OYSTER BAY MAIN STREET ASSOCIATION NEWS Winter 2020 21 Volume 8 Officers President Sandra Coudert Graham Vice President John Bonifacio Treasurer Timothy DiPietro Secretary Diana Hauser Board of Directors Claude Bahnik Andrew Carr Linda Cassola Henry C Clark Kevin Curry Mario Gallo Janine Lizza Richard McKean Diane Meltzer Alexis Pagano Megan Urdea Advisory Board Roger Bahnik Robert Brusca John Collins Harriet Gerard Clark Denise Evans Sheppard Jerritt Gluck Rep Steve Israel Billy Joel Leg Joshua Lafazan Richard LaMarca Hunt Betsy Lawrence Colleen McKean Edward Mohlenhoff Robert Santos Ryan Schlotter Dr Laura Seinfeld William Sheeline Dottie Simons John Specce Claudia Taglich Alex Urdea A Year of Changes in Oyster Bay Difficult situations creative solutions and new traditions The Oyster Bay Main Street Association for the first time since our founding had to re assess each of our programs and initiatives in light of the pandemic Could we host an event in a manner that would be safe for the community Are there new initiatives that would be a better use of our funds during this immediate crisis While we were disappointed to postpone our 10th season of DITS we were excited about the opportunity to bring back an outdoor market to Oyster Bay Thanks to careful planning with the Town of Oyster Bay we were able to partner with Laura Escobar local resident and owner of Mockingbird Wings to host The Oyster Bay Market a safe open air market every other Sunday from the end of July through November The market was such a success in 2020 we are pleased to bring it back for a second season In response to demand we have expanded the 2021 market elongating the season and increasing the footprint to accomodate more vendors The seaon opened on March 28th and will continue every other Sunday through November Mark your calendars for our upcoming markets April 11th and 26th from 10am to 2pm in the municipal parking lot adjacent to 101 Audrey Avenue Looking forward to seeing you there Continued on p 6 MAIN STREET NEWS 1 P O Box 116 Oyster Bay NY 11771 Tel 516 922 6982 www obmsa org
Working to Bring Oyster Bay Back Prior to the pandemic Oyster Bay was booming articles were written about the restaurant renaissance happening in the Hamlet and retail stores had made a comeback in the downtown By the end of 2019 after several years of consistent growth we had acheived the lowest vacancy rate our downtown had experienced in over 20 years And then the global events of 2020 happened and everything changed everything except our organization s commitment to supporting our community and the small businesses that serve as its backbone Throughout the year OBMSA staff remained available to our small businesses providing vital information resources and guidance through the shut down and advocating for them through the re opening process alongside the Oyster Bay East Norwich Chamber of Commerce as part of the Town of Oyster Bay s Small Business Economic Recovery Taskforce Although we worked hard to minimize the impact shifting our resources and adapting our programs the shut down did cause our commercial vacancy rate to rise once again Now we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel As we continue to recover and rebuild our downtown demand for our business support programs has ramped up dramatically As we transition back to assisting with site selection permitting individualized market data grant opportunities and more we hope you will join us in supporting our local businesses by shopping eating and drinking in Oyster Bay MAY OUR COMEBACK BE GREATER THAN OUR SETBACK 2 MAIN STREET NEWS P O Box 116 Oyster Bay NY 11771 Tel 516 922 6982 www obmsa org
