Web site links villages on Great Neck

TECHNOLOGY

A Plainview-based information technology provider has created a Web site that, for the first time, links up all of the nine villages on the Great Neck peninsula, the Town of North Hempstead, the Great Neck school district and local fire departments - a move the company hopes to duplicate elsewhere on Long Island.

"The idea came up a few years ago," said Raj Mehta, chief executive of Infosys International Inc., which created the site - www.greatnet ny.net - that links 107 municipal and school districts in North Hempstead. The site has been operating since November.

Mehta, a founder of privately held Infosys, said he originally wanted to create a site that would have linked all the towns, villages and special districts in Nassau County, but that would have taken too long.

"We said, 'Let's start smaller, with Great Neck,' " Mehta said.

Infosys obtained a $55,000 grant from New York State's Department of State to set up the site, which has two components - an Internet site for the public containing a peninsula-wide calender of events and activities, and a secure section, which is a Web-based intranet, for village and special-district officials that is protected by a password and allows them to discuss grants, the purchase of supplies or safety issues.

Mehta said Infosys, which he founded in the bedroom of his Commack home 24 years ago, has been talking to Suffolk BOCES about creating a Web site to link its various components.

"It just kicked off, but the concept is wonderful," said Jean Celender, mayor of Great Neck Plaza. "It's a master calender for community events. Before, you had to call every organization. We're slowly getting into the different phases of it."