East Williston is fortunate to have three diligent candidates seeking to fill the two open positions on the board of trustees.
Local elections are often more about popularity than the issues facing the village. In this case, all three candidates are popular, and to make matters more confusing, they share many of the same friends.
I am familiar with their community involvement.
If a vote on election day is based solely on hard-work and dedication to the community, I would not know which two to choose above the other. In fact, it seems awkward to choose only two out of the three.
However, I want to draw attention to this great opportunity for East Williston. As many of the surrounding villages have learned, these are very tough times to run the business of village life. The funding for the budget offers very little room for a learning curve or on the job training. The EW board will need to establish the 2011 budget, negotiate many of the expiring contracts for immediate services such as sanitation, water, utility, and strategically plan for funding of issues that are arising in the near future. The local news has been flooded with stories about reneged grant money from New York State and other statewide problems that will cause more uncertainty and need for experienced members of the board of trustees.
With this in mind, both Bonnie Parente and Bobby Shannon have the top-tier level of professional experience that can guide the village through the next four years. It is in times like this that people with their backgrounds step-up and rise to the occasion.
Bonnie is a highly accomplished attorney and executive at the New York Racing Association. Mrs. Parente’s daily responsibilities of overseeing the operations at the NYRA facilities, including negotiating issues like pensions, financing, NYS contracts, union work, and emergency response protocol, have provided her with the experience necessary to success in issues directly related to running our village on a regular basis.
Bobby Shannon will provide the board with the balanced perspective that comes from an entrepreneur who understands the mix of keeping costs as low as possible and still delivering the very best customer service.
Though many of you know him as a business owner, or as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, he is also an attorney and has a degree in banking and finance. If you have ever worked with him, you know that he is the right person for the board of trustees. He is intelligent, and displays the very rare ability to always start with the end objective in mind. It is a logical choice to choose someone with his experience to actively watch over our village.
If we each had the opportunity to sit with Bonnie Parente or Bobby Shannon and interview them for the job of protecting our greatest investment, I believe that we would know that a vote for them is a vote for stability in our village.
Dr. Armando D’Arduini
East Williston