Stronger Than Ever More than anything else the request we consistently hear from our businesses is for us to encourage the community to shop local first In response we launched three shop local campaigns BOO tiques by the Bay Beginning in October OBMSA hosted a fun Halloween themed shop local initiative in the downtown complete with four days of sales and promotions costumes a pumpkin hunt and of course a raffle Despite a soggy first few days the event was well received with over 20 businesses participating and we are already looking forward to bringing it back for 2021 Small Business Saturday In November in the lead up to Small Business Saturday we also launched a social media awareness campaign to make sure that the positive impact of shopping local was on the forefront of everyone s mind as the holiday shopping season got underway ShopOysterBay Gift Card Giveaway And in February we launched our first ever ShopOysterBay Gift Card Giveaway What started as a simple premise to support our small businesses by giving them a small influx of cash during the quieter winter months by purchasing gift cards and inspiring the community to shop local by then raffling off those gift cards quickly evolved into a massively successful social media campaign for our downtown Over a four week period we intended to post about our local businesses highlighting where they are located what they offer and how customers can safely access them as a way to remind the community of all the great businesses that are still open and operating in the downtown What we did not expect was the amount of buzz the campaign created or the level of engagement each post would garner We received so much positive feedback from the residents and the businesses we decided to extend the campaign another week for a total of five weeks Campaign results OVER 1 250 MAIN STREET NEWS 3 P O Box 116 Oyster Bay NY 11771 Tel 516 922 6982 www obmsa org
Forming the Oyster Bay Beautification Committee The Oyster Bay Main Street Association is pleased to announce the formation of a Beautification Committee for Oyster Bay Coordinated with the help of local residents Colleen McKean Councilwoman Vicki Walsh and Town Clerk Rich LaMarca we are excited to launch this new committee with a renewed focus on tackling the quality of life issues that face our downtown We believe that we all have a role to play in beautifying Oyster Bay and to that end we are looking forward to partnering with a variety of local residents community organizations businesses property owners utility companies and governmental officials at the Town County and State levels to take a fresh look at the unique issues that face the Hamlet of Oyster Bay and finding innovative ways to tackle them As an organization we will be continuing our more popular beautification initiatives like our Clean Sweep Initiative organizing community clean up days and bringing 168 colorful hanging baskets to the downtown every spring as you can see on the next page but with your help and guidance we are hoping to focus our efforts expand our initiatives and increase our impact in the downtown and along Pine Hollow Road If you are interested in joining the committee or supporting this effort in any way please fill out our simple form available by scanning the QR code to the right or by visiting http tiny cc OBMSA_Beautification and we will be in touch JOIN TODAY MAIN STREET NEWS 4 P O Box 116 Oyster Bay NY 11771 Tel 516 922 6982 www obmsa org
Our Efforts to Make the Downtown a Place Where YOU Want to Be Flower Basket Campaign At the peak of the shutdown in 2020 we purchased installed and maintained the 168 hanging baskets that went up on the lamp posts in the downtown While typically just a welcoming sign of spring and warmer weather to come the hanging baskets took on additional meaning in 2020 as the bright colorful baskets brought a touch of normalcy and a much needed injection of life into our downtown streets Keep an eye out for an invitation to sponsor a hanging basket for the 2021 season this May Community Clean Up In November OBMSA teamed up with Friends of the Bay to coordinate a Community Clean Up of South Street We lucked out with a beautiful warm Saturday and a large group of volunteers helped us clean up a lot of the loose debris that was scattered along the curbs in the sewer grates and along fences These days are important not only because they beautify the hamlet but because the pile of 20 bags of garbage we collected was picked up by Town of Oyster Bay Sanitation instead of finding it s way into our bay We are also incredibly excited to announce that the 6th season of our Clean Sweep Initiative is underway in the downtown We are so thankful for the hard work of our part time employee Michael and all that he does to help keep litter issues in check during our peak visitor season We are looking forward to working closely with the volunteers of the new Beautification Committee to see how we can make the community clean up days a more regular event and expand the impact of our Clean Sweep Initiative If you have ideas we would love to hear them MAIN STREET NEWS 5 P O Box 116 Oyster Bay NY 11771 Tel 516 922 6982 www obmsa org
