re not potholes, they look like craters, I looked in them myself…it’s an absolute danger to these children, as well as the staff at California Avenue school.”

Jacobs said she hoped the roads would be repaved immediately, telling the board that Bedford Avenue and Bedford Court were both Town of Hempstead roadways.

“We’ll definitely make sure that immediate action is taken to fill any potholes by any vital area that’s brought to our attention, including in front of schools, so we’ll get right on filling potholes,” Town Supervisor John Ferretti said. “You can’t do it when it’s really cold outside, like it is now, but in the Spring, when we start our paving again, we’ll certainly prioritize any roadway, including Bedford Avenue, that’s in the vicinity of a school.”

Animal Shelter

Merrick resident Marsha DiTieri was the next public commenter, voicing her opposition to a town policy that forbade volunteers at the Hempstead animal shelter in Wantagh from walking sheltered dogs outside the shelter.

“I think it’s the closest thing to normalcy that these animals — so many abused, neglected, abandoned — have, so I hope you didn’t take that away,” DiTieri said.

In Ferretti’s view, however, walking the dogs outside the shelter could create an unsafe environment

“The dogs will be walked, but they’ll be walked on town property. We have trails behind the shelter, I just don’t feel that it’s in the best interests of the residents, or the students in the high school directly across the street, to have volunteers walking dogs, many of whom have history of aggression, on Beltagh Avenue, directly across from the high school. I don’t think it’s safe, I don’t think it’s wise, there’s plenty of other space to give the dogs the walks they need, and that’s what we’re doing with that.”

Ferretti also responded to a remark from DiTieri’s public comments in which DiTieri said the shelter was being “shut to the public,” saying that, “any member of the public can come in. They can pick out any dog and meet and greet that dog in our meet and greet room, supervised.”

Ferretti also said that removing front-of-shelter dog walks had not hampered town efforts to find homes for sheltered animals.

"Since Dec. 15, 104 animals have left the shelter, 70 animals went to adoption or rescue. 34 animals went to foster. 20 dogs were adopted, four dogs in foster, two dogs went to rescue," Ferretti said.

Hempstead resident Diane Madden was the final commenter, who called restrictions on public access to the animal shelter a first-amendment issue, citing "70 years" of precedent wherein town residents could access the shelter with fewer restrictions.

The full recording of the board meeting is available on the town's YouTube page.