The day before Roslyn Estates Mayor-elect Paul Peters was set to lead his first meeting, he found his son dead.
Jaime Peters, 37, of Manhasset, died of unknown causes in his sleep.
Paul Peters did not attend the first Board of Trustees meeting of his tenure on Tuesday.
It was instead led by outgoing Mayor Jeffrey Schwartzberg, who said he may remain in office for up to two additional months because Peters was dealing with personal issues.
“Since [Peters] has not taken the oath, I will continue to serve as mayor,” Schwartzberg said.
“It could be a week, could be a month, could be two months,” he added.
He would not elaborate on the cause of Peters’ absence.
But on Wednesday, after returning from the funeral home, Peters disclosed his son’s death on Monday morning.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said in an interview. “I’m trying to make sense of it all.”
Jaime Peters lived at a Manhasset home in which his father formerly resided.
“Jeff was nice enough to take the meeting for me,” Peters said, referring to Schwartzberg.
Newly elected Trustee Allan Mendels also did not attend the meeting on Tuesday. Jeffrey Lindenbaum, the outgoing deputy mayor, served in his stead.
Asked how long Lindenbaum would continue to serve, Schwartzberg said, “I just don’t know.”
Brett Auerbach, another newly elected trustee, was in attendance.
Stephen Fox, who received 16 write-in votes to win the village’s third open trustee seat, was also present.
Peters, formerly a trustee, ran unopposed to replace Schwartzberg, who chose not to seek re-election after serving three two-year terms.
A year ago Peters replaced 73-year-old Sandy Siff, who at that time was re-elected to the Board of Trustees with 15 write-in votes but stood by a prior decision to end his tenure as a trustee.
With three new trustees as well as a change in its mayoralty, Roslyn Estates was among the most significantly altered village governments in the North Shore after the March 21 elections.
Schwartzberg adjourned the scheduled public hearing on the budget due to the absence of Peters and Mendels.
“The budget is a work in progress,” he said.
The board then discussed plans to put out a request for bids on the village’s $800,000 road repair project, which will draw $600,000 from a bond and $200,000 from grants.
The village will put out a legal notice about the bid request on April 10 and will assess bids on April 21, giving firms 10 business days to submit their bids, Village Clerk-Treasurer Bryan Rivera said.
Auerbach said the village could award a bid by April 24.
Rivera said the repair work should take six to eight weeks.
“Our goal from day one was to get construction vehicles out of the village by Memorial Day,” Schwartzberg said. “I don’t see that happening. We’re lucky to have them out by the end of June.”