A Year of Changes in Oyster Bay cont d continued from page 1 To replicate this success during the holidays we partnered with the Oyster Bay East Noriwch Chamber of Commerce to re work the traditional tree lighting and holiday market for the current climate On December 12th we brought the Oyster Bay Market back for the day converted Audrey Avenue into a pedestrian walkway to encourage shopping local while allowing for social distancing and created a warm and festive atmosphere with live music roaring fire pits and of course a socially distanced visit from Santa The day was such a festive success we are already working with the Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Oyster Bay to make the Holiday Stroll part of the downtown traditions moving forward MAIN STREET NEWS 6 P O Box 116 Oyster Bay NY 11771 Tel 516 922 6982 www obmsa org
OBMSA Facade Sign Grant Program The Oyster Bay Main Street Association has a privately funded Fa ade and Sign grant program for businesses in the downtown We began this small grant in 2013 as a means to help business owners and building owners in the downtown with small improvements while simultaneously keeping true to our design guidelines This grant serves as an incentive for businesses to avoid cheap flashy signs and to draw attention to businesses with welldesigned durable signs to last them for years to come Over eight cycles of funding this grant program has assisted 55 businesses in the downtown disbursing over 105 000 in grant funds and leveraging an additional private investment of over 215 000 for a total investment of over 320 000 into the downtown The 9th cycle is currently open Visit the grant section of our website to access the application A Selection of Our 2020 Grant Recipients MAIN STREET NEWS 7 P O Box 116 Oyster Bay NY 11771 Tel 516 922 6982 www obmsa org
Thank you to our Fiscal Year 2020 Contributors Founding Contributor The Bahnik Foundation Claude Marie Bahnik Nancy P Durr Frederic R Coudert Foundation Todd Sandra Graham Judith Marino Richard Colleen McKean Hamid Ladan Nazif Oyster Bay Community Foundation Mimi Rosenwald Michael Claudia Taglich Jim Rita Tully Alex Megan Urdea Commodore Andrew Carr Henry Harriet Clark Committee for the Oyster Bay Turkey Trot Timothy Gina DiPietro Mario Kelly Gallo Maxwell Aileen Geddes Andrew Diana Hauser Hoyle C Jones Nicole Maus Thomas Kathy Maus Trevor Jenn Meyers Thomas Adriana Milana Chris Robinson R M Engineering Peter Lisa Schiff Scott Miller Landscape Maintenance John Marcella Specce Sumner Gerard Foundation Brian Deborah Sweeney Bradford Phyllis Weekes Skipper George Baker Salvatore Jennifer Ballone Liz Brown Robert Brusca Alberto Linda Cassola CIBC Atlantic Trust John Yvonne Cifarelli Core Group Architects Cozy Townsend LLC Kevin Barbara Curry Kelly D Auria Debra Del Vecchio Tracy Dellomo Charles Helen Dolan Charles Rebecca Finelli Sasha Freedman Tim Michelle Gokey Edwin Lorna Goodman Ian Gumprecht Lisabeth Harris Cheryl Ipiotis Eric Sandra Krasnoff Christopher Rebecca Lawton Flatters Robert Teresa Lindsay Frank Janine Lizza Steve Israel Cara Longworth Edward Mohlenhoff Charles Morgan Vito Alexis Pagano Linda Langsam Len Rubin Joseph Savasta Robin Senior Thomas Margaret Stacey Thomas Lindsay Thornton Walden Environmental Engineering Brian Regina Walsh Avery Russell Wasoleck Diana Collins Townsend Weekes Allen Beth Williams Philip Zoller Tactician 68 West Main Street LLC Diana Aledort Lee C Alexander Scott Domenica Askeland Ted Rebecca Bahr Bahr Gallery Anthony B Barton Patti Bauerschmidt Brad Berrol IT BGL Michael Tere Borgia Colette Buzzetta James Buzzetta Jim Cammarata Judy Palumbo Damien Yakshi Carlino Mary Ellen Casey Kevin Beth Costello Frances Daniel Covello Leonard Barbara D Errico Jamie Deming Annette DiRe Joseph Mary Donohue George Eberle Hon Rhonda E Fischer David Christine Ford Catherine Gellert Stephen Gilroy Gold Coast Tech Solutions Mark Sealy Hopkinson John Hubbard Maura Burns Cornelia Jennings Marc Valerie Kamin