Bral wants town-hall meetings

Adam Lidgett

Incoming Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral said Friday he intends to honor his campaign pledge to increase government transparency and openness by holding town-hall style meetings within the next couple months to get more community input.

“We have many smart people in our village that have lived here for many years and have a vast knowledge of how to get things done that benefit everybody,” Bral said.

Running on the Voice of the Village Party ticket, Bral on June 17 defeated longtime Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman with more than 72 percent of the vote — 1,040 to 391.

Bral’s running mates Anne Mendelson and Ray Plakstis Jr. won the two open trustee spots with 980 and 1,020 votes respectively, beating out incumbent trustees Mitch Beckerman, who received 346 votes, and Jeff Bass, who received 350 votes, as well as Lone Bridge Party candidates Sam Yellis, who received 136 votes.

Residents waited in line for an average of 25 minutes to vote, with the line extending at a point outside the front entrance of Great Neck House and turning on Arrandale Avenue. The line inside Great Neck House wrapped around the room four times.

Bral said he can’t specify what the town-hall meetings would entail or when they would be.

“In the summer there is not a lot of people here and we want to make sure people are around,” Bral said.

In the past two weeks, Bral said, he has been meeting with Village of Great Neck officials. He said he, Plakstis and Mendelson have had short meetings about changes they want to implement.

“We’re coming up with different things we need to do and how to go about doing them,” Bral said.

He said he, Plakstis and Mendelson have discussed the various issues they spoke frequently about in the campaign, such as the rezoning of parts of Middle Neck Road and Steamboat Road and the proposed sale of the current Village Hall to build a new Village Hall and Department of Public Works facility at 265 East Shore Road, and how they want to move forward with the discussion of the topics.

The rezoning, passed by Village of Great Neck trustees in October, condensed the village’s business district in an effort to revitalize the downtown area. The rezoning permits apartments above commercial businesses in the central business core and apartments and townhomes at the northern and southern ends of Middle Neck Road.

Under the rezoning, townhomes are also allowed on portions of Steamboat Road.

Kreitzman said before the election that according to estimates, the sale of the current Village Hall should pay for the cost of building a new Village Hall and DPW facility at 265 East Shore Road. The Great Neck School District has expressed interest in buying the current Village Hall building, which is located at 69 Baker Hill Road across the street from the E.M. Baker School.

The agenda for the July 7 board of trustees meeting — the first meeting Bral with oversee as mayor — should be set sometime this week, Bral said. But, he said, he can’t say what exactly would be on it.

He said discussion on the rezoning and proposed Village Hall sale will be on the agenda during the coming months.

“We don’t want to throw everything on the wagon on the first day,” Bral said.

Bral, currently the director of Minimally Invasive & Robotic Gynecologic Surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, said he plans to scale back his work schedule to 15 days a month starting July 1.  

Share this Article