Port Jefferson Village Hall to get new AC system

The Port Jefferson Village Board, voting in a sweltering Village Hall meeting room, has unanimously approved a $99,400 plan to replace the building’s faulty air-conditioning system.

The village board met Wednesday to discuss budget issues as two fans strained to cool the second-floor meeting room, which also serves as the village’s justice court.

Board members said the system, installed in 1992, cooled the two-story structure’s first floor. But the system often failed to circulate cool air on the second floor.

“That’s why we have the fans here today,” said trustee Laurence LaPointe. “Because it doesn’t work.”

The expenditure will not affect taxes because it will come out of a $1.572 million surplus that the village built up through higher than expected revenues from mortgage taxes, fines and court fees, village officials said.

The board set aside $400,000 in surplus funds to make repairs at beaches and parks and the Port Jefferson Village Center, upgrade tennis and basketball courts, and augment a tax stabilization fund, Mayor Margot J. Garant said.

The meeting was the last for trustee Lee Rosner, who did not seek re-election last month. Bruce Miller, who won Rosner’s seat, and incumbent trustee Bruce D’Abramo, who won a second two-year term last month, were sworn in Monday, July 7, in Village Hall, 121 W. Broadway.