New Hyde Park 2013 Homecoming Parade in Doubt Over Street Fair

Those planning on participating in the 2013 New Hyde Park Memorial High School Homecoming Day Parade should be hoping that the sun is shining on September 21. If not, the chances of getting the parade in are slim due to conflicts with the annual village street fair, which is scheduled to hold its rain date on September 28, the same day upon which the parade is scheduled.

The annual village street fair closes off the majority of Jericho Turnpike in the Village of New Hyde Park for street vendors, making passage through the area impossible for vehicles, much less a parade.

During a meeting of the village board on April 2 at the village hall, deputy mayor Lawrence Montreuil said that he reached out to parties about the possibility of moving the dates, but did not hear back.

“The challenge is primarily for food vendors who purchase large quantities of food, Gino’s Pizzeria, Umberto’s and the like, there would be difficulty for them to retain that for two weeks,” Mayor Robert Lofaro said. “If they were to return rolls and meats and all for a week, that would probably be fine, two weeks would probably be difficult. We think it might be a challenge to move the streetfair out, one week is still a problem but we can live with one week.”

Another challenge of delaying the street fair to after September 28 is that there would be about 30 minutes less of daylight available for village crews to cleanup and reopen Jericho Turnpike. Moving the street fair to an earlier date is also not an option due to the proximity of the Jewish religious holidays and that other events are keyed in around the date of the New Hyde Park street fair and would in turn have to be rescheduled, creating a domino effect.

It was suggested that the high school could either choose not have the parade this year or could reroute the parade, possibly through Garden City Park or onto Hillside Avenue. The school’s homecoming football game will be on September 28 regardless of the street fair, but the school would require the village’s permission to shut down village streets for any event or parade.

“You really can’t have the same day, both things,” trustee Richard Coppola said, saying traffic is being redirected to Hillside anyway for the street fair on the date in question.

It was said at the meeting that the school would come back to the village with any alternatives that it would be considering.

“The best I could hope for is we don’t get rain, obviously,” Lofaro. “Let’s pray for no rain.”

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