Mark Lanese Luke LoPorto Fortune of War Don Doreen MacKenzie Kevin Michele Mercier James Mary Ellen Meyerdierks Steve Minicozzi Zahida Nadeem T Mobile Amanda Nesis Northwestern Mutual Frank Meredith Olt Theresa Keith Orlowski Oyster Bay Brewing Co Oyster Bay Marine Center Peter Lynda Petrillo Thomas Pulling Paula Rand Dawn Riley Elizabeth Roosevelt Patricia Sands Robert Maryann Santos Bruce Lauren Schadler Mark Schaier Joan Shepard James Laura Smiros Herb Ranna Smith Smith Jewelers Kathleen Sweeney Charles Margaret Towers James Mary Gay Townsend Scott Treiber Steve Vaccaro Elixabeth Viesta Joseph Anna Villela Stephen Anne Watters Wonderland Tree Care Inc Helmsman Anonymous Jon Dana Acquafredda Barbara Adelhardt Diane Aerne Joan Adomsky Laurence Albert Peter Eileen Aliani Rich Donna Appell Leslie James Armstrong Timothy Tania Barber Anne Berch Peter Blohm John Debra Bonifacio John Emma Bougiamas John Bralower Harry Joann Braunstein Patricia Burke Chris Cadigan Unishippers Cafe Al Dente Valerie Canadeo Judith Chapman Donna Chisholm Pro Sports P T Thomas Doreen Costa Cove Living Brookville Living Laurie Cutler Kelly D Auria Damm Steuer Nelson DeMille Morgan Kristin Dennehy Mitchell Jacqueline Diamond Ed Kym DiBenedetto Orville Susan Donovan Leslie French Margaret Robert Gartland Glen Cove Arena Taxi LLC Howard Deborah Grace Gary Kerri Grasso Fletcher Alexandra Hall Jerelyn Hanrahan Atelier on Spring Margaret Hargraves Randolph Harrison Margaret Heijmen Carol Hoffman Thomas Hogan John Paula Hornbostel Jack Penny Hoyt Walter Imperatore Fredd Marjorie Isaksen Geoffrey Marcy Kaiser Dagmar Karppi Christopher Alexa Kelly Kenneth Grace Kelly Rosalie Koenig Laurie Kowalsky Mort Deborah Kunstler Anthony J LaMarca Richard LaMarca Sophie Lee James Ewa Litke Richard Anita MacDougall Meredith Maus Jane Byrd Ian McCurdy Robert Diane Meltzer Chris Mennella Superstar Beverage George Meyer Christina Willets Meyer Joshua Elizabeth Miller Christine Stephen Mills Mockingbird Wings Hon Michael Montesano Elisabeth Mooney Thomson Cynthia Murray Marianne Nash David Lisa Natale Northcoast Civil Michael O Brien Hon Colin O Donnell Elizabeth Ong Gilbert Lisa Ott Oyster Bay Community Rowing Inc Oyster Bay Drafting Architecture Oyster Bay Insurance Oyster Bay Senior Campus Dana Pagliara Carla Pannetta Peggy Parente Susan Peterson Preservation Long Island Clayton Hydie Prugh Rob Amanda Rossetti Sagamore Collision of Oyster Bay Verena Scheu Bernie Seringer Sweet Tomato William Susan Sheeline Brian Lucy Silva Joseph Gail Singer Gregory Singer John Dianne Smith Taco Bay Sharon Tiberia Pat Lynn Tone David Elizabeth Townsend Andrew Nikki Tully Virginia Uhlinger John Elena Urdea James Werner Barry Terri Wolinetz Sailor Darrel Maureen Albers Dr Abby Aronowitz Atlantic Steamer Fire Co No 1 Baldino Construction Inc Robert Bartlotti BMW of Oyster Bay Brooks Robb Callahan Insurance Brian Nikki Buckley William Santa Burke Richard Anne Capewell Raymond Joyce Caruso Michael Connie Castellana Gino Clevinger Rev Dr Charles Mrs Colwell James Conigliaro Lucy Cutting Maria Czarniecki Kathryn D Amico Del s Bar Grill John Juliann Duggan Cynthia Duras East Woods School Michael Eberlin Daniel J Epp Lillian Evans Soricillo Greg Shannon Fairbend Pinky Feakes Frank M Flowers Sons Inc Friends of Sagamore Hill Girl Scout Troop 122 Ann Balderston Glynn Barry Goldsmith Martin Greenberg Thomas Maureen Harty Italian American Citizens Club Jane Jackson Fran Johnston Edward Kull Janine Kyritsis Donna Laconti Legislator Josh Lafazan David R Lamb Alan Lapidus Life Enrichment Center of Oyster Bay Nancy Metz George Lindsay Richard Nancy Loughlin Nancy Marshall Michael Debra McGuckin Nolan Cynthia Meredith Moon Star USA Inc Eileen Murray John Kimberly O Kane Oyster Bay Animal Hospital Gary Pasquaretto Jonathan Lorraine Poppe Kathy Prinz Maura Ptacek Ted Madeline Pulling The Purpi Family Barbara Rakusin Mary Ann Reardon Robert Saundra Rose Konrad Catherine Schwarz Michael Roseann Squire Frances Tria Joseph Tymeck Umberto s of Oyster Bay The WaterFront Center Tracy Webster Abby Weir Richard Paula Weir Michael Kathy Weiss Wild Honey Restaurant Donald Susan Zoeller WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT MAIN STREET NEWS 8 Visit www OBMSA org to easily become a member or renew today