Following an unexpected change in leadership, North New Hyde Park’s civic associations are putting their efforts toward increasing membership and involvement in the groups.
“If we want to try to accomplish our goals, we need people to back us up,” Lakeville Estates Civic Association President Bill Cutrone said at the groups’ joint meeting Wednesday night.
Cutrone and North Lakeville Civic Association President Betty Leong have been knocking on doors encouraging their neighbors to get more involved with the groups, they said.
Using dues payment as a metric, participation is below 10 percent in both groups. About 9.5 percent of the Lakeville Estates group’s 1,200 homes have paid their $10 dues so far this year, along with about 7 percent of the North Lakeville Civic Association’s 810 homes, the groups’ treasurers said Wednesday.
“They see what we’re doing,” Leong said. “Some people are willing to donate without getting involved, but we say we want people to get involved.”
Cutrone said involvement has increased over the past year. But there is still room to grow, and the groups could use more funds for its initiatives, which include beautification and pursuing road repairs in unincorporated New Hyde Park.
To that end, their members voted Wednesday to raise dues to $15 for the 2016 calendar year. They also decided to hold their bi-monthly meetings at 7 p.m. to accommodate members who thought the 8 p.m. start time was too late.
Both Cutrone and Leong are relatively new to their posts. Leong took the helm of the North Lakeville association in May, and Cutrone replaced Michael O’Donald as the Lakeville Estates president in September after he suddenly resigned.
The Herald Courier reported in October that O’Donald would no longer be involved with the group, but he was present at Wednesday’s meeting.
The presidents met after Cutrone took office and reaffirmed the groups’ commitment to working together, Cutrone said, a process that strengthened their bond. The groups are now looking for additional officers to round out their executive boards.
“I feel that we’ve become two boards closer together because of (the changes), and hopefully we are going to take that adversity that we had and make New Hyde Park and the Estates a better place to live,” Cutrone said.
Now, the groups are working to “adopt” the planted medians on Hillside Avenue in the area, and are continuing work to get permanent road repairs at the intersection of Hillside Avenue and New Hyde Park Road.
Most recently, the groups replaced a fence at a nearby Foodtown grocery store and got new crosswalk lines painted on Celler and Gerard Avenues, Cutrone said.
“We want people, when they come through the town, to say, ‘Wow, this is a really nice town,’ rather than just go through and have no feeling whatsoever,” he said.
