Mayor: Village Square Gazebo to be Rebuilt

The gazebo in Village Square on the corner of North Wellwood and East Hoffman avenues had become a gathering place for the community, playing host to a plethora of musical performances, village celebrations and weddings since it was built in the mid- to late 1990s after a fire took down the row of stores that originally stood on the corner.

Last year in March a Nor’easter that carried hurricane-force winds blew it down. Residents mourned the loss, even dedicating several Facebook pages to its demise and calling for it to be rebuilt.

A year after the fell Mayor Tom Brennan can report that it will be rebuilt this year. He recently sat down with Patch at the 20th Annual Pancake Breakfast to benefit the Mayor’s Beautification Society of Lindenhurst and shared some details.

“The gazebo would’ve probably been up already, but we were looking to incorporate restrooms into the square, too,” Brennan said. “We wanted to incorporate both together, and not wreak havoc on the site twice.”

Needing to rebuild the gazebo gave the village an opportunity to build the restrooms that were also put on hold for several years.

“The restrooms were originally supposed to go underneath the railroad tracks, but for years we received many road blocks from the MTA,” Brennan explained. “We finally got disgusted and abandoned the idea.”

That original idea was to build them in the historical style of the original railroad station Lindenhurst had many years ago.

They will be part of the , which, according to Brennan and to Jo Ann Boettcher, president of the Lindenhurst Chamber of Commerce, will be built in cooperation with the Downtown Business Advisory Board and the Village.

that it would house public restrooms, a small meeting room and a code enforcement substation – a fact also later confirmed by the mayor. It’s expected to be built in Village Square, along with the rebuilt gazebo this year, Brennan said.

“We had a grant for it for many years, but the setback always was the MTA, and we were about to lose it,” he said. “We’d have preferred it under the tracks because they were going to be built to look like our old railroad depot architecture.”

But Mayor Brennan said building the restrooms in Village Square is the next best thing because of the close proximity to the tracks. They would only be open during events held at the square, he added.

As for the gazebo, and when he hopes the village would complete all of the building at the square, Brennan said: “We’re just about in the bid phase, and we have to make sure we have county money. We’d like to have it ready for Oktoberfest.”