4 mayors, 12 trustees elected in Great Neck villages

Stephen Romano

With Gary Noren choosing not to run for re-election in the Village of Thomaston, Berton Weston was elected to the Board of Trustees on Tuesday.

Mayor Steven Weinberg and Trustee Jill Monoson were re-elected to the board.

All three candidates ran unopposed.

Weinberg received 32 votes; Monoson, 32 votes; and Weston, 31 votes.

Noren, vice president of sales for Outerstuff LCC, a sports apparel company, said in 2015 he would not seek another term after the completion of the Long Island Rail Road’s project at the Colonial Road Bridge in Thomaston.

Weinberg, an attorney with the firm Gottesman, Wolgel, Flynn, Weinberg & Lee PC, was named acting mayor in September 2014 after former Mayor Bob Stern resigned, and officially became the mayor about a month later.

Monoson, an attorney with the Great Neck firm Kestenbaum & Mark, began serving as trustee in January 2015 after Weinberg became mayor. She was approached to serve as a trustee because of her record of pubic service as a village justice from 1999 through 2009.

In Russell Gardens, Mayor Steve Kirschner and Trustees Martin Adickman and Jane Krakauer all won re-election.

Kirschner received 55 votes; Adickman, 49 votes; and Krakauer, 54 votes.

Kirschner said last week that this will be his last term as mayor, as he and his wife are looking to sell their house in the village and move into an apartment elsewhere. He began serving on the village board as a trustee in 1989.

Kirschner moved up the ranks to serve as deputy mayor and in 2003 was elected as mayor. He served as mayor until 2009.

After a four-year break from serving the village as an elected official between 2009 and 2012, he was again elected to serve as mayor in 2013.

In Kensington, Trustees Alina Hendler and Darren Kaplan won their re-election bids. Hendler received 22 votes, while Kaplan received 21. 

There were no write-in candidates.

In Saddle Rock, Mayor Dan Levy won re-election with 110 votes. Jeffrey Talasazan, a write-in candidate, received three votes.

Deputy Mayor David Schwartz and Trustee Mark Collins won re-election to their respective seats. Schwartz received 96 votes, and Collins received 98 votes.

Saddle Rock resident Gary Stark received one write-in vote in the trustee race.

Village Justice Julia Gavriel received 101 votes in her successful re-election bid.

Stark also received one write-in vote in the village justice race.

Four Great Neck Estates village officials won unopposed bids for re-election.

Mayor William D. Warner, Trustees Jerffrey Farkas and Ira V. Ganzfried, and Village Justice David I. Schaffer won new terms with 98, 99, 93 and 93 votes, respectively.

Warner, a member of the Board of Trustees since 2001, will serve his first full term as mayor. He took the village’s top office in January after former Mayor David Fox resigned.

One write-in vote was cast for mayor and two for village justice.

Warner, Farkas and Ganzfried could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Two Village of Great Neck Plaza trustees, Gerry Schneiderman and Larry Katz, won unopposed re-election bids with 68 and 66 votes, respectively.

Three write-in votes were also cast.

Schneiderman served on the village Board of Zoning Appeals from 1982 to 2000 before he was elected a trustee in 2000.

Katz also served on the zoning board from 2010 to 2012 before he was elected a trustee in 2012.

Great Neck Plaza trustees are paid $10,000 annually. It is the only village with elections in March that pays elected officials.

Share this Article