The Town of Huntington Town Board held a regular meeting on April 14, 2026, beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Town Hall. The meeting included presentations recognizing community members and first responders, seven public hearings, a public comment period, and the adoption of numerous resolutions, including a major special use permit for the Melville Crossing development and the scheduling of a public hearing on a battery energy storage moratorium.
Please join Councilwoman Hebert for the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, thank you all for coming out this evening. I we have several presentations, and let me first start by apologizing. Our air conditioner wasn't working all day in town hall of all days. So I think it's on now, but uh without any further ado, I would call on Councilman Bernardo for a few presentations. My grandmother would say a black of ice and a fan will do it. That's what she used to tell me. Um I'd like to bring up three very special people Mike Bohr, Karen Matt Mott, and Rob Schwartz. If you're in the house, would you come on up? And John Clark, would you join us, John? I'm gonna ask John to speak, but there are certain moments that remind us that we live in a really wonderful place surrounded by good people. You turn on the news media and you hear nothing but the bad things going on around the world, around the communities. We have some special people. We have some angels among us. And right now, you can hear a story of three angels among us that could have turned their head and done nothing for something very little, but they took care of they took care of life, and it was beautiful. John. Well, I have the distinct pleasure of uh talking about Mike, who runs the sewage treatment plant for the town of Huntington. Uh Mike will soon be retiring after 30 years of service, but he is the kind of guy that no matter what time of day it is, no matter what time of night it is, the sewage treatment plant runs 24-7, and Mike never turns down a request after hours, no matter what it is. And most recently, uh we had a swan that uh had clipped its wings on the uh electrical wires and had fallen into the Center Port pump station and was trapped in there. Swans have a long runway that they need to take off. So it was trapped inside of there. Mike got a call at the sewage treatment plant. Um they sought Mike out and he answered right away, as he always does. He unlocked the uh gates there and worked together to get the swan out. And uh that is an indication of the type of person that Mike is, and we just want to say thank you, Mike. Now, to add to that story, who do you call when wildlife needs to be protected in the town of Huntington? You call Rob Schwartz, you call Karen Mott. And they are two individuals who um they happen to be the Centerport Eagle Association uh royalty, but but more importantly, they happen to be people with tremendous hearts and tremendous care for our community and tremendous love in their souls. So I want to thank the three of you for proving that there are still good things among us. God bless you. Congratulations and thank you. All right, thank you. Families, you have to get through your family. Thank you. Thank you for everything you do. Okay. Now I I ask Larry Mercantini to come on up. I think everyone, just about everyone in the room knows Larry. Um I think it was Calvin Cool Coolidge who said the business of America is business. Well, the business of Huntington is family business. And we have an individual here who for marks 60 years now of family business, smack in the middle of our town, taking care of people's cars, taking care of people's families, making sure that our sons and daughters, when they got behind the wheel for the first time, we're doing it safely. Um, but I can't do justice to Larry. I think no no man would want anything more than to have his daughter come on up and speak a little bit. So uh will you join us? Where were you? The whole family can come, but I knew he wanted his angel to speak. My father asked me to be happy to be a half to me. And just to be clear, it's not because he doesn't like to speak in front of the crowd. In fact, if you know my dad, you know he's usually doing exactly that. Fun fact, we actually call him the mayor of Huntington because he tracks with everyone he meets, and over time has come to know just about every face in town.