Five years after her death, former North Hempstead Town Supervisor May Newburger will officially have part of Hempstead Harbor in Port Washington named after her, Sen. Chuck Schumer announced yesterday.
The change stems from the U.S. Geological Survey officially approving an application on Thursday to name of a portion of Hempstead Harbor after the late five-term town supervisor on federally published navigational charts.
Schumer first attempted to name a portion of the harbor after her in 2012, shortly after she died from complications of cancer at 92. Federal policy, however, barred him from naming public land after Newburger because she had not been dead for at least five years.
In a statement, Schumer said that Newburger’s contributions to the town and Long Island will “forever be immortalized in Hempstead Harbor.”
“As beachgoers swim at Bar Beach, and kids play at North Hempstead Beach Park and boats dock at the cove, I know that May Newburger will be looking down on them and smiling,” Schumer said.
May Newburger, who lived in Great Neck, served in the state Assembly’s 16th district from 1970 to 1986. She was then elected to North Hempstead’s Town Council in 1992 and served as the town— and Long Island’s –first woman supervisor from 1994 to 2003.
During that time, she turned the town’s $7 million budget deficit into a $7.7 mill surplus and created the Environmental Legacy fund, which purchases environmentally sensitive land for preservation and restoration.
“May Newburger’s passion was protecting and preserving the environment and I cannot think of a more fitting tribute to her than to have this serene cove overlooking Hempstead Harbor officially carry her name,” North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said back in March, when the new application was submitted.
Steve Markowitz, the president of the Great Neck Democratic Club, said that Newberger was a “real pioneer” and earns any positive recognition that comes her way.
“Any recognition she gets is well deserved,” Markowitz said.
