'Welcome to Mineola' sign restored after Sandy damage

A repaired "Welcome to Mineola" sign was unveiled Tuesday, almost two years after it was wrecked by superstorm Sandy.

The clock and middle braces of the sign that sits atop the Station Plaza Diner at the village's Long Island Rail Road station were damaged and its lights were knocked out by the storm.

A new sign based on the look of the old one was made over the past month by Going Sign & Servicing Co. of Plainview, which constructed the original sign in 1974 when the company was in Mineola.

The diner leases space to the owners of the sign, Winthrop-University Hospital.

"We thought it was important to maintain a piece of history," said John F. Collins, president and chief executive of the hospital. He was among local and state officials who gathered at the train station for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.

The mainly light blue sign with "Welcome to Mineola" at the top now has a working clock in the middle and includes the village seal. Below it is an American flag and the message, "Home of Winthrop-University Hospital. Your Health Means Everything."

J. Edmund Keating, the hospital's vice president for marketing and public relations, declined to reveal the cost.

"The sign is iconic in Mineola," said Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, who also attended the ceremony. "It's great to see the revitalized sign."